Every student has rights that schools and other educational agencies must protect. Any school supervision expert will emphasize the importance of school administrators and teachers maintaining knowledge of students’ rights to avoid cases of school negligence. It is the duty of a school, college, summer camp, or other institution responsible for the student supervision and safety of children in their custody to meet a professional standard of care that respects student rights. School Liability Expert Group offers student discipline, injury liability, and child abuse expert witness services for both plaintiff and defense attorneys. We also provide consultations for attorneys, schools, and parents that can include a holistic school review to determine liability, areas for improvement, and standard of care. Talk with a school supervision expert today.
What Rights Do Students Have?
Public schools and education institutions cannot make rules that infringe on any rights guaranteed to students by law and cannot discriminate against certain minority groups of students. This applies to school policies and administrators and teachers’ enforcement of those policies. In many educational institutions, students of color are disciplined more harshly and more frequently than other students. All school faculty should receive bias training to ensure no unintentional breaches. Contact School Liability Expert Group to discuss your matter involving violation of student supervision and discipline standards with a student injury liability and school supervision expert.
Sex and Gender Discrimination
For example, when it comes to student supervision and safety and possible discriminatory student discipline abuse expert will explain that public schools are prohibited by federal law from discriminating against students based on gender identity or sex. While a school can maintain a dress code, that dress code must be the same for all students. For instance, schools cannot require female students to wear dresses and male students always to wear pants. Similarly students cannot be denied access to opportunities such as scholarships or extracurricular activities because of their race, sex, national origin, or disability.
Additionally, schools are not allowed to enforce dress code policies unfairly. It is more often issues of enforcement that lead to legal trouble for student rights violations. In these cases, a school supervision expert can review the school to render an expert opinion on whether sex discrimination occurred. To illustrate this, imagine a school dress code policy that bans students from wearing hats and jewelry. If male and female students are breaking the dress code, but female students are being disciplined more harshly and often, then this could violate student rights.
Rights of Students with Disabilities
In addition to sex discrimination, public schools are federally mandated to protect students from discrimination based on a disability. Schools must provide equal access to all school opportunities, from academic classes to field trips, for disabled students. A school supervision expert can review a scenario to determine whether a school met its duty to ensure equal access for students with disabilities. A student injury liability expert can also provide helpful consultation services for schools looking to improve their supervision and safety of students with disabilities. Student abuse and discipline experts will the importance of equal enforcement of school rules for students with disabilities and evaluate whether.
LGBTQ+ Student Rights
Schools are not allowed to discriminate against students based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. Moreover, regardless of their identity, these students can express their identity at school. A school supervision expert understands the nuances of rules surrounding expressions of one’s sexual orientation at school. This type of discrimination applies to school rules and procedures and disciplinary efforts.
Consider a school with a clear rule of no public displays of affection, such as kissing in the hallways, for all students. This rule does not infringe on student rights, as it applies to all students. However, it is similar to the dress code example; if this rule is never enforced for straight couples but is consistently enforced, with consequences for LGBTQ couples, a student discipline expert may find this to be a violation of LGBTQ student rights. With school supervision expert consulting services from the School Liability Expert Group, we can look into a specific case or provide tailored advice for a particular school to improve its current policies and training.
Additionally, CDC data has shown that LGBTQ students are at higher risk of experiencing bullying, harassment, violence, and suicide. Schools should engage student injury liability experts and student abuse expert consultants to ensure they enact protections for these more vulnerable student populations. Ensuring student supervision and safety are equal for all students is vital in avoiding student rights violations. Schools are not allowed to ignore reports of harassment and bullying, regardless of the sexual orientation of the victim or accuser.
School Liability in Student Rights Violations
School supervision expert witness services are commonly employed in matters that escalate to litigation, offering an expert opinion on whether a school met the professional standard of care in protecting all students equally. Frequently, these witnesses will specialize in a field especially relevant to the case, such as a student discipline expert, student abuse expert, or student injury liability expert. In most cases relating to school liability, schools can only be held liable for negligence– such as with a student injury on campus. However, if a school actively discriminates against members of a protected class or other rights violations, it goes beyond negligence.
School Supervision Expert Witness Services
Our dedicated, court-qualified team is ready to assist your case. School Liability Expert Group offers consulting and expert witness services to attorneys, schools, and parents. Review our positive testimonials for examples of our tailored and prompt approach to cases of student supervision and safety issues. As a large firm, we have highly specialized consultants, including student discipline, abuse, and injury liability experts. Book a call with a school supervision expert today.