Bullying in the Workplace: L&E Case Study
Ah, it’s back-to-school time, and the red zone is approaching. That’s the stretch between the start of orientation and winter break when our phones light up with calls from parents asking for help after their student is hit...more
A Georgia Court of Appeals decision will now stand after the Georgia Supreme Court declined on Tuesday, July 1, to review the case. The ruling has serious implications for the doctrine of official immunity for K-12 employees...more
President Biden has signed the Stop Campus Hazing Act (the “Act”) into law. The Act, the first federal anti-hazing law, is the result of a bi-partisan effort and comes after several years of patchwork efforts to address...more
Last year, the Connecticut General Assembly passed significant revisions to the school climate and bullying requirements, via Public Act 23-167 as we explored at length in a prior posting. ...more
A new bill in Congress, referred to as the “Stop Campus Hazing Act,” seeks to add a definition of hazing to the Higher Education Act and require that hazing incidents be reported in the Annual Security Reports that colleges...more
National studies of student hazing have found that more than half of college students associated with clubs, teams or organizations experience hazing. Yet less than 10% of those who experience hazing actually call the...more
Connecticut’s bullying laws, set forth in Connecticut General Statutes Sections 10-222d, 10-222g, 10-222k and the like, have long obligated school districts to remedy acts of bullying and teen dating violence. School...more
Last week Pullman & Comley released its annual comprehensive summary of legislation affecting Connecticut schools. Included here is our initial take on the key policy and procedural impacts as a result of this year’s...more
In early June, Governor Pritzker signed Public Act 103-0047 into law. This law, which went into effect on June 12, 2023, included several amendments to the Illinois bullying prevention statute, 105 ILCS 5/27-23.7....more
The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has published a fact sheet that addresses key issues intersex students face in schools and provides recommendations on how schools can support intersex...more
To assist collegiate sports administrators in assessing emerging Title IX issues, we are pleased to provide the Spring/Summer 2021 installment of the Title IX Alert. This issue discusses topics such as amended regulations,...more
On December 11, 2019, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring his administration’s commitment to enforcing federal racial anti-discrimination provisions against discrimination “rooted in anti-Semitism.”...more
Russell Bittendender, et ux. v. Bangor Area School District, Case No. 15-6465 (E.D. Pa. 2017). The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania refused to dismiss a complaint alleging that a school...more
Changing course on complaints involving transgender students, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) recently issued new field instructions to its regional staff excluding discrimination claims based...more
In Mulvey v. Carl Sandberg High School et al., a family sued its school district and various district officials and coaches alleging breach of contract for the District’s alleged failure to enforce the anti-bullying policies...more
In January 2016, I was asked to conduct an investigation concerning sexual abuse at St. George’s School, and the school’s response to reports of abuse, from 1960 to the present. At the time, St. George’s faced a firestorm of...more
On May 24, 2016, Governor Tom Wolf signed legislation requiring Pennsylvania secondary schools to adopt policies and procedures to prevent and correct hazing in schools. House Bill 1574, sponsored by Rep. Ron Marsico,...more
In Stiles v. Granger County Board of Education, the United States Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal of a Title IX lawsuit against a public school district because the alleged victim of harassment and bullying...more
In Missouri, a 17-year-old student who was born male, but has identified as female since he was 13, chose to use the girls’ locker room during gym class. That decision sparked outrage in the school community and led to...more
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, which is the federal appellate court with jurisdiction over Illinois, recently rejected an Indiana student’s claims against two school districts for allegedly improperly responding to...more
$4.48 million. That’s how much the Pine Bush School District in central-New York just agreed to pay to settle a lawsuit brought by a group of current and former students who alleged that school administrators were...more