I’ve taken a few courses on Constitutional Law, I’m not a lawyer, I’m not even a paralegal, but I feel I have a firm enough grounding on the fundamentals of Con Law to feel relatively confident in talking about constitutional guarantees to free speech. In a story that seems to come right out of the…
Freedom of the press. Freedom of religion. Freedom of speech. These are some of the principles that America was built on. But lately, one of our basic freedoms that treasure has been under recent attack. Recently, the Supreme Court has restricted freedom of speech in public school under the Morse vs Frederick case. Frederick, a…
A piece in the Barre Montpelier Times Argus was a breath of fresh air. Even if only an oped, it is still nice to see the pro-youth point of view being published. Let’s have a look at this, shall we? The rights of young people have been in the news lately. In Montpelier, student posters…
On Thursday, the members of the School Leadership Team at Reynolds High School debated electronic devices and cell phone usage policy. Despite the efforts of of the student council president and I, the committee voted to ban all cell phone usage during class changes, effective next year. We were able to convince them to allow cell phones during…
Dear A.C. Reynolds High School Administration: Some members of the School Leadership Team have recently announced their desire to ban the use of electronic devices by students during school hours. Some members believe that students should still be able to use these devices during their lunch period, while others are completely opposed to any changes. …
Personal Email Accounts – BCS Meeting – April 5, 2007 It has come to the attention of the School Leadership Team at Reynolds High School, of which I am a member, that the county’s Technology Department has been directed to ban all personal email account usage for the next school year. The ban would affect…
Dear North Carolina Legislator: As your constituent, I encourage you to support HB853/S874. HB853/S874 is the bill that would prohibit the use of corporal punishment in public schools across the state. North Carolina is one of 21 states that still allows school districts to use corporal punishment. There are many alternatives to spanking a student,…
A few years ago, a high school student named Joseph Frederick was punished for unfurling a banner that read “bong hits 4 Jesus” and subsequently quoting Thomas Jefferson to his principal. He sued, and won, but the principal brought the case to the Supreme Court. The principal (and her lawyers, who include Ken Starr) is…
It was a year ago this month when I first started my project to add a student adviser onto the Buncombe County Board of Education. Although the board did not listen to all of the supporters, here are just a few of the positive things that came out of my project: Media exposure for the…
According to this article in the Washington Post, Maryland supports vaccinating middle school age girls with a drug to significantly fight cervical cancer. I think it is great. Trouble is, the opposition. Look at this paragraph: Attempts to make vaccination mandatory have been criticized by groups concerned about encouraging promiscuity or infringing on parents’ authority…
