Discusses 2002 U.S. Supreme Court's unanimous opinion in "Owasso Independent School District" (Oklahoma) holding that peer grading does not violate the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). (PKP)

In an Oklahoma case, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that student grading of other students' work must be anonymous. By implication, the decision raises questions about other practices, such as displaying excellent student papers, awarding group grades, and publishing names of honor-roll students. (MLH)

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in New Jersey vs. T.L.O. suggests the legality of student searches by school officials should not depend on strict adherence to the probable cause standard, but on its reasonableness of suspicion and scope. (DCS)

In the April 1999 issue of this journal, Michael Ferraraccio argues that the justifications advanced for using metal detectors in schools are not sufficiently compelling to outweigh students' Fourth Amendment privacy rights. In the accompanying Counterpoint, Robert Johnson cites lower court cases to support the constitutionality of their used on a…

In a federal case involving a vice-principal's pat-down search of middle-school students in a cafeteria (for a missing pizza knife), the court upheld the search, saying it was relatively unintrusive and met "TLO's" reasonable-suspicion standards. Principals need reasonable justification for searching a group. (Contains 18 references.)…

A complex case involving a disgruntled ex-employee's invasion of a college president's e-mail system resulted in a decision granting two plaintiffs' motions for summary judgment. This was the first recorded education-related collision on the electronic superhighway. Every educational institution should have a policy and procedure regarding what…

Describes a complex court case involving a Massachusetts elementary teacher whose contract was not renewed because she was cohabiting with a suspected (but eventually exonerated) child abuser. School officials should resist the knee-jerk reaction to terminate a teacher's contract on the grounds of narrow, homogeneous community values regarding…

After being accused of sexually harassing a student, a high school math teacher in New York was suspended with pay pending an impartial hearing. The district allowed the teacher to return to his classroom to collect his personal effects, which he had kept in boxes, desk drawers, and three filing cabinets, one of which was locked. He did not…

An elementary school teacher from Worcester, Massachusetts, was reprimanded and received a two-day suspension and a series of involuntary transfers after being reluctant to turn a case study (done for a college class) of a disturbed student in to her principal. Rights of privacy of public employees are discussed and Supreme Court decision in…

In 1996, a small group of Roman Catholic parents in a suburban New York district filed suit, claiming that a new program was promoting Satanism, occultism, and New Age spirituality. Activities included a Ganesha story, worry dolls, stories on Buddha and Quetzalcoatl, poetry writing, psychic phenomena, and a cemetery visit. To be continued. (MLH)

By upholding a student's refusal to provide a urine sample, the Seventh Circuit Court correctly avoided further erosion of the Fourth Amendment's privacy principle. In "New Jersey v T.L.O." (1995), the U.S. Supreme Court shrunk the probable-cause standard to reasonable suspicion in the special context of public schools, retaining the…

In July 2000, the Commonwealth Court (of Pennsylvania) issued a decision upholding Bethlehem School District's 10-day suspension of a middle-schooler who had created a website that childishly ridiculed a teacher and the principal. This decision is another that subordinates students' 14th Amendment rights to school-safety concerns. (MLH)

The 11th Circuit Court upheld a Georgia district's termination of an exemplary teacher who refused an immediate drug test after a police dog sniffed out a marijuana cigarette in her unlocked car. This case illustrates application of zero-tolerance policies to teachers and other personnel despite employees' signed contracts. (MLH)

Comments on an article in the Summer 1992 issue of this journal (EJ 454 315) in which Professor J. M. Sanchez examined 18 decisions regarding student searches and concluded that the "T.L.O." decision made it possible to practically expunge the Fourth Amendment from American public schools. Introduces article by Lawrence Rossow (EA 530…

Reviews Ridgewood, New Jersey, case wherein several parents claimed that school district's student survey violated students' privacy rights protected by the Constitution and two federal statutes: The Family Rights and Privacy Act and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment. Discusses subsequent federal regulatory and state legislative action.…