Having a dad who’s a lawyer might have its perks, but the ability to cuss in school, apparently, isn’t one of them. Perhaps closing the book on a year-long lawsuit, the state Court of Appeals has upheld the half-day suspension of a 5-year-old boy who dropped f-bombs on the playground of a Northwest Arkansas school last year.
And the punishment can remain on J.S.’s permanent record, the judges decided, in a ruling that doesn’t mention the child’s full name.
Citing schools’ power to discipline “any pupil who disobeys a reasonable rule or regulation,” the court said in an opinion delivered Wednesday that Northside Elementary School Principal Anita Turner acted appropriately in suspending the boy for repeated incidences of swearing last March. Use of vulgar language constitutes a “major offense” in the Rogers School District disciplinary policy, according to district communications director Ashley Kelley Siwiec. The offense falls in the same category as arson, bomb and terroristic threats and bullying, the minimum punishment for all of which is a one-day suspension, she said.
Siwiec says the legal battle cost the school district $5,000.
“We have not seen a challenge like that before, in our recollection,” she said in a phone interview Wednesday. “We cannot recollect anyone in recent history that has pursued this at the court level.”
The boy’s father, attorney Ken Swindle, filed the lawsuit in March of last year after Turner suspended his son for using the “f-word” around classmates. According to court documents, the school had warned the boy not to use vulgarities on two previous occasions. The first was met with a verbal warning, while the second was addressed with a letter to be signed by the boy’s parents. Upon the third incidence, Turner called Swindle and told him his son would be suspended for the remainder of the school day. She told Swindle to pick up the boy from school.
Swindle refused. Instead, he filed a complaint with the Benton County Circuit Court that same afternoon.
The 5-year-old ended up serving his suspension in the principal’s office, a punishment the Rogers School Board later upheld in a hearing. Swindle amended his complaint after the hearing and asked the Circuit Court to order that the board delete any reference to the suspension from his son’s file. He asked that the board be prohibited “from suspending five-year-old children without adult intervention,” according to court documents.
The court dismissed Swindle’s complaint, so he appealed.
In Wednesday’s ruling, Judge Rhonda K. Wood implied that the board’s decision to uphold the suspension did not constitute an abuse of power, and therefore the court did not need to intervene. She said school and board officials acted in accordance with the district’s disciplinary policy, which also forbids insubordination.
“Clearly, [the boy] refused to modify his language, and more severe consequences for his repeated cussing and insubordination were appropriate,” the ruling said. “It was reasonable for the Board to enforce this established policy and suspend J.S., especially when J.S. had been warned, twice, that using the ‘F-word’ was inappropriate.”
The court went on to dismiss Swindle’s request that his boy’s suspension be struck from his school records.
“Swindle’s request for relief - that the school remove any reference to J.S.’s suspension and never suspend him again - lacks foundation in any source of law.”
Repeated calls to Swindle for comment were not returned Wednesday.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 06/20/2013