The Florida State College of Law Research Center Blog

FERPA

The Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development, Department of Education has released the final FERPA regulation, effective as of January 8, 2009.  Here's an excerpt:

SUMMARY: The Secretary amends our regulations implementing the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which is section 444 of the General Education Provisions Act. These amendments are needed to implement a provision of the USA Patriot Act and the Campus Sex Crimes Prevention Act, which added new exceptions permitting the disclosure of personally identifiable information from education records without consent. The amendments also implement two U.S. Supreme Court decisions interpreting FERPA, and make necessary changes identified as a result of the Department’s experience administering FERPA and the current regulations.

These changes clarify permissible disclosures to parents of eligible students and conditions that apply to disclosures in health and safety emergencies; clarify permissible disclosures of student identifiers as directory information; allow disclosures to contractors and other outside parties in connection with the outsourcing of institutional services and functions; revise the definitions of attendance, disclosure, education records, personally identifiable information, and other key terms; clarify permissible redisclosures by State and Federal officials; and update investigation and enforcement provisions. DATES: These regulations are effective January 8, 2009.

Read the whole regulation here. 

Posted by Jon Lutz

Lawsuit filed by Human Rights USA against Yahoo - Jailed Chinese Journalist joins lawsuit

In April of 2007 the World Organization for Human Rights USA filed a law suit against Yahoo for complicity in sharing identification information of internet users with Chinese authorities.  Two Chinese journalists are serving 10 year prison sentences for publishing material that government authorities considered subversive. 

The case is filed in the US. District Court California Northern District: Civil Docket # 407-cv-02151-CW
Read the complaint here.
Good overviews of the case can be found here and here.

Posted by Jon Lutz

MySpace

Be careful what you post to MySpace.com.  Stacy Snyder was denied an education degree and teaching certificate by Millersville University in Pennsylvania due to a picture of her drinking out of a yellow Mr. Goodbar cup, and wearing a pirates hat.  The photo had the caption "drunken pirate."
A federal law suit has been filed: Snyder v. Millersville University et al.  Documents  for this case can be found on Justia.com here.
Good overviews of the case can be found here and here.

Posted by Jon Lutz

Disability Harassment

"Building on the insights of both disability studies and civil rights scholars, Mark C. Weber frames his examination of disability harassment on the premise that disabled people are members of a minority group that must negotiate an artificial environment of physical and attitudinal barriers.  The book considers courts' approaches to the problem of disability harassment, particularly the application of an analogy to race and sex harassment and the development of legal remedies and policy reforms under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

While litigation under the ADA has addressed discrimination in public accomodations, employment, and education, Weber points out that the law has done little to combat disability harassment.  He recommends that arguments based on unused portions of the ADA should be developed and new legal remedies advanced to address the problem.  Disability Harassment also draws on legal sources to explore special problems of harassment in the public schools, and closes with an appeal to judges and lawmakers for expanded legal protection against harassment." Excerpt taken from front book jacket.

Mark C. Weber's new book on disability rights is available at KF 480 .W43 in the FSU Law Library.

Posted by Marin Dell

UN Opens Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities for Signature

The United Nations opened the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities on March 30, 2007. The Convention is the first new human rights instrument of the 21st century. See the video of the press conference here: http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/pressconference/pc070330.rm

“What the Convention endeavours to do," said Don MacKay, Chairman of the committee that negotiated the treaty, "is to elaborate in detail the rights of persons with disabilities and set out a code of implementation”. Excerpt from The Convention in Brief on the Covention website: http://www.un.org/disabilities/convention/convention.shtml

News story reported at the Jurist website: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/index.php?edition=full

Posted by Marin Dell

The Silencing of Ruby McCollum

The Silencing of Ruby McCollum:  Race, Class, and Gender in the South by Tammy Evans  (Gainesville: University Presses of Florida, 2006).  Evans is an adjunct professor of composition at the University of Miami's Bradenton campus.

Silencing refutes the carefully constructed public memory of one of the most famous biracial murders in the U.S.  In 1952, Ruby McCollum, an African American housewife, drove to the office of Dr. C. LeRoy Adams, beloved white physician in the segregated town of Live Oak, Florida, and gunned down the doctor. 

"This groundbreaking work reads like a murder mystery, only in this case what has been killed is our American integrity and the right of an individual to a fair trial.  Evans has finally addressed the pervasive silence that distorts, fragments, and threatens to bury the history of so many southern places and people." -- Rebecca Mark, Tulane University

Posted by Trisha Simonds

Lawsuit is Filed Over Banned Book

Censorship is a cure worse than the disease.
~Howard Simon, Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida

"The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Florida, Greater Miami Chapter today filed a lawsuit against the Miami-Dade County School Board challenging the removal and banning of a series of children’s books, including the hotly debated Vamos a Cuba (A Visit to Cuba), from the public school’s library system." (article)

Posted by Toni Urquhart

Prisoner Bypasses Florida for Vermont

Fast-acting folks have secured prisoner, and practicing Sikh, Satnam Singh’s right to retain an article of his faith: his unshorn hair, or “kes,” along with his turban, or "dastaar." (See: "Common Misconceptions Regarding Sikhism.")

Satnam Singh was “scheduled to enter a Florida prison next week, and the state penal code is unrelenting on the point that incoming male prisoners must receive short haircuts and close shaves, no matter […] their religious beliefs.” (via Palm Beach Post)

“The Sikh Coalition, a US-based organisation initiated the move, and a petition [was] addressed to Florida Governor Jeb Bush, secretary department of corrections, James McDonough and deputy secretary of corrections, Laura Bedard, to stop federal authorities from forcibly cutting Satnam Singh's hair and removing his turban.” (via Sikh Sangat News)

Satnam’s issue has been resolved: On April 3, the Sikh Coalition received “confirmation from Secretary’s office that Satnam will serve his sentence in Vermont and that his hair will not be cut and he will be allowed to wear his turban until he is transferred there.” (via Sikh Sangat News)

According to the New York City-based Sikh Coalition:

“The fight for religious freedom in Florida prisons is not over, however. The regulations that disallow long hair or religious headcoverings must ultimately be changed to accommodate prisoners of faith. The Coalition will continue to work with its partners in Florida to ensure all prisoners are able to keep their hair uncut and are able to cover their heads with religious garb.”

Posted by Toni Urquhart