Does the high school or district have the right to suspend a student athlete based on him using profanity in a locker

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Customer: Does the high school or district have the right to suspend a student athlete based on him using profanity in a locker room after they won a game. A teammate put the profanity on his own social media without my son's consent or knowledge. And my son never names any one is the celebration banter he is just laughing and used a few profane words and they danced and laughed.
JA: Where is this occurring? I only ask because laws can vary by state.
Customer: Arizona
JA: Does your son have any court dates or documents relevant to this situation?
Customer: He can file an appeal after they issued him a 30 day suspension. The other guy who posted the social media, labeled the post and put it on his own site was given a 1 day suspension.
JA: Is there anything else the Lawyer should know before I connect you? Rest assured that they'll be able to help you.
Customer: There was a few community members that are from this city and know how the politics and racial issues work here in Tucson and wrote letters against the excessive suspension when Khalil who is my son: Khalil did not make the postKhalil did not label the postKhalil did not put the post out on social mediaKhalil was not aware of the postKhalil did not consent to his private moments being shared in a postIt was not Khalil's phone used to create this telecommunication violationYes he used profanity in a private locker room where the public is not privy
Answered by Jean C in 7 mins 5 months ago
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Jean C
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Jean C
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Jean C, Expert

nbsp;Hi my name is ***** ***** I'm the attorney who will be assisting you. Since you mentioned your son's name and the difference in the suspension between him and the other child you may have a case for discrimination based upon ethnic group. You should bring this up to the school as the superintendent and if they don't lower the amount of the suspension to bring about more equality you can then file a complaint with the state education department impossibly a lawsuit. Since this was an aberration after they what happened Be from winning they should have been won 1st and there should be something in their coach's Handbook saying that if they use profanity they will be suspended and if that's not there that's another reason you could find it.
Customer
Ok, I did not have a problem with a one game suspension because my son was cursing but Khalil did not make the post and had no consent that he was being filmed. Both he and the teammate that did the post are black however the whole team was seen in the post laughing, celebrating and saying stuff, they just acting like my son was being interviewed and he cursed a few times but he never targeted anyone, he never threatened anyone and he never said the other team. When the teammate posted it, he is the one that named the other team and I guess maybe tagged them and after it was reported they just suspended my son who used the profanity for a month and the other guy 1 game but the others who happened to be Hispanic got nothing.Khalil did not label the postKhalil did not put the post out on social mediaKhalil was not aware of the postKhalil did not consent to his private moments being shared in a postIt was not Khalil's phone used to create this telecommunication violationYes he used profanity in a private locker room where the public is not privy
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Jean C, Expert

That's also true his right to privacy may have been violated as there is some right to privacy in a locker room although recently this has been compromised because with athletes they now allow female reporters in the men's locker room so there are some arguments against it but you could make that argument with the school that you want to take this off his record and shorten the suspension if possible so he doesn't lose school time.

Customer
this is high school and kids are under age so there is no allowed in the locker room other than the team
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Jean C, Expert

I understand but that was one of the reasons why privacy was compromised but in this case since it's a locker room his privacy might have been invaded just by the fact that that kid was taping and didn't get his permission or any other kid's permission. If this is a public school you can challenge that because they cannot invade anybody's constitutional rights such as privacy.

Customer
the school or district never investigated anything the other team during the game was calling my son a monkey and bitch ass ni**er. He held his composure and didn't react, they won and celebrated in the locker room and then the other team reported the post that the teammate made. and immediately the school just advised them not to put things on social media and to not curse on social but the district went onto give my son a 30 day suspension and the teammate who titled and tagged the other team a 1 game suspension and the rest of the team nothing. My son is the best player on the team and I am mind boggled because it is their own district imposing this excessive decision, I strongly believe it is an abuse of power and they disregarded his civil rights and he was not given any due process, he was JUST GUILTY!!!! and SUSPENDED
Customer
he is suspended from game play and not school. He is a senior so this is hurting his scholarship potential
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Jean C, Expert

nbsp;I understand that schools don't have to go through the same process that "do in giving somebody do Justice. This sounds quite severe and you should be able to get the coach to intervene if your son is the best player and perhaps let this be a warning and if it happens again they get suspended. Otherwise you have to go to the principal and then possibly the superintendent's office and the school board and then make a complaint to the state education department or consider getting an education law attorney and having a lawsuit against the school if you believe it's worth it . Sometimes you can talk the principle into a lesser suspension.
Customer
The coach is helping and they have taken him out of the equation. The principal gave her consequence which was a warning and the Tucson Unified School District Athletic Director made this severe decision and now they want me to file an appeal with her but I honestly do not feel that she is unbias or qualified to make a reasonable decision because my son made a public apology and normally it is the coach that gives the punishment but they immediately rushed to suspend him without any investigation into the facts.
Customer
I do not trust she will do the right thing this school district AD, therefore I want to go over her head because she has already proven to be uncompromising and willing to violate someone's rights without any regard for being fair and this would have been a good teaching moment yet, she wants to be excessive with a decision to try and make my son an example and I am not going to sit by and allow that to happen because yes he cussed but he is not responsible for it being posted and addressed to the opponents.
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Jean C, Expert

nbsp;No and as I said above his privacy rights may have been violated because they should not be recording in a locker room. That might be something that you could eventually take to code if you had to. You should bring it up with The Superintendent's office or the state education board.
Customer
I will and thank you
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Jean C, Expert

You're very welcome.

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