Angelina Ray is currently in the ninth grade in the Southeast Warren Community School District. At the time of the hearing, she had just turned 15 years of age. She has attended public school in the Southeast Warren Community School District since she was in fourth grade. Angelina has experienced continuing problems from her peers at Southeast Warren from the fourth grade until the present. The problems involve 10 to 15 students out of her 20-student class. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson filed an open enrollment request for Angelina to attend the Indianola Community School District, which the Board denied because it was filed after the January 1 deadline.

The hearing panel concluded that the facts in Angelina's situation did not satisfy the six principles that the State Board set forth in In re Melissa J. Van Bemmel, 14 D.o.E. App. Dec. 281(1997) to guide districts in making decisions regarding open enrollment applications where student harassment is alleged. Angelina's peer problems have been occurring for five years. Therefore, her harassment did not happen after January 1, 1999. Her parents could have filed their application in a timely manner

Although the State Board does not condone any harassment of students, the hearing panel concluded that Angelina's situation was not "beyond typical adolescent cruelty." The incidents described in the testimony, which included name-calling, playing practical jokes, leaving messages on the answering machine, teasing, and insulting family members, fall short of the pattern of harassment which occurred in In re Melissa J. Van Bemmel. In conclusion, the State Board felt that the principles as applied to Angelina's situation did not constitute a case of such unique proportion that justice and fairness require the State Board to exercise its extraordinary power under ?282.18(18)(1999).

That the decision of the Southeast Warren Community School District made on October 11, 1999, denying Angelina Ray's open enrollment application, be affirmed.