Tag: Spring 2002

Two separate court rulings in the Midwest upheld the public interest in access to information that was previously kept under lock and key by school and college administrators.

This spring, administrators at three universities tried to implement tighter control over campus publications.

TEXAS

The Supreme Court in February unanimously upheld the right of schools to engage in the common practice of having students grade one another’s work in the classroom, which the Court ruled does not violate federal privacy statutes.

NEW JERSEY

WASHINGTON

Around the country, school board members and college administrators are being threatened with harsh punishments for illegally conducting business behind closed doors.

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In what may be an unprecedented action, five former Las Cruces school board members are facing criminal charges for alleged open-meetings violations.

ILLINOIS

ARKANSAS — Basing its decision on an earlier Arkansas case, the state supreme court in January ruled that a Fayetteville High School student's rap lyrics constituted a "true threat" of physical violence, upholding a juvenile court's criminal conviction of the student.

Fayetteville student Blake Jones was charged with terroristic threatening, a felony, after his former friend Allison Arnold said she felt threatened by violent rap lyrics he had written and given her.

Blake's lyrics – styled after those of rapper Eminem – presented a true threat to Arnold, the court decided, because they were specifically written about and delivered to her.

NEW JERSEY

-- A bill prohibiting school districts from administering surveys that ask students sensitive questions without written parental consent was signed into law in January by then-acting Gov.