One local student and his mother say they will do everything they can to fight the East Hampton School District over a policy that will keep the 19-year-old from participating in the high school graduation in June.

In many ways, Devon Grisham is like any of the students at East Hampton High School, his mother Bernette Schoenster says. He gets up at 6 in the morning and drives his truck to 2 Long Lane. He parks in spot No. 85, which was assigned to him. After a full day of classes, Devon gets back in his truck and drives to his part-time job at East Hampton Auto. Devon has an interest in mechanics and also a talent for it, Ms. Schoenster said. He gets good grades in school, and recently, was among a select group of students chosen to attend an auto body mechanics competition in Syracuse. In September, Devon will attend the Universal Technical Institute in Pennsylvania, where he received a $4,500 scholarship to enroll in the diesel mechanics program.

The difference between Devon and his peers is that he, his mother and a group of East Hampton administrators decided during the summer of 2008 that Devon would be better suited in a General Equivalency Diploma program run through the Board of Cooperative Educational Services in Riverhead, than in the typical high school setting.

Ms. Schoenster said Devon, who has a learning disability, has always had trouble in school. He has been in special education classes since kindergarten, and repeated both kindergarten and second grade. Ms. Schoenster said she pulled Devon out of the East Hampton School District twice, once to go to go to the Christian Academy in Water Mill in second grade, and then to the Childhood Development Center of the Hamptons for grades four through six. But coming out of sixth grade, Devon wanted to be with his friends, so Ms. Schoenster allowed him to return to East Hampton, she said.

“He needed to be back in a normal classroom setting” for middle school, she said. “Or he was not going to be able to adapt in high school.”

But Devon struggled through middle school and failed the ninth grade. When he started 10th grade, he had to repeat his ninth grade classes at the same time, Ms. Schoenster said, and he failed both grades, and his Regents exams.

It was during his sophomore year that Devon and his mother learned he was not on track to graduate until he was 21 years old. Counselors told Ms. Schoenster he still needed to pass all of his Regents classes and take a foreign language.

“We just said, that’s not fair,” she said. “He’s been here the whole time. He’s not the kid who’s sitting in the back of the room or out smoking pot. He’s never skipped a class.”

“It’s not like I hated school,” Devon said. “I never skipped or missed a class. It was just really hard.”

Ms. Schoenster said it was clear her son needed a new plan in the form of a new Individualized Education Plan, which outlines a special education student’s needs, how they will be addressed by the school and family and the desired outcome.

Ms. Schoenster said that during Devon’s time at East Hampton, district administrators signed off on several IEPs that stated he was on track to graduate from the high school.

At a summer meeting in 2008, after Devon had already found out he was not on a path to graduate, he joined his mother at a Committee on Special Education meeting with Rich Burns, director of pupil personnel services, and five other administrators.

“Rich said, ‘We’re going to have to come up with a new situation; this isn’t working,’” Ms. Schoenster recalled. She said Mr. Burns, knowing of Devon’s affinity for mechanics, suggested the BOCES program. BOCES, however, requires a certain number of high school credits for entry, which Devon did not have. Instead, his options were to keep attending classes at the high school for an IEP diploma, which Ms. Schoenster described as a certificate of participation that is “worthless,” or enroll in the GED program.

Ms. Schoenster said she agreed to enroll Devon in the GED program and the next IEP she received reflected the change. But Devon said they were still under the impression that he was a part of the East Hampton School District.

“They promised me I could walk and graduate and now they are saying no,” Devon said. “I don’t want to be a dropout. I remember that day, they were just shaking their heads yes at us and now they are telling us no.”

Mr. Burns and Superintendent Raymond Gualtieri said they could not comment on a student’s IEP.

Speaking generally, Dr. Gualtieri said that a student who is enrolled in a GED program through BOCES is not an East Hampton High School student. He said allowing someone in the GED program to participate in high school graduation would set a precedent for all GED participants, which includes many adults taking night classes.