Texas School Administrators' Legal Digest Newsletter - May 2013

We lead off this month with a topic that has received considerable media attention this year – student-locating technology known as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). David P. Thompson, Ph. D. of the University of Texas at San Antonio, examines the use of RFID tags in school, and sheds light on the legal issues that arise with this new technology, including a much-publicized legal challenge brought by a Northside ISD student. Following that, we have reported twelve court cases, including one from the 5th Circuit, as well as one Attorney General decision, and one special education due process hearing.

Can School Districts Recognize “Domestic Partnerships” To Provide Employee Benefits?

According to an opinion issued by the Attorney General on Monday, the Texas Constitution does not necessarily prohibit political subdivisions, such as school districts, from providing employee benefits to domestic partners. Instead, it prohibits them from creating a “legal status” of domestic partnership and recognizing that status by offering public employee benefits based upon it.

FIFTH CIRCUIT ALLOWS § 504 CLAIM BASED ON PEER HARASSMENT

Last week the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an important ruling addressing liability standards under Section 504.

No District Liability For History Lesson On Persecution

Though no reasonable person would argue that the Holocaust was lacking in deployments of excessive force or injuries against bodily integrity, a trial court recently vindicated a Texas school district whose use of a Nazi-Jew simulation occasioned just such complaints from the parents of one teenager.

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