Federal Government Wants to Bully School Bullies, And Demands School Help

Interesting piece from the Daily Caller on the do-gooder state getting heavy handed when it comes to harassing environments in and around the public schools:

Education Department officials are threatening school principals with lawsuits if they fail to monitor and curb students' lunchtime chat and evening Facebook time for expressing ideas and words that are deemed by Washington special-interest groups to be harassment of some students.

There has only been muted opposition to this far-reaching policy among the professionals and advocates in the education sector, most of whom are heavily reliant on funding and support from top-level education officials. The normally government-averse tech-sector is also playing along, and on Mar. 11, Facebook declared that it was "thrilled" to work with White House officials to foster government oversight of teens' online activities…..

The agency's threats, which are delivered in a so-called "Dear Colleague" letter," have the support of White House officials, including President Barack Obama, who held a Mar. 10 White House meeting to promote the initiative as a federal "anti-bullying" policy.

The letter says federal officials have reinterpreted the civil-rights laws that require school principals to curb physical bullying, as well as racist and sexist speech, that take place within school boundaries. Under the new interpretation, principals and their schools are legally liable if they fail to curb "harassment" of students, even if it takes place outside the school, on Facebook or in private conversation among a few youths….

School officials will face lawsuits even when they are ignorant about students' statements, if a court later decides they "reasonably should have known" about their students' conduct, said the statement.

The National School Board Association (NSBA) is alarmed:

The department's re-interpretation expands legal risks for schools beyond those set by the Supreme Court in a 1999 decision, said a Dec. 7 NSBA statement. The court decision, which interprets several federal laws, says schools are liable for harassment that school officials know about and that "effectively bars" a student's access to an educational benefit.

The remedies being pushed by administration officials will also violate students' and families' privacy rights, disregard student's constitutional free-speech rights, spur expensive lawsuits against cash-strapped schools, and constrict school official' ability to flexibly use their own anti-bullying policies to manage routine and unique issues, said the NSBA letter. The government has not responded to the NSBA letter.

Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, the Supreme Court case that the NSBA is talking about. In its holding:

A private Title IX damages action may lie against a school board in cases of student-on-student harassment, but only where the funding recipient is deliberately indifferent to sexual harassment, of which the recipient has actual knowledge, and that harassment is so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it can be said to deprive the victims of access to the educational opportunities or benefits provided by the school.

Facebook's quick and eager cooperation with this campaign should be a matter of some concern for those who like to keep the borders between private keepers of our data and info and the strong, strong arms of the state more clear and precise.