By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since
1995
It is hard to imagine kids playing on a playground and social distancing, isn’t it? Let’s take a 5, 10 or even a 16 year old and try to keep them 6 feet away from their friends. How will this work? What about in physical education (PE)? Will they just jog alone or play tennis? There are innumerable questions and serious concerns on how this will be managed. It is not hard to envision a heavy type of authoritarianism will exist in schools to enforce the new standards. In this new “normal” what will schools do to stop kids who run within 6 feet of someone or who shake someone’s hand? Will they be suspended, or even expelled for placing someone in theorized danger? I hope not, but I am not sure.
California students will have to navigate severe restrictions and face a new class of offenses that at this time can only be imagined, such as:
– Being within 6 feet of another.
– Not sanitizing properly
– Threatening others with touching, spitting or breathing on them
– Lying that they have Coronavirus to intimidate and scare others
– Threatening to bring Coronavirus to school
– Touching a friend, teacher or staff member (e.g. high-fiving, hugging, poking, bumping into someone)
– Touching things around campus
– Not sanitizing their desk or seat, etc. when they change classes
– Playing in groups
– Playing contact sports
– Using someone else’s stuff
– Going to the bathroom when someone else is using it
– Sitting in the wrong seat, spot or being in a place not marked with a taped “X”
– Not wearing a mask (if required)
– Whispering to each other
– Coughing or sneezing and not covering up the cough/sneeze
– Coming to school with a fever or sick
– Not reporting when a family member is sick
– Posting on social media related to Coronavirus in a way that threatens students or creates a school disruption
Education Code §48900:
Another code section which could conceivably be twisted into a tool to punish during the Coronavirus panic is Education Code §48900.4, which states:
The student who threatens another daily with touching them, with being next to them on the bus, with breathing on them, could conceivably have this code thrown at them to punish.
One can only imagine a student saying he spit on his hands and rubbed all the doors and handles, or who did not wash his hands (or gloves if required) before he came to class, or who tells many people he has Coronavirus and will purposefully make the school sick (despite not having it), being accused of terroristic threats.
As I frequently see kids unfairly suspended and expelled, this is just one more concern I have when kids return to school under California’s strict Coronavirus control measures. Ultimately, it will be up to the reasoned application of discipline rules to students by school administrators and the strong advocacy of parents. Let’s hope schools use their discretion to discipline wisely in the “new normal.” We shall see.
Best,
is legal information, not legal advice and no attorney-client relationship is
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