Courts have held students have valuable because students have a valuable property interest in attending school, they must be provided due process pior to their being excluded from school. Degree of due process that must be afforded a student varies in direct proportion to the length of the exclusion

Courts have held students have valuable because students have a valuable property interest in attending school, they must be provided due process pior to their being excluded from school. Degree of due process that must be afforded a student varies in direct proportion to the length of the exclusion

Discipline & Safety vs. Constitutional Rights Keeping Schools Safe (and/or ?) Safeguarding Students’ Rights p p

What do you do? Do you suspend Julia? Every day on the bus to school 10 year old Julia taunts Matt, a kindergartener who is deaf. Matt’s parents are angry that the taunting has been going on so long without a response. They are threatening to sue unless you suspend Julia for 4 weeks … …

What do you do? Do you expel him? After being removed from the football team for unruly conduct, Jeremy threatens to “hurt Coach Johnson badly.” Coach Johnson hears about this from another player and wants you to expel Jeremy for these threats. … …

AMENDMENT XIV Section 1. …nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Not a “mechanical instrument or yardstick. It is a process…” Comports with “deepest notions of what is fair, right, and just…”

Goss v. Lopez US Supreme Court, 1975 (p.139) …the State is constrained to recognize a student’s legitimate entitlement to a public education as a property interest which is protected by the Due Process Clause and which may not be taken away for misconduct without adherence to the minimum procedures required by that Clause.

We do not believe that school authorities must be totally free from notice and hearing requirements if their schools are to operate with acceptable efficiency. Students facing temporary suspension have interests qualifying for protection of the Due Process Clause, and due process requires…that the student be given oral or written notice of the charges against him, and, if he denies them , an explanation of the evidence the authorities have and an opportunity to present his side of the story. The Clause requires at least these rudimentary precautions against unfair or mistaken findings of misconduct and arbitrary exclusion from school. Goss v. Lopez US Supreme Court, 1975 (p.141)

2 kinds of due process Procedural Due Process Process was fair, right, and just Impartial & thorough investigation Opportunity to be heard Notice Witnesses & evidence Careful consideration Substantive Due Process Punishment is not fair Disproportionate to alleged violation Different than other students for same or similar violation Violation is overly vague and difficult to understand

Three Factors to determine Due Process violation (Illinois School Law Survey 12:70) The private interest that will be affected by the official action; The risk of erroneous deprivation of the interest through the procedures used and the probably value, if any, of additional or substitute procedural safeguards; The government’s (public school) interest. 1 2 3

When you were out of town last week 3rd grader Carol threw scissors at a fellow student in the middle of project time during art class. She was sent to the office with a security guard and picked up by her mother. Your Assistant Principal sent Carol’s parents a letter informing them that Carol was being suspended from school. Carol’s mother calls the Assistant Principal to make an appointment to discuss the matter. The Assistant Principal tells you that she informed Carol’s mother that the “matter was closed” and that “there was nothing to discuss.” The Assistant Principal wants praise from you for handling the situation so well. … What do you say? …

Lisa Jones thought her physical education teacher, James Maxwell was racist and unfairly singled her out. As a result, she told him he was an “unfair asshole.” Furious, he pushed her up against a wall and told her never to talk like that again. What do you do? … …

AMENDMENT IV The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Reasonable suspicion = Reasonable grounds for suspecting search will turn up evidence student has or is violating law or school rules Reasonableness of search involves two fold inquiry: Whether action “justified at its inception” (whether reasonable suspicion) Whether search as conducted “was reasonably related in scope to circumstances” not excessively intrusive in light of age, sex, and nature of infraction

New Jersey v. TLO US Supreme Court, 1985 (p.166) …the accommodation of the privacy interest of schoolchildren with the substantial need of teachers and administrators for freedom to maintain order in the schools does not require strict adherence to the requirement that searches be based on probable cause…Determining the reasonableness of any search involves a two fold inquiry: first, one must consider “whether the…action was justified at its inception,” …second, one must determine whether the search as actually conducted “was reasonably related in scope to the circumstances which justified the interference in the first place.”…a search will be “justified at its inception” when there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that the search will turn up evidence that the student has violated or is violating either the law or the rules of the school. Such a search will be permissible in its scope when the measures that are adopted are reasonably related to the objections of the search and not excessively intrusive in light of the age and sex of the student and nature of the infraction.

What about random drug testing of Illinois Student Athletes ?