By Jim Comstock-Galagan, Esquire Executive Director, Southern Disability Law Center and Rhonda Brownstein, Esquire Legal Director, Southern Poverty Law Center
David Smith (not his real name) was a 15 year-old, 7th grader at a Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, junior high school who was headed for juvenile detention and, most likely, a life of prisons and jails. The fact that David had been identified as a child with an educational disability (Emotional Disturbance) and had an Individualized Education Program (IEP) in place did not stop his school from suspending him for 79 days during the abbreviated, post-Katrina 2005-2006 school year.
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