Due Process and School Discipline: A New Article From Prof. Denvir

John Denvir, Research Professor of Constitutional Policy here at the USF law school, and his co-author Miriam Rokeach, a consultant in education policy, have just published "Front-loading due process: a dignity-based approach to school discipline."

The article, part of a symposium on "Meeting the Challenge of Grutter—Affirmative Action in Twenty-Five Years,"  proposes changes to school discipline that the authors assert are part of overall school reforms required in the post-Grutter era. In their introduction the authors state, in part:

If America is going to be able to abandon affirmative action in twenty-five years, we must have a wholesale reform of the American education system so that talent and perseverance, rather than family income and race, determine success in achieving entry into our elite universities. We believe that an effective disciplinary process is a small but essential part of this reform, because the cruel but clear truth is that large numbers of poor minority students are expelled from or encouraged to leave school before they have been able to reach their true academic potential.

We suggest a new approach to school discipline based on the constitutional value of human dignity. Dignity upholds the intrinsic worth of every individual; each of us deserves respect as the subject acting out our life story, not merely as an object to be acted upon by others....

We believe that the Supreme Court's opinions on procedural due process can be an important tool in fashioning a disciplinary process based on respect and fairness....

Denvir, John & Rokeach, Miriam, "Front-loading due process: a dignity-based approach to school discipline." (Symposium: Meeting the Challenge of Grutter—Affirmative Action in Twenty-Five Years) 67 Ohio State Law Journal 277 (2006) is available in print in most, if not all, U.S. academic law libraries — including the Zief Library (where it's currently at the Circulation & Reserve Desk). In addition, Lexis subscribers can retrieve the article by using "Get a Document" and entering the citation: 67 Ohio St. L.J. 277. Westlaw subscribers can use "Find by citation" or "Find & Print" and enter: 67 OHSLJ 277.

[Other publications by Professor John Denvir are listed on the Zief Library's Faculty Publications page.  The USF Law School web site has this profile of Professor Denvir.]