high school

Anti-Bullying Legislation: Good Intentions, but…

By |2020-01-03T13:43:11-05:00September 1st, 2011|Blog|

A New Jersey state law coming into effect today (Sept 1st)  is considered the “toughest legislation against bullying in the nation”. It may, however, also prove to be dangerously overbroad and stifle student speech on a variety of topics. Called the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights, the law was adopted in the aftermath of the suicide of a Rutgers University student [...]

Supreme Court Rejects Dress Code Case

By |2019-03-14T17:36:16-04:00January 14th, 2010|Blog|

Earlier this week the Supreme Court denied petition to review a high school student’s challenge to his school’s dress code. In denying review, the Supreme Court has chosen to leave the lower court’s holding intact — a holding that serves as a dangerous curtailment of students’ rights of freedom of expression. Paul “Pete” Palmer was found to be in violation [...]

School’s Punishment Runs Afoul of First Amendment Freedoms Online: J.C. v. Beverly Hills Unified School District

By |2020-01-03T13:36:30-05:00January 8th, 2010|Blog|

Schools that dish out draconian punishments to students who are mean to each other online (aka cyberbullying) risk running afoul of the First Amendment. Beverly Vista School, a K-8 school in the Beverly Hills Unified School District, learned this lesson via a November 2009 court ruling, where the federal district court for the Central District of California found that administrators [...]

School Cancels Bill Ayers Speech

By |2020-01-03T13:26:28-05:00March 30th, 2009|Blog|

The Naperville, IL, School District has cancelled a visit by Bill Ayers at Naperville North High School after the visit scheduled for April 8th sparked heated controversy in the community. Ayers is a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s College of Education.  His radical activism and involvement in the 1960s group, the Weathermen, has drawn criticism. The event [...]

Teacher fired for pushing for class project on The Laramie Project

By |2020-01-03T13:35:54-05:00March 17th, 2009|Blog|

Following good news of Steve Martin’s bailout, there’s more bad news on the high school drama front. USA Today reports on the firing of a teacher who led a class project on The Laramie Project – a play and film based on responses from Laramie residents after the murder of Matthew Shepherd. The teacher – Debra Taylor – led a [...]

Students, Principals and fake Myspace profiles

By |2020-01-06T00:06:56-05:00December 12th, 2008|Blog|

Yesterday we wrote about the student who was suspended for a Facebook page she created criticizing her teacher. Today: we look at two Myspace student cases facing the court. In Layshock v. Hermitage School District, high school senior Justin Layshock created a fake Myspace profile of Hickory High School principal Eric Trosch. The profile said that Trosch was a “big [...]

Go to Top