Analyzes free-speech challenge to school district's guidelines for acceptable expressions on ceramic tiles painted by Columbine High School students to express their feelings about the massacre. Tenth Circuit found that tile painting constituted school-sponsored speech and thus district had the constitutional authority under "Hazelwood School…

Reviews the Supreme Court's decision in "Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education" affirming court-ordered desegregation to remedy government-sanctioned desegregation. Discusses decision by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that ended federal court supervision of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District's efforts to achieve…

Analyzes New Jersey case wherein a federal district-court judge ruled that religious group had the First Amendment free-speech right to distribute flyers and permission slips to students, post notices on school walls, and participate in back-to-school night in effort to establish a student religious club in two elementary schools. (PKP)

Discusses 2001 U.S. Supreme Court decision in "Gonzaga University v. Doe" wherein the Court held that because Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) does not create federal privacy rights, students and parents cannot sue educational institutions under Section 1983 seeking damages for FERPA violations. Nevertheless, educational…

In a 6-3 decision expanding on its 1992 graduation prayer ruling in "Lee v. Weisman," the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Santa Fe (Texas) Independent School District's pregame prayer policy. Justice Stevens pointed to significant school involvement in such student-led prayers and their coercive effects. (MLH)

In a case involving a knife in a car and a school's zero-tolerance policy, a circuit court decided it was unfair to expel a student for possessing a prohibited item if he did not know of its presence. Injury to another is impossible under those circumstances! (MLH)

Discusses Oklahoma case ("Owasso Independent School District No. 1-001 v. Falvo") wherein the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in February 2002 that peer grading did not violate the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). (PKP)

In a case from Oklahoma-"Falvo v. Owasso Independent School District," the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Family Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) prohibits the practice of directing students to grade one another's assignments. Students are not education professionals; only teachers should grade student work. (MLH)

In an Oklahoma case, absence of a documented drug problem among students in nonathletic extracurricular activities led the10th Circuit Court to strike down the district's policy as unreasonable and unconstitutional. Imposing random, suspicionless drug-testing policies for all students attending school might violate the Fourth Amendment. (MLH)

Previous "School Law" columns discussed developments under Title IX (Educational Amendments of 1970), noting a trend among federal courts to apply Title IX's prohibition against sexual harassment to peer and employee-to-student sexual harassment. A recent Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision against the Santa Rosa City School District…

In a case involving an injured football player, an 11th Circuit judge viewed a coach's refusal to stop a fight as corporal punishment. Federal courts in five circuits have ruled that excessive corporal punishment violates the Due Process Clause if it is so brutal and harmful that it shocks the court's conscience. (MLH)

Discusses the implications of "Niziol," a case in which a Florida high school student was killed in the school parking lot when his gun accidentally discharged. The parents sued the school board in federal district court. The magistrate dismissed all the federal law claims, though she postponed her decision on the state law claims. (MLF)

Analyzes recent U.S. Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in "Zelman v. Simmons-Harris," upholding the constitutionality of Cleveland's voucher program that provided public funds to private religious schools. Majority held that voucher program did not violate the Establishment Clause of the 14th Amendment. (PKP)

Although the U.S. Supreme Court allows students to sue districts (under Title IX) over teacher-student harassment, federal courts have split over peer harassment. In "Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education" (1999), the Supreme Court ruled that students can sue districts for inadequate responses to reported peer sexual harassment. (MLH)

A case involving an African-American teacher's complaint about a (reassigned) building engineer's abusive and racist language went nowhere. Apparently, the mere use of foul language does not establish a Title VII claim; the custodian's sporadic comments did not create a sufficiently "hostile work environment." (MLH)