An intriguing debate is simmering in news-industry circles as to whether it's a legitimate journalistic function to publicly distribute a database of government employee salaries, or just an invitation to voyeurism.
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Free speech organizations urge caution on federal anti-bullying guidelines
The sickening loss of young people harassed to the point of suicide has policymakers at all levels of government scrambling for answers.
Supreme Court’s Camreta ruling raises one more barrier to students’ constitutional claims
The courthouse door that a federal appeals court began closing on student litigants in 2007 inched a little more tightly shut on Thursday, when the Supreme Court avoided deciding whether child-abuse investigators violated the Fourth Amendment when they interrogated a 9-year-old potential victim.In the case, Camreta v.
R.I. bill would open records of some private college police departments
The Rhode Island House of Representatives hasapproved a bill requiring private universities to release more informationabout crimes handled by campus police departments that employ full-fledgedpeace officers.
Calif. Supreme Court denies school's appeal in case over immigration editorial
CALIFORNIA -- A lower court’s decision upholding a high school student’s free-press rights will stand after the California Supreme Court declined to review the case, which began with a controversial opinion piece on race relations.
Media advisers group lifts censure of Western Oregon Univ.
CollegeMedia Advisers will no longer consider Western Oregon University a school thatinfringes on the rights of its student journalists thanks to a unanimousdecision by the group’s board of directors this month to lift a two-yearcensure.
TRANSPARENCY TUESDAY: If it ‘looks like, smells like, walks like, and quacks like a duck’ — then FOIA it!
The nonprofit lobbying organizations that represent city councils, school boards and other governmental entities are undergoing significant, and much-needed, scrutiny by state legislatures and in the courts.The disclosure that the (since-removed) head of the Iowa Association of School Boards received an under-the-table raise boosting her annual pay to an eye-popping $367,000 -- three times what the governor of Iowa makes -- prompted Iowa legislators to patch a loophole in state law and require the IASB to make its records and meetings public just as the Association's member school boards must.Associations representing school boards, superintendents and principals wield enormous influence over policy-making at the state level, and are able to trade on their "quasi-public" goodwill when it suits their strategic purposes.
Texas adviser 'reassigned,' administrator watching newspaper class after year of controversy
The student newspaper adviser at Alvin High School has been reassigned and an assistant principal is sitting in on each period of the newspaper class. The move follows months of controversy over the content of The Clarion and claims of censorship by student editors.
SPLC voices concern over Department of Education’s proposed changes to FERPA ‘directory information’ disclosure
For the second time in three years, the U.S. Department of Education is revising its rules governing the confidentiality of student information under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).The revision getting the most attention -- both positive and negative -- would broaden the universe of government employees and contractors who can obtain student data for accountability purposes, including performance audits and "longitudinal data" studies (tracking the performance of a set of students as they progress through school).Less publicized is the Department's proposal to revamp the concept of "directory information." Directory information operates as an exception to FERPA confidentiality.
Nothing funny about what happened to this forum; 2nd Circuit tramples legal precedent to rule against censored students
It's tempting to say that a federal appeals court's ill-considered decision in dismissing the First Amendment claims of censored journalists from New York's Ithaca High School is a fluke, a one-of-a-kind happenstance that carries no larger meaning for the well-being of journalists elsewhere.After all, last week's ruling by the 2nd U.S.