Justices Limit Expulsion of Disruptive

The Supreme Court today limited the power of public school officials receiving federal aid for disabled students to expel or suspend emotionally handicapped children for disruptive behavior.

By a 6-2 vote in a case from San Francisco, the justices said federal law bars state and local officials from unilaterally excluding from the classroom children whose disruptive conduct is caused by their disabilities.

But the court said in emergency cases a dangerous student may be suspended from class for up to 10 days.

Justice William J. Brennan, writing for the court, said even an allegedly dangerous student may not be barred indefinitely from school pending the outcome of proceedings to determine if the child should be transferred or expelled.

Parents or Judge Needed

“We think it clear . . . that Congress very much meant to strip schools of the unilateral authority they had traditionally employed to exclude disabled students, particularly emotionally disturbed students, from school,” Brennan said.

The law, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, is aimed at assuring that “removal of disabled students could be accomplished only with the permission of the parents or, as a last resort, the courts,” Brennan said.

The court acted in the case of a student identified by the pseudonym Jack Smith, now 20, who had attended the A. P. Giannini School in San Francisco.

He was involved in a number of disruptions and on Oct. 14, 1980, school officials reduced his educational program to a half-day schedule without informing his grandparents, the child’s guardians.

Sexual Comments Made

The officials recommended expelling Smith after he made sexual comments to several girls in the school on Nov. 14 that year.

The Supreme Court today upheld a ruling by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that said local school officials violated the so-called “stay-put” provision of the federal law to aid handicapped children. The law helps states fund special education programs. In return, states must guarantee “all handicapped children the right to a free, appropriate public education.”

Brennan said the stay-put provision places the burden on school officials to prove that a disruptive child should be removed from class.

But he said the 10-day “cooling off” period assures that officials will not be hamstrung in emergency cases.

Chance to Go to Court

“In those cases in which the parents of a truly dangerous child adamantly refuse to permit any change in placement, the 10-day respite gives school officials an opportunity to invoke the aid of the courts,” Brennan said.

The California attorney general’s office said school officials need greater leeway to deal with children who “act with explosive unpredictability.”

Justices Antonin Scalia and Sandra Day O’Connor dissented today on technical grounds.

They said the controversy in the case is moot because there is little evidence that since Smith is now 20 he will be affected by the ruling.

In other action, the court ruled that federal judges presiding over a lawsuit that raises both state and federal law issues may send the case to a state court if the federal issues are dropped. By a 5-3 vote, the justices said Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh must defend itself in state court against a suit filed by a fired employee.