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Involuntary Transfers Essay

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Involuntary transfers of students to alternative educational placements for disciplinary reasons generally do not involve denial of public education, but they may implicate protected liberty interests. Legal challenges to the use of disciplinary transfers have addressed primarily the adequacy of the procedures followed. Recognizing that students do not have an inherent right to attend a given school, some courts nonetheless have held that pupils facing involuntary reassignment are entitled to minimal due process if such transfers are the result of misbehavior or if required by school board policy. A Pennsylvania federal district court ruled that transfers for disciplinary reasons affected liberty interests of sufficient magnitude to require procedural due process. Even though such transfers involved comparable schools, the court reasoned that the transfer carried with it a stigma and thus implicated a protected liberty right. Noting that the transfer of a student “during a school year from a familiar school to a strange and possibly more distant school would be a terrifying experience,” the court concluded that such transfers …show more content…

Many states have banned educators’ use of corporal punishment either by law or state regulation. In 1971, only one state prohibited corporal punishment; as of 2017, twenty-eight states and D.C. proscribed its use. Generally, when state law and school board policy permit corporal punishment, courts have upheld its reasonable administration and have placed the burden on the aggrieved students to prove otherwise. In evaluating the reasonableness of a teacher’s actions in administering corporal punishment, courts have assessed the child’s age, maturity, and past behavior; the nature of the offense; the instrument used; any evidence of lasting harm to the child; and the motivation of the person inflicting the

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