When can a school discipline a teacher for their social media use? What happens when a teacher’s problematic tweets go viral? Imagine waking up to an email detailing a teacher’s history of retweeting and commenting on some rather controversial posts. That's exactly what happened to a West Virginia school board’s communications director when one of the district’s high school teacher's Twitter activity sparked a firestorm in the community. In this episode, we're diving into the case of Durstein v. Alexander, a legal battle that challenges the boundaries of free speech for educators and explores what happens when personal beliefs collide with professional responsibilities. We also discuss a recent wave of cell phone bans in K-12 schools. --- We're building a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ChalkandGavel.com. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider showing your support for Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us keep delivering the education law content you want to hear! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel --- Keywords: First Amendment, Free Speech, Teacher Speech Rights, Teacher Discipline, Social Media, Politics, Prior Restraint, Heckler's Veto, Qualified Immunity, Cell Phones

Welcome to our 25th episode! To celebrate, we invited Supreme Court and education law reporter Mark Walsh back to discuss the Supreme Court's 2023-24 Term and look forward to next year's docket. We discuss the Court's cases from this past year that could impact education, including O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier (which dealt with public employees blocking individuals from their social media accounts); Muldrow v. City of St. Louis (a case dealing with the question of when employee transfers trigger the nondiscrimination protections of Title VII); Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (a case that we've covered before about the authority of federal agencies); and Snyder v. United States (which is a case about the proper scope of federal anti-bribery laws). We also look at the cases the Court decided not to address this term, like cases about alleged racial discrimination in school admissions and bathroom access for transgender individuals. Finally, we look forward to next term. The Court has already taken an important case about the constitutionality and lawfulness of bans on gender-affirming care that could profoundly impact how those topics are addressed in schools. In addition, we're watching a few other petitions for cases the Court may take up, particularly about public funding for religious schools and religious charter schools (check out Episode 23 to hear more). In our bellringer, we discuss ongoing litigation around the new Title IX regulations, including several injunctions that prevent the new regulations from taking effect in certain states and districts. This is one episode you don't want to miss! --- We're building a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ChalkandGavel.com. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider showing your support for Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us keep delivering the education law content you want to hear! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel --- Keywords: The Supreme Court, Mark Walsh, Title IX, Title VII, Social Media, Bribery and Corruption, Administrative Law, Religion and Public Schools

What’s the difference between creative discipline and excessive punishment? How does a five-minute punishment set off six years of litigation? What does the law say about fastening students to trees? It's definitely frowned upon! But that’s exactly what happened in today’s case, Doe v. the Hawaii Department of Education. This is the story of how a vice principal got into a sticky situation by taping a student’s head to a tree. We got pretty attached to this case. We will not be masking any facts here. It turns out that this vice principal’s bark was just as bad as his bite. We're all rooting for the student in this case. We also discuss a recent settlement agreement between a Tennessee school and the Satanic Temple, stemming from a First Amendment challenge related to the Satanic Temple's request to start an After School Satan Club at the school. --- We're building a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ChalkandGavel.com. We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider showing your support for Chalk and Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us keep delivering the education law content you want to hear! ⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel --- Keywords: Student Discipline, Masking Tape, Search and Seizure, Fourth Amendment, Qualified Immunity, Substantive Due Process, Religion, First Amendment, After School Satan Club