Residency decision upheld by court

In November, the Franklin Schools denied admission to a student who lived in Wrentham, but a portion of the property was in Franklin. Relying on residency policies as outlined in Massachusetts law, the Franklin School department could not admit the student because his dwelling was not within the town. The decision gathered much media attention, both newspaper and television.

The family sought legal assistance and challenged Franklin’s decision in Norfolk Superior Court. After hearing all of the evidence, the court sided with Franklin and upheld the decision to deny admission to the Franklin school system. The court decision (which is a matter of public record) is set out below. It provides a good overview of Massachusetts law and the residency requirements for students.

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Elvis Costello interviews Bill Clinton

What does Elvis Costello interviewing Bill Clinton have to do with education, you ask? Seeing these two great minds come together for a conversation about music was an incredibly worthwhile 60 minutes of television (a one minute excerpt from the show is included above). It was especially noteworthy to hear Clinton express his displeasure with the fact that the No Child Left Behind Act has forced many school districts to reduce music and arts programs in order to comply with NCLB.   He advocated for the return and enhancement of music and arts in our schools.

The President went on to describe how important music and arts are to the education and development of children.  He talked of being able to read music, perform it, and see it as more than notes on a page.   He even observed that he probably would never have been President if he had not participated in school music programs.

The interview by Elvis Costello with Bill Clinton is part of the Spectacle series on the Sundance Channel which airs on Wednesday evenings at 9 pm.  SPECTACLE: ELVIS COSTELLO WITH… features everything from intimate one-on-one conversations with legendary performers and notable newcomers to thematic panel discussions.  Guest artists not only talk but perform — demonstrating the development and creation of their music and playing new, stripped-down or solo versions of some of their best and most loved songs.

The Clinton interview was an unprecedented and revealing chat about President Bill Clinton’s early career aspirations as a jazz saxophonist; the astonishing degree to which music shaped him as a man, a politician and a President; the challenges – and critical importance – of music education; the shared skills of musicians and politicians; with observations on Elvis (Presley), John Coltrane, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Nina Simone and N.W.A..

In choosing to interview Clinton for the series, the show’s creator Steve Warden observed that they talked about including Bill Clinton in the series almost from the beginning.  “Although the idea for Spectacle was to focus on great and interesting musicians, we wanted to mix it up a little with some exceptional personalities who had a connection to or involvement with music that would make sense to explore within the context of the series,” he said.  “The 42nd President met the test.”

The series is also available on demand on your cable TV service.

WASTED drug and alcohol program audio online

Drug and alcohol use by teenagers is troubling to say the least. It often leads to severe consequences, and as one doctor has noted, drugs are an equal opportunity destroyer. Researchers suggest that adolescents who start using alcohol or marijuana before they’re 15 have an increased pattern of substance abuse, criminal convictions, academic failure, and sexually transmitted disease by the time they’re 32.

Franklin, like many communities throughout the United States, has been grappling with issue. The issue has come before the School Committee on a number of occasions and we have launched a town wide Health Safety Council to address the concerns. That group has been meeting regularly and sponsoring programs in Franklin. In a recent flyer, the group observed that our own MetroWest Adolescent Health Survey gives us the reported alcohol use for our children, and the numbers are alarming:

48% report alcohol use in the past 30 days

29% report binge drinking in the past 30 days

27% report riding in a car with someone who had been drinking

19% report driving a car while drinking alcohol

An ad hoc committee comprised of high school faculty/administration, parents and community leaders have gathered to establish W.A.S.T.”E”.D. (When Alcohol Starts To “E”ffect Decisions). Last night, the group hosted a special meeting for parents. An outside speaker donated his services for this night which included student messages on the topic based on true stories of drug and alcohol abuse.

The meeting was captured on audio by local blogger Steve Sherlock. You can listen to the presentations and discussion that took place last night by clicking here. It’s not an easy message to hear, but as one author said it well, listening is an act of love.

School case tests claims for sex harassment

An interesting tweet this morning turned me on to a case involving the Barnstable School Committee which wound up at the United States Supreme Court earlier this week. In Fitzgerald, et al., v. Barnstable School Committee, the Supreme Court faces the question about whether Congress meant that law to wipe out constitutional claims by students or parents of sex bias in public school districts or state colleges when it enacted Title IX. The issue arises out of these facts:

Jacqueline Fitzgerald was in the kindergarten at Hyannis West Elementary School during the 2000-2001 school year. Her parents complained to school officials after Jacqueline told them that, every time she wore a skirt to school, an eight-year-old third grader, Briton Oleson, would force her to lift her skirt when they were on the bus, pull down her underpants, or spread her legs, while other students laughed at her. Briton denied the allegations. Other students, as well as the bus driver, were questioned by the school’s administration, but none of them could corroborate Jacqueline’s story. Both school officials and the police became involved in the investigation; they found Briton’s denials credible and concluded that there was insufficient evidence to either charge or punish him.

School officials offered various alternatives, such as putting Jacqueline on a different bus, or segregating younger students from older ones on the bus, but the Fitzgeralds rejected those proposals, saying they were a form of punishment of Jacqueline, not the boy who was harassing her. Instead, the Fitzgeralds asked that the boy be put on a different bus, or that an adult monitor ride the bus each day – proposals that school officials rejected. So, the Fitzgeralds began driving Jacqueline to school themselves. The boy, the parents complained, continued to harass Jacqueline in the hallway at school, so, ultimately, they sued under two federal statutes — Section 1983 and Title IX.

It is quite common for students or parents claiming sex bias at school to make claims under both the Constitution (Section 1983) and Title IX, to maximize their chances for winning some remedy and perhaps, with the constitutional claim, a broader remedy. Section 1983 allows any citizen to sue any state or local official who deprives that citizen of rights under the Constitution or federal law. But the Supreme Court has ruled that the government isn’t liable for private discrimination by one person against another, even if the person discriminating is subject to government regulation and control, and even if the government is aware of, and indifferent to, that discrimination. Title IX protects students from being “subjected to discrimination” in schools regardless of the source of discrimination, even if the discriminator is a student — provided that the school district is on notice of the discrimination and is “deliberately indifferent” to it. Thus, Title IX, unlike the Constitution, allows schools to be held liable for student-on-student harassment if school officials are deliberately indifferent to it. See Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, 526 U.S. 629 (1999).

The Fitzgeralds sought money damages and court orders to protect their daughter. A U.S. District Court judge refused to consider the constitutional claim, finding that Title IX provided the only remedy. The judge then ruled against the Fitzgeralds on their Title IX claim. The First Circuit Court affirmed on both points (click here to read the decision). On the Title IX claim, the Circuit Court ruled for the School Committee, finding that the parents had not shown that the response of the officials to their complaints amounted to “deliberate indifference.”

The appeal to the Supreme Court is focused on whether Title IX had displaced entirely their right to sue for constitutional violations. In their petition, the Fitzgeralds argued that the lower court ruling turned Title IX on its head and that the statute was intended to expand, not to contract, protections for victims of discrimination on the basis of sex. But if the oral arguments this week serve as any indication, a win for the Fitzgeralds may turn out to be an empty victory, judging from the justices’ questions on Tuesday at the Supreme Court reported the New York Times (12/3, A23, Liptak). While “several justices appeared ready to accept that Title IX…was not meant to limit the ability to sue under” the “broader federal civil rights law known as Section 1983,” they “seemed to think that allowing a claim under the earlier law would make no difference.” You can view a transcript of the oral argument by clicking here.

The facts are certainly egregious and emotionally charged, but it begs the question about what more the school district could have done under the circumstances. We’ll have to wait until the spring to get a decision from the court, but it would not be surprising to see the case simply sent back to the lower court for further proceedings without a decision on the merits of the claims.

For more details on the case, click here to view the SCOTUSwiki report.