The Villadom Times Weekly Newspaper Online-Sept 8, 2010 Issue

FLOW Area September 8, 2010 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • Page 7 Decision on extracurricular activity case still due by Frank J. McMahon The recent firing of New Jersey Education Commissioner Bret Schundler by Governor Chris Christie will not impact the Sept. 13 date on which the commissioner’s office will rule on a recommendation by Administrative Law Judge Richard McGill. The judge supports the nullification of a Ramapo Indian Hills Board of Education regulation concerning student conduct and participation in extracurricular activities. The existing regulation could prohibit students from participating in extracurricular activities if they are 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. Richard Vespucci, a spokesman for the commissioner’s office, advised last week that Schundler’s firing will not change that due date. “We do not expect that due date to change. We expect that date to hold,” said Vespucci. Vespucci explained that the decision is the responsibility of the commissioner of education, but that responsibility pertains to the position of commissioner of education and not to the individual in that position. The date for the commissioner of education to act on the judge’s recommendation had previously been extended from July 29 to Sept. 13 by Laura Sanders, the acting director and chief administrative law judge. Judge McGill’s recommendation was received by the department of education on June 14, and the original 45-day statutory period for issuing a final decision by the commissioner of education was due to expire on July 29, but the commissioner requested the extension due to “continued staffing limitations and the press of other matters.” The regulation was approved by the regional board of education in June 2009. However, in September 2009, Theresa and Gregory Meese, the parents of an Indian Hills High School senior who graduated in June, filed a petition with the state’s commissioner of education asking the commissioner to enjoin the regional high school district from enforcing the regulation. In June, Judge McGill issued a recommendation to the commissioner of education to nullify the regulation. The board of education then filed an appeal, technically called an exception, asking the commissioner not to accept McGill’s recommendation. In his recommendation, Judge McGill cited the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and found that it provided a high degree of protection against governmental interference with certain fundamental rights and liberty interests such as the interest of the parents in the care, custody, and control of their children. He named numerous court cases to support his findings, but he ultimately found that the authority of a board of education over students is subject to limitations and its right to impose a consequence for conduct away from school grounds is specifically limited to situations where the exercise of that authority is reasonably necessary for a student’s physical or emotional safety, security, and well-being, or for reasons relating to the safety, security and well-being of other students, staff, or school grounds. He also found that the school district has no authority to enforce the regulation. He found, therefore, that the adoption of the regulation was outside, and in excess of, the powers that are authorized by law for an entity and was therefore unlawful and unconstitutional and it violated the Meeses’ parental rights. The school board, however, named several specific exceptions to McGill’s findings. The board claimed 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. The board also claimed that Judge McGill accorded undue weight to newspaper articles presented by the Meeses in their petition, which he accepted as an indication of the concerns that led to the adoption of the regulation. In addition, the board claimed that the judge erred in failing to grant the board’s cross motion for summary decision because he found 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 the board claims is a privilege. In addition, the board claimed 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 regulation pertaining to student conduct away from school grounds, especially regarding the use of drugs and alcohol, has been a controversial issue in the district since 2007, when a survey conducted by the district indicated that students were often experimenting with alcohol and drugs away from school grounds. The school board took the position that it was compelled to take action. 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