Today's academic curriculums are more challenging than ever before as educators try to prepare students for the 21st-century job market. Young people who would like to get into a good school, then go on to a promising career are challenged to study harder than ever. They're also required to spend time on extracurricular activities to demonstrate how well-rounded they are to college-admissions officers. Knowing their parents have high expectations for them, many students spend considerably more time on schoolwork than their parents did.
Meanwhile, the modern internet has created new ways to cheat that were previously unheard of. To deal with this, school systems have implemented policies and procedures to catch students who try to get around the system by cheating, plagiarizing, or otherwise failing to follow the rules. But sometimes educators and administrators make mistakes or overreact to a youthful indiscretion. Young people might find themselves facing unfair consequences such as a lowered grade, suspension, or a negative note in their student files that could come back to haunt them. Expert student-defense attorney Joseph D. Lento has acted as an advocate for many students who found themselves in such situations, contacting and working with school administrators to help resolve the matter positively.
The New Haven-Milford Area
New Haven, Connecticut, is known as "the Elm City" and calls itself the "greatest small city in America." With a metropolitan population of just under one million, it has a large bioscience industry and is considered a top U.S. city for tech startups. Its neighbor Milford, known as "a small city with a big heart," is filled with beautifully maintained colonial-era structures.
New Haven and Milford are among the oldest cities in the United States, having been settled in 1638 and 1639, respectively. The area's acres of parks and open spaces, combined with the 17 miles of Long Island Sound coastline, make it an attractive area in which to live and work. New Haven-Milford is known for its tech companies, its sports and recreation opportunities, and its status as home to some of the top schools in the country.
Student Concerns in the New Haven-Milford Area
Kids have it tough these days. Their lives are filled with social media distractions designed to pull them away from their studies. At the very same time, they're feeling pressure to excel academically. Nowhere is this more the case than in New Haven-Milford, home to some of the most elite, competitive private schools and universities in the nation. Applicants are expected to meet or exceed these schools' high standards, so they can attain the kinds of impressive careers as renowned alumni. Studying on the same campuses where past statesmen, diplomats, and other national leaders once studied can be daunting to a student who doesn't believe they are doing well enough. That feeling of competitive pressure can get to be too much, sometimes leading to a foolish mistake and resulting in penalties that may jeopardize a young person's entire academic future. The Lento Law Firm has helped many students in such situations. The Lento Law team knows how to negotiate with school administrations on behalf of young people who are still finding their way in the world and may not always exercise their best judgment.
New Haven-Milford schools
New Haven-Milford is home to half a dozen universities and 92 private schools, including some of the most historically renowned private schools in the United States. The area contains 230 public schools, including public charter schools. Some of these include:
Colleges and Universities
- Albertus Magnus College
- Gateway Community College
- Paier College of Art
- Quinnipiac University
- Southern Connecticut State University
- The University of New Haven
- Yale University
Vocational schools
- Branford Hall Career Institute
- Medical Coding Academy
- New England Job Corps
- Porter and Chester Institute
- Premier Education Group
Boarding Schools and High Schools
- ACES at Chase
- Achievement First Amistad
- Amistad Academy Middle School
- ATLAS - Academic Theater Lab on Audubon
- ATLAS Middle School at NMS
- Avon Old Farms School
- Benjamin Jepson Magnet School
- Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School
- Booker T. Washington Academy Charter School
- Chase Collegiate School
- Cheshire Academy
- Choate Rosemary Hall
- Clemente Leadership Academy Middle School
- Cold Spring School
- Connecticut Experiential Learning Center
- The Country School - Madison
- East Rock Community Magnet Middle School
- Ezra Academy
- The Foote School
- Hamden Hall Country Day School
- Hopkins School
- The Hotchkiss School
- Kent School
- Miss Porter's School
- Nathan Hale School
- New Haven Academy
- Oxford Academy
- Suffield Academy
- Wooster School
The Lento Law Firm also assists students at religious schools in New Haven-Milford:
Christian and Catholic schools
- Academy of the Holy Family
- Academy of Our Lady of Mercy
- All Nations Christian Academy
- All Saints Catholic Academy
- Assumption School
- Christian Heritage School
- Holy Cross High School
- Holy Trinity School
- Mercy High School
- MidState Christian Academy
- New Light High School
- Notre Dame High School
- Our Lady of Mount Carmel School
- Sacred Heart Academy
- St. Aedan's Parochial School
- St. Augustine Academy
- St. Bridget School
- St. Joseph High School
- St. Luke's School
- St. Rita School
- St. Thomas's Day Schoo
Jewish Schools
- Bais Yaakov of Waterbury High School
- Mesivta Ateres Shmuel of Waterbury
- Southern CT Hebrew Academy
- Yeshivas Beis David Shlomo
- Yeshiva Gedolah
- Yeshiva K'tana of Waterbury
- Yeshiva of New Haven
Disciplinary Defense in the New Haven-Milford Region
With their high reliance on technology to instruct students, modern schools present students with many more opportunities to get caught up in the disciplinary system than in past decades. Once charged with an offense, a student might face being suspended or worse for violations that were previously considered minimal. With schools receiving more news coverage these days, school boards and academic supervisors are more visible to the public eye than they used to be. This may compel faculty and administrators to be more zealous about enforcing rules against students who stray from school guidelines. Students may face allegations of bringing forbidden items onto campus, damaging school property, misusing school computers, bullying, or harassment. Joseph D. Lento has assisted students in these situations and many others. His calm but zealous representation when dealing with school administrators has helped save many students' academic careers.
Academic Progression Issues
The U.S. government requires that any student enrolled in a Connecticut school who is receiving federal financial aid must be able to show that they are making satisfactory academic progress (SAP) toward the completion of a degree or certificate program. SAP is determined through a calculation based on grades and the number of courses being taken in a given semester, known as the student's "cumulative academic history." All courses count toward the cumulative academic history, including those from which a student has withdrawn.
Financial Aid Warning
Students whose cumulative grade point average falls below 1.7 or who have failed to complete half of their classes are required to meet with an academic advisor before they can receive future financial aid. If the student decides to retake a class they've passed with an extremely low grade, they are allowed to retake the class one time to continue receiving financial aid.
A "One-Strike" Policy
Any student who does not meet the minimum progress level is placed on Financial Aid Warning the following semester. This means they may continue to receive financial aid for one payment period. Any subsequent failure to meet the minimum academic standards will result in a permanent loss of financial aid from that college.
But the program allows a student to make an appeal based on extenuating circumstances–any unusual situation that affected their academic progress, such as illness, injury, or a death in the family.
Joseph D. Lento Can Help with the Appeal Process
In order to appeal, a student must submit a well-written explanation of the extenuating circumstances that caused them to fall below the minimum standards. They must also explain how those circumstances have changed to the point that the student is prepared to successfully finish their studies. The appeal must include third-party evidence documenting the facts listed in the explanation.
The Lento Law Firm's knowledgeable, experienced team can help a student put together a well-documented appeal to save them from permanently losing financial aid.
Academic Misconduct issues
When school administrators talk about academic misconduct, they mean anything that gives a student an unfair academic advantage, plus any other acts that undermine the learning process, such as plagiarism, bribery, cheating, dishonesty, falsifying records or data, and unauthorized collaboration.
All schools in New Haven-Milford have codes of academic conduct that students must obey, at risk of being penalized with failing grades and perhaps even expulsion. For example, Choate Rosemary Hall stresses that its students live "a life governed by the values of academic honesty and respect for the work of others." The Student Handbook states that "cheating, plagiarizing, or giving or receiving unacknowledged assistance in academic work are unacceptable behaviors in this community."
The Choate Honor Code includes the following as academic misconduct: plagiarism, cheating by using unauthorized aids while taking a test, helping another student cheat, and submitting the same work for credit to more than one teacher without permission.
Likewise, the University of New Haven's Code of Conduct prohibits the possession of unauthorized notes during a test, using unauthorized materials during a take-home exam, citing papers or research materials without citing the source, fabricating data in support of research, and obtaining or providing unauthorized prior knowledge of the questions in a test. The latter type of incident made news a few years ago in Connecticut when a group of high-school students stole exam answers from a faculty room and posted them on social media.
Academic-defense advisor Joseph D. Lento understands the academic pressures that can compel a student to do something they shouldn't in an effort to get a good grade. He has advised and assisted students of all ages, helping them reach agreements with school administrators that allow them to continue in school and graduate.
Behavioral Misconduct Issues
Young people who are still maturing sometimes have trouble conforming to the rules governing their behavior while on school grounds. To ensure that the teaching/learning process can proceed in a safe and stable environment, all schools, colleges, and universities impose codes of behavior on their students. For example, the Quinnipiac University Student Code of Conduct explicitly prohibits personal harassment, intimidation, and/or verbal abuse; threatening or intimidating words or actions, including the threat to inflict physical or emotional harm, abuse, or injury to any person; and acts of physical aggression, or actions that inflict physical harm, physical abuse, or injury to any person.
The Milford Public Schools Parent Student Handbook sets out guidelines for student behavior, including but not limited to bullying, hazing, and misbehaving on the school bus. Students will be disciplined for all behavior considered seriously disruptive of the education process, even if it occurs off-school property and during non-school time. The school system also holds parents and guardians accountable for vandalism, defacement, or the destruction of school property.
Likewise, the Benjamin Jepson Magnet School and all other schools supervised by the New Haven Board of Education will impose discipline on students found to have bullied or cyberbullied any students, teachers, or other school employees. Such behavior encompasses any "physical, verbal or psychological attacks or acts of intimidation or the intentional isolation that is intended to cause fear, distress, or harm."
Sometimes a young person exercises bad judgment; other times, an overzealous teacher or school administrator may come down harder on a student than the circumstances justify. The Lento Law Firm specializes in assisting students who get caught up in their school disciplinary system for any reason. The Lento team is experienced at serving as an intermediary between the student and the school administrators, working diplomatically to resolve such situations in a way that allows students to move on with their academic careers.
Title IX Sexual Misconduct Issues
All U.S. schools receiving federal aid, no matter what age or grade level, are required to enforce Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights requires educational institutions to protect people from sex and gender discrimination in educational programs and other activities.
Every school must follow specific requirements for handling complaints of Title IX violations. This includes investigating accusations of sexual misconduct and holding disciplinary hearings, if necessary. For example, Yale University's Title IX site states that Yale "provides many resources to students, faculty, and staff to address concerns relating to discrimination on the basis of sex or gender in all aspects of the educational process."
The Milford Public Schools District website notes that discrimination includes when the District "refuses to hire, disciplines or discharges any individual, or otherwise discriminates against an individual with respect to such individual's compensation, terms, conditions or privileges of employment on the basis of the individual's sex."
The Lento Law Firm has successfully defended students, teachers, and other school employees who have been accused of Title IX sexual misconduct violations.
School Discipline Defense Attorney Value
Many lawyers claim to offer academic-defense assistance without having the necessary expertise. Academic defense is quite different from criminal defense or civil-lawsuit defense. Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm's student defense team specialize in student academic defense. They have defended students accused of all types of misconduct in schools, colleges, and universities. If you or a student you know needs a strong academic-defense advisor, call 888-535-3686 or contact us here.
