Thank you for being a loyal reader of At the Schoolhouse Gate. Effective immediately, "The Gate" is being replaced by The Edjurist. Mosey on over and see why!
[...]Thank you for being a loyal reader of At the Schoolhouse Gate. Effective immediately, "The Gate" is being replaced by The Edjurist. Mosey on over and see why!
[...]In Lamar County, Mississippi, a school attorney was apparently "inspired" by a conference he attended recently, and talked the school board into passing a ban on teacher-student communication on social networking sites. Here's the top of the article. Pay particular attention to the last line!
Teacher-student Web friendships restricted by Lamar' [...]
Campus paper not returning in the fall
Former adviser blames censorship
By Bruce Lieberman
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 19, 2008
Fallbrook High School will not have a student newspaper in the coming school year, the apparent fallout of a move by administrators to remove the paper's adviser after he protested the censorship' [...]
School test scores canceled after cheating probe
ASSOCIATED PRESS
6:01 p.m. July 7, 2008
MISSION VIEJO – At least 300 high school students in Orange County must retake their advanced placement exams after national test administrators found some of them cheated.
Dan Sullivan, principal at Trabuco Hills High School, sent a [...]
In denying a request for an injunction, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals seemed to signal defeat for Avery Donninger, the Connecticut high school student who was disciplined for referring to county school administrators as "douche bags." The Court ruled that Avery's comments could cause "substantial disruption." This horrible ruling,' [...]
Why the Cyberbullying Prosecution Is A Bad Idea
by Mike Tully
The tragic case of Megan Meier has spawned an indictment that, if upheld by the federal courts, could turn every Internet “terms of service” violation into a potential felony. The expansive reading of a federal statute by Los Angeles-based United States [...]
Mom indicted in deadly My Space hoaxStory Highlights
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted a Missouri woman for her alleged role in perpetrating a hoax on the online social network MySpace against a 13-year-old neighbor girl who then committed suicide.
Lori Drew [...]
The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the right of a student to wear an anti-gay t-shirt. Wonder how'd they react to an anti-straight t-shirt? Here's the story:
Court says Ill. student can wear anti-gay T-shirt at school
CHICAGO— A federal appeals court has ruled that a suburban Chicago student should [...]
Families file bullying lawsuit against Sioux City schools
Associated Press - April 7, 2008 8:44 AM ET
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) - Two students are taking the Sioux City school district to court over bullying.
The ninth-graders say the district failed to protect them from being bullied and assaulted.
The lawsuit has been [...]
Sometimes there's more to a story than what appears in print. I think that might be the case here. I suspect the cost of the settlement was less than the cost of defending the case. Nonetheless, the story is interesting because it might signal the beginning of a new era [...]
[cross-posted at Educational Insanity]
I sure would like to know more about this story. The way CNN reports it makes it all seem harmless to me. What's wrong with a little digital ingenuity and the creation of an online study group?
I was glad to read this morning that the Donninger vs Niehoff case is being heard by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. I predict the appellate court will reverse the District Court, or at least vacate and remand. It's an interesting case, one that I wrote about in my [...]
Here's an interesting First Amendment dilemma. A principal in Oregon suspended two students for wearing crucifixes, alleging they were actually displaying gang symbols. The police apparently agree, and the district is backing the principal.
Is the district right? Or does it open the door for overreaching, say, banning crescents for fear [...]
Without cyber-bullying, guidelines for bullying and hazing policies passes committee
By Tiffany Erickson
Deseret Morning News
Published: Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2008 1:27 p.m. MST
The second time was a charm Wednesday for bill aimed at curbing bullies in school, which passed the House Education Committee Wednesday.
Last week the measure was held in [...]
Court backs Novato student's protected speech
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
(02-19) 12:25 PST WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court left intact Tuesday a ruling that said Novato school district officials violated a student's freedom of expression when they confiscated a high school newspaper because of an editorial [...]
Judge Orders Wikileaks Web Site Shut
By ADAM LIPTAK and BRAD STONE
Published: February 19, 2008
In a move that legal experts said could present a major test of First Amendment rights in the Internet era, a federal judge in San Francisco on Friday ordered the disabling [...]
Here is the latest development in the Harper v Poway USD case. This is the one where the Ninth Circuit relied upon the second prong of Tinker to morph it into a civil rights ruling that seems far beyond what the Supreme Court intended. As David Hudson of the First [...]
Well, it continues to happen. When I teach intentional torts and false imprisonment to my students I can see them sitting there thinking ... who would ever do anything like that to a kid? And I tell them, you know, it happens all the time (unfortunately). Well, a rookie teacher in Chicago [...]
The Buffalo City School District has been under heavy scrutiny by media outlets for its suspension of a student for seven weeks. The suspension stemmed from the student's use of a cell phone to try to get on the Board of Education's agenda to protest the dismissal of a volunteer [...]
The Esmerelda County (NV) School District has prohibited students from speaking Spanish on the school bus. Personally, not only do I think this is a loser in court, but I'm saddened by the failure to realize that multilingual individuals are going to be important assets in a global [...]
On January 23, 2008, the Civil Rights Act of 2008 was introduced in the House of Representatives by Georgia Representative John Lewis. Among other provisions, this bills seeks to define the term "prevailing party," saying that a plaintiff would achieve this status (and receive attorney fees) if a lawsuit he [...]
A bill in the Ohio General Assembly would do just that. The bill has bi-partisan sponsors and may have a good shot at passage. If it is passed, it would make Ohio the 30th state to ban corporal punishment and would be the first new law on [...]
