A Palm Beach County family is fighting their son's removal from A.W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts, accusing officials of voting to expel the teen before considering whether his anxiety and ADHD caused him to break the rules.
According to court records, an assistant principal found the eleventh grader with two e-cigarettes in an eyeglass case during a lunch break in November. One of the vape pens contained nicotine, and the other THC, a psychoactive compound found in cannabis.
The student, identified in his parents' lawsuit only by his initials, was a trumpet player who earned mostly A's and had no prior disciplinary history. He initially said the e-cigarettes belonged to a classmate before admitting, with his mother present, that they were his.
The school suspended him for five days.
Because Dreyfoos is a competitive magnet arts school, the infraction also triggered a mandatory meeting to consider returning him to the school he's zoned for. The school held this meeting five days after the incident and voted thereafter to remove him.
However, because of the student's ADHD and anxiety diagnoses — considered "invisible disabilities" under Florida law — the district couldn't act on that recommendation until it held a separate meeting to determine whether his disability caused the bad behavior.
That meeting happened Dec. 1. The student's family brought along his treating psychiatric nurse, who testified that the 17-year-old's ADHD and anxiety caused poor decision-making and impulsivity, contributing to his decision to bring the vapes to school.
The school's psychologist disagreed, arguing there was no evidence his disability stopped him from understanding the rules. After 2.5 hours, the school board sided with the school psychologist.
Federal lawsuit is family's second bid to thwart expulsion
The student's family first fought the decision in a March petition to Administrative Law Judge Jessica E. Varn. Represented by attorney Stephanie Langer, they said the district had already decided to remove their son before the disability meeting even took place, treating the process as a formality.
Varn disagreed.
"The more persuasive evidence in this case establishes that the student’s conduct, which was possession of prohibited items on the school campus, was not a manifestation of his disabilities," the judge wrote, upholding the district's decision.
The family's 15-page federal lawsuit, filed July 14 in West Palm Beach, is their second bid to have their son reinstated at Dreyfoos. They're now asking a federal judge to reverse Varn's ruling, arguing she didn't adequately weigh evidence that the process was rigged from the start.
The School Board of Palm Beach County is named as the lawsuit's sole defendant and has not yet filed a reply. Its spokesperson did not immediately return a request for comment.
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. Reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach County student sues school board over vaping discipline
