Last Updated on June 12, 2025 by Michelle Ball
By Michelle Ball, Sacramento California Expulsion, Special Education, sports/CIF, College, Education and School Attorney/Lawyer for Students since 1995
When a student is up for expulsion, do Principals sometimes lie, pretending to be against the expulsion when they really aren’t? Yes. Can a Principal be trusted when they say they are on a parent’s side in the student’s expulsion process? No. Will the Principal later go to bat for the student at their expulsion hearing? Not likely.
Principals who tell parents they will help and fight the big mean school district’s expulsion recommendation, usually have amnesia later.
Principals and Vice Principals Can’t Confront Telling Parents Bad News
Expulsions are bad. They are bad for students and can devastate a student’s life who makes a mistake. Some students may never regain their footing.
Maybe that’s why the nice jolly Principal who smiles and laughs at every parent event and assembly, cannot level with parents to tell them the truth: “Your kid is going to be expelled!” They hate to break parents’ hearts.
A Principal (or Vice Principal) may be unable to confront a crying parent boo-hooing in their office. So, they “soften” the blow with half-truths or untruths (aka lies).
Instead of really levelling with a parent and telling them something useful, such as: “You need to fight hard!” they may say “I don’t support the expulsion and will help the student not be expelled! Or, “It’s not me, it’s the District!” This gives the worried parent a false sense of security which dooms their expulsion defense as they have unknowingly allied with the enemy.
Parents may then severely underestimate the steep hill they have to climb to fight expulsion. They may show up to a discipline hearing thinking the Principal will advocate for them, when instead the Principal asks that the student be expelled, suddenly forgetting all the talks (lies) they had with the parent.
It can be devastating.
Are Principals Just Not Nice?
School principals are nice. They can be wonderful, loving, caring people (or they may not be). It is very hard to tell, as they often put on a nice face, like all politicians.
But, they have their own mouths to feed and the politics of the school environment to face.
They can’t afford to jeopardize their cushy position by going against their employer, the school district, but also want to “people please” to keep their image up. So, they lie to parents about their support (they don’t really care if a student is expelled), and play a harmful game.
Who Gets Hurt When Principals Don’t Just Level With Parents?
Principals are like any politicians, acting like they will give people the world and help in all things, but failing to deliver anything but empty promises. They protect their own, and fool parents into believing they are on their side. This “kind” deception, to let a parent down easy, actually hurts the student in the end.
The Principal is the enemy of the student being expelled! They are not there to help a student, but to end a child’s school enrollment for up to a year!
Sadly, when a parent listens to the enemy in school expulsion proceedings, and trusts them, later, they find out.
When a Principal does not tell a parent that the student very likely will be expelled, they hurt the student. How? By lulling the parent into a sense of complacency.
When a parent thinks the top dog at the school will help them at the expulsion hearing, or an expulsion is “no big deal,” they don’t prepare adequately. They don’t hire an attorney to help the student. They don’t do much at all, as they mistakenly think the Principal will help them.
Finding Out the Deception at the Expulsion Hearing
It is often too late when parents find out they were lied to. Usually this happens at the expulsion hearing, when the Principal pretends they never offered to help the parent. Instead the Principal requests the maximum possible expulsion be imposed.
It is heartbreaking.
Don’t trust the enemy when your child is facing a school expulsion. Remember, the school is NOT on the student’s side, or the student would be back in school already and the expulsion over.
Principals and vice principals are enemies during the expulsion process. Identify them early and prepare well, or the worst punishment- expulsion- could occur, devastating a young student’s life and changing their outlook, forever.
Student attorney Michelle Ball is located in Northern California, but serves students across the state of California. She has decades of experience as a lawyer in the education law field, and her clients are students of all kinds. She helps in Sacramento, Roseville, Auburn, San Diego, Santa Barbara, and all other towns in the Golden State.
