Suicide rates among teenagers have increased significantly in recent years. The professional literature for public school personnel has been increasingly extensive. Yet, the corresponding coverage of liability case law regarding student suicide has been far from systematic and objective. An article in a legal periodical, written by Zirkel and…

One central controversy with youth sexting is that adolescents may be prosecuted under child pornography and obscenity statutes that were originally created to protect children from sexual exploitation perpetrated by adults and do not adequately address consensual teen behavior. Due to this concern, many states have implemented laws specifically…

Ritha Smith, assistant superintendent, and Seth Hanson, principal, are faced with a difficult decision. Taylor Harper is a transgender student who identifies as male and is openly attracted to females. Taylor's parents, Lane and Morgan Harper, are lesbians; they are fully supportive of their child's identification and are well versed in their…

Purpose: This article examines the role social science has played in litigation involving public single-sex educational programs. It also explores a body of social science research related to gender and education that we believe could assist the courts and school leaders in better examining the possibilities and the limitations of single-sex…

This study explores four instances where parental choice has been employed as a legal "circuit breaker": (a) First Amendment Establishment Clause cases related to public funding, (b) Fourteenth Amendment Equal Protection cases regarding race-conscious student assignment, (c) Title IX regulations concerning single-sex education, and (d) a…

This dissertation explored the constitutionality of a Georgia law, under both the Georgia Constitution and the United States Constitution, which allows for the removal of elected school board members based on threatened loss of district accreditation. The problem is that elected board members are being removed from office based on district…

Educational leaders are bound by legal and ethical imperatives to make certain that all children have access to an education and the opportunity to learn. To better understand how law and ethics intersect, this article adopted the cultural study perspective to analyze U.S. Supreme Court opinions for language revealing the intersection of law and…

The purpose for this article is to explore the juxtaposition of legal expectations, conflicting community cultural values, and the role of the superintendent in these connected but often conflicting issues. The authors explore several issues through the lens of Gay-Straight Alliance clubs, the "Equal Access Act," and the role of the…

The number of lawsuits pertaining to educationally related issues is on the rise in the US (Mounts, 1999). Garner (2000) reports that teachers consider legal issues the third most important area of teacher preparation. However, few universities offer undergraduate courses in educational law and few programs offer comprehensive training concerning…

Litigation against colleges and universities has prompted the need to re-examine the legalities of the means by which they strive for a diverse student population. Court decisions have resulted in mixed signals about the use of various types of affirmative action policies. This study' method presented an analysis of archival data to provide a…

This article reports a U.S. Supreme Court decision last week which supports the parents of a Massachusetts student who claimed that school officials failed to respond adequately to sexual harassment of their daughter--then in kindergarten--by a 3rd grade boy on her bus. The parents sued the district under both Title IX and Section 1983. In the…

Section 1983 of the U.S. Constitution provides individuals (including students) with the right to sue persons (including principals) acting "under color of law" for damages incurred in violation of their federal rights. This article examines two corporal punishment cases involving elementary school students involving possible due process…

With the maturation of the internet more and more colleges and universities are offering online courses. As these courses enter the mainstream, public policy issues are beginning to emerge. Many of these involve the tension between the "work for hire" doctrine and academic freedom that occurs when educational institutions offer these…

This article discusses practical guidance on schools' legal rights and responsibilities with respect to students, programs, and curriculum. Like all other individuals, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students are guaranteed equal protection under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution and free speech and association under the…

Blackstone's Commentaries stated that the common law imposed a duty on parents to provide for the maintenance, protection, and education of their children, and of these, the duty to provide an education was "of far the greatest importance." Early on American courts cited Blackstone for the proposition of the common law duty of parents…