zero tolerance – Overlawyered

“[It was] just a butter knife”

Walter Olson — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 04:05:46 +0000

The Florida first-grader didn’t understand that bringing a butter knife to lunch would get her in trouble with the school. She was suspended under the school’s nondiscretionary discipline policy for possession of “dangerous items.” “We’re just here for the safety and security of all our students and that’s our number one goal,” explained principal Pamela Jones. [WHJG; DeFuniak Springs, Fla.]

Tags: school lunch, zero tolerance

“[It was] just a butter knife” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Schools roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 05:05:25 +0000

“A legal challenge at Scotland’s top civil court failed earlier this year, but the No To Named Persons (NO2NP) campaign group has secured a hearing at the Supreme Court in London in March.” [Scotsman, earlier on named person scheme]
“The auditors found students in two schools who carried contraband salt shakers” [WSJ editorial on 4.5% drop in participation in school lunch program]
Teachers’ union AFT spends tens of millions a year on politics, policy, influence [RiShawn Biddle]
“A Short, Sad History of Zero-Tolerance School Policies” [Nick Gillespie, Reason]
Divergent Paths: The Academy and the Judiciary is a new Richard Posner book forthcoming from Harvard University Press [Paul Caron, TaxProf] Shouldn’t the program offerings at the Association of American Law Schools include at least as much range of diversity of thought as, for example, the panels at the Federalist Society convention? [John McGinnis, Liberty and Law] Heterodox Academy is a new website and project with its goal to “increase viewpoint diversity in the academy, with a special focus on the social sciences.” [Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz] More: Jonathan Adler on a widely noted Arthur Brooks op-ed on ideological imbalance in the academy. And don’t forget my book;
“Judge Tosses Concussions Lawsuit Against Illinois Prep Group” [Insurance Journal]
In case you were wondering, yes, law school trade associations did support that “law school’s a bargain, there’s no real economic crisis for grads” research [Outside the Law School Scam]

Tags: colleges and universities, law schools, Richard Posner, school lunch, schools, zero tolerance

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

Prodded by feds, Minneapolis will consider race in school suspensions

Walter Olson — Thu, 13 Nov 2014 10:54:55 +0000

The groundbreaking move follows negotiations with the federal government, which sent out a letter to school systems warning that disciplinary patterns with “disparate impact” were under suspicion. There is of course a reformist cast for rethinking some harsh aspects of school discipline systems, zero tolerance policies being one, but not the only, example. Such reforms might well have the effect of narrowing disproportionately high rates of discipline for students in some minority groups. But the Minneapolis system’s move (apparently encouraged by Washington) to consider race explicitly in the suspension process, with minority kids getting an additional layer of review, raises the likelihood of a challenge under the Constitution’s equal protection clause, as does the setting of an enforceable compliance objective of achieving identical suspension rates from one demographic group to the next independent of whether misconduct rates are identical. [Tom Corbett/Star Tribune, Hans Bader/CEI, John Steele Gordon/Commentary, RiShawn Biddle/Dropout Nation (a different view)].

Tags: Minnesota, school discipline, zero tolerance

Prodded by feds, Minneapolis will consider race in school suspensions is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Schools roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 05:05:02 +0000

“Feds Punish Princeton For Liking Due Process Too Much” [Robby Soave, Reason; earlier]
Despite outcome in California superintendent race, last week a major defeat for teachers’ union politics [RiShawn Biddle] UFT has outlasted school reform efforts in New York City, bad news for kids and parents there [Daniel DiSalvo]
Global look at perceptions of risk and shrinking play opportunities for children [Blair Barrows, Common Good]
Feds another step closer to clamping Title IX goals-and-quotas on collegiate club and intramural sports [American Sports Council]
Link roundup: commenters who expressed doubts about this summer’s Vergara v. California decision on grounds other than actually liking the system of teacher tenure [Andrew Coulson, Orin Kerr, Will Baude, Larry Sand/City Journal, Eric Posner, Daniel Fisher, Richard Epstein]
More cases spur criticism of zero-tolerance knife policies [WJBK, The Truth About Knives (Atiya Haynes, Dearborn Heights, Mich.); WOIO (Da’von Shaw, Bedford, Ohio]
University of Oregon student government leader seeks to shut down critical blogs for being mean [Popehat]

Tags: California, colleges and universities, teacher tenure, Title IX, zero tolerance

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

Schools roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 29 May 2014 04:05:30 +0000

California voters thought they’d reined in don’t-hurry-on-English “bilingual” instruction methods, but legislators have other ideas [Steven Greenhut, San Diego Union-Tribune]
“Report: Too Much Regulation Is Hurting Scientists” [Inside Higher Ed via Instapundit; two earlier federal surveys “found principal investigators spend 42 percent of their time on administrative tasks”]
This should end well: Mayor de Blasio hands keys to NYC school system over to teacher’s federation [NY Daily News]
“How the Media Again Failed on the Duke Lacrosse Story” [KC Johnson and Stuart Taylor, Jr.]
Chicago: “Teacher Shows Kids Carpentry Tools, Gets Suspended on ‘Weapons’ Charge” [Lenore Skenazy, Free-Range Kids]
On school discipline and zero tolerance, Eric Holder draws the wrong lessons [Hans Bader, CEI “Open Market”] “Prior problem behavior accounts for the racial gap in school suspensions” [Wright et al., Journal of Criminal Justice, PDF]
“The little secret of public higher ed: it’s a massive transfer of wealth from lower to upper classes” [Roger Pilon, 2Paragraphs]

Tags: California, colleges and universities, Duke lacrosse, NYC, school discipline, science and scientists, zero tolerance

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

Schools roundup

Walter Olson — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 04:05:19 +0000

“Zero Tolerance Hurts Kids and Ruins Schools” [A. Barton Hinkle] “Teen’s military plans on hold after spending 13 days in jail” [WOIO, Ohio]
Who knew the visiting scholar of conservative thought would turn out to be conservative? [Boulder Daily Camera re: U. of Colorado attacks on Steven Hayward]
Case by case, courts take away right of taxpayers, lawmakers to regulate school spending [Steve Gunn, EAG News; earlier here, etc.]
Heather Mac Donald on gangs and the case for school discipline [NRO] More: Ruben Navarrette, CNN.
Editorial board endorses parent liability for school bullying [Newark Star-Ledger]
States to GAO: feds’ school lunch changes aren’t going well [Jason Bedrick, Cato; Washington Post]
Proposed Rhode Island law: “No Child Under 7th Grade Shall Get On or Off School Bus Without a Guardian” [Free-Range Kids] St. Louis: “Mom Arrested for Not Signing School Sign-In Book” [same]

Tags: bullying, Rhode Island, school discipline, school lunch, schools, zero tolerance

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

Fickle finger of zero tolerance

Walter Olson — Thu, 20 Mar 2014 04:15:25 +0000

News item: Ohio school suspends 10-year-old for displaying a “level 2 look alike firearm.” Y’know, the kind you might use to pick your nose [CNN, ABA Journal]

Tags: Ohio, zero tolerance

Fickle finger of zero tolerance is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

DoJ: school discipline must follow disparate-impact standards

Walter Olson — Fri, 10 Jan 2014 04:15:03 +0000

The Justice Department and Department of Education have sent out a Dear Colleague letter discouraging schools from pursuing strict discipline policies against student misbehavior, especially against “routine” or “minor” infractions; Education Secretary Arne Duncan cited tardiness and disrespect as examples of the latter. [Christian Science Monitor]

Assuming that the federal government has somehow acquired the legitimate constitutional authority to begin dictating the fine points of disciplinary policy to local schools in the first place — a big if — it might seem at first that much of this is innocuous. Some early coverage, for example, makes it sound as if the letter is mostly aimed at obtaining a reconsideration of zero-tolerance policies, long criticized in this space, as well as the sorts of suspensions and expulsions that are based on far-fetched dangers like finger guns or forbidden hugs.

Unfortunately, there’s much more. The letter represents the culmination of a years-long drive toward imposing tighter Washington oversight on school discipline policies that result in “disparate impact” among racial or other groups. Policies that result in the suspension of differentially more minority kids, or special-ed kids, will now be suspect — even if the rate of underlying behavior is not in fact uniform among every group. (Special-ed kids, for example, include many placed in that category because of emotional and behavioral problems that correlate with a higher likelihood of acting out in misbehavior. Boys misbehave more than girls.)

If the policy helps speed the correction of some overly harsh, mechanical school policies, both under the zero-tolerance rubric and otherwise, it may have some positive side effects. But the disparate-impact premise is a pernicious one that’s sure to create many new problems of its own. [Andrew Coulson, Cato; Scott Johnson, PowerLine]

More: in 2012 Senate testimony, Andrew Coulson pointed out that 1) compared with the alternatives, the use of out-of-school suspensions appears to improve the learning environment for other (non-disciplined) students by protecting them from disruption; 2) zero-tolerance policies were adopted in the first place in part as a defense for administrators against disparate-impact charges. In other words, the new supposed remedy (disparate-impact scrutiny) helped cause the disease to which it is being promoted as the cure. (& welcome Andrew Sullivan, Scott Greenfield, Hans Bader readers; cross-posted at Cato at Liberty)

Tags: disability & schools, disparate impact, school discipline, zero tolerance

DoJ: school discipline must follow disparate-impact standards is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Schools roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 27 Dec 2013 04:05:03 +0000

Following outcry, Ohio lawmaker drops proposal to license homeschool parents [Jason Bedrick/Cato, sequel]
In Colorado U. crackdown on professor’s deviance course, university retracts claim that professor needed to clear controversial teaching with institutional review board [Inside Higher Ed, Zachary Schrag and sequel, background on IRBs]
The purely fictional, entirely bloodless “assassin” game — which I remember was played in my own high school years ago without anyone worrying — now seems to be controversial in suburban D.C. because School Violence and Think of the Children. [Washington Post; Bedrick, Cato on pretend “arrow” zero-tolerance case]
After son’s death, Ontario mom urges schools to let asthmatic kids carry inhalers [CBC, Bedrick]
Cathy Young on how the forces of unanimity police discussions of “rape culture” [Minding the Campus]
Kansas regents forbid faculty/staff to post social media content contrary to best interest of university [WaPo]
Don’t forget to stop home some time: more public schools serving dinner as well as breakfast and lunch [Future of Capitalism]

Tags: colleges and universities, Kansas, Ohio, school lunch, schools, social media, zero tolerance

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

Schools roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 17 Oct 2013 04:05:06 +0000

Opponents, including U.S. Department of Justice, go after school choice programs in court [Jason Bedrick, more]
Study finds bullying programs may have opposite from intended effect. Why, next they’ll tell us D.A.R.E. is a flop at curbing drug use. Oh wait [CBS Dallas]
National Association of the Deaf files lawsuit against Maryland, seeking captioning at sporting events [WaPo]
“NYC will spend $29 million on salaries, benefits of educators it can’t fire” [NY Daily News] [NY Times]
Gotta-cover-yourself incident and accident reports clog the classroom day with paper [Ted Frank, Point of Law]
“IRBs and mission creep” [Dave Hoffman, Prawfs, earlier]
Boy who drew cartoonish bomb at home suspended, reinstated [Fox Carolina, Free-Range Kids]

Tags: bullying, colleges and universities, disability & schools, schools, sports, teacher tenure, zero tolerance

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