At the Schoolhouse Gate

Douche bag

A student at Lewis S. Mills (CT) High School was frustrated about scheduling delays for the school Jamfest. So she called an unnamed worker in the district central office a ‘douche bag’ on her online journal. Her principal, Karissa Niehoff, asked the student to apologize to the superintendent, Paula Schwartz, and prohibited her from running for class secretary, a position the student has held for three years. Fellow students claim that they have been prohibited from wearing t-shirts to school that said ‘Team Avery: Support Lewis Mills Freedom of Speech’ and ‘Vote for Avery’ (see the comment made at nbc30.com on May 25 at 6:00pm).

Students create hostile work environment

The Charleston County (SC) school district's web site states that it believes that "respect for cultural differences strengthens and enhances the learning process and society" (see the left side). Apparently the district went too far with this, however, because it  has been found guilty of creating a hostile work environment for a Caucasian teacher when it refused to stop African-American students from directing racial slurs at her because such slurs were part of their culture. Pamela Parker at Texas Teacher Law has some additional commentary.

Winkelman v. Parma City

This just in! The U.S. Supreme Court has handed down its ruling in Winkelman v. Parma City School District, holding that parents of a minor child with a disability may represent their child without a lawyer in federal court under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This resolves a split between the Circuit Courts. More information is available at the Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute.

Religion-oriented Bulletin Board Material Removal Upheld

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously held that school officials did not violate a teacher's 1st Amendment rights by forcing him to remove religiously-oriented materials.  The materials that William Lee put on the bulletin board of the high school Spanish class he taught included "...a flier publicizing the National Day of Prayer, a depiction of George Washington praying at Valley Forge, and articles about President Bush's religious faith and former Attorney General John Ashcroft's prayer meetings with his employees."  Holding that no limited public forum existed, Judge Robert King wrote that, "[t]he items do not constitute speech on a matter of public concern and are not protected by the First Amendment."