Education Commons^™

The Dilemma Of School Anti-Harassment Policies And The First Amendment, Clyde Winters

Journal of Educational Controversy

The recent decision in Saxe v State College Area School District, that ruled that a school district’s anti-harassment policy was a violation of the First Amendment, makes it clear that we must change the way curricula and program development are managed in our schools. Usually a tolerance curriculum is written by teachers and/ or consultants specializing in a particular course of study. Its contents are usually material agreed upon by the content specialist for the subject of tolerance. Once the content specialist or teacher committee members write the tolerance curriculum or a school purchases a tolerance curriculum, the teachers …

About The Authors

Journal of Educational Controversy

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The Journal Of Educational Controversy In Our Time*, Lorraine Kasprisin

Journal of Educational Controversy

Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Journal of Educational Controversy, an interdisciplinary journal of ideas. This journal is intended to be a national and international forum for an examination of educational controversies, dilemmas, and tensions. It will bring to that examination scholars from all disciplines to analyze a certain kind of controversy. It is the kind of controversy or tension that arises in our efforts to teach and learn in a democratic, pluralistic society. These tensions arise in our practices because public school policies reflect the tensions that are inherent in the public philosophy of a liberal democratic state.

The Purpose And Power Of The First Amendment: A Response To Hildon And Colitti, Daniel Larner

Journal of Educational Controversy

While it seems to me unclear that Judge Alito, who Hildon asserts was not moved by the identity of the plaintiffs in Saxe, did not take advantage of his sympathies to write what appears to be a pro-free-speech decision, I generally agree with Hildon that the effects of the decision support free speech and correctly strikes down an anti-harassment policy which is unacceptably broad and vaguely framed.

Colitti’s assertion that Alito’s decision “denies constitutional protection” to minority groups misunderstands both the principles and the application of the First Amendment. Colitti believes that preventing harassing speech, even as broadly and as …

Helping Students To Think, Nel Noddings

Journal of Educational Controversy

Perhaps the best way to provide a safe, secure, and nurturing school environment is, first, to outlaw personal attacks of any kind (this seems to pass constitutional muster) and, second, to help students to think critically so that they are not such easy prey to propaganda—political, economic, or religious.

From Jagged Landscapes To Possibility, Maxine Greene

Journal of Educational Controversy

Blue tents on the crushed rocks of the Pakistan mountain; the upheavals of the ocean at Sri Lanka; the stagnant brown waters in flooded New Orleans; wild fires, mine disaster: and here we all are—educators, technologists, artists, people of power, and those without power, struggling to survive. We are not the first to feel a slippage under our feet, to grope for a “point d’appui,” something to stand on, a platform, a ground. Like so many of our predecessors, many of us grope wildly for security. We seek a certainty of protection, of salvation. We want (what with our resources, …

How Judge Alito Applied The First Amendment On Campus: His Important Decision On A Public School's Anti-Harassment Policy, Julie Hilden

Journal of Educational Controversy

President Bush's current Supreme Court nominee, Judge Samuel Alito, has so far faced intense scrutiny regarding what his views on Roe v. Wade may be. But what are his views in other types of constitutional law cases? A decision Judge Alito authored in 2001, for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, is telling both as to his temperament, and his take on the First Amendment.

The Merits Of Controversy, Shelby Sheppard

Journal of Educational Controversy

In contemporary societies that value speedy, efficient, and effective solutions to problems, ordinary citizens are prone to view controversy as a waste of time or even as an obstacle to achieving their chosen goals. In this sense, controversy is taken as something to be avoided or something that must be overcome in the pursuit of the “good life.” Thus, it is not surprising that common reactions to controversy include a refusal to acknowledge that a particular issue is controversial (a partisan defensive response), a general retreat from engagement (a response due to fear of escalation), a sense of resignation that …

Saxe As An Erosion Of Individual Protections: A Response To Colitti, Jon G. Crawford

Journal of Educational Controversy

Colitti asserts the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit’s decision in Saxe v. State College Area School District[1] (2001) maligned a Pennsylvania public school board’s well-intended anti-harassment policy, thereby denying “constitutional protection to minority groups, especially gays.” Colitti’s analysis reflects a misguided understanding of the federal judiciary’s duty to interpret and apply the U.S. Constitution and a myopic perspective of the Saxe opinion.

Union Next To Our Liberty Most Dear: Anatomy Of Saxe V State College Area School District And Constance Martin, Righting Wrongs In The Sea Of Rights, David W. Saxe

Journal of Educational Controversy

Editor: The following article was written by David Saxe who was the litigant in Saxe v. State College Area School District. The case, that was decided by then Judge Samuel Alito of the third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals before he was appointed to the US Supreme Court, was the focus for the controversy discussed in this issue. In the article, David Saxe tells his own story.

Although we suppose at least two interests in every court case, when reflecting upon those decisions we dislike, while we know two sides seek to occupy the same space, we often think as …

Saxe As An Erosion Of Individual Protections, Marc Claude-Charles Colitti

Journal of Educational Controversy

This paper examines the consequences of Saxe v. State College Area School District as it affects schools in the development of anti-harassment policy. Cornel West’s lens, described in Democracy Matters (2004), alleging imperialistic overtones in contemporary governance is used to frame how a well-intended policy was maligned by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals to deny constitutional protection to minority groups, especially gays. The case is provocative in that it also illustrates how courts can be manipulated to advance hegemonic political agendas. This article is timely considering recent changes to the membership of the United States Supreme Court.

On Educational Sensemaking And The Antinomy Of Liberty And Equality, Karen Paiva

Journal of Educational Controversy

Making a batch of vegetable soup, it’s not right for the carrot to say I taste better than the peas, or the pea to say I taste better than the cabbage. It takes all the vegetables to make a good soup.(Bender, 1991, p. 130)

When America’s early founders placed the core values of equality and liberty into democracy’s potage, thick with promise, these basic principles were intrinsically coequals. Yet, recipes passed down through the generations, even with the same ingredients, sometimes taste different; maybe not as good as we remember it, or maybe, we begin to add more of …

Keeping The Constitution Inside The Schoolhouse Gate - Students' Rights Thirty Years After Tinker V. Des Moines Independent Community School District, Nadine Strossen, Daniel Larner

Journal of Educational Controversy

Note: This article was originally written as the keynote address for the Constitutional Law Symposium at Drake University Law School, October 8, 1999. It was published in the Drake Law Review [48 Drake L. Rev. 445, 462 (2000)]. It seeks to provide a brief historical context for students rights issues, then to discuss those issues in more detail, covering developments from the Tinker case to the “PostColumbine Backlash.” The article assumes some very basic familiarity with Tinker v. Des Moines[1], a case from 1969. The Des Moines School Board had banned the wearing of black armbands by students (in this …