Chapter 11
Rights, Responsibilities & the Law
in American Schools
Students’ Rights and
Responsibilities
 The
right to an education
 Individual
rights
The Right to an Education
 The
“right” to education was not
specifically guaranteed in the U.S.
Constitution.
 Northwest Ordinance of 1787 provided
land grants for education.
 Implementation of public education was up
to local communities and states.
Emergence of the Common
Schools
 By
the 1830s and 1840s, Common
Schools had been established throughout
the country.
 By the eve of the American Civil War in
1861, many young people in this country
were attending some school.
Many schools were
segregated…
 Directly
on the basis of gender and race.
 Indirectly on the basis of national origin,
language, religion and physical condition.
Segregation Based on Gender

Women were typically excluded from most early
schools in the country.
 Conventional “wisdom” of this era suggested
that only men should receive an education.
 In the “public schools” of New England, young
women were not allowed to attend school until
the end of the 1700s.
 This continued until 1828 when young women
finally were allowed to attend schools with young
men.
Women Enter Colleges

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, a few progressive
colleges such as Oberlin in Ohio admitted women as
well as African Americans.
 After the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment to the
Constitution that guaranteed women the right to vote,
women began attending colleges.
 Through the 1930s, 40s and 50s women gradually made
their way into colleges and universities throughout the
country.
 By the 1960s women were commonly seen on college
campuses.
 Today more women are enrolled in colleges and
universities than men.
Title IX of the Educational
Amendments
 In
this 1972 amendment (called Title IX),
Congress moved to eliminate gender
discrimination in schools.



Women are now allowed to fully participate in
high school athletics.
It is now illegal for schools to bar pregnant or
married young women from the classroom.
Sex discrimination and sexual harassment is
now illegal.
Improving the Self-esteem of Girls








Begin a mentoring program
Reward girls for academic and athletic performance
Deemphasize the importance of physical
attractiveness
Select activities that value student individuality
Encourage both genders to work together
Call on girls to respond to questions as often as
boys
Give girls time to respond
Ask questions that require an opinion, or problem
solving skills
Rights of handicapped students
 Protected
under PL 94-142 (1975)
 Strengthened with the passage of the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(1992)


Required that all children with disabilities have
the right to a free public education.
HIV infected students are also protected
under PL 94-142.
Segregation Based on Race
 Until
1865, many southern states passed
laws that made education of slaves illegal.
 In
the North, there were limited
educational opportunities for free blacks.
Three Reconstruction Amendments
– freed the slaves
 Fourteenth Amendment – provided civil
rights for freedmen
 Fifteenth Amendment – right to vote for
African American males
 Thirteenth Amendment
Freedmen’s Bureau schools





Established throughout the south during
Reconstruction
By 1869 there were over 9000 teachers in
Freedmen’s schools
Hundreds of thousands of black children and
adults were educated
Many southerners perceived these schools as
“northern oppression”
By 1870, federal funding for Freedmen’s schools
was withdrawn
Jim Crow
 Began
when Reconstruction ended in
1877
 States attempted to strip the freedmen of
their political, social, and economic rights
 Plessy v Ferguson (1896) established the
principle of separate but equal
 Led to segregation of public schools until
Brown v Board of Education (1954)
De jure Segregation

The Brown decision transformed American
education by focusing on de jure segregation –
segregation due to law.
 And yet, in the years following the Brown
decision, there was little progress toward
desegregation of schools.
 In 1964 Congress passed its landmark Civil
Rights Law. Title IV of this legislation gave the
federal government the legal power to sue
school districts that had either ignored or were
slow to implement the Brown decision.
De facto Segregation
 Segregation
due to patterns of residence
 Charlotte-Mecklenburg busing decision of
1971, (North Carolina State Board of
Education v Swan)

the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that it was
appropriate for school districts to bus students
to achieve racial desegregation.
Second-Generation Segregation
 Black
and Hispanic students however
were often placed into one academic track
while whites were placed into another.
 This policy created rigid racial boundaries
within schools.
Affirmative Action

During the 1960s and 1970s there was a
favorable climate for affirmative action


it was acceptable for institutions of higher learning to
expand the pool of qualified minority candidates in
order to increase diversity.
The Supreme Court ruled in its Regents of University
of California v Allan Bakke, 1978 that he had been
discriminated against because of “racial quotas.”
However they also declared that while quotas were
unconstitutional, affirmative action clearly was within
the law.
Resegregation
 Recently
the courts have retreated from
their previous positions of promoting
desegregation and affirmative action.
 Board of Education of Oklahoma City
Public Schools v Dowell decision, the
court ruled that federal supervision of
desegregation was intended only as a
temporary measure.
Individual Rights: Free Public
Education
 Children
have the right to a free public
education.




Parents do not have to pay real estate taxes,
or be citizens, or legal aliens for their children
to be eligible for a free public education.
Homeless children have a right to education.
Students with disabilities are entitled to an
“appropriate” education.
Students cannot be prohibited from attending
school because of pregnancy or marriage.
Individual Rights: Due Process
 Students



have the right to due process.
Students have a right to a hearing in cases
involving suspension or expulsion. (Goss v
Lopez – 1975)
Students or their parents have the right to sue
individual school board members for the
violation of their “due process”.
However, students or parents cannot sue the
school district or the school board as a whole.
(Wood v Strickland – 1975)
Individual Rights: Freedom of
Speech
 Students
have the right to Freedom of
Speech


Students’ speech or behavior, however,
cannot be aggressive or disrupt the school.
Students moreover, cannot make sexual
remarks or innuendos, because this is
disruptive to the school environment. (Bethel
School District v Fraser-1986)
Individual Rights: Access to
Records

Buckley Amendment - also called Public Law 93380 (1974) allowed parents access to their
child’s school records
 Established a policy regarding parents viewing
school records
 Required written parental approval before
releasing individual student records to others
(except appropriate school personnel, such as
teachers, counselors, special education
teachers, etc.)
Rights of Schools (in loco parentis)





Schools can establish dress codes.
Schools may administer corporal punishment, depending
on state law and school district policy. (Ingraham v
Wright – 1977)
Schools have the right to conduct drug testing for
athletes and students participating in extracurricular
activities. (Vernonia v Acton -1995)
Schools have the right to search lockers, desks, and
cars parked in school parking lots.
Schools can suspend dangerous students for a
maximum of ten days.
Teachers’ Rights: Sexual
Harassment and Gender Equality

In North Haven Board of Education v Bell, 1982
the court argued that Title IX legislation applies
to both students and teachers.
 In Cleveland Board of Education v LaFleur, the
court ruled that mandatory maternity leaves
were a violation of the rights of teachers under
Title IX.
 In Burkey v Marshall County Board of Education,
1981 the court ruled that gender discrimination
in pay violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and
therefore was unconstitutional.
Teachers’ Rights: Due Process
 In
Pickering v Board of Education (1968),
the court ruled that a school board cannot
fire a teacher because it objected to what
they had written or said about them.
 On the other hand, irresponsible, reckless
or false statements by a teacher can result
in dismissal.
Teachers’ Rights: Collective
Bargaining





Teachers have the right, under the Thirteenth and Fourteenth
Amendments to engage in union activities including collective
bargaining.
However if teachers do not have the right to strike, the court
has ruled in Hortonville Joint School District v Hortonville
Education Association (1976) that striking teachers can be
fired.
Unions can negotiate issues such as: allocation of money,
academic freedom, class size, planning time, released time
for lunch, insurance benefits, and teaching supplies.
Unions can enforce the hiring of qualified, licensed teachers.
Unions can seek special support services for students (i.e.,
school counselors, special education teachers, speech
therapists, school social workers, etc.)
Teachers’ Rights: Academic
Freedom

The court has ruled that the classroom is a
“marketplace of ideas” and that as long we do
not “propagandize” or attempt to indoctrinate our
students, we have significant academic freedom.
 In Cary v Board of Education, 1977, the Federal
Appellate Court argued that “[teachers] cannot
be made to simply read from a script prepared
or approved by the [school] board.”

As long as instruction is not “obscene”, is relevant to
the subject you are responsible to teach, does not
disrupt the class, and is not specifically prohibited by
state law or school policy, you have the right to teach
it in your classroom.
Separation of Church and State






School Prayer - The Court ruled in Engle v Vitale (1962) that
required prayer in public schools was unconstitutional.
Silent Prayer – In Wallace v Jaffree (1985) the court ruled that silent
prayer, or a moment of silence led by teachers was unconstitutional.
Prohibiting teaching of evolution – the Court ruled in Epperson v
State of Arkansas (1968) that teaching evolution could not be
prohibited.
Creationism – in Edwards v Agulard (1987) the court ruled that
schools cannot require the teaching of creationism.
Intelligent Design - More recently the court has ruled that
incorporating “intelligent design” into the curriculum is a thinly veiled
attempt to teach a form of creationism and therefore is
unconstitutional.
On the other hand, the Court has ruled that student religious clubs
and organizations do have the right to use school facilities. (Board
of Education of the Westside Community Schools v Mergens, 1990)
Personal Life and Lifestyle

As teachers we enjoy both academic freedom
and freedom of speech. We also have some
freedom regarding our personal life and lifestyle.
 For example, the Supreme Court ruled in
Thompson v Southwest School District, 1980
that a teacher could not be fired because she
was living with her boyfriend.
 Other issues regarding lifestyle - such as not
attending church - are not grounds for dismissal,
though dress codes continue to be part of the life
of teachers.
Legal Liability

Generally speaking, the area of teacher
negligence or legal liability involves four
distinct areas of the law:




Malfeasance- a teacher does something illegal that
results in injury to the student (spanking)
Misfeasance- the teacher does not perform his/her
duties according to an established standard of
conduct (safety code violations)
Nonfeasance- failing to perform a required act (the
teacher fails to notify the office of a serious injury)
Contributory and Comparative Negligencefailure to exercise due care as a teacher