Expelled, now what??? Help????

<p>My son just received letter that he will be expelled for disciplinary reasons (Fist fight that he denied) He has 20 days to appeal. If he does not appeal the expulsion will be official on 20th day. We are devastated and trying to pick up the pieces. My question are: </p>

<p>Is he better off to withdraw before the expulsion is official? </p>

<p>How will the expulsion effect his official transcript? The school is saying the expulsion will just show up as withdraw on his academic transcripts and only show on his disciplinary transcript.</p>

<p>Should we quickly apply to other schools during this 20 day period so transcripts will not show anything from this current semester?</p>

<p>Please, please, please any advice or information so greatly appreciated. My son is a good kid that made a dumb mistake. He has never been in trouble with school or law before this incident. This has just devastated my son and our entire family so please no negative or judgmental comments. Please only post if you have any information that will help. He is a senior with a 3.0 gpa and I just want to see him be able to graduate. I am worried with this expulsion on his recored that he is never going to be admitted to another four year university and be able to finish his bachelors degree. </p>

<p>He needs to speak with his advisor, and with the dean of students, and find out what his options are, what the consequences are for each of the options (what is on the transcript or other school records, if he can petition for return after a certain period of time, etc.), and which steps he needs to take in order to pursue each of the options. When he has this information, he will be able to make a decision about what is best.</p>

<p>Take a deep breath. You don’t have to decide about this today.</p>

<p>Definitely talk to them about THIS semester. If you appeal, would the 20 days be extended? If so, appeal, finish the semester. What is the benefit to NOT appealing? If your son denies the fight, maybe he’ll win the appeal.</p>

<p>I’m afraid schools are taking fighting very seriously this week. A man from my daughter’s school was killed in a fight (off campus) and another was seriously injured in a second fight. Halloween. But the man was killed!</p>

<p>First, sending you a bunch of hugs. I know schools are taking many things more seriously of late including fighting. Given the seriousness of what’s happened, I think I’d want to step in and talk to the dean that he likely is working with and perhaps even get an attorney involved. Expulsion seems a bit harsh given a clean record and the fact he’s a senior. You wonder if they would consider probation of some sort. Keep us posted.</p>

<p>Appeal and apply before he is expelled. My daughter was expelled for throwing a pumpkin off balcony and then throwing a coffee cup at Dean. She had to go to Alternative school for a semester. It DID not show in her diciplinary records because colleges don’t ask for them unless arrested or something serious as this. BUT appeal, apply to colleges and ask the school for advice. Violence is taken seriously and throwing a cup at the dean sounds horrendous but truth is she knocked it off table and it hit him. Dean had to do what he had to do and allowed my daughter back in school after her semester. If this is his first time try to work with the school, no decent school wants to ruin a kid’s chances of college but must adhere to the rules. See if he can work at home or something to make both parties satisfied. My daughter now attends her dream school and is doing fabulous so no, it will not effect his life. THis is your son’s first time so I pray the school works with you as my D did.</p>

<p>Is this a high school or college senior? I presumed that OP’s son was in college, on first reading, but others seem to have inferred that he is in high school. Is this a private or public school? First, get hold of both an unofficial (ie. unsealed) transcript, and an official (ie. sealed). Look into some local options, such as enrollment at a community college, and how he can secure your state’s high school diploma. I had to explore all these options for my older son several years ago, when it appeared he might be on the verge of expulsion. He dodged that bullet, but we were prepared for it. Study your own state colleges’ applications, if they have their own. Not all require disclosure of major disciplines. Schools with open (or near-open) admissions won’t care. Withdrawal does look better, according to conventional wisdom, although I never fully understood why. I think colleges would guess that the senior “withdrew” only because expulsion was imminent. </p>

<p>If the OP’s son is a college senior, the scenario is quite different. </p>

<p>I thought he was a senior in college.</p>

<p>I also read this as the OP’s son is a college senior, since she talks about applying to other schools and finishing his bachelors. If that is the case then the son needs to handle this on his own without parental involvement.</p>

<p>First of all, I’m so sorry for all of you having to go through this Jenzyyy! Your son should check with his school to see if they have any kind of student advocates that can help him through this process. Whether or not they do, he should get a copy of the student discipline code and become very familiar with it. It is probably on-line, and if so, you should read through it also to give him a second set of eyes in reading everything. Expulsion sounds a bit harsh given his record, however I know a lot of schools have adopted a no-tolerance policy towards violence. If your son feels he is not guilty of any violation, he should try to gather witnesses as to what did happen and find out the procedure to have them testify or supply a statement. Make sure he doesn’t admit to anything if it did not happen and above all he should stay rational and provide whatever they ask for to let them know the circumstances. I don’t know if an attorney is even allowed to represent him at such a hearing- it should be spelled out by the student code- but he might consult one who is near that school and might be familiar with things he can do to minimize this. Best of luck!!!</p>

<p>Looks like a senior in college about to get expelled before completing the degree program.</p>

<p>OP- Your son needs a sit down with the Dean of Students or whoever it is in the administration that handles disciplinary matters. He needs to know what all of his options are- if he withdraws, would he be eligible to return a year from now? If he withdraws, what would his transcript say were he to send it to another college in a year?</p>

<p>You don’t have enough information to make any rational decisions right now.</p>

<p>Thank you so much for advice and kind words, so appreciated. He is a senior at a division one University. He is applying to other state schools (A community college is not a viable option as he already has all his gen eds completed) today so the current transcripts sent will not reflect any expulsion or withdrawals yet. The applications do ask wether you are currently taking classes and if so they will want copy of final transcript. We are worried he will get into another University and then when they see the final transcript they will rescind the acceptance. I spoke to his current school today and they assured me that after the 20 days when the expulsion goes into effect that his academic transcripts will only say Withdrawal. I was told each school has different policy on how much they will investigate the withdrawals. Some might just ask the student to explain the mid-semester withdrawals and some might ask the University to explain the nature of withdrawal which at that point they would say the withdrawal was do to expulsion. Feeling a little bit better after gathering more information. I’m just praying one dumb altercation will not ruin 3 years of hard work. I will repeat, the kid has never been in trouble at school or with the law. Held leadership position in his fraternity for three years and has held same job on campus for three years. I am in utter shock on the ruling. He goes back and forth on appealing. It can’t really hurt him but he is so devastated and wracked with anxiety I am almost leaning towards just getting him home and moving forward. The altercation took place in August so he has been a mess dealing with the unknown all semester. </p>

<p>I guess my main question is:</p>

<p>Has anybody’s child been expelled from a large university and then been accepted to another school? I just need some hope to go on that this situation is not ruining the chances for my son to receive his degree.</p>

<p>And to Takeitallin: I think any parent would be trying to gather as much information at this point from anywhere they could to get a better idea of what his options are. As I stated we are all still shocked and spinning from this ruling. My son is barely sleeping or eating and having panic attacks from all this so forgive me for not sitting idly by and making him just “figure” this out. Not to mention it will be my hard earned money for the past 3 1/2 years down the drain. </p>

<p>One issue to consider is that many schools want a minimum amount of time in residence, and that courses already taken may not necessarily match up to the major and breadth requirements of the new school, so it would not be surprising if he needs additional semesters to complete his degree at another school (i.e. probably 2 to 4 semesters, for a total of 9 to 11 semesters including the 7 up to now).</p>

<p>I think the actual facts regarding the altercation are important and I am not sure what the downside is to an appeal. Was your son provoked? Did someone say something to him that could be construed as harassment? Was alcohol involved? Was he perhaps defending someone else or reacting to a slur or insult? Focus on the facts and construct a defense. Perhaps the facts support some sort of counterclaim against the University or the other boy that might be used as a negotiating tool. Schools want these sorts of things to go away with little publicity so being vocal can assist you.</p>

<p>If the facts don’t help your son in any way then I would still appeal. This is a student with a clean record for 3 years, a contributing member of the campus community who held a leadership position in his frat and a campus job. Get friends and teachers to vouch for him and then propose some other punishment other than expulsion. Community service or volunteering his time as a mentor to younger students. I have found that just about everything in life is negotiable.</p>

<p>Jenzyyy - How do you know what did or did not happen? Have you seen the written communication that must be part of the process which has led to the expulsion? How realistic is the chance for success for an appeal?</p>

<p>He will not be able to transfer all credits as ucbalumnus has pointed out so your least expensive bet is to finagle a way to allow him to finish where he is now.</p>

<p>I agree with @HarvestMoon1 - is there a downside to appealing at this point? He’s had a clean record to this point so that - I would think - is on your side. It never, ever hurts to ask. I’m sure he must have folks who would go to bat for him.</p>

<p>On surface an appeal seems to make the most sense. At this point I would do whatever needed to be done to allow him to finish and graduate from this college. </p>

<p>You have absolutely nothing to lose by appealing. Why not make every effort to hang on to the work of the past 3 years? </p>

<p>In his words, what exactly happened???</p>

<p>Is the other person being expelled? Were there witnesses? Is it one person’s word against another</p>

<p>I hope he appeals. I think parental involvement is appropriate in this situation. A lawyer might be helpful but not until other approaches have failed.</p>

<p>If the appeal is unsuccessful and he cannot finish where he is, there are options for finishing. There are schools that accept 90 credits (some state universities, Lesley in our area, other small privates) and Charter Oak in CT will take all your credits no matter where you took them, and just require some minimal amount of work with them (one or two courses I think). There are also online programs and other non-traditional approaches like low residency.</p>

<p>University of Maryland University College is a primarily distance ed program that accepts up to 90 hours of credits from 4-year institutions. Probably not what he wanted (online is not for everyone), but certainly something that he probably could do.</p>

<p>But I do agree. He should appeal and try to save what he has invested in this first university before he goes the transfer route.</p>