The issue in Cox v. Warwick Valley Central School District stemmed from a student assignment to write an essay for English class. The teacher asked students to write about what they would do if they had 24 hours to live. While this sort of creative writing occurs every day in classrooms across the country, teachers sometimes get troubling […]
On August 2 we posted an article about a new law set to go into effect in Missouri prohibiting on-line communications between teachers and students that seemed to have some potentially problematic language in it. Late last week a Missouri judge issued an injunction preventing the new law from going into effect. Apparently, the law […]
Connecticut employers with workers classified as independent contractors understand the thin line that often exists between determining whether an individual is properly defined as an employee or an independent contractor. What many employers may not know is how severe a penalty they can pay for misclassifying employees as independent contractors, even where unintentional. Prior […]
Here we go again. Only a few days after the 4th Circuit issued its decision Kowalski v. Berkley County Sch., the 8th Circuit has now become the latest court to recently weigh in on the issue of whether a school district’s discipline of off-campus online speech violates a student’s free speech rights under the First Amendment. As discussed […]
As school districts puzzle over what sort of rules and prohibitions should be included in board policies addressing teachers’ use of social networking sites, one state’s legislature has stepped into the breach. In Senate Bill 54, also known as the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act, Missouri effectively became the first state to ban exclusive communications between teachers and students on […]
School districts in Connecticut looking for guidance on how to handle discipline of students engaging in provocative speech on-line at home have been watching with interest the outcome of two cases in the Third Circuit that seemed to reach conflicting results. Both cases were re-heard by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, sitting en banc, […]
It is no secret that most employers attempt to manage the risk of litigation through the use of employee separation agreements. A recent Second Circuit decision serves as a valuable reminder of the importance of drafting separation agreements which will stand up to attack. Earlier this month, in Ridinger v. Dow Jones & Co., the Second […]
The National Labor Relations Board recently proposed changes to its pre-election and post-election procedures that would significantly impact employers and could result in a greater number of successful union elections. Most notably, the reform would require that the pre-election hearing be held within 7 days after the hearing notice is served (absent special circumstances). Currently, […]
Effective July 1, 2011, all cases before the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities Office of Public Hearing were suspended, see pdf, as the Governor failed to appoint new referees for the term beginning July 1, 2011. To date, new referees have yet to be appointed. This all comes as a result of Connecticut’s current budget […]
If you haven’t already, be sure to get a copy of Substitute Bill 1138, Public Act 11-232, effective July 1, 2011, which makes sweeping changes to the State’s anti-bullying statute applicable to public school districts. The new law adds specific prohibitions against cyber-bullying, redefines “bullying” for purposes of the statute, and requires school districts to […]
