Barrington School District Drops Lawsuit Against Student Who Challenged Suspension

Barrington School District Drops Lawsuit Against Student Who Challenged Suspension

The Barrington School District has dropped the lawsuit against a student who had successfully challenged a school suspension, the ACLU of Rhode Island announced on Friday.

“Today’s action is welcome but overdue. We are glad the school committee finally backed down, but it is disheartening that it took so long for them to do the right thing. The dismissal notwithstanding, this whole ordeal was a huge waste of taxpayer dollars and, even more importantly, it set a terrible example for students exercising their legal rights,” said ACLU of RI executive director Steven Brown.

The Case

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According to the ACLU, last year, the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE)determined that the school district had improperly issued the suspension, which was based on a school lunchroom conversation that the student, designated as “E. Doe,” had participated in about the then-recent Parkland, Florida school shooting. Barrington appealed RIDE’s decision to the Council on Elementary and Secondary Education (CESE), which also found no evidence that the conversation was in any way threatening or disruptive so as to warrant the punishment meted out to him.

In so ruling, both the RIDE and CESE decisions enforced a 2016 state law that was enacted to stem the harm caused by unnecessary out-of-school suspensions.

Doe ended up being interrogated by police twice, the second time without his parents being notified. In overturning the suspension, RIDE criticized the school for that lack of notification.

According to the ACLU, the RIDE hearing officer also concluded that:

Both the principal and assistant principal testified that E. Doe was a good student with no disciplinary record. … In addition, before E. Doe was questioned by the school authorities, the Barrington Police had concluded that he posed no credible threat to school safety. Indeed, the BMS Principal reached the same conclusion and thus notified parents, teachers and administrators by email before conducting his own investigation, that “it was quickly determined that there was no threat to our learning community or environment.”

According to the ACLU, the facts make clear that E. Doe was neither a “disruptive student” … nor posed a “demonstrable threat to students, teachers, or administrators” under [state law] and as a result, the imposition of an out-of-school suspension was in violation of an express statutory prohibition.  

According to the ACLU, after CESE upheld RIDE’s decision against the district, the school committee filed a lawsuit in R.I. Superior Court against both the student and RIDE, seeking a reversal of the decision and an award of attorneys’ fees. ACLU cooperating attorney Aubrey Lombardo entered an appearance on the student’s behalf, and yesterday the school district formally agreed to dismiss the suit.