(Radio Iowa) – The State Board of Education has denied a re-hearing request for a North Polk middle school student who was suspended for creating and posting online several sexually explicit fake A-I videos using pictures of school staff. The Board’s lawyer Thomas Mayes recommended the board deny the request, because the re-hearing is not for new information.
“They’re not a second bite at the apple. They’re to correct injustice. And so the particular grounds that the parent of this student raised were all either addressed by the administrative law judge and already costed into his proposed decision,” Mayes says. Mayes says the parent wants to bring new issues in after a the ruling has been decided.
“Which is inappropriate on petitions for rehearing. It’s not a chance to raise new evidence. One of the issues raised concerned that this child is an individual that could be an individual with disability,” he says. Mayes says the disability issue is not part of the current process. “Whether or not a child should be disciplined and whether or not that discipline is a manifestation of that individual’s disability. Those are two different questions with two different processes,” he says.
The Board of Education unanimously denied the request for a rehearing. Mayes says the denial exhausts the family’s administrative remedies, and they can then go to state district court if they will to pursue more action.
