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Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities v. Board of Education of the Town of Cheshire8/31/2004
The principal issue in these two appeals is whether the commission on human rights and opportunities has subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to General Statutes § 46a-58 (a), to adjudicate a claim of racial discrimination brought by a student in a public school against the school principal and the local board of education on the basis of a discrete course of allegedly discriminatory conduct by the principal, or whether exclusive jurisdiction to adjudicate such a claim is vested in the state board of education pursuant to General Statutes §§ 10-4b and 10-15c. We conclude that the commission has such jurisdiction.
The original complainant, Chillon Ballard, then a student at Cheshire High School, filed a complaint with the plaintiff, the commission on human rights and opportunities (commission), against the defendants, the board of education of the town of Cheshire (board) and Thomas Neagle, the principal of Cheshire High School. Ballard alleged racial discrimination by the defendants. The defendants moved to dismiss the complaint. The commission, acting through a presiding human rights referee (referee), granted the motion to dismiss. The commission, acting through its office of commission counsel, appealed to the Superior Court pursuant to General Statutes §§ 4-183 (a) and 46a-94a (a). The court dismissed the appeal as to Ballard only, on the ground of mootness, sustained the commission's appeal on the jurisdictional issue, and remanded the case to the commission for further proceedings. These appeals followed.
The defendants and the commission appealed sepa-rately from the judgment of the trial court to the Appellate Court, and we transferred the appeals to this court pursuant to General Statutes § 51-199 (c) and Practice Book § 65-1. The defendants' appeal challenges the trial court's determination that the commission has jurisdiction over the complaint before it. The commission's appeal challenges the trial court's determination that the appeal is moot as to Ballard. Although neither of these questions is free from difficulty, we conclude that:
(1) the appeal is not moot as to Ballard; and (2) the commission has jurisdiction over Ballard's complaint.
For purposes of these appeals, the following facts and procedural history are undisputed. In December, 1997, Ballard, an African-American senior student at the high school, filed a sworn complaint with the commission alleging racial discrimination. Specifically, Ballard alleged that on October 9, 1997, he and a friend were called "nigger" by a white student, and a fight among the three students ensued. As a result of the altercation, Ballard and his friend were suspended from school for three days, but the white student was not suspended, in violation of the provision in the school handbook requiring the suspension of all students involved in fights. The complaint alleged further that, upon returning to school on October 16, 1997, the racial harassment against Ballard continued on a daily basis, with the white student calling Ballard names and threatening him, and that, when Ballard complained to Neagle, he told Ballard that he would document the information. According to the complaint, the harassment continued on a daily basis, and was reported to Neagle. On October 21, 1997, Ballard and his mother met with Neagle, who told them that it was one student's word against another's, and that nothing would be done about the harassment. At that point, Ballard "had to withdraw from" the high school. Ballard then withdrew from Cheshire High School, and later graduated from Hamden High School. In his complaint, Ballard also specifically requested that the commission "investigate my complaint, secure for me my rights as
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