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…

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)

Kurt Vonnegut states that in banning books from publicly supported institutions, censors (including school board members) are violating the Constitution. (WD)

The Ninth Circuit Court's decision upholding the Madison School District's policy allowing students to speak (and pray) at graduation ceremonies is correct. So long as students are selected by religiously neutral criteria (class rank) and can speak on any topic, the Free Speech Clause should protect that student's expression. (MLH)

Cites a case involving a superintendent's cancellation of an objectionable school play and outlines how to make sure decisions about such matters will hold up in court. (JM)

A Pennsylvania case shows that once a school auditorium becomes a designated public forum, the free speech clause of the First Amendment requires the board to allow other similarly situated outsiders (including religious groups) to use the facilities for expressive activity. Another Pennsylvania case involving dual employment upheld a teacher's…

Questions a recent court decision in which public school employees who gathered on their own time on school property for prayer meetings and religious discussion were found to be in violation of the school district's policy prohibiting prayer meetings and in violation of the Constitution. (MD)

Outlines a case in which the school board was overly restrictive of teachers' speech. Advises boards to be aware of policies that make questionable distinctions, not to be slow in changing a questionable policy, to try to anticipate side effects of policies, and to be willing to admit error. (Author/IRT)

In a Sixth Circuit Court decision, Judge Harry Welford concluded that the First Amendment did not prohibit an Ohio school district from banning Marilyn Manson T-shirts under the district's constitutional authority to regulate student speech (disruptive behavior) that conflicts with its basic educational mission. (MLH)

Discusses student rights in the areas of dress codes, freedom of speech, and due process. (JF)

Offers guidelines to administrators to assist them in deciding at what point a student publication poses such a real and substantial threat to students or to the academic process that legal restriction would be required. (JF)

Analyzes federal case involving suspension of New Jersey high school student for wearing a T-shirt listing top 10 reasons for being a "redneck" in violation of district's racial harassment policy. Court upheld the policy with a minor exception, but ruled its application to the student's "redneck" T-shirt violated his First…

The Good News Club sued the Milford (New York) Public Schools in federal district court for prohibiting the group from meeting on school grounds. Judge McVoy dismissed the case; the club's weekly meetings did not fit the category of secular youth group meetings allowed in the district's limited public forum. (MLH)

Discusses basis for the June 2001 U.S. Supreme Court's 6-3 decision in New York case "Good News Club v. Milford Central School," wherein Court held that the Christian religious club for students had the Constitutional right under Free Speech Clause of First Amendment to use public school facilities after school hours. (PKP)