Recent efforts to change the teaching profession and teacher preparation include a number of innovations to use portfolio assessment, value added measures (VAM), accountability metrics and other corporate education reform ideas. These approaches may provoke considerable potential legal consequences. Traditional constitutional and civil rights…

This study's purpose is to investigate the expansion of social control efforts in American elementary and secondary school settings, particularly the use of zero-tolerance policies. These policies entail automatic punishments, such as suspensions, expulsions, and referrals to the juvenile and criminal justice systems for a host of school-based…

This paper focuses on issues related to the misuse and abuse of the technologies, or "cybermisconduct" directed toward students and teachers such as online harassment, cyberbullying and internet defamation. Since some forms of cyberbullying may be criminal acts under the Criminal Code, Canadian courts are voicing serious concerns about…

This article describes the law-related education (LRE) programs instituted by the United States Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). By linking legal and constitutional matters to everyday life, the programs aim to bring alive for elementary through high school students legal statutes that often…

Discusses various methods by which school boards and their attorneys might obtain revenue from the fines and forteitures imposed by the criminal justice system. Concentrates on recent developments in North Carolina but is relevant to other states that have statutes granting this money to public schools. (Author/MLF)

Explores how a defendant can face a civil action and criminal prosecution for the same act without violating the principle of double jeopardy. For instance, burning down a house can engender criminal prosecution charges and a civil suit from the insurance company. Double jeopardy only applies to criminal actions. (MJP)

This paper is a chronologically-organized narrative history of law-related education (LRE) in the United States. The paper begins by delineating the differences between LRE and citizenship education and describing the motivations for the creation of LRE programs in the early 1960s. Turning to the analysis of LRE, the paper argues that there have…

This report of the Congressional Committee on the Judiciary, comments favorably on the bill H.R. 3351, an amendment to the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968. H.R. 3351 is intended to assist the States and local governments in developing alternatives to traditional modes of probation and incarceration for certain young offenders.…

Describes a Newfoundland (Canada) Supreme Court case overturning a teacher's conviction for assault for slapping an unruly child. Discusses the Canadian Criminal Code's "justification" provision that allows parents and teachers to use "reasonable" force to correct a child, and efforts to abolish the provision that argue it…

Discusses the issue of providing adequate legal representation for persons condemned to death. Asks if the rights of a poor capital defendant charged with a capital crime in the South enjoys fewer rights than one in Los Angeles and whether this creates a dual system of justice. Suggests that state action for improvement may be slow in coming. (KO)

This special theme issue of "Update on Law-Related Education""tells about the past, present, and future of equal legal representation for all in our society." It is dedicated to the history and heroes of legal aid for the poor and the need to further that cause if the United States hopes to achieve equal justice for all. In his…

The constitutionality of section 43 of the Canadian criminal code, which provides a defense to the use of reasonable and corrective force on children, has been challenged. The Canadian Teachers' Federation argues that the case is not about spanking, but about enabling teachers to maintain order and create a positive, effective learning…

Discusses history and purpose of state open-records laws. Surveys how parties make open-records requests, various causes of action, and sanctions for noncompliance. Examines how open-records requests related to district investigations can implicate the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. Attempts to find appropriate balance between public's…

This guide contains resources which can be used to teach elementary and secondary students about the criminal justice system in Boulder, Colorado. The resources can be used or adapted to teach about the justice system of other cities. The guide contains many different kinds of resources. Narrative background information on Boulder County…

Many children do not know enough about the law to make wise judgments about their behavior. Educational strategies for teaching about lawbreaking and its consequences are presented. Six laws commonly broken by young people are described, first in legal terms and then stated more simply. Case histories follow. (PP)