If your South Carolina high school student faces misconduct charges or academic progress issues, your student needs our highly qualified defense. The Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team is available for your student's representation in Charleston, North Charleston, Columbia, Mount Pleasant, Rock Hill, Greenville, Summerville, Goose Creek, Sumter, Florence, Spartanburg, or any other South Carolina location. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now to retain our skilled and experienced attorneys. Retain the best available representation for the best outcome of your South Carolina high school student's misconduct charges or academic progress issues.
Your South Carolina High School Student's Future
To decide how best to handle your South Carolina high school student's misconduct charges or academic progress issues, you need to know what your student has at stake. Think of your student's hopes and dreams for a flourishing future. Think also of your own hopes and dreams for your student. That's how important high school is as a foundation for future success. You and your student may, for instance, have clear expectations for the college or university in which your student will enroll, which may be your own college or university alma mater or the school of another close relative. You and your student may also hope and expect that your student will enter your career field, the career field of another close relative, or a career field uniquely suited to your student's character, personality, and interests. You and your student may also have clear visions for your student's marriage, family, children, and charitable and community pursuits. High school discipline, especially suspension and expulsion for transfer to an alternative disciplinary boot camp, can put all those hopes, dreams, and expectations at risk. That's what your student's misconduct charges or academic progress issues may have put at stake. Let us help your student preserve those hopes and dreams. Retain us now for your student's defense.
South Carolina High School Parent Commitments
You may also be thinking about your proper role as a parent of a South Carolina high school student facing misconduct charges or academic progress issues. You may have an inkling to leave your student's issues to your student's own handling, hoping that your student will learn something from having had to face the music on your student's own. But keep in mind that high schoolers don't have an adult's maturity, brain development, procedural skills, judgment, wisdom, discernment, or experience. Your student likely isn't as poised, thoughtful, procedural, committed, concerned, balanced, and insightful as you. Your student may not see your student's future in the way that you see your past. You know what staying on course, hitting benchmarks, and sticking with the plan can do for a life in the long term. You also know what unfortunate detours, obstacles, and interruptions can do to change a life's trajectory or course. Perhaps you should thus feel that your parental role isn't over and shouldn't stop, at least until you have helped your student get out of high school by overcoming misconduct charges or academic progress issues. Help your student hit that one last big high school graduation benchmark. Then, you and your student can decide if you should continue to help beyond then. For now, stay involved. Retain us to help your student get through this formidable challenge.
South Carolina High School Discipline Impacts
South Carolina high school discipline can have clear, hard, short-term, and long-term impacts. Consider those impacts so that you and your student have a clear picture of how best to respond to South Carolina high school disciplinary charges. In the short term, your student could lose important school privileges. If your student is an athlete, discipline could kick your student off the team. If your student is involved in clubs and social activities, your student could lose those privileges. If your student is an academic star, your student could lose academic honors and class rank. And no matter your student's interests and social network, your student could suffer school suspension, expulsion, and transfer to a reform school or boot camp. Consider the way that policy researchers see the adverse impacts of school discipline.
Your student could also suffer long-term impacts from South Carolina high school discipline. Depending on the misconduct and discipline, your student could lose admission to a desired vocational or professional program, lose the ability to obtain a vocational certification or professional license, lose admission to preferred colleges and universities, and even lose the support of advisors, mentors, family members, and friends. All those losses can also impact your student's mental, emotional, and physical health. Your student could lose motivation and end up isolated, without a support network, and depressed. Don't overlook the potential harms. Get our highly qualified defense help.
South Carolina's High School Discipline System
Don't doubt the statutory and regulatory authority of your student's South Carolina high school principal and other officials to discipline your student for misconduct. Some South Carolina statutes authorize specific grounds for school suspension, exclusion, or expulsion such as bullying, hazing, weapons possession, and drug offenses. Another South Carolina statute authorizes local school district boards to discipline whenever a student's actions are detrimental to instruction and on similarly broad grounds. Other South Carolina statutes and rules authorize the South Carolina Board of Education to publish administrative regulations on discipline and the local school district to adopt student conduct codes providing for discipline.
The South Carolina State Board of Education
The South Carolina State Board of Education's stance and regulations on high school discipline can influence your student's outcome to South Carolina high school disciplinary charges. South Carolina Code Section 59-5-65 authorizes the South Carolina State Board of Education to adopt standards for student conduct and discipline. The same statute authorizes the State Board of Education to establish academic standards for advancement from grade to grade and for high school graduation, governing your student's academic progress issues. Section 59-5-65 expressly states that the State Board “shall take into account the necessity of proper conduct on the part of all pupils in order that the welfare of the greatest possible number of pupils shall be promoted” even if that results “in suspension or expulsion of pupils....” We can help you and your student interpret, advocate, and apply these administrative provisions for your student's best outcome to misconduct charges or academic progress issues.
South Carolina Local School District Authority
South Carolina Code Section 59-63-210 authorizes the local school district board to suspend, expel, or otherwise discipline your student on broad grounds. Those grounds include “any crime, gross immorality, gross misbehavior, persistent disobedience,” or “when the presence of the pupil is detrimental to the best interest of the school.” The same statute authorizes your student's South Carolina school district board to adopt a district discipline policy in the form of a student code of conduct. South Carolina State Board of Education Regulation 43-279 requires local school districts to adopt student conduct policies that meet the State Board's minimum standards. Regulation 43-279 mandates that districts maintain three levels of student discipline up to suspension and expulsion. Regulation 43-279 and other law, rule, and regulation involve your student's school district in your student's disciplinary matter.
You and your student may thus quickly find yourselves dealing not just with the high school principal but with district officials. We are available to represent your student at the district level in any district across South Carolina including the Greenville County School District, Charleston County School District, Horry County Schools, Berkeley County School District, Richland County School District, Richland School District No. 1, Beaufort County School District, Fort Mill School District, Lexington County School District One, Lexington-Richland School District No. 5, Dorchester School District No. 2, Aiken County Public Schools, South Carolina Public Charter School District, Rock Hill Schools.
South Carolina Local School District Student Codes of Conduct
Your student's South Carolina school district discipline policy, adopted under South Carolina Code Section 59-63-210 and State Board of Education Regulation 43-279, may look like one or more of the following example policies from larger South Carolina districts:
- the Greenville County School District publishes a Student Behavior Code providing for the three offense levels state provisions require;
- the Charleston County School District publishes a Student Code of Conduct similarly providing for the three offense levels state law requires;
- the Horry County Schools publish a Student Policy Guide also providing for the three offense levels the state requires; and
- the Berkeley County School District publishes a Student Handbook likewise providing for the three offense levels state law requires.
Your student's South Carolina school district student code of conduct and discipline policy must also include the state's three offense levels. But your student's code may differ as to the specific prohibited actions. We can help you and your student interpret and apply the code and its procedural protections for your student's best disciplinary outcome.
South Carolina High School Academic Misconduct
Academic misconduct may be the first thing that a parent considers when hearing that the parent's student faces disciplinary charges. Academic misconduct does not typically endanger or harm other students, damage or destroy school property, or disrupt school operations. Instead, it involves a violation of a teacher's instructions, academic rules, or academic conventions having to do with things like avoiding copying and instead accurately attributing borrowed or paraphrased work to outside sources. In that sense, academic misconduct may be a less serious charge than behavioral misconduct or sexual misconduct, discussed below. But take academic misconduct charges seriously, too. Academic misconduct is an ugly stain on a record of a student with higher academic ambitions, such as for college, graduate school, and professional school.
Definitions of South Carolina High School Academic Misconduct
Academic misconduct can go by various names in South Carolina local school district student conduct codes. Some codes call it academic misconduct, others call it scholastic dishonesty, and others call it academic dishonesty or simply cheating. District codes tend to define academic misconduct as gaining or trying to gain undue academic advantage. The means of gaining undue advantage can involve violating instructions in course syllabi or on course exams or assignments, violating clearly established academic conventions, or even violating oral teacher instructions for the specific assignment, quiz, or test. District codes are seldom clear on the requirements. The Greenville County Schools Student Behavior Code, for instance, simply prohibits “cheating on examinations or classroom assignments.”
The Charleston County School District Student Code of Conduct, for a contrasting example, has a relatively elaborate Academic Integrity Code defining and prohibiting several academic wrongs. Common high school academic misconduct charges can include unauthorized collaboration among students when the teacher instructs to work alone, bringing unauthorized materials into exams, misusing cell phones or other electronic devices for answers, copying another student's work, copying or paraphrasing text without clear attribution (plagiarism), and fabricating or altering data for experiments. Use of electronic answer services like Chegg, Bartleby, or Course Hero is another common cheating form.
Punishing South Carolina High School Academic Misconduct
Academic misconduct can lead to serious discipline or not so serious remedial measures, depending on the situation. But keep in mind that any discipline on your student's record can affect your student's future. Academic discipline can especially discourage premier colleges and universities from offering admission. The punishment for academic misconduct depends in part on how South Carolina high school disciplinary officials view your student's academic wrong. If your student commits a first-time offense that involves no other students, that was not in flagrant violation for clear undue gain, and that did not involve other students or disclose to other students confidential answer keys, then your student may face only remedial measures rather than discipline. But if any of those aggravating factors are present, your student may suffer severe discipline up to suspension and expulsion. Don't minimize the risk of severe discipline. Get our defense help.
South Carolina High School Academic Misconduct Defense
Just because your student's South Carolina high school charges your student with academic misconduct does not mean that school officials will find misconduct or impose sanctions. Don't let your student ignore the charges. Retain our highly qualified attorneys to help your student defend the charges and, if your student did cheat, minimize any penalty in favor of remedial measures. The first thing that our attorneys may do is to communicate with school officials to arrange a conciliation conference at which to propose alternatives to discipline. Your student may benefit from remedial training, from extra school work, or other actions that leave no finding of misconduct and no record of discipline. If the school insists on punitive sanctions, then we can invoke the school's protective procedures including requesting a formal hearing before an independent decision maker, likely at the district level. We can help you and your student present exonerating and mitigating evidence, to either absolve your student of the charges or to eliminate or minimize any penalty. If you and your student have already lost the hearing, we may be able to appeal the adverse finding to reverse the finding or reduce or eliminate the sanction. If you have already lost the appeal, we may be able to obtain alternative special relief through the district's general counsel.
South Carolina High School Behavioral Misconduct
Your student may face a more serious charge if it involves allegations of behavioral misconduct rather than academic misconduct. Behavioral misconduct can involve injury to students or their endangerment through acts or threats of violence. It can involve damage to or destruction of school property, including vandalism and theft. It can involve disruption of school operations through setting off fire alarms, blocking hallways, or disobeying school authorities. It can also involve the corruption of student morals through such things as pornography distribution, sexting, or even sharing of tobacco and vaping products. Weapons or drug possession, attendance under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and bullying and hazing are other common forms of behavioral misconduct falling within the above definitions.
Punishments for South Carolina High School Behavioral Misconduct
South Carolina high school punishment for behavioral misconduct can be significantly more severe than for academic misconduct. Foremost, South Carolina statutes prohibiting and disciplining bullying, hazing, weapons possession, and drug offenses may tie the hands of your student's high school disciplinary officials so that they must automatically suspend and even expel your student, sending your student to an alternative disciplinary program. But even if your student's alleged wrong does not fall within a statutory prohibition requiring school removal, disciplinary officials may determine to remove your student if the allegations involve harmful, damaging, or disruptive conduct. The Greenville County Schools Student Behavior Code is an example, raising to a Level 2 offense conduct that endangers students and to a Level 3 offense criminal conduct. Either level may result in suspension and expulsion.
South Carolina High School Behavioral Discipline Impacts
The impacts of South Carolina high school behavioral discipline can be both immediate and longer term. The immediate impact may be loss of sports, club, social, and recreational privileges, loss of peer, teacher, and advisor relationships and support, and loss of instruction and advancement if the school suspends or expels. The longer term impacts can include loss of college and university admissions, loss of vocational and professional program opportunities, and loss of mentor and even family member support. Schools, training programs, and employers may consider the civil liability or regulatory sanctions that could arise if a student with a high school record of endangering conduct harms someone in the new program or workplace. Schools, programs, and employers may also wish to ensure the safety and security of their students, participants, customers, and employees from a student with a high school behavioral misconduct record. These losses could then cause your student substantial mental, emotional, and physical harm.
South Carolina High School Behavioral Misconduct Defense
Keep in mind again that South Carolina high school behavior charges do not necessarily mean that the school's disciplinary officials intend to punish your student. They may instead hope and expect that your student has an explanation or excuse for the misconduct and that your student will offer and agree to remedial measures. Doing so could be in both the school's interest and your student's interest. Our attorneys have the skills and experience to know the resolutions that high school officials commonly accept, short of suspension and expulsion. Without a defense, your student could well expect the default sanction of suspension. With our adept representation, your student may be able to achieve the school's voluntary dismissal of the charges in favor of remedial measures that leave no discipline record.
If your student's South Carolina high school disciplinary officials do not agree to a voluntary non-disciplinary outcome, we can help you and your student invoke the state's protective procedures, promised under South Carolina State Board of Education Administrative Regulation 43-279. Those due process provisions guarantee your student a formal hearing at which we can help you and your student present exonerating and mitigating evidence to an impartial decision maker. We can also appeal any adverse findings your student has already suffered at the hearing. We may even be able to negotiate alternative special relief through the district's general counsel if your student has already lost all hearings and appeals.
South Carolina High School Sexual Misconduct
South Carolina high school sexual misconduct charges can be even more serious than behavioral misconduct charges. South Carolina high schools have the duty under federal Title IX regulations to prohibit sexual misconduct. Your student's high school disciplinary officials will take sexual misconduct allegations seriously simply because of the harm that student victims of sexual misconduct can suffer. But those school officials have other reasons to promptly investigate and aggressively charge sexual misconduct. Your student's high school could lose federal funding for ignoring Title IX obligations. The school could also suffer regulatory fines and substantial civil liability. Expert swift and aggressive school action relating to sexual misconduct allegations. Get our skilled and experienced defense for your student.
Punishment of South Carolina High School Sexual Misconduct
Expect your student's South Carolina high school officials to punish sexual misconduct more severely than other behavioral misconduct, for the same reasons. The Berkeley County School District Student Handbook is an example, expressly incorporating Title IX obligations while committing to aggressive enforcement. While your student can expect suspension and expulsion for sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking, all of which can constitute criminal acts, your student may also face suspension and expulsion for sexual harassment. Sexual jokes, innuendo, slurs, and advances may be enough to trigger severe punishments, even if other students engaged in and consented to the conduct.
South Carolina High School Sexual Misconduct Discipline Impacts
Expect the impacts of South Carolina high school sexual misconduct discipline to be more severe than the impacts of other behavioral discipline. Sexual misconduct may be no more physically endangering than bullying, fighting, or other physical assaults. However, sexual misconduct can have lasting mental and emotional impacts on the victim. Sexual misconduct also tends to bring strong public reaction and condemnation. Public and parental pressure may force the school to punish sexual misconduct more severely than the circumstances legitimately warrant. A high school record of sexual misconduct may cause other schools, programs, employers, and individuals to steer clear of any relationship with your student, leading to widespread, severe, and long-lasting impacts.
South Carolina High School Sexual Misconduct Defense
Your student may be innocent of sexual misconduct charges. Complainants sometimes fabricate or exaggerate their allegations for other purposes, including to retaliate, to blame one student for another student's misconduct, or out of regret for a consensual activity. Fortunately, the same Title IX regulations that urge aggressive enforcement also offer your student procedural protections to challenge false, exaggerated, or unfair charges and to minimize the risk of an unduly harsh sanction. Our highly qualified attorneys know how to invoke those procedural protections for your student's best possible outcome. We may be able to arrange early informal resolution conferences to present your student's exonerating evidence. We may invoke a formal hearing, present your student's exonerating and mitigating evidence, and cross-examine accusing witnesses to show that their testimony lacks foundation or that they lack credibility.
South Carolina High School Academic Progress Issues
Academic progress issues involve your South Carolina high school student's failure or inability to meet academic standards and benchmarks for grade advancement and graduation. Recall that South Carolina Code Section 59-5-65 authorizes the South Carolina State Board of Education to adopt academic standards as benchmarks for advancement. You might think of academic progress issues as non-disciplinary, warranting only remedial services, including potentially special education services. But some high school officials will treat academic progress issues as behavioral misconduct, especially if the student appears to lack motivation, frequently fails to complete work, and has chronic tardiness and absences. In the worst case, your student's high school officials may treat your student's chronic lack of preparation as a failure to obey school authorities, insubordination, and disrespect, and may treat your student's absences and tardiness as truancy, resulting in suspension, expulsion, and disciplinary placement.
Addressing South Carolina High School Academic Progress Issues
We may be able to invoke other protective laws to address your student's academic progress issue without discipline. If, for instance, your student has a qualifying disability such as autism, then the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) may require your student's South Carolina high school to adopt an individualized education plan (IEP) and provide special education services. If your student already has an IEP, then the IDEA law requires your student's high school to hold a manifestation determination review before changing your student's placement for disciplinary purposes. Your student's academic issues may alternatively be the result of bullying that your student's South Carolina high school has statutory and regulatory obligations to stop. Your student may alternatively have had extenuating circumstances to explain the academic progress issues, such as an illness or injury or the death or serious illness of a close family member. Let us help present these and other defenses to your student's academic progress issues.
South Carolina High School Sanction Defense
Your student's South Carolina high school officials may have substantial discretion to sanction or not sanction your student. South Carolina State Board of Education Administrative Regulation 43-279 also urges your student's high school officials to consider restorative measures including “restorative justice, counseling, service learning projects,” and other behavioral management strategies, when determining whether to impose discipline. We can invoke this authority to advocate for remedial measures instead of punitive sanctions, keeping your student's record clear. Some South Carolina school districts are especially willing to engage in restorative practices rather than punitive discipline. The Charleston County School District is an example. Its Student Code of Conduct repeatedly refers to its willingness and commitment to apply restorative justice over punitive measures. Restorative justice may take the form of mediation, conciliation, apologies, restitution, and remedial training. These actions should leave no finding of discipline and no record of sanctions, to which your student must answer in the future. Our defense goal is your determination on behalf of your student. But our usual effort is to leave the charged student better off than before the proceeding began, with a clean record and conscience, better educated and better informed.
Premier South Carolina High School Student Defense
The Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team is available in Charleston, North Charleston, Columbia, Mount Pleasant, Rock Hill, Greenville, Summerville, Goose Creek, Sumter, Florence, Spartanburg, and other South Carolina locations to defend your student against South Carolina high school disciplinary charges and academic progress issues. Our highly qualified attorneys have helped hundreds of students in South Carolina and across the country negotiate or win favorable outcomes for their school issues. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now to tell us about your South Carolina high school student's case.
