A Roundup of Recent K-12 Discpline Cases

We often blog about discipline cases that involve college students who have been suspended or expelled for sexual misconduct. But secondary school students also use Title IX challenge discipline, as three recent examples show:

A female student in Louisiana was dismissed from the cheerleading team as punishment for "unacceptable behavior while in uniform" after she posed for picture with her uniform skirt raised and this photo was posted to social media. The student and her parents challenged the punishment, arguing that it violated Title IX because male student athletes were not punished as harshly for comparable behavior. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court's dismissal of her claim for lack of evidence indicating that the punishment was motivated by sex.  Specifically, the court focused on the lack of a cheer-specific male comparitor instead of comparing female and male students athletes more generally. The cheerleading team's "acceptable behavior" policy "did not contain language that could be construed as only applying to female cheerleaders" nor were there allegations that male cheerleaders were disciplined less harshly for similar infractions. Arceneaux v. Assumption Par. Sch. Bd., 2018 WL 2271077 (5th Cir. May 17, 2018).

A male student was suspended after he was reported to have threatened various harm to teacher who had given him a grade lower than he believed he deserved. The student sued, alleging among other claims that the discipline he received constituted gender bias in violation of Title IX. The court denied the school's motion to dismiss and permitted the claim to go to trial because there was evidence that a jury could conclude demonstrates gender bias-- namely, the fact that the other student who participated in the same conversation and also threatened to harm the teacher, who was female, was not suspended, as well as disputed evidence that the vice-principal who disciplined the plaintiff had once mocked the plaintiff for possibly being gay and failing to conform to masculine stereotypes and was allegedly biased against him for that reason. Gentry v. Mountain Home Sch. Dist., 2018 WL 2145011 (W.D. Ark. May 9, 2018)

A school prevailed on its motion to dismiss a Title IX claim filed by a male student who was challenging discipline he received for allegedly "groping" a female student a school dance. The court found that the plaintiff's allegations of sex discrimination were conclusory and lacked sufficient basis to warrant discovery. However, the plaintiff's claims of race discrimination in violation of Title VI were allowed because the plaintiff, who is mixed race, included specific allegations of white students who were not disciplined for similar misconduct. Doe v. The Blake School, 2018 WL 2108204 (D. Minn. May 7, 2018).