PUBLIC SCHOOL DISCIPLINE

The Pennsylvania School Code permits the suspension and the permanent expulsion of public school students. A "suspension" is the exclusion of a pupil from school for a period of from one to ten consecutive school days. An "expulsion" is an exclusion from school for a period exceeding ten school days and may be permanent. Students at risk of suspension or expulsion are entitled to written notice of the charges against them. For suspensions in excess of three days and for all expulsions, students are also entitled to hearings where they have the right to be represented by counsel.

Students must make up examinations and work missed while being disciplined by suspension. During the period prior to the hearing in an expulsion case, the student is entitled to attend school unless his or her presence would constitute a threat to the health, safety, morals, or welfare of others. Any student excluded from school pending an expulsion hearing is entitled to alternative education, which may include home instruction. Where students facing expulsion complete home instruction and also pass final exams, they are entitled to a high school diploma.

School boards have broad authority to determine school discipline. Each school board may adopt and enforce reasonable rules. The school board must publish a code of student conduct identifying all of the offenses that can lead to suspension and expulsion.

Many school districts have developed "zero tolerance" policies regarding the possession of weapons on school property by students. In fact, the School Code itself requires that all Pennsylvania school boards shall expel any student who has a weapon at school, at a school activity, or on a school bus. However, the School Code gives discretion to school superintendents to recommend discipline other than expulsion in weapons cases if the superintendent feels expulsion is not warranted. Recently, a Pennsylvania court found that a Pennsylvania school district's strict zero tolerance weapon possession policy violated the School Code because it did not give the superintendent the opportunity to have any input in the expulsion proceedings.

School boards may expel or suspend students for their conduct off school premises. Where a middle school student designed and posted a website that included his drawing of one of his teachers severely injured and contained lewd comments and references to his willingness to hire a hitman to kill her, his permanent expulsion was upheld on appeal. Even though the student created the website at home and did nothing specific to transmit the offensive material to the school, the court upheld his expulsion because his conduct severely disrupted school discipline and order. The targeted teacher suffered emotional stress, which led to physical illness. Her inability to teach required the scheduling of substitute teachers in her classes.

The school board found that the violent nature of the drawing and language seen by many students who visited the website resulted in "plummeting morale" at the school. Relying on previous cases where students' sale of marijuana to other students off-campus and students' loud harassment of teachers off-campus were found to warrant school discipline, the court held that expulsion can be an appropriate remedy for conduct that takes place off school grounds.

Students under 17 who have been expelled are still subject to the School Code's requirements of compulsory education and are entitled to be educated. The initial responsibility for providing the required education rests with the student's parents or guardian through placement in another school, through tutorial or correspondence study, or through another educational program approved by the district's superintendent. If the parents or guardian are unable to provide for the required education, they must, within 30 days, submit to the school district written evidence so stating. The district then has the responsibility to make some provision for the student's education.

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