<p>I am not an attorney, and even attorneys will refer you to someone familar with this arena when there are issues, preferably someone used to dealing with that school and in that area. Such an attorney can give you an idea what his take is on a case. Sometimes it’s best to just let the injustice or perceived injustice go because any history of that sort of thing shows a preponderance of rulings on the side of the schools. Sometimes not. Sometimes the lawyer can get some internal resolution. The goal is not to sue, but get the situation resolved outside of court.</p>
<p>Some years ago, an independent k-12 school forced a senior to stay out of school that last term for a vandalism transgression followed by ill behaviour during the in house hearings on it. The parents acquiesed in exchange for the student getting his diploma. For some (IMO) crazy reason they also thought he could be in the graduation ceremony, something that was apparently not discussed directly during the agreement. When they found out that their son was barred from the ceremony, the parents sued. It went to court, and it was decided in favor of the school, and the kid “walked”. THis was a private prep school, not a college, but the same scenari could occur. In this case, the thing went to court snce neither side could come to agreement over a point. I would have guessed the school would have won, as did the school, since schools are given wide latitude in their rules, regulations and consequences, but the court decided otherwise. Most of the time, however, a school can do a lot with internal consequences, especially if they are specifically spelled out in policy, and you are part of the university community and the burdens of proof under the law are not needed. But there is room there for dispute and some suits have been won. Duke had to come hat in hand with the lacrosse players they sanctioned in a notorious high profile case. They basically treated their students as guilty before the criminal results were in. But life often does that. </p>
<p>It’s not just the schools that bully students into signing for blame and not contacting an attorney, parent or other adult. I know of over a dozen cases where this happened. My friend’s D signed she did something she did not, at a police station that had to be dredged up many years later when she applied to be part of the bar. They do a sweeping criminal records search at that time, and this came up–something she did at age 18, involving alcohol when she got caught in a police sting at some college. That was not the college’s doing but the police. And, yes, had she gotten parental involvement, there would have be more to do at the time, but not the consequences later. It was taken care of, and she is an attorney today, but what a pain. You can get shafted when innocent and get undue consequences for a minor transgression. If you don’t know the playing field, you are too stupid to deal. Most kids need someone knowledgable on their side. Just having such an adult involved causes the legal and college authorities to back off many times.</p>