Teachers Have Final Say in Behavior Grades, Court Rules

The right of teachers to grade their students on conduct has been upheld by a state appellate court.

The ruling involves the case of James Ferris, a Calabasas middle school teacher, who gave low marks to three students in his music class at A.E. Wright Middle School.

Because the unsatisfactory grades made the boys ineligible for the honor society and a class trip, their parents complained to Michael Botsford, the school’s principal at the time. Botsford, who has since retired, reluctantly changed the marks to satisfactory.

Ferris challenged the changes, but the Las Virgenes Unified School District backed the principal. Ferris and the Las Virgenes Educators Assn., the local teachers union, sued the district in Los Angeles Superior Court. The court held that, under the California Education Code, teachers have the final word on students’ citizenship grades, an opinion backed by the appeals court.