Law and Education - Section 1
Final Examination
Professor Harpaz
December 12, 2008

Question I
(Suggested time: 60 minutes) (48 points out of 144 total exam points)

    Mark Morgan teaches American History at Springdale Middle School, a public school in the Springdale School District.  As part of a unit on American presidents, the students studied famous speeches made by American presidents including the Gettysburg Address and George Washington’s Farewell Address.  To continue the study of presidential speeches, Mr. Morgan put up a bulletin board on a wall in his classroom and labeled it “American President’s Speak.”

    For extra credit, the students in the class were invited to research additional presidential speeches and submit their favorites to hang on the board.  Ten students submitted speeches.  Mr. Morgan put the ten speeches on the bulletin board for display.  For example, one of the speeches submitted by a student was Richard Nixon’s Resignation Speech which ends as follows: “To have served in this office is to have felt a very personal sense of kinship with each and every American. In leaving it, I do so with this prayer: May God's grace be with you in all the days ahead.”  Another speech was President Johnson’s State of the Union Address in 1965 which contains the line “Our Nation was created to help strike away the chains of ignorance and misery and tyranny wherever they keep man less than God means him to be” and ends as follows: “This, then, is the state of the Union: Free and restless, growing and full of hope.  So it was in the beginning. So it shall always be, while God is willing, and we are strong enough to keep the faith.”  During a class discussion about the speeches, a student noticed that all the speeches contained references to God.  Mr. Morgan then marked each of the religious references with a highlighter.

    Several weeks after the presidential speech bulletin board was completed, Mr. Morgan received a visit from the school principal.  The principal told him that a parent had complained about the religious content of the bulletin board.  The principal told Mr. Morgan that she was uncertain whether the school faced any legal jeopardy in leaving the bulletin board in the classroom, but that she intended to contact the School District’s lawyer and seek legal advice.  She told him he was free to leave the speeches on display until she heard back from the lawyer.

    You are the lawyer for the Springdale School District.  The principal of Springdale Middle School has come to you for legal advice about the presidential speech display hanging on the wall in Mr. Morgan’s classroom.  The principal wants to know: (1) whether the display can remain despite the parent complaint about its religious content or whether the school risks violating the Establishment Clause if it leaves the display in the classroom; and (2) if the principal orders Mr Morgan to remove the display over Mr. Morgan’s objection, whether she would be violating Mr. Morgan’s right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment.  Your job is to analyze the situation and answer the two questions the principal has asked.         

Question II
(Suggested time: 50 minutes) (40 points out of 144 total exam points)

    After receiving your advice in response to the questions asked in Question I above, the principal asked Mr. Morgan to remove the presidential speech display hanging in his classroom.  Mr. Morgan immediately complied with the request.

    Two days after the display was removed, Alice Adams (AA), Brian Boxer (BB), and Chris Conroy (CC), 3 students in Mr. Morgan’s class, wore t-shirts to school that said “God Belongs in School” on the front and quoted President Johnson’s 1965 State of the Union Address on the back: “This, then, is the state of the Union: Free and restless, growing and full of hope.  So it was in the beginning. So it shall always be, while God is willing, and we are strong enough to keep the faith.”  The wearing of the t-shirts caused some congestion in the school hallways as students gathered to talk about the removal of the presidential speech display and the t-shirts.  In addition, when AA, BB, and CC wore the t-shirts to Mr. Morgan’s American History class there was some spontaneous applause and laughter when they entered the room and a brief discussion about the First Amendment before the class settled down to discuss that day’s homework.         

    In addition to wearing the t-shirts to school, AA, BB, and CC have signed up to perform in the annual Springdale Middle School Talent Show.  The event is always held in the school auditorium on a Friday evening in December and is attended by students and parents.  Tickets are sold and the money raised is used by the school to fund several class trips.  This year’s Talent Show will be held on Friday evening December 19th.  The principal has learned that AA, BB, and CC intend to wear their “God Belongs in School” shirts and perform a rap song that contains lines such as “The principal got uptight, got her knickers in a knot, God in the classroom, made her feel real hot.”

    After learning about the t-shirts AA, BB, and CC have worn to school and their plan to perform in the Middle School Talent Show, the principal is back in your office.  She wants to know whether she can take action against AA, BB, and CC without violating their right to freedom of speech under the First Amendment.  Specifically, she wants to know: (1) if the she can prevent them from performing their rap song at the Talent Show; and (2) whether they can be disciplined if they wear their t-shirts to school again.  Your job is to analyze the situation and answer the two questions the principal has asked.     

Question III
(Suggested time: 35 minutes) (28 points out of 144 total exam points)

    As a result of the current economic crisis, the Governor of the State of Stone, with the cooperation of the State Legislature, has ordered a 15% across the board cut in all state spending.  As a result of this action, the State Board of Education has been ordered to reduce spending on education by 15%.  To carry out this order, the Board of Education has informed all school districts within the state that they must reduce their spending by 15% effective immediately.

    Faced with this mandate, the Springdale School District decided to eliminate nonessential parts of its curriculum rather than cutback on its core academic program.  It has, therefore, announced that it intends to eliminate courses in art, music, dance, drama, and journalism.  In addition to these curricular cutbacks, it intends to eliminate all extracurricular activities including its entire interscholastic athletic program.  Instead, it will offer all of these courses, activities, and programs as part of an afterschool program for which students will pay separate fees and receive no academic credit.  The program will use school facilities, but will be taught and coached by nonschool personnel who will be paid out of the fees generated by the afterschool program.

    Several parents of students attending schools in the Springdale School District have just filed suit to prevent the planned cutbacks.  In their complaint, they claim that the School District’s announced plan to eliminate curricular and extracurricular offerings and replace them with a fee-paying afterschool program violates the Stone Constitution.  Specifically, they make claims that rely on the following two provisions of the Stone Constitution:    
    
(1) Section 5 of the Declaration of Rights provides that: “The people have a right to the privilege of education, and it is the duty of the State to guard and maintain that right.”

(2) Section 1 of the Education Article provides that: “The Legislature shall provide by taxation and otherwise for a uniform, adequate, and efficient system of free public schools wherein equal opportunities shall be provided for all students.”

    You are a law clerk to the judge assigned to the case.  Using these two provisions of the Stone Constitution, the judge has asked you to describe the arguments that the parents can make to demonstrate that the School District’s announced cutback plan violates the Stone Constitution.  In assisting the judge, you should only describe the arguments available to the parents and should not consider how the School District will respond to those arguments.  

Question IV
(Suggested time: 35 minutes) (28 points out of 144 total exam points)

    The principal of Springdale High School, a public high school in the Springdale School District, received a phone call informing him that Andrea Arnold (AA), a tenth grade student at Springdale High, had brought a weapon to school and stashed it in her locker.  The phone call was anonymous, but the caller gave the principal AA’s locker number and the information about the locker number was accurate.

    After receiving the call, the principal read AA’s academic record.  It showed that AA was on the honor role and had no disciplinary infractions on her record.  The principal then called AA into his office.  He told her about the contents of the phone call and asked her whether the information was true and for permission to search her locker.  AA told the principal that she had no weapons in her locker, but she refused to consent to a search of her locker.

    The principal told AA that he was going to open her locker without her consent based on the phone call and a school policy that permits locker searches to protect the health and safety of the school and its students.  The principal, accompanied by both AA and the assistant principal, opened AA’s locker and conducted a thorough search of its contents.  He did not find a knife or any other weapon, but found a small amount of marijuana.  The principal asked AA if the marijuana belonged to her.  AA denied that the marijuana was hers and told the principal that someone had set her up and planted the drugs before making the phone call.  The principal asked AA if she had any proof that she was framed, and AA told him that she had no proof.

    The principal told AA that without proof he didn’t find her explanation credible.  He immediately suspended AA for 9 days based on her violation of a provision of the school conduct code which provides that it is a violation of the code for a student “to possess, use or distribute drugs on school property.”  Under the code, possess is defined as “to possess either on his or her person or in a place under his or her control such as a vehicle, backpack, purse, locker or other location where the student stores personal possessions.”  Drugs are defined to include marijuana.  

    AA’s mother, who happens to be an attorney, came to see the principal after she learned of her daughter’s suspension.  She complained that the principal’s actions in searching her daughter’s locker violated her daughter’s rights under the Fourth Amendment as interpreted in New Jersey v. T.L.O.  She also complained that the principal did not provide her daughter with an adequate opportunity to defend herself before imposing punishment in violation of her daughter’s right to procedural due process protected by the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause as interpreted in Goss v. Lopez. She threatened to sue the School District.

    You are the lawyer for the Springdale School District.  The principal has come to you for legal advice.  The principal wants to know whether the School District can defend itself successfully against the lawsuit threatened by AA’s mother.  Your job is to describe briefly for the principal the arguments available to the School District to defend itself against claims that it violated AA’s rights under the Fourth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clause.  In your advice, you should only describe the arguments available to the School District.  You should not describe the argument’s available to AA and her mother.