Teaching Elder posted:What if the accused takes the matter to a court of law?
I'm not a lawyer, nor have I played one on TV, but I'm not so sure that the courts are going to allow such a blatant and dangerous violation of an individual's basic civil right to face their accuser, hear the proof against them and to mount a defense. At least let them mount a horse, for crying' out loud!
They have that right. The schools are governed by different rules and policies then the courts are. A good school district will have a well defined discipline policy that includes appeals up to the school board. If there is still a disagreement after that the parents/student can always turn to the courts for relief.
As I mentioned before, unless you are the student who is accused of drinking, his family, or the administrator you do not have all the facts. I do not work in a school system, but my wife is an administrator in the district we live in and in which my kids attend school. We hear all the rumors and in a lot of cases know the actual facts. I can tell you that 80% of the time the rumors going around, or the kids story that he tells his friends, does not match up to the actual facts. Even when the school is being slammed pretty hard through rumors, or even in the press, they are prohibited from discussing any details of any incident. It all has to do with maintaining the privacy rights of minor children.