Are school suspensions constitutional?

With the increasing popularity of zero-tolerance policies, there has been an ongoing debate about the constitutionality of school suspensions. Is denying students schooling a violation of their constitutional right to an education? The North Carolina Supreme Court will decide on Monday.

The case involves two North Carolina sophomore girls who got in a fight and were suspended for a semester. As additional punishment, the girls were told they could not attend the county's alternative school for troubled students and were denied aid to study at home. But do these actions really serve their purpose? Does banning these girls from school really make the school and community safer and serve as a proper punishment for their actions? Or is the effect just the opposite- do suspensions send already troubled students deeper into academic failure and dropping out?

Some school districts are revising their methods, and are providing behavioral counseling and mediation to wrongdoers as part of the suspensions. The North Carolina high school district involved in the case, though, stated that severe budget cuts required it to enforce its strict policy. "Are you going to take money from teaching in order to pay for home schooling and conflict resolution because of a child's misbehavior?" said Robert Belcher, chairman of the school board.

Are suspensions proper punishment for wrongdoers? Or do they send the wrong message that education is a privilege, and not a right? Do they truly confront the problem at hand? And the ultimate question: are they constitutional? Keep your eyes and ears open for the court's decision on Monday.