Case Name: Jedidiah SCHMADER, By and Through His Parent and Natural Guardian, Michelle SCHMADER, v. The WARREN COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, Appellant
Court: Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
Jurisdiction: Pennsylvania
Decision Date: 2002-10-09
Citations: 808 A.2d 596
Docket Number: 
Parties: Jedidiah SCHMADER, By and Through His Parent and Natural Guardian, Michelle SCHMADER, v. The WARREN COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, Appellant.
Judges: BEFORE: COLINS, President Judge, McGINLEY, Judge, PELLEGRINI, Judge, FRIEDMAN, Judge, LEADBETTER, Judge, SIMPSON, Judge, and LEAVITT, Judge.
Reporter: West's Atlantic Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 808
Pages: 596–604

Head Matter:
Jedidiah SCHMADER, By and Through His Parent and Natural Guardian, Michelle SCHMADER, v. The WARREN COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, Appellant.
Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania.
Argued Sept. 11, 2002.
Decided Oct. 9, 2002.
Arthur J. Stewart, Warren, for appellant.
James C. Blackman, Warren, for appel-lee.
BEFORE: COLINS, President Judge, McGINLEY, Judge, PELLEGRINI, Judge, FRIEDMAN, Judge, LEADBETTER, Judge, SIMPSON, Judge, and LEAVITT, Judge.

Opinion:
OPINION BY
Judge PELLEGRINI.
The Warren County School District (School District) appeals from an order of the Court of Common Pleas, 37th Judicial District of Pennsylvania, Warren County Branch (trial court), directing the School District to rescind the disciplinary action taken against Jedidiah Schmader (Jedidi-ah) and to expunge any reference to the underlying incident from Jedidiah's permanent record.
On February 2, 2001, Jedidiah, a third-grade student at South Street Elementary School in Warren, Pennsylvania, was charged with one count of Miscellaneous Inappropriate Behavior pursuant to Section IV(0) of the School District's Discipline Code for his alleged involvement in the threatened assault of another student by a third student, Tyler Gelotte (Tyler). Jedidiah was immediately suspended for one-half day, and on February 27, 2001, the School District conducted a formal student discipline hearing on the matter.
At the hearing, Jedidiah testified that on February 1, 2001, he and Tyler were playing at his home after school when he found a plastic throwing dart with a metal tip and showed it to Tyler. He stated that Tyler then took the dart and told him that he wanted to use the dart to hurt another student, Aaron Johnson (Aaron). Jedidiah stated that at that point, he told Tyler that if he wanted to hurt Aaron to go ahead, but he did not want to get involved in the matter. He stated that he then left Tyler and went into his house and didn't tell his mother because she wasn't home or his sister because he forgot.
Jedidiah stated that he did not see Tyler or the dart until the next day when he was called to the principal's office of the school, Principal Nichols' office, after Tyler was apprehended with the dart. In Principal Nichols' office, Jedidiah stated that he admitted that the dart belonged to him but when asked what he intended to do with the dart, he didn't say anything because he did not want to hurt his friend. Jedidiah later testified that he thought that Tyler was going to hurt Aaron but that he didn't want him to hurt Aaron because Aaron was his friend. However, he stated that he didn't tell Aaron because Tyler would probably make something up.
For his testimony, Principal Nichols read the anecdotal record he made following the conversations with Jedidiah and Tyler and their parents on February 2, 2001. According to that record, Tyler was in Mrs. Trubic's classroom on February 2, 2001, when he told another classmate that he had a dart and was going to throw it at Aaron. After the student informed Mrs. Trubic of Tyler's comment, she relayed the information to Principal Nichols. Upon questioning, Tyler told Principal Nichols that the dart belonged to Jedidiah, that the boys had talked about Aaron and that Jedidiah gave him the dart and he brought it to school intending to throw it at Aaron. Jedidiah was then called to the principal's office and admitted that the dart was his and both Jedidiah's and Tyler's parents were called. The record indicated that when Jedidiah's mother, Mrs. Schmader, asked what they were going to do with the dart, Jedidiah's response was "to make him bleed" and Tyler's response was "not to . was to hurt him, but not bad." Principal Nichols then decided to suspend both students for the rest of the day, and told the boys' parents that he would report the incident to the superintendent of schools.
Following the hearing, the hearing officer issued his Recommended Report, in which he found Jedidiah guilty of one charge of Miscellaneous Inappropriate Behavior. Acknowledging that Jedidiah had already served one-half day of out-of-school suspension, the hearing officer recommended that Jedidiah be issued three days of after-school detention not to exceed 15 minutes per day. On March 12, 2001, the School District adopted the hearing officer's Recommended Report.
Jedidiah then appealed the School District's determination to the trial court purportedly pursuant to 22 Pa.Code § 12.8(b)(2), which allows a student who disagrees with the results of the formal hearing to seek recourse in the appropriate court of the Commonwealth. Determining that the Miscellaneous Inappropriate Behavior provision of the Disciplinary Code was unconstitutionally vague by failing to provide eight-year-old Jedidiah with notice that his failure to warn school authorities about potential harm to another student constituted inappropriate behavior and would result in disciplinary action, the trial court ordered the School District to rescind any action against Jedidiah and expunge any reference of the incident from his record. This appeal by the School District followed.
The School District contends that the trial court erred by concluding that the Miscellaneous Inappropriate Behavior provision of its Discipline Code was unconstitutionally vague. It is well established that it is fundamental to due process that a statute or regulation must not be so vague as to require persons of ordinary intelligence to guess at its meaning or its possible application. Grayned v. City of Rockford, 408 U.S. 104, 92 S.Ct. 2294, 33 L.Ed.2d 222 (1972). However, the Constitution does not require impossible standards; all that is required is that the language convey a sufficiently definite warning as to the proscribed conduct when measured by common understanding and practice. Roth v. United States, 354 U.S. 476, 77 S.Ct. 1304, 1 L.Ed.2d 1498 (1957).
Because schools need to be able to impose disciplinary sanctions for a wide range of unanticipated conduct disruptive of the educational process, the United States Supreme Court has determined that school disciplinary rules need not be as detañed as criminal codes. See Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675, 106 S.Ct. 3159, 92 L.Ed.2d 549 (1986). A looser standard of constitutional review of such school regulations is appropriate because greater flexibility must be afforded to regulate the conduct of chüdren as opposed to adults. Alex v. Allen, 409 F.Supp. 379 (W.D.Pa.1976).
The provision at issue in this case, Section IV(0) of the School District's Discipline Code, provides:
Any student who engages in inappropriate behavior, not otherwise specifically addressed in this Code, including but not limited to self-destructive behavior, behavior that may be harmful to others or the property of others, or other behavior which negatively reflects the values of this discipline code or the phüoso-phy, goals and aims of the Warren County School District, will be subject to suspension or other disciplinary action. The discipline may include action by the administration as well as possible referral to the hearing officer for further discipline.
(Handbook, R.R. at 83a-84a).
In its 1925 statement, the trial court clarified for purposes of appeal that it did not find the entire Miscellaneous Inappropriate Behavior provision of the School District's Discipline Code unconstitutionally vague or that the School District was without authority to punish an eight-year-old student for not warning authorities when he knew that someone intended to injure another student. Instead, it held only that pursuant to the language used in the Miscellaneous Inappropriate Behavior provision, an eight-year-old student could not have known that when someone told him or her that that they planned to injure another student at school, he or she should tell someone about the threat.
However, contrary to the trial court's explanation, any eight-year-old child knows or should know that knowledge of the intent of another child to throw a dart in order to injure a third child is "behavior that may be harmful to others," and, therefore, is wrong, and that if the action results in harm on school property, he or she will be in "trouble" at school. No more should be needed to impose appropriate discipline, and, therefore, we cannot say that Section IV(0) of the School District's Disciplinary Code is unconstitutionally vague as to Jedidiah.
Moreover, three days of a 15-min-ute after school detention does not rise to a constitutional deprivation of any type of property right requiring redress through the judicial system. As we stated in In re JAD, 782 A.2d 1069, 1071 (Pa.Cmwlth. 2001), petition for allowance of appeal denied, 568 Pa. 708, 796 A.2d 987 (2002):
Different rights attach to expulsions and suspensions under 22 Pa.Code § 12.6 and 12.8 (Code). Expulsion is exclusion from school by a board of education for a period exceeding ten school days, and it requires a formal hearing. 22 Pa. Code § 12.6(b)(2). If a student disagrees with the results of the formal hearing, the student has a right to seek recourse in the appropriate court of the Commonwealth. 22 Pa.Code § 12.8(b)(2) and 12.8(c). The Code does not provide any recourse from a school district's decision to suspend a student for fewer than ten days. Moreover, in Flynn-Scarcella v. Pocono Mountain School District, 745 A.2d 117, 120 (Pa.Cmwlth.2000), we stated,
The law is clear that in Pennsylvania, local school boards have broad discretion in determining school disciplinary policies. Therefore, when one attacks a school board action on matters committed by law to its discretion, he has a heavy burden, as the courts are not prone to interfere unless it is apparent that the school board's actions are arbitrary, capricious, and prejudicial to the public interest. In the absence of a gross abuse of discretion, the courts will not second-guess policies of the school board. (Citations omitted).
(Emphasis added).
Although 22 Pa.Code § 12.8(a) provides that "education is a statutory right, and students must be afforded all appropriate elements of due process if they are to be excluded from school," in this case, the only discipline imposed as a result of the hearing (because the half-day suspension had been imposed prior to the hearing) was "more school," i.e., 15 minutes of after-school detention for three school days. If there is no recourse from a school district's decision to suspend a student for fewer than ten days, then where, as here, no expulsion or suspension is imposed and only the school day is extended, there should be no recourse to the courts. This is especially so because the 15-minute detention for three days was not imposed so much to punish Jedidiah as it was to teach him a lesson that he should attempt to prevent harm from befalling another human being.
Accordingly, the decision of the trial court is reversed.
ORDER
AND NOW, this 9th day of October, 2002, the order of the Court of Common Pleas, 37th Judicial District of Pennsylvania, Warren County Branch, No. 214 of 2001, dated August 27, 2001, is reversed.
. Principal Nichols also stated that students are provided with a copy of the School District's Handbook (Handbook), which includes the Discipline Code, and that the Discipline Code is discussed in school will all students.
. At the hearing, Mrs. Schmader denied that Jedidiah ever stated that he intended to make Aaron bleed. Jedidiah also denied making the statement. However, upon her cross-examination of Principal Nichols, he reaffirmed that he had heard Jedidiah make that statement.
. 22 Pa.Code § 12.8 provides, in relevant part:
(a) Education is a statutory right, and students must be afforded all appropriate elements of due process if they are to be excluded from school. In a case involving a possible expulsion, the student is entitled to a formal hearing, which is a fundamental element of due process.
(b) A formal hearing is required in all expulsion actions. This hearing may be held before the board of school directors or an authorized committee of the board, or a qualified hearing examiner appointed by the board .
(2) Where the student disagrees with the results of the hearing, recourse is available in the appropriate court of the Commonwealth. If it is alleged that a constitutional issue is involved, the student may file a claim for relief in the appropriate Federal district court.
.Our scope of review of a school district's adjudication, where a complete record is made, is limited to determining whether constitutional rights were violated, whether an error of law was committed or whether necessary findings of fact are supported by substantial evidence. Ream v. Centennial School District, 765 A.2d 1195 (Pa.Cmwith.), petition for allowance of appeal denied, 566 Pa. 672, 782 A.2d 551 (2001).
. In addition to the Miscellaneous Inappropriate Behavior provision, Section II of the School District's Discipline Code provides that "this policy may apply outside of school property or school related activities if there is misconduct that has a direct and immediate tendency to influence the conduct of other people while in the school room." (Handbook, R.R. at 80a). The Handbook also provides that "[i]t is the responsibility of the students to . (2) Be willing to volunteer information in matters relating to the health, safety, and welfare of the school community and the protection of school property." (Handbook, R.R. at 86a).