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Administrators at Harrisburg High School in Harrisburg, Illinois are requiring the school’s student newspaper to use courtesy titles such as “Mr.” and “Mrs.” when referring to faculty, staff, or members of the school board.
The move is a reaction to a December editorial that a school superintendent called “disrespectful to the principal in content and attitude.”
When newspaper staffers went to the school board to ask that the rule be overturned, senior Molly Williams said, “they basically came out and said that it was about content and that they didn’t like what we were writing.” Added Williams, an editor on the paper, “it’s almost like they can’t take constructive criticism well.”
The practice of using courtesy titles contradicts the Associated Press Stylebook, the standard reference for newspaper style.
Just a quick link on this, since I’m having a ridiculously busy day. I’ll try to come back to it later.
Short version: A California court has ruled that a Christian high school had the legal right to expel two students who it claimed demonstrated a “bond of intimacy … characteristic of a lesbian relationship.”
It also found that school officials did not violate the students’ rights when they revealed the reason for the expulsion to the students’ parents.
A federal judge has ruled against a high school student who was barred from running for re-election as class secretary after she called school officials “douchebags” on her blog. The ruling highlights the unsettled nature of First Amendment law as it applies to high school students’ off-campus speech, as well as the limited protections courts have granted to student government.
The court had previously found that participation in student government “is a privilege,” and that students do not have a constitutional right to run for student government office “while engaging in uncivil and offensive communications regarding school administrators.” It found that the school had punished Doninger for “vulgar language,” not for criticizing school officials’ actions, and that they were within their rights to do so.
In its latest ruling, the same court found that although an appeals court had cast their previous argument into question, the administrators were protected from legal action. The underlying question at issue in this case is whether a student has “a right not to be prohibited from participating in a voluntary, extracurricular activity because of off campus speech” that the student has reason to expect will become known on campus, the court said, and that question is unresolved.
In 1979, an appeals court ruled in strong language that students generally cannot be punished for off-campus speech. The Doninger court, however, argued that…
“we are not living in the same world that existed in 1979. The students in Thomas were writing articles for an obscene publication on a typewriter and handing out copies after school. Today, students are connected to each other through e-mail, instant messaging, blogs, social networking sites, and text messages. An e-mail can be sent to dozens or hundreds of other students by hitting ‘send.’ … Off-campus speech can become on-campus speech with the click of a mouse.”
Quick link: US News & World Report has a long article out on high schools that have been established to serve lesbian and gay student populations, particularly students who have been victims of bullying in school.
In an effort to cut costs without reducing programs, colleges around the nation are cutting back to four-day class schedules.
Plans for four-day weeks have been announced at colleges in New York, Missouri, Georgia, and other states. The idea is even being considered at a few high schools.
The shift is expected to reduce heating and maintenance costs, and reduce commuting expenses for students, faculty, and staff.
On colleges with large on-campus student populations, a four-day week could make it easier to schedule student events and meetings. On commuter campuses, it could have the reverse effect.
studentactivism.net 
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