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Students at Hanover Central High School in Cedar Lake, Ind., already had been prohibited from having book bags and backpacks. Now, The Chicago Tribune reports, the ban has been extended to purses. That has upset some students and their parents, who say the policy compromises the privacy of girls. One parent went before the school […]

Not in Dave Warwak’s classroom. The teacher at Fox River Grove (Ill.) Middle School tells The Chicago Tribune he has been removed from his classroom after advocating his vegan beliefs–apparently a little too forcefully from the school’s perspective.
The Fox River Grove district won’t comment because the issue is a personnel matter. Warwak, who became a […]

Supporters of a new law in Texas argue that it will protect the right of students to express their religious views in public schools. But Kathy Miller, president of the Texas Freedom Network, says the law should have come with a warning: “Following this law will probably get you sued.”
She writes in the […]

To accommodate the prayer rituals of Muslim students, the University of Michigan-Dearborn has decided to do what several other campuses have already done: install footbaths, The New York Times reports. The decision is controversial, and students are divided on whether it’s an appropriate use of their building-maintenance fees. The newspaper says some have raised […]

Outdoor basketball courts at a Brown Deer, Wis., middle school have been rendered unusable this summer because the district has blocked the rims with anti-auto-theft devices–a.ka. “The Club.”
Officials told The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel they acted because a robbery and other “troubling” incidents at the courts, while others say the action was racially motivated because […]

So you’ve taken your students outside so they can take part in the Olympic torch parade passing by. One of the students uses it as an opportunity to let his freak flag fly–in the form of a banner that says “Bong Hits 4 Jesus.” If you’re the principal, what do you do? Do you want […]

What is the purpose of schools? Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas gets it wrong in his opinion in the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case, Author Jonathan Zimmerman says in The Los Angeles Times. The high court ruled 5 to 4 in favor of a principal who punished a student for displaying a banner that […]

A photo of a student and boyfriend kissing–is that appropriate for a high school yearbook? Does it make a difference if kissers are same-sex or opposite sex? In Newark, N.J., a picture of graduating senior Andre Jackson kissing his boyfriend was blacked out of about 250 copies of the East Side High School yearbook when […]

A lawsuit settlement will allow a group of private schools in Hawaii to continue to admit only those who can prove that at least one of their ancestors lived on the Hawaiian Islands in 1778. The legal challenge to the Kamehameha Schools‘ Hawaiians-only admissions had been pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The admissions policy […]