EDLEDL–– 401

628
The Professional Teacher
School Law
Legal and Ethics
Perspectives
Justin Justin
Bathon Bathon
- Spring 2009
Fall 2008

Day 3: Student Issues

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School Law and Ethics
Agenda • Announcements/Questions
• Think Now
• Student Classifications
– Case Summary Workshop
• Bullying/Harassment
• Child Abuse
• Student Discipline/Search
& Seizure

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 Think Now

1. True/False: Kentucky, in their anti-bullying law,

has made it easier to charge students who
bully with criminal misdemeanors.

4. What Amendment prohibits unreasonable

searches & seizures?

5. True/False: Schools must have reasonable

suspicion to search a locker with a drug dog?
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 Protections from Discrimination
• Eyes on the Prize

• 14th Amendment
• “No state shall … deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
• How does the Equal Protection Clause of the
Fourteenth Amendment apply to desegregation
and affirmative action cases?
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 The Road to Brown…
• Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)
– Allowed Racial Segregation of Passengers
of Railroad Cars.
• Separate but Equal becomes the Law of the
Land.

• Higher Education Cases…

– Four cases between 1938 – 1950 where
black plaintiffs prevailed in challenging
segregation policies.
– Because of these the NAACP Legal Defense My Hero
Fund thought that segregation was ripe for
a direct attack in K-12 schools.
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 Brown v. Board of
Education of
Topeka, Kansas
The Supreme Court held that the segregation of
children in public schools solely on the basis of race,
even though the physical facilities and other “tangible”
factors may be equal, deprive the children of the
minority group of equal educational opportunities.
Schools must desegregate “with all deliberate speed.”

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 Case Summary Workshop

Helpful Hints…
• Explain as if you were telling a friend (or your mom).
– own words, not quotes
– Add enough detail to make sense
• Identify what happened in the lower court(s) in the fact
section and be sure the rest of the summary is about the
higher court
• Include LEGAL authority (e.g., amendment, statute, case law)

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 Now it’s Your Turn…
• Case Name?
– Brown v. Board of Educ.
• Citation?
– 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
• Your answer should look like:
– Brown v. Board of Educ., 347 U.S.
483 (1954).

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 What are the facts of the case?
• In a series of different cases, African American were denied
admission to the white public schools. These students brought their
cases to court arguing that segregation based on race in public
schools was a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th
Amendment. The Supreme Court agreed to consolidate all of these
lower court decisions because they had a legal question in common.
• State what happened in the lower courts.
– The Kansas, South Carolina, and Virginia courts denied relief to the
African American students (i.e., held segregated schools were
constitutional) under the “separate but equal doctrine” of Plessy v.
Ferguson. When this doctrine was applied to schools, it meant that as
long as the tangible factors of a school were equal such as the school
building, then the students were receiving equal protection under the
14th Amendment. The Delaware court ordered that the African
American students were admitted to the white schools because the white
schools were superior. All of these cases were appealed to the U.S.
Supreme Court.

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 What is the issue that the court is
deciding?
• Does racial segregation among
public school children deprive the
African American children equal
protection under the Fourteenth
Amendment (even when tangible
factors of the school are equal)?

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 What did the court decide?
• Yes. The Supreme Court held that
the segregation of children in public
schools solely on the basis of race,
even though the physical facilities
and other “tangible” factors may be
equal, deprived the children of
equal educational opportunities.

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 Why did the court rule this way?
• The Court discussed how times had changed since the
14th Amendment was ratified (i.e., African Americans
were better educated and successful) and therefore,
the history of the Amendment was not relevant to
public education in 1954. Instead, the Court relied on
the holdings of Sweat v. Painter and McLaurin v.
Oklahoma State Regents to show that the segregation
of white and African American graduate students in
public schools had a detrimental effect upon the
African American students. In these cases, the Court
held that graduate schools must be desegregated
because regardless of equal tangible factors, there
were many intangible factors that caused segregated
schools to be unequal….

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 Court’s reasoning cont.
• The Court reasoned that when students were
separated a sense of inferiority affected the
African American students’ motivation to learn.
Thus, “separate educational facilities are
inherently unequal” and the doctrine of
“separate but equal” should no longer apply to
public education. In other words, it was
unconstitutional to separate students based on
race even if the physical facilities and other
tangible factors were considered equal.

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 De Jure and De Facto Segregation

De Jure De Facto
• Intentional Acts of • Segregation in
Illegal Segregation Practice as a
Result of
Legal
Individual Choices

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Discrimination in American Law
• Who is protected?
– Harder than you think…
• When are they
protected?
– Much harder than you
think…
• How are they protected?
– I don’t even know how to
explain this its so hard…

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 Title IX Protects Discrimination
Based on Gender Including Other Protected
Sexual Harassment Classes Include:
Gender • Ethnicity
• Religion
• Political Affiliation

Racial Others
Discrimination
& Student
See
Following
Classifications
School districts must remove
Material
English language barriers
that impede participation of
non-English speakers with an
See Special
Disability Language effort that will “reasonably
Education Unit effective in producing
intended results.”

Generally, in these instances, the students are considered members of a “protected

class” (guaranteed by the Constitution or a statute) and, thus, to use such a
classification the government must demonstrate a “compelling interest” for the
classification and the procedures for that classification must be “narrowly
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 Parents Involved & Meredith
• Louisville’s Plan:
– Assigned to resident school
– Can request new school within
cluster, most got choice
– Could request transfer to any
school within district
• Optimal racial balance for
schools between 15-50%
black (black & other)
• Schools used this guide in
assigning transfer requests,
among other factors
At Supreme Court, case was consolidated
with a case out of Seattle, Parents
Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle,
where race was used as a tiebreaker
between equally qualified students to
gain admission to best schools.
Meredith v. Jefferson Co. Timeline
1975 Louisville Schools Ordered
Desegregated
2000 Desegregation Order Reversed
2001 Jefferson County Schools Implement
Voluntary Desegregation Plan
2002 & Students file suit against the voluntary
2003 desegregation plan.
2005 6th Circuit rules that race cannot be
only factor, but can be a factor and
busing was legal.
2007 Supreme Court Rules Louisville’s
voluntary desegregation plan is illegal
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Compelling Interests & Narrow Tailoring
• Compelling • Narrow Tailoring
Interest – Extremely Difficult
– Diversity can be – Basically all plans that
a compelling explicitly use a racial
interest classification are NOT
– Whether or not narrowly tailored.
this remains – Plans that implicate race,
depends on the without using race, might
election this fall. be okay.
• Socio-economic status
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Harassment, Bullying & Abuse

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 Employer to Employee Harassment
• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
prohibits workplace discrimination.

• There are two kinds of harassment:

1. Quid Pro Quo
2. Hostile Work Environment

KRS 161.190 – Abuse of Teachers

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 Employee to Student Harassment
• Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972
prohibits gender discrimination in educational
institutions that receive federal funds.

• School officials must have actual knowledge of

the harassment and be deliberately indifferent
toward the victim. (Gebser v. Lago Vista)

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Rule

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 Student to Student Harassment
• Lawsuits brought under Title IX.

• School officials must have actual knowledge of

the behavior and exhibit deliberate
indifference toward the victim. The harassment
must also have been severe, persistent, and
objectively offensive. (Davis v. Monroe)

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 Sexual Harassment
• Teacher’s Discuss Sexual
Harassment in their
Classrooms (2:05)

– Hostile Hallways, AAUW,

1993

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Bullying in Kentucky

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 Bullying: Why Do We Care
COLUMBINE
• School violence is the impetus for
the increased attention to school
bullying.
• Often, after the incident,
information is found from the
perpetrators that show they were
the recipient of school bullying.

• See, The Final Report and Findings of the Safe School

Initiative: Implications for the Prevention of School
Attacks in the United States.

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 The Kentucky Statute
• Recently Passed
• Rated highly by Anti-Bullying Groups, but …

• It does not mention the word bullying?

– Schools are left to define it own on their own.
– See Handout(s)

• Opens up possible criminal sanctions for

bullying that arises to the level of harassment
or harassing communications.

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 CHILD ABUSE
• Definition
– Rev. Stat. § 600.020
• Abused or Neglected Child
– Physical Abuse
– Emotional Abuse
– Sexual Abuse
– Neglect

Hotline
1-877-597-2331
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 Penalties for Failure to Report
• Mandatory Reporters 1-877-597-2331
– Rev. Stat. § 620.030
• Teachers, school personnel, or child-caring personnel

– Rev. Stat. § 620.050

The identity of the reporter shall not be disclosed except:
• To law enforcement officials, the agency investigating the report, or to a
multidisciplinary team
• Under court order, after a court has found reason to believe the reporter knowingly
made a false report

• Penalties for Failure to Report

• Rev. Stat. § 620.990(1)
– Any person intentionally violating the provisions of this chapter shall be guilty of a Class B
misdemeanor.

– Rev. Stat. § 620.050(1)

• Any person who knowingly makes a false report and does so with malice shall be guilty of a
Class A misdemeanor.

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 Child Abuse Discussion
• Some topics …
• Reporting
– To Whom?
– When?
– What’s the Teacher’s Role?

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 EDL 628
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• “… nor shall and State deprive The 14th
any person of life, liberty, or
property without due process of Amendment &
law…” Due Process
• Life, Liberty & Property: Do
Students Have These Things?
• What does “due process of law”
mean?
– At minimum, it means at least 2 things. Notice

• Does this mean we must give due Opportunity

process for all discipline? to be Heard
– Yes!!! – But, it can be very low. The
greater the depravation, the
greater the due process.
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 Suspensions & Expulsions

Suspensions Expulsions

Who? Superintendents, Principals, Ass’t School Board

Principals & Head Teacher.

How Long? Up to 10 days. A year for weapons. Can be

less for drugs.

Due Notice & Opportunity to be Notice & Formal Hearing

Process? Heard (can be minimal) before School Board.

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 Other Issues in School Discipline
• Weapons – 158.150(2)(a)
– Gun Free School Zones Act of 1994
– What is a weapon? 527.070
– Zero-Tolerance, One Year Expulsion

• Drugs & Assault/Battery of Teachers -

158.150(2)(b)

• Corporal Punishment – Not prohibited by Statute

(Kentucky in minority of states) – Districts can
Prohibit

• Grade Reductions – Okay for absences and work

missed, not okay as a disciplinary measure.

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 Search and Seizure
Reasonable Suspicion
v.
Probable Cause

Justified at Reasonable Reasonable

its in Scope Suspicion
Inception

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 The Expectation of Privacy

 Locker search
 Search of cars
 Search of coats/book bags
 Search of purse
 Search of pockets
 Strip search

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 U.S. Supreme Court Cases
• New Jersey v. T.L.O. (1985)

• Vernonia School District v. Acton (1995)

– Lower expectation of privacy in sports, thus, random
drug testing of student athletes is allowed

• Board of Education v. Earls (2002)

– Random Drug Testing of All Extra-Curricular Activities is
allowed.

http://www.kynews.org/articles/show/1321
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