Dissatisfied with their school's attendance rate, an Iowa high school formed a committee to explore the problem and draft a strong, well-defined policy to communicate expectations. The committee also worked with the school community and parents to change students' attitudes toward school attendance. (MLH)

In an Oklahoma case, absence of a documented drug problem among students in nonathletic extracurricular activities led the10th Circuit Court to strike down the district's policy as unreasonable and unconstitutional. Imposing random, suspicionless drug-testing policies for all students attending school might violate the Fourth Amendment. (MLH)

In a Sixth Circuit Court decision, Judge Harry Welford concluded that the First Amendment did not prohibit an Ohio school district from banning Marilyn Manson T-shirts under the district's constitutional authority to regulate student speech (disruptive behavior) that conflicts with its basic educational mission. (MLH)

High-school hazing--intimidation, humiliation, or punishment of younger recruits by veteran athletes and others--is becoming increasingly violent. Schools should react immediately and aggressively to reported incidents, develop a specific policy, educate their coaches, provide adult locker-room supervision, survey their alumni, and be observant.…

Pressured by religious conservatives, Congress passed the Equal Access Act (1984), allowing secondary school students the right to form on-campus extracurricular religious and other clubs. Recently, a Gay-Straight Alliance Club at a southern California high school was granted court protection under this statute, despite the community's objections.…

A high school district in suburban Chicago recruits top quality teachers by emphasizing the importance of its student teaching program, committing extra time and resources to the program, and recruiting new staff members from the student teacher ranks. (MLF)

High school students no longer keep company with the grown-ups they are about to become. Schools and districts have grown exponentially larger, impersonal, and bureaucratic, resembling post offices. Superintendents and boards who know their schools only through media representations or statistics fashion unrealistic policies. Coercion and…