Overcoming a Lawyer’s Dogma: Examining Due Process for the “Disruptive Student”

This Note explores how traditional due process functions in the context of school expulsion hearings. Traditional due process is inadequate in the case of “chronically disruptive” students because these students have lost their property right in education long before the law requires a due process hearing. Instead, new avenues of due process that are better adapted to the educational setting must be explored. Lawyers should expect schools to identify students’ with behavioral problems before expulsion becomes imminent and assist students in overcoming these problems. This “educational due process” not only helps to protect troubled student’s education, but it is also an effective way to address the problem of violence in schools.