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June 26, 2007
And the Hits keep comin'USA Today opines in its editorial today that the yesterday's Supreme Court decision in Morse v. Frederick is “an invitation for school officials to ban or punish any student speech they can reasonably interpret as promoting illegal drug use or perhaps other activities.”
Is BoardBuzz missing something? Is USA Today saying that exposing students to messages promoting illegal drug use is appropriate in schools? Surely not. Is USA Today saying that messages of this sort when delivered by students have minimal impact and, therefore, do not merit regulation? It is true that BoardBuzz left the public school hive many years ago, but is young enough to remember that some things like peer pressure are part of most every youth's experience.
But USA Today appears to take issue with schools taking an active role in protecting students, objecting to what it sees as overreaching: “There's no obvious reason the court's rationale — drug use is extremely harmful to kids, and advocating it should be off limits — can't be extended to other behaviors, such as sex and underage drinking.”
BoardBuzz is aghast at USA Today’s narrow view of the mission of schools. Thankfully, school boards all over the country know the expectations parents rightfully have of them when they entrust their children to the public schools. And, they know that a safe learning environment is the best place for students to learn.
But, we do agree with USA Today on one count: No, educators “don't take constitutional lawyers with them to school.” They take their professionalism, their creativity, and their love for inspiring and educating their students. And, now they can continue to do so without worrying that their professional efforts will be undermined by needless and costly litigation.
Read more coverage in the Washington Post here and on MSNBC here. Both carry commentary by NSBA's General Counsel Francisco Negron.
Posted June 26, 2007 4:49 PM | School Law
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Comments(2)
Posted by: JimMc on June 27, 2007 1:23 AM
As long as "entrusting their children to public schools" doesn't turn into surrogate parenting. That's where I fear the overreach will go.
As school districts impose more and more restrictions on student behavior will parents just rely on districts to dish out the consequences to their children? Those are bad expectations to set in my opinion. We need to be careful striking a proper balance and not get carried away.
Posted by: gloria Haworth on September 23, 2007 6:39 PM
I am in my last semester before student teaching, so I am taking a course on professional rights and responsibilities, As part of an assignment, I followed a link to this posting. I just want to say I applaud you for sticking up for our educators who have a difficult enough time as it is in educating our next generation without adding fear of litigation for standing up against free speech for drup use.
Thank you,
Gloria
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