Appeal of C.B., on behalf of her daughter D.T., from action of the Board of Education of the Enlarged City School District of the City of Newburgh regarding participation in an extracurricular activity.

Decision No. 15,326

(November 23, 2005)

Shaw & Perelson, LLP, attorneys for respondent, Jillian E. Cass, Esq., of counsel

MILLS, Commissioner.--Petitioner challenges the exclusion of her daughter from a school prom on June 4, 2005. The appeal must be dismissed.

Petitioner's daughter, D.T., was a student at North Junior High School in the Enlarged City School District of the City of Newburgh during the 2004-2005 school year. Prior to the commencement of this appeal, on June 2, 2005, D.T. had been suspended three times for a total of 102 school days during that school year.

On May 29, 2005, D.T. talked to the assistant principal of the junior high school regarding a school prom scheduled for June 4, 2005. According to the affidavit of the assistant principal:

The Code of Conduct states that "a student may be suspended from participating in extra-curricular or co-curricular activities . . . for an infraction of any of the provisions of [the Code of Conduct]". (See Exhibit "C"). This provision in the Code is separate and distinct from the provision in the Code mandating exclusion from such activities during periods of suspension, and provides the administration with the discretion to deny attendance to events, such as the prom, if a student's disciplinary history warrants such a denial.

Relying on that provision, the assistant principal informed D.T. that she and the building principal had decided that, because of D.T.'s recent misconduct and her lengthy suspension history, she would not be allowed to attend the prom.

This appeal was commenced on June 2, 2005. The petition requested an interim order allowing D.T. to attend the prom on June 4. On June 3, petitioner's request was denied.

The only relief sought in the petition is a request for an interim order allowing D.T. to attend the prom. Because the event in question has occurred, no meaningful relief can be granted at this point and the appeal must be dismissed as moot. The Commissioner will only decide matters in actual controversy and will not render a decision on a state of facts which no longer exist or which subsequent events have laid to rest (Appeal of B.K. and R.K., 44 Ed Dept Rep 195, Decision No. 15,146; Appeal of V.L., 44 id. 160, Decision No. 15,132; Appeal of Garvin, 44 id. 30, Decision No. 15,087).

THE APPEAL IS DISMISSED.

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