http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/266329.html
Student’s suspension likely violated law
Educators say hearing should have been held
By Mark Sommer NEWS STAFF REPORTER, Updated: 02/02/08 7:23 AM
The Buffalo School District appears to have violated state education law when Buffalo Superintendent James A. Williams added six weeks to the suspension of a McKinley High School senior, according to three professionals familiar with the law.
The statute requires a superintendent’s hearing when a student is suspended for more than five days. No such hearing was held for Jayvonna Kincannon, who has just finished the fifth week of a seven-week suspension, according to the high school senior and her grandmother.
“A student cannot remain out of school, according to decisions of the New York State commissioner of education, beyond the five days until they’ve had an opportunity for this hearing. It’s an obligation of the district to provide it,” Donald Ogilvie, district superintendent of Erie 1 Board of Cooperative Educational Services, told The Buffalo News.
A Buffalo School District hearing officer, who usually determines how long a student can be suspended, confirmed Ogilvie’s reading of the law.
“After five days, the student must return to school by New York State law,” said the hearing officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “If they want to suspend them again, it would have to be new charges.”
And that raises another apparent violation of state education law.
Jayvonna was punished twice for the same reasons — using the cell phone, wearing the hoodie and allegedly leaving school without permission.
Principal Crystal Barton suspended Jayvonna five days in December, citing those reasons.
When Jayvonna returned to school in the first week of January, an assistant principal told her she was suspended again for another six weeks. A letter from the school district, not signed, but with Williams’ name at the bottom, informed her and her grandmother that she was being suspended for the same reasons.
John A. Curr III, of the New York Civil Liberties Union and an expert in education law, said Jayvonna’s treatment was “outrageous.”
“There is no section of New York State education law that I am aware of that would allow the same student to be punished twice for a noncriminal action. We have had students commit [violent] acts against teachers who were treated better,” said Curr, executive director of the ACLU’s Western New York affiliate.
Many people, though, believe that other reasons were behind Jayvonna’s lengthy suspension. She and her supporters say Barton is punishing Jayvonna, captain of the girls basketball team, because she dared to speak up in support of a volunteer basketball coach they believe was unjustly dismissed.
That volunteer coach, Michelle Stiles, was dismissed, they say, because she dared to question why the boys basketball coach was seen leaving the home of a girl on the basketball team.
What’s more, it now appears Williams may not have been fully aware of Jayvonna’s suspension until this week, even though his name was on the letter that informed her of the additional six-week suspension.
So who did authorize the additional six-week suspension for Jayvonna? When the Buffalo Board of Education went into executive session Tuesday, the question was asked but not pursued, according to several board members who were present and spoke to The News on condition of anonymity.
Barton told board members she had nothing to do with the additional six-week suspension since she, by statute, could only suspend a student for five days.
Williams, who seemed offguard, according to the sources, did not address the question directly.
The superintendent’s hearing required under state law when a lengthy suspension occurs allows a parent or guardian to appear and bring in legal counsel to make sure the rights of the student are preserved and due process is followed. The school superintendent or designated representative usually attends the hearing.
The hearing officer suggested that the assistant superintendent for student services, who oversees the hearing officers, was the most likely person to have made that decision. That would be Monica Peoples.
The Buffalo News called Peoples and Barton to inquire who determined the length of the suspension and who offered input into the decision. Neither returned the calls.
When the hearing officer went to review Jayvonna’s file this week, it was missing from the filing cabinet.
Williams said Friday he will review the reasons behind Jayvonna’s suspension next week.
msommer@buffnews.com