Tag: Winter 2001-02

FLORIDA ' In February 1998, nine Killian High School students who produced an obscene underground newsletter tested the limits of how far student-press rights advocates were willing to go to protect freedom of speech.

WASHINGTON, D.C. ' The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this fall in Falvo v. Owasso Independent School District, a case involving the federal statute that regulates the release of student education records.

Kristja J.

GEORGIA ' The president of Georgia State University decided to reverse the punishment given to one student editor and uphold the sanctions imposed on another editor.

The decisions stem from a case last spring involving the student newspaper, The Signal. Former editor Stephen Ericson and former perspectives editor Bradford Pilcher were punished for not running certain letters to the editor.

In September, President Carl Patton chose to grant Pilcher's appeal, and overturned all the sanctions placed on him.

In and out of the courtroom, faith-based groups and families continue to battle schools to expand students' rights to religious expression.

After failing to comply with a federal judge's order, Columbine High School in Colorado won a stay in a case involving the display of religious-themed memorial tiles painted by the families of two victims killed in the April 1999 shootings at the school.

The U.S.

WISCONSIN ' A appeals court in Madison ruled in November that the Milwaukee Public School District must release information about its bus drivers and their driving records.

The 2-1 ruling upheld a previous decision that the school district should release the names of 1,400 drivers once they had been given a chance to object.

Newspaper thieves swept through 10 campuses this fall, making the semester one of highest on record for thefts.

OREGON ' A case involving the editor of an underground newspaper that began in 1997 ended this October, and it is not good news for student-press rights.

The Oregon Supreme Court denied Chris Pangle's appeal.

MINNESOTA -- A state appeals court has ordered a new trial in a teacher's defamation and emotional distress claim against her former school.

\n Teacher Katherine Navarre filed the lawsuit in 1997 after school administrators spoke to parents and the media about complaints made about her teaching.

Three newspapers that experienced thefts last spring had varying degrees of success when attempting to punish the culprits.