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Couple Gets Turned Away At Prom For Marijuana Odor

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May 6, 2009 6:11 pm US/Mountain

Couple Gets Turned Away At Prom For Marijuana Odor

Reporting
Mike Hooker
DENVER (CBS4) ― A student at Brighton High School wants an apology because she and her boyfriend were denied access to their prom after police told them they smelled like marijuana.

"I was really hoping to experience a really fun time with my friends," Sarah Heideman said on Wednesday at a news conference outside her school with her attorney and boyfriend. "They would not let me go past the front door. I was not allowed inside ever."

Heideman and Jason Schweinsberg say when they showed up at the Wings Over the Rockies museum in Denver for the prom on Saturday, police at the door said they smelled pot on the couple.

Heideman denies smoking marijuana. Her boyfriend is not a student and says he did smoke pot the morning of prom to manage long-term pain from a car crash. It's perfectly legal -- he's registered with the state to use marijuana as medicine. But he says he didn't medicate that night and that a police search didn't find any marijuana on the couple or in their car.

"We didn't have any, so I don't understand it," Schweinsberg said. "If we didn't have any why couldn't they have watched us. If we did anything wrong, then kick us out."

"We're doing our best to ensure the safety of all of our students and their guests at any event that we host," said Janet Wyatt, attorney for the school district.

Wyatt says it was Denver police who turned only Schweinsberg away and that Heideman chose to leave with him.

"The student of Brighten High School was not denied access to the prom," Wyatt said.

Now the couple has an attorney. Robert Corry is an expert in defending medical marijuana rights. He's demanding an apology from the school and police and a refund of more than $400 in prom night expenses.

"I think she's got a strong civil rights lawsuit if that's what Sarah decides to do," her attorney said.

"Everybody that walked in saw me outside crying," Heideman said. "I really wish I could get my senior prom back."

Wyatt says Wednesday morning's press conference with the couple and their attorney was the first she'd heard of the complaint, so the district isn't yet ready to respond to the request for an apology and a refund of the $460 the couple spent on prom tickets, the dress, hairstyling and dinner.

Heideman says she even took a drug test earlier in the week to prove that she hadn't been smoking pot but the results from that test aren't back yet.

(© MMX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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