A Mercer County high school senior will be allowed to return to his regular classes over the next several days after he was removed as punishment for creating an online parody of his principal.

Justin Layshock, a 17-year-old senior at Hickory High School, filed a federal lawsuit against the Hermitage School District last month, claiming his free-speech rights were violated when he was given a 10-day suspension and placed in the school's Alternative Education Program. Justin had created a parody of Principal Eric Trosch on myspace.com.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Terrence F. McVerry refused to grant an order that would have permitted Justin to return to his classes, saying that he failed to show he was being irreparably harmed by staying in the alternative program, which meets three hours a day.

At a mediation session on Wednesday, however, the judge encouraged both sides to reach an agreement -- which they did.

Under the agreement, Justin is to reintegrate into his classes over a weeklong period and stay there for the remainder of the school year, provided there are no further problems.

In addition to attending class, Justin will be permitted to participate in his academic activities and go to graduation.

His computer use at the school will be monitored.

"The Layshocks are really quite pleased the district's reinstated all of Justin's academic privileges," said Witold Walczak, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania who's representing Justin.

He added that his clients are still willing to negotiate to settle the lawsuit.

With the suit, Justin seeks to show that the school violated his right to free speech; interfered with his parents' right to discipline their own child; and that the school's rules used to punish him are vague and overbroad, and therefore unconstitutional.

The initial basis for the suit is that the school district had no right to discipline Justin because he created the profile on a computer in his grandmother's house.

The district disagreed, claiming that the Web page created a "substantial disruption" at school when students were using classroom computers to try to view the parody.

Justin made the profile, which made fun of Mr. Trosch's size by calling him "big" and using profanity, on Dec. 10.

In early January, he was moved to the Alternative Education Program for the rest of the school year. He also was forbidden from participating in any extracurricular activities and was barred from graduation, according to Mr. Walczak.

John R. Gotaskie Jr., the attorney representing the district, said it was always the plan to reintegrate Justin back into his classes from the three-hour-a-day alternative program.

Justin, who is applying to college, is a gifted student who is enrolled in advanced placement courses.

Instead of the reintegration beginning Feb. 22, as had been scheduled, Mr. Gotaskie said, it will now begin nine days earlier, on Monday.

There will be two restrictions on Justin when he returns to his regular classes, Mr. Gotaskie said. A faculty member will have to know when Justin is using a computer at school and what Web sites he visits, and he will no longer be allowed to tutor middle-school students in languages. He will be permitted, however, to tutor students in the high school.

"I think that's a pretty good compromise," Mr. Gotaskie said.

Mr. Gotaskie said he was disappointed that both sides could not resolve the lawsuit." We had hoped we'd have been able to resolve the whole case (Wednesday)."