While colleges are free to remove students from campus if they present a realistic threat to harm other people, it's less clear what they can -- or should -- do when a student's only danger is to himself.The U.S.
Tag: newsgathering
On the SPLC podcast: New Medill database raises questions about patterns in prosecuting “shaken baby” cases
The sudden and mysterious death of an infant is a tragedy so wrenching that the justice system faces especially intense pressure to make certain that no killing goes unpunished.
Green light for public access to police records in Washington, STOP sign in Kentucky
Write-ups of police investigations are among journalists' most-wanted public records -- and among the hardest to obtain.
Flag on media restrictions at open football practices?
We got the following question on Twitter earlier this afternoon:
@SPLC any idea if a public university can do this?
Q&A with doctoral fellow Liz Woolery about citizens’ newsgathering rights
We enjoyed the presentations and papers shared last week at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference here in Washington, D.C.
Penn State’s silence on Clery report shows need for public records reform
Last week, the Department of Education issued its preliminary report, part of its investigation into whether Pennsylvania State University violated the Clery Act in its handling of allegations of sexual abuse by former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky. It will likely be years, though, before the public learns what the department uncovered in its far-reaching review of campus safety practices at the school since 1998 — one of the largest and most high-profile investigations ever.The reason for the secrecy is two-fold. A federal law requires the Department of Education to maintain the confidentiality of any program reviews until the final program report is issued.
Proposal to impose state-level penalties for FERPA violations cut from final version of Arizona legislation
Arizona's governor has signed into law a bill that sets out steps to take for those who believe a school has “knowingly violated the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.”The original version of the bill, introduced in the state Senate in February, would have allowed the state's Department of Education to withhold 10 percent of the school's monthly state aid if the problem was not fixed within 60 days.
IRE provides tipsheets from investigative journalists
For journalists looking to add depth to their stories, Investigative Reporters and Editors has provided a great compilation of presentations and tipsheets from presenters at their June 2013 conference. We’ve pulled a few of our favorites, but the whole treasure trove of information is available here.• A presentation by The Center for Investigative Reporting’s Coulter Jones and the Corpus Christi Caller-Times’ Jessica Savage guides journalists through finding and using data to strengthen stories “on any beat.”• NPR’s Margot Williams offers a list of resources that can help journalists find public records, information about non-profits and charities, archives and data.• The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Kevin Crowe gives advice on looking into “chronic absenteeism” and school funding.
Virginia Tech student newspaper won’t appeal dismissal in lawsuit seeking records about missing student
The case involving police records from a 1998 missing person investigation has been dismissed because the West Virginia State Police claim the records are part of an ongoing investigation.The Collegiate Times, Virginia Tech's student newspaper, wanted to access the police investigation file in 2009 when reporter Caleb Fleming was writing a story about the 10th anniversary of former Virginia Tech student Robert Kovack's disappearance.
College won’t give you public records about crime? Maybe it’s because … crime, what crime, we didn’t see any crime.
This morning, I learned that Elizabeth City State University in North Carolina is being investigated by the State Bureau of Investigation after city police discovered at least 126 reports of crimes since 2007 that campus police failed to investigate, including 18 reports of sexual assaults.When I saw the news, I was immediately reminded of a series of public-records request that I and others at the SPLC have made in the past few months.