LAWYER CHALLENGES SCHOOL EXPULSION

MERIDEN - A local attorney is seeking a permanent injunction that
would prevent the Board of Education from expelling a 16-year-old
Maloney High School student who was arrested on drug charges away from
school grounds. The request is prompting discussion about whether
automatic expulsion hearings for students arrested in connection with
off-campus incidents violate their right to due process.

Police notified Maloney that a student had been arrested on Feb. 5,
and the school immediately suspended the teenager for 10 days.
Administrators are now looking to hold an expulsion hearing.

Attorney Ramiro Alcazar claims state statutes requiring expulsions for
off-campus incidents are broad and unconstitutional.

"The statutes are wrong and no one has ever challenged it," he said.
Alcazar said he took on the case pro bono.

He has already won a temporary injunction, forcing the school district
to wait to expel the student, who is listed as John Doe in the
complaint filed in New Haven Superior Court. Alcazar is now seeking a
permanent injunction to prevent the expulsion.

School Superintendent Mary Noonan Cortright could not be reached for
comment.

The Maloney student was pulled over by police on Broad Street Feb. 5
at about 11:30 p.m. and was charged with possession of marijuana,
possession of marijuana within 1,500 feet of a school and possession
with intent to sell, Alcazar said. As a result, Alcazar said, the
arresting police officer faxed a copy of the police report to Maloney
administrators and Assistant Principal Donald Panciera suspended the
student for 10 days without holding an informal hearing as required by
law.

Panciera and police spokesman Sgt. Lenny Caponigro could not be
reached for comment.

While an informal hearing is required when a student is suspended,
Alcazar said such a hearing would have violated the student's rights
under the Fifth, Eighth and 14th amendments. The Fifth and Eighth
amendments protect citizens from self-incrimination and from being
tried twice, while the 14th Amendment entitles them to due process.
People should be presumed innocent until proven guilty, Alcazar said.

Alcazar says the police also did not follow the law when they notified
Maloney of the incident directly. Police are required by law to tell
the school system when students are arrested on certain charges, such
as drug charges, but Alcazar said the law says that the school
superintendent should have been the one provided with a brief oral
description of the incident. The district has too much information, he
said.

School administrators are now planning an expulsion hearing. The state
mandates expulsions for infractions that deal with drugs and weapons.
Alcazar, however, said such a hearing would also violate
constitutional rights, which is why he's seeking a permanent injunction.

Willie F. Dow III, of Jacobs, Grudberg, Belt, Dow & Katz in New Haven,
said students who try to defend themselves during expulsion hearings
are at risk of self-incrimination. But Dow also said the expulsion
hearings are not normally challenged.

The Constitution requires that people receive due process, but the
definition of due process varies depending on the proceeding, Dow
said. Sometimes just telling someone the charges against them is
considered due process, he said.

Gerard I. Adelman, of Meriden's Weigand, Mahon & Adelman, said he
would understand if schools held expulsion hearings for students
arrested on school property, but he does not believe schools should
hold hearings for students arrested off school property. Adelman, a
former Meriden Board of Education member, said that if criminal
charges are in the early stages, students are limited when defending
themselves in expulsion hearings. It conflicts with due process, he
said.

"I'm glad attorney Alcazar is challenging this," Adelman said. "I
think he's doing his job."

Board of Education President Mark Hughes said he could not comment on
individual incidents, but said the school board follows the law. His
job is not to question state laws, but to follow them, he said, adding
that the school system is sensitive to due process. The board and
school administrators must keep information discussed in an expulsion
hearing confidential unless a student's family requests otherwise, but
other witnesses at a hearing do not have to, Hughes said. Sometimes
the school board asks people to step out of a hearing if they think a
student is at risk of self-incrimination, and the student does not
have to answer questions, he said. Any information from expulsion
hearings is sealed.

"We can't hand that over to the police department or the courts,"
Hughes said.

In addition to securing a permanent injunction for the Maloney
student, Alcazar said he wants lawmakers to consider making state laws
clearer, and wants to see that the laws already in place are followed.
But at least one state lawmaker questioned the validity of Alcazar's
claims in the lawsuit.

"It sounds like he's grasping at straws," said Sen. Thomas P. Gaffey,
D-Meriden, co-chairman of the General Assembly's Education Committee.
"He's making broad statements to prop up his case."