Court Finds Valid Free Speech Claims in Lawsuit of Virginia Teacher Fired for Failure to Use Student’s Preferred Pronouns

A teacher cannot be disciplined for refusing to conceal from parents the preferred names and pronouns that their children adopt at school, according to a recent injunction from the federal district court in Kansas. A teacher challenged the school district’s policies of (1) requiring teachers to adopt a student’s preferred names and pronouns, and (2)…

The Department of Justice has issued a scathing report about the FBI’s failures to investigate reports of sexual assault by Larry Nassar.  Although the report focuses on violations of FBI policies, it has some important lessons for youth serving organizations, specifically the importance of documenting events and seeking outside expertise. I do want to resist…

One of the most active areas of mental health studies these days is the effect of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) on long-term health. The term stems from a groundbreaking study from 1995-1997 by the Centers for Disease Control and the Kaiser Permanente Foundation. That study found that children who experience ACEs have increased risk of…

We have seen a tendency for youth-servicing organizations (YSOs) to concentrate all of their efforts on preventing sexual predators from entering the organization. While hardening your organization against pedophiles is an important goal, placing too much emphasis there can distract from other equally important concerns. First, there is no foolproof way to “detect” sexual predators….

In this series, I have been discussing considerations that come into play when we need to depose children. The final, and for many lawyers the most frightening, issue in deposing children is how to ask questions of children. Like many tasks, it is more frightening than difficult. Fortunately, many other people have faced this same…