Page 6 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • July 14, 2010 FLOW Area Regional school board appeals court decision by Frank J. McMahon The Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education has filed multiple exceptions, challenging Administrative Law Judge Richard McGill’s recent decision. Judge McGill recommended that New Jersey Commissioner of Education Bret Schundler nullify the regional high school district’s regulation concerning student conduct away from school grounds. That regulation excludes a student from extracurricular activities if that student is formally charged and/or arrested by law enforcement for an alleged violation of the state’s code of criminal justice, or applicable municipal ordinances on or away from school grounds. Judge McGill’s recommendation was issued last month in response to a petition from Gregory and Theresa Meese, the parents of an Indian Hills High School senior. The Meeses filed the petition with the state’s commissioner of education in September, asking the commissioner to enjoin the regional high school district from enforcing the regulation that was approved by the board in June 2009. School Board Attorney Stephen Fogarty filed the board’s exceptions to the initial decision of the administrative law judge on June 28 in a 60-page document that explained four specific exceptions. One was that the judge erred in not dismissing the Meeses’ petition because he lacked the jurisdiction to decide a challenge to the constitutionality of the board’s regulation, and the Meeses lacked the standing to pursue the matter because the regulation has never been applied to their daughter on whose behalf they challenged the regulation. In the second exception, Fogarty claims the judge accorded undue weight to newspaper articles in the petitioner’s certification while failing to take into account the nature, character, and scope of the articles, the circumstances of their creation and FLOW Follies awards presented Fifty-four seniors from Indian Hills and Ramapo high schools received $750 scholarship checks totaling $40,500 from FLOW Follies. Indian Hills students who received scholarships were Ryan Anderson, Lauren Burke, Zachary Cohen, Michael Conte, Jonathan Constance, Christie Degelman, Juliet DiLillo, Jessica Dooley, Kyle Evans, Austin Flon, Brian Greer, Kelly Hoogerheyde, Shannon Larcara, Ashley Long, Marissa Maguire, Tavian Makovsky, Brianna Meese, Jordana Moser, Joseph Natale, Alex Petersen, Ali Re, Andrew Schwarz, Jonathan Scully, Seth Sharber, Samantha Thoma, Alexandra Tsubota, and Theresa Wetzler. Ramapo’s winners were Allison Balter, Michael Berardo, Jenna Calderon, Brittany Clarke, Chandler Cornwell, John Del Duca, Amanda Elsner, Cassandra Frank, Megan Gormley, Meghan Hubert, Trevor Jones, Kira Jordan, David Kammin, Michael Kehoe, Kimberly Keyser, Lindsay Komsa, John Megariotis, Brianna Miller, Melissa Nicolich, Adam Nolte, Sarah Sedlack, Emily Spezia, Anna Sternfeld, Daniel Tobin, Francesca Toscano, Maria Toscano, and Russell Williams. FLOW Follies is as a volunteer parent organization that provides graduating seniors with scholarship awards. Funds are raised through its annual performance of a musical variety show, Friends of FLOW Follies memberships, program ads, and an auction. production, or their lack of reliability. In the third exception, Fogarty claims the judge erred in failing to grant the board’s cross motion for summary decision because he maintains there is no parental right to be free from reasonable behavioral expectations as a condition for participation of a child in school-sponsored extracurricular activities, which he stated are a privilege and not a right. Fogarty claims in the fourth exception that the judge erred in failing to grant the board’s cross motion for summary decision because the board’s regulation does not violate any applicable statute or regulation. “The ALJ (administrative law judge) lacked jurisdiction to pass upon the constitutional question,” Fogarty wrote, “because it was not necessary to the resolution of any question arising under the school laws or regulations. Petitioners also lacked standing to bring the lawsuit, because their interests are not truly adverse to those of the board and they would suffer no harm from an adverse decision. Moreover, the ALJ improperly based crucial factual findings on unreliable or irrelevant evidence by according undue weight to hearsay from several newspaper articles.” Fogarty continued, “More importantly, the initial decision was patently wrong because the ALJ failed to grasp the legal issues that should have governed this case. The constitutional right of parents over the care, custody, and control of their children does not rise to the level that a parent is granted veto power over a school board’s legitimate authority to set the behavioral expectations for student participation in the activities that it sponsors. The ALJ’s decision amounts to nothing less than the creation of a new, constitutionally protected parental right to have one’s child engage in extracurricular activities without being subject to reasonable conditions set by the school board. 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