This book is intended to help students, teachers, administrators, and parents become more aware of students' legal rights and more sensitive to arguments on both sides of current civil rights controversies. The authors attempt, whenever possible, to translate legal jargon into language more readily understood by laymen, and they rely primarily on the "case" approach to discussing legal questions. This approach first describes the situation surrounding a legal controversy, then poses several questions that confront the major implications of the case, and finally summarizes the opinion of the court. Summaries at the end of each chapter integrate the rulings of the diverse cases presented in the chapter. Individual chapters examine provisions and applications of school law involving freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of association, freedom of religion and conscience, personal appearance, racial and ethnic segregation, sex discrimination, and due process of law. (Author/JG)