This article presents a moral analysis of the limitations upon legitimate authority to suspend and expel students in K-12 public schools, and it brings this analysis to bear on a pair of difficult disciplinary cases. The analysis is grounded in a defense of a child's right to receive a public education. It identifies the minimum content of that right and the procedural and substantive entailments of that content. It argues that, even in the case of very serious violations of school rules, students do not forfeit their right to a public education; expulsion must be treated as a remedy of last resort, and students who are expelled are entitled to suitable alternative instruction. (Contains 11 notes.)