School Zone
The Texas Young Lawyers Association launches a new project aimed at addressing educators’ and parents’ pressing legal concerns.
By Eric Quitugua
A myriad of issues facing school systems play out on news cycles with
seeming regularity, whether it’s harassment through Snapchat, sexual
assault, or fighting at school, among others. But the nuances behind
legalities aren’t always immediately clear, leading to questions of the
rights of teachers, school administrators, parents, and students alike.
The Texas Young Lawyers Association aims to provide resources to
answer these pressing questions with the launch of Teach Safe. Learn
Safe. Be Safe., a website designed to give educators, parents, and
students an overview of laws that apply to school systems. Funded by a
grant from the Texas Bar Foundation, the site, which goes live in April,
features video interviews on bullying, fighting, and sexual misconduct;
legal FAQs; and links to pertinent TYLA projects.
“Parents want to know, If my child gets in trouble or my child
gets in a fight with another kid, what are my rights? What does the
school have to tell me? What can they not tell me?” said TYLA
President Baili Rhodes, who kick-started the project. “And teachers want
to know, What am I allowed to tell? And what do I have to tell and
what can I not tell? We’re creating a resource that we think will
be helpful in answering those questions.”
The project spotlights interviews with those who have personally
experienced many of the issues, said Sara Giddings, a TYLA director and
co-chair of the Law Focused Education Committee, which developed
Teach Safe. One features Maurine Molak, the founder of David’s
Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to ending cyberbullying.
Molak’s 16-year-old son’s suicide in 2016 sparked the passage last year
of David’s Law, which requires all public schools in Texas to create
anti-bullying policies (including protection after school hours) and to
notify parents when their children are being victimized or are the
aggressors themselves. Her interview reminds parents that they need to
be aware of what students are posting on social media and be vigilant
about holding them accountable.
“It provides a human face to sometimes very bone-dry legal rules,”
Giddings said of the video interviews. “Here’s a practical application
of what this rule is.”
The Teach Safe website is broken down into
sections—administrators, teachers, parents, social media, and special
education—and addresses additional common concerns from educators and
parents, such as what teachers can post on social media, what parents
can do if their children need special attention, how educators can
accommodate students who have dyslexia, and whether teachers can legally
require students to say the Pledge of Allegiance. These are just a few
of the many questions answered by Teach Safe.
The genesis of the project came from conversations with family and
TYLA members, Rhodes said. Her husband’s family—largely composed of
teachers and school administrators—brought up concerns last year about
issues they’re dealing with and questions that need to be asked.
Meanwhile, TYLA board members’ trepidations about social media and
school violence also informed content.
“While no one wants to think it can happen to them, both educators and
parents have had to face the very real problem of mass violence in the
school setting,” Rhodes said. “Our website will provide tips for adults
who may face those scenarios and strategies for talking to students
about prevention and safety.”
Teach Safe is meant to be a living, breathing website, said
Donald Delgado, a TYLA director and co-chair of the Law Focused
Education Committee. As laws affecting education change, so will the
site’s content. The website’s social media section will also be
continuously updated with new TYLA projects.
Delgado called Teach Safe especially vital because kids spend
much of the year in school, oftentimes the setting where they learn
“right and wrong” and what is and is not acceptable behavior.
“It’s important because school touches so many people’s lives,” he
said. “It’s important to have a place, a hub, a website that answers the
common questions that people have.”
For more information, go to teachsafe.tyla.org.
TBJ
