Today's students face more distractions than earlier generations, and growing up in a media-filled environment can make it hard to focus on educational achievement. Even normally good students can sometimes reach a point where the pressures get to be too much, and immaturity and bad judgment may land decent young people in trouble for academic or behavioral misconduct.
Student psychologists say that the many hours today's young people spend on social media have decreased their abilities to resolve interpersonal differences peacefully. It's therefore not surprising that Atlanta-area secondary schools, colleges and universities are reporting more student conduct and performance problems than in past years.
Students and their parents who face the possibility of punishment, suspension, or expulsion need professional assistance to successfully deal with school disciplinary systems. Academic discipline defense advisor Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm's student defense team represent students at all grade levels in the Atlanta-Fulton-DeKalb-Gwinnett-Forsyth region who are dealing with academic progression issues, behavioral misconduct charges, and Title IX misconduct problems.
The Atlanta Metropolitan Area
Atlanta, Georgia, is renowned as a leader in economic and social progress in the Southeastern United States. Its robust business and industry environments make it the tenth-largest urban economy in the U.S. and the twentieth largest globally. Over 1,000 international businesses operate in Atlanta, and its airport is one of the busiest in the world.
In keeping with this vitality, the Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta region is home to the South's largest concentration of colleges, universities, and graduate institutions–with a dozen four-year schools and universities and two-dozen community colleges.
Atlanta Metro Area Student Concerns
Atlanta-area students deal with the same kinds of issues students have always faced: keeping up their grades, making friends, and getting along with faculty and administrators. But Atlanta's rapid recent growth has brought with it cultural tensions that most of their parents never encountered. Atlanta's under-50 population has become vastly more diverse since 2010. Roughly half the population was born outside of the South, hailing from Northern and Midwestern U.S. states as well as India, China, South Korea, Jamaica, Vietnam, Eritrea, Nigeria, the Arabian gulf, Ukraine, and Poland. Friction arising from interactions among these varying cultures can place added pressure on students both on and off campus, exacerbating typical growing-up problems. Premier academic-defense advisor Joseph D. Lento has helped many different types of students in a wide variety of settings and understands how to address these special concerns.
Atlanta Metropolitan Area Schools
Atlanta's educational institutions are just as diverse as its population, comprising public, private, HBCU, liberal arts, technical, religious, and alternative schools. All these schools have honor codes that stress the importance of student honesty and integrity, which every enrolled student must sign, promising to abide by them. If a school accuses a student of having violated the honor code, student-defense advisor Joseph D. Lento is available to provide winning discipline defense representation to students at the following Atlanta-area colleges and universities, to list a few:
Agnes Scott College
American Intercontinental University
The Art Institute of Atlanta
Beulah Heights University
Clark Atlanta University
Clayton State University
Emory University including its College of Arts and Sciences, Oxford College, School of Law, School of Medicine, Goizueta Business School, Laney Graduate School, the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, the Rollins School of Public Health, and the Candler School of Theology
Georgia Gwinnett College
Georgia State University including the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Byrdine F. Lewis College of Nursing and Health Professions, College of the Arts, College of Arts & Sciences, College of Education and Human Development, J. Mack Robinson College of Business, College of Law, School of Public Health, Institute for Biomedical Sciences, Honors College, and Perimeter College
Georgia Institute of Technology
Herzing University – Atlanta
Morehouse College
Oglethorpe University
Spelman College
The Lento Law Firm also defends students attending professional, technical, military, and specialty programs across the Atlanta region:
Atlanta Metropolitan College
Atlanta Technical College
Chattahoochee Technical College
Georgia Military College Atlanta Campus
Georgia Perimeter College
Georgia Piedmont Technical College
Gwinnett Technical College
Lanier Technical College
Southern Crescent Technical College
West Georgia Technical College
K-12 Public and Charter Schools
Academic-defense advisor Lento and his team assist students in K-12 public and charter schools across all Atlanta-area counties, including Gwinnett, Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, and Fulton. Georgia State law explicitly defines the required due process procedures for students facing disciplinary action, including rules for setting up hearing panels, choosing hearing officers, and granting a right to appeal. Joseph D. Lento is familiar with these procedures and engages with school administrations actively but diplomatically to ensure they follow all rules to the letter.
K-12 Private, Religious, and Alternative Schools
The Atlanta area has more than fifty private schools, including:
- Academe of the Oaks
- Arbor Montessori School
- Atlanta Academy
- Atlanta Country Day School
- Atlanta Girls' School
- Atlanta International School
- Atlanta Music High School
- Atlanta Speech School
- Atlanta Trilingual Academy
- Brandon Hall School
- Brightmont Academy
- Cambridge Academy
- Capstone Academy
- The Children's School
- City Academy of Atlanta
- Cliff Valley School
- Cornerstone Schools
- The Cottage School
- Cumberland Academy of Georgia
- Davis Academy
- De Molenwiek
- Eaton Academy
- The Epstein School
- Foundations for the Future
- Friends School of Atlanta
- Fulton Science Academy
- Galloway School
- George Walton Academy
- Harbins Preparatory School
- Heritage Preparatory School
- High Meadows School
- The Howard School
- Intown Community School
- Lakeview Academy
- Little Da Vinci International School
- The Lovett School
- Lyndon Academy
- Marist School
- Masters Academy Arts & Academics
- McGinnis Woods School
- Midtown International School
- Mill Springs Academy
- Montessori School at Emory
- The Mount Vernon School
- OMNI International School
- Pace Academy
- The Paideia School
- Peachtree Academy Private School
- Perimeter School
- Piedmont Academy
- Pinecrest Academy
- Porter Academy
- Praise Academy
- The Premo School
- Rivers Academy
- The SAE School
- Sage School
- The Schenck School
- Smoke Rise Prep
- Sora Schools
- Springmont School
- Still Waters International Academy
- Stonehaven School
- Swift School
- Tabula Rasa
- Trinity School
- The Waldorf School of Atlanta
- The Walker School
- The Weber School
- Wesleyan School
- Westminster Schools
- Whitefield Academy
- William & Reed Academy
- The Wood Acres School
- Woodward Academy
Atlanta also has several dozen religious-affiliated schools, including Christian, Catholic, Episcopalian, Baptist, Lutheran, Wesleyan, and Jewish schools:
- Alpharetta Christian Academy
- Annunciation Day School
- Archdiocese of Atlanta Catholic Schools
- Arlington Christian School
- Atlanta Jewish Academy
- Bible Baptist Christian School
- Blessed Trinity Catholic High School
- Bridgeway Christian Academy
- Brookwood Christian
- Chosen Generation Christian Academy
- Christ the King School
- Collins Hill Christian School
- Community Christian School
- Cornerstone Christian Academy
- Covenant Christian Academy
- Covenant Christian School
- Creekside Christian Academy
- Cumberland Christian Academy
- Dominion Christian School
- Dunwoody Christian School
- Eagle's Landing Christian Academy
- Eastside Christian School
- Excel Christian Academy
- Faith Lutheran School
- Fellowship Christian School
- First Baptist Christian School
- Grace Christian Academy
- GRACEPOINT
- Greater Atlanta Christian School
- Greenforest-McCalep Christian Academic Center
- Harvester Christian Academy
- Hebron Christian Academy
- Holy Innocents' Episcopal School
- Holy Spirit Preparatory School
- Holy Redeemer Catholic School
- Horizon Christian Academy
- Immaculate Heart of Mary
- Johnson Ferry Christian Academy
- Killian Hill Christian School
- King's Ridge Christian School
- Landmark Christian School
- Loganville Christian Academy
- Midway Covenant Christian School
- Mount Bethel Christian Academy
- Mount Paran Christian School
- Mount Pisgah Christian School
- North Cobb Christian School
- Notre Dame Academy
- Old Suwanee Christian School
- Our Lady of the Assumption School
- Our Lady of Mercy Catholic High School
- Our Lady of Victory Catholic School
- Peoples Baptist Academy
- Praise Academy
- Providence Christian Academy
- Queen of Angels Catholic School
- Saint Thomas More Catholic School
- St. Catherine of Siena Catholic School
- St. John Neumann Regional Catholic School
- St. John the Evangelist Catholic School
- St. Joseph Catholic School
- St. Jude the Apostle Catholic School
- St. Paul Lutheran School
- St. Peter Claver Regional Catholic School
- St. Pius X Catholic High School
- St. Timothy School
- Shiloh Hills Christian School
- Strong Rock Christian School
- Shallowford Presbyterian School
- Sola Fide Lutheran School
- Sugar Hill Christian Academy
- Saint Francis School
- St. Benedict's Episcopal Day School
- St. Martin's Episcopal School
- Torah Day School of Atlanta
- Trinity School
- Wesleyan School
- The Westminster Schools
Each of these schools has its own due process procedures in place. Academic-defense advisor Lento understands that the cultures of private, religious, and alternative schools are different from those of public schools. He approaches their administrations in an appropriate manner when representing students facing disciplinary sanctions.
Disciplinary Defense in the Atlanta Metro Area
Every week, college students and parents of K-12 students in Atlanta-Fulton-DeKalb-Gwinnett-Forsyth receive notice of disciplinary action from a school. Whether it's the parent of an adolescent seventh grader, a high-school junior looking forward to their senior year, or a college senior hoping to graduate and get a job, the standard reaction is shock, dismay, and disappointment. Rather than simply worry, they can take control of the situation by consulting experienced academic-defense advisor Joseph D. Lento. Mr. Lento has helped hundreds of students resolve school charges in the following areas.
Academic Progression Issues
Educators nationwide are reporting that pandemic-related disruptions have slowed student learning, and the Atlanta area is not exempt from this problem. Some students have suffered from mental health problems, others' study habits have become erratic, and many now find it much harder to focus on their assignments. Teachers and professors have observed more students missing classes, not completing homework assignments, and doing poorly on tests–leading to falling grades, academic probation, and sometimes academic dismissal for failure to maintain the required Grade Point Average. Academic-defense advisor Joseph D. Lento partners with students and parents to approach school administrations and work out arrangements that allow students to graduate with satisfactory grades.
Academic Misconduct Issues
Sometimes the desire not to disappoint parents or fear of the stigma of getting a bad grade may cause students to engage in academic misconduct. They may copy off other students' tests or trade answers with them. They may sneak answers into the test classroom–on slips of paper or by programming answers into their electronic devices.
Sometimes students hire others to write their assignments. Or they may plagiarize, copying directly from a source without citing it or else paraphrasing the source too closely. Students may take library materials needed for an assignment off the shelf and hide them from their classmates or contaminate test tubes to try and sabotage other students' lab work. Schools also consider it academic misconduct to deliberately disturb school activities–for example, by pulling a fire alarm or phoning in a bomb threat on the day of a test. These are just a few of the things students have done to try and improve their academic standing, sometimes planning it out, and sometimes on the spur of the moment, never realizing the severe consequences of getting caught.
The majority of students who do these things aren't bad people, they're just immature and incapable of anticipating the possible severe consequences. Student-defense counselor Joseph D. Lento has helped hundreds of students work out satisfactory resolutions with their schools, allowing them to rescue or rehabilitate their academic records.
Behavioral Misconduct Issues
The Atlanta Public Schools Student Handbook provides an extensive list of behavioral misconduct that can get students in trouble, including:
- Bringing weapons to school
- Being under the influence of drugs or alcohol
- Bringing drugs or alcohol to campus
- Selling or buying alcohol on campus
- Having illegal drugs or drug paraphernalia with you on campus
- Buying or selling over-the-counter medications, illegal drugs, prescription drugs, or tobacco on school grounds
- Excessive tardiness or absences from class
- Fighting on school grounds
- Misbehaving on the school bus, including bothering the driver or interfering with their driving
- Using profane, vulgar, or ethnically/culturally offensive language or sharing that type of material while in school
- Being insubordinate to school personnel, including failing to follow an order to leave the scene of a fight
- Any other actions that disrupt school activities
- PDA, amorous kissing, touching, or other inappropriate displays of affection
- Food fights in the cafeteria
Other Atlanta metropolitan area schools' codes of conduct closely follow the Atlanta Public Schools code. All of them impose a sliding scale of discipline depending on the age of the child, the nature and severity of the behavior, and whether there is a history of past misbehavior. Academic-defense advisor Joseph D. Lento has helped hundreds of students and their parents navigate the school disciplinary system after accusations of these and other kinds of misconduct.
Title IX Sexual Misconduct Issues
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 requires all educational institutions receiving federal funds to establish policies that address sexual harassment, sexual assault, stalking, dating and intimate violence. Every school subject to Title IX has a web page describing its policies: public schools such as Atlanta Public Schools and Fulton County Schools, private schools like the Atlanta Girls' School, and public and private universities like Georgia Tech, Emory University, Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta Metropolitan State College, and Spelman College.
As important as these rules are, they can sometimes be applied unfairly or to inappropriate situations. Joseph D. Lento has helped students nationwide defend against Title IX and other sexual misconduct charges.
School Discipline Defense Advisor Value
People may hesitate to seek out an expert school discipline defense advisor, not wanting to spend the money. But when the stakes are as high as a young person's entire future career, it's foolish not to put in the effort to retain excellent, experienced counsel.
Others make the mistake of believing a criminal-defense attorney can adequately handle the job of defending a student against disciplinary charges. But academic-defense procedures are very different from criminal law procedures. An advisor whose sole focus is criminal defense will be ill-equipped to handle the nuances of school or university hearings.
By retaining academic-defense advisor Lento and the Lento Law Firm's student defense team, you retain the best available school discipline defense representation. Call 888.535.3686 or go online now.
