Supreme Court will only clarify school rules

Don’t look to the Supreme Court to set school rules, only to clarify them when officials have abdicated that responsibility, Chief Justice John Roberts said Saturday according to an AP report (you can view the full report by clicking here).

At a judicial conference, Roberts was asked how school administrators should interpret seemingly conflicting messages from the Court in two recent decisions, including one last week that said Arizona officials conducted an unconstitutional strip-search of a teenage girl. You can view our blog post on that decision by clicking here. In 2007, the justices sided with an Alaska high school principal, ruling that administrators could restrict student speech if it appears to advocate illegal drug use. You can view our blog post on that decision by clicking here. The court’s full decision in the free speech case can be viewed by clicking here.

According to the AP report, Roberts told the audience there was no conflict in the court’s rulings, just clarity intended to deal with narrow issues that surface from government actions. “You can’t expect to get a whole list of regulations from the Supreme Court. That would be bad,” Roberts said. “We wouldn’t do a good job at it.”

You can be the judge of the clarity that emerges from these decisions. From my perspective, the 8-1 decision in the strip search case provided reasonable clarity and was a sound decision based on constitutional principles. The 2007 free speech case, on the other hand, was far less clear and was somewhat disturbing in terms of the curbs on free speech that were articulated. The First Amendment says quite clearly that “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press….” (emphasis supplied). But the Court’s 2007 decision says that you can have some laws abridging speech when that speech is reasonably viewed as promoting illegal drug use.

The community benefits from education

Having strong and vital schools is important for every community. Because we appreciate that fact, we are constantly urging the community to support public education and keep us on the path of moving from good to great. The downturn in the economy has been troubling to these efforts, but we remain committed to the cause.

It is in this spirit that we introduce you to the Common Good Forecaster, a joint product of United Way and the American Human Development Project. They have developed a tool to forecast how things might change in our community if educational outcomes were better.

They have also prepared a companion report which you can view by clicking here. As they note in the introduction:

Those who advocate for greater investment in education often make the economic argument: more education leads to higher wages and is critical for financial stability and independence. They’re right. Robust evidence supports the view that higher levels of educational attainment are linked to higher incomes, less unemployment, less poverty, and less reliance on public assistance.

But education is about more than just better jobs and bigger paychecks, important though they are in making families and individuals more financially stable. More education is also linked to better physical and mental health, longer lives, fewer crimes, less incarceration, more voting, greater tolerance, and brighter prospects for the next generation. More education is good for individuals who stay in school to earn their high school degree or who enter and graduate college, but it is also good for all of us, paying big dividends in the form of increased civic engagement, greater neighborhood safety, and a healthy, vibrant democracy.

You can look at the statistics for Norfolk County by going to the forecaster, which you can view by clicking here. Once there you can view the data sets and see for yourself how education impacts our community. We have long been strong and passionate advocates for education in Franklin and believe that the site offers empirical evidence of the benefits of living in a community with a high performing school district. You are also urged to review the companion report for suggestions on ways that you can help and support the educational offerings in Franklin.

Media reactions to strip search case

The American Association for Justice put together a nice summary of media reactions to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Safford Unified School Dist. #1 v. Redding which I have included below with links to the stories.

In the case, the court ruled 8-1 that “an Arizona middle school violated the rights of a 13-year-old girl when she was strip-searched for drugs,” as ABC World News (6/25, story 5, 2:20, Gibson) reported. On the CBS Evening News (6/25, story 5, 1:45, Couric), correspondent Wyatt Andrews called the ruling “a major victory for student privacy. The Supreme Court said the strip search of Savana Redding, then a 13-year-old eighth grader, was unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment.” Redding: “I’m glad that it’s almost finally over and I can just continue on with my life. I’m really happy, though, with the decision today.” NBC Nightly News (6/25, story 7, 2:25, B. Williams) said the case involved “just how far public schools can go to enforce those so-called zero tolerance policies that have become so popular. And the question: have they gone too far with our own children?”
 
The USA Today (6/26, Biskupic) reports Justice David Souter, writing for the court, “said an official must have a ‘reasonable suspicion of danger’ regarding the drugs sought and a belief they could be hidden in a student’s underwear before making ‘the quantum leap from outer clothes and backpacks to exposure of intimate parts.’”

The USA Today (6/26) editorializes, “It should be obvious to everyone, and certainly to every parent, that only the most extreme circumstances could justify strip-searching a 13-year-old girl. More extreme, surely, than suspicion that the girl possessed some prescription-strength ibuprofen tablets in violation of school rules. That logic is at least obvious to the U.S. Supreme Court. … The Redding decision could mark a welcome change in direction for the courts and schools, which retain wide latitude to inspect lockers and other student possessions with only ‘reasonable suspicion.” In a responding USA Today (6/26) op-ed, National School Boards Association general counsel Francisco Negron writes that “the court missed an opportunity to provide clearer guidance to school officials. While the court did not nullify zero-tolerance policies, it did require schools to determine the dangerousness of a drug before deciding how intrusive to make a search. It did not specify what it meant by dangerousness. How are school officials to gauge that?”Los Angeles Times (6/26, Savage) reports Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, saying the ruling “‘grants judges sweeping authority to second-guess the measures that these officials take to maintain discipline in their schools and ensure the health and safety of the students in their charge.’ It is the second time this week that Thomas alone has dissented in a major case. On Monday, the court rejected a challenge to the Voting Rights Act, but Thomas said he would have struck down the law provision in question as unconstitutional.”

AP (6/25, Holland) reports the court ruled Safford Middle School officials violated Redding’s rights “by strip-searching her for prescription-strength ibuprofen, declaring that U.S. educators cannot force children to remove their clothing unless student safety is at risk.” While the court said officials violated Redding’s Fourth Amendment rights, the court also said officials “could not be held financially liable but left it to lower courts to decide if the school district could.” 

The Washington Post (6/26, A1, Barnes), the Wall Street Journal (6/26, A2, Bravin), New York Times (6/26, A16, Liptak), New York Daily News (6/26, Meek), National Law Journal (6/26, Mauro) and Christian Science Monitor (6/26, Richey) also report on the ruling. 

The Washington Post (6/26, A24) editorializes, “A six-justice majority correctly balanced the privacy interests of the student with the need to preserve school officials’ flexibility to maintain order and safety. … The court — with Justices John Paul Stevens and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissenting on this point — also rightly refused to allow lawsuits against the Arizona school officials, ruling that they should be immune from being sued unless they blatantly violated ‘clearly established law.’” 

The New York Times (6/26, A24) editorializes, “In an important victory for students’ rights, the Supreme Court ruled, 8-to-1, Thursday that school officials acted unconstitutionally when they strip searched a 13-year-old girl. The majority was too willing to find that in this particular case the officials involved were immune from liability. But the decision still sends an important message to schools about the need to respect their students’ privacy when they conduct investigations.”

Student strip search ruled unconstitutional

In a surprising victory for student’s rights, the United States Supreme Court today issued an opinion ruling that the strip search of a 13-year-old middle school student Savana Redding was unconstitutional. You can view our previous posts on this case by clicking here and here. This is a very good ruling for student’s rights and upholds the principle that their rights do not end at the schoolhouse door. It further provides clarity to school district in just how far they can reasonably go in an effort to make their free of drugs.

The opinion was authored by retiring Justice David Souter, perhaps one of his last opinions as a Justice. You can find a complete copy of the opinion by clicking here.

The Court ruled 8-1 in favor of the student, finding that the mere suspicion of finding a small quantity of ibuprofen was unreasonable and did not justify the search in her underwear. In so finding, the court determined that the content of the suspicion failed to match the degree of intrusion to the student. As the Court ruled: “What was missing from the suspected facts that pointed to Savana was any indication of danger to the students from the power of the drugs or their quantity, and any reason to suppose that Savana was carrying pills in her underwear. We think that the combination of these deficiencies was fatal to finding the search reasonable.”

The Court went on to describe the embarrassment and humiliation suffered by the student because of the search.

Savana’s subjective expectation of privacy against such a search is inherent in her account of it as embarrassing, frightening, and humiliating. The reasonableness of her expectation (required by the Fourth Amendment standard) is indicated by the consistent experiences of other young people similarly searched, whose adolescent vulnerability intensifies the patent intrusiveness of the exposure.

The Court made it clear that searches of this nature require “the support of reasonable suspicion of danger or of resort to underwear for hiding evidence of wrongdoing before a search can reasonably make the quantum leap from outer clothes and backpacks to exposure of intimate parts. The meaning of such a search, and the degradation its subject may reasonably feel, place a search that intrusive in a category of its own demanding its own specific suspicions.”

Only Justice Clarence Thomas voted with the school in the case. Justice Thomas continued his consistent opposition to such individual rights, particularly when invoked by students. In one line, he wrote “[p]reservation of order, discipline and safety in public schools is simply not the domain of the Constitution. And, common sense is not a judicial monopoly or a constitutional imperative.”

Franklin teacher on mission at space camp

Horace Mann Middle School science teacher James Schliefke is at space camp this week after earning a scholarship from Honeywell.

Schliefke, a resident of Franklin, was one of 288 teachers from 16 countries and 47 states chosen to take part in the Honeywell Educators @ Space Academy programs at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

He is sharing letters and photos from SpaceCamp on the County Gazette’s website which you can view by clicking here.

The Honeywell Educators @ Space Academy programs provide teachers with new and innovative techniques to educate their students about science and math.

The programs focus on space science and exploration in a variety of classroom, laboratory and real-life astronaut training, including: a high-performance jet simulation, scenario-based space missions, land and water survival training, and state-of-the-art flight dynamics programs.

Schliefke is the only teacher from Massachusetts chosen to attend.

Since the program’s inception in 2004, Honeywell and its employees have sponsored more than 1,100 scholarships for teachers from 36 countries and all 50 U.S. states, to participate in the Honeywell Educators @ Space Academy programs.

Honeywell Educators @ Space Academy is part of Honeywell Hometown Solutions, the company’s corporate citizenship initiative, which focuses on several areas of vital importance: Family Safety & Security; Housing & Shelter; Science & Math Education; Habitat & Conservation; and Humanitarian Relief. Together with leading public and non-profit institutions, Honeywell has developed powerful programs to address these needs in the communities it serves.

For more information on Honeywell Hometown Solutions, click here.

New FPS logo unveiled

A new logo for the Franklin Public Schools (shown at right) was unveiled last night at the School Committee meeting. The new logo was chosen from many participants in a contest that the Strategic Planning Committee organized to involve students in the strategic planning process.

Roseann Gosch, art teacher, created a flyer and encouraged students to help us design a logo for the Franklin Public School District. Students were encouraged to create a bold graphic image that represents all of our separate schools combined. After the drawings were submitted, they were brought to the Franklin High School Graphic Design class which incorporated them into a finished product.

Thirty students who participated in the design process were recognized and received certificates at last night’s School Committee meeting. Kristen Dumas was recognized for coming up with the winning logo.

New documentary on high stakes testing

MCAS and high stakes testing have been part of the education landscape for the past decade, and the reviews remain mixed. In this new documentary entitled Children Left Behind: A Documentary on High Stakes Testing, producer Louis J. Kruger, Psy.D., N.C.S.P. takes us on a journey on the exams that high school students in the United States are required to pass in order to earn a high school diploma. The film is about the well-intended purposes that are driving this movement toward high stakes testing, and its unintended consequences.

From coast to coast, more and more states are using these high stakes tests in an effort to reverse the supposed rising tide of mediocrity in our public schools and close the achievement gap between socioeconomic and racial groups. Children Left Behind, brings to the forefront the stories of students who are struggling with these tests. These compelling stories provide a springboard for the exploration of the educational, political and moral issues associated with these exams.

The social justice issues are palpable. Testing is a ubiquitous part of our global society. The documentary raises the important question of whether we are leaving too many children behind in our quest for higher test scores.

The next screening for the film is scheduled for June 22 at 5 p.m. at Citizens for Public Schools, 18 Tremont St. in Boston. The film’s website also includes information on what everyone should know about the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) and High School Exit Exams (HSEEs) (which can be viewed by clicking here).

FHS advances to feasibility stage with MSBA

The Massachusetts School Building Authority (MSBA) Board of Directors voted on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 to invite Franklin to collaborate with the MSBA in conducting a Feasibility Study on the Franklin High School. This invitation for a Feasibility Study is the culmination of the MSBA’s extensive due diligence and analysis to determine which school facilities across the Commonwealth are in most need of capital investment.

The MSBA visited Franklin in December, and based on the senior study performed then, the MSBA staff recommended that Franklin’s Statement of Interest (SOI) be moved to the Feasibility Study category to further study the appropriate solution to the identified problems.

During the Feasibility Study phase, the school district and the MSBA will collaborate to find the most fiscally responsible and educationally appropriate solution to the facility’s problems. The Feasibility Study, which will be conducted pursuant to the MSBA’s regulations, will involve the MSBA collaborating with the District to begin to explore potential solutions to the problems identified in the Statement of Interest.

This invitation to collaborate on a Feasibility Study is not approval of a project, but is strictly an invitation to the Franklin school district to work with the MSBA to explore potential solutions to the problems that have been identified. Moving forward in the MSBA’s process requires collaboration with the MSBA, and communities that “get ahead” of the MSBA without MSBA approval will not be eligible for grant funding. To qualify for any funding from the MSBA, local communities must follow the MSBA’s statute and regulations, which require MSBA collaboration and approval at each step of the process.

Before the Feasibility Study can begin, there are a number of things that must happen, including:

(1) The District must execute an Initial Compliance Certificate;

(2) The MSBA must approve the composition of the District’s School Building Committee;

(3) The District must execute a Feasibility Study Agreement with the MSBA, detailing the scope, schedule, milestones and cost sharing parameters of the Feasibility Study;

(4) The MSBA must approve an Owner’s Project Manager, which approval will include a review by the MSBA’s Owner’s Project Manager Review Panel; and

(5) The District must select a Feasibility Study Designer through MSBA’s Designer Selection Panel.

For the Milford Daily News report on the feasibility invitation, click here. You can get see additional blog posts on the FHS project by clicking here, and additional background information on the project by clicking here.