Student Defense in the Technical College System of Georgia

Opportunity and Mobility

The Technical College System of Georgia is a public institution of higher education with no fewer than twenty-two colleges, eighty-eight campuses, and over six-hundred programs. The Technical College System of Georgia has an enormous positive impact within the state and surrounding regions. The Technical College System of Georgia, known to its students and staff as TCSG, focuses on practical and affordable education for students of all ages to produce job-ready graduates. Students at TCSG are generally hardworking, disciplined, wise, and committed to their personal and professional improvement. Any student studying at TCSG has good reason to be proud of their position and optimistic for their future.

Special Challenges

Given TCSG's position in higher education, offering affordable and practical education, TCSG students can face special challenges when accused of school misconduct. Many TCSG students, like students at other schools of access, won't have substantial time and personal resources to devote to contesting the misconduct charges. Unduly discouraged by misconduct allegations or charges, some TCSG students may lose hope in completing their TCSG degree. That loss, though, can be huge for the TCSG student. The TCSG student who gives up on the opportunity that a TCSG education affords may have few other options for improving their economic and other circumstances. Misconduct charges can derail a TCSG student's education, job, dreams, hopes, and future.

Getting Attorney Help

Those challenges and limitations make it all the more important that the TCSG student-facing misconduct charges get effective attorney help to defend and defeat those charges. Don't face misconduct charges at the Technical College System of Georgia without retaining an expert academic administrative attorney. National academic defense attorney Joseph D. Lento and the expert team at the Lento Law Firm have helped hundreds of college and university students nationwide save their education and future. Your successful defense of misconduct charges may not require formal hearings or litigation. Attorney Lento has the academic administrative knowledge, skills, experience, reputation, and relationships to help many students gain informal, negotiated relief. Don't give up. Get help. Retain attorney Lento and the Lento Law Firm.

TCSG's Mission and Vision

Discipline systems tend to reflect the institutional mission and commitments. The Technical College System of Georgia's mission is “to build a well-educated, globally competitive workforce through technical education, adult education, and customized training for Georgia's businesses and industries.” TCSG's vision is even clearer, to be “a world leader in technical education, providing access to student-centered, high-quality, affordable postsecondary education and training. We will equip students for success, thereby building literate and economically strong communities and businesses for Georgia.” TCSG clearly commits itself to student success. If you face misconduct charges at TCSG, retain an expert academic administrative attorney to ensure that TCSG lives up to its commitment.

Student Discipline at TCSG

To achieve its inspiring mission and vision and to comply with state and federal law, TCSG must have appropriate codes of student conduct. But conduct codes are not self-enforcing. TCSG must at times charge students with misconduct and impose discipline to ensure that conduct conforms to proper standards. Yet, at the same time, TCSG cannot achieve its highly laudable mission without applying its conduct codes justly and treating its students fairly as to discipline procedures. And justice and fairness can very much be in the eyes of the beholder. TCSG discipline officials may feel as if they are doing the right thing when, unfortunately, they are not. TCSG discipline officials are not perfect. Nor are the professors, administrators, and classmates who may bring false, exaggerated, or even biased and retaliatory misconduct charges.

If you face TCSG misconduct charges that you believe to be false, unfair, or exaggerated, or you face an unduly harsh and punitive misconduct sanction, then get the help of an expert academic administrative defense attorney. Don't let TCSG mistreat you or mismanage your valuable TCSG education. You have a critical role in the outcome of your student misconduct charges. TCSG administrators and discipline officials do not alone hold your future. Rest assured that your prompt and effective action can improve your ability to obtain an acceptable outcome. And the best thing you can do is to promptly get the expert help of national academic administrative defense attorney Joseph D. Lento and the expert team at the Lento Law Firm. Hundreds of students nationwide have won successful outcomes by hiring attorney Lento. Help is on the way. You just need to ask. Contact the Lento Law Firm with a telephone call at 888.535.3686 or by going online. At the same time, learn everything you need to know about student discipline at TCSG.

State Law Establishing TCSG

The Technical College System of Georgia is a state institution established by Georgia state law. Georgia Code Section 20-4-14 formally establishes the powers and duties of TCSG, formerly known as the state's Department of Technical and Adult Education. Georgia Code Section 20-4-10 places a State Board over TCSG. Georgia Code Section 20-4-14 authorizes TCSG not only to own college campuses and operate college programs but also to administer those programs “in accordance with standards, rules, regulations, and policies of the State Board of the Technical College System of Georgia.” When TCSG students face misconduct charges at the institution, they are in effect dealing with a state policy enacted by a state body authorized by state law.

The state action behind TCSG student conduct codes is important to TCSG student rights. The Constitution's 14th Amendment guarantees due process of law against any state action. Thus, when TCSG officials charge TCSG students with misconduct, those officials must provide the accused student with due process of law. The hallmarks of due process are notice and opportunity for a hearing. Notice in the context of misconduct charges means that TCSG must let the accused student know what the school alleges the student did wrong. Opportunity for hearing generally means that the school must allow the student to tell the student's side of the story through witnesses and exhibits considered by an impartial decision-maker. If you face TCSG misconduct charges, then retain an expert academic administrative attorney to ensure that you receive due process of law.

TCSG Policy Governance

As just seen, Georgia Code Section 20-4-14 authorizes the State Board to govern policies and operations at the Technical College System of Georgia. TCSG's State Board has fourteen members, one from each Georgia congressional district, and nine more at-large members. TCSG's State Board develops, publishes, and maintains a policy manual that carries out the Board's responsibilities to govern the institution. The State Board's policy manual includes a Part 6 on Student Affairs. Student Affairs Part 6 includes a policy on sexual harassment and misconduct and a separate policy on other student misconduct. TCSG's policy on sexual harassment and misconduct includes Title IX prohibitions against sex discrimination and non-Title IX prohibitions of other forms of sexual misconduct. TCSG's general policy on student conduct addresses both academic misconduct and non-academic behavioral misconduct.

TCSG Policy Enforcement

Georgia Code Section 20-4-18 gives the Technical College System of Georgia management control over its educational programs, including its student codes. The Technical College System of Georgia relies on a Vice President of Student Affairs to enforce the school's student conduct codes. The Vice President of Student Affairs reports to TCSG's president and is a member of the president's cabinet, implementing TCSG policies at the highest level. Given the Vice President's many duties, TCSG's student conduct procedures anticipate that misconduct policy enforcement in individual cases will occur through a designated official. Each TCSG college may have its own discipline official to receive, investigate, and act on student misconduct complaints.

College and university officials designated to conduct misconduct proceedings generally have substantial experience doing so. Student misconduct occurs at every college and university, every semester or term. If you face misconduct charges at TCSG, those charges are very likely your first. You probably have no skill or experience in dealing with college misconduct charges. In contrast, the discipline official with whom you deal at TCSG is likely to have dealt with many similar complaints. That official will likely have a customary way of handling your complaint. Don't let yourself remain at an enforcement disadvantage. Retain national academic defense attorney Joseph D. Lento and the expert team at the Lento Law Firm for your most effective discipline defense.

TCSG Student Conduct Codes

As briefly mentioned above, TCSG maintains both a sexual harassment and misconduct policy and a separate policy on other student misconduct. Student misconduct at colleges and universities around the country tends to fall into four categories: (1) academic misconduct such as cheating in its various forms; (2) behavioral misconduct like alcohol, drug, or weapon possession on campus; and (3) sex discrimination outlawed under federal Title IX; and (4) other forms of non-Title IX sexual misconduct. TCSG's two policies on sexual harassment and other student misconduct address all four typical misconduct forms.

An accused TCSG student must just know where to look to find the misconduct form TCSG is charging. TCSG and other colleges and universities don't get to make up their student conduct rules as they go along. A school charging a student with misconduct, especially a state school like TCSG owing the student due process, should be able to point to the specific student code that the student has allegedly violated. Don't suffer discipline on vague charges. Get an expert academic administrative attorney's help to defend TCSG misconduct charges. Following is a summary of TCSG student conduct code prohibitions in each area.

Academic Misconduct at TCSG

College or university academic misconduct charges can frighten, confuse, and mystify students. What might have passed in high school for acceptable or even laudable academic work can instead violate college academic rules and conventions. College rules for research, editing, citation, and collaboration can all differ from high school practices. And colleges and universities tend not to give students the benefit of the doubt or second chances that a high school might afford. Academic misconduct at TCSG, like academic misconduct at other colleges, is a serious matter. Academic misconduct at TCSG under its student misconduct policy includes:

• Cheating, defined as use or possession of unauthorized material or technology during an examination, or any other written or oral work submitted for evaluation or a grade, such as tape cassettes, notes, tests, calculators, computer programs, cell phones, smart phones, or other electronic devices, obtaining assistance with or answers to an examination or any other written or oral work from another person with or without that person's knowledge, assisting with or answers to an examination or any other written or oral work to another person, possessing, using, distributing or selling unauthorized copies of an examination, computer program, or any other written or oral work, representing as one's own an examination or any other written or oral work created by another person, taking an examination or any other written or oral work in place of another person, obtaining unauthorized access to the computer files of another person or agency or altering or destroying those files, or obtaining teacher edition textbooks, test banks, or other instructional materials that are only intended to be accessed by college officials, college administrator or faculty members
• Fabrication, defined as falsification of any information or citation in an examination or any other written or oral work submitted for evaluation or a grade
• Plagiarism, defined as submitting another's published or unpublished work in whole, in part or in paraphrase, as one's own without fully and properly crediting the author with footnotes, quotation marks, citations, or bibliographical reference, submitting as one's own original work, material obtained from an individual or agency without reference to the person or agency as the source of the material, or submitting as one's own original work material that has been produced through unacknowledged collaboration with others without release in writing from collaborators
• Knowingly helping, procuring, encouraging, or otherwise assisting another person in engaging in academic misconduct

If you face academic misconduct charges at TCSG, then get the help of an expert academic administrative attorney. An academic administrative attorney can counteract false or unfair charges through forensic experts, exonerating evidence, and other means. An academic administrative attorney can also help TCSG officials see and appreciate mitigating circumstances that argue against harsh penalties. Every student's position is unique. Retain national academic defense attorney Joseph D. Lento and the expert team at the Lento Law Firm to present your best defense to TCSG academic misconduct charges.

Behavioral Misconduct at TCSG

Colleges and universities can also have far less patience with non-academic, behavioral misconduct than a high school program might have tolerated. High schools are still helping students learn the rules. High schools may appreciate that students are still maturing and experimenting. But without appropriate advocacy on the accused student's behalf, colleges tend to assume the student's maturity. Colleges tend instead to enforce rules, sometimes with harsh and unnecessary discipline. And the behavioral rules at TCSG and other colleges and universities are plentiful, touching on areas that some students wouldn't even expect a school to address within its academic program. Non-academic, behavioral misconduct at TCSG under its student misconduct policy includes:

• Lewd or indecent conduct, including distribution of obscene or libelous written or electronic material
• Violence, defined as physical abuse of any person on college premises or at college-sponsored or supervised functions, including physical actions which threaten or endanger the health or safety such as fighting or other disruptive behavior and any action or threat of violence endangering the peace, safety, or orderly function of the college
• Harassment, defined as unlawful conduct based on race, color, creed, national or ethnic origin, sex, religion, disability, age, genetic information, political affirmation or belief, disabled veteran, veteran status, or citizenship status addressed directly to any individual or group that has the purpose or effect of unreasonably and objectively interfering with that individual or group's performance, work, educational environment, or ability to participate in an educational program or activity
• Stalking or other behavior that objectively and unreasonably interferes with another's legal rights or creates an objectively intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment, including display of or navigation to pornography and other inappropriate websites and materials and inappropriate behavior on social media
• Disruption intentionally obstructing or interrupting teaching, research, administration, disciplinary proceedings, or other college activities
• Failure to comply with lawful directions of college officials or failure to identify oneself to these persons when requested to do so
• Theft of, misuse of, or harm to college property or property of a member of the college community or a campus visitor
• Illegal occupation or seizure of college property, premises, or any portion for a use inconsistent with prescribed, customary, or authorized use
• Unauthorized entry into college premises or furnishing false information to gain entry on college premises
• Unauthorized gathering objectively threatening or causing injury to person or property or that interferes with free access to college facilities
• Setting off a fire alarm or using or tampering with any fire safety equipment on college premises or at college-sponsored activities, except with reasonable belief in the need for such alarm or equipment
• Obstruction of the free flow of pedestrian or vehicular traffic on college premises or college-sponsored functions
• Illegal use or possession of alcohol in violation of federal, state, or local laws
• Illegal use, possession, sale, or distribution of drugs or drug paraphernalia
• Eating or drinking in prohibited areas
• Smoking or use of electronic, alternative smoking devices or other forms of tobacco products in classrooms, shops, and labs or other unauthorized areas on college premises
• Destruction of or harm to equipment, software, or data belonging to the college or to others, including altering, downloading, or installing software on college computers, tampering with computer hardware or software configuration, improper access to the college's network, and disconnection of college computers or devices
• Unauthorized use of electronic devices in classrooms, labs, and other instructional, event, or affiliated facilities on college premises, including cell phones, beepers, walkie talkies, cameras, gaming devices, and other electronic devices that may disrupt the teaching and learning process on campus
• Computer misuse to harass another or objectively interfere with another's legal right to be free from harassment based on that individual's race, color, creed, genetic information, national or ethnic origin, sex, religion, disability, age, political affirmation or belief, disabled veteran, veteran status, or citizenship status
• Misuse of computers to interfere with the work of another student, faculty member, or college official, including unauthorized use of another individual's identification and password
• Unauthorized possession or transportation of firearms, weapons, or explosive compounds or materials in or about college premises
• Illegal gambling, violating federal, state, or local laws on college premises or at college-sponsored activities
• Parking violations against college regulations
• Financial irresponsibility
• Violating rules of a particular class or program, internships, externships, practicum, clinical sites, co-operative, or any academic-sponsored programs or activities
• Aiding, abetting, or procuring another person to violate the student conduct code
• Falsifying documents related to the college either to the college or to others in the community, including falsification of transcripts or other documentation to obtain credit from or admission to the college, college report cards or other grade reports, documentation related to citizenship status, tests, homework, attendance records, signatures of college officials
• Violation of federal, state, or local law
• Abusing the student judicial process, including failing to obey the notification of the Vice President for Student Affairs or designee, Hearing Body, Appellate Board, or other college official, misrepresenting information in a judicial proceeding, disrupting the orderly conduct of a disciplinary proceeding, initiating a disciplinary proceeding knowingly without cause, attempting to discourage an individual's proper participation in the disciplinary process, attempting to influence the impartiality of a member of a Hearing Body or Appellate Board, harassing or intimidating a member of a Hearing Body, or Appellate Board, or failing to comply with the sanction imposed under the student conduct code

If you face behavioral misconduct charges at TCSG, and the risks of your serious discipline are great, as they are in many such cases, then promptly retain an expert academic administrative attorney. Just because your school has accused you of behavioral misconduct does not mean that the school will find that you have committed the charged acts. National academic misconduct defense attorney Joseph D. Lento has helped hundreds of students nationwide defend and defeat behavioral misconduct charges. Attorney Lento may also be able to present circumstances mitigating any wrong and reducing any penalty to acceptable measures. Get the help you need rather than succumb to false, exaggerated, or unfair charges and harsh penalties.

Sexual Misconduct at TCSG

College and university sexual misconduct policies can be the most confusing and most daunting policies for a student to encounter. Sexual misconduct policies can have vague rules affecting not only conduct, both consensual and non-consensual, but also speech. Sexual misconduct charges can also carry a heavy burden of guilt. Sexual misconduct findings and discipline can instantly and seriously damage a student's reputation, whether at TCSG or another college or university. You have every reason to take sexual misconduct charges at TCSG most seriously.

Rest assured that colleges and universities enforce their sexual misconduct policies especially aggressively. Their commitment to discouraging and punishing sexual misconduct is only in part a social and moral commitment. Federal Title IX requires that colleges and universities maintain and enforce sexual misconduct policies at the risk of losing federal funding. If you face TCSG sexual misconduct charges, then get expert academic administrative attorney representation. TCSG's sexual harassment and misconduct policy prohibits the following:

• Sexual assault, including penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without consent, oral or anal sexual intercourse with another person forcibly or against that person's will or against the person's will where the victim is incapable of giving consent because of age or because of temporary or permanent mental or physical incapacity, use of an object or instrument to penetrate, however slightly, the genital or anal opening of the body of another person forcibly or against that person's will or while the victim is incapable of giving consent, and touching the private body parts of another person (buttocks, groin, breasts) for the purpose of sexual gratification forcibly or against that person's will where the victim cannot consent
• Sexual harassment, defined as conduct on the basis of sex that is unwelcome and determined by a reasonable person to be so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it denies a person equal educational access
• Stalking, defined as engaging in a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause a reasonable person to fear for safety or suffer substantial emotional distress in two or more acts in which the stalker directly, indirectly, or through third parties, by any action, method, device, or means, follows, monitors, observes, surveils, threatens, or communicates to or about a person, or interferes with a person's property
• Domestic violence, defined as a felony or misdemeanor crime of violence committed by a current or former spouse or intimate partner, a person with whom the complainant shares a child in common, a person who is cohabitating with or has cohabitated with the complainant as a spouse or intimate partner, a person similarly situated to a spouse of the complainant under the domestic or family violence laws of Georgia, or any other person against an adult or youth complainant who is protected from that person's acts under the domestic or family violence laws of Georgia
• Intimidation, defined as any threatening statement or conduct made with the intent to prevent or dissuade any party or witness from reporting or participating in the procedure, including implied threats to overcome a person's freedom of will to choose whether or not to participate in sexual activity or provide affirmative consent
• Incest, defined as nonforcible sexual intercourse between persons who are related to each other within the degrees wherein marriage is prohibited by Georgia law
• Statutory rape, defined as nonforcible sexual intercourse with a person who is under the statutory age of consent of Georgia

If you face sexual misconduct charges at TCSG, the seriousness of those charges warrant that you promptly retain an expert academic misconduct defense attorney. Sexual misconduct charges can involve credibility and consent issues that a skilled cross-examination may resolve in your favor. Sensitive negotiation and creative options may alternatively resolve sexual misconduct charges on terms that you would gladly accept, allowing you to preserve your reputation and complete your education. National student misconduct defense attorney Joseph D. Lento has helped hundreds of students defend and successfully navigate Title IX and non-Title IX sexual misconduct charges. Skilled and effective help is available.

TCSG College and Campus Enforcement

TCSG's above student conduct codes apply across the institution's many colleges and campuses. If you face misconduct charges at any TCSG campus, those charges are very likely to fall under one of the above student conduct codes. Yet the TCSG president is likely to have designated one or more local TCSG officials to enforce the system-wide TCSG student conduct codes. And those local TCSG officials may have their own way of managing misconduct charges. Informal customs and flexible procedures characterize the academic administrative setting.

Those academic customs are another reason why you should retain an expert academic administrative attorney rather than an attorney who has no academic administrative experience, to defend TCSG misconduct charges. While most lawyers have advocacy training, very few lawyers have advocated within an academic administrative proceeding, where the customs, conventions, and rules differ markedly from court, business, or other professional proceedings. If you face TCSG misconduct charges, then national academic administrative attorney Joseph D. Lento and the expert team at the Lento Law Firm. Attorney Lento more than knows his way around academic circles. Attorney Lento has helped hundreds of college and university students successfully put misconduct charges behind them.

TCSG Misconduct Sanctions

Despite TCSG's commitment to access, or perhaps because of it, misconduct matters at TCSG can result in severe discipline, as at other colleges and universities. TCSG's sexual harassment and misconduct policy and separate policy on other student misconduct authorize TCSG discipline officials to impose sanctions across a full spectrum from minimal to severe. In cases involving formal hearings and findings supporting discipline, TCSG's sexual misconduct policy expressly authorizes “reprimand, restriction, disciplinary probation, disciplinary suspension, and disciplinary expulsion.” Informal resolutions, though, could involve a much wider range of discipline forms, including acceptance of responsibility, no-contact arrangements, restitution, counseling or education, and apology. TCSG's other policy on non-sexual student misconduct offers a broader range of discipline forms, including:

• Restitution, requiring the disciplined student to reimburse the college or other owner for damage to or misappropriation of property, limited to the actual cost of repair or replacement
• Reprimand, signifying that TCSG is giving the student another chance at conduct conforming to that of a proper member of the college community
• Restriction on privileges, denying the disciplined student's opportunity to represent the college, use college facilities, or participate in extracurricular activities
• Disciplinary probation continuing the student's enrollment conditioned on adherence to specific terms for a specific duration
• Failing or lowered grade in cases of academic misconduct, or loss of credit on an assignment or examination
• Disciplinary suspension for a stated period of time with conditions of reinstatement stated in the notice of suspension
• Disciplinary expulsion removing and excluding the student from college programs, facilities, and events for at least one year
• System-wide expulsion for a period of at least ten years

Don't assume that your charged misconduct will result in severe sanctions. With the right advocacy and representation, you may avoid severe sanctions or any substantial sanction at all, depending on the charges and evidence. But even if you have already suffered a severe misconduct sanction at TCSG, then don't despair. Instead, ask national academic attorney Joseph D. Lento to review your matter. You may yet have opportunities to return to campus in good standing to complete your TCSG education.

TCSG Misconduct Procedures

Procedures mean a lot to a student's successful defense of college or university misconduct charges. TCSG's policy manual, established and maintained by TCSG's State Board, includes Section 6.7.2 Part 1 on the procedures for determining a violation of TCSG's student conduct code. Because of Title IX regulations governing sex discrimination on college and university campuses receiving federal funding, TCSG's separate policy on sexual harassment and misconduct has its own procedures within the same policy for determining a violation of that policy. Here is a brief summary of those procedures.

Non-Sexual Student Misconduct Charges. If a student faces TCSG charges of academic or non-sexual behavioral misconduct, then Section 6.7.2 Part 1 of TCSG's policy manual authorizes the Vice President of Student Affairs or designee to investigate and decide the charges. The investigating official must meet with the accused student if the accused student so chooses. The official's decision and any penalty must be in writing and disclosed to the student. If the accused student disagrees with the decision, then the student may request a hearing before another official or panel. The student may retain an academic administrative attorney to appear and assist at the hearing, although the procedures limit the attorney's direct participation. Your attorney's limited role at the formal hearing doesn't prevent your attorney from doing all the other work that makes for a winning defense. The hearing official or panel must record the hearing and disclose the decision in writing.

Sexual Misconduct Charges. TCSG follows more elaborate procedures for Title IX and non-Title IX sexual misconduct charges under its sexual harassment and misconduct policy. Indeed, TCSG must offer greater protective procedures under current Title IX regulations. Complaints of sexual misconduct at TCSG go to its Title IX coordinator for an initial determination of merit. If the coordinator finds a potential violation, then TCSG assigns an investigator to gather evidence. After interviewing the accused student, complainant, and other witnesses, the investigator produces a report that TCSG must share with the accused student for comment.

Substantiated complaints proceed to a formal hearing before a professional decision-maker whom TCSG retains. The accused student may challenge the decision-maker for conflicts of interest or bias. The accused student may also retain an expert academic administrative attorney to represent the student at the hearing, including to present and cross-examine witnesses. The decision-maker may not rely on any statement of any witness who fails to appear at the hearing for cross-examination. The decision-maker must record the formal hearing for the accused student's review. You can see that under these formal procedures, your retained academic administrative attorney has substantial opportunities to make the difference in your defense.

TCSG Misconduct Appeals

TCSG's student misconduct procedures grant an appeal of rights for students who suffer discipline. If you have already lost your misconduct proceeding but still have a chance for an appeal, then promptly retain national academic administrative attorney Joseph D. Lento and the expert team at the Lento Law Firm to take your appeal. Appeal rights at TCSG are substantial. Section 6.7.2 Part 1 of TCSG's policy manual, on procedures for alleged violations of TCSG's student conduct code, grants an appeal to any student who suffers suspension or dismissal. The student must appeal to TCSG's president or the president's designee within five business days after receiving the hearing officer's decision. The appeal must provide all relevant information for the appeal official to decide the appeal. But TCSG's policy does not limit the grounds for appeal, as many other colleges and universities do.

TCSG's separate policy on sexual harassment and misconduct also offers an appeal for any student who suffers discipline because of sexual misconduct. TCSG limits sexual misconduct appeals, though, to certain grounds. That limitation makes it all the more important that the appealing student retain an expert academic administrative attorney. Appeals require drafting appeal arguments and briefs citing the record below. These tasks require special skills that many attorneys do not possess, especially within the academic administrative field. TCSG's appeal grounds for sexual misconduct sanctions include:

• Whether procedural irregularities substantially affected the outcome
• Whether new substantive evidence exists that would substantially affect the outcome, but that was not available at the time of the original decision
• Whether the Title IX coordinator, investigator, or decision-maker had a conflict of interest or bias that affected the outcome
• Whether the sanctions could have been issued by reasonable persons given the findings of the case

Alternative Avenues for Relief at TCSG

If you have already exhausted all apparent administrative procedures at TCSG, then all hope is not yet lost. Alternative relief may still be available. National academic administrative attorney Joseph D. Lento has such a record of success and so many established relationships with attorneys at many colleges and universities nationwide that he may be able to negotiate relief outside of the published administrative procedures. Colleges and universities have Offices of General Counsel and similar oversight offices through which a skilled attorney may work for special relief. Consult attorney Lento to determine whether such special relief is available at TCSG before you give up your fight to complete your TCSG education.

Expert Academic Attorney Help Is Available at TCSG

You are not without help at TCSG. If you face misconduct charges of any kind at any TCSG college or campus, national academic defense attorney Joseph D. Lento and the other experts at the Lento Law Firm are available for your representation. Attorney Lento has helped hundreds of college and university students in Georgia and nationwide successfully defend and defeat student misconduct charges. Retain a premier academic administrative attorney-advisor and expert team. Hire Attorney-Advisor Lento and the Lento Law Firm. Call 888-535-3686 to schedule a Lento Law Firm consultation or use the online service.