Givens V. Poe

346 F. Supp. 202 (1972)

 

Background

Peggy Givens, age eleven, and Rose Mary Givens, age thirteen were involved in a dispute with a teacher at Double Oaks elementary school. They were sent home immediately. A conference was held the following day with their parents. However, a hearing was not conducted and no effort was made to develop the children’s version of the incident. No fact finding inquiry and no record was made. However they were formally notified of their exclusion one month later from the superintendent advising that they would not be allowed to attend public schools. They were not informed of their right to a hearing or that there would be a hearing.

Relevancy for School Disciplinary Hearings

Addresses whether due process or fairness of the procedures by which discipline in public schools is administered comply with due process and fairness.

Held

Basic essentials of due process should be observed in consideration of charges which, if proved, could result in expulsion or prolonged suspension from school.

The court found that the school board itself had never adopted any required procedures for disciplinary hearings; a child or parent had not right to a hearing before suspension; suspension was often used as a lever to get the attention of parents to come in for a conference; after a child was suspended for bad conduct the principal was expected to notify the parents to come in for a conference(not a hearing); at this conference the principal explained why the pupil had been suspended; there was not right at the conference to have a written statement of the charges to testify or produce evidence to confront accusing witnesses; the child could not return to school pending investigation_ of the facts or pending appeal from the suspension if the principal intended to recommend that the child be excluded from the school, the child was kept out of school pending an ex parte investigation and “documentation” followed by formal notice of exclusion and throughout the entire history of the school district only “4” children had ever made it through to a formal appeal and hearing before the school board and they were generally held 25-43 days after the original suspensions. After the court determined there was no right to a due process hearing before prolonged suspension or exclusion, the court asked counsel for the defendants to establish “procedures” or “Proposed Rules” for “suspension and Exclusion from Attendance”.