We’re Zooming with the Dawg this Friday, May 8, at 10:00. It’s a freebie, limited to Daily Dawg subscribers. Come join us for a 30-45 minute discussion of recent legal issues and Life in General! If you participated in the first Zooming event, you are automatically registered for this one. If you have not Zoomed with us, but want to, send me an email at jwalsh@wabsa.com.
The COVID-19 situation presents us with legal problems we have not had to deal with before. In the first Zooming with the Dawg event on April 27th we talked about a few such situations. For example, there you are presenting a math lesson via “distance learning” when some student—or someone else, who knows?--posts a pornographic picture. What to do?
The starting point is that the Code of Conduct is still in effect. So consider: how would you have handled this if it happened during regular classes at the school? To disrupt instruction with the display of porn would certainly violate your Code of Conduct. Assuming you can accurately identify who did this, you can take disciplinary action.
Next issue: due process. How do you provide due process when we cannot have face-to-face meetings? The basics of due process are notice and an opportunity to be heard, an opportunity for the student to tell the student’s side of the story. This can be done remotely. There are judges holding trials via Zoom and other technology. Surely, a remote due process hearing will satisfy the legal standard for student discipline.
Next issue: consequences. Suppose the normal consequence would be an assignment to DAEP. But DAEP is closed until further notice. What then? Some districts would likely decide to assign the student to DAEP when “regular school” resumes. Others might view that as ineffective, seeing as how it separates the misconduct and the consequence by months. If that’s your view, you could use your discretion to deal with the situation in some other way.
Most importantly, if something like this happens, it should call for an immediate review of your protocols and safeguards in the use of distance learning platforms. That goes well beyond the Dawg’s pay grade, but we trust that you have IT staff who can help prevent any such misconduct.
DAWG BONE: NEVER BORING, IS IT?
Tomorrow: Copperas Cove wins another one…