March 2024 LegalEase | New President, New Title IX
According to the Department of Education (ED), the new Title IX regulations are expected to be released this month, but don’t hold your breath. The proposed regulations were released in July of 2022, and the final regulations were originally expected May 2023. However, after receiving 244,000 comments about the sexual harassment rules and more than 120,000 comments about the gender equity in athletics rules, that expected date has been pushed back several…
LEGALEASE | Yeah, but did you really know: What does Title IX mean by deliberately indifferent?
The Title IX regulations require that schools respond to allegations of sexual harassment, “promptly [and] in a manner that is not deliberately indifferent.”1 The regulations define “deliberately indifferent” as responding in a way that “is clearly unreasonable in light of the known circumstances.”2 But what does that mean and who gets to decide? The second part of that question is easy: the courts. The first requires a deeper dive. Key Takeaway 1: When evaluating either “before” or…
LegalEase December 2023 | Teacher Placement, Prohibited Subjects and Evaluations – A Legislative Update
The Michigan Legislature adjourned its 2023 session on November 14, 2023, and it marked the busiest legislative session for public education in at least a decade. These major legislative changes will take effect in 2024 – some as early as February 13. TEACHER PLACEMENTStaffing for the 2024-2025 school year will be markedly different than prior years. There are two legislative changes: Section 1248 of the Revised School Code was revised dramatically, and…
LegalEase September 2023 | I know I put that book somewhere …
Situation: Your school library has a book that a parent is objecting to on religious grounds. No one has checked out – or even seen – that book in decades. The kids didn’t even know it was there. Question: Does the First Amendment limit a public school board’s discretion to ban or remove books from its libraries? Yes. As most educators know, “students do not shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech and…
LegalEase | Déjà Vu: Search and Seizure in the School Setting
Several Michigan school districts recently banned backpacks at school because of safety concerns. There’s no sugarcoating that terrible reality. The demand for increased school safety means that school administrators are held to higher and higher standards to secure their buildings. Given the stakes, it’s important that administrators know exactly when and how they can conduct searches and seizures at school. This isn’t the first time the topic has been covered in this…
Where Are We Headed On Transgender Student Bathroom Policies?
A few years ago, transgender student bathroom use was perhaps the most hot-button culture war issue for many school communities. Some allowed transgender students to use bathrooms that matched their gender identities. Others did not. Districts on both sides were sued in various venues across the country. After a handful of court decisions, the winners were those that allowed students to use bathrooms aligned with their gender identities. Various federal agencies incorporated…
Let’s Talk About Sex … Education Opt-Outs?
Last year, we fielded several emails and calls from school districts that received so-called parental opt-out forms. And we’ve heard through the grapevine that another wave of parental opt-outs are potentially on the horizon in February or March 2023. Perhaps it is merely coincidence that MDE released a memorandum on the topic on February 2, 2023. Regardless, school administrators should know what Michigan law requires and, contrary to what some parents will…
Nov. 22 LegalEase | “This Article Has Been Removed”
Disappointingly, public schools have become a hotbed for political strife while society’s culture wars continue to rage. Caught in the middle of this tug-of-war, administrators are increasingly stretched and pulled to handle every molehill that some insist is a mountain. The controversy du jour? Books and other materials kept in school libraries and media centers. The works most scrutinized are often those that cover LGBTQ+ subject matter. Defenders of these works often…
Search & Seizure
Provided for MASSP's LegalEase by our partners at Miller Johnson Attorneys. Prior to Oxford, we were receiving a number of questions about students bringing weapons to school – something we attributed to a larger pattern of people behaving poorly due to the pandemic. Post-Oxford, the questions became – and continue to be – more proactive (i.e., “How do we find the threat before it becomes dangerous?”). The ongoing spate of questions suggests now is…
Return to School, Return of Hemp/CBD
As promised in our last LegalEASE, this month’s article will focus on the legal status of hemp/CBD products (oils, gummies, etc.) in school environments. In 2018, as part of a “farm bill,” Congress legalized hemp/CBD. Legally speaking, hemp and marijuana both come from the cannabis plant, but hemp has less than .3% THC. Hemp is not marijuana and is not an illegal Schedule I drug. A CBD product can be derived from…