Parents know how challenging and uncertain high school years can be for their students as they pass from late childhood to early adulthood, meeting academic and behavioral benchmarks while avoiding the worst of teen troubles. New Mexico high school students face those same challenges. Facing high school behavioral or academic misconduct charges or academic progress issues can grossly complicate those already difficult challenges. The Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team is available in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Rio Rancho, Santa Fe, Roswell, Farmington, Hobbs, Clovis, South Valley, Carlsbad, Alamogordo, Gallup, and across New Mexico to help your student face, defend, and defeat New Mexico high school disciplinary charges. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now to retain our highly skilled and experienced attorneys to advocate strategically and effectively for your student's best outcome to New Mexico high school misconduct or academic progress charges.
Your New Mexico High School Student's Future
Consider all that your New Mexico high school student has at stake when facing school disciplinary charges. You raised your student to see opportunities for a rewarding and satisfying future. Your student likely expects to attend a valuable vocational program or strong higher education program, perhaps at the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University, or another program out of state, maybe even your own alma mater. Your student may also expect to gain a valuable job and advance in a rewarding career. Your student likely also has personal ambitions around marriage, family, charitable or community involvement, and other life adventures. Many or all of those opportunities, though, depend on your student's successful completion of your student's current high school program. We can help your student achieve the best outcome for your student's current disciplinary challenges. Your student's future is worth preserving and protecting.
New Mexico High School Discipline
School discipline isn't just another school matter involving a potential slap on the wrist or other in-school correction. New Mexico high school discipline may include out-of-school suspension, school dismissal or expulsion, and alternative placement in a boot camp or reform school. Disciplinary placements are so common that the state's legislature requires districts to provide for alternative placement programs under New Mexico Statutes Section 22-2C-6. Even if your student's school officials do not remove your student from the school, they may revoke your student's privileges to participate on sports teams, intramural teams, and school clubs, and at school social events. They may also revoke class standing and academic honors and awards. School or community service and restitution are other punishments schools commonly impose, as well as remedial education and training. School discipline can harm, isolate, embarrass, and discourage your student. Beware of disciplinary charges.
New Mexico High School Parent Commitments
As a parent of a New Mexico high school student, you play an important role in helping your student address school disciplinary charges. Your student may have done perfectly fine in managing ordinary school matters. But disciplinary charges are no ordinary matter. Instead, they implicate state and federal laws, rules, and regulations, as well as district and school policies, codes, and procedures. High school disciplinary proceedings can be daunting, embarrassing, fearful, and complex for the student. Your student needs your maturity, judgment, wisdom, and discernment. Don't let anyone discourage you from participating, supporting, and guiding your student and holding school officials accountable for their own obligations in the matter. Your student needs you. And your first and best move is to recognize that you, too, need our assistance. Together, we can form a strong and effective team that is exactly what your student needs for the best outcome.
New Mexico High School Defense Representation
You and your student have a right to attorney representation, but you and your student need the right student defense representation. New Mexico high school disciplinary proceedings are academic administrative proceedings, not court proceedings. The law, rules, regulations, customs, and conventions for an academic administrative proceeding all differ from the laws and rules of a criminal or civil court proceeding. Our highly experienced Student Defense Team attorneys know academic administrative matters. Most local criminal defense, real estate, estate planning, and civil attorneys won't have equivalent academic administrative knowledge, skills, and experience. Don't retain unqualified local defense counsel. Instead, retain us for your student's best possible outcome.
New Mexico School Discipline Long-Term Impacts
Beware of the long-term impacts of New Mexico high school discipline. High school years are definitely tender years. Your student has only one chance at a strong, positive high school experience. If your student loses those high school years to disciplinary removal from the school, your student may not find an equivalent program to provide the same coordinated academic, social, mental, physical, and emotional development as the traditional high school program. Your student may also lose admission to preferred vocational, college, or university programs and may accordingly be unable to qualify for a desired job and career. The adverse impacts of school discipline can also extend to your student's most valuable relationships with student peers, teachers and other mentors, and even family and community members who have helped and could continue to help your student along in life. Don't lose your student's high school years to discipline. Let us help.
New Mexico School Discipline Short-Term Impacts
New Mexico high school discipline also has short-term impacts, which you and your student should be aware of, and should let us help you work to avoid. School disciplinary removal for any period, even a week or two, can set your student further behind academically when your student may already be struggling with the cause or fact of the disciplinary charges. School removal means isolation from supportive peers, teachers, and aides, together with a loss of the routines and structure. Your student may lose motivation and suffer discouragement and even depression. Whether your student spends any time out of school or not, your student may also suffer embarrassment and ostracization from the fact of the disciplinary allegations and proceedings. Your student may withdraw from activities and relationships, and even from studies, simply to keep a low profile. And your student could lose teacher and peer respect and relationships simply due to the allegations. Thus, let us help you and your student address them promptly, seeking early voluntary dismissal and exoneration.
New Mexico High School Disciplinary Authority
New Mexico's state legislature grants nearly unfettered authority to your student's high school and district officials to discipline students right up to suspension and expulsion and referral to an alternative disciplinary school. New Mexico Code Section 22-5-4.3 requires the local district school board to adopt student conduct codes and policies governing behavior within the school and at school activities. The statute requires the district code or policy to “detail specific prohibited acts and activities and enumerate possible disciplinary sanctions....” The statute also states expressly that “sanctions may include in-school suspension, school service, suspension or expulsion.” Other statutes require schools and districts to adopt and enforce anti-bullying provisions, weapons prohibitions, and other specific measures against endangering or disruptive wrongs. If your student faces disciplinary charges, your reaction may be to question the school's authority to remove your student. Don't doubt that authority. Instead, retain us to help you and your student defend and defeat the charges.
The New Mexico Public Education Department
New Mexico's state legislature has empowered the New Mexico Public Education Department to ensure appropriate regulation of student behavior in the state's schools. Under that authority, the Public Education Department adopted New Mexico Administrative Code Section 6.11.2.9, requiring local school boards to adopt rules for student conduct. Under Section 6.11.2.9, your student's local district must include rules prohibiting the behaviors the Public Education Department lists, such as criminal or delinquent acts, gang activity, sexual misconduct, disruptive conduct, and alcohol, drugs, or tobacco in schools. The next Section, 6.11.2.10, grants the local district and high school broad powers to investigate and enforce the student conduct code while leaving to the district and school the particular sanctions to apply. You may not deal with state agency officials, but they have the supervisory and governance authority over the policies and codes your student's school officials will enforce.
New Mexico Local School District Authority
New Mexico, like other states, grants primary authority over high school discipline to district and school officials. New Mexico Administrative Code 6.11.2.12, for example, grants district and school officials the authority to remove a student from the classroom or other school setting immediately whenever the student poses a danger to persons or risk to property. As already indicated above, New Mexico Code Section 22-5-4.3 authorizes the district board to adopt a student conduct code regulating student behavior within the school and at school activities. That student conduct code will likely be the one your student's school officials apply to your student's matter. Let us help you and your student respond to local district and high school officials in the Albuquerque Public Schools, Las Cruces Public Schools, Rio Rancho Public Schools, Gadsden Independent Schools, Gallup-McKinley County Schools, Santa Fe Public Schools, Farmington Municipal Schools, Hobbs Municipal Schools, Roswell Independent Schools, Los Lunas Public Schools, Clovis Municipal Schools, Carlsbad Municipal Schools, or any other New Mexico school district.
New Mexico Local School District Student Codes of Conduct
The particular form of student code of conduct that your student's New Mexico school district and high school adopt may vary in form, title, or format from the following examples. But your student's code of conduct is likely to be similar in substantive provisions to these New Mexico high school codes:
- the Los Alamos High School Code of Conduct has a long list of prohibited activities, divided into wrongs that result in discretionary discipline or wrongs that require out-of-school suspension;
- the Gallup-McKinley County Schools Student Behavior Handbook has an elaborate list of behavioral expectations tied to four offense levels for punishment;
- the Albuquerque Public Schools Student Code of Conduct includes both a list of prohibited behaviors and separate due process procedures tied to those misbehaviors and
- the Grants-Cibola County Schools Student Behavior Handbook divides prohibited wrongs into Major Offenses and Minor Infractions for progressive punishment.
New Mexico High School Misconduct Types
Your New Mexico high school student may face any one or more of four different types of high school disciplinary charges. The following four sections address these four main types of student disciplinary issue: (1) academic progress charges if your student fails to advance satisfactorily through grades toward graduation; (2) academic misconduct charges if your student violates teacher instructions or academic rules; (3) behavioral misconduct charges if your student engages in endangering or immoral behaviors disrupting school operations; and (4) sexual misconduct charges if your student engages in intimate contact or harassing or exploitative behaviors.
New Mexico High School Academic Progress Issues
New Mexico high school teachers and principals expect students to meet academic benchmarks for each course, grade, and graduation. That benchmarking role of New Mexico high schools should be no surprise to you or your student. You both know that high school graduation generally certifies to colleges, universities, vocational programs, employers, and others that the graduate has certain knowledge and skills. Your student's teachers and principal cannot just pass your student along from grade to grade and through graduation without ensuring that your student can meet the state's academic standards for high school graduates.
That certification role is why your student's school will threaten your student with failure, holding back, and delayed or refused graduation, until your student meets those standards. Failure to make satisfactory academic progress can mean remedial education, in addition to holding back or graduation delay. But in the worst case, it can also mean school accusations that your student is truant, disruptive, or insubordinate, resulting in misconduct charges, school suspension, and expulsion.
New Mexico High School Academic Standards
New Mexico's Public Education Department, like education departments in other states, has adopted academic content standards that the state's public schools must ensure their students meet to advance. Those content standards become especially significant in the high school years when your student's high school must report student progress and graduation data to the Public Education Department for analysis and public release. The reputation, funding, and support of your student's high school depends in part on those accountability measures. That state accountability is why we must be especially thoughtful of the school's interests when advocating your student's relief from academic progress issues.
Addressing New Mexico High School Academic Progress Issues
In theory, your student's high school should address your student's academic progress issues with remedial measures, perhaps even with a referral for evaluation of educational disabilities, accommodation, and special education services. However, in practice, high school teachers and principals may grow frustrated with struggling students, may lack resources, and may be unwilling to fulfill obligations to provide adaptive instruction. They may instead blame the struggling student, turning an academic progress issue into a misconduct issue, alleging truancy, disrespect, disruption, and insubordination.
Defending New Mexico High School Academic Progress Issues
Our attorneys have additional legal tools and procedures at their disposal when addressing academic progress issues. Academic progress issues that involve educational disabilities implicate the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We may be able to obtain a referral for disability evaluation. If your student already has an individualized education program (IEP) under the IDEA law, then we may be able to obtain its enforcement. Our attorneys may have other laws and procedures to invoke for your student's remedial relief and to avoid unnecessary and punitive sanctions.
New Mexico High School Academic Misconduct
Academic misconduct isn't the same as academic progress issues. Academic progress issues generally involve failure to perform. Academic misconduct charges instead allege some degree or form of dishonesty in which the allegedly cheating or conniving student seeks to engage in an undue academic advantage. In that respect, academic misconduct charges can be more serious than academic progress issues.
Definitions of New Mexico High School Academic Misconduct
New Mexico high schools generally define academic misconduct to include cheating and plagiarizing. For instance, the Gallup-McKinley County Schools Student Behavior Handbook prohibits “academic dishonesty” defined to include cheating in various forms and plagiarizing. As the Gallup-McKinley County Schools policy indicates, common forms of academic misconduct or dishonesty in high school include:
- using unauthorized materials or assistance to complete a quiz, test, or exam, including use of unauthorized electronic devices or assistance from another student;
- using unauthorized assistance with homework assignments, including using online services like Chegg or prohibited parent, sibling, or student assistance;
- gaining unauthorized access to secure quiz, test, or exam questions and answers before the exam and distributing or soliciting those materials;
- copying the work of others without disclosing the copying and giving appropriate attribution of authorship; and
- changing the content of a quiz, test, exam, problem set, or paper after the teacher has already scored it, with the intent of gaining an undue higher grade.
Punishing New Mexico High School Academic Misconduct
New Mexico high school teachers and principals may have bigger issues to address than academic misconduct. That prioritizing of issues may be why high school codes of conduct don't always expressly prohibit academic dishonesty, leaving the policing of academic conduct to teachers to deal with in the classroom. Teachers often require a cheating student to repeat the work on the student's own time. They may also impose some other remedial work. They are generally less likely to impose formal discipline, especially suspension or expulsion, or other measures that leave a permanent record of discipline.
But that dynamic of leniency can change on a dime if the teacher or principal believes that the student is a repeat offender, involved other students in the cheating, destroyed the confidentiality of test questions and answers, or otherwise disrupted the school. Your student could face school suspension and even school dismissal or expulsion. Short of school removal, your student could also face loss of academic honors and awards and class standing, necessary or helpful to college or other program admissions. Beware of academic misconduct findings.
New Mexico High School Academic Misconduct Defense
Because academic misconduct is generally a victimless wrong that does not endanger other students or damage school property, our attorneys may be able to defend your student's academic misconduct charges by presenting a straightforward case for remedial measures. Those measures may include your student repeating the questioned work and other academic work, as long as doing so does not interfere with your student's progress. Appropriate expressions of apology, regret, and rehabilitation may also help. But let our attorneys evaluate the options and help you and your student propose appropriate non-disciplinary outcomes.
New Mexico High School Behavioral Misconduct
Behavioral misconduct charges can further raise your student's stakes. Behavioral misconduct does not involve academic work. It instead involves some behavior that endangers other students, damages school property, interferes with school operations, or undermines student health, welfare, and morals. The Albuquerque Public Schools Student Conduct Code, for instance, includes such endangering wrongs as physical assaults, fighting, extortion, gang activities, bullying, harassment, intimidation, misuse of fire alarms, arson, drug or weapons possession, alcohol or tobacco use, theft, robbery, and vandalism. It also includes lesser behavioral wrongs like profanity, dress code violations, and general defiance or disruption. Teachers and principals may take much greater offense to these behavioral wrongs and seek much more serious discipline, often including school removal.
Punishments for New Mexico High School Behavioral Misconduct
School suspension is the default sanction that New Mexico high school principals are most likely to impose in the face of significant behavioral wrongs. The Los Alamos High School Code of Conduct, for example, requires an out-of-school suspension and permits long-term suspension and expulsion for all these behavioral wrongs: verbal or physical abuse of staff, fighting and assaults, gang activities, alcohol or drug possession, weapons possession, bomb threats, other threatening behaviors that may result in physical or emotional harm, and repeated wrongs that the school has been unable to deter with lesser punishment.
If your student avoids school suspension and expulsion, lesser discipline like loss of athletics, club, and social privileges, loss of academic honors and awards, and school or community service can still impact your student's high school education. Better that you and your student contest behavioral misconduct charges with our help than to suffer any form of discipline that leaves a lasting mark on your student's high school record.
New Mexico High School Behavioral Misconduct Defense
Your New Mexico high school student generally has a right to due process whenever school officials threaten to significantly deprive your student, by means of a long-term suspension or expulsion, of the liberty interest in public education. The New Mexico Public Education Department has expressly recognized your student's due process rights. New Mexico Administrative Code Section 6-11-2-12 requires district and school officials to respect your student's due process rights. Due process generally means that the school must provide your student with fair notice of the allegations against your student and a fair opportunity for a hearing before an impartial decision maker. An administrative appeal to district or Public Education Department officials and a court review of the final administrative decision may also be possible.
Our highly skilled and experienced attorneys can help you and your student put these procedural rights to their best strategic use and advantage. We can invoke conciliation conferences to advocate and negotiate for early voluntary dismissal. If the school insists on proceeding with formal charges, we can invoke your student's hearing at which to present exonerating and mitigating evidence. If you and your student have already lost the hearing, we can take available appeals. If appeals are now too late or already exhausted, we may be able to obtain civil court review and reversal. We may also be able to obtain alternative special relief through a general counsel's office.
New Mexico High School Sexual Misconduct
You have just seen how serious behavioral misconduct charges can be, where state law or local district or school codes may mandate a zero-tolerance policy. Sexual misconduct charges are an especially notorious form of behavioral misconduct allegations. Sexual misconduct allegations all at once implicate student safety, morals, health, welfare, and character. Those risks and potential harms are why federal Title IX regulations require New Mexico high schools to prohibit, prevent, and address sexual misconduct. Title IX also places your student's high school federal funding at risk if school officials fail in that duty to prevent and punish sexual misconduct. That funding loss and the public outcry and condemnation that may follow sexual misconduct reports are why your student's school officials are likely to take swift and sure action on sexual misconduct allegations. New Mexico high school conduct codes, like the Gallup-McKinley County Schools Student Behavior Handbook, generally incorporate Title IX mandates and procedures, which would apply even if they do not.
Punishment of New Mexico High School Sexual Misconduct
New Mexico high school officials will generally punish sexual misconduct with emergency school removal, campus bans, and no-contact orders, followed by out-of-school suspension and expulsion. Your student could end up in an alternative disciplinary high school over sexual misconduct charges. The outcomes for students in those alternative settings are generally not good, especially when compared to the traditional high school program. Title IX regulations permit New Mexico high schools to decide in the accuser's favor on a mere preponderance of the evidence. You won't get the beyond-a-reasonable-doubt protections that a criminal court would provide against these same allegations. Beware the severe punishment that can attend sexual misconduct allegations.
New Mexico High School Sexual Misconduct Defense
Because the penalties can be so swift and severe for Title IX sexual misconduct, your student may also have greater procedural protections under the same Title IX regulations. We can help you invoke those protections. We may be able to arrange and attend your interview with the Title IX investigator to present your exonerating and mitigating account with other helpful evidence. We may also be able to arrange a conciliation conference for an early voluntary dismissal. If the investigator instead proceeds with formal charges, we can invoke your student's formal hearing rights and help your student identify, acquire, organize, and present the witnesses, exhibits, and case for defense. Your student may also have appeal rights we can invoke if your student has already lost the hearing and court review if your student has already lost the appeal. We have also had success negotiating with general counsel offices for alternative special relief, even after the exhaustion of hearings and appeals.
New Mexico High School Sanction Defense
Sometimes, a student is responsible, as school officials allege. You and your student may believe that your student indeed committed the actions your student's school officials allege. Even if that is the case, though, that does not mean that your student must suffer discipline. A school is an educational institution committed to student growth and development. It is not a penal institution concerned primarily with punishment and public protection. We may be able to advocate effectively for remedial relief rather than formal discipline, even if your student did what school officials allege. Your student's school officials may already respect, like, and value your student, hoping that your student can come forward with mitigating information that gives the officials grounds for relief. Let us present that case.
Premier New Mexico High School Student Defense
The Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team is available in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Rio Rancho, Santa Fe, Roswell, Farmington, Hobbs, Clovis, South Valley, Carlsbad, Alamogordo, Gallup, and other New Mexico locations to defend your student against New Mexico high school misconduct charges and to address your student's academic progress issues. Our attorneys have helped hundreds of students in New Mexico and across the nation reach successful outcomes for all kinds of school issues. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now to tell us about your New Mexico high school student's case.
