In 2019, about 22% of U.S. students ages 12-18 reported being bullied, with a higher percentage of female students than male students reporting victimization. Recent empirical reports indicate that students with disabilities are more likely to experience bullying and be punished for bullying. Bullying has been linked to increased risk for…

The rise of social media use among school youth has compelled school districts to implement social media monitoring to prevent active shootings, bullying, harassment, victimization, and suicide in the community. This presents an ethical and legal dilemma, with issues surrounding students' rights to safety, privacy, and free speech in cyberspace.…

M. Alison Kibler is Professor of American Studies and Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies at Franklin and Marshall College. She has taught "Rights and Representations", a seminar for first year students, focusing on the tension between free speech and equality in American law and politics, for fifteen years. In this article, Kibler…

A persistent problem in the professional literature in school psychology and related fields, such as special education, is the insufficient treatment of legal issues in terms of not only quantity (e.g., Zaheer & Zirkel, 2014) but also quality (e.g., Zirkel, 2014). The quality dimension is illustrated in the coverage of the Supreme Court's…

Group decision-making can result in important benefits for organizational effectiveness. However, collaborative environments do not emerge organically. Effective leadership is critical for group success. Educational leaders must understand group processes and the importance of creating a culture that supports collaboration. Student discipline for…

School Boards desiring to avoid the requirements of the Equal Access Act (EAA) to prevent students from organizing Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) clubs within their schools may have difficulty doing so. However, legal experts have recently purported ways to accomplish this task in order to avoid the problems that may arise when students attempt to…

There is no evidence that physically restraining or putting children in unsupervised seclusion in the K-12 school system provides any educational or therapeutic benefit to a child. In fact, use of either seclusion or restraints in non-emergency situations poses significant physical and psychological danger to students. Yet the first round of data…

Hardly a week passes without yet another highly visible court case involving the rights and freedoms of secondary school students. The subject matter of these lawsuits is as varied as the activities of the students who have gone to court to vindicate their legal interests. The outcome of such cases also runs the gamut; some student plaintiffs (and…

According to an Education Commission of the States "Policy Report", research on the effects of dress code and school uniform policies is inconclusive and mixed. Some researchers find positive effects; others claim no effects or only perceived effects. While no state has legislatively mandated the wearing of school uniforms, 28 states and…

This guide is intended to give individual school board directors an introduction to some of the legal issues they may encounter in their board service. This material is not intended to answer every question, even in the subject matter areas they cover. This guide is merely intended to alert directors to the legal issues that they will encounter…

Despite the less-than-weighty incident at its core--the display of a homemade banner emblazoned with "Bong Hits 4 Jesus"--a case that the U.S. Supreme Court will take up carries potentially far-reaching consequences for student speech, and for the legal protections of public school educators. From a sea of controversies over student…

School business officials and other education leaders worry now more than ever about facing legal battles. Maybe today's parents are more likely to run to the lawyer's office. Or maybe they simply expect everything to be a certain way--their way. Regardless, the result is the same: today's school leaders are likely to find themselves having to…

Most people have at least secondhand knowledge about Second Life, a virtual-reality world created by Linden Lab, in which avatars (digital characters) lease "islands" for real-life purposes--to sell products, conduct classes, do research, hold conferences, and even recruit for admissions. About nine million avatars reportedly interact on this…

An incident in which a student journalist was denied a press pass to interview President Carter points up the problems student reporters frequently face in attempting to obtain press passes. (GT)

In "New Jersey v. T.L.O." (1985), the U.S. Supreme Court reduced the evidentiary standard applying to search and seizure by school officials from "probable cause" to "reasonable suspicion." However, search of students should be done only when absolutely necessary (for safety or "order" reasons), and a…