Unit 4 Dealing with Student Rights and Responsibilities in Public Schools

A Case for Expulsion As a principal, you will be asked to make decisions regarding student behavior. But you will always have to balance punishment vs. student rights. On the discussion board this week, please consider the following scenario. Recently, a student at Oak Creek High School, Robert D., was suspended for 10 days and recommended for expulsion for a web site he developed, titled “Euthanize One Gay a Day.” The site offered a list with pictures of teachers and students he suspected of being gay. Each picture had a target superimposed over it. The web site then asked students and other web site visitors to vote on which listed person should be euthanized that day. The “winning” person’s picture was then put on a separate page for a day with an animated person shooting a rifle at the target superimposed over the person’s face. After being informed of the site, one of the school’s assistant principals conducted a brief investigation. Robert D. was then brought into the assistant principal’s office where admitted to developing the web site primarily on his home computer. He said that he could not remember if he used school computers to develop the web site, but was pretty sure he did not. He said that his intention was not to harm anyone and that he was just having fun with the web site. He told the assistant principal that he even put a disclaimer on the web site telling people that they should not actually harm any of the people on the list. The assistant principal immediately suspended the student for 10 days with a recommendation for expulsion based on the school’s zero tolerance policy on cyber bullying. Another reason for the recommendation was that the web site caused the listed students and teachers to feel threatened and unsafe at school. Robert D.’s parents have notified the school that they made their son remove the web site. His parents also filed an appeal of the suspension based on their son’s First Amendment right to free speech. They also claim that their son’s Fourteenth Amendment right to due process may have been violated because they were notified of this suspension, after the fact, over the phone and not with a letter stating the charges against their son.

As principal, it is your responsibility to hear the appeal. As you consider this appeal, please respond with your thoughts and actions considering, as a minimum, the following questions: 1. Does the fact that Robert D. developed the web site off school property make a difference in your decision? 2. What First Amendment protections have been established in case law regarding students and the internet that would influence your decision? 3. Were Robert D’s due process rights violated? 4. Should you uphold the suspension and recommendation for expulsion, or overturn the suspension and return the student to class?

Unit 4 reading Zirkel, P. A. (2001). A WEB OF DISRUPTION?. Phi Delta Kappan, 82(9), 717. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. O’Donovan, E. (2010). Sexting and Student Discipline. District Administration, 46(3), Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Chapters 4 and 5 from our course text, Aquila, F. (2008). School law for K-12 educators. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publication

Key Terms Due Process: The right of students to have a fair hearing to protect the legal rights of an individual. Tinker V. Des Moines: The landmark case that affirmed the First Amendment rights of free speech of students saying that “…students do not forfeit their rights at the school house door.” Reasonableness Standard: An informal standard developed by the courts in response to increased school violence that allows schools the latitude to use “reasonable” measures to preserve control and regulate student behavior. Reasonable Suspicion: The reduction to the Fourth Amendment standard of “probable cause” that is applied to searches in the school setting.

Unit Outcomes Analyze the interplay between the “Broad Authority” schools have to regulate student conduct and the basic rights of students, as they apply to case and statutory law, in the K-12 school setting. Apply applicable case and statutory law to First Amendment rights for students in the K-12 setting Synthesize in writing the effect of student discipline on the decision-making processes of school leaders Review and apply the “due process” rights and guarantees that apply to school initiated student disciplinary actions Put into writing the principles that should be applied to school policy regarding technology and the First Amendment rights as applied to student technology use

Summary In Unit 4 you read about student rights and student discipline in an Internet-ready world. Future school administrators should understand the “broad authority” schools have to regulate student behavior. Our readings explored the hand-in-glove relationship of student rights and student discipline. In studying two scenarios, you used student rights as the backdrop for deciding on the range of disciplinary actions or procedural regulations that a principal should recommend. By balancing the knowledge of the rights of students, the latitude allowed by the courts, and the desires of students, staff, and community, you thought about how a principal should react. This practice gives you practical experience in the school disciplinary matters. In our next unit we will continue to study student rights, specifically procedural guidelines for student privacy.

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