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Illinois School Board Journal
May/June 2005

Dual role vs. due process
by Brian A. Braun

Those who expect to decide a student expulsion case or who have significant decision-making or review authority in an employee suspension or dismissal should distance themselves from the investigation process in those cases.

School board members should never serve the dual role of investigator and decision-maker. Because of the apparent bias that exists when the fact-gatherer also decides a matter, anyone in this dual role creates evidentiary problems for the person who prosecutes the case. A board member who forgets his or her role and seeks out or offers significant evidence, or one who becomes an investigator in such a case, probably should withdraw as a decision-maker.