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Student's Liaison Leads to Lawsuit: Off-Campus Fling Earned Suspension

Posted on: Saturday, 6 May 2006, 06:02 CDT

By Cindy George, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

May 6--RALEIGH -- A 16-year-old student and his mother have sued the Wake County Board of Education after he was suspended for having sex during school hours at his girlfriend's house.

The suit, filed last week in Wake Superior Court by Ryan Biggar and his mother, Patricia, says school officials have no authority over students' off-campus behavior.

As of Friday, Ryan remained out of school.

On April 19, Ryan and his 17-year-old girlfriend, both juniors at Middle Creek High School in Apex, found themselves with time on their hands. Both had 90 minutes to kill from a canceled program, the suit says, and he had a permit that allowed him to leave school grounds at lunch.

The girlfriend had a car. They ended up at her home in Holly Springs. Then, her mother walked in and, by day's end, Ryan had been kicked out of school.

The suspension notice states that Ryan violated a policy that says: "No student shall engage in behavior which is indecent, overly affectionate, or of a sexual nature in the school setting."

"Students leave school and essentially take the rules with them," school board lawyer Ann Majestic said in a telephone interview Friday. "The parents and the student had signed a form indicating the conditions under which a student could be off campus during the lunch hour, and it made it clear that school rules applied while the student was off campus."

Ryan received a 10-school-day suspension that ended Wednesday, though he has not returned to Middle Creek, pending a disciplinary hearing.

Principal John Williams recommended to Superintendent Bill McNeal that McNeal extend the punishment for the rest of the school year, which ends June 9. Williams and McNeal are also named in the suit.

Neither Patricia Biggar nor Ryan's lawyer, Jane Wettach, would comment on the lawsuit.

Penalty under scrutiny

Wettach, a Duke University law professor and director of the Children's Education Law Clinic, said that during the disciplinary hearing May 15, a teacher panel will decide whether the penalty was appropriate. They could advise that Ryan return to class or make their own recommendation to the superintendent in favor of a long suspension.

The family could appeal a long suspension to the school board.

The Biggars, who live near Cary and Holly Springs, filed court papers trying to have the suspension lifted until the lawsuit is resolved.

Spending so much time away puts him in jeopardy of repeating 11th grade and not graduating with his class next spring.

The suit says Ryan was denied due process because he did not have proper notice that a home could be considered a school setting. It also says that school officials acted outside their authority by suspending him in an "arbitrary, irrational manner."

School officials are prohibited from releasing information on whether the girlfriend was punished.

Busted -- then a mess

This spring, Ryan and his girlfriend of two years were partners in a program called PEPI, which stands for "physical education pupil instructor." In the elective class, high school students teach PE at elementary schools. On April 19, the children Ryan and his girlfriend taught were on a field trip.

According to the suit, the PEPI period plus lunch gave Ryan and his girlfriend a window from about 10:30 a.m. until 12:45 p.m.

The suit says the two were discovered by the girlfriend's mother, who arrived at home unexpectedly. The mother called her husband, who came to the house, then called Holly Springs police.

Three officers arrived, the lawsuit says. A Holly Springs Police Department report classified the call as a "domestic disturbance."

According to the suit, a Holly Springs officer drove Ryan back to campus and notified the school's resource officer. The school officer turned Ryan over to Middle Creek Assistant Principal Kebbler Richards.

Richards interviewed Ryan and asked him to write a statement about the incident.

Ryan's handwritten account gets to the heart of what started the whole mess: "We wound up having sex."

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Copyright (c) 2006, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

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Source: The News & Observer

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