Disciplinary suspension
Suspension for discipline is not mentioned in the School Code but the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has determined that the board of school directors has the authority to impose a disciplinary suspension without pay or other benefits after a dismissal hearing even when there were not enough votes to suspend. Such a suspension is a temporary form of discipline. In Rike v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania et. al., 508 Pa. 190, 494 A.2d 1388 (1985), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court described the power of the board of school directors to impose a disciplinary suspension on a professional employe:
Rike's argument that the Board was without power to suspend after conducting a hearing pursuant to Sections 1122 and 1127 is likewise without merit. That a board of school directors possesses the authority to impose lesser forms of discipline than complete termination of a tenured teacher's contract is by now beyond question. The general assembly, in whom our constitution reposes the responsibility of establishing the parameters of administering the education of our youth, PA CONST. Art. III, Section 14, has created school districts and imbued them with "all necessary powers to enable them to carry out the provisions of this act," 24 P.S. § 2-211, including the power to employ teachers, 24 P.S. § 11-1106. Inherent in the school district's power to employ is the power to control certain activities of teachers, Kaplan v. Philadelphia School District, 38 Pa. 213, 130 A.2d 672 (1957). As stated by Mr. Justice (now Chief Justice) Nix in Neshaminy Fed. Of Teachers v. Neshaminy School District, 501 Pa. 534, 545, 462 A.2d 629, 635 (1983): "The power to regulate conduct, of course, would be illusory absent a concomitant power to enforce rules through the imposition of some form of discipline."
……………………………
Rike argues it was improper for the Board to impose a suspension by vote of less than the number required to effect a dismissal. We view this assertion as being without merit.
The teacher tenure provisions of the Public School Code were enacted to improve public education by protecting teachers from ouster without cause at the complete and unbridled discretion of school boards. In re: Swink, 132 Pa.Super. 107, 200 A. 200 (1938). To this end, the general assembly provided that contracts of tenured teachers could only be terminated after observance of certain prescribed procedural safeguards. One of these provisions is that no teacher's dismissal may be effected without approval of two-thirds of the entire board. 24 P.S. § 11-1129. In contrast to the clear expression of legislative intent that the most drastic form of discipline be accomplished only with the approval of two-thirds of the entire board, the Public School Code is totally silent as to what protections must be afforded tenured teachers prior to the imposition of lesser forms of discipline. If the legislature intended to require two-thirds approval of the board every time a teacher is disciplined, they could have inserted such a provision in the Code. Their not having done so, we cannot add it, and thus we cannot embrace Rike's suggestion that tenured teachers cannot be disciplined on the vote of a simple majority of the entire board.
494 A.2d at 1391-1392. An appeal of a pre-hearing suspension is to the court of common pleas and then to Commonwealth Court.
Case Law
Rike v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania et. al., 508 Pa. 190, 494 A.2d 1388 (1985)