EDLD+5344+School+Law

This class really developed a good base for understanding the legal system that we teach in.

Week 1 Cyberbullying is addressed int the student handbook as "responsible online citizenship". The handbook is now electronic but the sheet parents and students sign is not. It leads me to wonder how many really go to the listed web site. The computer rotation teacher also has a whole curriculum on digital citizenship. I also talk about it anytime a class is working on an interactive online project. Because of recent events it has even been touched on in our morning announcements, but since we are an Elementary school it was just briefly touched on and did not go into details of what was happening. NCLB has caused many changes for our school. the changes have been slowly rolled out so not over whelm the teachers. It started with the process we use to identify students that need additional support. We have changed from the IQ- Achievement model to the RTI model. Teachers had already been entering this data in a process my district called the CHILD process. As we made the switch to RTI the main difference has been in the detail of information the teachers are asked to provide. The district already had three levels of identification in the CHILD process so that made the switch to RTI much easier for the teachers. Another area NCLB has changed our school has been in the ARDs themselves. They are often much longer providing more information for the parent. The teachers and I feel that this often is too much information as you have to discuss all sections of the IEP including those that don't apply. I have seen parents leave with their head almost spinning. It also slows down annual meetings. The length to review all of the information is over an hour. Teachers often have 45 minute conferences periods and the difference in time is often not accounted for before the meeting. I also think that the majority of parents want a faster meeting for the annual meeting as goals are often just tweaked to show improvement and what the new goal will be. Week 2 My school has recently updated it's employee AUP to include social networking sites. The updates include that employees should not be on social network sites during the school day even during their conference period. The district states that this is not free time for the employee but time to conference and work on preparing for instruction. The second update and this was enacted midway through last year is that teachers should not have students as friends on the social networking sites. In elementary I totally agree with this policy because the students are already breaking the rules of the site if they have accounts. The gray area is past students. that are older but still students in the district. While you are no longer their teacher you are still a teacher and need to have a public face that will not embarrass you, the school, the district, or the profession. But since people can add things on to your page it is best in my opinion not to have any students as friends. I also think parents could be dangerous for the same reason. Week 3 If I was the Principal in this situation I would invite the teacher in to my office for a meeting. I would start the meeting by complimenting the teacher on her strong teaching practices. I would also state that I was happy to be working at a school with such strong teachers. I would then acknowledge her loyalty to the previous principle. I would then state that I have heard that some staff members have not made embraced the switch in leadership and that is understandable. I would then go on to say that any insubordination or personally damaging comments will be dealt with. I would also state that gossip is not community standard that we want to inoculate into the student body and it can negatively effect school climate. I would then state that I would love to have such a strong teacher on my team and ask if their was anything I could do to help the teachers better educate the students. Week 4 I would start by making sure the student didn't need medical attention and document any attention that was required. Next I would record his statement including names of all involved. I would then have the three other students escorted to the office. I then would send one person to go shot photos of the bathroom for evidence of the bathroom for signs of struggle. I would interview each student separately and keep them separated while gathering their side of the story. I would also have an interview with the teacher to see if if they could add anything to the story. Next I would pull any available surveillance video of the area to try to collaborate where the people supposedly involved were. If needed I would contact the authorities if needed. Can the district or I be held liable. I think this question depends on the background of this case. Has the student ever mentioned threats against him? Has the school done all it can to maintain a safe environment or is this a common occurrence. The teacher may be held liable depending on his actions. Was he leaving to seek assistance or was he leaving because he thought the kids should work this out between themselves. The teachers actions immediately following him leaving the bathroom I think would determine if he was in fact acting in the best interest of the child. Week 5 Each department head is responsible for following legislation concerning there area. Many times a piece of legislation will over leap departments and the department heads meet to discuss the issues. Also the superintendent is very politically active and is spreading the word of potential legislation to the teachers with his weekly message. The head of technology departments also receive word from various professional groups with which they are affiliated. The local region 20 and TEA also provide information. As others have mentioned the use of listserv, professional wikis, blogs, and word of mouth.
 * 1)  The district covers FERPA briefly in it's AUP policy but go into any teacher lunch room and you hear student information being shared with a whole group when only one or two people in that room need it. Often no one needs the information and the teacher is venting and fails to censor names or details. The front office does a good job of protecting private data by having computers turned only so that user can see. I think the school needs to remember the importance of locking computers when leaving even for a few seconds. You never know who will come up and view what is on the screen. We have sent teachers several reminders about this but as I am out and about I see unlocked computers too often.
 * 2)  In my school I can think of two examples. One was the result of poor communication so I will not discuss that first one. The second was district dress code. It made local news lately when an honor student was asked to change her hair style because it was a distraction to other students. When she refused she was suspended for three days. The dress code say hair can't be a distraction to fellow students. The student had worn her hair this way for three years but the new principle saw it as a distraction. The hair style in question was a brown hair with blond highlights in the front and sold brown in the back. The administrator writing up the report called it zebra stripped. The community came together and asked the board for a more detailed dress code to avoid this in the future. The board kept the current code because it saw the school administration as the judge of what was and was not a distraction on each individual campus. At my school the issue has come up more about boys hair cuts the principle finds spiky hair and faux hawks distracting to the other students. I know the vice principle once made an exception for one of my students who came in with one after his team won the local peewee football championship and the whole team got faux hawks, but that was made with the understanding he wouldn't get that cut again.