Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Lucas County Court of Appeals holds that charter school management company and employees not immune from liability

The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Appellate District in Ohio has ruled that while a charter school itself is immune from most lawsuits as a political subdivision, a charter school's management company is not. In that case, a minor was injured at the school and sued the charter school management company, as well as an employee of that company. The management company alleged that it, like the charter school, was immune from liability as a political subdivision. The trial court ruled that the company was not immune from suit and the appeals court agreed. The case is Cunningham v. Star Academy of Toledo, 2014-Ohio-428.

Thursday, March 13, 2014

U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear "I heart boobies" appeal.

The Supreme Court of the United States allowed a lower court decision to stand this week, upholding the right of students to wear "I ♥ Boobies" bracelets for breast cancer awareness. In that case, Pennsylvania middle school students had been suspended for wearing the breast cancer awareness bracelets. The school, citing the Supreme Court's 1986 decision in Bethel School District v. Fraser, believed that they had the ability to ban this speech as being lewd, vulgar, and inappropriate. The decision not to take the case is not a decision on the merits but may be instructive to public school students and administration alike to help further clarify what speech is and is not constitutionally permissible inside the schoolhouse gates.