MRU Education Law 5010
Adjunct Professor: Jocelyn Ball, Esq.
Miami Dade Area
One of the biggest take aways in this course is the ability to issue spot legal problems in your educational facility on a daily basis, apply the relevant laws and create a learning environment that is within the legal confounds of both Federal and State regulations. We have covered several topics, case laws and scenarios regarding education law and you have the tools to implement logical standards, regulations and expectations in your school as well ensure students’ rights and freedoms.
To demonstrate your knowledge, graduate students may choose from a list of hypotheticals in each category below to demonstrate their understanding and knowledge of education law, specifically regarding constitutional law, federal and state regulations, Bill of Rights and legal liabilities and school safety and professional ethics.
Part A:
As your final project students will choose 1 hypothetical to analyze from each category I-V. Each category covers a different educational law topic covered in class. Please go back to the previous weeks modules and review your case four point analysis, reading materials, power points and outside resources to help you create a logical, thoughtful and detailed analysis of each hypothetical. Students will write a two-three paragraph analysis answering the corresponding questions.
Category I-IV Analysis Questions
1) The Legal issue in the case
2) The Rule of Law that applies
3) How you think the court will rule
4) How you would handle the situation if you were a principal.
Category V is slightly different and entails an analysis of the following questions:
1) Please tell me who has the Duty of Care
2) Was there a Breach?
3) Did the breach cause an injury?
4) How you would handle this situation as a principal
5) If the parents sued, how do you think the court would rule
Part B: Please do some research and choose a current event or legal topic that is affecting schools (rise in school shooting threats, social media usage outside of school and the effects inside of school, etc). Students will create a 2min-4min video explaining the topic and tell me how you think the courts would rule regarding this issue if it’s a legal issue and how you would handle it if it was to happen at your school. What are some important things you would look out for? What methods would you use to tackle this situation.
Creativity and personal classroom experience, as a general education teacher, should be central to the presentation of content. All resources and references must be documented in MLA format. Any online content must be vetted to ensure the content does not have any copyright restrictions for reproduction and distribution.
Students my contact their professor to answer any questions. The final is due by February 29, 2024 by midnight.
Final topics:
Please choose one hypo in each category
I. FIRST CATEGORY
1. 13-year-old seventh grader, Jane Audrey recently found out her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. In order to support her mother during chemotherapy Jane started a go fund me to help with the finances and made t-shirts that had large pink letters printed on the chest that said “I Heart Boobies.” Jane passed out the t-shirt to her friends and decided to wear it to school to support her mom during her chemo treatments. During third period, a junior high male classmate turned around to face Jane during an assignment and yelled I love boobies! The class erupted in laughter. By the next period the phrase spread and could be heard in the hallway.
a. Please tell me the Issue in this hypo
b. The rule of law that would apply
c. How you think the court would rule
d. How you would handle this situation as a principal
2. Ninth-grade student Michael Rift from Miami Dade Highschool recently found out that he did not make the varsity football team but will remain on junior varsity. The student expressed his frustration on social media, sending a message on Snapchat to about 400 friends. The message included an image of the student and a friend with their middle fingers raised, along with text expressing a similar sentiment. Using a curse word four times, the student expressed his dissatisfaction with “school,” “football,” “coach” and “everything.” Another student took a screenshot of this and showed it to her mother, a coach. The coach informs the school.
a. Please tell me the Issue in this hypo
b. The rule of law that would apply
c. How you think the court would rule
d. How you would handle this situation as a principal
3. Tenured New Jersey elementary school teacher Taler Mcole had more than 10 years of teaching experience. At the start of the 2019-2020 school year, Mcole was assigned to teach a first-grade class, which was made up completely of minority students. Early in the school year, Mcole encountered several students whom she classified as “discipline problems.” One student struck her, another student stole money from her as well as other students, and some students were violent toward others in the classroom. Although Mcole sent several disciplinary referrals to the school’s administrators, she did not believe that the referrals were adequately addressed. Frustrated, she turned to Facebook where she vented, “I’m not a teacher—I’m a warden for future criminals.” News of Mcole’s Facebook post quickly spread. Believing that her remarks were racially motivated, angry parents organized a protest and called for Mcole’s resignation. Major news organizations reported the story. Although Mcole clarified that she was not calling the students “future criminals” because of their race or ethnicity, the deputy superintendent of schools charged her with “conduct unbecoming of a teacher.” Mcole was suspended with pay until further decisions could be made.
a. Please tell me the Issue in this hypo
b. The rule of law that would apply
c. How you think the court would rule
d. How you would handle this situation as a principal
4. Mary Joe temporarily a sophomore and Broward Public High school placed a sticky note in the girl’s bathroom that read, “THERE’S A RAPIST IN OUR SCHOOL AND YOU KNOW WHO IT IS.” When she placed the message, a few other students followed suit. A student informed school administrators who used camera footage to determine that Mary Joe was the initial author of the note.
a. Please tell me the Issue in this hypo
b. The rule of law that would apply
c. How you think the court would rule
d. How you would handle this situation as a principal
5. 6th grader Marc Anthony went on an educational school field trip with his public middle school to Boney Valley located at Fort Meade, FL. The field trip was an out door educational trip that required students to dig for fossils from alligators, sharks, fish and possible even arrow heads. Once the students returned to school, students were to share at a small assembly that included parents their scientific discoveries. When it was Marc’s turn he stood at a podium and spoke loudly so everyone could hear him and explained that his favorite bone, was Mr. Bone Er. Marc projected a picture of the fossil he took on his cellphone on the smart board behind him. Picking up an elongated bone like structure with an oddly shaped bulge at the end, he continued to describe this bone to be the most important of all living creatures. The student went on to explain that Mr. Bone Er, “gives life” to the surrounding environment, and “throbs with the beating heart of nature.”
a. Please tell me the Issue in this hypo
b. The rule of law that would apply
c. How you think the court would rule
d. How you would handle this situation as a principal
II. SECOND CATEGORY
1. On March 18, 2004, four female high school students informed the school district that their principal Mr. Smith sexually harassed the four students as well as other female high school students during his ten-year tenure as principal. The school district requested that the students go to school virtually in their online program to finish their senior year.
a. Please tell me the Issue in this hypo
b. The rule of law that would apply
c. How you think the court would rule
d. How you would handle this situation as a principal
2. Three female pregnant teenagers, all who were on the national honor society were asked to leave the society at their public high school by the teacher sponsoring the after school honor society. The teacher stated that they were asked to leave the program due to their poor character.
a. Please tell me the Issue in this hypo
b. The rule of law that would apply
c. How you think the court would rule
d. How you would handle this situation as a principal
3. Liza Triger wanted to play football at her public middle school in Skokie, IL. There was no girls football team. Liza tried out for the boys team and due to the low turn out, everyone made the team except for Liza. The coach said that it was an all-boys team as a school policy. Liza appealed to the school administration to allow her to be on the team.
a. Please tell me the Issue in this hypo
b. The rule of law that would apply
c. How you think the court would rule
d. How you would handle this situation as a principal
III. THIRD CATEGORY
1. Fowler Middle High is a public middle school in a predominantly African American neighborhood. Recently the neighborhood has been seeing a change in demographics and white students have been joining the school as a result. The white students are transferring from a district that had more income and A rated schools and most are testing at a higher level then the students at the same grade in Fowler Middle High. A teacher, in order to differentiate the lesson plans for differing students, sat all the lower or under achieving students in the back of her classroom and the higher achieving students in the front of the classroom to better organize and group students in the classroom for educational purposes. This went unnoticed by administration for several years. The students in the back of the classroom were also starting to be held back due to the rising standards of the new incoming students and foundational differences. As a result, those that sat in the back were older and taller after the next couple years. One student who felt uncomfortable with the organization of the class and wanting to be closer to the board to see better wanted to sit in the front. The teacher refused. The student’s parents complained to the principal.
a. Please tell me the Issue in this hypo
b. The rule of law that would apply
c. How you think the court would rule
d. How you would handle this situation as a principal
2. In 2019, Jenna Briggs was a 3rd grade student with a vision problem. She needed printed material to be at a very large size for her to be able to see the material. Several teachers kept forgetting to print large print material for her. Jenna was a great student and was high achieving even without having large print material. All teachers passed her to the next class. Jenna applied for a national honors program for the fourth-grade students but did not meet the high mark standards. Jenna’s parents complained to the school stating that she would have met those standards had the teachers gave her large print material all year.
a. Please tell me the Issue in this hypo
b. The rule of law that would apply
c. How you think the court would rule
d. How you would handle this situation as a principal
3. Colorado Sprigs Elementary School was located near an agricultural farm where many seasonal workers would come for the planting and harvesting months. The children of these workers would attend the local public school during the agricultural months. The school, short on budget refused to accommodate these students stating that they were not U.S. Citizens and thus were not entitled to elementary education.
a. Please tell me the Issue in this hypo
b. The rule of law that would apply
c. How you think the court would rule
d. How you would handle this situation as a principal
4. In Southern Texas, the IT industry began to boom in early 2015 bringing in many H1B visa workers in that industry from different areas of the middle east. There was a growing number of Arabic speakers in the local elementary school, Paul Riveire Elementary School. Many teachers did not speak Arabic in at Paul Riveire and taught classes only in English. One teacher in particular, Mr. Schip stated in the faculty lounge, “all these towel heads are moving in and I shouldn’t be the one to have to change my classes for them.” “I don’t get paid enough for this.” He refused to hand out any material in Arabic, stating “assimilate” often when he passed out papers in English. The school did not have an ESL program for the new students that involved Arabic learners. The Middle East Civil Rights Coalition requested an Arabic ESL program but there was no response from the school. The coalition filed a complaint against the school.
a. Please tell me the Issue in this hypo
b. The rule of law that would apply
c. How you think the court would rule
d. How you would handle this situation as a principal
IV. FOURTH CATEGORY
1. An ELA teacher started her class in silence every morning to commemorate the mass genocide that was going on in East Tiger, a country in South East Asia. The students were learning about the genocide in her sophomore ELA class and felt compelled to remain in silence. The school was a predominantly Roman Catholic School demographics and many said silent Christian prayers and stated that they said the “our Father” in solidarity. The teacher recognizing the students faith, decided to lead the students in the “Our Father” a Christian prayer. One student of Jewish faith refused to say the prayer. The teacher said she could stay silent out of respect for her constitutional rights. Her parents complained to the school and requested the silent moment to be removed from the class.
a. Please tell me the Issue in this hypo
b. The rule of law that would apply
c. How you think the court would rule
d. How you would handle this situation as a principal
2. Miami Bade has passed a bill that provides funding for maintenance and repair grants for private schools and tuition reimbursement grants or tax deductions for parents of private school children. The purpose of this bill was to preserve a healthy and safe educational environment for all children and promote pluralism and diversity in schools. The maintenance and repair grants law had no restrictions requiring the grants to be used to improve only buildings used exclusively for secular purposes. Devout Roman Catholic parents used the grants to buy bibles, rosaries and other religious educational material for their children. Many schools that received the funding used it repair the old schools as well as religious educational material, guest speakers from the Vatican and classes that centered around the Quinceanera, a coming of age ceremony and celebration common to the local community. The Quinceanera class also included church mass, priest duties, and prayers for conducting the ceremony. The law also allowed for tax deductions to parents whose income was too high to qualify for tuition grants but whose adjusted gross income was less than $25,000. A specific amount of money, not related to the amount actually spent for tuition, was subtracted from the adjusted gross income before computing the tax.
a. Please tell me the Issue in this hypo
b. The rule of law that would apply
c. How you think the court would rule
d. How you would handle this situation as a principal
3. A school allows student organizations to utilize rooms for prayers during the school day for a group of students who need to pray seven times a day in a quiet space and place a rug under their feet. Several students, recognizing the constitutional rights of these students, chose to create their own outdoor space on the football field where no students congregated during the school day to take prayer breaks and practice their religion by smoking marijuana which was currently legal in that state. Several students notified a teacher who notified the principal.
a. Please tell me the Issue in this hypo
b. The rule of law that would apply
c. How you think the court would rule
d. How you would handle this situation as a principal
V. FIFTH CATEGORY
1. Tony and Kevin are 3rd grade elementary students at their local public school. Kevin has the tendency to fly into a fit of rage if he hears students say the word “pickle.” Tony, thinking this was funny quietly came up behind Kevin and said “pickle.” Kevin, flew into a fit of rage and said everyone is picking on me and ran out of the classroom throwing his arms around. Several kindergarteners lining up at the water fountain started to run away from him screaming. A near by teacher came up behind Kevin, sat him down and bear hugged him from behind until security arrived. Kevin had no physical injuries from this interaction. The parents complained that the teacher physically put hands on the student and should be fired.
a. Please tell me who has the Duty of Care
b. Was there a Breach?
c. Did the breach cause an injury?
d. How you would handle this situation as a principal
e. If the parents sued, how you think the court would rule
f. How you would handle this situation as a principal
2. A student in fourth grade, Olivia Brisk, was known to be a troublemaker and had a lot of disciplinary referrals against her. One day, after running around the classroom with scissors the teacher placed her in a chair near the stairs leading outside the classroom. Olivia has fallen down the stairs several months prior at home which landed her in arm brace. Olivia started crying stating she hated stairs. The teacher continued to leave her their as punishment for running with scissors. The teacher was only slightly aware of her previous incident when she came to class in an arm brace for two weeks over 4 months ago. Olivia’s parents complained stating the child suffered intentional infliction of emotional distress.
a. Please tell me who has the Duty of Care
b. Was there a Breach?
c. Did the breach cause an injury?
d. How you would handle this situation as a principal
e. If the parents sued, how you think the court would rule