Legal Question in Education Law in New York

education law

My son attends a SUNY college in NY and lives on campus in a dorm. His dorm floor's common bathroom was vandalised and the persons responsible were not caught. The school has (allegedly) charged ALL dorm residents for the damages and my son's account was charged with an arbitrarily $$ amount for ''his (alleged) portion of the expenses'' and then a hold was put on his account until his ''incurred fee'' balance is paid. I contested this action but the school argued that their ''catch-all clause'' in their handbook, which all students MUST sign and agree to it's contents before being granted admittance to the school, states that ''if damages occur to any common area and no one claims responsibility, the school can charge all occupants for the repairs and since my son (at age 17) signed the (mandatory) dorm agreement upon moving into the dorms, the school has the right to hold him responsible and block his account until it is paid. The school told me that they have no insurance for vandalism, security was not available, there were no security cameras in the area that was damaged and that there is no legal law that gives them the right to do this other than it is ''common practice'' for SUNY schools statewide. Is this legal??


Asked on 11/04/08, 9:52 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Warren Markowitz Warren R. Markowitz, Esq

Re: education law

Just because a school has a right to do something, it doesn't mean it can, should or would. So in order to get to the bottom of things you might want to start at the top.

First ask for a copy of the bids that they got to determine the costs of the repairs. Like most state run institutions they should have gotten more than one.

Second, ask for a breakdown of the costs and a list of the persons charged with covering the expenses.

After you have done this you should have a better idea as to how to proceed. In short, if you identify that the school is charging a small identifiable group for the damages, are they doing so because they live there or as a form of collective punishment. You can also address the idea of campus safety and their responsibility, locks, limited access, etc.

The situation appears to be common in the sense that the persons most likely to use a facility would have the access and opportunity to damage it, but it doesn't establish that they did and you may be able to fight based on the requirements of signing the dorm agreement, and or the collective punishment aspect.

Can you tell me if a hearing was held? Who made the determination to charge the students? and do you have a copy of the dorm agreement and student guidebooks?

If you can answer these questions, I would consider speaking further to assist you if you so desire.

Thank you ,

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Answered on 11/05/08, 5:45 pm


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