Student sues school to remove prayer banner, says her case is ‘very strong’

A 16-year-old atheist said Thursday she is confident the law is on her side in her fight over a prayer mural that she wants removed from the auditorium of her high school, the Associated Press reports. Jessica Ahlquist said her side is “very strong” after attorneys for her and the city of Cranston made their case to Senior Judge Ronald R. Lagueux in U.S. District Court in Providence. Ahlquist believes the mural should be taken down.

“It’s the right thing to do,” said Ahlquist, a junior at Cranston High School West…

Click here for the full story…Read More

Okla. school official tweets: Educators ‘dirtbags’

Oklahoma’s schools superintendent said Thursday that her chief of staff calling school administrators “dirtbags” in a personal Twitter post was a “poor choice of words”—but called a lawsuit targeting parents of special-needs children that prompted the comment vindictive and “groundless,” the Associated Press reports. In her Sept. 7 posting, which was first reported by the Tulsa World, Jennifer Carter referred to a lawsuit the Jenks and Union school districts brought against the parents of special-needs students who had sued the districts…

Click here for the full story

…Read More

Groups sue Virginia school board for posting Ten Commandments

Civil-liberties groups are suing a southwest Virginia school board for posting the Ten Commandments, contending that the display violates the Constitution’s guarantee of separation of church and state, the Associated Press reports. The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia filed the lawsuit Tuesday against Giles County School Board in U.S. District Court in Roanoke on behalf of an unidentified Narrows High School student and the student’s parent…

Click here for the full story

…Read More

Authors Guild sues universities over online books

The authors said books from nearly every nation have been digitized, including thousands of works published in 2001.

Authors and authors’ groups in the United States, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom sued the University of Michigan and four other universities Sept. 12, seeking to stop the creation of online libraries made up of as many as 7 million copyright-protected books they say were scanned without authorization.

The Authors Guild, the Australian Society of Authors and the Union Des Ecrivaines et des Ecrivains Quebecois, or UNEQ, joined eight individual authors to file the copyright infringement lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan against Michigan, the University of California, the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, and Cornell University.

The lawsuit accuses the University of Michigan of creating a repository known as HathiTrust where unlimited downloads could be accessed by students and faculty members of so-called orphan works, which are out-of-print books whose writers could not be located.…Read More

AT&T, DOJ square off in a battle with implications for schools

The Justice Department filed 138 antitrust cases in federal courts from 1999 to 2008 and lost just four of them.

The Justice Department’s rejection of AT&T’s proposed purchase of T-Mobile USA will test new federal guidelines on challenging mergers, as well as the companies’ resolve in forming the nation’s largest wireless carrier. Schools and other consumers, meanwhile, will be watching the battle to see how it plays out—and what the landscape for wireless service will be as a result.

The Justice Department on Aug. 31 took the unusual step of filing a lawsuit to try to block AT&T’s $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile USA, arguing that the proposed merger would lead to higher wireless prices, less innovation, and fewer choices for consumers.

The move comes as more schools are integrating into their instruction smart phones, tablets, and other devices that connect over a 3G or 4G wireless network.…Read More

Lawsuit accuses security guard of handcuffing first-graders for talking in class

The attorney for a family suing Chicago Public Schools over the alleged handcuffing of a first-grader in 2010 said Tuesday that the boy was among several 6- and 7-year-olds who were detained and handcuffed for hours for talking in class, reports the Chicago Tribune. In an email to the Tribune, attorney Michael Carin said school officials at Carver Primary School on the Far South Side authorized the on-campus security guard in March 2010 to discipline some first-graders who were being disruptive…

Click here for the full story

…Read More

Missouri teachers sue over social networking law

The new law "is so vague and overbroad that the plaintiffs cannot know with confidence what conduct is permitted and what is prohibited," the lawsuit states.

A Missouri teachers’ union said Aug. 19 that it is challenging a controversial new state measure that restricts teachers’ use of social networking sites and their contact with students, saying it violates their constitutional rights.

The Missouri State Teachers Association said it is seeking an injunction to block enforcement of part of a law that takes effect Aug. 28. The union and several public school teachers assert the law violates educators’ constitutional rights to free speech, association, and religion.

The social networking restrictions are part of a broader law that was proposed after an Associated Press (AP) investigation found 87 Missouri teachers had lost their licenses between 2001 and 2005 because of sexual misconduct, some of which involved exchanging explicit online messages with students.…Read More

Middle school girl expelled after reporting she was assaulted

A lawsuit filed against the Republic School District alleges school officials failed to protect a middle school girl from a male classmate who harassed her, sexually assaulted her, and raped her, News-Leader.com reports. In its written response, the school district denies all allegations in the suit and calls the claims frivolous. The suit, filed July 5, alleges when the girl–a special education student–told officials about the harassment, assault and rape that occurred during the 2008-09 school year, they told her they did not believe her…

Click here for the full story

…Read More

ACLU sues Missouri school district over internet filtering

The ACLU has no problems with schools blocking out sexually explicit content, but it says many schools are using filtering software to block sites that are purely educational.

In the latest development in its national “Don’t Filter Me” campaign, which aims to stop schools from blocking students’ access to educational websites about gay, lesbian, and transgender issues, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Aug. 15 against a Missouri school district.

The civil rights organization said in a news release that the lawsuit was filed in federal court in Jefferson City, Mo., against the Camdenton R-III School District in central Missouri on behalf of organizations whose websites are blocked by the filter. Those organizations include the Matthew Shepard Foundation and Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays National, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group.

The ACLU of Eastern Missouri legal director Tony Rothert said in a news release that every effort had been made to inform the district that its internet filtering software “illegally denies students access to important educational information and resources on discriminatory grounds.” Rothert added during a telephone interview with the Associated Press (AP) that the district has unblocked a few websites, but dozens more remain blocked.…Read More

FTC settles with kids’ app maker over alleged privacy violations

An app maker who created programs developed for children has agreed to pay $50,000 to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, the Washington Post reports. The FTC alleges that the app maker collected and maintained eMail addresses from kid-focused apps including Emily’s Girl World, Emily’s Dress-Up and Emily’s Runway High Fashion, which were available for download through Apple’s App Store…

Click here for the full story

…Read More

SEC sues brokerage for fraud in Wisconsin school district deals–two years late

The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused a brokerage firm of duping five Wisconsin school districts into placing highly risky bets with public money–bets that resulted in fat fees for the broker and devastating losses for the public, the Huffington Post reports. The case exemplifies the kind of behavior that worsened the fallout from the most punishing financial crisis in generations: A firm peddles an opaque product to investors without fully describing how risky the product actually is, leading to the investors’ ruin…

Click here for the full story

…Read More