ERIC Number: ED194950
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1980
Pages: 10
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Discipline by Grade Reduction and Grade Denial Based on Attendance.
Liggett, Lee B.
The courts have established that students have a right to due process when they are suspended from school for disciplinary reasons, since suspension involves depriving the student of his entitlement to an education. When grade reduction is used for punishing absence or tardiness or to discourage unacceptable behavior, must due process also be used? From several cases tried in federal courts it appears that due process must be used, but the appellate court of Illinois and the Supreme Court disagree on how to tell whether due process has been denied. The Supreme Court, in "Goss v. Lopez," stated that any deprivation of rights required procedural due process, while the appellate court held in other cases that the severity of deprivation had to be unreasonable before due process rights could be considered to have been denied. In general, it appears that grading or the awarding of academic credit should not be used arbitrarily to control behavior, but should depend on the subjective evaluation of the teacher of each course in question. (Author/PGD)
Descriptors: Attendance, Civil Rights, Court Litigation, Discipline Policy, Due Process, Elementary Secondary Education, Grading, Punishment, Sanctions, Student Rights, Suspension
Not available separately; see EA 012 963.
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers; Opinion Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: National Organization on Legal Problems of Education, Topeka, KS.
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Chapter 1 of "School Law in Contemporary Society" (EA 012 963). For related documents, see EA 012 963-980.