07:58 AM PDT on Thursday, August 26, 2010
By SANDRA STOKLEY
The Press-Enterprise
RIVERSIDE - For more than a year, Jurupa Unified School District trustees Michael Rodriguez and Noreen Considine have cast "no" votes on student expulsions that have come before the school board, even in cases where state law mandates that students be expelled.
Their votes on what are known as "mandatory expulsions" have now come under the scrutiny of the Riverside County grand jury, which is questioning board members and school administrators about the issue.
According to school district records, Rodriguez voted last year against expelling a student who admitted to bringing a loaded gun onto a high school campus. Considine had left that meeting early and did not vote.
The three other board members -- Dawn Brewer, Mary Burns and Sheryl Schmidt -- cast the votes needed to expel the student.
Since December 2009, Considine has joined with Rodriguez in voting against the mandatory expulsions of students who sold drugs on campus or at district-sponsored events.
"I have testified to the grand jury," said Ed Hawkins, the former superintendent of the Jurupa school district. "It was about the issue of the board violating the law with regard to mandatory expulsions," he said.
The California Education Code section on discipline lists five violations that require a school district governing board to expel a student found to have committed the act.
The violations are: possessing a firearm on campus; brandishing a knife at another person; selling controlled substances on campus; committing or attempting to commit a sexual assault or possessing an explosive.
Neither Considine nor Rodriguez returned calls or e-mails for comment.
Elliott Duchon, the district's current superintendent, and board members Burns and Schmidt said they had been invited to come in and talk to the grand jury during the past two weeks.
Brewer said she talked to the panel Monday.
They all declined to provide details of their grand jury discussions.
The grand jury does not confirm or deny details of issues it may be scrutinizing, said a woman who answered the telephone at the Riverside County grand jury office. She would not give her name.
Daniel Haueter, an attorney in the San Bernardino county counsel's office, said he believes that despite the mandatory expulsions listed in the education code, a school board member has the discretion to vote their beliefs.
"They could be voting 'no,' because they believe there was some procedural problems that makes expulsion unjustified," he said.
Haueter is assigned to San Bernardino County school districts and advises administrators on numerous issues including discipline matters.
He said he has always questioned the five mandatory expulsions spelled out in the education code. "I don't think you can say to a board member, 'You have to accept this,' " he said. "There's always discretion."
Hawkins had a different opinion on the issue.
"When a trustee fails to perform a mandatory task like an expulsion of a dangerous student, that's dereliction of duty," he said.
In the years since his 1987 retirement as superintendent of Jurupa schools, Hawkins, 88, has served on administrative panels that consider discipline matters for both the Jurupa and Riverside school districts.
He said he was not a panelist on any of the mandatory expulsion cases at issue.
Hawkins accuses Considine and Rodriguez of violating their oath to uphold the California Constitution, which guarantees that students and teachers have a right to safe schools.
Rodriguez has never publicly explained his "no" votes on mandatory expulsions.
In an unsuccessful lawsuit she filed against the school district last year, Considine said she believed students' due process rights were being violated by the Jurupa district's disciplinary procedures.
Considine's husband, John McLaurin, has represented students at expulsion hearings.
Duchon said when a student is considered for discipline, including expulsion, the parents or guardians receive a student discipline handbook which outlines the process and the rights of the parents and students.
Reach Sandra Stokley at 951-368-9647 or sstokley@PE.com
http://www.pe.com/localnews/stories/PE_News_Local_D_wjury26.2d088a0.html
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