Chalk and Gavel: An Education Law Podcast

What happens when student speech leaves campus—but crashes right back into the school environment through social media? In this episode, Chris and Jamie are recording the same room for about the 4th time to unpack Kutchinski as next friend to H.K. v. Freeland Community School District, a case involving a student-run fake Instagram account impersonating a teacher and posting a stream of vulgar, threatening, and deeply disruptive content. The twist? Most of the conduct happened off campus.As always, this case forces us back into familiar—but increasingly complicated—territory: the boundaries of the First Amendment in schools. Applying the Tinker standard in a digital age, the court wrestles with whether schools can discipline students for off-campus online speech that foreseeably causes substantial disruption within the school day. Spoiler alert: when that speech includes threats, harassment, and impersonation that spills into classrooms and undermines the learning environment, courts may be far more willing to side with school officials.We break down the facts, the court’s reasoning, and what this means for educators navigating student behavior in an era where “off campus” doesn’t really mean off campus anymore. If you’ve ever wondered how far school authority extends into students’ online lives, this is the case for you.We’ve also got a couple of timely bellringers to kick things off. First, everything is bigger in Texas—including the legal battles over school vouchers. A new controversy is brewing over whether families can use public voucher funds to attend Islamic private schools, raising big questions about the intersection of school choice and the Establishment Clause. Then we head to Oklahoma, where the state’s Attorney General has sued the charter school board after it rejected an application for a Jewish charter school—putting religious access, public funding, and charter school law on a collision course. These are two stories you’ll definitely want to keep an eye on.This is a packed episode full of First Amendment doctrine, emerging issues in school choice, and the ever-evolving challenges facing school leaders today.Check out our updated website (www.chalkandgavel.com) to sign up for our newsletter, support the show, find our episode database, and grab some merch.Interested in staying up to date on education law as an educator? Check out ELA's publication, Law and Policy in Schools, at www.educationlaw.org/lapisKeywords: #FirstAmendment #StudentSpeech #OffCampusSpeech #TinkerStandard #EducationLaw #SocialMedia #SchoolDisruption #VoucherPrograms #ReligiousSchools #CharterSchools #EstablishmentClause #K12Law #ChalkAndGavel

What happens when you zoom out from individual court cases and start to see the bigger legal forces reshaping schools in real time? In this special live episode recorded at SXSW EDU, we step back from our usual case deep dives to explore what we’re calling a potential education law sea change—a moment where legislation, litigation, and policy shifts are collectively redefining what schools are, who they serve, and how educators operate within them. Instead of focusing on a single dispute, we trace the broader legal landscape: from book removals and curriculum restrictions to evolving expectations around student support, identity, and speech. Through real-world examples, we highlight how educators—from librarians to classroom teachers to counselors—are navigating increasing legal ambiguity, often without clear guidance and under the weight of potential consequences. We also dig into the foundational questions at the heart of education law: What is school for? Who is it for? And who gets to decide? Drawing on historical context and modern developments, we explore how answers to these questions have shifted over time—and why the pace and scale of change right now feel different. As always, we aim to connect the legal dots to practical realities. This episode offers strategies for educators, leaders, and innovators who want to build legal literacy and navigate this evolving terrain with more confidence. Because in today’s environment, the law isn’t just background noise—it’s shaping daily decisions in classrooms across the country. -Check out our updated website (⁠www.chalkandgavel.com⁠) to sign up for our newsletter, support the show, find our episode database, and order some NEW MERCH.-Interested in staying up to date on education law as an educator? Check out ELA's new publication, Law and Policy in Schools, available at www.educationlaw.org/lapis-Keywords: #EducationLaw #SXSWEDU #LegalLandscape #SchoolLeadership #EducationPolicy #K12Law #TeacherSupport #StudentRights #CurriculumDebates #ChalkAndGavel #CivilRights #LegalLiteracy

What happens when student speech collides with evolving understandings of identity—and school efforts to protect students? In this episode, we examine L.M. v. Town of Middleborough, a recent First Amendment case involving a middle school student who was told to remove a shirt stating “there are only two genders.” School officials argued the message violated their dress code prohibiting hate speech and could harm transgender and gender non-conforming students. This case puts the spotlight back on the Tinker standard, forcing courts…and educators…to wrestle with a difficult question: When does student expression cross the line from protected speech into something schools can restrict?As always, we break down the facts, legal reasoning, and broader implications for schools navigating student speech in an increasingly complex cultural landscape. We also provide some updates on a bunch of previous bellringers…updates about the DOE, a case out of California that the USSC ruled on from its emergency docket, and more. This is a packed episode! -Check out our updated website (⁠www.chalkandgavel.com⁠) to sign up for our newsletter, support the show, find our episode database, and order some NEW MERCH. -Interested in staying up to date on education law as an educator? Check out ELA's new publication, Law and Policy in Schools, available at www.educationlaw.org/lapis#FirstAmendment #StudentSpeech #TinkerStandard #EducationLaw #SchoolPolicy #FreeSpeechInSchools #LGBTQ #StudentRights #SchoolLeadership #K12Law #ChalkAndGavel #CivilRights #EducationPolicy

Get excited (and we're sorry in advance)! This case might be the best setup for dad jokes we’ve ever had on this show. What happens when an assistant principal gets fired for reading the kids’ classic, “I need a new butt,” to hundreds of second graders? Well, a court might question whether that termination passes the smell test, because something smells rotten about this decision! This is the real case, we promise, of Price v. Hinds County School District, yes, Hinds, as in “behind”. Maybe that’s why everyone was so sensitive about this? But regardless, today, we’re going to get to the bottom of it! We also talk about ...---Check out our updated website (⁠www.chalkandgavel.com⁠) to sign up for our newsletter, support the show, find our episode database, and order some NEW MERCH.Interested in staying up to date on education law as an educator? Check out ELA's new publication, Law and Policy in Schools, available at https://www.educationlaw.org/lapis---Keywords: I Need a New Butt, Educator Discipline, Due Process, Arbitrary and Capricious, Educators Ethics#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #Teachers

You know what we miss? With everything happening at the federal level, we haven’t talked about Oklahoma in ages. Well, today we're doing something about that! Today’s case deals with Oklahoma, school libraries, allegations of “sexualized” material, and a state superintendent determined to enforce new rules about what students can and cannot read. But this one isn’t just about book bans. It’s about who gets to decide what belongs in a public school library: the state board of education or local school districts. And when the state tried to enforce its new rule against a district, that district went straight to the Oklahoma Supreme Court and said, you don’t have the authority to do that. This is the case of Edmond Public Schools v. the Oklahoma State Board of Education. We also talk about new guidance from the U.S. Department of Education (yes, it still exists!) on constitutionally protected prayer in public schools.---CHALK & GAVEL IS LIVE AT #SXSWEDU THIS WEEK!---Check out our updated website (⁠www.chalkandgavel.com⁠) to sign up for our newsletter, support the show, find our episode database, and order some NEW MERCH.Interested in staying up to date on education law as an educator? Check out ELA's new publication, Law and Policy in Schools, available at https://www.educationlaw.org/lapis---Keywords: Oklahoma, Curriculum, Book Bans, School Governance, Libraries, Religious Freedoms, Prayer#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #BookBans

Can a state, like say, South Carolina, consistent with its state constitution, create a school choice program that allows families to pay for private school tuition from a state-funded education savings account? That's right, today we're doing a completely apolitical case. Just kidding! That would be a nice change, but this is education law; everything is political! So today, we're talking about school choice with the case Eidson v. the South Carolina Department of Education. In 2023, South Carolina created a program to fund education savings accounts (ESAs). Eligible families could then use those accounts to pay for qualifying educational programs or activities, including private school tuition. But the South Carolina constitution says that no public funds can be spent for the direct benefit of private schools. Can you see the potential conflict? We also discuss a recent decision by the Trump administration to abandon its appeal of a Court order pausing some of the administration's anti-DEI efforts, meaning that the efforts remain on hold.---Check out our updated website (⁠www.chalkandgavel.com⁠) to sign up for our newsletter, support the show, find our episode database, and order some NEW MERCH.Don't forget - ⁠Chalk and Gavel was selected to record a live episode at SXSW-EDU in March.⁠ We're pumped about this one. Help us spread the word!Interested in staying up to date on education law as an educator? Check out ELA's new publication, Law and Policy in Schools, available at https://www.educationlaw.org/lapis---Keywords: school funding, school choice, vouchers, education savings accounts, South Carolina, parents' rights, DEI#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #SchoolChoice

What happens when district officials censor a student’s article for the high school newspaper because they don’t like what it says? Probably nothing good. Some people might consider that viewpoint discrimination and frown on that sort of thing. On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about a pretty interesting case from about 20 years ago that pitted a high school student journalist against her school district in a fight over free speech and censorship. When the school didn’t like how Katy Dean reported on a lawsuit against the district, officials shut it down. This is the case of Dean v Utica Community Schools. We also discuss recent litigation in California regarding whether schools must disclose to parents when their children request to be called by different names and pronouns at school.---Check out our updated website (⁠www.chalkandgavel.com⁠) to sign up for our newsletter, support the show, find our teaching guide, and order some NEW MERCH.Don't forget - ⁠Chalk and Gavel was selected to record a live episode at SXSW-EDU in March.⁠ We're pumped about this one. Help us spread the word!Interested in staying up to date on education law as an educator? Check out ELA's new publication, Law and Policy in Schools, available at https://www.educationlaw.org/lapis---Keywords: free speech, student journalism, censorship, Hazelwood, transgender students, parents' rights#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #FreeSpeech #teachers

It’s time to cover the oral arguments in the transgender student athlete cases! Which means we need some expert guidance, and who better to join us than Dr. Suzanne Eckes? This is one we’ve talked about before, but can states prohibit transgender girls from playing on the girls team? We first covered BPJ v. West Virginia in episode 57. In that case, Becky Pepper-Jackson, a transgender girl, challenged West Virginia’s law that defined athletic teams based on biological sex assigned at birth. Well, she won at the lower court, but the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case along with another transgender student athlete case, Little v. Hecox, which involved a similar law and situation out of Idaho. So now the nine justices of the Supreme Court have to grapple with the question of whether Title IX or the Equal Protection Clause prohibit states from having sex-separated sports teams based on biological sex, even where as both Becky and Hecox argue, they have no biological advantage as compared to cisgender girls. ---Check out our updated website (⁠www.chalkandgavel.com⁠) to sign up for our newsletter, support the show, find our teaching guide, and order some NEW MERCH.Don't forget - ⁠Chalk and Gavel was selected to record a live episode at SXSW-EDU in March.⁠ We're pumped about this one. Help us spread the word!Interested in staying up to date on education law as an educator? Check out ELA's new publication, Law and Policy in Schools, available at https://www.educationlaw.org/lapis---Keywords: transgender student athletes, Title IX, Equal Protection Clause, LGBTQ+, sex discrimination#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #TransRights #SupremeCourt

What happens when a principal’s retirement gift to a friend causes a community uproar? In this episode, we discuss the case of Stirling v. North Slope in which a principal made a questionable gift, on a school printer, that resulted in him getting fired. While that may not sound so bad, the gift repurposed the school's official motto and logo in ways the community found problematic. Well, the principal challenged his termination, arguing that it violated his free speech rights. This is an interesting one! It involves community values, educators' free speech rights, employment issues, school authority, and the most northern school district in the United States, which is pretty cool, literally. We also discuss recent efforts by the Trump administration to shift the Department of Education's work to other federal agencies.--- Check out our updated website (⁠www.chalkandgavel.com⁠) to sign up for our newsletter, support the show, find our teaching guide, and order some NEW MERCH.Don't forget - ⁠Chalk and Gavel was selected to record a live episode at SXSW-EDU in March.⁠ We're pumped about this one. Help us spread the word!Interested in staying up to date on education law as an educator? Check out ELA's new publication, Law and Policy in Schools, available at https://www.educationlaw.org/lapis --- Keywords: free speech, labor and employment, employee termination, community values#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #FreeSpeech #teachers

Live from Kansas City (well, recorded live at the Education Law Association conference in Kansas City), we've got a special episode for you today. We're going behind the scenes of Chalk & Gavel to answer your questions about the show and education law! To help us out, we're joined by friend of the show, Dr. Janet Decker. Ever wondered how the show gets made or how to successfully navigate social media as an educator? Maybe you're curious about what our favorite Supreme Court cases are, which constitutional amendment would go viral on social media first, or the most lawyerly thing Chris has ever said. Let's get personal as we answer all your burning questions. --- Check out our updated website (www.chalkandgavel.com) to sign up for our newsletter, support the show, find our teaching guide, and order some NEW MERCH.Don't forget - ⁠Chalk and Gavel was selected to record a live episode at SXSW-EDU in March.⁠ We're pumped about this one. Help us spread the word!Interested in staying up to date on education law as an educator? Check out ELA's new publication, Law and Policy in Schools, available at https://www.educationlaw.org/lapis --- Keywords: Chalk & Gavel, Behind the Scenes, Education Law Association#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #EducationLawAssociation

When warning signs of violence appear in a school, what does the law actually require educators to do? And when tragedy occurs, who can be held legally responsible? In this episode, we examine how courts are addressing these questions through two recent and legally significant cases: Our Bellringer covers the Virginia case in which a jury found an assistant principal negligent after repeated warnings went unaddressed, and our main cases focused on the 2021 tragedy at Oxford High School in Michigan, where courts ultimately rejected constitutional claims against school officials. Through these cases, we break down the difference between negligence and constitutional liability, explain why the “state-created danger” doctrine sets such a high bar, and explore how courts evaluate school safety decisions based on what officials reasonably knew and when they knew it...not based on hindsight. This episode isn’t about blame or perfection; it’s about understanding how the law views action, inaction, and responsibility in the most difficult circumstances school communities may ever face.--- Check out our updated website (⁠www.chalkandgavel.com⁠) to: sign up for our newsletter, support the show, find our teaching guide, and order some NEW MERCH.Don't forget - ⁠Chalk and Gavel was selected to record a live episode at SXSW-EDU in March.⁠ We're pumped about this one. Help us spread the word!--- Keywords: school safety, educator liability, education law, podcast, negligence, school violence#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #StudentSafety #Negligence

Can a state forbid the teaching of Critical Race Theory? Do students’ First Amendment rights to receive information place limits on state curricular decisions? Are you ready for some “1984” George Orwell references, because Chris calls today's decision "double-plus ungood." That's right, it’s a bright cold day in November, and the clocks are striking 13. Again. This is another timely and relevant case! We’re talking about the constitutionality of an Arkansas law designed to regulate how educators in the state teach and discuss sensitive subjects like race and gender. As we all know, these kinds of laws have popped up all over the place over the last few years, and in many cases, they’ve had some pretty chilling effects on what happens in classrooms. Whether these laws allow you to engage specific topics or ideas, the dialogue around all of this stuff is loud, often confusing, and pretty emotionally charged… leading lots of folks to self-censor, even when they may not have to. So, we’re going to unpack Walls v Sanders on today’s episode. We also discuss recent efforts to reduce staff at the Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs and the implications for federal special education law, like the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). --- Please check out our updated website (⁠www.chalkandgavel.com⁠) to sign up for our newsletter, find our teaching guide, check out OUR NEW MERCH, and for ways to support the show!Lastly, some exciting news! ⁠Chalk and Gavel was selected to record a live episode at SXSW-EDU in March.⁠ We're pumped about this one. Check us out and spread the word! --- Keywords: Curriculum, First Amendment, Anti-CRT Laws, Government Speech, U.S. Department of Education#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #CurricularGagOrders

Can a state prohibit transgender students from participating on teams that align with their gender identity? Does Title IX, a law that was passed in 1972 and says nothing about transgender individuals, protect those individuals in 2025? Are you ready to talk about our next Supreme Court saga? On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about another consequential education-related Supreme Court case! And it’s safe to say that we’ve had several potentially consequential ones lately. This Court has not been too shy about taking up some big issues over the last decade or so. And we’ve finally, for better or worse, come to the first Supreme Court case about transgender student athletes. We’re talking about the case of Becky Pepper Jackson (BPJ), a transgender girl, who was barred by state law from participating on a girls’ sports team. This went back and forth in the lower courts, with BPJ ultimately winning at the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. West Virginia wasn’t happy with that, so they petitioned the Supreme Court, which agreed to take up the case along with another similar case, Little v. Hecox. So, here we are. At the time of this recording, the date for oral argument hadn't been set, but we now know it's set for January 13! We’re going to give you all the background today, so you’re ready to ride this roller coaster with us during this Supreme Court session! We also talk about a case out of Michigan involving some students who got in trouble for wearing "Let's Go Brandon" shirts to school. --- Please check out our updated website (www.chalkandgavel.com) to sign up for our newsletter, for our teaching guide, OUR NEW MERCH, and for ways to support the show!Lastly - some exciting news: Chalk and Gavel was selected to record a live episode at SXSW-EDU in March! We're pumped about this one! --- Keywords: Transgender Student Athletes, LGBTQ Issues, Title IX, Equal Protection Clause, First Amendment, Student Free Speech#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #LGBTQ

What happens when parents challenge the inclusion of books in the school library, and the school engages in its clearly stated procedures? How should we balance parents’ rights and students’ rights? How quickly can a school board reverse one of its own decisions? Well, this one wasn’t as quick as the reversal in the Mahmoud case (which was like 24 hours). This one was like a month, but still. Today, we’re covering a case that was ruled on in April out of New York. This case involved library books being challenged, a subsequent review process taking place, and a board decision to ultimately keep the books on the shelves. Teachers and school leaders, this is an excellent case, and it shows what can happen when a robust school board procedure is followed properly. This is the case of Moms for Liberty of Wayne County v NY State Education Department. Spoiler Alert: Moms for Liberty lost this one. Listen to find out why! We also talk about updates to the ongoing litigation on Louisianna's Ten Commandments law as well as the Kluge v. Brownsburg case involving the teacher who was fired for refusing to use transgender students' names and pronouns. --- Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk & Gavel by becoming a subscriber on our website. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.chalkandgavel.com/support-the-show --- Keywords: School Libraries, First Amendment, Controversial Curriculum, Parental Challenges, Procedures, Ten Commandments, Transgender Students#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #LibraryBooks #FirstAmendment

Under the First Amendment, can schools punish students for their lewd and indecent speech? What happens when a student delivers a speech full of sexual innuendos to a required assembly of 600 high school students? How should schools respond when a high school speech sounds more like a late-night comedy set? Welcome to our two-year anniversary episode!! We’re going to stay true to form and cover another landmark Supreme Court case for you. (What will we do when we run out of landmark education law cases from the Supreme Court? Given today's political context, we probably won't!) Today's case is one of our favorites. This is a case about a student's speech at an assembly that went from persuasive to provocative to potentially pornographic. This is the famous Supreme Court case, Bethel School Dist. v. Fraser, from 1986. We also talk about a new ACLU lawsuit that is a statewide challenge to Texas's 10 Commandments law. --- Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk & Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠ --- Keywords: Students' Rights, First Amendment, Student Speech, Bethel v. Fraser, Lewd and Indecent Speech, Due Process, Student Discipline, Religion and the Public Schools#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #StudentRights

When are educators required to report suspicions of child abuse and neglect as mandatory reporters? Are unsubstantiated rumors enough to create a reasonable suspicion of child abuse? Ready to hear Chris get on his soapbox? Today, we're covering a fascinating case for all educators, especially teachers. This is the kind of thing that anyone in a school setting could easily encounter. This is a case of a school counselor who was informed by a student about a possible inappropriate relationship between a teacher and another student, but that counselor didn’t report it to her supervisors or to child protective services. Well, some more things came to light. She got fired. She filed a lawsuit. And the court said some… interesting things about all of it. Today's case is Small v Streater Township High School District. We also talk about a recent case out of Virginia, NCAA v. Shenandoah County School Board, in which a court held that students' First Amendment rights to be free from compelled speech were violated when students were required to wear school uniforms with a highly symbolic name, "Stonewall Jackson Generals," after the school district reinstated that name following a protracted conflict in the community. --- Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk & Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠ --- Keywords: Mandatory Reporter, Child Abuse, Teachers, Labor and Employment, Contract Termination, Due Process, First Amendment, #educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #Teachers

When can a school, consistent with the First Amendment, non-renew an employee for their speech? What happens when the High School Football coach doesn’t like his daughter’s middle school social studies curriculum? Are you ready for some... facts that have nothing to do with football? While we're great at talking about sports, this case has nothing to do with football and everything to do with free speech. Our case today is a recent decision from Massachusetts regarding a football coach who had issues with his daughter’s middle school social studies curriculum, which led to conversations, emails, and ultimately, more significant problems, such as his non-renewal. This is the case of Flynn v. Forrest. We also discuss a recent decision in South Carolina NAACP v. Weaver, regarding South Carolina's divisive concepts law. --- Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk & Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠ --- Keywords: Free Speech, First Amendment, Teachers, Parental Advocacy, Labor and Employment, Nonrenewal#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #FreeSpeech #Teachers

When can schools expel a student for lying? What happens when a student’s initial lie snowballs into a tangled web of police reports, intimidation, and false accusations? We’ve talked about smoking in the girls’ room, but what about vaping in the girls’ room? In this episode, we bring TLO into the 21st century. TLO was about smoking in the girls' room, but what happens when a student is accused of vaping in the girls' room? And then what happens when the student makes a bad situation worse by lying, accusing a teacher of impropriety, and intimidating a fellow student? This is the case of Ashton v. Okemos Public Schools. This one has a bit of everything: First Amendment free speech claims, Fourth Amendment reasonable search and seizure, Fourteenth Amendment procedural and substantive due process, lies, intrigue, a police investigation, you name it! We also provide a quick update to Texas's Ten Commandments law, which is very similar to Louisiana's law that we talked about in Episode 51, though of course, everything has to be bigger in Texas. --- Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk & Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠ --- Keywords: Vaping, Student Rights, Lies, Police Investigations, Religion in Schools, Ten Commandments#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #StudentRights #DontVapeInSchools #TenCommandments

Can a state require that the Ten Commandments be posted in every classroom? What does the Establishment Clause mean these days with the rise of the Free Exercise Clause and the impact of Kennedy v. Bremerton? Do you ever get deja vu? We do, because we swear we've already had this conversation. Today, we're discussing a recent case challenging Louisiana's requirement that every classroom display a prominent copy of the Ten Commandments. We've called these hydra laws; when one gets struck down, two more seem to pop up. Or we could call these groundhog day episodes. Whatever you want to call it, we’ve got another 1st Amendment religion case for you today! This is the case of Roake v. Brumley. That’s right, we’re back with another Church/State case…. Are we seeing a pattern yet? We also discuss some recent developments with the Supreme Court and the Trump administration's efforts to lay off more than 1,400 employees from the Department of Education. --- Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk & Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠ --- Keywords: Religion in Schools, Ten Commandments, Establishment Clause, Church/State Issues, Trump Administration, Department of Education Lay-offs#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #ReligionInSchools #TenCommandments #YouStillCantDoThat

We've got a special episode for you to celebrate our 50th episode! We're joined by none other than Mary Beth Tinker, one of the plaintiffs in the famous 1969 Supreme Court case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. We've talked about Tinker so many times on this show; this is the case that set the standard for students’ free speech rights in schools. And to help us explore this case, who better than Tinker herself? Listen in as Mary Beth shares her story and talks about how she has spent her life supporting children and advocating for their rights. In this episode, we explore when schools can silence student speech, and whether a school, consistent with the First Amendment, can forbid the wearing of black armbands in protest of the Vietnam War. This is one you do not want to miss! --- Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk & Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠ --- Keywords: Student Activism, First Amendment Free Speech, Students' Rights, Tinker v. Des Moines, Mary Beth Tinker, Black Arm Bands, Vietnam War#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #studentactivism #protests #TinkerTour

Can schools control what students say at student protests? When is a student walkout a school-sponsored event? What’s the first rule about protesting against gun violence in schools? Apparently, the first rule of protesting gun violence is “don’t talk about gun violence.” At least according to the Shawnee Mission School District. Today’s case is another First Amendment student speech case. We’re heading to Kansas to look at what happened when students planned a walkout after the Parkland shooting, and the school, let’s say, got rather involved in that event, telling them what they could or could not talk about. We also discuss a handful of Supreme Court cases that address legal protections for transgender individuals, including the Supreme Court's recent decision in U.S. v. Skremmeti and two cases on transgender student athletes that will be heard next term. --- Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk & Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠ --- Keywords: Student Protests and Walkouts, First Amendment Free Speech, Students' Rights, School-Sponsored Events #educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #studentactivism #protests

Jamie and Chris return for the third episode on the Mahmoud v. Taylor case! This time, we break down the recent Supreme Court Decision that came out at the end of the term. It was an interesting decision made by the Court's conservative majority, adding another (ambiguous) layer to decades of parental rights and school curriculum case law. We also discuss the AJT v. Osseo Supreme Court decision that eliminates the higher bar that parents needed to sue under the ADA and Section 504. --- Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠.We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk & Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠ --- Keywords: Supreme Court, Mahmoud v. Taylor, Oral Argument, LGBTQ Inclusive Curriculum, Religion, Parental Rights, Richard Katskee#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #SCOTUS #religionineducation #LGBTQ

What does the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, say about the practice of peer grading? When does something become an “educational record” protected under FERPA? Do you think the people who wrote FERPA knew we were going to call it 'FERPA'? Couldn’t they have come up with a better acronym? This is our first FERPA episode! This is the law that’s designed to protect the privacy of student records. So, what information is protected under FERPA, and what isn’t? Today’s case involves a parent who took issue with a teacher’s use of peer-grading, saying that it violated her children’s privacy and subjected them to unnecessary embarrassment. This is the Supreme Court case of Owasso Independent School District v. Falvo. We also discuss a recent decision out of the 5th Circuit that makes it more difficult to challenge the removal of books from a local library, at least in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. --- Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk & Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠ --- Keywords: Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), Education Records, Peer Grading, Libraries, Book Bans #educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #FERPA #StudentRights #BUZZKILL

Can the U.S. Department of Education require schools to stop all DEI programs and activities? What do they actually mean when they say “DEI?” Are you ready to go three rounds on the injunction junction? We’ve got a three-fer for you today. Three cases for the price of none! We’re covering how three courts are dealing with the Trump Administration’s education directives to curtail DEI programs and initiatives in schools. In our bell-ringer for Episode 39, we talked about a Dear Colleague Letter from the U.S. Department of Education that purported to “reiterate existing legal requirements” under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act regarding racial discrimination. That letter seemed to lump DEI efforts in with intentional discrimination. Well, we now have three different court decisions halting the enforcement of that letter, so let's dig in! We also discuss the Supreme Court's decision in the Oklahoma virtual religious charter school case. (Go back and listen to Episode 44; our guest, Dr. Martha McCarthy, totally called it!) It's an interesting one. Not every Supreme Court decision is exactly two sentences long! --- Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk & Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠ --- Keywords: Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Title VI, Racial Discrimination, U.S. Department of Education, the Trump Administration, Administrative Law, Oklahoma, Religion, Charter Schools #educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #DEI #Trump #InjunctionJunction

When can a school dismiss a teacher for good or just cause? What happens when a teacher’s iPhone with some, let's say, risque pictures, automatically syncs with his district-issued iPad? What could possibly go wrong? We've got another interesting case here today! This one involves a teacher who took some “naughty” pictures on his personal iPhone while on vacation, which later happened to be synced to a school-issued device (don't worry, though, no students saw them). Well, the proverbial cat got out of the bag, and he was reported to child protective services, who called school officials, and we’ll dig into how all that played out as we cover the case of the Board of Trustees of Lincoln County School District Number 2 v Earling. We also discuss a great EdWeek article that's tracking all of the lawsuits filed over Trump's education policies, conveniently titled, "See All the Lawsuits Filed Over Trump's Education Policies." Check it out here: https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/see-all-the-lawsuits-filed-over-trumps-education-policies/2025/03 --- Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk & Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠ --- Keywords: Teachers and Teacher Discipline, Labor and Employment, Good or Just Cause, Technology and Cell Phones #educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #teachers

Is a charter school a public school? Does the Free Exercise Clause require taxpayers to fund charter schools that teach religion as truth? Is a charter school just a private organization with a state contract, or is it a state actor or even a governmental entity? Is Oklahoma on the brink of establishing the country’s first religious public school? Today, we’re tackling the oral arguments from another consequential Supreme Court case with some major implications for education. We usually only see these kinds of big ones every few years, but the Supreme Court is all-in on education these days. You’ve probably heard about this one, too, since it’s been all over the news (and all over Chalk & Gavel; we covered the OK Supreme Court's decision in this case in Episode 23). This one deals with a Catholic organization that was approved to operate a religious charter school by Oklahoma’s Charter School Review Board. Oklahoma's Attorney General, a republican named Gentner Drummond, believed that this violated the Establishment Clause and the state’s charter school law. This case went all the way to Oklahoma’s Supreme Court, which sided with Drummond, and that’s where most of us thought it would stay… but no, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to weigh in on the situation, and here we are. To help us break down those oral arguments, we’re honored to be joined by Dr. Martha McCarthy, a legend in education law who has been writing about religion and public schools since the 1980s! You don't want to miss this one! --- Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk & Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠ --- Keywords: Supreme Court, Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond, Oral Argument, Religion, Free Exercise Clause, Establishment Clause, Charter Schools, Martha McCarthy #educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #SCOTUS #religionineducation #schoolchoice

Does it burden a family’s religion to have their child exposed to views with which they disagree? Where is the line between exposure and coercion? Who gets to draw that line? Should public schools be a place where students encounter and acknowledge a variety of viewpoints, even if they don’t agree with them? Or should parents have the power to opt their kids out of anything that might conflict with their religious views? Can a diverse, inclusive curriculum co-exist with ever-increasing parental rights? Is opting out going to become a constitutional right? This all seems pretty straightforward, huh? Today, we're discussing the Supreme Court's oral arguments in Mahmoud v. Taylor. Jamie was there in person to witness the arguments. (Apparently, Chalk & Gavel is press!) By now, you’ve probably heard of this one; we covered the Circuit Court’s opinion in Episode 12, and there has been a decent amount of news coverage. This is the case in which religious parents want to opt their children out of reading LGBTQ inclusive books in the elementary English curriculum. To help us make sense of all of this, we’re welcoming back Richard Katskee, an Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and the Director of the Appellate Litigation Clinic at Duke University, who is intimately familiar with arguing religious issues in education at the Supreme Court. You don't want to miss this one as we break down the oral argument and read the tea leaves to unpack how the Court may decide the case and what impacts it will have on K-12 education! --- Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠.We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk & Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠ --- Keywords: Supreme Court, Mahmoud v. Taylor, Oral Argument, LGBTQ Inclusive Curriculum, Religion, Parental Rights, Richard Katskee#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #SCOTUS #religionineducation #LGBTQ

   Sheet1Sheet2When can educators use materials created by someone else? What happens when a teacher creates a learning activity packet for her class that includes 11 pages copied straight from a copyrighted work? What do Chris and Jamie know about cake decorating? Turns out, not much (except what we've learned from The Great British Baking Show and Nailed It!). In this episode, we’re going back to the 70s and 80s for our first case about copyright and fair use in education. We're discussing Marcus v. Rowley, a case that involves a teacher who copied some material from a copyrighted book, Cake Decorating Made Easy, for use in her home economics class. Unfortunately for her, the author of the book found out and sued her for copyright infringement. We also discuss the Trump administration's recent Executive Order, entitled "Improving Education Outcomes by Empowering Parents, States, and Communities," which instructs the Secretary of Education to prepare to close the Department of Education.---Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠.We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠---Keywords: Copyright, Fair Use, Teaching and Educational Purposes, Cake Decorating, U.S. Department of Education, Trump Administration, Executive Order#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #teachers #copyright #educationalfairuse #DOE

What happens when a student with a disability graduates high school with a 3.4 GPA but is unable to read? When does an Individualized Education Program provide a Free and Appropriate Education as required under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act? Are you ready for another round of special education acronym bingo? We were ready AF. This is the case of William A. v. Clarksville-Montgomery County School System, a case involving whether or not a school failed to provide a free and appropriate public education to a student who graduated without the ability to read. We also discuss the 11th Circuit Court of Appeal's decision that affirmed the Littlejohn v. Leon County case that we covered in Episode 36. That case involved a school creating a support plan for a transgender student without parental involvement. Finally, we reflect on some recent massive layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education.---Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠.We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠---Keywords: Students with Disabilities, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Individualized Education Program (IEP), Reading Decoding, Fluency, and Comprehension, Transgender Students, Parental Rights, U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #teachers #studentswithdisabilties #IEP

When can schools punish students for the unauthorized use of AI? Is the use of AI sufficiently covered by schools’ existing academic integrity policies? Today, we’re covering a very recent case from November of 2024. Imagine a student using an AI chatbot to help them with their homework. It's almost inconceivable, right? Sure, of course. This is Harris v. Adams, a case involving a student who was punished for using AI to complete a History project. His parents fought back, saying that the punishment violated his rights, but did they have a case? In this episode, we break down this recent, timely case that tackles when the use of AI crosses the line into academic dishonesty. This is an issue that many school leaders are facing, so we figured it would be a good case to cover, especially because the student here makes pretty much every argument you could think of to try to get his punishment thrown out. This is what Chris likes to call a "spaghetti lawsuit." We also discuss a recent case out of the First Circuit that upheld a school district policy that allows students to determine whether or not their parents should be notified about their transgender status.---Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠.We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠---Keywords: Artificial Intelligence, Academic Integrity, Student Handbooks and School Policies, Student Misconduct, Preliminary Injunction, Due Process, Vagueness, LGBTQ Students, Parental Rights#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #studentrights #schools #AIinSchools #academicintegrity

When are public high schools required to officially recognize student groups? Can a school stop students from forming a Gay-Straight Alliance? In today's episode, we’re covering a 2003 case that allows us to lay out lots of the characteristics and guidelines of the 1984 Equal Access Act. This case concerns a proposed Gay-Straight Alliance club that was denied the opportunity to operate like the other non-curricular clubs at the high school. While it seemed that many school officials in this case were well aware of their obligations under the Equal Access Act, pressure from the community led to school officials kicking the can down the road and making some problematic decisions. And guess what? It led to a lawsuit. Surprise! This is the Boyd County High School Gay Straight Alliance v. the Board of Education of Boyd County. We also discuss some updates on the Trump Administration and education, specifically an executive order on immigration enforcement in "sensitive locations," rumblings about curtailing the work of the Department of Education, and actions aimed at "ending racial discrimination in K-12 schooling."---Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠.We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠---Keywords: Equal Access Act, Gay-Straight Alliance, Student Clubs, Content and Viewpoint Discrimination, the Trump Administration, Immigration Enforcement, Department of Education, Racial Discrimination#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #studentrights #schools #equalaccess #firstamendment

What happens when a state fails to meet its constitutional obligation to provide all students with a sound basic education? If a court tells the state that it’s failing to appropriately fund public schools, how do we fix it within our system of checks and balances? In this episode, we’re joined by school finance expert and all-around super dude Eric Houck to help us make sense of the Leandro case, North Carolina’s decades-long school finance case. Eric is a Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He's also a past president of the National Education Finance Academy and has just published a book on school funding in the US, Indian Country, and US Territories, so it'll be nice to have an actual expert with us! You don't want to miss this one! The Leandro case is fascinating because it's the first case in which a state court ordered the state to direct a specific amount of money to fund its schools. We also discuss two cases that the Supreme Court has agreed to hear this term. Listeners of Chalk & Gavel will know these well; they are the Oklahoma religious charter school case (Episode 23) and Mahmoud v. Taylor, the case about parental opt-outs from LGBTQ books (Episode 12).---Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠.We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠---Keywords: School Funding, Right to a Sound Basic Education, Separation of Powers, North Carolina, State Constitution Education Clauses, Religion, Charter Schools, Parental Rights, LGBTQ Curriculum

When do a school district’s employment decisions violate Title VII’s prohibition against racial discrimination in employment? Where is the line between interpersonal conflict and impermissible retaliation? What happens when local politics run a muck in a school district? In this episode, we unpack a rather complex case with a ton of history to it. While this is primarily a case about a principal whose contract was not renewed and who claimed it was for discriminatory and retaliatory reasons, there’s a lot more to it. You may remember some news from about 15 years ago about a Mexican American Studies program that was banned in Tucson, Arizona. Well, years after that controversy, the contract of one of the educators who was involved in its creation was not renewed by a school board that had some members who were publicly opposed to the program. We head west to Arizona to talk about the case of Romero v Tucson Unified School District. We also discuss a recent New Jersey law that bans the banning of books. That's right; it's a book ban ban!---Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠.We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear!⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠---Keywords: Employment, Title VII, Race or National Origin Discrimination, Retaliation, School Boards, Contract Non-renewals, Ethnic Studies, Book Bans, Curricular Wars

What does the Constitution say about how schools should navigate situations where a student and their parents disagree about the student’s gender identity? How can schools promote the interests of LGBTQ students while also respecting parental rights? This is a tricky subject, and it often puts schools in a sticky situation. Which is why we’re doing this podcast, right? To help educators un-stick themselves as much as possible. Today's case illustrates a constantly changing and hotly debated legal landscape: the balance of parental rights, the rights and interests of LGBTQ students, and the authority of schools to promote what they may think is "in the best interests of the student." Trying to balance these complex issues often puts schools between a rock and a hard place. Today, we’re diving into Littlejohn v. School Board of Leon County, a case involving a parental challenge to a support plan that the school created for their transgender child. We also discuss an update to a lawsuit challenging Iowa's recent curricular gag order. --- Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠ --- Keywords: LGBTQ Students' Rights, Parental Rights, Transgender Students, Support Plans, Fourteenth Amendment, Substantive Due Process, Qualified Immunity, Curriculum, First Amendment

Do students have First Amendment rights to avoid potentially controversial school assignments and activities? When does a school assignment cross the line between legitimate educational activity and being inappropriate? Today’s case is about a Las Vegas high school drama teacher who “rolled the dice” and asked students to write a monologue and have it performed in front of the class. But here's the twist, the teacher asked students to randomly pick another student’s monologue to perform, and as it turned out, one of those monologues was sexually explicit. Feeling compelled to complete the required activity, one student read that monologue, and things “flopped” from there. This is the 2024 case of Evans v Hawes. At the heart of this case is the question of whether or not students have a First Amendment right to avoid classroom activities based on their disagreement with the content. It's a fascinating case with a significant legal question. It sounds perfect for a Chalk & Gavel episode! We also discuss another recent selective admissions case out of Boston that is challenging a school's pursuit of diversity in its admissions process. --- Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠ --- Keywords: First Amendment, Free Speech, Compelled Speech, School Assignments, Assault and Battery, Drama, Parents, School Board Meetings, Limited Public Forum, Selective Admissions, Diversity, Race Discrimination

Happy New Year! To celebrate, we've got something a little different for you! We've gone live to kick off the Education Law Association's 2024 Annual Conference. This is "Not Your Typical Ed Law Update!" We're thrilled to be joined by Tiffany Puckett and Suzanne Eckes to share some interesting, wild, and unbelievable stories in education law. Whether it's a promposal gone wrong or sword fighting in the science classroom, these are the stories you need to hear to believe. As Suzanne says, "You can't make this [stuff] up!" -- Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ChalkandGavel.com. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel --- Keywords: Education Law Association 2024 Annual Conference, Promposals, Farm Animals and Education Law, Don't Put That In Writing, Pirates, 10 Commandments Creative Compliance, Let's Go Clubbing

What does Title IX require of schools to ensure equal athletic opportunities for the sexes? When do schools need to recognize student demand and create new athletic opportunities for female athletes? In today's episode, we’re taking the ice with another athletics case! This time, we’re skating our way through a Title IX claim involving some female athletes who were denied the opportunity to play hockey in their school-sanctioned club sports program. We’re going to dive into some of the intricacies of Title IX in the 2022 case of Brooks v State College Area School District. We also discuss a fascinating and troubling email sent out by the Oklahoma State Superintendant of Public Instruction announcing the creation of the Office of Religious Liberty and Patriotism within the Oklahoma Department of Education. -- Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ChalkandGavel.com. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel --- Keywords: Hockey, Female Athletics, Title IX, Sex Discrimination, Equal Opportunity, Preliminary Injunction, Oklahoma, Establishment Clause, Freedom of Consciousness

What First Amendment rights to free speech do students have in the elementary school classroom? How can schools teach the essential values of kindness, tolerance, and respect for others? In our first-ever live episode, recorded at the Education Law Association's Annual Conference in front of a "live studio" audience, we discuss B.B. v. Capistrano Unified School District. This is a recent case involving a first-grade student who, after a lesson about Martin Luther King Jr., gave a “Black Lives Matter” drawing to her friend and was disciplined by the school for including the phrase "any life" on the drawing. Listen in as we unpack some of the really interesting things the trial court had to say about the free speech rights of some of our youngest students. We also discuss an update on the Parents Defending Education v. Olentangy Local School District case that we covered in Episode 4. This is the case where the trial court declined to halt the enforcement of a school policy forbidding the intentional misgendering of transgender students. After a panel of the Sixth Circuit upheld the trial court's decision, the Sixth Circuit agreed to hear the case en banc, meaning that all sixteen active judges will now hear the case. -- We're building a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ChalkandGavel.com. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel --- Keywords: Elementary Students, Free Speech, First Amendment, Black Lives Matter, Parental Engagement, Transgender Students, En Banc

When are schools legally responsible for student injuries during athletic activities? Where is the line between a creative drill and an unnecessary risk? Was the school out of bounds? It’s no slam dunk, but these cases might have you crying foul! Today's episode is a double-header! We’re heading down to the athletic department to talk about two cases where sports practices resulted in students getting injured. From a basketball drill gone wrong to an errant baseball throw, what happens when a school allegedly “drops the ball” with school safety? These are the cases of Secky v. New Paltz Central School District and Grady v. Chenango Valley Central School District. Game on! We also discuss a recent injunction that prevents Louisianna from implementing their new law that would have required all classrooms in the state to post the Ten Commandments. -- We're building a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ChalkandGavel.com. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel --- Keywords: Torts, Negligence, Student Athletes, Assumption of Risk, Baseball, Basketball, Establishment Clause, Ten Commandments

What does the law say about the appropriate placement for students with disabilities? What happens when parents and schools disagree about a student’s IEP? Who's ready for more special education acronyms? We are because today we’re talking about when, under the IDEA, a PPT’s IEP, considering a student’s FBA and ATE, provides FAPE in the LRE. That’s right, we’re going to cover the interesting case of a young student with disabilities whose parents were not too pleased with his school’s determination of how much inclusion in the general education classroom was appropriate. This case wrestles with the messy intersection of parent, school, and student rights, namely how much say schools should have in determining the placement of students with disabilities. How much say should parents have? And how involved should the courts get? Who gets to decide? This is P. ex rel Mr. and Mrs. P. v Newington Board of Education, a case about the Least Restrictive Environment provision in the IDEA. We also discuss some recent Supreme Court updates, including two education related cases the court will not be hearing this term. -- We're building a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ChalkandGavel.com. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us keep delivering the education law content you want to hear! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel --- Keywords: Students with Disabilities, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Least Restrictive Environment, Inclusion, Due Process

Can schools censor student speech that promotes illegal drug use? What authority do schools have to regulate student speech that contradicts the educational goals of the school? How do you celebrate your one-year anniversaries? In honor of Chalk and Gavel’s 1st anniversary, we’re going back about 20 years to cover a classic! This is a landmark Supreme Court case, Morse v Frederick… or as most of us call it, the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case! Stick around as we head up to Juneau, Alaska, as the 2002 Olympic torch heads through the town and high school students are allowed to go check it out as it passes. As it passed, and the TV news cameras rolled, high school senior Joseph Frederick and his friends held up a 14-foot banner that said, you guessed it, "Bong Hits for Jesus." We also discuss a new entry into the ongoing legal debate about increasing diversity at elite magnet schools. -- We're building a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ChalkandGavel.com. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us keep delivering the education law content you want to hear! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel If you crave more education law content and want to meet other folks who share your passions, we encourage you to check out the Education Law Association! ELA's annual conference is coming up on November 6-9 in sunny Orlando, Florida. Find more information at https://www.educationlaw.org/ --- Keywords: Bong Hits 4 Jesus, First Amendment, Student Speech, Illegal Drugs, Fourteenth Amendment, Equal Protection, Diversity, School Admissions

Can a school deny academic credit as part of school discipline for work that has already been completed? How far does a school’s authority go? At what point during the semester should you play it safe and leave your marijuana at home? In this episode, we go back to South Gibson High School in Indiana in 1998, where a zero-tolerance drug policy set off a chain of events that sparked a pretty interesting legal battle with some fascinating implications. We have a student who got caught with marijuana crumbs in his truck and was expelled in the last few days of the fall semester of his junior year. As part of the expulsion, the school denied the student academic credit for the entire fall semester, even though he only had 3 days left when he was expelled and otherwise would have passed some of his courses. This is the case of South Gibson School Board v. Sollman. We also discuss a recent report about potential racial bias in AI detectors. --- We're building a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ChalkandGavel.com. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us keep delivering the education law content you want to hear! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel If you crave more education law content and want to meet other folks who share your passions, we encourage you to check out the Education Law Association! ELA's annual conference is coming up on November 6-9 in sunny Orlando, Florida. Find more information at https://www.educationlaw.org/ --- Keywords: Student Discipline, Search and Seizure, Illegal Drugs, Zero Tolerance, Academic Credit, Statutory Interpretation, Artificial Intelligence

What happens when a teacher’s religious beliefs clash with a district's policy to support transgender students? When are schools legally required to accommodate teachers’ sincerely held religious beliefs? In this episode, we discuss Kluge v. Brownsburg Community School Corporation, a controversial case that rocked an Indiana school district. You’ll hear about John Kluge, a high school music teacher who challenged his district’s student name and pronoun policy. The policy required teachers to address students by the names and pronouns listed in the district’s database, and it allowed parents and students to self-select those names and pronouns. Kluge’s refusal to follow the policy, guided by his faith, led to (another) legal battle over religious rights in school. Plus a lot more; this case has it all… Free speech, free exercise, due process, Title VII, equal protection, fraud. You name it! We also discuss the importance of legal literacy in an update on the Oklahoma Superintendent's directive that instructed public schools to display the Ten Commandments and use the Bible in instruction. --- We're building a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ChalkandGavel.com. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us keep delivering the education law content you want to hear! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel If you crave more education law content and want to meet other folks who share your passions, we encourage you to check out the Education Law Association! ELA's annual conference is coming up on November 6-9 in sunny Orlando, Florida. Find more information at https://www.educationlaw.org/ --- Keywords: Transgender Students, Names and Pronouns, Teachers' Rights, First Amendment, Free Speech, Free Exercise, Title VII, Undue Hardship, Religious Liberties, Establishment Clause, Legal Literacy

When can a school discipline a teacher for their social media use? What happens when a teacher’s problematic tweets go viral? Imagine waking up to an email detailing a teacher’s history of retweeting and commenting on some rather controversial posts. That's exactly what happened to a West Virginia school board’s communications director when one of the district’s high school teacher's Twitter activity sparked a firestorm in the community. In this episode, we're diving into the case of Durstein v. Alexander, a legal battle that challenges the boundaries of free speech for educators and explores what happens when personal beliefs collide with professional responsibilities. We also discuss a recent wave of cell phone bans in K-12 schools. --- We're building a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ChalkandGavel.com. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider showing your support for Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us keep delivering the education law content you want to hear! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel --- Keywords: First Amendment, Free Speech, Teacher Speech Rights, Teacher Discipline, Social Media, Politics, Prior Restraint, Heckler's Veto, Qualified Immunity, Cell Phones

Welcome to our 25th episode! To celebrate, we invited Supreme Court and education law reporter Mark Walsh back to discuss the Supreme Court's 2023-24 Term and look forward to next year's docket. We discuss the Court's cases from this past year that could impact education, including O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier (which dealt with public employees blocking individuals from their social media accounts); Muldrow v. City of St. Louis (a case dealing with the question of when employee transfers trigger the nondiscrimination protections of Title VII); Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (a case that we've covered before about the authority of federal agencies); and Snyder v. United States (which is a case about the proper scope of federal anti-bribery laws). We also look at the cases the Court decided not to address this term, like cases about alleged racial discrimination in school admissions and bathroom access for transgender individuals. Finally, we look forward to next term. The Court has already taken an important case about the constitutionality and lawfulness of bans on gender-affirming care that could profoundly impact how those topics are addressed in schools. In addition, we're watching a few other petitions for cases the Court may take up, particularly about public funding for religious schools and religious charter schools (check out Episode 23 to hear more). In our bellringer, we discuss ongoing litigation around the new Title IX regulations, including several injunctions that prevent the new regulations from taking effect in certain states and districts. This is one episode you don't want to miss! --- We're building a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ChalkandGavel.com. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider showing your support for Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us keep delivering the education law content you want to hear! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel --- Keywords: The Supreme Court, Mark Walsh, Title IX, Title VII, Social Media, Bribery and Corruption, Administrative Law, Religion and Public Schools

What’s the difference between creative discipline and excessive punishment? How does a five-minute punishment set off six years of litigation? What does the law say about fastening students to trees? It's definitely frowned upon! But that’s exactly what happened in today’s case, Doe v. the Hawaii Department of Education. This is the story of how a vice principal got into a sticky situation by taping a student’s head to a tree. We got pretty attached to this case. We will not be masking any facts here. It turns out that this vice principal’s bark was just as bad as his bite. We're all rooting for the student in this case. We also discuss a recent settlement agreement between a Tennessee school and the Satanic Temple, stemming from a First Amendment challenge related to the Satanic Temple's request to start an After School Satan Club at the school. --- We're building a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ChalkandGavel.com. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider showing your support for Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us keep delivering the education law content you want to hear! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel --- Keywords: Student Discipline, Masking Tape, Search and Seizure, Fourth Amendment, Qualified Immunity, Substantive Due Process, Religion, First Amendment, After School Satan Club

Can a state authorize a religious virtual charter school? Where is the line between the religious liberties of individuals and prohibitions on the government establishing a religion? Oh, what a beautiful morning! Oh, what a beautiful day. I've got a beautiful feeling everything's Oklahoma today! In this episode, we’re talking about a recent case that made waves in Oklahoma. An application was submitted for a virtual charter school. But not just any virtual charter school. This was going to be a Catholic school. That's right, a Catholic virtual public charter school. This is the case of an attempt to create the first religious public school in the United States. Get your legal pads ready; this is Drummond v. the Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board. We also discuss a related situation in Oklahoma where the State Superintendent published a memo stating that all Oklahoma schools are required to incorporate the Bible, which includes the Ten Commandments, as an instructional support into the curriculum. --- We're building a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ChalkandGavel.com. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider showing your support for Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us keep delivering the education law content you want to hear! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel --- Keywords: Religion, Oklahoma, Musicals, Free Exercise, Establishment Clause, First Amendment, Charter Schools

How and when should schools distinguish between teenage banter and offensive language? How does extensive media attention impact the handling of sensitive incidents in schools? In this episode, we tackle a case that you might have heard about. The story went viral and sent shockwaves through a Kansas City community. This is the case of Plaintiff A v Park Hill School District. You might know it as the incident where some students started a Change.org petition to reinstate slavery. The students were ultimately disciplined, and they challenged their discipline as violating their free speech, due process, and equal protection rights. We also discuss the Supreme Court's recent decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which has the potential to fundamentally alter the balance of power between executive agencies, the legislature, and courts. --- We're building a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ChalkandGavel.com. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider showing your support for Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us keep delivering the education law content you want to hear! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel --- Keywords: Student Speech, Racism, First Amendment, Due Process, Equal Protection, Fourteenth Amendment, Bullying and Harassment, Chevron, Administrative Law, Balance of Powers

What privacy rights do students have during virtual instruction? How should schools enforce school rules in the remote classroom? What happens when Big Brother thinks, "You’ll shoot your eye out"? That's right; this case involves a Red Ryder BB gun and a 5th-grade student (who is probably not named Ralphie). In this episode, we explore the intersection of privacy and technology with the case of Lancaster v. Board of Education of Baltimore County. Stay tuned as we discuss the complicated situation that unfolded after a student's school noticed what they thought could be firearms in the student's background during remote learning. We also discuss a recent Louisiana law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every K-12 classroom within the state. --- We're building a Teaching Guide! Check it out ⁠here⁠. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider showing your support for Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us keep delivering the education law content you want to hear! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel Keywords: Student Privacy, Remote Learning, Fourth Amendment, Due Process, Fourteenth Amendment, Second Amendment, Weapons, Establishment Clause, Religion in Public Schools

When can parents be criminally prosecuted for failing to send their kids to school? What role do teachers and administrators play in addressing school non-attendance and truancy? In this episode, we’re cutting class to dive into the murky waters of student absenteeism with the case of the State of Missouri v. Williams. While truancy cases don’t really grab the headlines like student protests (or the state of Florida), they do prompt us to think pretty hard about those fundamental questions regarding the role of the state in education and family life. Missing school can come with a hefty price tag. From school bells to jail cells, truancy is anything but trivial. We also discuss the emerging and pressing issue of AI deepfakes in schools. --- We're building a Teaching Guide! Check it out here. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider showing your support for Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us keep delivering the education law content you want to hear! https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel Keywords: Truancy, Chronic Absenteeism, Compulsory Attendance, State Law, Criminal Law, Artificial Intelligence, Deepfakes