NSBA Legal Clips
Archived entries for Fourteenth Amendment

Student barred from graduation for printing offensive material on school computer sues, claiming previous suspension was sufficient punishment

According to the Chicago Tribune, a New Tier High School senior, who has been barred from attending graduation ceremonies because he printed offensive materials on a school computer, is suing the school district claiming his previously-served suspension was sufficient punishment and he shouldn’t be penalized further. John Matthews, the student in question, is asking a Cook County circuit court for an immediate injunction against the school’s suspension, which bars him from attending the June 5, 2011 graduation ceremony and party.

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Two civil rights groups target Minnesota school district over its sexual orientation policy

The Pioneer Press reports that the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) have sent a letter to Anoka-Hennepin School District (AHSD) asking it to repeal its “Sexual Orientation Curriculum Policy” or face legal action. SPLC and NCLR contend the policy, which instructs school staff, “in the course of their professional duties…to remain neutral on matters regarding sexual orientation,” perpetuates a hostile environment for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students.

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State and local officials mount federal legal challenge to Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights law

Education News Colorado reports that a cross section of legislators, local government officials and others have filed a lawsuit in federal court charging that the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) amendment to the state constitution violates the “representative” form of government required of each state by the U.S. Constitution because the amendment takes away the legislature’s power to tax.

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Federal appellate court holds school officials did not violate students’ free speech rights by censoring student newspaper

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (NY, VT, CT) has ruled that school officials did not violate students’ free speech rights when they refused to allow the student newspaper to run a sexually explicit cartoon accompanying an article about sex education. The panel found that the officials were justified in regulating such speech under the standards established in Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675, 683 (1986), which affords schools wide discretion to prohibit speech that is “lewd, indecent, or offensive,” and Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260, 273 (1988), which permits schools to censor school-sponsored speech in ways “reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns.”

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Tennessee appellate court holds suspended student was not denied due process because school district official served dual role of investigator and decision maker

The Tennessee Court of Appeals has ruled that a school board did not violate the procedural due process of a student given a short-term suspension (10 days) because a school official served as both investigator and decision maker at the disciplinary hearing. It also held that the hearing panel’s decision was not arbitrary.

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Bullying suit claims Texas school district ignored bullying, destroyed evidence

Courthouse News Service reports that the parent of a middle school student who committed suicide has filed suit against the president and vice-president of the Cy-Fair Independent School District and Hamilton Middle School’s principal and vice-principal. Amy Brown Truong, who brought the suit on behalf of her son Asher Brown’s estate, alleges that her son committed suicide after a bully kicked him down two flights of stairs at school. Her suit charges that school officials developed a “custom of looking the other way,” and that after her son’s suicide the district destroyed video of the boy being bullied in school and on the bus.

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Federal appellate court upholds qualified immunity for police officers who searched members of high school soccer team with coach’s consent

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in a 2-1 split, has ruled that police officers who searched members of a high school soccer team were entitled to qualified immunity from the team members’ claims of violation of their Fourth Amendment search and seizure rights and their Fourteenth Amendment equal protection rights.

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Laid-off Chicago teachers have due process right to recall procedures, without union input

In a 2-1 split, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has ruled that Chicago teachers who were laid off for economic reasons have Fourteenth Amendment due process rights to recall procedures when new positions become available; however, the state education code does not require the school board to consult with the union in promulgating those procedures.

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Constitutionality of Georgia’s anti-nepotism law regarding eligibility to serve on local school boards is not subject to strict scrutiny by courts

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (AL, GA, FL) has ruled that a federal district court erred in issuing a preliminary injunction barring Georgia’s Secretary of State from enforcing a provision in the state law making a person ineligible to serve on a local school board if that person “has an immediate family member sitting on [that] local board of education or serving as the local school superintendent or as a principal, assistant principal, or system administrative staff in the local school system.” The panel found that the district court erred when it applied strict scrutiny in analyzing the statute’s constitutionality under the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and the First Amendment provision guaranteeing freedom of association. The panel determined, however, that the lower court was correct in finding that the Secretary of State was the proper party to the suit.

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School employees violated student’s constitutional right to privacy by releasing poorly-redacted psychiatric evaluation to class of 11-graders

A federal district court in New Jersey has decided that a social worker and special education instructor employed by the school board are liable for violating a high school student’s federal and state constitutional right to privacy. After dismissing claims against the school board and other school officials, the court determined that the two individuals had acted intentionally in disclosing the student’s confidential psychiatric evaluation to a class of 11-grade students, making them liable both for the constitutional violations and for negligence.

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