Gov. Palin and Special Education in the Election

Well, we should be hearing more about special education now. John McCain has picked Sarah Palin as his VP running mate. Gov. Palin's fifth and latest child has been diagnosed with Down Syndrome. She knew the child was diagnosed with Down Syndrome before it was born but chose not to have an abortion, which endeared her to conservatives (that and strong support for drilling in ANWR, among other things). 

Anyway, the pick of Palin should inject more discussion of issues surrounging children with special needs, which has been entirely absent from this campaign.

Update: Religion Clause has a first look at her church/state views and Kos finds that she wants creationism taught in public schools. 

Update 2: Campaign K-12 has some of her history on school finance, including providing more funding for special needs students. 

Update 3: Erin Buzuvis on Palin's thoughts on Title IX. (Everyone is quite chatty trying to figure out what to make of this choice). 

Update 4: She is (or at least was) against sex education in schools.

Friday Snippets - 08/29/08 - All Quiet on the Ed. Law Front

It is going to get interesting in Chicago next week. A local representative has reserved a fleet of buses (over 100) to transport as many Chicago Public Schools children as possible to New Trier School District, just north of the city, which is widely regarded as the richest school district in Illinois. (When I taught in Illinois, I too used to make jokes about New Trier).

The NY Times sends a reporter to Harrold, TX (the place where teachers carry guns in school). Like I said earlier, this story is not going away.

A Georgia school has approved 2 Bible Classes.

Nevada's teachers are going to fight their proposed property tax cap in court.

Skip the hearing, keep your teaching license in Alabama, even if you are a registered sex offender (they are suspended, at least).


Around the Ed. Law Blogosphere:

Mark Walsh has details on the 3rd Circuit upholding Penn. homeschooling reporting requirements.

Wrightslaw continues with IEP FAQ's.

Lori Miller Fox does a sequel to her popular "you know you have been a parent of special needs kids too long when..."

And, even though I asked (and was joined by others), McCain advisers did not post anything whatsoever on special education during their time at Eduwonk. I can't say I am surprised. Obama's campaign gave a form response to Jim Gerl this week which didn't address special education at all, so I will ask them next week at Eduwonk, where they are blogging, to give a response on special education as well. We will see how they respond (if at all).

Your Friday Fun:  Since the Internet was not working and I didn't get to show this to my student's last night ... I'll just post it here for all to enjoy ... again.  

 
Google Document Link: Friday Snippets - 08/29/08

Data Thoughts

Been thinking a lot about data recently and thought I would pass along a few links/thoughts.

1) Check out Jon Becker's post on data and educational leadership. Very smart stuff. Particularly this:

For our new Ed.D. program in educational leadership, I’m going to insist that we work with our students on presenting or representing data.

Excellent point, one which I have written about before, and I hope to join Jon in helping my students with data presentation. Which brings me to ...

2) Meeting tomorrow with Kentucky data officials about getting access to some datasets on leadership preparation. We are being forced to redesign principal preparation here in Kentucky and I have been thinking about ways we can use state data to inform our decisions. In particular, I want to use state data to track our graduates throughout their careers and stay in touch with them.

3) Third, I have been thinking lately about the ubiquitousness of data and that there is so much we can learn across professional borders. For instance, how the Obama campaign uses qualitative data to supplement their quantitative data and how all that is supplemented by actual conversations with voters is very instructive for schools. When we talk about infusing data analysis into our preparation programs, I think too often we think that a student must create a new dataset and analyze it in some new way following set procedures and using greek letters. We fail to realize that we are constantly analyzing data in our everyday lives and that school leaders are constantly collecting data on their school. A teacher evaluation is a qualitative data instrument. Daily attendance is a quantitative data instrument. Heck, even in a conversation in the teacher's lounge everyone there is gathering data about other teachers and students. We don't think about our everyday activities as data, but they are and we should be integrating those types of everyday data into our preparation programs just as much as extra-ordinary data.

4) But, as great as it is, arguments from data can be totally baseless, as I commented on this post at Dangerously Irrelevant. 

5) Yet, good or bad, there is a lot of power in data. In Kentucky and across the U.S. leadership preparation programs have been shut out of many reform conversations because we don't have the data to force our way into the discussion. Some of the people that are leading this reform effort are just guessing (literally) because no one has taken control of the conversation. The authority necessary to take and hold that power over the conversation is inherent in data because in the 21st Century we have put so much stock in science that we will defer to it, even against our better instincts and allow the people that understand the data to lead us. Obama's fans have put so much trust in David Plouffe, for instance, that they have begun doing this.  

Anyway, I have been thinking so much about data lately that I literally made up a chart to track the amount of shaves I get from the gel kind of shaving cream and the foam kind of shaving cream because I think I get much fewer with the gel, even though it seems like I am using less (hopefully I will be thinking a little less about data soon).

This Teachers Carrying Guns Thing is Not Going Away

Texas Governor Rick Perry has officially came out in favor of this nonsense (more):

Gov. Rick Perry has said he supports the policy because "there's a lot of incidents where that would have saved a number of lives."

Plus, it is getting a lot of national media attention ... particularly from conservative sources. For instance, here is a 7 min. spot on Fox News' Fox and Friends. Two of the "friends" (I don't know or care about their names) strenuously defended the policy - in fact they seemed to be arguing for guns in EVERY school.

This is stupid, stupid, stupid. Seriously, one of the dumbest ideas I have heard since I started working in education nearly a decade ago. But, with the attention and support we are seeing for this from conservative sources, it looks more and more like this is not going to go away quietly, like I had hoped. 

So, we need to get proactive against this right now and head this off from becoming a major national debate.

There were 20 (TWENTY!) children deaths due to law enforcement intervention in the year 1999. It is the job of law enforcement to handle weapons and still children die. In the same year, there were 214 unintentional gun related deaths of children. Guns make places less safe. The American Academy of Pediatrics concluded that guns in the home do NOT make it safer. In fact,

guns kept in the home are 43 times more likely to be used to kill someone known to the family than to be used to kill in self-defense.

Guns in the hands of teachers is a bad idea. I shouldn't need to cite statistics to make that point, but I will if I have to. I think education law folks need to be checking the statutes in all their states and helping legislators introduce legislation prohibiting any persons that primarily work with students from carrying guns. This is one of those times when I guess we are just going to have to codify common sense.

Dr. Jill Biden - Possibilities

Immediately upon the selection of Joe Biden for the Vice Presidential position alongside Barack Obama my thoughts turned to his wife. I had heard early in the primaries, perhaps in one of the countless debates, Joe talk about his wife having an Ed.D. and since I am in the business of granting Ed.D.'s, that stuck with me. When I heard Biden was the choice (no I did not get the text message) the first thing to come to mind was that there is a possibility of having a champion of education ... at least in the Vice President's mansion.

Here is Jill Biden's bio. Her most recent position was as a community college professor teaching English, but she has also been a high school teacher in the past and seems to have strong views on education. In this TIME interview while Joe Biden was still officially a candidate for the presidency Jill said:

Q. Would you expect to have a say in the President's policies?
A. For years, Joe has had to listen to me go on about the problems in our education system and I don't see how him becoming President would change that. So, I'm certainly going to continue talking about the issues that I care about.

Also, when she was still considering a position as First Lady she said she would stress "education, education, education." Anyway, Dr. Biden can clearly be an advocate for education. In the debates, Joe Biden said his top domestic priority was education, as Michele McNeil notes in her quick summary of Biden's education stances. Clearly she will have at least some voice in education reform and educational professionals may be wise to begin the lobbying now.  

So, with that in mind, here are some initial thoughts on how education can take advantage of Jill Biden as the Vice President's wife and some of the areas that I think are ripe for her to specialize in.

1. Refer to her. Sometimes there is power just in having one of us in a position of power. Lord knows that is not always the case.
   
2. Ask her to be a leader. Perhaps Dr. Biden is not one for the spotlight, and if so, fine and she has every right to her peace (see number 10). But, that doesn't mean we can't ask her to get involved. As someone who has lived the realities of the school system, we don't have to convince her ... she already knows and can speak honestly about her experiences. We have to be sure to let her know that we want her voice as part of the conversation.
   
3. Conference Speaker: Can't take credit for this one. Kevin Brady and I already talked about this and it was his suggestion. Clearly, this is a BOOK NOW opportunity and I would hope the associations I am a part of will consider her for annual conferences as I think she would be an interesting speaker.
   
4. P-16 Advocate. Having worked in both K-12 and in community college, she is someone that has the right experience to advocate for breaking P-16 boundaries and helping to integrate the education system, especially in the areas of English, reading and literacy which she has taught in both in high school and in college.
   
5. Her dissertation (link works with Proquest Access) was on community college student retention. So, high school and college retention seem a natural place for advocacy, especially since we need a lot of help keeping our students in school.
   
6. Qualitative Advocate: Her dissertation included some qualitative research (interviews & group discussions), in addition to questionnaires and surveys. Given the intense focus recently of the Department of Education on quantitative only research, her qualitative background seems like a refreshing change which will hopefully lead to some additional funding of qualitative studies.Her mixed method study is a good reference point for the Department of Education. She also stresses research in her class, according to ratemyprofessor.com (she was generally rated a good teacher). Anyway, education can ask her to help restore some balance to the research arm of the federal government.
   
7. NCLB 2.0 champion. If the Democrats are elected, expect a new version of NCLB (probably called something else) around the fall of the first year. That means that for an additional three years of the first term someone is going to need to inform the American public and especially other educators about the law. She would be a great person for the administration to send around explaining the details of the law.
   
8. Fitness leader. Not only does she explicitly say so in this great interview with NPR, but Jill Biden is also a very fit person as evidenced by this video where she said she rode 27 miles on a bike in Iowa. She also sponsors the Biden Breast Health Initiative and is said to be a strong advocate for health issues. She could inspire students as well as teachers to make fitness a big part of their lives.
   
9. Advocate for education technology. I know she had to take at least one class on education technology in her Ed.D. program and she did teach at a community college that stressed technology ... so, maybe she gets it? 
10. IF 1-9 don't work, just let her teach. She seems like a good community college English teacher. That is a position that carries a lot of weight in many young student's lives. Delaware is only a couple hours away from D.C., so if she wanted to keep her teaching position, she could do that and still be making a difference.
    

So, those are 10 things that are off the top of my head with a little research. Really, given that she has been there done that, anything that she does will be a help to education. Whether she picks specific issues to advocate for or becomes an ambassador for the administration or just stays in her teaching position, it looks like she will be a resource for education if the Democrats take the Whitehouse in the November.

Photocredit: JoeBiden

Friday Snippets: 8/22/08 - Waiting on the Choice of the Next President

The most important story today is probably the VP selection of Barack Obama, expected later this afternoon (not like you didn't know). Whomever Barack chooses is likely to at least have a decent chance at becoming President in 8 years. This election reminds me so much of the 1980 election, and in that election the party that won (Reagan) stayed in power for 12 years and the Vice President (George H. W. Bush) became President. From the beginning (waaayyy at the beginning when people didn't know their names) I thought the best possible ticket for the Democrats this year was Obama/Warner in one form or the other, so I am still holding out hope for a surprise Mark Warner selection at the last minute as he seems clearly the second brightest star in the Democratic Party. Anyway, the point is that it is an important day in American politics today when we might find out who will be the next, next president.

Hawaii, still in the reform mood, tweaks their school calander to provide more summer.

Another school funding lawsuit in Illinois. Third times' a charm?

No using state dollars to sue ... the state in South Dakota.

Conservates preparing for the end of NCLB?

Why we need technology instruction for teenagers. They already know how to use the tools, but they don't know what is considered misuse.

A good article on Texas school finance.

I have been talking about Louisiana's reform tendencies all year with vouchers and charters and whatnot ... now it hits closer to home. Principal Prep. and the Wallace Foundation, entities I know a lot about.

Major mergers in Maine.

Lot of talk this week about lowering the drinking age. We'll see how far that goes.

School business officials have joined the New Jersey Superintendent pay limit lawsuit.

Beginning this year, twins can stay together in Penn. schools.


Around the Ed. Law Blogosphere ...

I redesigned my Netvibes page to match the new look, but it is still as effective as ever at delivering all the best education law blog posts in one spot.

Mark Walsh has Riehm v. Engelking, an 8th Circuit case on a student creative writing story not protected by the First Amendment. Mark also has Barr v. Lefon, where a ban on the Confederate Flag in a school with racial tensions was upheld. You can find both of these cases in the Cases section of this website.

Wrightslaw has Milwaukee Public Schools having to pay $450,000 in legal fees for a challenge to their special education system.

Mitchell R. has a great week. First, a whole new use for MySpace. Next, commentary well worth reading on Corporal Punishment. Also, a case on special education discipline.

Jim Gerl has a good post on on the IDEA language (or lack thereof) regarding mainstreaming. And, Jim is waiting impatiently for the response from the candidates. My feeling is that they would not respond without a little pressure. Perhaps, Jim, you should talk to Michele McNeil at Campaign K-12 and get her to do a story on the candidates ignoring you. 

Jim Walsh has a court in Texas throwing out a Assistant Principal's defamation case against students who created a fake and sexually graphic MySpace page in her name.

Howard Friedman has a partial dismissal of a pledge case and dismissal of a free exercise claim against Pennsylvania's homeschooling policies.


And for your Friday Fun:

Biden is trading the highest right now on Intrade. Still time to get in on the Republican Vice Presidential betting.

Google Document Link: Waiting on the Choice of the Next President

Catching Up ... Some Weird Dress Code Stories

I have been working on the site a lot lately and failing to post a lot of good ed. law stories that folks have been sending me. So, I wanted to get these two up concerning dress codes, both of which Scott McLeod sent over.

(1) A school district is forcing students who break the dress code to wear a prison-style jumpsuit as punishment. Um, how many days until the entire school breaks the dress code on the same day to make a "this school is a prison" type statement? First, second day of school? If you are wondering, the jumpsuits look sort of like the one O.J. is modeling for us. 

(2)  On the other hand ... a school in California is being sued because they did not have enough regulation of the dress code. A student who was allowed to wear makeup and feminine clothing was shot and killed at the school and now the family is suing because the school allowed the boy to dress so differently which may have contributed to the violent act against him.

Seems like there is an acceptable middle ground, but maybe it is just me? 

UPDATE: Well, I didn't even get to bed and I found one more. A student in Missouri who dyed her hair pink in honor of her father that died of cancer is suspended until she changes it. This is a closer call, but if you watch the video below, its not that pink. Anyway, must be the season for dress code issues.

Changes

Well, obviously by now you are at the new site. Thanks for stopping by and it is good to have you.

I am sorry if your RSS feeds stopped working (mine did), but I have been warning people for a couple months now of the pending transition so I assumed ya'll (I'm in Kentucky now, that is acceptable language here) would figure it out and type the web address back into the URL bar or google or whatever. 

Speaking of the new feed, you now have a couple options. You can choose (1) my standard feed, (2) my feedburner feed, or (3) you can subscribe via email. All of these options are also in the box to the right if you don't have time right now. I also went ahead and updated it on my public Netvibes page. (I know I have some new students visiting for the first time, so here is what an RSS feed is all about).

As you can see, we have a little bit of new branding on the site both in terms of the new Edjurist logo () and the association with CASTLE. I will have more about my association with CASTLE in an upcoming post.

Also, clearly visible to experienced readers is the new framework I have in place to do a much larger site than just the blog. The nav bar at the top shows some of the different categories of stuff that I have already started building, and in the coming months some additional options will be added as well as a lot of the rest of the content filled in. The academic job market is just getting started, so as that heats up, I will try to post some of the ed. law faculty positions. 

Don't worry, all my old posts are still here, so in case you wanted to reference back to one of my 325 posts starting back nearly three years ago, you can do that by searching in the "find information" page or the search box in the sidebar or by clicking through the archives at the bottom of the page. 

Also, you can see I have videos now on the mainpage. I have a welcome video, and I have a "latest video" category. The video currently in the "latest video" category I actually made a year or so ago, so it is not really very recent. But, look for upcoming videos in that area as well as an archive that I will begin to build that addresses a lot of topics in educational law.  Here is the welcome video:

Also, I encourage you to visit and post in the forum. That is a resource for all of you, and it will not work without some participation from everybody. I will post starter topics in there over the coming months to try to encourage participation, but whatever happens with that, happens. It is sort of a trial to see how much interest there is in that. 

Anyway, I will keep you updated on changes as the site develops. I know it is not as complete as I wanted it to be before the launch, but I am starting a new semester at a new university and wanted my students to start with the new framework.

So, enjoy. As always, I welcome comments on this post and feedback in the forum.

08/15/08 - The New Role

So, I am still getting comfortable with my new faculty role, thus time is short lately. So an abbreviated version of the snippets this week. But, Mark Walsh said it was a quiet week (read that post for some of the action this week), so I am going to go with that and not feel too bad about it.     

Teachers are going to carry guns in this Texas district. One word (pun intended) ... overkill. Okay, second word ... dumb. h/t Joanne Jacobs.

The tax swap (from local to state) constitutional amendment in Florida is off again.

A NJ school administrator sues the state over the school leader salary limitations. And a report that some are getting 6 figure retirement checks.  

49 year old state board member in Nevada kisses 20 year old wife during board meeting and is forced to resign.

Hearings for new Michigan special ed. regs.

Utah may have voted down vouchers, but that doesn't mean it is still not an issue out there. 

Potentially more money in Arkansas.

Kids are not dumb ... they know it is about the money. 

The Georgia rural school finance lawsuit is moving forward.

Homeless kids can ride the bus in Hawaii ... (I would hope so).

Mitch Daniels (who apparently is pretty concerned about staying Governor of Indiana) wants all school purchasing to start going through the state purchasing authority. Can you imagine how long it would take to get a stapler?

Louisiana, not content to rest on their voucher, charter et al. work this year is now making mumblings about a 4 day school week.

Montana's new State Sup. made her feelings on NCLB known.


Around the blogosphere ...

Mark Walsh had a good week, even if it was a slow news week.

Jim Gerl has more on his IEP Implementation Hot Button Issue series.

Charles Fox has growing outrage at the new Topic Thunder movie from disability groups.


Friday Fun ... Live video from the Olympics

Google Document Link: 08/15/08 - The New Role

Thoughts on the California Home Schooling Decision

Mark Walsh and Mitchell Rubinstein have already posted that the California Appellate Court has reversed itself on the homeschooling decision that has received so much attention this past year. Here is the opinion. There were 16 amicus briefs, including, as my friend Scott Bauries pointed out to me, some heavy hitting constitutional law scholars.

This case strikes at the core of the government's power to educate. It asks a few basic questions and I will attempt to give what I view as this court's answer to those questions:

(1) Can the government compel attendance at schools, even if parents object?

Absolutely YES. From the court's mouth: "no such absolute right to home school exists ... parents possess a constitutional liberty interest in directing the education of their children, but the right must yield to state interests in certain circumstances." (35). The Court said that courts, as agents of the government, can stand in loco parentis and make decisions for children against the will of parents if the government deems it in the best interest of the child.

The power of the State outweighs that of the parent. Period.

(2) What are the parent's rights in educating their child? 

In this court's opinion, parents have a liberty interest in directing their child's education. Thus, in order for the state to overrule the parent's wishes, there must be a compelling interest and the action must be narrowly tailored. What exactly meets that standard is a factual, case-by-case issue (see next question), but if a government's action against parents is compelling and narrowly tailored, the libery right is overruled by the government's interest, ala Question 1 above. 

(3) At what point do we deem parents to be acting against the best interest of the children?

This is the compelling interest/narrowly tailored question. That point apparently can be reached when the child's safety is in question, as it was in this case, because the Supreme Court expressly said so in Yoder: [the government may overrule] if it appears that parental decisions will jeopardize the health or safety of the child, or have a potential for significant social burdens" (234). The health or safety question here is fact specific, but I generally know what that means. If parents are abusive, their liberty rights as parents can be taken away by the state. However, that second part of the Yoder quote is substantially more confusing and harder to interpret. Significant social burdens as a compelling interest? What if the kid doesn't perform well on standardized tests? Is that a significant social burden? That is a much harder question and one that is not answered in this case ... or really any other educational law case of substance, but one that clearly needs to be addressed more substantively as the homeschooling policies in Colorado, New York, Florida and Maryland, where homeschooling rights can be terminated based on test scores, seem to be basing their compelling interest on this second phrase in Yoder. As Mitchell said in his post, legal commentary, particularly on this aspect, would be most welcome.  

--

Overall, I don't like the ruling of the Court in this case. Not because they reached the wrong outcome, I agree with the outcome, but in reaching the outcome they almost explicitly stated that they are overruling an existing statute based on traditional practices within the state and not on any legal precedent. They changed the law in this case based on their feelings (and substantially stretching legal precedent) and that is a practice best left to legislatures or at least State or Federal Supreme Courts. 

Private schools are different from home schooling. Private schools have reporting, testing, certification, inspection and other requirements that home schooling does not have. Furthermore, the private tutor exception clearly stated the person should have a teaching credential for the grades taught. Legally, neither of these exceptions permit homeschooling, I don't care what the traditional practices or current legislative intent is. This case was wrongly decided, no question about it in my mind. But, clearly, the Court also reached the right outcome. 

Now, as bad as I think this opinion is, I don't think it will be overruled by the California Supreme Court. The Appellate Court got the right outcome here and everyone knows it. The fact that they did so in a messy and nearly illegal manner is regrettable, but can be overlooked. The best outcome here is for the California Legislature to act quickly to permit a home school exception to the compulsory attendance law so that the California Supreme Court can moot this case, while overruling the Appellate decision. Short of that, I don't see the California Supreme Court taking this case if they can avoid it.

It was a great case though and really got at some of the fundamental questions of education in our democracy. I encourage you to read it and use it in your educational law classes. 

Paddling Protection Nonsense in Indiana

Once in a while a proposal comes along that really riles me up. Today is one of those days.

The current Governor of Indiana is proposing (although through campaign speak) a teacher discipline clarification act or something like that. Nadine Block, the Executive Director of the Center for Effective Discipline, who sent over the tip (thanks) calls it a "paddling protection act." I think that is an apt description. From the campaign's press release:

“Students can’t learn and teachers can’t teach in classrooms where kids are disruptive. Some teachers are afraid to restore order when needed because they fear legal harassment. It’s unacceptable that a teacher would have that hesitation,” Daniels said. "Ultimately, we need parents to recognize that firm school discipline is in every child’s interest, and support teachers in doing whatever is necessary to maintain it. But for now, we need action to see that no student’s education is damaged by the bad behavior of anyone around him."

Although the campagin would never say "we want to protect teachers who hit kids"  ... that seems to be the clear intention given the history in Indiana. As a former teacher of teachers in Indiana, this law seems wildly out of touch. The teachers, the vast majority of them anyway, don't want to hit the kids in the name of discipline. Frankly, good teachers don't need to resort to that.

I am all for clarifying the laws surrounding teacher discipline ... I would agree there is a moderate level of confusion about what is acceptable. But, here is a wild idea, how about we actually teach the teachers what is acceptable? You know, like actually tell them what they can and can't do? I know that sounds mildly insane compared to a more reasonable measure like a paddling protection act, but in these trying times ...

C'mon. Days like this make me glad I left Indiana.

Friday Snippets - 8/08/08: The Eights are Wild.

An anti-bullying bill that includes protections for homosexual and transgender students and teachers is in the New York Senate.

West Virginia teachers file suit claiming they were mislead into investing their retirement dollars into bad annuities. Little tip for teachers ... ALWAYS stick with the defined benefit plan if possible.

WV also having strong discussions about random student drug testing. (Hope someone brought up the 4th Amendment in those conversations).

Arizona special session to fund school vouchers?

And, vouchers will be on the ballot in Florida, pending appeal. Even if they are tied to less controversial measures.

We are still fighting in Hawaii over the teacher random drug testing policy.

Texas teachers are claiming the private school oriented dropout education program resembles vouchers.

Also, teachers in Nevada are fighting property tax increase limitations with procedural matters.

If teachers seem feisty this week, maybe it is because they are not being paid all that well lately.

Arkansas considering defibrillators in schools.

Lotteries and Education ... well, sort of.

We got so many tests, we don't even know what to name them all.


Around the Blogosphere ... it was sort of a slow week:

Jim Gerl composes his letter to the candidates ... thanks to all those that contributed.

Mark W. has the 5th Circuit considering Texas' moment of silence law (I think it will be upheld) and concerning 4th Amendment case on a timeout closet being upheld by the 10th Circuit.

Jen Weissman thinks we should be doing more training for pre-service teachers on ethics and the law. I totally, 100%, absolutely, ... agree. I am happy to report that at UK I will be teaching a course to at least some undergrad future teachers on the law and ethics ... but it should be all of them.

Students like Junior faculty in law school, Mitchell R. cites. Good - hope it works for education schools too.

Karl Romberger reminds us that sometimes state law can go further than FERPA.

Friday Fun?

The next 5000 days of the Web.



Google Document Link: Friday Snippets - 8/08/08: The Eights are Wild.

Cyberbullying Regulation and Free Speech

Here is an article out today on an off-campus student conversation about Prom and a "spoiled" girl in their school. The conversation was taped and a student posted it to YouTube. The school administrators, concerned over cyberbullying, suspended the student who uploaded the video for two days, but not the other students recorded in the video that were actually making fun of the "spoiled girl." Now, the student that was suspended has sued claiming her free speech rights were violated.

It is not that often that I get to post articles where I think the administrator did the right thing, but this is one of those cases. First, I think the school should have no authority over the off-campus conversation. Now, many will argue there was a nexus, but kids will gossip and complain about other kids and the school does not need to be involved in much of that. So the decision not to punish the other students was probably right. Second, I think there is a good reason to suspend the student that uploaded the video. The conversation itself is not harmful, but the publication of that conversation was. The publication on YouTube probably had bad intent behind it and could potentially be classified as cyberbullying. Lastly, there was probably no free speech concerns here. In order to be protected under the First Amendment, expression has to rise to the level of protected speech meaning that it must be intended to communicate an idea. I don't really see how posting a YouTube of other students gossiping is intended to convey an idea. Even if it is intended to convey an idea, the school could argue it was inflammatory and/or disruptive to the educational process.

So, good call school administrators.

Friday Snippets - 8/01/08 - Water on Mars

Congress has passed a Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. Here is Sen. Mike Enzi on some of the details. The President is expected to sign it. 

A Texas judge changes his mind and orders a new language program for 140,000 language minority students.

Voucher advocates funding Georgia legislators. South Carolina and New York too.

The Indiana Court of Appeals throws out a 3.8 million dollar jury award to the family of a teenager shot inside Gary Community School Corp. and orders a new trial.

Evolution is still on the mind of Kansas State Board of Education candidates.

N.D. Law Review taken over by anti-gay marriage forces? Interesting.

South Dakota's school funding lawsuit set for hearing on Sept. 2.

New Mexico gets a Navajo textbook.

Buses go away in California to deal with the budget nonsense.

N.C. schools are finally tobacco free.

I am no longer at a Party School. Damn.

And, we are hurting here in Kentucky.


Around the Blogosphere:

Mark W. has Gay-Straight Alliance allowed in Florida. And, I think, a smart decision out of Washington State on opening the files of teachers accused of sexual misconduct.

Scott McLeod beat me to a hard hitting post
on a school administrator not allowing a student to have long hair. The
student is Native American and has never cut his hair in his life.

Mitchell Rubinstein, with a link to the 11th Circuit upholding a Pledge opt-out statute,
thinks the Supremes are going to eventually hold that students can be
required to recite the pledge. - I might disagree. For one, for the
same reason conservatives are especially fond of the Second Amendment
and deregulation, there is something distasteful about the government
forcing individuals to praise it. Secondly, the "under God" religion
issue really complicates it and makes the outcome of such a case much
less predictable.

Wrightslaw says you can write on the IEP document.

Jim Gerl has IEP Implementation becoming a hot button issue.

And, Howard Friedman has a Colorado Court supporting an administrator that forced a student to apologize for including unapproved religious references in a graduation speech.

And for your Friday Fun: WATER ON MARS!!! - We are getting closer to proving we were/are not alone in the Universe.



Google Document Link: Friday Snippets - 8/01/08 - Water on Mars

Graduation Rate Suit in Florida Dismissed

The lawsuit brought by the ACLU of Florida against the Palm Beach County School Board for unconstitutionally low graduation rates has been dismissed at the Circuit Court level. I had earlier posted on the creativity of this suit (and its unlikely chances at success). Since the Florida Constitution puts the responsibility over education on the State, the judge dismissed the suit against the district because it was not the entity responsible for providing an adequate education.

I would assume the ACLU lawyers will go ahead and sue the State of Florida in a similar manner, but as that is a much more complicated process, it may not be worth the effort given the low chances at success. The ACLU caught a few headlines here and raised the possibility of such a graduation rate based adequacy lawsuit, so they may call it a day on this one. 

Here is the original press release of the Florida ACLU, which contains the complaint.

Thanks to Joshua Mayes at the Sutherland Law Firm in Atlanta for the tip.