Students in Midland, Texas area schools, including not only the Midland Independent School District but also other Midland County school districts, face the same disciplinary alternative education placement (DAEP) issues as students in other districts. If Midland area school officials remove your student from the regular classroom to a DAEP placement, also known as boot camp or reform school, your student could suffer severe academic, social, and vocational consequences. Don't let DAEP placement ruin your student's hopes, dreams, and goals. Call 888.535.3686 or use this contact form now to retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Student Defense Team. Get your student the skilled and experienced defense representation your student needs to defend and defeat Midland area school DAEP charges. The highly qualified attorneys out of our El Paso, Dallas, and Austin offices are available for your student's Midland area school disciplinary defense.
Midland Area Schools Student Defense
You may be tempted to hire an unqualified local criminal defense attorney or civil litigation attorney whom you know or whose advertisements you've seen on local billboards. Don't retain unqualified counsel. You need our Student Defense Team attorneys for their knowledge, skill, and experience in defending student discipline matters. You wouldn't hire a first-timer for delicate brain surgery. Don't hire a first-timer or otherwise unqualified lawyer for your student's DAEP case when your student's future may depend on the outcome. We can represent your student in the Midland Independent School District or in other Midland County school districts, including the Greenwood Independent School District or Midland Academy Charter Schools. We can also represent your student in any of the following Midland ISD schools:
Midland ISD High Schools
- Midland High School;
- Legacy High School;
- IDEA Travis Academy;
- Legacy Freshman High School;
- Midland Freshman High School.
Midland ISD Middle Schools
- George & Gladys Abell Junior High School;
- Alamo Junior High School;
- Charles Walter Goddard Junior High School;
- San Jacinto Junior High School.
Midland ISD Elementary Schools
- James Bonham Elementary School;
- Ralph Bunche Elementary School;
- David Burnet Elementary School;
- George H. W. Bush Elementary School;
- Lorenzo DeZavala Elementary School;
- Ralph Waldo Emerson Elementary School;
- James Walker Fannin Elementary School;
- Barbara Fasken Elementary School;
- General Tommy Franks Elementary School;
- Barney R. Greathouse Elementary School;
- James Henderson Elementary School;
- Anson Jones Elementary School;
- Jane Long Elementary School;
- Quanah Parker Elementary School;
- Thomas Rusk Elementary School;
- Santa Rita Elementary School;
- Ruth Cowden Scharbauer Elementary School;
- South Elementary School;
- Barbara B. Yarbrough Elementary School.
Midland ISD Choice Campuses
- Viola M. Coleman High School;
- Early College High School at Midland College;
- Young Women's Leadership Academy;
- Bowie Fine Arts Academy;
- Carver Center School;
- Lamar Elementary School;
- Milam International Academy;
- Pease Communications & Technology Academy;
- Sam Houston Collegiate Preparatory Elementary.
Midland ISD DAEP Programs
Midland ISD schools have the state's authority to remove students from the regular classroom and put them in the district's DAEP program. Texas Education Code Section 37.008 authorizes school officials to move unruly or disruptive students who seriously interfere with the school to a disciplinary alternative education program (DAEP) school. The Midland ISD calls its DAEP program Midland Alternative Program(MAP), located in the district's West Education Center at 2101 West Missouri Avenue in Midland. Typical of the aspirational nature of DAEP programs, the Midland Alternative Program believes that “every student is SOMEBODY that [sic, who] can achieve their dreams regardless of the previous choices they have made.” Do not let your student's disciplinary officials convince you to consent to DAEP placement on such aspirations. DAEP program populations are generally composed of students who have already committed drug, gang, alcohol, assault, sexual assault, or other serious offenses so bad or so persistently that a regular classroom cannot safely house them. Instead, let us help you defend and defeat your student's DAEP charges.
Midland ISD Student Codes of Conduct
You have a say in whether your student remains in the regular classroom despite the fact that Texas law and school codes authorize DAEP placement of disruptive students. Texas Education Code Sections 37.006, 37.007, and 37.008 together mandate or permit DAEP program placement in specified cases. The Midland ISD's Student Code of Conduct repeats and adopts those same discretionary and mandatory DAEP placement terms. Your student must generally comply with the Midland ISD's Student Code of Conduct. But if your student faces Midland ISD disciplinary charges threatening DAEP placement, your student has a right to our skilled and effective representation to contest those charges before an impartial decision maker. Let us help your student remain in the regular classroom.
Midland ISD Grounds for Removal
Midland ISD school officials cannot remove students to DAEP placement willy nilly. They are supposed to state lawful removal grounds under the Student Code of Conduct that the Midland ISD board has adopted. Yet the Midland ISD Student Code of Conduct contains such a long and broad list of General Conduct Violations that it may seem as if school officials can discipline your student with removal, threatening DAEP placement, on virtually any grounds. Let us help your student defend and defeat vague, overbroad, unfair, exaggerated, discriminatory, or other charges, no matter the grounds. The Midland ISD Student Code of Conduct organizes its dozens of General Conduct Violations into these categories:
- Disregard for Authority;
- Mistreatment of Others;
- Property Offenses;
- Possession of Prohibited Items;
- Possession of Telecommunications or Other Electronic Devices;
- Illegal, Prescription, and Over-the-Counter Drugs;
- Misuse of Technology Resources and the Internet;
- Safety Transgressions; and
- Miscellaneous Offenses.
Midland ISD Discretionary DAEP
Texas Education Code Section 37.001 gives Midland area school officials discretionary authority for DAEP placement. Section 37.001 permits Midland ISD officials to choose whether or not to pursue DAEP placement of your student when your student violates one of its Student Code of Conduct provisions. Many districts authorize DAEP for any student code violation. The Midland ISD is among the many other districts that restrict discretionary DAEP placement to a list of specified wrongs. If your student has not committed one of those wrongs, school officials should not be demanding that your student accept a DAEP placement. We can help your student defend any of these discretionary DAEP charges. The Midland ISD Student Code of Conduct lists these grounds for discretionary DAEP placement, where school officials may or may not send your student to DAEP:
- intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly injuring another in retaliation;
- bullying a student to attempt suicide;
- felony criminal mischief (property damage);
- terroristic or bomb threat;
- triggering false fire alarms;
- breaching a school computer system without authority;
- aggravated assault or sexual assault.
The Midland ISD Student Code of Conduct also lists these additional grounds for discretionary DAEP placement, listed, defined, and authorized in Texas Education Code Section 37.0052 and related sections:
- inciting violence through group bullying;
- sharing intimate visual material without consent;
- fraternity, sorority, secret society, or gang activity;
- criminal street gang activity;
- misdemeanor criminal mischief;
- assault risking imminent bodily injury;
- offensive physical contact.
Midland ISD Mandatory DAEP
In some cases, Midland area school officials must impose DAEP placement without the discretion to forgo it. Texas Education Code Sections 37.006 and 37.007 mandate DAEP placement on the following grounds. The Midland ISD's Student Code of Conduct incorporates these mandatory DAEP grounds. Committing any of the following violations on or within 300 feet of school property or at a school-sponsored activity requires DAEP placement:
- felony crime;
- criminal assault;
- delivering controlled substances;
- delivering marijuana or THC;
- delivering alcoholic beverages;
- second offense for delivering e-cigarettes;
- abusing volatile chemicals offenses;
- criminal harassment of school employees;
- public lewdness or indecent exposure;
- criminal retaliation against school employees;
- aggravated robbery;
- court finding of delinquency.
While the statute and Student Code of Conduct label these offenses as requiring mandatory DAEP placement, our attorneys may still help your student defend and defeat the disciplinary charges, as the following sections show.
Midland ISD DAEP Defenses
We can invoke the protective procedures available under the discipline provisions of the Texas Education Code and the corresponding protective procedures of the Midland ISD Student Code of Conduct to challenge the school's allegations, cross-examine adverse witnesses, and otherwise raise your student's best defense. Our attorneys may have several ways in which to effectively defend your Midland area school student's DAEP charges. Our defense of your student will depend on your student's circumstances and the facts of your student's matter as we investigate those facts and confirm them with presentable evidence. And that statement suggests the first defense we may be able to raise, among the following other potential defenses:
- school officials may not have reliable evidence of the alleged wrong and may instead base the allegations on guess, speculation, and conjecture;
- incriminating witnesses may have poor memory, inadequate foundation to observe, and poor skills relating facts;
- incriminating witnesses may be biased or prejudiced against your student or even be testifying falsely to conceal their own wrongs;
- others may have mistaken your student for another student, proven by handwriting analysis, computer forensic analysis, and cross-examination;
- your student may have made a reasonable mistake when acting innocently but appearing to have deliberately committed the alleged wrong;
- your student may have been acting under reasonable belief that your student was following the instruction of a teacher or aide;
- your student's actions may not have caused any harm, loss, or disruption, even if technically a violation;
- your student may have corrected the conditions that contributed to the wrong in remedial self-help and also rectified the wrong, leaving no need for discipline.
Midland ISD DAEP Mitigating Factors
Our attorneys can also rely on Texas law and the Midland ISD Student Code of Conduct to build a case mitigating the potential DAEP penalty, as facts allow. A case in mitigation attempts to minimize the sanction even if the student must acknowledge or accept having committed an alleged wrong. Texas Education Code Section 37.001 requires school officials to consider mitigating factors whenever pursuing permissive or mandatory DAEP placement. The Midland ISD Student Code of Conduct repeats and adopts the statute's mitigating factors, which include:
- your student acted in self-defense;
- your student lacked the intent to commit the alleged wrong;
- your student had no disciplinary record;
- your student's disability kept your student from seeing the wrong;
- your student's conservatorship excused the wrong; or
- your student's homelessness excused the wrong.
These statutory and code factors are just a few of the potential mitigating circumstances that our attorneys may be able to present to avoid a DAEP placement, even if your student was responsible for a Midland ISD Student Code of Conduct violation warranting a potential DAEP placement. Other circumstances include an unexpected medication reaction, undiagnosed mental or physical disability, extraordinary loss or stress, bullying by other students, and failure of the school to reasonably accommodate a disability.
Midland ISD Emergency Placement
Texas Education Code Section 37.019 authorizes Midland ISD school officials to act on an emergency basis to remove students from DAEP for a short duration to prevent serious disruption of teaching or school operations. The Midland ISD Student Code of Conduct mimics Section 37.019, authorizing emergency removal and DAEP placement for a short time without advance notice and hearing. Both the statute and code, though, prohibit removal for more than ten days. To extend the removal and DAEP placement beyond ten days, the school must offer your student a hearing. We can help you invoke that hearing right and present a defense to keep your student in the regular classroom.
Midland ISD DAEP Placement Hearing
Texas Education Code Sections 37.009 and 37.019 assure your student of the right to a formal hearing to challenge a potential DAEP placement. The Midland ISD Student Code of Conduct reiterates the hearing right. Your student's right to a hearing is not self-executing. We can help your student invoke the right to ensure that we can present your student's best defense against the DAEP charges.
Midland ISD DAEP Appeal
Our attorneys may be able to help you and your student even if your student has already lost the formal hearing and suffered a DAEP placement. Texas Education Code Section 37.009 guarantees appeals from DAEP placements. The Midland ISD Student Code of Conduct reiterates the statutory appeal rights. Section 37.009 assures your student of the right to both an appeal to the full ISD board and, if the board affirms the DAEP placement, to the Midland County district court.
Alternative Special Relief
In the alternative, if your student has already exhausted all appeals, we may be able to show the Midland ISD general counsel, outside retained counsel, or other oversight official that your student had special circumstances warranting special relief. We have the reputation and relationships to advocate and negotiate with school officials.
Premier Midland Area Schools DAEP Defense
If your student faces DAEP charges in the Midland, Texas area, retain the Lento Law Firm's highly qualified Student Defense Team out of our El Paso, Dallas, and Austin offices. We are available to defend students throughout the Midland area. Call 888.535.3686 or use our contact form now. Learn more details here about Texas DAEP matters.
