Pa. judge: No expulsion for kindergarten touching
PHILADELPHIA—A judge has overturned a kindergartner's expulsion from a Philadelphia charter school for touching his teacher's thighs after she complained that her legs hurt.
The 6-year-old, who had three earlier suspensions, was merely trying to comfort his teacher, the judge concluded.
"I want to make them feel better," the boy told his teacher, according to a May 23 ruling by Common Pleas Judge Paul P. Panepinto, first reported on by The Legal Intelligencer.
The case, involving the First Philadelphia Charter School for Literacy, hints at a larger question that looms as the number of charter schools explodes across the country.
The Philadelphia-based Education Law Center argued that charter schools sometimes seek more leeway in disciplining students under the theory they can always return to a traditional public school.
"This `double-standard' view is legally flawed," staff attorney Paul Lapp wrote in a brief filed on behalf of the boy's family. "Charter schools are public schools and