Worried About Your School's Response to Alleged Off-Campus Misconduct?
More and more, Pennsylvania schools and school districts are exercising scope and authority that goes far beyond their classroom walls or campus grounds. Where parents might traditionally expect a school to recommend sanctions for alleged rule violations that happen within the school's walls or on the school's property, now, schools are stepping in to punish students for things that happen far outside the geographical academic sphere — and even things that aren't explicitly named within the school's code of conduct.
Some education systems have established protocols enabling schools to address students' off-campus behavior—such as, for example, this document from The School District of Philadelphia, which makes it clear that off-campus misconduct that has a continuing effect on campus falls within a school's purview. Other schools have not done this. Regardless, students can no longer expect that their schools will not notice altercations at weekend community events or social media missteps.
Unfortunately, this means that your school may be attaching school discipline, with all of its far-reaching ramifications, to off-campus events. For example, if a student from Scranton School District shares something inflammatory or inappropriate on social media and their school suspends them, that incident could affect that student's permanent disciplinary record and even their academic potential for years going forward.
Why do schools feel the need to connect off-campus behavior to consequences at school? One possible explanation is that school districts in Pennsylvania are starting to view off-campus behavior as a reflection of a student's character (and, more broadly, their school's character). This may or may not feel like a rational link to you. But what you, as a parent, need to focus on is the challenges ahead. When your school accuses your student of inappropriate off-campus behavior and slaps them with a school-related sanction, you and your family will have an uphill battle before you to protect your student from any undue reputation damage or future challenges.
That's where we come in. The Student Defense Team at the LLF Law Firm has years of experience helping students safeguard their rights and their future in the midst of misconduct allegations at school. Call the LLF Law Firm Team today by calling 888.535.3686, or fill out this brief form to tell us about your case.
What Is Off-Campus Misconduct's Influence on Pennsylvania Schools? A Tiered Approach to Connecting the Dots
Today's generation of students is using digital applications and internet-based tools more often than ever, which changes the types of student misconduct that schools need to punish. This shift is also helping to blur the lines between on-campus and off-campus misconduct. It's easier to know where students are and what they're doing; it's easier to see what students are thinking and collect records of inflammatory speech.
In an effort to maintain a secure, conducive-to-learning academic environment, schools may try to extend their punitive powers to what their students do off-campus and online. In our experience, there are three various types of off-campus misconduct that trigger school responses, escalating from incidents usually resulting in a vague school reaction to those triggering instant, severe discipline.
These three types include:
Actions that are not related at all to your school's academic or behavioral misconduct policies. Examples of these types of actions may include vandalism in local communities or being involved with public disturbances. Under this category, a student who attends a school in Erie School District who is caught defacing public property over the weekend might face a reprimand or a sudden requirement for counseling when they return to school on Monday.
Actions tangentially related to your school's academic or behavioral misconduct policies. Social media incidents make up a large portion of these events. For example, this category may include situations where a student shares derogatory comments about a local event or talks inappropriately about their peers on a public platform. Under this category, a student attending a school in, say, the West Chester Area School District could face consequences at school after creating a series of racially insensitive Instagram posts.
Actions directly related to your school's misconduct policies that just happen to occur off-campus. Does your school have a cyberbullying policy? What about rules prohibiting harassment toward teachers or threats aimed at the school? If your student is associated with these types of actions, it likely won't matter where and when your student was when they were (allegedly) responsible for these actions. An example of this type of behavior might involve a student attending a school in the Reading School District sending threatening students to a classmate over a social media or messaging app. If responsibility is demonstrated, that student could face consequences from their school.
Which leads us nicely to a very important question: What will the consequences from your school be?
Understanding Your School's Disciplinary Responses: K-12 Schools in Pennsylvania
Your school wants to ensure the safety of its community. To do that, your school has a system of rules, regulations, and repercussions in place to help steer students away from unwanted behaviors and toward more preferred ones.
In response to unwanted off-campus behaviors, your school may recommend a tiered approach to punishments, much like we saw above. So, for example, if your student is involved with an action that doesn't relate to the school community at all but your school wants to respond to, such as a car theft or an altercation at an off-campus party, your school may recommend a very general and (relatively) mild punishment—such as detention, or mandatory counseling.
(This doesn't mean that this punishment isn't a big deal, but we'll talk more about that in a moment.)
Your school's response may escalate as your student's ostensible off-campus misconduct gets more severe or more directly relevant to your school. For example, if your student posts about something online and references your school's graphics or other information about the school, your school could feel justified in recommending a sterner punishment. And, of course, if your student is involved with violence that affects another member of the school community or threatens violence against the school itself, your school, remembering its prerogative to maintain a safe atmosphere, will likely feel little compunction in recommending severe punishments immediately.
Whether your student faces a remedial ethics training course or a long-term suspension, it's important to avoid underestimating your school's disciplinary response. Ignoring or underestimating a sanction could lead to significant impacts on your child's academic journey.
The Lasting Effects of School Disciplinary Actions in Pennsylvania
Why worry about a suspension?
It'll only last a few days or weeks, right?
Far from it. If your student has to undergo a sanction because of their off-campus misconduct, that could trigger a domino effect of unwanted academic repercussions that could last for years — including:
- The immediate aftermath: Whether your student attends a school in a Philadelphia suburb or in the compact Radnor Township, if your student faces a suspension, they will experience immediate social isolation, academic setbacks, and more. If their suspension extends to a ban on extracurricular activities, that could disrupt longer-term plans such as helping your child build activities for college applications — not to mention the importance of your child's sense of purpose and belonging.
- The longer-term aftermath: Although it may not seem like it, your child's disciplinary record could be directly tied to their ability to enjoy future academic opportunities, from internships to the high school or even college they want to attend. College admissions officers and the people determining financial aid are trained to look for irregularities in a student's application packet that are indicative of a disciplinary past. If your student has to undergo a suspension or an expulsion, that will be very clear to any people assessing your student for admission or scholarships in the future.
In short, if you want your child to have a good school and community experience both now and later, it is very important to take this seriously and work hard to reduce disciplinary measures and protect your child's future.
A good way to start doing that is to take a look at what the next few weeks could look like.
What Will Your Pennsylvania K-12 School's Disciplinary Processes Look Like?
If you want to understand what your school's procedures look like specifically, the best resource for that is your school's code of conduct. This is a lengthy document that you'll find on your school's website. It'll be complex and dense, but it should include a list of prohibited actions and what your school plans to do if a student is allegedly responsible for one of them.
In general, you can likely expect an investigation, a hearing, a decision, and a sanction. Your school might include you in these processes. Alternatively, you may need to be a little more proactive to be involved, so you don't just hear about a sanction long after it's already been decided.
The very best thing you can do as a parent to protect your child and their future is to retain the services of the LLF Law Firm Team. You need to be there for your child, not stuck dealing with reams of paperwork and confusing, complicated conversations. Our team can provide the defense and representation you need to feel confident about your child's academic experiences going forward.
Once you've retained our team, consider taking the following actions to help your child and your family move toward a successful resolution:
- Maintain open communication. Make sure your child feels comfortable discussing what happened. Ask them about the incident, ensure they feel heard, and get a sense of their perspective.
- Stay objective and calm. You'll be stressed, your child will be stressed, and representatives from your school will be, too. The LLF Law Firm Team can manage communication to help avoid tense conversations, but it's a good idea to prioritize calmness when you speak with your child or if you do interface with anyone from your school.
- Learn about your school's behavioral policies. Our team will take care of sifting through your school's code of conduct, so don't feel any need to understand all of the regulations in detail. However, if you're able to take some time to scroll through the document and follow up on any references your school makes to its code of conduct in communication it sends you about your student's disciplinary experience, that will help you communicate with your child and with us.
It's also important to ensure that you retain the LLF Law Firm and its Student Defense Team — not just the lawyer down the road, and certainly not any lawyer connected to your school. Understanding the unique maze of school regulations is very different from dealing with non-academic legal processes. You and your family need to work with a team that has years of specific experience helping students move through disciplinary situations as successfully as possible. That's what the LLF Law Firm Team brings to the table.
The LLF Law Firm Team is Ready to Help Your Child Enjoy a Successful Outcome
Helping your child through confusing disciplinary processes connected to seemingly non-school-related events can be challenging. Your school's administrative team may not help you as much as you'd think, and your school's processes may not be clear or predictable at all.
Our experienced Student Defense Team is here to take the burden of managing your school's disciplinary response off your shoulders. Retain the services of the premier LLF Law Firm, and we'll help you manage your school's investigation, open direct lines of communication with your school for negotiation, assist with appeals, or provide any other support relevant to your student's disciplinary experiences. Call the LLF Law Firm for more information at 888.535.3686, or fill out this form to tell us more about your case. A member of our team will be with you shortly after receiving your information.
