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Publication Sneak Peek
School Law Review
This segment features content from other AAEA publications. School Law Review is a quarterly publication available to subscribing districts. The following excerpt comes from the March 2023 issue.
RECENT COURT DECISIONS AFFECTING STUDENTS
J.B. v. Greater Latrobe Sch. Dist., U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania (8/29/22)
The parent sued a district alleging that it failed to protect the student under the “state-created danger” theory of the 14th Amendment. In middle school, the student witnessed severe hazing and sexual assault during his time on the wrestling team. During the investigation, he provided a witness statement naming the perpetrators and coaches who failed to intervene. The student subsequently became the target of bullying and harassment by the perpetrators, receiving death threats and assaults.
The court dismissed the claim, finding that while some of the district’s actions were problematic, they did not rise to the level of a state-created danger because the district’s deficient response did not cause the student’s harassment or make him more vulnerable to any harassment.
I.M. v. Granville County Sch., U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina (8/16/22)
Two black high school students brought racial harassment claims under Title VI, alleging that they were disciplined although they were actually victims of harassment, and the district failed to discipline the harasser, who was a white student. The students claimed that the district’s investigation into the allegations was half-hearted, and if the district had responded appropriately to their complaints it would have discovered that the harassment was severe and offensive, given the repeated vile racial epithets directed at them.
The court denied the district’s request to dismiss the case, holding that the district could be found to have engaged in deliberate indifference toward the students’ allegations.
