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Big Brother emerges in guise of Ohio congressman

donal brown August 25, 2011

Republican Congressman Steve Chabot of Ohio didn’t like his chances of avoiding an embarrassing Youtube video from going viral on the internet so he did what a self-interested politician might do. He enlisted the police to confiscate cameras from citizens attending a townhall meeting. The only trouble is that he now has to contend with two embarrassing videos showing police confiscating the cameras since television crews were there taping everything. Oppression has its consequences, some

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A&A: How are non-print media regulated in schools?

FAC August 25, 2011

Q: Does California Ed Code 48907 apply to non-print media (ie: school news broadcasts via TV or internet)? If not, is there another code protecting non-print media and if so, where can I find documentation to support an effort to protect the same freedoms as EC 48907 for my TV Broadcasting students in a high school class? A: Education Code § 48907 provides that “[p]upils of the public schools, including charter schools, shall have the

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Author recounts 60s battle for free expression in high school

donal brown August 25, 2011

Author Mike Marqusee clashed with administrators at Scarsdale High School in New York in 1968 first over a request to register the radical Students for a Democratic Society as a club and later over student-initiated teacher evaluation forms. He was suspended from school for distributing the forms. Marqusee says freedom of expression in schools allows students to consider social issues and develop critical abilities vital to functioning in a democracy. He says, “In schools, free

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State court rules no libel in stating connection between imams and suspected terrorists

donal brown August 25, 2011

A New York trial court ruled that merely stating that three imams had worked in the state prisons where four suspected Muslim terrorists were incarcerated was not a factual assertion that accused the imams of radicalizing the suspects. The court ruled that the New York Post article containing the statement had not libeled the imams. Law blogger Eugene Volokh cites Restatement (Second) of Torts § 566 that provides an illustration of a series of factual

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California: Dispute about what Capistrano schools must do to rectify open meeting violation

donal brown August 25, 2011

Sam Capistrano resident Jim Reardon sued the Capistrano Unified School District  in March claiming the board held a closed door meeting to partially restore teacher salaries and failed to report their actions. Without acknowledging a violation of the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law, the board subsequently held a public meeting to discuss teacher salaries, but Reardon’s lawyer said to rectify a violation, the board needed to admit they  erred. -db From the Rancho Santa

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