YJEC Students Reverse Expulsion and Help Client on Her Way to College
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This past year, the Youth Justice Education Clinic (YJEC) represented "Jane" (name changed to protect her identity) – a now 17-year-old student who was suspended from school in November 2022, referred to law enforcement, and eventually expelled and charged in a juvenile case. With support from clinical law students Michaela Storm ’24 and Elizabeth Westbrook ’24, YJEC Director Megan Stanton-Trehan and YJEC Equal Justice Works Fellow Stacy Nuñez zealously advocated for Jane’s right to a fair expulsion hearing. At the hearing, YJEC was able to get the Los Angeles Unified School Police on record confirming that Jane was already under arrest when school administrators questioned her. Under California law, at age 17 or younger, a student under arrest cannot be questioned without the presence of a lawyer. Jane’s right to an attorney had been violated. YJEC’s ability to establish this fact on the record in Jane’s education case helped Jane’s defense attorneys persuade the DA to dismiss Jane’s juvenile case.
However, LAUSD continued to refuse to remove Jane’s expulsion from her record. From March to June, YJEC advocated to the School Board, submitted an appeal to the Los Angeles County Office of Education, and reached out to the school district to advocate for the removal of Jane’s expulsion from her records. Meanwhile, YJEC Social Worker Cindy Galvan supported Jane and her family through this unjust and traumatic experience, and Jane earned enough credits at her new high school to graduate a year early. The district finally agreed to reinstate Jane and remove her expulsion from her record a year early. Jane was accepted into California State University, Northridge, and is set to start college in the fall with a clear record. She hopes to prepare for an eventual career as a lawyer.
Through YJEC, law students under the supervision of an education attorney, represent clients like Jane in individualized education program (IEP) meetings, due process hearings, and expulsion hearings to keep youth in school with appropriate supports. Most of YJEC's clients are young people with disabilities who are also youth of color. Schools frequently fail to provide appropriate special education services and supports to these youths and often subject them to disproportionate school discipline.
The Youth Justice Education Clinic seeks to dismantle the school to prison pipeline by acknowledging and addressing the causal relationship between unmet educational needs and involvement in the juvenile legal system. Through the Education Policy Practicum, law students have the opportunity to work on systemic issues on behalf of YJEC clients such as statewide school discipline reform and improving the education system in juvenile detention facilities in Los Angeles County. By pursuing both direct service advocacy and systems change work, YJEC provides students with multiple ways to fight the school to prison pipeline.