Education Law

Student Faces Backlash After Winning Legal Battle Over Prayer Hanging on School Wall

A Rhode Island girl who successfully waged a legal battle to get a prayer removed from the wall of her high school auditorium is now suffering the wrath of her deeply religious neighbors. Jessica Ahlquist, 16, has gotten online threats, and police have escorted her at school. A state lawmaker…

Jan 27, 2012 11:18 PM CST

NY Times Reporter Sounds off on Legal Education, Accreditation and the ‘Crazy’ Race for Rankings

New York Times reporter David Segal, whose recent series of stories on legal education has touched off a furor in the legal community, says law schools have taken the quest for higher rankings and greater prestige to “an incredibly destructive” place. Segal says the “madness” created by U.S. News and…

Jan 27, 2012 9:38 PM CST

Ex-Student Claims School Newspaper Used His Photo In Story About STDs

A 2011 graduate of a Miami-area high school is suing district officials over a photograph of him that was allegedly used to illustrate a story about sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers in the school newspaper. Kenneth “Kenny” Clements, 18, says the story damaged his reputation and earned the nickname “STD…

Jan 27, 2012 6:00 PM CST

Dad Gets Protection Order Against 4th-Grader, Calls Child’s Alleged Threats a Serious School Issue

When the father of a California elementary school student wasn’t satisfied with the school administration’s response to another child’s alleged threats, he took the matter outside. In what may be a first for the school district, a local court in Riverside County has issued a restraining order to require the…

Jan 26, 2012 9:24 PM CST

ABA Committee Approves New Law School Disclosure Requirements

An ABA committee has approved a proposed new accreditation standard that would greatly expand the amount of graduate placement data law schools must publicly disclose to prospective students. But it wasn’t easy. Committee members got into a protracted and sometimes testy debate Saturday over one provision of the proposed new…

Jan 17, 2012 10:19 PM CST

Supreme Court Bars Narcoleptic Lutheran Teacher’s Suit Against Church School

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against a narcoleptic Lutheran school teacher who claimed retaliation when her church school refused to rehire her after disability leave. The unanimous opinion (PDF) by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. found that the school was protected from suit under the “ministerial exception” to…

Jan 11, 2012 3:57 PM CST

ABA Urges Judge Not to Intervene In Accreditation Denial

The ABA is urging a judge not to intervene in its decision (PDF) last month to deny provisional accreditation to a Tennessee law school that is now suing the association over alleged antitrust and due process violations. In a brief (PDF) filed Tuesday, the ABA says that Duncan School of…

Jan 4, 2012 8:15 PM CST

Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School to Launch Savannah Branch

Atlanta’s John Marshall Law School has announced plans to open a branch campus next fall in Savannah, Ga. The new location, which has been approved by the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, will be called Savannah Law School, the National Law Journal reports. John Marshall…

Dec 13, 2011 11:53 PM CST

School Dist. Faces New Suit re Alleged Laptop Webcam Spying, By Sister of Teen Who Got $175K

A suburban Philadelphia school district reacted with outrage today, after learning that it had been sued again, by the sister of a teen student to whom it had made a $175,000 settlement, concerning alleged illegal webcam monitoring in their home on a Harriton High School-supplied laptop. Paige Robbins, 18, says…

Dec 9, 2011 3:33 PM CST

Boy ‘Burping Audibly’ in PE Class Leads to His Arrest and Parental Lawsuit

A 10-year-old New Mexico boy was arrested, handcuffed and taken to a juvenile detention center earlier this year simply for “audibly burping” in his physical education class, a lawsuit alleges. The unidentified Cleveland Middle School child wasn’t charged. However, his parents, who say they weren’t notified before he was detained,…

Dec 2, 2011 2:57 PM CST

DC Agency Tosses Law Prof’s Bias Complaint over Same-Sex Dorms, Cites ‘Absurd Results’

George Washington University law professor John Banzhaf has lost his case contending same-sex dorms at the Catholic University of America violate discrimination laws. The D.C. Office of Human Rights dismissed Banzhaf’s complaint in an order issued Tuesday, according to a Catholic University press release and the Associated Press. Banzhaf had…

Nov 30, 2011 3:35 PM CST

High School Had Right to Search 18-Year-Old’s Car for Smokes; Drug, Weapon Charges Result

At 18 years of age, Joseph A. Voss Jr. was old enough to smoke without violating the law. But because he was potentially violating high school rules if found to be doing so on campus, officials were within their rights to search the senior student’s car in the parking lot…

Nov 28, 2011 11:45 PM CST

Lawyer’s Son Among 20 Charged in SAT Cheating Case; Lawmaker Points Finger at Some Parents

At least one lawyer’s son is among 20 individuals charged in a widening criminal case focused on New York high school students who allegedly paid ringers up to $3,500 to take their standardized college entrance exams for them. The 13 most recently charged include both four who were allegedly paid…

Nov 23, 2011 2:19 AM CST

All 5 Centre County Judges Decline to Hear Child-Abuse Case Against Ex-Penn State Coach Sandusky

To avoid actual or perceived connections to Pennsylvania State University, its football team or the Second Mile charity founded by former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, all five of Centre County’s judges have recused themselves from hearing the child sex-abuse case against Sandusky. Two other jurists with no known connection…

Nov 22, 2011 10:51 PM CST

Judge Posner Urges Deference for Schools, Says ‘Coddled’ Kids Should Roll with the Punches

Judge Richard Posner admits he was a bit of a teacher’s pet when he was a kid. He does recall a detention—based on false accusations, he says—and he also remembers that he never considered the idea of a lawsuit over the discipline. “When I was a kid, the notion that…

Nov 17, 2011 6:08 PM CST