Schmader Ex Rel. Schmader v. Warren County School District

808 A.2d 596, 2002 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 852
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 9, 2002
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 808 A.2d 596 (Schmader Ex Rel. Schmader v. Warren County School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Schmader Ex Rel. Schmader v. Warren County School District, 808 A.2d 596, 2002 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 852 (Pa. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinions

OPINION BY

Judge PELLEGRINI.

The Warren County School District (School District) appeals from an order of the Court of Common Pleas, 37th Judicial District of Pennsylvania, Warren County Branch (trial court), directing the School District to rescind the disciplinary action taken against Jedidiah Schmader (Jedidi-ah) and to expunge any reference to the underlying incident from Jedidiah’s permanent record.

On February 2, 2001, Jedidiah, a third-grade student at South Street Elementary School in Warren, Pennsylvania, was charged with one count of Miscellaneous Inappropriate Behavior pursuant to Section IV(0) of the School District’s Discipline Code for his alleged involvement in the threatened assault of another student by a third student, Tyler Gelotte (Tyler). Jedidiah was immediately suspended for one-half day, and on February 27, 2001, the School District conducted a formal student discipline hearing on the matter.

At the hearing, Jedidiah testified that on February 1, 2001, he and Tyler were playing at his home after school when he found a plastic throwing dart with a metal tip and showed it to Tyler. He stated that Tyler then took the dart and told him that he wanted to use the dart to hurt another student, Aaron Johnson (Aaron). Jedidiah stated that at that point, he told Tyler that if he wanted to hurt Aaron to go ahead, but he did not want to get involved in the matter. He stated that he then left Tyler and went into his house and didn’t tell his mother because she wasn’t home or his sister because he forgot.

Jedidiah stated that he did not see Tyler or the dart until the next day when he was called to the principal’s office of the school, Principal Nichols’ office, after Tyler was apprehended with the dart. In Principal Nichols’ office, Jedidiah stated that he admitted that the dart belonged to him but when asked what he intended to do with the dart, he didn’t say anything because he did not want to hurt his friend. Jedidiah later testified that he thought that Tyler was going to hurt Aaron but that he didn’t want him to hurt Aaron because Aaron was his friend. However, he stated that he didn’t tell Aaron because Tyler would probably make something up.

For his testimony, Principal Nichols read the anecdotal record he made following the conversations with Jedidiah and Tyler and their parents on February 2, [598]*5982001.1 According to that record, Tyler was in Mrs. Trubic’s classroom on February 2, 2001, when he told another classmate that he had a dart and was going to throw it at Aaron. After the student informed Mrs. Trubic of Tyler’s comment, she relayed the information to Principal Nichols. Upon questioning, Tyler told Principal Nichols that the dart belonged to Jedidiah, that the boys had talked about Aaron and that Jedidiah gave him the dart and he brought it to school intending to throw it at Aaron. Jedidiah was then called to the principal’s office and admitted that the dart was his and both Jedidiah’s and Tyler’s parents were called. The record indicated that when Jedidiah’s mother, Mrs. Schmader, asked what they were going to do with the dart, Jedidiah’s response was “to make him bleed” and Tyler’s response was “not to ... was to hurt him, but not bad.”2 Principal Nichols then decided to suspend both students for the rest of the day, and told the boys’ parents that he would report the incident to the superintendent of schools.

Following the hearing, the hearing officer issued his Recommended Report, in which he found Jedidiah guilty of one charge of Miscellaneous Inappropriate Behavior. Acknowledging that Jedidiah had already served one-half day of out-of-school suspension, the hearing officer recommended that Jedidiah be issued three days of after-school detention not to exceed 15 minutes per day. On March 12, 2001, the School District adopted the hearing officer’s Recommended Report.

Jedidiah then appealed the School District’s determination to the trial court purportedly pursuant to 22 Pa.Code § 12.8(b)(2),3 which allows a student who disagrees with the results of the formal hearing to seek recourse in the appropriate court of the Commonwealth. Determining that the Miscellaneous Inappropriate Behavior provision of the Disciplinary Code was unconstitutionally vague by failing to provide eight-year-old Jedidiah with notice that his failure to warn school authorities about potential harm to another student constituted inappropriate behavior and would result in disciplinary action, the trial court ordered the School District to rescind any action against Jedidiah and expunge any reference of the incident from his record. This appeal by the School District followed.4

[599]*599The School District contends that the trial court erred by concluding that the Miscellaneous Inappropriate Behavior provision of its Discipline Code was unconstitutionally vague. It is well established that it is fundamental to due process that a statute or regulation must not be so vague as to require persons of ordinary intelligence to guess at its meaning or its possible application. Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104, 92 S.Ct. 2294, 33 L.Ed.2d 222 (1972). However, the Constitution does not require impossible standards; all that is required is that the language convey a sufficiently definite warning as to the proscribed conduct when measured by common understanding and practice. Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476, 77 S.Ct. 1304, 1 L.Ed.2d 1498 (1957).

Because schools need to be able to impose disciplinary sanctions for a wide range of unanticipated conduct disruptive of the educational process, the United States Supreme Court has determined that school disciplinary rules need not be as detañed as criminal codes. See Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675, 106 S.Ct. 3159, 92 L.Ed.2d 549 (1986). A looser standard of constitutional review of such school regulations is appropriate because greater flexibility must be afforded to regulate the conduct of chüdren as opposed to adults. Alex v. Allen, 409 F.Supp. 379 (W.D.Pa.1976).

The provision at issue in this case, Section IV(0) of the School District’s Discipline Code, provides:

Any student who engages in inappropriate behavior, not otherwise specifically addressed in this Code, including but not limited to self-destructive behavior, behavior that may be harmful to others or the property of others, or other behavior which negatively reflects the values of this discipline code or the phüoso-phy, goals and aims of the Warren County School District, will be subject to suspension or other disciplinary action. The discipline may include action by the administration as well as possible referral to the hearing officer for further discipline.

(Handbook, R.R. at 83a-84a).5

In its 1925 statement, the trial court clarified for purposes of appeal that it did not find the entire Miscellaneous Inappropriate Behavior provision of the School District’s Discipline Code unconstitutionally vague or that the School District was without authority to punish an eight-year-old student for not warning authorities when he knew that someone intended to injure another student.

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Schmader Ex Rel. Schmader v. Warren County School District
808 A.2d 596 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2002)

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808 A.2d 596, 2002 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 852, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schmader-ex-rel-schmader-v-warren-county-school-district-pacommwct-2002.