Due process in school disciplinary proceedings: The meaning and implications of Goss v. Lopez

federal Constitution prohibits any State from depriving any person of life, or without process of law. It has long been held that the term State in this provision includes public schools, and a few years ago the Supreme Court emphatically reaffirmed its position that a school child is a person within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. For almost fifteen years, lower courts in this country have wrestled with the problem of whether expulsions, suspensions, transfers to disciplinary schools, corporal punishment, or other sanctions imposed on public school students deprive such students of property or liberty and, if so, what process is, therefore, required as due by the Fourteenth Amendment. In these cases the lower courts had generally held that students who were subjected to expulsion or long-term suspensions had a constitutional right to notice of the charges against them and a right to before the relevant school authority in which hearing they would have the opportunity to present their defense to the charges. The courts were not in agreement, however, as to the formality required in these hearings, with particular disagreement focusing on whether or not the students under such circumstances have a right to be represented by an attorney and to confront and cross-examine the witnesses against them. Where lesser sanctions were involved, such