Being involved in alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and child protection issues in New Mexico, I was struck by the recent question of whether parents need lawyers for school disciplinary hearings. See Anna Stolley Persky, July 2011 issue of the ABA Journal. The article begins with a "painful case," concerning "good kid" Nick Stuban, a Boy Scout and foot ball player in Virginia, who was transferred from school under the school's "zero tolerance policy" regarding drugs and weapons, for having brought to school a capsule of the then-legal synthetic marijuana. Six days after starting at his new school, Nick committed suicide.
At the time of the incident, Nick's parents were discouraged by school administrators from bringing a lawyer to the disciplinary hearing, arguing it "would make the proceeding
