No school board member, administrator, or teacher wants to see a student suffering from taunts of the student's peers, but with budget cutbacks, reductions in force, and increased class size, teachers and administrators are stretched too thin to easily identify, investigate, and remedy student-on-student harassment. But school districts must…

Bullying is a common occurrence in U.S.'s schools and is currently at the forefront of national attention. Unfortunately, students with disabilities are frequently the targets of peer-on-peer bullying. The purpose of this article is to examine the legal ramifications when students with disabilities are bullied in school settings. We address court…

The Supreme Court's recent decision in "Fitzgerald v. Barnstable School Committee" (2009) expands the opportunities for students and their parents to sue school boards for alleged sex discrimination. Even so, as discussed here, "Fitzgerald" should have little effect on the day-to-day operations of school systems. This column…

Reviews six Supreme Court decisions on sexual harassment since 1992, three of which were education cases. Suggests content of school board policy to comply with Court's sexual-harassment decisions and thus limit liability under Title IX for offenses involving students and Title VII for acts involving school personnel. (PKP)

With the "Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education" decision, a bitterly divided U.S. Supreme Court resolved the split between circuit courts over public school districts' liability for money damages under Title IX. Boards may be held liable when school officials are deliberately indifferent to on-campus student-to-student sexual…

In "Rowinsky" the Fifth Circuit ruled that Title IX does not entitle a student to recover damages from a school district for peer sexual harassment. However, three federal district courts and the Eleventh Circuit have joined the trend of holding school districts liable. Follows the Eleventh Circuit's approach and advises school districts…

Recent court decisions and federal guidelines make it clear that school districts must take action to protect gay students. Eleven states have laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Attorneys recommend defining sexual-orientation discrimination, along with other types of discrimination, in nondiscrimination policies,…

Explains how courts have interpreted sexual harassment to constitute sexual discrimination under Title IX, how the "deliberate indifference" standard may be applied to sexual harassment cases, how courts disagree on school liability for student-to-student harassment, and that school personnel are now being sued for damages. Provides…

Eight papers originally presented during the 1981 annual meeting of the National School Boards Association's Council of School Attorneys are collected in this publication. The topics, of interest particularly to school attorneys, include text and library book selection and the First Amendment; the courts' criteria for awarding attorney fees…

This volume is a collection of 21 papers concerning law and education presented by speakers of widely divergent points of view at the annual convention of the National Organization on Legal Problems of Education (NOLPE). The opinions expressed in the papers are solely those of the authors and do not represent any policy determination of NOLPE. The…

This twenty-one chapter book deals with important, timely topics in school law. Topics include home instruction in place of public school attendance; judicial review of labor arbitration awards; procedures for nonrenewal of nontenured teachers that avoid constitutional problems; discipline by grade reduction and grade denial based on attendance;…