Restorative Justice Liability: School Discipline Reform and the Right to Safe Schools Part III: External Reforms and the Duty to Protect
University of Memphis Law Review, Vol. 51, No. 3, 2021
Pepperdine University Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2021/19
26 Pages Posted: 31 Aug 2021
Date Written: 2021
Abstract
Two branches of reform outside of educational law help explain the shift in the expectations on educators to maintain a safe learning environment. The reforms combine the carrot and the stick, consisting not so much in usurping school discipline outcomes but in dictating what must be done to prove those results. Its duties are integrated into the education mission with profound consequences for educators apart from their implications for student safety. Courts are bound to acknowledge and apply the changes to the underlying laws on child welfare and campus safety. A straight line connects the reforms with the most important evidence of the shift in judicial review of school policies: criminal and civil liability against educators whose policies are inconsistent with the new obligations.
Keywords: restorative justice, liability, school discipline, school safety
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation