Posted on 03/10/2005 8:17:22 AM PST by Cagey
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A judge has tossed out a Wisconsin high school student's lawsuit asking for summers free of homework and may order him to pay the state's costs, court officials said on Wednesday.
Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Richard Sankovitz on Tuesday called 17-year-old Peer Larson's suit frivolous and said his complaint should be directed at the school board.
The Wisconsin attorney general's office may ask the judge to order Larson to pay the state's court costs.
Larson, of Hales Corners, Wisconsin, had asked that the state schools superintendent on down to his local school district and math teacher be barred from assigning homework over the summer.
Larson and his father said the problem arose when he was given three assignments just before the start of summer vacation to prepare for an advanced precalculus class that began last fall.
The younger Larson said he failed to get all the work done because he had a summer job as a camp counselor.
The judge should have made him write "I will do my homework" 10,000 times.
Wonder what type of Leftie Camp he was counseling at?
OK children, repeat after me, "I'm a victim"
A rational judge. Has hell frozen over?
The lawyer who filed this flamingly frivolous lawsuit should be disbarred.
Brilliant idea!
Apparently Larson's attorney didn't do his homework either
I do not think the schools should assign homework on formal holidays or breaks. Does your boss make you work while you are on vacation? ( I don't mean self-employed either )
If they are concerned about kids falling behind teach a better curriculum over the academic year.
Vexatious lawsuit.
I have had litigation projects in the works that I have taken home and worked on over a holiday weekend. If the work has to be done, it has to be done.
I don't think that correlates with a kid having to do homework. I agree there are professions that "require" work to be done regardless. I am a software engineer and occasionally take it home with me. I think schools are overstepping their bounds to assign summer homework.
How many university undergrad programs do that? None I know of.
I think the timeline difference is my issue with this. Your ( my ) homework is spanned over a weekend ( or maybe a week off ) but they are asking a kid to maintain work over a 3 month period with no classtime or support infrastructure.
Was the teacher(s) grading over the whole summer? I doubt it. Maybe they took a class or two or attended planning or training seminars. Where I live our teachers are off most of teh summer and some get 2nd jobs for teh summer. So I doubt they are doing homework.
I'm going to go out on a limb here...
What is an "advanced precalculus" class and how does it differ from regular precalculus?
What was the nature of the assignment? Was it busy-work?
I agree that county court is the wrong venue, but I have found that more and more gov't schools are trying to make up for their lack of quality by increasing the quantity.
This is real simple. No school can "require" homework to be done over the summer as some sort of prerequisite for a course in which they are already scheduled to enter. A teacher, of course, can recommend a course of summer work, but the only consequence that can befall a student who fails to complete the work is the natural consequence of doing poorly in the upcoming class.
Freshmen at my alma mater were expected to read a book (a collection of short stories, sent by mail) before arrival.
And what would be the consequence of failing to do homework any other time?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.