FLORIDA ' Five journalism organizations, including the Student Press Law Center, signed on to the Independent Florida Alligator's case that questions the constitutionality of the Earnhardt Family Protection Act.
The friend-of-the-court brief, filed in November, supports the University of Florida newspaper's case.
OHIO ' Students from Miami University who were suing the university for prohibiting the use of student fees for student religious groups but not for other ideological organizations settled out of court in September.
Eleven former and current students brought the suit in June 1999.
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\n Teacher Katherine Navarre filed the lawsuit in 1997 after school administrators spoke to parents and the media about complaints made about her teaching.