Abstract
Today schools are changing to integrate the 21st century. Therefore, it is imperative that educational administrators are aware of the legal framework facing the issues in schools. There are many issues the administrators will face and they must know the constitutional rights of individuals and the school. The Constitution contains the laws of the United States.
Discovering the Relationship between the Law and Your School
There are no references to education in the Constitution, but it does speak of the operation and management of the schools and the protection of the students’, faculty’s, and staff’s individual rights. There are many issues, both social and economic, that requires legal action. Children are the future of the society, so therefore, the state must keep track on issues that may arise in the schools. This paper will explore the law and its application to issues in the school district.
Our school is in the 5th district, so therefore, the Federal District Court and the Federal Circuit Court of Appeal is located in Jackson, Mississippi. Even though the state laws basically cover school issues in their respectively state, the Federal law is the centralized law to all without discrimination. These laws are regulated under the Equal Protection Clause, which guaranteed that no one can be denied equal protection of the laws of their jurisdiction. So therefore, the federal law supersedes the state law, and is in control of the covered subject. The legal system is evolving more to having a government that control the citizens lives, stricter laws and less deference for individual rights. In the future the legal system will continue to fight for more order, but the end result could still be totalitarian contr...
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... has gotten teachers fired from their jobs (Brown, 2008).
The laws of the schools are to protect the students, faculty, and staff. Administrators must know the law so that everyone is treated equally and fair. With the state statutes, the school boards have the right to adopt and enforce rules and regulations necessary to operate and manage schools. Parents have to right to place their children in any institutions they feel their children will excel, whether that is a private or public school.(Essex, 2002, p. 6)
References
Brown, L. (2008, 7/27/2008). Mississippi districts restrict electronic communications with students. Jackson Clarion-Ledger. Retrieved January 12, 2010, from http://www.nsba.org/MainMenu/SchoolLaw/Issues/Technology/News/Mississippicommunications.aspx
Essex, N. L. (2002). School Law and the Public School (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon
No greater obligation is placed on school officials than to protect the children in their charge from foreseeable dangers, whether those dangers arise from the careless acts or intentional transgressions of others. Although the overarching mission of a board of education is to educate, its first imperative must be to do no harm to the children in its care. A board of education must take reasonable measures to assure that the teachers and administrators who stand as surrogate parents during the day are educating, not endangering, and protecting, not exploiting, vulnerable children (Frugis v. Bracigliano, 2003).
The court stated that it was the school board decision to give such a risky individual, as a trusted professional employee with authority over students. Therefore, the school board must be held accountable when those risks emerge and cause loss or damages to innocent student.
These cases and due process standards allow for a protection of students within the school, and ensure that student’s constitutional rights do not stop at the schoolhouse gates. Moreover, these cases ensure that administrators are running schools in a manner that is fair and consistent, and not arbitrarily disciplining students without due process. I think they provide for an efficient school because students will understand what they are being disciplined for, and have the ability to engage in a defense of the...
Jeynes, William. American Educational History: School, Society, and the Common Good. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2007.
This article shows a majority of the cases that are relevant to the topic and research questions it clearly shows the articles that are involved with public schools and how and what they did. It helps answer that research question because it shows that some of the schools are capable of bypassing the system but sometimes get overturned.
Raskin, Jamin. We the Students: Supreme Court Cases for and about Students. 2nd ed. Washington D.C.: CQ Press. 2003.
This social injustice within our nation’s education program is a concern to many people, but society or the government has not confronted it. People need to be informed about because in our constitution everyone has the right to a free public education and we should not place one district at an advantage over another. “The Constitution requires that all kids be given equal educational opportunity no matter what their race, ethnic background, religion, or sex, or whether they are rich or poor, citizen or non-citizen” (American Civil Liberties Union “ACLU”, 2003). Even if you are in this country illegally, you have the right to go to public school. Each student who goes into a school anywhere in the United States should be given the same level of education. If students were to go to school in California and they move to another st...
(1) “Are students entitled to due process if they are suspended from public schools for one to ten days?” (Education Law)
The right of parents to disagree with decisions made by the school system on those issues
Tang, A. Y. (2011). Broken systems, broken duties: A new theory for school finance litigation.
... the amount of extra procedures and paperwork a teacher is required to do that could be spent teaching. According to research the school staff often state beliefs that IDEA protects children and parents but not districts, schools and teachers. Also, parents request services for their children for which their children do not qualify based on local, state and federal guidelines. Teachers and administrators often have to deal with anger from parents who do not understand or agree with the regulations by which the school must abide.
Fischer, L., Schimmel, D., & Stellman, L. (2007). Teachers and the law (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc.
Law School Perhaps one of the most difficult aspects of the practice of law is learning to be a lawyer. Virtually every new lawyer today is a graduate of law school, a much dreaded, but fulfilling journey to practicing law. Modern law schools differ greatly from their earlier counterparts, in that many more requirements and responsibilities exist. In colonial times, students pursuing a career in law would enter institutions for instruction of the law, and would automatically become qualified to practice law in the courts after a few years of study. Today, however, becoming a lawyer takes much more training, rigorous work and effort, and many years of studying in order to take a bar exam, of which passing represents qualification.
Parents and students seldom dispute the disciplinary actions of school authorities up until the late 1960s. Schools are a place considered to provide instruction, instill good value, and inspire the morals of our nation (Arum 60). The courts decided that it was important to give teachers and school administrators’ authority over student behavior. The authority initiated from the English common law concept of in loco parentis which means in place of the parent. This law allowed parents to give school personnel a given amount of control over their children when they place their children in school (Yell 8). This gave administrators and teachers the ability to guide, correct, and discipline in an orderly and effective learning environment while maintaining practical control of students as they do their job teaching. Loco parentis implies that teachers and administrators have a responsibility to see that school order is maintained by requiring students to obey reasonable rules and commands, ensure others rights are respected, and conduct themselves in a safe and orderly manner while at school (Yell 8). Students are supposed to know what behaviors are acceptable or forbidden. They need to be accountable if they refuse to comply with reasonable school rules by behaving in prohibited ways. Holding the students accountable, means the violators will be subject to disciplinary measures or consequences.
In America everyone has the right to a free public education. States set standards for schools in an attempt at ensuring all students get the same quality education. No matter how many standards are set, students will not have equal schooling. Schooling is larger then the lessons taught in the classroom. Each student’s school experience is different, not only because of the quality of their education but because of things like school location, demographic, teachers, participation, and other person experiences. My school experience has helped define me as a person and has helped guide me through life.