Christine Heyne, et al. v. Metropolitan Nashville Board of Public Education

This is a common law writ of certiorari review of a student’s ten-day suspension for a violation of the Student-Parent Code of Conduct for reckless endangerment. The student was suspended by the school principal following an incident where he drove his vehicle toward a group of students resulting in injury to one student. The suspension was appealed to a disciplinary panel, then to a discipline administrator, and lastly to the school board. The suspension was upheld at each level. Thereafter, this petition for common law writ of certiorari was filed. The trial court found that the suspended student’s due process rights were violated by the failure to provide an impartial panel and that the decision was arbitrary as it was not supported by the evidence. The court also awarded the petitioners their attorneys’ fees pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983. We reverse finding the student’s due process rights were not violated and that the decision was not arbitrary because it is supported by material evidence.