Former Student Sues School District : He Says Officials at Katella High Tried to Commit Him

A former student at Katella High School in Anaheim has filed suit against the school district, alleging that officials there tried to have him committed to a mental institution.

Enrique Barron contends in his lawsuit that on Oct. 5, 1988, he was “abruptly and involuntarily summoned” from his art class to the assistant principal’s office, where school officials “unlawfully detained, assaulted and interrogated” him and tried to have him committed.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Orange County Superior Court, said that although Barron “protested his innocence and competency,” school authorities contacted the Anaheim police and had him “forcefully taken away in handcuffs suffering public shame, disgrace, severe emotional pain and (the) humiliation of a common reprobate.”

Lee L. Kellogg, a spokesman for Anaheim Union School District, said he could not comment on the lawsuit because he was unfamiliar with Barron’s contentions. But Alex Wampler, an English teacher at the school who was named as a defendant, said school officials acted out of concern for the youth.

Wampler, who knew Barron as “Ricky” when he was in her English class last year, said Barron was summoned into the office for a talk after students had come to her repeatedly, reporting that Barron was suicidal. Pictures he had been drawing in art class were “total death,” Wampler said.

“He was threatening suicide,” she said. “What we did was totally out of concern for Ricky. We were very worried about this boy.”

She said that he was a junior last year but that he is not on campus this year. She said she does not know where he has gone.

Barron and his father, Maximiliano Barron, who is also a plaintiff in the action, said in the lawsuit that the teen-ager was held for several hours in the police station without being advised of his rights or allowed to make a phone call.

The lawsuit accuses school officials of conspiring with nurses from Charter Hospital of Long Beach to lure Barron out of class and trap him in the assistant principal’s office so they could have him committed for mental incompetency.

In addition to the school district and Wampler, other defendants in the lawsuit are assistant principal Richard Lodyga, Charter Hospital and two of its nurses, who were identified as members of the “mobile response team.” Most of the defendants could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit.

Kellogg, the school district spokesman, said the school does contract with Charter Hospital to provide counseling services for students. The services can include incidents in which Charter Hospital counselors are dispatched to the school to aid students who are suicidal or suffering through other emotional crises, Kellogg said.

If a student appears to be a danger to himself or those around him, the school may summon police to have the youngster hospitalized on a 72-hour watch, Kellogg said.