Free Republic

The ACLU of New Jersey is taking a local high school to task after two students were suspended after posting photos of legally owned guns on a weekend while away from school. The lawsuit, filed in federal court Wednesday against the Lacey Township School District and school administrators in both their official and individual capacities, alleges the teens had their constitutionally protected First Amendment rights violated by the suspension. As detailed in court documents, one of the boys posted pictures of the two seniors on a Saturday range outing with family, far away from school grounds, to Snapchat. Most of...

SCOTTS VALLEY — Schools in Scotts Valley will not notify parents when they release students for confidential medical reasons — at least for now. The Scotts Valley Unified School District board of education voted 3-1 Tuesday to retain its current policy, despite a letter sent to parents last November telling parents they would be notified in such a case. But board members said they want more information about the issue, especially from districts around the state that have implemented policies that require parents or guardians to know before their children leave school. "Would I want to be notified? Yeah, I...

A Montgomery County Public Schools spokesman said yesterday that the district will not bar parents from sitting in on a sex-ed course that begins this week, and that they never intended to. "Parents of kids in those classes will be allowed [in]," said spokesman Brian Edwards, contradicting statements he made days before to The Washington Times. In a phone interview Friday, Mr. Edwards, who has been with the school district since November, said "no" when asked whether parents would be allowed to audit the sex-ed classes.

Montgomery County Public Schools have barred parents from sitting in on classes in which a new sex-education curriculum will be taught, despite an official schools policy that encourages parents to visit their children's classrooms. The policy states that parents are welcome to visit their child's classroom with permission from school administrators. The policy says, "Classroom visits and conferences by parents and other persons in the school community are encouraged." Not this time. Brian Edwards, a county schools spokesman, said the parents' presence at the sex-ed classes would have a "chilling effect on the educational process." "If you're in a classroom...

As soon as Mark (pseudonym) walked into his Women in Literature class, his professor handed him a note stating the following: It has come to my attention that your comments to other students sitting near you in our Women in Literature (sic) have been both critical of the class subject matter, derogatory of the ideas other students are contributing to class discussion, and crudely dismissive of issues I have raised. At first, Mark could not believe he was being described as “crudely dismissive” by his professor. After all, she talked about her private life in class and published a book...