teacher
Rulings Leave U.S. Student Speech Rights Unresolved
Do American students have First Amendment rights beyond the schoolyard gates? The answer is yes and no, according to two conflicting federal appellate decisions Thursday testing student speech in the online world. “Ultimately, the Supreme Court is going to have to decide if there ever is a time students have full-fledged First Amendment rights,” said Frank LoMonte, executive director of Virginia-Based Student Press Law Center, and one of the attorneys in the cases the 3rd U.S.
Continue reading »Teacher Claims Fingerprinting Is ‘Mark of the Beast’
A 22-year veteran kindergarten teacher in the Texas Bible Belt could lose her job for refusing, on religious grounds, to give fingerprints under a state law requiring them. The evangelical Christian, Pam McLaurin, is fighting a looming suspension, claiming that fingerprinting amounts to the “ Mark of the Beast ,” and hence is a violation of her First Amendment right to practice her religion . Her case is similar to a lawsuit by a group of Michigan farmers , some of them Amish, challenging rules requiring the tagging of livestock with RFID chips, saying the devices are also the devil’s mark.
Continue reading »Gatineau copyright roundtable
p2pnet news view | P2P | Politics:- Ottawa law professor and Canadian activists was among the people at the copyright consultation roundtable in Gatineau, Quebec, yesterday. Each person was given only between three and five minutes to make his or her point, he says. The Korporate Kopyright Kartels were represented by the CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association of America) and Access Copyright but, “the user perspective was well represented,” says Geist, stating: “Indeed, there was a large consumer and education contingent that continually emphasized the need for more flexible fair dealing and the dangers of anti-circumvention legislation that is not linked to copyright infringement”.
Continue reading »Cheerleader sues school, coach after illicit Facebook log-in
At this point, you would think that most users would be aware that they should keep embarrassing information off of Facebook. Everyone from potential employers to the press regularly check users’ accounts on the service, looking for evidence of illicit or debauched behavior, and a number of jobs have been lost due to the information found there. Still, many fail to exercise discretion when using the service, people in positions of power are catching on, and there continue to be problems that result from the blurring of boundaries between public and private.
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