A Salem County student with disabilities was allowed to return to his local public school, following inappropriate removal for disciplinary reasons.
The 2016 case involves a 15 year-old boy with specific learning disabilities who attends a the local public high school. The teen, described as quiet, soft spoken and polite was subject to disciplinary action because he had written a rap song in a communication journal making reference to drugs and shooting a gun. While he did not share it with anyone, had never performed this or any other rap in school, had never shot a gun and did not own or have access to a gun, the journal entry was deemed by school officials to be a “terroristic threat”. The boy was suspendeded and placed in an alternative school program without input or involvement from the Child Study Team.
In issuing his ruling the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) determined that the district’s handbook did not define the term “terroristic threat”, nor did the student’s behavior meet the state definition of the term, as described in NJAC 2C:12-3: bringing a weapon to school, inflicting serious bodily injury on another person at school, or knowingly possessing or using illegal drugs while at school, on school premises, or at a school function.
Further, the district made no effort to determine whether the boy’s behavior was a manifestation of his disability, yet removed him to an alternative placement on the basis of the lyrics of a rap song written in a school journal. The CST was not involved in the decision.
The ALJ ruled that the school district cannot remove the boy to an alternative educational setting because the board had failed to prove any special circumstance for removal of a child whose conduct had not been determined to be a result of his disability or that maintaining his current placement was substantially likely to result in injury to himself or others. The judge made no determination whether the four-day suspension or the demerits imposed upon the student were appropriate.
OAL DOCKET #EDS01159-16
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