Memorandum on Review of New York City School Expulsion Procedures and NY Supreme Court Suit Against Donovan

Press Release
May 2, 1969

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Memorandum on Review of New York City School Expulsion Procedures and NY Supreme Court Suit Against Donovan preview

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  • Press Releases, Volume 6. Memorandum on Review of New York City School Expulsion Procedures and NY Supreme Court Suit Against Donovan, 1969. e30ca576-b992-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/543c62ed-99ca-4767-974e-68201dbd7da0/memorandum-on-review-of-new-york-city-school-expulsion-procedures-and-ny-supreme-court-suit-against-donovan. Accessed December 04, 2025.

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    MEMORANDUM 

TO: CITY EDITORS 

FROM: Jesse DeVore, Director of Public Information 

In an effort to review procedures under which New York City 
school children are expelled, LDF attorneys today filed an @=maen PETIT/c«/ 

\ —SSsnor a in the U.S. Supreme Court in behalf of an 11-year-old 
Manhattan youth. 

The action charges Schools Superintendent Bernard E. Donovan 
with having acted arbitrarily, capriciously, unlawfully and in 
violation of petitioner's rights to a public school education. 
(See page 9 of Order.) 

LDF attorneys also charge that Mr. Donovan violated the 
student's rights under New York State law "and under the Special 
Circular incorporated in the Agreement between the United Federation 
of Teachers and the Board of Education." 

The attorneys charge Mr. Donovan with having acted "illegally, 
arbitrarily and in excess of his jurisdiction" in deciding that the 
‘student should be transferred from P.S. 145 on the Upper West Side 
without any record of the proceedings at the previously held 
Guidance Conference or at the District Appeals Panel's hearing. 

The LDF is asking that the student be readmitted into P.S.145 
and that Mr. Donovan and other respondents be enjoined "from taking 
any action in accordance with provisions of. the Special Circular 
incorporated in the current Agreement between the United Federation 
of Teachers and the Board of Education with regard to the suspension 
or transfer of a child." 

Today's action climaxes more than two weeks of community 
turmoil in District 5. 

For further information this evening, contact LDF attorneys 
Elizabeth DuBois at 663-5308, Haywood Burns at 662-4179, or Lowell 
Johnston at 691-5903. 

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