Welcome to October issue of our monthly newsletter dedicated to keeping you current on Education Law and related issues. We hope you enjoy our letter and find the contents valuable to you and your clientele. |
| ANNOUNCEMENT |
Dr. Dragan will be teaching a 90 minute tele-seminar trough National Business Institute on December 29, 2008. He will be covering Search and Seizure in Schools. For more information and to register please go NBI's Website.
Dr.Dragan is currently writing a book titled "No More Tears: Protecting Your School Age Child." The book covers the full spectrum of harassment that can turn children into victims in schools including disability, sexual, gender, racial, and ethnic harassment as well as bullying. |
| Gonzalez v. School Bd. of Okeechobee County, (S.D. Fla.) |
September 5, 2008: Extracurricular Activities - Florida school board engaged in viewpoint discrimination by not recognizing student group promoting tolerance of homosexuals.
A Florida school board engaged in prohibited viewpoint discrimination by refusing to grant official recognition as a non-curricular student group to a group whose stated object was to enhance order and discipline within a high school by promoting tolerance and to protect the well-being of students, particularly those with sexual identity other than heterosexual. The group's tolerance based message would not materially or substantially interfere with discipline in the school's operation. The school board failed to show that its action was caused by something more than a desire to avoid the discomfort and unpleasantness of tolerating a minority of students whose sexual identity was distinct from the majority of students and discordant to board's abstinence only program. |
| Foster v. Nash-Rocky Mount County Bd. of Educ., (N.C.App.) |
September 15, 2008: Disabled Students - Evidence did not establish breach of duty by special education teacher in connection with student's fall.
Evidence was insufficient in a negligence action to establish breach of duty by a special education teacher in connection with injuries allegedly sustained by a seven-year-old special needs student when he stuck his head on a toilet seat during a fall. Therefore, the teacher was entitled to summary judgment. The sum total of the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the student, indicated that there was not always a footstool under the student's feet when he was taken to the toilet, that the teacher might have had to leave her seat by the bathroom door for a moment, that the student might have acted impulsively in trying to stand up, that the teacher might have been up to two feet away, and that she had witnessed the student fall at an unidentified point in the past.
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| Hunt v. Sycamore Community School Dist. Bd. of Educ., (C.A 6 (Ohio)) |
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September 19, 2008: Labor and Employment - School did not arbitrarily subject teacher's aide to harm from special education student, in violation of due process rights.
Even if a school district and the superintendent were chargeable with actual knowledge of the risk of harm and failure to address the harm to a teacher's aide, based on a special education student's history of 31 incident reports and assaults on teachers, aides, and others, the school district's actions in subjecting the teacher's aide to harm by the student's assault that ruptured the aide's disks in her neck were not arbitrary, in violation of the aide's substantive due process rights, under the state-created danger doctrine. The aide voluntarily undertook such hazardous employment, and the school district had a duty, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), to educate a child with dangerous propensities. |
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I hope that our newsletter has provided you with valuable information. If there is anything else that you would like us to include please do not hesitate to give us your feedback.
I am committed to providing individualized service to our clients while dealing with large and complex consultations quickly and professionally. These include case review and analysis, expert testimony, school reviews in custody matters, risk analysis, education credential evaluation, presentations and working with parents or schools to ensure children receive an appropriate education.
I take pride in the fact that we respond to our client's needs personally and promptly. We continue to strive to combine the resources of a large firm with the personal consultant-client rapport of a small practice.
Sincerely,
Edward F. Dragan, Ed.D.
Education Management Cosulting, LLC |
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| Featured Article |
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Safety: An Investment Your School Has To Make
Self-Published, September, 2008
The safety of school children is the number one concern of school board members,
administrators and teachers. Boards of education are found liable for many millions of
dollars in damages each year due to student injuries.
Consider the following:
A third-grade teacher told two students to return a television on a cart to the
library down the hall. One student rode the cart and when the other student lost his grip, the television toppled off and landed on the child's head resulting in a coma lasting almost two weeks, and finally, in permanent brain damage. The television was not strapped down and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission had issued a warning about the cart years earlier. The jury awarded the student $1.7 million.
Most safety violations can be prevented through proactive risk management. Teachers
and administrators must learn to scrutinize their procedures, equipment use and personnel practices to ensure the safety of everyone in the school environment. An
obvious but all too often overlooked example is playground or gym equipment, the proper maintenance of which can prevent numerous injuries.
FOR OTHER EDUCATION RELATED ARTICLES VISIT OUR WEBSITE
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| SECOND ANNUAL NATIONAL STUDENT SAFETY & SECURITY CONFERENCE |
| Las Vegas, NV
November 20-21, 2008
Dr. Dragan will be a featured speaker at this conference on the topic of school bullying and one student's unique and effective response. He will also present: Improving School Safety - Real Cases.
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phone: 609.397.8989 | |
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