ELLENVILLE – It was a prank, though there are mysteries surrounding it. But this prank produced headlines and got three eighth grade kids suspended from the Ellenville Middle School and barred from their moving up "graduation" ceremony.

The facts as they are understood at present are these: There was the usual annual middle school field trip to Boston in early June. The trip included visits to various historical sites, all part of the effort to teach something of US history to 21st century students. The eighth grade were bunking together and a group of four students had agreed that when one of them fell asleep, the others would mess him up with some of the products from their hotel room, such as lotion or hair gel.

According to Michael Sussman, an attorney who has been following the case, "This was a joke, between friends."

Others, who insist on remaining anonymous, say it may not have been. Some aspects of this story remain unclear.

The first to fall asleep has been described only as a "Caucasian male." The three who admitted to putting hair gel in his hair and then adding toilet paper are Latino. Indeed, class president Wesley Cruz was one of them and has been quoted as saying, "We just put a little marker there and then put hair gel in his hair and we put toilet paper on him."

Another boy took video and/or pictures of the incident.

After that, at some point, school officials saw the video and/or pictures, and they reacted by suspending the three students involved. Those students, including Cruz, were then summoned to a suspension hearing and punished further by being barred from their eighth grade "graduation" ceremony.

By this point, the case had drawn the interest of Empowering Ellenville, an organization that has confronted the Ellenville Central School District on several occasions over a number of issues, and offered free legal clinics by Sussman.

"This is an outrageous over reaction by the school district. They are on a witch hunt," said Sandra Oglesby, CEO of Empowering Ellenville and a recent candidate for the Ellenville school board. "These boys have been close friends since fourth grade. They have slept over at each others' homes at least fifty times. There was no complaint made by any of the boys involved."

Empowering Ellenville helped orchestrate a demonstration by the eighth graders, joined by other Latino students who had also been denied their chance to participate in graduation over other educational issues.

"4-6:30 Maple Avenue peaceful protest called for by Michael Sussman, and Democratic Alliance who is backing up demonstration," came the announcement for that action from Oglesby's e-mail account last Thursday morning. "Civil rights of students are being violated and minorities are being targeted by an empowered Goddess Superintendent Lisa Wiles at ECSD. Thank you Sjo."

A news release from Michael Sussman�s office was taken up by Mid Hudson News, and the story, from prank to demonstration was then reported by both the Daily Freeman and the Times Herald Record on June 21. A Freeman dispatch noted, in an unattributed piece without byline, that, "The students, friends and adult supporters from 'Empowering Ellenville' marched at the school Thursday afternoon. Security guards kept reporters away from the campus, and when a MidHudsonNews.com correspondent returned to his car, a door was open and the data card containing pictures of the students protesting at the school had been removed and was missing."

When the same story appeared on the MHNN website it was missing the final sentence about security guards and the missing data card. An image of four students and one man holding up printed signs on Maple Avenue was identified, running with the story, as "photo provided."

The Times Herald Record story noted that, "three eighth-graders were reportedly banned from walking during Thursday's middle school graduation after administrators learned of a prank during a school trip," referred to Sussman as an "advisor" to the eighth grade students (which the story did not name), and said that the school district had noted they were "prohibited by federal law" from discussing the incident or its aftermath.

Our own reporter, on arriving at the site of the protest a little after 4 p.m. on June 20, found no protest, with none appearing before he left at 4:30 p.m.

Sussman, an attorney well known for taking civil rights cases, said, "I wrote a letter of appeal to the board of education on the 19th of June and asked to get on the agenda for their next meeting to bring this matter up. The board said they couldn't get it on the agenda. No opportunity to appeal the superintendent's decision was allowed and the boys were sanctioned."

Superintendent Lisa Wiles, in conversation this week, expressed frustration at not being able, on legal grounds, to comment on the particulars of the case.

She then released an Ellenville Central School District press statement on June 25 which read, �The Ellenville Central School District is prohibited by Federal Law from discussing the particulars of any student discipline incident. The District has a Code of Conduct, policies and procedures in place which address order and safety in the schools and at school functions. The Board of Education and the Superintendent place the utmost importance on ensuring the safety of the District's students, while respecting the rights of all students. If parents disagree with the outcomes there are extensive due process procedures in place for them to seek redress."

Sussman said that he is due to meet with the families of the students this week and to decide then whether to take the case to the next level.