Paperchaser Wrote:
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> My son was unfairly suspended for smoking pot.
Sovereign immunity is a complicated matter in Virginia. It's true that suits against schools are often dismissed on that basis, but as the linked article above states, it's a case-by-case determination.
The biggest problem you'd have (assuming that the facts are: your son was not smoking pot, but was suspended anyway), even if sovereign immunity didn't apply, is that it would be hard to determine damages - that is, how do you quantify the damage caused by an improper suspension? Prospective damages - damages based on thoughts about "what might have been if only" - are generally frowned upon when they're not based on some kind of existing rubric ("I make X dollars an hour, so firing me cost me X times number of shifts from my firing until now," for example).
However, I'm willing to look at the facts and see if you've got a cause of action. Alternatively, we can try to negotiate with the school to remove the incident from your child's record. Shoot me an email at:
mssullivan@sullivanlaw.org, if you want to talk about it. I don't charge for initial consultations.