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• Memphis principal accused of outing gay students [HTML 2,336kb]
  Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union say Daphne Beasley, the principal of Hollis F. Price Middle College High School in South Memphis, Beasley asked her staff to give her the names of students who were couples, heterosexual and homosexual, because she wanted to keep an eye on them to cut down on public displays of affection.
  
• Louisiana court rejects lawsuit by student expelled for sex violation [HTML 3,838kb]
  St. Tammany Parish school officials were not "arbitrary or capricious" in their decision to expel a Mandeville High School student after his arrest on a rape charge, a state district judge ruled.
  
• Seventh Circuit hears oral arguments in anti-gay T-shirt case [HTML 3,867kb]
  A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit heard testimony in a high school student's appeal to wear a T-shirt expressing opposition to homosexuality.
  
• Proposed Family Education Rights and Privacy Act regulations [HTML 3,215kb]
  The Department of Education (ED) has issued proposed regulations addressing a range of issues under the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the primary federal law governing privacy of student records in schools that receive federal funds.
  
• Maryland principal bans Confederate flags amid racial tensions [HTML 3,033kb]
  A Cumberland high school principal's recent decision to ban wearing or displaying the Confederate flag has inflamed an already tense debate over racial sensitivity and freedom of speech.
  
• Texas district adopts mandatory drug testing for all extracurriculars [HTML 1,888kb]
  A new random student drug-testing program in Lewisville ISD that kicks off the week of April 14 will be one of the widest-reaching and strictest in the state. Most North Texas school districts don't test students for drugs.
  
• District rescinds penalties for student’s purchase of candy, amid media frenzy [HTML 2,953kb]
  A New Haven middle school honors student, suspended for buying candy from a classmate, will have the discipline expunged from his record, the superintendent of schools said.
  
• School district rescinds discipline of student in high-profile "Skittles incident" [HTML 2,953kb]
  A New Haven middle school honors student, suspended for buying candy from a classmate, will have the discipline expunged from his record, the superintendent of schools said.
  
• Oregon school district’s dress code bans wearing rosaries [HTML 3,237kb]
  Never did Jaime Salazar imagine that wearing a rosarylike crucifix to school would provoke a national stir. However, when he and his 16-year-old friend Marco Castro were suspended recently for refusing to remove the religious beads because they were "gang-related," it thrust Oregon into the headlines and has triggered questions over the evolving role of rosaries in religion, fashion and street gangs.
  
• Brannum v. Overton County Sch. Bd., No. 06-5931 (6th Cir. Feb. 20, 2008) [HTML 4,220kb]
  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (KY, MI, OH, TN) has ruled that the use of video surveillance equipment in middle school boys’ and girls’ locker rooms violated students’ Fourth Amendment right to privacy.
  
• Schools crack down any behavior that smacks of sex [HTML 4,923kb]
  From bans on hugging to labeling comments as sexual harassment, schools are cracking down any behavior that smacks of sex.
  
• Virginia student starts antiabortion club in a public high school [HTML 3,224kb]
  With prayer, persistence, and a lawsuit against Virginia’s Stafford County schools, 16-year-old Stephanie Hoffmeier recently succeeded in starting what might be the Washington, D.C. region's only antiabortion club in a public high school.
  
• School cheating scandal divides New Hampshire community [HTML 4,287kb]
  A school cheating scandal is dividing Hanover, New Hampshire, with some in the community saying criminal charges brought against the students involved are too harsh.
  
• Judge vacates conviction against teen involved in racially charged incident [HTML 4,240kb]
  A state judge in Louisiana has vacated one of two convictions against a teen involved in a violent, racially charged incident at a school in the town of Jena that left another teen hospitalized.
  
• Washington district reaches out-of-court settlement with student-newspaper editors [HTML 1,977kb]
  Washington’s Everett School District has reached an out-of-court settlement with student-newspaper editors last week, days before a First Amendment case was scheduled for trial in federal court.
  
• Supplemental Educational Services & FERPA [HTML 1,579kb]
  The Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement has sent a letter to a school district, below, indicating that the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) does not prohibit Supplemental Educational Services (SES) providers from using contact information for parents of students they previously served to contact those parents again regarding their services.
  
• Several Tennessee school districts plan to eliminate random drug testing [HTML 2,276kb]
  Several Tennessee school districts plan to eliminate their random drug testing programs for students after the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office issued an opinion stating that such tests violate state law.
  
• Court to consider appeal of ruling that district violated student's right to distribute literature [HTML 1,762kb]
  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (KY, OH, MI, TN) will consider the appeal of a ruling by a federal court in Michigan, summarized below, that a school district violated the First Amendment rights of a middle school student by insisting that he distribute his anti-abortion literature before or after school or in designated places, rather than in hallways between classes.
  
• New law to protect Oregon high school and college journalists from censorship [HTML 2,699kb]
  The nation’s first law to help protect Oregon high school and college journalists from censorship by school administrations was signed into law recently by Gov. Ted Kulongoski.
  
• Student barred from running for class office [HTML 3,900kb]
  A Burlington, Connecticut high school student who was barred from running for class office after she called administrators a derogatory term on an Internet blog is accusing top school officials of violating her free speech rights.
  
• Teacher publicly condemns program allowing Muslims prayer time during school [HTML 2,876kb]
  Carver Elementary School in San Diego, California has become part of a national debate over religion in schools after a substitute teacher publicly condemned an Arabic language program that gives Muslim students time for prayer during school hours.
  
• New Jersey school district officials apologize for blacking out yearbook photo [HTML 1,736kb]
  Newark, New Jersey school district officials have apologized for blacking out a yearbook photograph of a male student, Andre Jackson, kissing his boyfriend.
  
• Student yearbook uses Facebook images to fill pages [HTML 1,905kb]
  When students at Walter Johnson High School (WJHS) in Bethesda, Maryland received their yearbooks, they discovered several photographic images from their Facebook pages.
  
• Five students denied diplomas over excessive cheering during commencement [HTML 2,710kb]
  Five graduating seniors in Galesburg, Illinois, have been denied diplomas and barred from the after-graduation party because their friends and family engaged in excessive cheering when the seniors’ names were called during commencement exercises.
  
• Washington’s state supreme court hears challenge to random drug testing of student athletes [HTML 3,989kb]
  Washington’s state supreme court has heard a challenge to the random drug testing of student athletes. Some parents and students in the tiny Wahkiakum School District in the town of Cathlamet are fighting the district's policy of random urine tests of middle school and high school student athletes, which they say is an unconstitutional "suspicionless" search that violates privacy rights.
  
• Judge dismisses suit over a failing grade on a leaf project [HTML 2,376kb]
  A West Virginia state court has dismissed a lawsuit filed against a high school teacher and the Kanahwa County school board by parents of a high school sophomore who was given a failing grade on a leaf project.
  
• Schools have come a long way since Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District [HTML 6,488kb]
  We have come a long way in the four decades since three students wore black armbands to protest the Vietnam War¯and won a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, establishing the right to speak freely in school.
  
• Supreme Court hears oral arguments in "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case [HTML 6,826kb]
  The U.S. Supreme Court has heard oral arguments in the student speech case of Morse v. Frederick, Docket No. 06-278, popularly known as the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case.
  
• Student plaintiff to appeal decision in case dealing with his view on homosexuality [HTML 1,048kb]
  According to the California School Boards Association, the student plaintiff in a case weighing a school district’s authority to attempt to ensure a supportive learning environment for all students against a student’s right to express religious condemnation of homosexuality has filed a notice that he will appeal the U.S. District Court’s recent decision.
  
• Wide range of interested parties assembles for epic U.S. Supreme Court battle [HTML 7,544kb]
  A wide range of interested parties has assembled for what they see as an epic U.S. Supreme Court battle. Morse v. Frederick asks the justices to weigh the Court's famous 1969 ruling that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate" against more recent decisions acknowledging a school system's ability to create rules that maintain order and protect students from messages deemed harmful.
  
• Student disciplined for uttering phrase "That’s so gay" [HTML 2,334kb]
  A lawsuit by a California high school student disciplined for uttering the phrase “That’s so gay” raises this question: When do playground insults used every day all over the United States cross the line into hate speech that must be stamped out?
  
• New disciplinary policy aims to reduce student suspensions and detentions [HTML 1,928kb]
  The Los Angeles Board of Education has unanimously adopted a new disciplinary policy aimed at reducing the number of students suspended and kept after school for misbehaving.
  
• Utah Governor considers a bill targeting gay clubs in schools [HTML 2,793kb]
  Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. is considering a bill that targets gay clubs in schools but will affect other student groups.
  
• Supreme Court has declined to suspend a California high school dress code [HTML 3,979kb]
  The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to suspend a dress code at a California high school that is at the center of a continuing legal fight over free speech and religious rights.
  
• School officials search cellphones of students suspected of cheating [HTML 3,304kb]
  School officials at some Denver, Colorado area high schools have been searching students’ cellphone text messages when they suspect the students of cheating, drug abuse, or other school violations.
  
• Parents of 4-year-old put into "body sock" as punishment consider suing [HTML 1,390kb]
  A family in Pinellas County, Florida, whose son was put into a large “body sock” by teachers as punishment, is considering suing the school board after an investigation found the sack was used appropriately on the boy.
  
• District allows distribution of anti-abortion leaflets during non-instructional time as part of settlement [HTML 4,569kb]
  In a settlement of a lawsuit, Penn Cambria School District (PCSD) in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, will allow a high school student to distribute anti-abortion leaflets at school during non-instructional times, provided the principal is given a copy of the literature one day in advance.
  
• NSBA files amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Morse v. Frederick, known as the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case [HTML 1,829kb]
  NSBA, joined by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, has filed an amicus brief, below, with the U.S. Supreme Court in Morse v. Frederick, Docket No. 06-278, popularly known as the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case.
  
• Students in Edwardsville, Illinois have been expelled for participating in an on-campus brawl [HTML 2,780kb]
  A dozen students in Edwardsville, Illinois have been expelled from school for participating in an on-campus brawl over who got invited to a party, a fight school officials said was arranged on the social-networking hub MySpace.com.
  
• Supreme Court declines to review case upholding the constitutionality of a student sex survey [HTML 2,290kb]
  The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Fields v. Palmdale School District, Docket No. 06-300, upholding the constitutionality of a sex survey given to students.
  
• Supreme Court agrees to hear a free-speech case known as the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" dispute [HTML 4,445kb]
  The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a free-speech case from Alaska known as the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" dispute, in which a high school principal suspended a student for displaying that phrase on a banner.
  
• Parents of two students involved in Confederate flag dispute remove them from public school [HTML 2,742kb]
  The parents of two Alvin, Texas junior high school students who are involved in a dispute over wearing Confederate flag symbols in school have removed them from public school in favor of home-schooling.
  
• Schools increasingly discipline students for off-campus speech on websites like MySpace [HTML 3,779kb]
  A number of school districts across the nation have blocked access to websites, such as MySpace and Facebook, on school computers. But school districts now are reaching into students' home computers, severely punishing and even expelling students for what they write on those sites from home.
  
• Montgomery Blair High School in turmoil over color coded identification badges [HTML 2,814kb]
  Montgomery Blair High School in Montgomery County, Maryland has been thrown into a state of rhetorical turmoil over a policy that requires all students to wear color coded identification badges—black for seniors, white for magnet kids, and a particularly loud shade of yellow for students of limited English proficiency.
  
• School suspends enforcement of controversial new dress code rule [HTML 2,856kb]
  Grossmont High School (GHS) in El Cajon, California has suspended enforcement of a controversial new rule prohibiting clothes with large logos while the Grossmont Union High School District (GUHSD) board gets a legal opinion.
  
• North Carolina student encounters stiff community resistance to Gay-Straight Alliance club [HTML 2,391kb]
  Danielle Smiley, a student at Currituck County High School in North Carolina, has encountered stiff community resistance to her attempt to form a Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) club at the school.
  
• Christian clubs thrive in South Florida public schools [HTML 2,759kb]
  After years of disputes and legal challenges, Christian clubs are thriving in South Florida public schools, where they hold Bible study groups and prayer meetings. A 1984 law, the Equal Access Act (EEA), requires that if schools allow any student-initiated club to meet when class isn't in session, they must open the door for all groups.
  
• Students to petition school board for permission to wear Confederate flag symbols [HTML 1,940kb]
  Two students, Marshall Alexander and Robert Carter, at Harby Junior High School in Alvin, Texas plan to petition the school board to allow them to wear Confederate flag symbols at school and return Confederate memorabilia to a display honoring the school’s namesake.