## Facts

- Shaun Dunn and Bill McCullough were high school students enrolled in a band class requiring participation in school performances, including home basketball games.
- The band instructor issued a written grading policy, filed with the principal and distributed to students, assigning points for attendance, dress, conduct, and playing evaluations.
- The program required professional conduct at performances and prohibited departing from the planned musical program; guitar solos were specifically forbidden.
- During a February 10, 1995 basketball-game performance, the students performed two unauthorized instrumental guitar pieces despite explicit instructions not to do so.
- The school disciplined the students and assigned each an “F” in band; for McCullough, the failing grade prevented graduation with honors.
- The students sued the school district under 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983 and 1988, alleging constitutional violations arising from the discipline and grades.

## Issues

1. Whether assigning failing grades and removing the students from band for violating performance rules violated substantive due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.
2. Whether the band program’s written grading and disciplinary policies were unconstitutional as applied or on their face under substantive due process.
3. Whether the discipline constituted cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment.

## Decision

- The Seventh Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the school district.
- The court held the discipline and grading decision did not violate substantive due process because the conduct was not arbitrary in the constitutional sense.
- The court rejected any Eighth Amendment theory; the argument was not pursued on appeal and did not fit the Eighth Amendment’s typical scope.

## Legal Principles

- Substantive due process is limited to the most egregious official misconduct; a constitutional violation requires conduct so arbitrary that it “shocks the conscience.”
- Education is not a fundamental right under the federal Constitution; school discipline and grading decisions are reviewed under rational basis scrutiny.
- Disciplinary and academic decisions satisfy rational basis review when they are rationally related to legitimate educational interests, such as maintaining discipline and orderly performances.
- Federal courts generally avoid converting disputes over academic judgment and school discipline into constitutional claims absent extreme, conscience-shocking conduct.

## Conclusion

Because the students knowingly violated clearly communicated performance rules and the school’s response was rationally related to maintaining discipline and program integrity, the failing grades and related discipline did not amount to a federal constitutional violation, and the school district was entitled to summary judgment.


Dunn v. Fairfield Cmty. High Sch. Dist. No. 225, 158 F.3d 962 (7th Cir. 1998)