lawprofessors

By  Michelle Ball , California Education Attorney for Students since 1995 Last week, the California Court of Appeals for the Sixth District handed down Bullis Charter School vs. Los Altos School District (October 27, 2011).  This case vindicated the rights of charter schools to facilities reasonably equivalent to other schools in the district.  This is an important decision for California parents and students as it will ensure charter students are not jipped and/or do not get stuck in small, run down facilities, with inadequate space for sports, child care, and students. In Bullis , which interpreted the Charter Schools Act (California Education Code 47600 ) and Proposition 39 (Education Code 47614 ), the Court of Appeals granted Bullis' request for a court order to be issued to the Los Altos School District. Essentially, the court ordered the District to provide a "complete and fair facilities offer to Bullis from which it could be determined that 'reasonably equivalent...

By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since 1995 This week, the California Court of Appeals, Second District, issued a decision in the matter of Yu v. University of La Verne .  This case, involving a private college and law school, is very interesting and explores the free speech rights of college students.  It also may be applied outside of its limited forum (private university) in the future. Yu involved law student Katrina Yu who was punished for alleged plagiarism and academic dishonesty when she submitted an assignment which contained verbatim internet content.  The assignment also contained content alleged to have been copied from another student.  In May of 2010, Yu and three other law students were informed that they were being investigated for plagiarism and academic dishonesty.  While the other university students involved negotiated an unknown outcome, Yu took her matter to a three panel hearing within La Verne. After the ...

By Michelle Ball, California Education Attorney for Students since 1995 Some time ago, a question was sent to me via  my Twitter account regarding just WHAT is enough to get a teacher terminated.  Termination is up to the individual school district involved and what is enough may be very fact specific.  However, some instruction on just what a teacher can be fired for was outlined by the California Court of Appeals, Fourth District in its decision San Diego Unified School District v. Commission on Professional Competence (2011) issued this week (May 3, 2011). In its opinion, the Court of Appeals upheld a District termination of a teacher for posting a highly explicit sexual ad on Craigslist seeking male-on-male companionship.  The ad included four pictures, two of which were very intimate pictures of the teacher, while another showed the teacher's face.  The ad did not reference the teacher's employment, name, nor was the ad connected in any way to the t...