Student Disciplinary Hearing Workshop

Catalog description

This one credit weekend course will provide students with an intensive simulated experience in conducting a student disciplinary administrative hearing. Assuming the roles of counsel for the student and counsel for the school district, workshop participants will prepare for and represent their respective clients in a school expulsion hearing. Participants will develop an understanding of the constitutional principles of due process, freedom of speech, and search and seizure as they pertain to students in the public school setting; as well as Illinois School Code statutory provisions regarding student discipline, suspension and expulsion. In the course of preparing for the culminating disciplinary hearing, participants will gain a working familiarity with student codes of conduct and student school records and documents, and they will hone their skills in interviewing and preparing clients, witnesses, and school personnel for their respective roles in the discipline process and administrative hearing. Students will also deliver opening and/or closing statements and conduct direct and cross-examinations of witnesses and, through this process, will enhance skills applicable to a variety of court and administrative hearing settings. This is a Skills and Experiential Learning course.