According to The Register-Guard, school districts across the country have faced lawsuits in recent years for failing to do more to prevent student-on-student bullying and harassment.
Continue reading...The Washington Post reports that to help public schools with balancing school safety and religious freedom, a broad coalition of educators and religious groups, from the National Association of Evangelicals to the National School Boards Association, has endorsed a new pamphlet, “Harassment, Bullying and Free Expression: Guidelines for Free and Safe Public Schools,” which was authored chiefly by the American Jewish Committee.
Continue reading...The Oregonian reports that Beaverton School District has won a lawsuit brought by the parent of a middle school student who was subjected to peer bullying.
Continue reading...According to an Associated Press (AP) report in The Washington Post, the Ramsey Board of Education (RBOE) has agreed to pay $4.2 million to settle a lawsuit by a then-middle school student who was paralyzed when a known bully punched him in the abdomen.
Continue reading...Six former and current teachers at Kemp Mill Elementary School are suing Montgomery County Public schools over allegations of bullying by the school’s principal, says the Washington Post. The suit claims Principal Floyd Starnes bullied and harassed teachers who sought to improve classroom conditions.
Continue reading...The Anoka-Hennepin School District (AHSD) in Minnesota has entered into a consent decree with the U.S. Dept. of Justice and the U.S. Dept. of Education, Office for Civil Rights resolving the federal civil rights investigation and two separate actions against the district and several administrators. As reported by the Star Tribune, AHSD’s school board voted 5-1 to approve the settlement agreement with six former and current students who claim they were targets of peer bullying based on their sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation.
Continue reading...According to Associated Press (AP), the Anoka-Hennepin School Board has abandoned a much-criticized policy that required teachers to remain neutral when issues of sexual identity arose in the classroom, replacing it with a policy designed to create respectful discussion about controversial topics. With only one dissenting vote, the school board dropped a policy that is the subject of two lawsuits by critics who contend it muzzled teachers and prevented them from holding effective discussions to reduce bullying against students who are gay or perceived to be gay.
Continue reading...A federal district court in Delaware has granted a school district summary judgment, rejecting a student’s Title IX claim based on student-on-student sexual harassment. The district court concluded that the plaintiffs had failed to show that the defendants were “deliberately indifferent” to the student-on-student sexual harassment the student experienced or that the defendants’ responses to known instances of harassment were “clearly unreasonable.”
Continue reading...A bill that would allow schools to punish students for off-campus actions was approved by the Indiana House of Representatives in January 2012 and is sitting in a Senate committee, says Student Press Law Center. According to state Rep. Eric Koch, House Bill (HB) 1169 is an attempt to deal with growing issues like cyberbullying and cheating.
Continue reading...An obscure New Jersey state council has ruled that the state’s tough new anti-bullying law constitutes an unfunded mandate for local school districts and must be amended in order for the law to remain in effect, says an Associated Press (AP) report in the New Jersey Herald. The Council on Local Mandates ruled 7-2 that the law requires local school districts to provide training and personnel but doesn’t pay for them. The New Jersey School Boards Association (NJSBA) would like to help the state come up with a method that would provide “adequate financial support” for the law, which NJSBA described as “well-intentioned.”
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