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News & Views - April,
1994 Issue #27
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DUE PROCESS IN SCHOOL SEXUAL ABUSE
(From Education Week, March 1994)
In an 8-to-6 decision, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the fifth circuit held that students have a
"substantive" due-process right under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to be free from sexual abuse by school employees.
The Court further held in its March 3 opinion that school administrators can be held personally liable
if they learn of a pattern of abuse by one of their employees and show "deliberate indifference toward the constitutional rights of
the student by failing to take action that was obviously necessary to prevent or stop the abuse."
Copyright © 1994, Woodbury Reports, Inc. (This article may be reproduced
without prior approval if the copyright notice and proper publication and author attribution accompanies the copy.)
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