Free Republic

President Obama’s sexual assault task force marked its one-year anniversary last week, and released new guidelines for colleges to develop with law enforcement.Just asking colleges and universities to work with local law enforcement when dealing with claims of sexual assault is a step in the right direction, as the American justice system is far more qualified to handle accusations than schools. Still, as I’ve written before, there is a role for colleges to play when it comes to handling sexual assault — namely as a support service for accusers as they go through the legal system.But the new guidelines, called...

With student molestations skyrocketing, lawmakers demand weapon in drug fight WASHINGTON – Even though student molestations seem to be reaching epidemic proportions in schools across America, the House of Representatives has approved a tough new anti-drug and anti-weapon law that would require local districts to develop search policies – including strip searches – with immunity against prosecution for teachers and staff. Schools would have to develop policies for searching students, or face the loss of some federal funding, under the bill – HR 5295, approved by a voice vote Tuesday. It moves to the Senate, which does not have similar...

Bill and Rebecca Hardin sat in a Cypresswood court recently, waiting to find out whether they would be fined as much as $500 each because their son was allegedly truant from school. On the same day, a 17-year-old Spring High student was hauled off to the county jail for at least a day for failing to honor a contractual promise to attend school. And some students who played hooky during the school year are spending days of summer vacation washing school buses under court order. The youths and their parents have been landing before judges as part of an anti-truancy...