school discipline – Overlawyered

Destructive rights of student inclusion

Walter Olson — Thu, 12 Dec 2019 10:55:59 +0000

If you have wondered how the Parkland killer could have asserted a legal right to be “mainstreamed” into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School despite a long history of violent tendencies, this investigation by the local newspaper may provide your answer.

In an eight-month investigation, the South Florida Sun Sentinel found that a sweeping push for “inclusion” enables unstable children to attend regular classes even though school districts severely lack the support staff to manage them. … Even threatening to shoot classmates is not a lawful reason to expel the child….

“It’s just a no-win scenario right now,” said attorney Julie Weatherly, of Mobile, Alabama, who advises school districts on the legal complexities of removing aggressive students when they have a disability. “Nobody wants a Parkland, of course. It’s this huge nightmare.”

Aside from IDEA, the federal disabled-rights-in-school laws, and its sometimes even more stringent state counterparts, federal education privacy laws are involved as well. A Broward County teacher chose to break the rules after an elementary student “obsessed” over a girl, tormented her if she withheld attention, and on being removed from the classroom one day cried and screamed her name while throwing himself against a door:

The girl’s mother had no idea her daughter was being terrorized. Because of the student’s federally protected privacy rights, Budrewicz’s bosses cautioned her not to tell the mother — a warning she ultimately defied. The mom cried and thanked her and removed her daughter from the class the next day, she said.

[Brittany Wallman and Megan O’Matz, South Florida Sun-Sentinel; earlier here and here]

Tags: disability & schools, Florida, privacy, school discipline

Destructive rights of student inclusion is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Schools roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 11 Nov 2019 10:58:24 +0000

“Sen. Kamala Harris introduces bill to lengthen school day by three hours” [Yelena Dzhanova, CNBC]
“The Hidden Costs of Chicago’s Teacher Strike” [John McGinnis, Liberty and Law]
“The logic behind school busing is back. And so is flight from government-operated schools.” [Matt Welch, Reason, mentioning new report on controlled choice by David Armor for the Cato Institute Center for Educational Freedom]
Ambition of suppressing or even banning private schooling [earlier] by no means confined to the UK’s loony-Left Labour Party, so be ready for it [Ira Stoll, Education Next]
“The Seattle school district is planning to infuse all K-12 math classes with ethnic-studies questions that encourage students to explore how math has been ‘appropriated’ by Western culture and used in systems of power and oppression” [Catherine Gewertz, Education Week; “framework” via Amir Sariaslan on Twitter]
“Threatening Teachers’ Ability to Control Their Classrooms: The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights gets it wrong on school discipline.” [Gail Heriot] Survey finds significant rise in number of teachers attacked by students [Hans Bader; earlier here, etc.] More: Max Eden, Quillette.

Tags: Chicago, Kamala Harris, school discipline, schools, Seattle

Schools roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Schools and childhood roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 11:05:06 +0000

“It also highlights the shortcomings of federal education [privacy] laws that protect even admitted killers like [the Parkland, Florida school gunman] who are no longer students.” [Brittany Wallman, Megan O’Matz and Paula McMahon, South Florida Sun Sentinel]
Germany forbids homeschooling and the European Court of Human Rights has just upheld the removal of four children from their parents’ home over the issue [BBC] Is there a constitutional right to homeschool in the U.S.? [Eugene Volokh]
By contrast, claims of a federal constitutional right to education tend to amount to a contemplated way for courts to order spending hikes for public schools, as many already do under state constitutions, a bandwagon the U.S. Supreme Court declined to join in San Antonio v. Rodriguez [Alia Wong, The Atlantic on Rhode Island suit]
Read and marvel at a waiver and indemnity form for letting an 8 year old walk home a block by herself [Let Grow] “Nine-Year-Old Boy Leads The Way As Colorado Town Legalizes Snowball Fights” [Bill Galluccio, iHeartRadio]
Texas school district settles case of student expelled for not standing during Pledge of Allegiance [Massarah Mikati and Gabrielle Banks, Houston Chronicle via Sarah McLaughlin and Popehat (“Alternative headline: Expensive, Uncertain, Stressful Federal Lawsuit Required To Force Texas School To Acknowledge Right Unequivocally Established By Supreme Court In 1943; Taxpayers To Pay Costs Of Lawsuit; Lawless Administrator Will Face No Consequences”)]
Latest leave-kid-in-car-for-a-few-minutes horror: mom arrested, charged with contributing to delinquency of minor (to whom nothing had happened) [Lenore Skenazy]
“The Trump administration got it right on school-discipline policy” [Hans Bader letter, Washington Post]

Tags: Germany, Rhode Island, school discipline, schools

Schools and childhood roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Feds to back off school discipline regs

Walter Olson — Thu, 13 Dec 2018 05:05:02 +0000

The U.S. Department of Education under Betsy DeVos plans to back off Obama-era guidance on disparate racial impact in K-12 school discipline; the regs have been a frequent target of scrutiny in this space. [Laura Meckler, Washington Post/Taunton Gazette] More: Hans Bader.

Tags: school discipline

Feds to back off school discipline regs is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Schools and childhood roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 10 Aug 2018 10:01:01 +0000

Judge greenlights lawsuit claiming right to literacy under California constitution [Stephen Sawchuk, Education Week] Whatever its surface appeal, legal right to literacy (or access to same) not in fact a good idea [Scott Greenfield on Michigan suit]
“Teachers’ unions plan to become ‘more political, not less political'” [Frederick Hess and Grant Addison] “The Long-Run Effects of Teacher Strikes: Evidence from Argentina” [David Jaume and Alexander Willén, Cato Research Brief] Worsening human capital outcomes: “The Long-run Effects of Teacher Collective Bargaining” [Michael Lovenheim and Alexander Willén, NBER via Tyler Cowen]
D.C.’s credentialism will hurt families: “Childcare Regulation and Quality” [Ryan Bourne, Cato, earlier here, here, here, and here]
“The Department of Education’s Obama-Era Initiative on Racial Disparities in School Discipline: Wrong for Students and Teachers, Wrong on the Law” [Gail Heriot, parts one, two, three]
“Mom Brings Coughing 10-Month-Old to the Hospital. Days Later, Cops Take the Baby.” [Lenore Skenazy, Minnesota]
“The New Head of the Office for Civil Rights Charts a Very Different Course” [George Leef, Martin Center profile of Kenneth Marcus]

Tags: Child Protective Services, labor unions, school discipline, schools

Schools and childhood roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Schools roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 26 Jun 2018 09:57:55 +0000

Even as Washington, D.C. saddles child-care providers with new degree requirement, it leaves unenforced some of its certification rules for public school teachers [David Boaz, earlier here, etc.]
Mayor de Blasio plans to overhaul admission to NYC’s elite high schools. Watch out [Lisa Schiffren, New York Post]
On the Banks of Plumb Crazy: American Library Association removes Laura Ingalls Wilder’s name from children’s-book award [AP/The Guardian]
Max Eden investigation of death at a NYC school [The 74 Million] Eden and Seth Barron podcast on school shootings and discipline policy [City Journal]
“The Transgender Bathroom Wars Continue in State Court” [Gail Heriot]
Oklahoma, West Virginia, Arizona and on: are teacher uprisings justified? [Neal McCluskey and Caleb Brown]

Tags: NYC, occupational licensure, political correctness, school discipline, schools, transgender

Schools roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Schools roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 04 May 2018 09:58:55 +0000

Thread on Broward County, Fla. discipline policies and blame-shifting after Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting [Max Eden on Twitter]
Nothing wrong with Kansas making clear that school finance is province of elected legislature, not courts [Gavel to Gavel] Study finds that successful school finance lawsuits do redistribute funds, even after public agencies adjust [Zachary Liscow via Caron/TaxProf]
“Why the Federal Government Can’t Mandate an Ideal School Suspension Rate” [Robby Soave, Reason] “School Discipline: Don’t Make a Federal Case Out of It” [Gail Heriot]
Teacher strikes might have begun backfiring [Jessica R. Towhey, Inside Sources] Are teachers underpaid as a group? [Andrew G. Biggs and Jason Richwine, City Journal] Opponents of school choice embrace a logic that might lead to overturning the landmark liberty case Pierce v. Society of Sisters [Caleb Brown, Kentucky]
Judge dismisses remaining “clock boy” claims against Texas school district [Elvia Limón, Dallas News, earlier here and here]
Kent, Wash.: “Parents sue school district after son killed in car-surfing accident” [Amy Clancy, KIRO]

Tags: Kansas, school discipline, schools

Schools roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

School discipline roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 12 Mar 2018 09:58:27 +0000

Critique of Obama-era Education Department initiative on racial disparities in school discipline [Gail Heriot and Alison Somin, Texas Review of Law and Politics forthcoming/SSRN] Minnesota among states riding herd on local disparities [Roger Clegg; related, Federalist Society podcast with Roger Clegg and Jason Riley]
Pointed questions asked about Broward County handling of future shooter before rampage at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school [Paul Sperry, Real Clear Investigations; Max Eden, City Journal; Valerie Richardson, Washington Times; earlier]
A contrasting view: “Parkland Shooting Doesn’t Justify More Cops and Harsh Discipline” [RiShawn Biddle, Dropout Nation]
“Philly Schools Tormented by Decision to Reduce Suspensions” [Max Eden, Philadelphia Inquirer/Manhattan Institute]
DeVos urged to rescind Obama guidelines [Bloomberg editors (“School Discipline Isn’t Washington’s Business,” calling current policy “a classic case of Washington overreach”); Valerie Richardson, Washington Times]
Authorities often refuse to back up teachers assaulted by students [Madeline Will, Education Week]

Tags: Florida, Minnesota, Philadelphia, school discipline

School discipline roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Florida shooter had been chronic disciplinary problem. “Could school system have done more?”

Walter Olson — Sat, 24 Feb 2018 19:49:24 +0000

Amid horrendous misbehavior attributed to his emotional and behavioral disabilities, the future shooter was shuttled among various Broward County schools, including an episode being “mainstreamed” at Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS, scene of his later atrocity. Under the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which has been intensively litigated over the years, “school districts are required to provide kids with physical, emotional or intellectual disabilities a free education in the ‘least restrictive’ setting, and to accommodate the needs of such students.” [Carol Marbin Miller and Kyra Gurney, Miami Herald] He “was well-known to school and mental health authorities and was entrenched in the process for getting students help rather than referring them to law enforcement….Beginning in 2013, Broward stopped referring students to police for about a dozen infractions ranging from alcohol and drug use to bullying, harassment and assault,” under influence of national campaign against “school-to-prison pipeline.” [Tim Craig, Emma Brown, Sarah Larimer and Moriah Balingit, Washington Post]

Tags: disability & schools, safety, school discipline

Florida shooter had been chronic disciplinary problem. “Could school system have done more?” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Schools roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 01 Dec 2017 11:06:56 +0000

Despite withdrawal of Obama-era guidance on Title IX and discipline, many colleges sticking so far to its prescriptions [Ashe Schow, Real Clear Investigations] GW Federalist Society debate with Stuart Taylor, Jr. vs. Wendy Murphy, moderated by Renee Lettow Lerner [video] And don’t forget next Tuesday’s Cato event at which I’ll host journalist Emily Yoffe discussing her blockbuster Atlantic series on this subject, with Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post commenting [watch online or register to attend]
Feds have no business coercing school districts into race-based discipline policies. Time for DeVos to act to rescind Obama guidance [Max Eden, National Review; related, Jerome Woehrle, Liberty Unyielding (on Hans Bader’s work), Dave Huber, The College Fix (Minnesota)] “Racial disciplinary quotas violate equity in its root sense. They entail either systematically overpunishing the innocent or systematically underpunishing the guilty. They place race at war with justice.” [Posner, chief judge, in People Who Care v. Rockford Board of Education, 111 F.3d 528 (7th Cir. 1997);
Oxford grad sues university over “disappointing” exam grades nearly twenty years ago, blighted his hopes of Harvard Law [Kaye Wiggins, Bloomberg]
Ford Foundation, teachers’ unions back new group that will sue schools, states, feds on civil rights issues [Michael Stratford, Politico, third item]
For kids to be sent off to English-language boarding schools did ruinous harm to American Indian communities, right? Testing the conventional account [Matthew T. Gregg, Journal of Development Economics via Tyler Cowen]
Lenore Skenazy of Free-Range Kids fame has a new nonprofit taking it the next step [Let Grow]

Tags: Indian tribes, school discipline, schools, Title IX

Schools roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system