George Stone Technical College Dismissal Lawyer

George Stone Technical College in Pensacola is operated by the Escambia County Public School District.

A career program, and a framework nobody explains

This college lists no practical or registered nursing program, so the NCLEX pass-rate analysis that dominates Florida student-defense writing does not apply here. What does apply is the procedural framework below, and it is the part students are never told about — because the statute everyone cites was written for a different kind of institution.

Two very different institutions in one city

Pensacola has both this district technical college and Pensacola State College, and the legal frameworks are not the same. Pensacola State is a Florida College System institution, so Fla. Stat. section 1006.60 applies to it in full — five business days’ written notice, access to exculpatory information, an impartial hearing officer. George Stone is run by the county school district, so none of that reaches it. A student who assumes the public-college framework because both are public will build the wrong case.

The statute that protects state college students does not cover you

Fla. Stat. section 1006.60 — five business days’ advance written notice of the charges, access to inculpatory and exculpatory information, an impartial hearing officer — applies by its own terms to Florida College System institutions and state universities. A district technical college is neither: it is a public school operated by a district school board under sections 1001.44 and 1003.02. Sections 1006.61, 1006.62 and 1002.21 are limited the same way. So a student here gets none of the statutory protections a student at the state college down the road gets.

What you have instead is constitutional, and the Eleventh Circuit has addressed this exact setting. Castle v. Appalachian Technical College, 631 F.3d 1194 (11th Cir. 2011) — a nursing student at a public technical college — proceeded on the footing that the student held a property interest in continued enrollment that could not be taken without due process, and recorded that denying a pre-suspension hearing is itself a violation. Wells v. Columbus Technical College, 510 F. App’x 893 (11th Cir. 2013), applied Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565 (1975), to a technical college suspension. Goss requires notice and an opportunity to respond before the sanction takes effect.

If the college calls the dismissal academic, Board of Curators v. Horowitz, 435 U.S. 78 (1978), removes the hearing requirement — but only where the institution evaluated the student carefully and deliberately and kept them informed of the deficiency and of the risk of dismissal. A competency-based dismissal is usually labeled academic for that reason, which is why the label is worth contesting.

The board has to decide, and often has not

Because no statute writes a conduct code for adult career-center students — section 1006.07(2) is written for elementary and middle and high schools — the governing document is the district school board’s own rules, adopted under section 1001.41(2) and section 1003.02(1)(c), which expressly covers adult and career education programs. Get the board policy, not only the college handbook.

And the decisive procedural point: per Fla. Att’y Gen. Op. 2001-05, a board may delegate the evidentiary hearing to a qualified hearing officer, but the final expulsion decision must be made by the board itself and cannot be delegated. In practice these removals are frequently handled inside the college by a director or a program committee and the board never votes. Where that happened there is a structural defect to raise that does not require relitigating the facts.

A school board’s final expulsion order is reviewed by appeal to a Florida District Court of Appeal under Fla. Stat. section 120.68. The notice of appeal is due to the board’s clerk within 30 days of rendition, and rendition happens only when the written order is filed with that clerk. The appellate court asks whether the board’s findings rest on competent substantial evidence in the hearing record, whether a material procedural error impaired the fairness of the proceeding, and whether the board misread the law — it does not reweigh evidence, so the record has to be built inside the board process.

Where a case is filed

Pensacola is in Escambia County, which puts a federal claim in the Northern District of Florida, Pensacola Division. Review of a final expulsion order goes to the Florida District Court of Appeal for the appellate district where the school board has its headquarters, or where a party lives.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

• Obtain the district school board policy as well as the college handbook, and hold the college to whichever is more demanding.
• Establish whether the school board itself decided the expulsion, or whether the college did it alone.
• Contest the academic-versus-disciplinary characterization, because it sets how much process was owed.
• Test the Horowitz minimum: was the deficiency identified in writing, and was the student warned that dismissal was possible?
• Preserve the 30-day appeal window, which opens when the board’s written order is filed with its clerk.

The full framework, and every Florida district technical college nursing program with its 2025 result, is on the Florida district technical college page. Program-level pass rates are tabulated on the Florida nursing program pass-rate page.

George Stone’s campus and its emergency medical programs

George Stone Technical College’s health training is emergency medical services, taught at its main campus, 2400 Longleaf Drive in Pensacola. Its current catalog lists no nursing program. The 2025-26 Student Catalog & Handbook (revised December 2025) also lists an instructional service center at the Escambia County Road Prison in Cantonment (p. 5). As of Sept. 17, 2026, the college’s site still links this edition, and no 2026-27 catalog is posted.

• Emergency Medical Technician (300 clock hours). The program page lists weekday classes from 8:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. plus eight 8-hour Saturday clinical days.
• Paramedic (1,100 hours in three courses). The catalog admits only students who hold Florida EMT certification, or who will earn it before the first phase ends (p. 56).
• Firefighter/Emergency Medical Technician – Combined (792 hours). This program requires a Physical Abilities Test (p. 48).

George Stone posts no separate student handbook for these programs. The EMT Program Instructional Plan (2025-2026) repeats the college-wide 70 percent minimum grade. Escambia County School Board Policy 2421 ties the district’s Florida First Responder Scholarship for EMT, paramedic, firefighter and law enforcement trainees to enrollment at George Stone; applications go through the Financial Aid Office.

Absences, grades and withdrawal at George Stone

George Stone withdraws a student who is absent six consecutive days, and it does not excuse absences: students are “either present or absent” (catalog p. 16). An average below 70 percent is also grounds for administrative withdrawal (p. 15).

• A student below 83 percent attendance after the first thirty school days goes on Attendance Probation for thirty school days and must reach 83 percent for that period (p. 16). The college’s Attendance page describes the trigger differently, as six absences in nine weeks, and allows no more than two absences during probation.
• The grading scale breaks at 90, 80, 70 and 60 (p. 25). For financial aid, a student must keep 83 percent attendance and a 2.0 average, and George Stone offers “no appeal process or probation period” (p. 18).
• Cheating or plagiarism means removal from the program until the next school year. A third safety violation means withdrawal. Drug, alcohol, weapon and bomb-threat violations “shall result in expulsion” (pp. 28-29).
• A student may withdraw once a school year. Returning takes a thirty-calendar-day wait, a $20 fee and an open seat, and a second withdrawal means waiting for the next school year (p. 15).

A student withdrawn involuntarily may send a written appeal to the Appeals Board, made up of an administrator, a counselor, a teacher and a student from the Student Advisory Council. Hearing appeals are set for the first week of the month after the violation. George Stone publishes no filing deadline.

Complaints, broken policy links and Escambia County’s rules

George Stone’s grievance procedure has no filing deadline (p. 31). A student first goes to the instructor, the administration or the Student Advisory Council. Next comes a written grievance to a Grievance Committee of at least one administrator, a counselor and two faculty members from unrelated programs. The student may bring a support person, and the committee issues a written recommendation within ten (10) working days after its meeting.

The college’s Policies and Procedures page links to twelve policies, among them Discipline, Grievance Procedures and Sexual Harassment, plus a link meant to reach the district’s Rights and Responsibilities Handbook. Every one of those links returned “Page Not Found” on Sept. 17, 2026. The district’s Students page now links a Secondary Code of Student Conduct instead.

Escambia County School Board policies, all adopted Oct. 15, 2024, add district-level steps.

• Under Policy 5610, an “adult student” has ten (10) days from the Superintendent’s notice to request an expulsion hearing. The hearing is held before a Board-appointed attorney on at least fourteen (14) days’ notice, a requirement the presiding officer may waive, and the student may be represented by counsel or another qualified representative. The student may file exceptions within fifteen (15) days and gets ten minutes before the Board.
• Policy 5611 makes a principal’s ruling on a suspension appeal final. Policy 5610, however, names the Superintendent as the Board’s representative at suspension appeal hearings.
• Policy 5710 sends general complaints to Policy 9130, which is not among the active policies posted online.

Title IX and accommodations for George Stone students

A Title IX appeal involving a George Stone student must be filed within three (3) business days of receiving the decision. Sexual harassment complaints are handled under Policy 2266 by the district’s Director of Human Resource Services, who serves as Title IX Coordinator. The district aims to finish within sixty days. Parties get at least ten calendar days to respond to the evidence, can submit written questions for each other, and may each have an advisor, who may be an attorney.

The catalog tells students to report harassment to any district employee (p. 27). On the district’s Title IX page, the “Report Here,” “View Process” and “View Policy” buttons led nowhere on Sept. 17, 2026.

To get accommodations, a student tells the counseling staff about the disability during admissions and provides documentation. A counselor then meets with the student and the instructor (p. 22). Testing accommodations must be arranged in advance with the Assessment Department and require an IEP, a 504 Plan or an Individualized Plan for Employment (p. 12). A student with a documented disability who has finished 90 percent of a program’s competencies with at least an 80 percent average, and has tried the basic skills exit test twice, may petition for a waiver (p. 22).

The district’s route for disability complaints is Policy 2260.01. A student files a written complaint with the Building Compliance Officer within thirty (30) calendar days, and the investigation is due within fifteen (15) school days. An appeal to the District Compliance Officer is due within five (5) school days. The district’s Section 504 Coordinator is its Director of Student Services.

Other Florida technical and career institutions

Every school writes its own dismissal, appeal and conduct rules, and the filing deadlines are rarely the same from one campus to the next. These pages set out the procedure at other Florida technical and career institutions:

• H.W. Brewster Technical College Dismissal
• Hollywood Institute
• International Institute for Healthcare Professionals
• iTECH Immokalee Technical College Dismissal
• J-Tech Jones Technical Institute
• Lake Technical College Dismissal

Common questions about George Stone Technical College cases

Does the nursing pass-rate analysis apply here?

No — this college lists no practical or registered nursing program, so there is no NCLEX pass rate to weigh. What applies is the procedural framework: Fla. Stat. section 1006.60 does not reach district technical colleges, so the Fourteenth Amendment and the school board’s own rules govern.

Does Fla. Stat. 1006.60 apply to George Stone Technical College?

No. That section applies to Florida College System institutions and state universities. This is a public school operated by the Escambia County Public School District, so your protections come from the Fourteenth Amendment — see Castle v. Appalachian Technical College, an Eleventh Circuit case about a nursing student at a public technical college — and from the board’s own adopted rules.

Who has to make the final decision to expel me?

The district school board. Per Fla. Att’y Gen. Op. 2001-05 a board may delegate the evidentiary hearing to a hearing officer, but the final expulsion decision must be made by the board and cannot be delegated. These removals are often handled inside the college with no board vote, which is a concrete defect worth raising.

How long do I have to challenge the decision?

Thirty days from rendition, which is when the board’s written final order is filed with its clerk. Review is by appeal to a Florida District Court of Appeal under section 120.68, and the notice of appeal is filed with the board’s clerk. The court checks the hearing record for competent substantial evidence and for procedural or legal error — it does not reweigh the evidence.

Can a George Stone student appeal an involuntary withdrawal?

Yes. The 2025-26 Student Catalog & Handbook lets a withdrawn student submit a written appeal to an Appeals Board made up of an administrator, a counselor, a teacher and a student from the Student Advisory Council. Written decisions are mailed, hearing appeals are scheduled in the first week of the month after the violation, and George Stone publishes no filing deadline.

If my son withdraws from George Stone, how soon can he come back?

After a first withdrawal in a school year, he must wait thirty calendar days, pay the $20 application fee again and find an open seat in his program. A second withdrawal in the same school year means waiting until the next school year, and a student removed for cheating or plagiarism also cannot re-enter until the following school year.