Woodbury

Plaintiffs and respondents are five high school students in the Morongo Unified School District (the District). They were members of the football team accused of sexual battery and other misconduct arising out of several locker room incidents. The District proposed to expel the students at a disciplinary hearing held before the District’s governing board of trustees (the Trustees). The students, pursuant to Education Code section 48918, subdivision (i)(l), requested that certain witnesses be subpoenaed to attend the disciplinary hearing. The Trustees refused to issue the subpoenas.

After the disciplinary hearings, the Trustees expelled the students. The students appealed to defendant San Bernardino County Board of Education (the County Board). The County Board upheld the expulsions.

The students petitioned the San Bernardino County Superior Court for a writ of administrative mandate requiring the school board to issue the subpoenas. The trial court granted the writ. The court held that the issuance of subpoenas was mandatory under the statute.

Defendants and appellants, the individual Trustees, the District, the District superintendent of schools, and the principal and…