Education Law

Teacher Fired for Out-of-Wedlock Pregnancy Claims Illegal Gender Bias in Lawsuit

A Florida teacher who was fired from a Christian school for getting pregnant before marriage has filed a federal discrimination lawsuit in Orlando. Jarretta Hamilton was fired after she sought maternity leave at Southland Christian School in St. Cloud, Fla. and truthfully answered a principal’s question about the timing of…

Jun 15, 2010 4:11 PM CDT

Catchy ‘School-to-Prison Pipeline’ Phrase Cited in Motion to Oust ACLU Lawyers

When lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union filed a March lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of practices in Rhode Island’s truancy courts, the media relations effort cranked into high gear. An ACLU press release said the suit was part of an effort to “end the school-to-prison pipeline.” An ACLU senior…

Jun 11, 2010 6:15 PM CDT

Harvard English Major Criminally Charged re Claimed Lies & Cheats Also Got Into Stanford

A Delaware man who allegedly was admitted to Harvard University and won nearly $50,000 in scholarships and prizes as an English major there based on lies and plagiarism had been admitted to Stanford University this coming fall as a transfer student. However, following publicity about the Massachusetts criminal case against…

Jun 9, 2010 9:28 PM CDT

Ballard Spahr Bill Near $750K in Ongoing School Laptop Webcam Case

Legal fees charged by Ballard Spahr and a computer forensic expert the law firm retained are nearing $750,000 in a four-month-old matter concerning a school district’s controversial remote activation of webcams on the laptop computers it issued to students. A lawyer for the plaintiffs in a federal class action seeking…

Jun 8, 2010 2:44 PM CDT

Hearing Granted for 13-Year-Old Suspended for Wearing Rosary to School

A 13-year-old boy suspended from his New York school for wearing rosary beads can return to school after a federal judge ordered a hearing to determine whether the student’s civil rights were violated. Oneida Middle School officials were ordered to reinstate the boy on Tuesday after the American Center for…

Jun 2, 2010 2:14 PM CDT

Hospital Treats Patients By Pointing Them to Legal Help

The rats kept scurrying through Idrissa Munu’s home in Washington, D.C., for several years, even after he killed three with a baseball bat and took them in a plastic bag to the property manager’s office to complain. But after a doctor at the Children’s National Medical Center connected the rodents—and…

May 27, 2010 10:59 AM CDT

George Mason, Law Dean Win Bench Dismissal of Rotunda Sex-Harass Suit

Ruling from the bench, a federal judge in Virginia has dismissed all claims against George Mason University and its law school dean in a high-profile sexual harassment suit. Brought by Kyndra Rotunda, who is a former director of a law school legal clinic for members of the military and the…

May 24, 2010 6:39 PM CDT

Harvard English Major Criminally Charged Over Alleged Trail of Lies & Plagiarism

A 23-year-old senior majoring in English at Harvard University is facing 20 criminal charges over an alleged trail of lies and plagiarism. Among other claimed misconduct, Adam Wheeler is accused of creating a fraudulent life history to get into Harvard; lying to obtain $45,000 in grants, scholarships and financial aid;…

May 17, 2010 8:38 PM CDT

Zero Tolerance for Junk Food at Lunch Puts Girl in School Detention for Week

Updated: A third-grader in Texas is paying the price for eating a Jolly Rancher candy at lunch–one week’s detention during lunch and recess periods. The seemingly harsh penalty is necessary, officials at Brazos Independent School District say, because the district risks losing funding if it violates a state guideline by…

May 7, 2010 6:49 PM CDT

Student Warned Defendant School Dist. in ‘08 of Potential Webcam Privacy Peril

In 2008, as a suburban Philadelphia school district was beginning a noble experiment intended to guarantee that every student had access to a state-of-the-art computer, a high school student saw a potential problem. Lower Merion School District would have the ability to monitor students remotely, via the laptops’ webcams, and…

May 3, 2010 11:30 PM CDT

U of Wyo. Must Let Controversial 1960s Radical Bill Ayers Speak, Federal Judge Rules

A federal judge has countermanded the University of Wyoming’s decision not to let 1960s radical Bill Ayers speak on campus today. The state-funded institution had cited safety concerns, but U.S. District Judge William Downes held yesterday that protesters’ threatened violence was too vague to justify excluding Ayers, reports the Associated…

Apr 28, 2010 11:57 PM CDT

Lawyer with Special Needs Niche Accused of Practicing Without License

A Washington, D.C.-area lawyer who worked his way into the close-knit childhood autism and special needs community with a niche practice focused on special education issues wasn’t licensed for at least three years even while taking on many of the cases. The Washington Post reports that Howard D. Deiner once…

Apr 23, 2010 11:09 AM CDT

School District Snapped 56,000 Images on Student Webcams

An upscale suburban Philadelphia school district accused of secretly snapping photos of high school students at home via webcams on their district-issued laptop computers has completed an investigation. And it apparently supports at least some of the claims made in a federal lawsuit filed by the parents of one sophomore.…

Apr 20, 2010 5:57 PM CDT

Filing: School District Took Thousands of Pics of Students at Home Via Laptop Webcams

When news broke in February that an upscale suburban Philadelphia school district had been accused of spying on students at home via remotely activated webcams on their district-issued laptop computers, officials said the webcams were only activated if a computer had been reported missing or stolen. But that wasn’t true,…

Apr 19, 2010 7:57 PM CDT

Students Disciplined for Fake MySpace Profiles of Principals Get 3rd Circuit Rehearing

Students who were disciplined for creating fake MySpace profiles that portrayed their principals as a heavy drinker in one case and a sex addict in the other will get a rehearing on their First Amendment claims before an en banc federal appeals court. The Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of…

Apr 13, 2010 1:57 PM CDT