When can a school dismiss a teacher for good or just cause? What happens when a teacher’s iPhone with some, let's say, risque pictures, automatically syncs with his district-issued iPad? What could possibly go wrong? We've got another interesting case here today! This one involves a teacher who took some “naughty” pictures on his personal iPhone while on vacation, which later happened to be synced to a school-issued device (don't worry, though, no students saw them). Well, the proverbial cat got out of the bag, and he was reported to child protective services, who called school officials, and we’ll dig into how all that played out as we cover the case of the Board of Trustees of Lincoln County School District Number 2 v Earling. We also discuss a great EdWeek article that's tracking all of the lawsuits filed over Trump's education policies, conveniently titled, "See All the Lawsuits Filed Over Trump's Education Policies." Check it out here: https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/see-all-the-lawsuits-filed-over-trumps-education-policies/2025/03

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Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠.

We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk & Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠

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Keywords: Teachers and Teacher Discipline, Labor and Employment, Good or Just Cause, Technology and Cell Phones

#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #teachers

Is a charter school a public school? Does the Free Exercise Clause require taxpayers to fund charter schools that teach religion as truth? Is a charter school just a private organization with a state contract, or is it a state actor or even a governmental entity? Is Oklahoma on the brink of establishing the country’s first religious public school? Today, we’re tackling the oral arguments from another consequential Supreme Court case with some major implications for education. We usually only see these kinds of big ones every few years, but the Supreme Court is all-in on education these days. You’ve probably heard about this one, too, since it’s been all over the news (and all over Chalk & Gavel; we covered the OK Supreme Court's decision in this case in Episode 23). This one deals with a Catholic organization that was approved to operate a religious charter school by Oklahoma’s Charter School Review Board. Oklahoma's Attorney General, a republican named Gentner Drummond, believed that this violated the Establishment Clause and the state’s charter school law. This case went all the way to Oklahoma’s Supreme Court, which sided with Drummond, and that’s where most of us thought it would stay… but no, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to weigh in on the situation, and here we are. To help us break down those oral arguments, we’re honored to be joined by Dr. Martha McCarthy, a legend in education law who has been writing about religion and public schools since the 1980s! You don't want to miss this one!

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Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠.

We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk & Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠

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Keywords: Supreme Court, Oklahoma Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond, Oral Argument, Religion, Free Exercise Clause, Establishment Clause, Charter Schools, Martha McCarthy

#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #SCOTUS #religionineducation #schoolchoice

Does it burden a family’s religion to have their child exposed to views with which they disagree? Where is the line between exposure and coercion? Who gets to draw that line? Should public schools be a place where students encounter and acknowledge a variety of viewpoints, even if they don’t agree with them? Or should parents have the power to opt their kids out of anything that might conflict with their religious views? Can a diverse, inclusive curriculum co-exist with ever-increasing parental rights? Is opting out going to become a constitutional right? This all seems pretty straightforward, huh? Today, we're discussing the Supreme Court's oral arguments in Mahmoud v. Taylor. Jamie was there in person to witness the arguments. (Apparently, Chalk & Gavel is press!) By now, you’ve probably heard of this one; we covered the Circuit Court’s opinion in Episode 12, and there has been a decent amount of news coverage. This is the case in which religious parents want to opt their children out of reading LGBTQ inclusive books in the elementary English curriculum. To help us make sense of all of this, we’re welcoming back Richard Katskee, an Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and the Director of the Appellate Litigation Clinic at Duke University, who is intimately familiar with arguing religious issues in education at the Supreme Court. You don't want to miss this one as we break down the oral argument and read the tea leaves to unpack how the Court may decide the case and what impacts it will have on K-12 education!

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Need some education law content for your courses or professional development? We have a Teaching Guide! You can check it out at our website, ⁠ChalkandGavel.com⁠.

We'd also greatly appreciate it if you would consider supporting Chalk & Gavel by becoming a subscriber on Patreon. Your support will help us continue to deliver the education law content you want to hear! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/chalkandgavel⁠

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Keywords: Supreme Court, Mahmoud v. Taylor, Oral Argument, LGBTQ Inclusive Curriculum, Religion, Parental Rights, Richard Katskee

#educationlaw #k12 #podcast #ChalkandGavel #SCOTUS #religionineducation #LGBTQ