By Attorney Thomas B. Mooney, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut

The “Legal Question of the Week” is a regular feature of the CAS Weekly NewsBlast. We invite readers to submit short, law-related questions of practical concern to school administrators. Each week, we will select a question and publish an answer. While these answers cannot be considered formal legal advice, they may be of help to you and your colleagues. We may edit your questions, and we will not identify the authors. Please submit your questions to: legalmailbagcasciacorg. _________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Legal Mailbag:

I’m trying to determine the validity and/or ability to enforce restraining orders in a school. Here’s our latest scenario: a student physically assaults another student in a classroom. The offender is arrested, suspended and returns to school following a 10- day maximum OSS. His class is changed so that he no longer is in the same room with the victim. In addition, we have a parent meeting upon the offender’s return and put him on a behavioral contract.

In the meantime, the victim’s parent presses charges (outside of the school), gets a court order that restricts the offender’s presence and proximity to his child (the victim). Assuming this court order exists (which we haven’t seen, but the parent claims is in effect), what is the obligation/ability of a school to meet any potential restraining orders. To be clear, I have yet to see these court documents, but the question comes up time and again about restraining orders related to student-to-student contact and/or proximity. Would a court ever tie the hands of a school in this manner?

Signed,
Leery of Logistics

Dear Leery:

You raise a good question – how can a court order affect school officials who are not subject to the court’s jurisdiction? However, here the court’s order is binding as to a person under its jurisdiction (the perpetrator), and that poses a problem for both the perpetrator and the school.

A restraining order that requires that the perpetrator keep a specified distance from the victim imposes a legal obligation on the perpetrator, not the school district. However, you must work with the perpetrator to determine whether and how he may attend school and still comply with the restraining order. It may be that the perpetrator cannot attend school, and in such a case the perpetrator should return to court to plead hardship and seek revision of the court order. In the meantime, the district may, but need not provide homebound instruction.

Finally, in dealing with court documents, you must always keep two things in mind. First, you should not rely upon a parent’s description of what a court order says because the parent may be mistaken or even untruthful. You should ask for a copy of the court order for your independent review. Second, if a court order affects the rights of others, you must check with the other person. Here, the restraining order would affect the rights of the perpetrator. Whenever you receive a copy of a court order, you should share it with other party affected, here the perpetrator (and/or his parents), to see whether there is a more recent court order that modifies the earlier order (e.g., one that either terminates or modifies the restraining order). As President Reagan counseled, trust but verify.