Technology Teacher 05/05/2016

• NEA - Rights Watch: First Amendment Protections for Teachers

  • In 1968, the Supreme Court ruled in the Pickering case that school districts can’t fire employees for blowing the whistle on school problems if their speech touches on matters of public concern, such as school safety.
  • severely limiting First Amendment protection for public school employees
  • In every case, the employees lost their free speech claims because the courts determined that they were simply doing their jobs.
  • have to rely on the First Amendment to safeguard their jobs. If an employee has tenure or “just cause” protection under a collective bargaining agreement (CBA), it’s highly unlikely she can be disciplined or discharged for reporting wrongdoing, even if it’s a part of her job.

• ACLU Op-Ed Against Student Drug Testing | American Civil Liberties Union

  • "In our system, state-operated schools may not be enclaves of totalitarianism. School officials do not possess absolute authority over their students. Students in school as well as out of school are 'persons' under our Constitution."
  • we believe that this intrusive and demeaning search of students' bodily fluids violates fundamental constitutional principles, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey is representing a student and his parents in a legal challenge to the Ridgefield Park program. 
  • our legal system is that we are presumed innocent of any wrongdoing unless and until the government proves otherwise.
  • this presumption on its head, telling students that we assume they are using drugs until they prove to the contrary with a urine sample.
  • the rule that government officials may not search us without an adequate reason
  • Educating students about the dangers of drug use can be highly effective.
  • 30 percent less often than those who are not, and students who said their parents set "clear rules" regarding drugs used them 57 percent less than those whose parents did not. 
  • Acting on the basis of individual suspicion ensures both that hundreds of innocent children are not subjected to a degrading search, and demonstrating that school officials care about all students who use drugs, not just student athletes.
  • could have implemented a truly voluntary drug testing program, rather than coercing parents to consent by denying their children the opportunity to participate in interscholastic athletics.
  • the Court decided that the district could constitutionally require student athletes to submit to random drug testing where officials testified that they were no longer able to maintain discipline in the school system because of a culture of pervasive drug use and disrespect for authority, and where student athletes were the leaders of the drug culture. 

• Drug Tests for High School Athletes Fuel Debate - The New York Times

  • All three programs were operated by Drug Free Sport. The contracts were worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
  • Proponents of testing at the high school level say that it offers students a way to say no to drugs and that it serves as a deterrent.
  • It will test 500 student-athletes this year during its championship events, roughly the same number as last year, at a cost of about $100,000. The rate of positive tests has never exceeded 1 percent.
  • the University Interscholastic League, in Texas, began one of the largest high school drug testing programs in the country, conducting 10,117 tests that yielded two positives and four unresolved cases that year. But under budgetary pressures, the program has shrunk to about a third of its original size, with 3,311 tests conducted in the 2011-12 school year. Of those, there were nine positives.
  • For $100,000, the association began by testing 600 students, but it discontinued the program because of a lack of financing after a year.
  • “We continue to view that our program is accomplishing what it set out to do,” Gibson said. “It’s another tool in the student’s toolbox to say no to these substances. Our program serves more as a deterrent rather than being designed to punish students.”

• Detroit teacher calls for 'full strike' amid protests

  • it's illegal for teachers to strike. State law defines a strike by public workers as the "concerted failure to report for duty, the willful absence from one's position ... for the purpose of inducing, influencing, or coercing a change in employment conditions, compensation, or the rights, privileges, or obligations of employment."

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.