Education Law Commons^™

"Boys Will Be Boys, And Girls Will Get Raped": How Public School Dress Codes Foster Modern Day Rape Culture, Stephan Wah

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note argues that public school dress codes perpetuate rape culture by disproportionately targeting female students, reinforcing patriarchal norms, and contributing to gender-based discrimination. These dress codes, often justified as preventing distractions, instead shame girls and place the responsibility of boys' behavior on them, thereby normalizing the objectification of women and supporting systemic sexism.

Back Down To Bullying? The Detrimental Effects Of Zero Tolerance Policies On Bullied Adolescents, Devon L. Disiena

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note critiques zero tolerance policies in schools, arguing that they disproportionately harm bullied adolescents by failing to consider their circumstances, leading to unjust disciplinary actions and discouraging victims from seeking help. It advocates for legislative reforms, particularly in New York, to include self-defense as a mitigating factor in disciplinary decisions.

Making The Cut: The State Of Public School Athletics For Disabled Students, Olivia Clement

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Keeping Our Kids In School And Out Of Court: Rooting Out School Suspension Hearings And A New Alternative, Rachel Klein

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

This Note proposes an alternative model that can help a child improve his behavior in school, without removing the student from class. Section I of this Note examines the historical and legal context governing school suspension as a whole, specifically making reference to and analyzing New York State school suspension practices. Section II analyzes the effectiveness of school suspension and the methods used in New York to fix this system. In Section III, this Note proposes the use of arbitration as a superior mode of resolution and explains why Board of Education Arbitration is an effective model that helps students …

Evaluating Opportunity In College Sports (Title Ix), Brandon Kai Golden

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The note critiques the current interpretation and application of Title IX in college athletics, particularly the Three-Part Test used by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). It argues that the test's focus on proportionality often leads universities to cut men's sports to achieve gender balance, which undermines the broader goal of gender equality. The author proposes a more nuanced approach, advocating for sport-specific evaluations and the elimination of the Contact Sports Exception to better align Title IX compliance with its intended purpose of preventing discrimination.

Inequality, Discrimination And Sexual Violence In Us Collegiate Sports, Erin E. Buzuvis, Kristine Newhall

Faculty Scholarship

While college athletics attract thousands of participants and millions of fans each year, examination of United States college athletics reveals a pattern of inequality, discrimination and abuse, which operates to foreclose women's access and suppress women's interest in athletic participation and leadership. This Chapter examines three gender related issues of integrity in college athletics: gender discrimination in athletic participation and opportunity; barriers to leadership for women coaches and administrators; and the relationship between athletics and sexual violence at college and universities. The Chapter also identifies a number of remedies that can mitigate these problems involving the Department of Education, Congress, …

Not Yet Enough: Why New York's Sexual Assault Law Does Not Provide Enough Protection To Complainants Or Defendants, Nicolo Taormina

Journal of Law and Policy

Title IX requires colleges to investigate and adjudicate allegations of sexual assault between students. New York State has recently passed a new law called “Enough is Enough,” which strengthens Title IX’s requirements. However, neither Title IX nor “Enough is Enough” provides strict guidelines for the procedures colleges must use when adjudicating complaints. This means that colleges across New York employ different procedures and offer different sets of rights to their students. After examining federal and state law, some examples of college procedures and the effects they have on students, this Note concludes that “Enough is Enough” must be amended to …

The Hidden Question In Fisher, Brian T. Fitzpatrick

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

This Term, the Supreme Court will once again consider whether the University of Texas at Austin is illegally discriminating against white and Asian students in its undergraduate admissions program. The case is Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (“Fisher II”). The same case was before the Court three Terms ago (“Fisher I”), but the Court punted that time; in a 7-1 decision, it sent the case back to the lower courts to apply stricter strict scrutiny. The lower courts again upheld the program, however, and the Supreme Court will have to confront the question head …

Anti-Rape Culture, Aya Gruber

Publications

This essay, written for the Kansas Law Review Symposium on Campus Sexual Assault, critically analyzes “anti-rape culture” ― a set of empirical claims about rape’s prevalence, causes, and effects and a set of normative ideas about sex, gender, and institutional authority ― which has heralded a new era of discipline, in all senses of the word, on college campuses. In the past few years, publicity about the campus rape crisis has created widespread anxiety, despite the fact that incidents of sexual assault have generally declined and one-in-four-type statistics have been around for decades. The recent surge of interest is due …

Consent Confusion, Aya Gruber

Publications

The slogans are ubiquitous: “Only ‘Yes’ Means ‘Yes’”; “Got Consent?”; “Consent is Hot, Assault is Not!” Clear consent is the rule, but the meaning of sexual consent is far from clear. The current state of confusion is evident in the numerous competing views about what constitutes mental agreement (grudging acceptance or eager desire?) and what comprises performative consent (passive acquiescence or an enthusiastic “yes”?). This paper seeks to clear up the consent confusion. It charts the contours of the sexual consent framework, categorizes different definitions of affirmative consent, and critically describes arguments for and against affirmative consent. Today’s widespread uncertainty …

Is There Really A Sex Bureaucracy?, Suzanne B. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

This essay identifies several features of the higher-education context that can enrich The Sex Bureaucracy‘s account of why colleges and universities have adopted new policies and trainings to address sexual assault on their campuses. These features include: 1) schools’ preexisting systems for addressing student conduct; 2) the shared interest of schools in reducing impediments to education, including nonconsensual sexual contact; and 3) the pedagogical challenges of developing trainings that are engaging and effective. Taking these three factors into account, we can see that while federal Title IX intervention has had a profound effect, it is also important not to …

"Cerd-Ain" Reform: Dismantling The School-To-Prison Pipeline Through More Thorough Coordination Of The Departments Of Justice And Education, Lisa A. Rich

Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review

In the last year of his presidency, President Barack Obama and his administration have undertaken many initiatives to ensure that formerly incarcerated individuals have more opportunities to successfully reenter society. At the same time, the administration has been working on education policy that closes the achievement gap and slows the endless flow of juveniles into the school-to-prison pipeline. While certainly laudable, there is much more that can be undertaken collaboratively among executive branch agencies to end the school-to-prison pipeline and the endless cycle of people re-entering the criminal justice system.

This paper examines the rise of the school-to-prison pipeline through …

Intellectual Property And The University: An Introduction, Jacob H. Rooksby

Law Faculty Publications

Higher education today faces many challenges. Adequately opening the doors of social mobility for students from diverse and non-traditional backgrounds. Rising tuition that has resulted in an entire generation of students emerging from college with student loan debt that can seem insurmountable. Declining state support of public institutions. Increased calls for institutions to contribute to local economies through job creation and workforce development. A growing administrative class in higher education that often only adds to bureaucracies and mounting costs instead of alleviating them. An increasing reliance on adjunct professors to teach core subjects and dwindling numbers of tenure-stream faculty. Urgent …

The Ph.D. Rises In American Law Schools, 1960-2011: What Does It Mean For Legal Education?, Justin Mccrary, Joy Milligan, James Cleith Phillips

Faculty Scholarship

At a time when some perceive law schools to be in crisis and the future of legal education is being debated, the structural shift toward law professors with Ph.Ds is an important, under-examined trend. In this article, we use an original dataset to analyze law school Ph.D hiring trends and consider their potential consequences. Over the last fifty years the proportion of law professors with Ph.Ds has risen dramatically. Over a third of new professors hired at elite law schools in recent years come with doctoral degrees in fields outside the law. We use our data to consider the scope, …

Evading The Schoolhouse Gate: Public Schools (K-12) And The Regulation Of Cyberbullying, Philip Lee

Utah Law Review

Cyberbullying has received increasing societal attention in the aftermath of the tragic suicides of some of its youngest and most vulnerable victims. In this Article, I have argued that cyberbullying is so harmful, in and of itself, that it should be afforded diminished First Amendment protections. I have also advocated for a narrow definition of cyberbullying that incorporates the three elements of the prevailing social scientists’ definition of “bullying” as it relates to cyberbullying: (1) intent to harm; (2) repetition; and (3) power imbalance between cyberbully and victim.

What Once Was Lost Must Now Be Found: Rediscovering An Affirmative Action Jurisprudence Informed By The Reality Of Race In America, Lee C. Bollinger

Faculty Scholarship

This academic year has seen college and university students across America calling on their institutions to do more to create campus cultures supportive of African American students and other underrepresented minorities. There have been demands to increase faculty and student diversity, change curricular requirements, and adopt mandatory cultural sensitivity trainings. There have been efforts to rename buildings, remove images, and abandon symbols associating schools with major historic figures who were also proponents of slavery, segregation, or other forms of racism. As in all tumultuous periods for higher education, these events have provoked useful discussions about fundamental principles and brought to …

Supply, Demand, And The Taxation Of Knowledge, Shu-Yi Oei

Faculty Scholarship

In The Knowledge Tax, Professor Michael Simkovic tackles the question of why rates of return on higher education are higher than rates of return on other types of investments, such as equity and real estate. Dissatisfied with existing economic explanations, the additional account that he offers is distortionary taxation: specifically, we tax higher education less favorably than other investments, thereby driving down demand for higher education relative to alternatives, creating an undersupply of labor, and buttressing education’s rate of return. In this invited response essay, I explore some of the issues raised but left open by The Knowledge Tax. I …

Going Beyond Exams In Educating A Nation, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Today’s the start of the new school year for thousands of students in Singapore: A new beginning, especially for those transitioning from primary to secondary schools. School is such a significant part of our lives, especially in today’s knowledge-based economy.

Documenting Dreams: Undocumented Students In Washington State, M. Elena Calderon Sandoval

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

"This research explores immigration policies that have provided access to higher education to undocumented students through the lens of sociocultural identity theory and cultural identification theory. These theories are fundamental in understanding the construction of identity for undocumented students as a result of their interactions with policies and higher education institutions. Pertinent Washington State legislation includes House Bill 1079, which allows for undocumented students to pay in-state tuition, the Real Hope Act that provides financial aid for undocumented students. Federal policy includes the Executive Order Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which allows undocumented students who meet certain requirements to apply …