Law review digests--Primary and secondary education

Student note, Sheff v. O'Neill: The Consequence of Educational Table-Scraps for the Poor Urban Minority Schools, 27 FORDHAM URB. L.J. 1903 (2000). Inferior education is a genuine detriment suffered by urban minority students. The integration theory proposed in Sheff may not solve the problems caused

Ann M. Markey, Something Is Rotten in the State of Wisconsin: Why State Sponsored School Tuition Voucher Programs Smell to Heaven, LAw REV. MICH. ST. U. DET. C.L. 751 (1999). School vouchers unfairly compensate one particular religious denomination and, as a result, offend the Establishment Clause and the American public school system. All children are given protection under the Establishment Clause and have a right to free, public education. Money would be better spent on improving inner-city public schools or sending children to better public schools. Christopher J. Heinze, Illegal Procedure: Student Delivered Prayer at Public High School Football Games - An Examination of The Encroachment on Religious Freedom in Doe V Santa Fe Independent School District, 168 F 3D 806 (5th Cir. 1999), 23 HAMLINE L. REV. 427 (2000). The author examines the Fifth Circuits's decision in Doe v. Sante Fe Independent School District and determines that the court relies on a flawed interpretation of the Supreme Court's holding in Lee v. Weisman. The author continues by arguing that the decision in Doe attempts to restrict freedom of religion. The author specifically analyzes the Fifth Circuit's Clear Creek cases which, he argues, misinterpreted the Lemon test, the endorsement test, and the coercion test.

Charles J. Russo and David L. Gregory, Legal and Ethical Issues Surrounding Drug Testing in Schools, L. REV. MICH. ST. U. DET. C. L. 611 (1999). The authors examine legal and ethical concerns regarding substance abuse in schools in terms of drug testing for students and testing for faculty and staff. This article examines the history of drug testing for student athletes, and then provides a 10-point checklist for educators considering implementing drug testing.

Universities and Other Institutions of Higher Learning

Barbara Bickford, The Legal Duty of a College Athletics Department to Athletes With Eating Disorders: A Risk Management Perspective, 10 MARQ. SPORTS L.J. 87(1999). Both student athletes and persons with eating disorders are typically compulsive, driven and self-motivated. Not surprisingly then, there is statistical evidence that eating disorders exist among student athletes, particularly those where weight plays a role in the sport itself (i.e. weight classes in wrestling). Less understandable is that athletic departments do little to address the issue even though they may be legally liable. Legal liability is based on a negligence theory, finding that athletic departments owe a duty of reasonable care for the health and well-being of their student athletes.

W. Burlette Carter, Student-Athlete Welfare in a Restructured NCAA, 2 VA. J. SPORTS & L. 1 (2000). The NCAA's recent restructuring has decentralized decision-making authority. In many ways, this is a step back to the NCAA's roots where it was a federated organization and lacked the centralized control of today. Some argue that the goal of this restructuring was to give more control to the Division I schools, those with large athletic departments who were threatening to withdraw from the NCAA. Given these changes, the Courts need to reevaluate the prior legal deference given to the rule-making authority of the NCAA.

Louis Hakim, The Student-Athlete vs. The Athlete Student: Has the Time Arrived for an Extended-Term Scholarship Contract?, 2 VA. J. SPORTS & L. 145 (2000). Many college athletes today do not complete their college education before leaving to join the professional ranks. Facilitating this destructive behavior is the NCAA's limit on the length of athletic scholarships to one year. Athletes use this lack of commitment to transfer schools or move into the professional ranks. Coaches use these scholarships as a club to compel the athletes to perform. Full four-year scholarships would keep the student athletes in school so that they could complete their education and they would prevent coaches from misusing scholarship funding.

Richard J. Hunter and Ann M. Mayo, Issues in Antitrust, the NCAA, and Sports Management, 10 MARQ. SPORTS LT 69 (1999). The power of the NCAA is no longer unquestioned and unstinted. The line between "commercial" and "competitive" regulations has become less clear and courts now find NCAA regulations fall under the province of the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Student Work, A License to Steal?: Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board v. College Savings Bank, 119 S.Ct. 2199 (1999), 25 U. DAYTON L. REV. 283-306 (2000). State universities have recently increased their activity in research and development, leading critics to worry that states will develop an unfair advantage in the patent field. Congress attempted to address the concern by passing the Patent and Plant Variety Protection Remedy Clarification Act, which made states amenable to suit for patent infringement in federal court. However, in Florida Prepaid Post Secondary Education Expense Board v. College Savings Bank, the Supreme Court struck down the Act on the grounds that it was unconstitutional in that it violated section five of the Fourteenth Amendment. The author concludes that the Court's holding in College Savings Bank was the correct one, and that the patent system has not suffered irreparable harm, because Congress can still abrogate state sovereign immunity to patent infringement suits when the state offers no remedy and patent owners can pursue state court remedy.

Gregory Kent Laughlin, Who Owns the Copyright to Faculty-Created Web Sites?: The Work-Doctrine's Applicability to Internet Resources Created for Distance Learning and Traditional Classroom Courses, 41 B.C. L. REv. 549 (2000). As more faculty come to utilize the Internet for distance learning and other means of enhancing their courses, there is a growing dispute as to who "owns" the work. Faculty members feel the they own the product because they created it, while universities feel it is owned by the institution since it provided the resources to make the creation possible. Since there are no established rules regarding the issue of technological materials created by faculty, there are several options to settle the issue. First, faculty members and their respective institutions could draft clearly defined ownership policies to decide the matter before it becomes the subject of bitter litigation. This would allow each side to agree on terms that were beneficial. Second, Congress could amend the Copyright of 1976 (which gives ownership of "work for hire" to the employer) to include an exception for teachers. The exception would allow faculty to be the owners of their work (which is generally presumed to be the case) and to keep faculty work product from being viewed as the property of the institutionemployer. The exception would preserve academic freedom among faculty and would prevent faculty from leaving the world of teaching as a result of being disallowed the chance to enjoy the "fruits of their labor."