C.R. v. Burke
The Fourth DCA reversed the School Board's final order of expulsion, holding that because policy 5.1814 expressly incorporated section 836.10, it carried the settled judicial construction of that statute from T.R.W. v. State requiring proof of intent to communicate a true threat. Since the Board accepted the hearing officer's factual finding that the required intent was not proven but rejected only its legal consequence, the Board lacked a lawful basis to find the zero-tolerance offense and its erroneous interpretation of its own policy required reversal.
Key facts
- An eighth-grade student (C.R.) with ADHD and autism typed a statement on a school computer expressing a goal to kill all black people, showed it to classmates as what students perceived as a joke, and immediately deleted it; monitoring software flagged it.
- The School Board sought expulsion under its zero-tolerance policy 5.1814, which defined the offense by reference to section 836.10, Florida Statutes.
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Holdings
- When a governmental entity defines prohibited conduct by reference to a statute, the incorporated language carries the settled judicial construction of that statute existing at the time of…
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Why it matters
This administrative-law decision reinforces that agencies are bound by the policies they adopt and by settled judicial constructions of statutes they incorporate by reference, and that courts owe no deference to an… — full analysis with a trial
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