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Full-Text Articles in Law
Evaluating The Special Needs Doctrine In The Context Of Higher Education, Ryan Prsha
Evaluating The Special Needs Doctrine In The Context Of Higher Education, Ryan Prsha
Missouri Law Review
Part II of this Note discusses the legal context in which this issue must be framed and gives a brief history of how the courts have handled public school drug-testing policies to this point. Part III examines the current state of drug testing in the academic setting – specifically focusing on the ongoing legal situation at Linn State. Part IV delves into questions concerning the Eighth Circuit’s current treatment of the Linn State situation, as well as the potential approaches that the judiciary could take in future cases.
Access To Education: Transgender Students In Missouri’S Public Education System, Cailynn Hayter
Access To Education: Transgender Students In Missouri’S Public Education System, Cailynn Hayter
Missouri Law Review
Although the questions about whether transgender students have a right to use the restrooms of their gender identity in public schools have been centered on moral and religious concerns, this Note does not focus on those aspects. Instead, it focuses on legal precedent and the implications of developing law on the issue in Missouri. The first half of this Note discusses the federal and state legal backgrounds of transgender students’ right to use the restroom of their gender identity, while the second half discusses the need for the Missouri General Assembly to adopt a specific statute protecting this right.
We Have To Do Better: Attacking Teacher Tenure Is Not The Way To Solve Education Inequity, Ellen Henrion
We Have To Do Better: Attacking Teacher Tenure Is Not The Way To Solve Education Inequity, Ellen Henrion
Missouri Law Review
“[I]t is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.” In Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down public school segregation laws and declared that equal access to education was a right that must be afforded to every student. Sixty years after this landmark decision, significant education equity issues continue to plague the country’s schools, which …
Missouri’S School Transfer Law: Not A Hancock Violation But A Mere Bandage On Wounded Districts, Kimberly Hubbard
Missouri’S School Transfer Law: Not A Hancock Violation But A Mere Bandage On Wounded Districts, Kimberly Hubbard
Missouri Law Review
This Note first discusses the Breitenfeld decision and then explores the prior cases and legislation leading up to the Breitenfeld decision. In discussing Breitenfeld, this Note describes how the transfer law will affect transferred students, unaccredited districts forced to pay tuition, accredited districts forced to accept transfer students, and the public school accreditation system in Missouri. Finally, this Note proposes that because the adverse consequences outweigh the benefits of the law, action must be taken so that unaccredited school districts can have a fighting chance to become accredited again. Legislative change is necessary because a solution is not forthcoming from …
Missouri And The Charter School Puzzle: A Story With An Uncertain Ending, Jillian Dent
Missouri And The Charter School Puzzle: A Story With An Uncertain Ending, Jillian Dent
Missouri Law Review
Education and education reform are often at the forefront of the public consciousness. Currently, three large public school systems in Missouri are at a crossroads: Kansas City Public Schools, which became unaccredited in 2012; the Normandy and Riverview Gardens School Districts of St. Louis, which were re-classified as unaccredited in 2013; and St. Louis Public Schools, whose provisional accreditation was in question after 2013 test results. The education systems in Missouri’s two largest cities, the lifeblood of the state, are in varying states of accreditation, and a looming question, with recent cases such as Breitenfeld v. School District of Clayton, …
From Keyboard To Schoolhouse: Student Speech In An Age Of Pervasive Technology, Erin M. Leach
From Keyboard To Schoolhouse: Student Speech In An Age Of Pervasive Technology, Erin M. Leach
Missouri Law Review
To most Americans, the First Amendment's Free Speech Clause is among the most sacred provisions of the Constitution. At first reading, it seems a broad guarantee of the right of citizens to speak their mind without limitation. But the jurisprudence on the clause shows that the law governing free speech is far from uncomplicated. The analysis is made more complex in the context of student speech due to a different set of standards governing the rights of students while they are under the care of their schools. S.J.W ex rel. Wilson v. Lee's Summit R-7 School District, a recent Eighth …
Cause For Action For Student-On-Student Sexual Harassment Under The Missouri Human Rights Act, A , Amanda N. Johnson
Cause For Action For Student-On-Student Sexual Harassment Under The Missouri Human Rights Act, A , Amanda N. Johnson
Missouri Law Review
This Note argues that a cause of action under the MHRA is problematic because it misapplies the law with respect to public schools, creating limitless liability against school districts. The cost of damages and legal fees could overwhelm many of Missouri’s school districts, taking taxpayer money from funding education and putting it in the pockets of attorneys and plaintiffs.
The Role Of The Judiciary In Charter Schools' Policies , Kate Gallen
The Role Of The Judiciary In Charter Schools' Policies , Kate Gallen
Missouri Law Review
Part II of this Comment will provide a detailed history about the development of charter schools nationally. Part III then answers the question of whether widespread support for charter schools is a wise policy choice. Part IV outlines how Missouri has created a strong charter culture, while Part V discusses how Georgia failed to do so, and the consequences of each of those decisions. The Comment finally concludes by arguing for the continued judicial support and more purposeful legislative support of charter schools.
Still Disconnected: Current Failures Of Statutory Approaches To Bullying Prevention In Schools , Daniel B. Weddle
Still Disconnected: Current Failures Of Statutory Approaches To Bullying Prevention In Schools , Daniel B. Weddle
Missouri Law Review
This Article will offer a brief critique of current bullying legislation and suggest changes to the legislation designed to achieve the good intentions that usually motivate such legislative efforts. It will also briefly address some of the less well-meaning legislative efforts and suggest that legislators duped by their uncharitable colleagues into passing counter-productive bullying legislation take the necessary steps to reverse the damage. Because of the brevity of this Article, I will focus primarily upon weaknesses that legislatures should address and will not discuss the strengths that can be found in a few legislative efforts to deal with bullying in …
Community Standards V. Teacher Rights: What Is Immoral Conduct Under Missouri's Teacher Tenure Act, Conor Neusel
Community Standards V. Teacher Rights: What Is Immoral Conduct Under Missouri's Teacher Tenure Act, Conor Neusel
Missouri Law Review
In a recent Missouri case, Homa v. Carthage R-IX School District, the Court of Appeals for the Southern District upheld the Carthage School District's decision to terminate one of its program directors for engaging in "immoral conduct."6 The Carthage school board terminated Lynda Homa, a teacher, and the director of its Parents-as-Teachers program, after it found that Homa authorized a parent-educator to visit an incarcerated program participant to convince the participant to put her child up for adoption.7 Interestingly, the court did not base its determination solely on the inappropriate adoption discussion. In its opinion, the court put Freater emphasis …
Regulating Student Cyberspeech, Barry P. Mcdonald
Regulating Student Cyberspeech, Barry P. Mcdonald
Missouri Law Review
Part I of this Article will provide the First Amendment background for thinking about these disputes. It will explain how the Court has interpreted that amendment to provide primary and secondary students in American public schools with free speech rights, albeit not as broad as they enjoy in their capacities as ordinary citizens of our country. It has given public school administrators special power to regulate student speech as necessary to achieve the task the people have assigned them - the effective education of their children. When cyberbullying occurs then, as it often does, completely or partially off of school …
How Not To Criminalize Cyberbullying, Lyrissa Lidsky, Andrea Pinzon Garcia
How Not To Criminalize Cyberbullying, Lyrissa Lidsky, Andrea Pinzon Garcia
Missouri Law Review
This essay provides a sustained constitutional critique of the growing body of laws criminalizing cyberbullying. These laws typically proceed by either modernizing existing harassment and stalking laws or crafting new criminal offenses. Both paths are beset with First Amendment perils, which this essay illustrates through 'case studies' of selected legislative efforts. Though sympathetic to the aims of these new laws, this essay contends that reflexive criminalization in response to tragic cyberbullying incidents has led law-makers to conflate cyberbullying as a social problem with cyberbullying as a criminal problem, creating pernicious consequences. The legislative zeal to eradicate cyberbullying potentially produces disproportionate …
Canines On Campus: Companion Animals At Postsecondary Educational Institutions, Rebecca J. Huss
Canines On Campus: Companion Animals At Postsecondary Educational Institutions, Rebecca J. Huss
Missouri Law Review
This Article focuses on the issues that arise when students wish to attend a postsecondary institution accompanied by an animal. Part II begins by analyzing federal law applicable to students bringing service and assistance animals to campus. Part III explores the use of animal-assisted activities on campus. Part IV continues with an examination of policies allowing students to have companion animals in campus housing. Part V considers concerns administrators raise about allowing animals on campus. Finally, Part VI sets forth the steps an educational institution should implement to ensure compliance with the law and proposes actions that can be taken …
Stimulating School Reform: The American Recovery And Reinvestment Act And The Shifting Federal Role In Education, Benjamin Michael Superfine
Stimulating School Reform: The American Recovery And Reinvestment Act And The Shifting Federal Role In Education, Benjamin Michael Superfine
Missouri Law Review
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), aimed at stimulating and stabilizing the American economy during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, reflects significant new dimensions of federal action in the area of educational reform. In addition to saving jobs in the educator workforce, the ARRA was designed to spark the implementation of specific reform strategies in states and schools and lay a foundation for the Obama administration's subsequent educational reform efforts, including the impending reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. While the goals of the educational reform provisions of the ARRA are laudable, …
Strip Searches Of Students: Addressing The Undressing Of Children In Schools And Redressing The Fourth Amendment Violations, Diana R. Donahoe
Strip Searches Of Students: Addressing The Undressing Of Children In Schools And Redressing The Fourth Amendment Violations, Diana R. Donahoe
Missouri Law Review
This Article exposes the problems created by T.L.O. and its progeny, analyzes the Safford decision, and proposes recommendations for lower courts, legislatures, and local school boards to redress the current strip search crisis in public schools. Part II explains the T.L.O. two-prong test and illustrates the problems the T.L.O. Court and lower courts have had in applying it, specifically in strip search cases. Part III analyzes the Safford opinion and its ramifications. Part IV proposes ways in which lower courts, legislatures, and local school boards can redress the problems created by TL.O. and Saf ford so that officials will no …
Cut And Run - Tuition Reimbursement And The 1997 Idea Amendments, Brianna L. Lennon
Cut And Run - Tuition Reimbursement And The 1997 Idea Amendments, Brianna L. Lennon
Missouri Law Review
This Note addresses the challenges that courts face in balancing the legislative purpose of IDEA with its practical application. At its core, IDEA was enacted to preserve the right of all children to a "free appropriate public education" (FAPE), including special needs students who, under the law, have "the right to sit in the same classrooms, to learn the same skills, [and] to dream the same dreams as their fellow Americans." At the same time, IDEA and its amendments emphasize that "parents [need] a greater voice in their children's education." These goals can create a disconnect between what schools must …
Raising The Bar: Standards-Based Training, Supervision, And Evaluation, Adele Bernhard
Raising The Bar: Standards-Based Training, Supervision, And Evaluation, Adele Bernhard
Missouri Law Review
In this short Article, I sketch the methodology my colleagues and I at Pace Law School use to incorporate practice standards into our clinical teaching and reflect on how a standards-based teaching paradigm could be adapted to the training, supervision, and evaluation of public defenders. Then, I briefly consider how standards and standards-based teaching assist in the administration of assigned counsel plans and in the evaluation of the performance of public defender organizations. Although this Article does not cover any of these topics in depth, my goal is to introduce the reader to a standards-based approach to teaching and suggest …
Silencing The Rebel Yell: The Eighth Circuit Upholds A Public School's Ban On Confederate Flags, Lucinda Housley Luetkemeyer
Silencing The Rebel Yell: The Eighth Circuit Upholds A Public School's Ban On Confederate Flags, Lucinda Housley Luetkemeyer
Missouri Law Review
In 2009, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit heard for the first time a case challenging the constitutionality of a public school's ban on the display of Confederate flags. When the Eighth Circuit faced this situation in B. WA. v. Farmington R- 7 School District (B. WA. v. Farmington), it attempted to balance the competing interests of protecting students' free speech rights and avoiding future disruption and danger to the learning environment. In doing so, the court adhered to the reasoning established by its sister circuits and set a precedent within the Eighth Circuit that shifts …
Hostile Takeover: The State Of Missouri, The St. Louis School District, And The Struggle For Quality Education In The Inner-City, Justin D. Smith
Hostile Takeover: The State Of Missouri, The St. Louis School District, And The Struggle For Quality Education In The Inner-City, Justin D. Smith
Missouri Law Review
Missouri has been home to many of the landmark moments in the struggle for racial equality. The Missouri Compromise saved the Union; almost four decades later, the determination that Missouri slave Dred Scott was mere property split the Union. During the Civil War that followed, more battles and skirmishes took place in Missouri than in any other state outside of Virginia and Tennessee. After the Civil War Amendments abolished slavery and guaranteed every person equal protection of the law, the United States Supreme Court allowed a Jefferson City, Missouri, inn to refuse service to blacks. The Court later relied upon …
Religious &(And) Philosophical Exemptions To Mandatory School Vaccinations: Who Should Bear The Costs To Society, Anthony Ciolli
Religious &(And) Philosophical Exemptions To Mandatory School Vaccinations: Who Should Bear The Costs To Society, Anthony Ciolli
Missouri Law Review
This Essay will discuss the impact that recognizing religious and philosophical exemptions to mandatory school vaccinations may have on society, with a particular focus on who should bear the costs of the negative externalities created by widespread use of such exemptions. Part I will discuss the rationale behind mandatory vaccinations and identify the costs associated with religious and philosophical exemptions. Part II will discuss the current state of school vaccination law and explain why society cannot expect legislatures to completely eliminate religious and philosophical exemptions or rely on the judiciary to provide a proper check on the abuse of such …
Liberal Hegemony - School Vouchers And The Future Of The Race, Harry G. Hutchison
Liberal Hegemony - School Vouchers And The Future Of The Race, Harry G. Hutchison
Missouri Law Review
This Article examines the school voucher debate. Because “the causes of poverty within the black community are both structural and behavioral,” and because the available evidence provides an inferential connection between education and poverty, I contend that the reigning legal and political theory as embedded in, and as explicated by the constitutional jurisprudence of the Zelman dissenters, and as exemplified by other commentators, fails to address adequately racial disparity and neglects to consider adequately the victims of the current public school hegemony. Hence, the legitimacy of much of the current opposition to school vouchers remains indefensible form an outsider perspective.
Bump, Set, Spiked: Determining Whether The National Collegiate Athletic Association Is A Recipient Of Federal Funds Under Title Ix, Matthew P. Hamner
Bump, Set, Spiked: Determining Whether The National Collegiate Athletic Association Is A Recipient Of Federal Funds Under Title Ix, Matthew P. Hamner
Missouri Law Review
Since the enactment of the Education Amendments of 1972, a major issue facing the National Collegiate Athletic Association ("NCAA") and its member schools has been the applicability of Title IX of the Amendments to those organizations. Title IX provides that no organization that operates educational programs may discriminate on the basis of sex if that program receives federal financial assistance Like many other federal antidiscrimination acts, the main debate under Title IX involves when a particular organization can be deemed to be "receiving" federal financial assistance. While the majority of NCAA member schools receive federal funds, the NCAA as an …
Secular Contribution Of Religion To The Political Process: The First Amendment And School Aid, The , Louis J. Sirico Jr.
Secular Contribution Of Religion To The Political Process: The First Amendment And School Aid, The , Louis J. Sirico Jr.
Missouri Law Review
In this Article, I first develop the thesis and evaluate objections to it. I also relate it to the thinking of the Constitution's Framers. Modern Supreme Court cases on church and state then are reviewed in search of acknowledgement of the positive dimensions of church-state relations. I conclude by applying the thesis to cases dealing with government aid to church-related schools and their students.