Crossing Swords over Learning Disabilities Court Ruling Clarifies Right of Private Schools to Insist on High

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When graduates of the prestigious Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., turn their tassels this spring, one of their classmates won't be with them. After an up-and-down high school career, Nicholas Axelrod Panagopoulos ran out of chances last December, expelled by a nearly unanimous vote of the faculty after he violated academic probation.

Nicholas, who is diagnosed with an attention-deficit disorder, and his mother, Nancy Axelrod, asked a judge to reinstate him, saying the school had not done enough to accommodate his disability as required under the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act.

The case illustrates the challenge private schools face in trying to balance …