By: Danny Jacobs
Mock trial has long been a staple of many Maryland high schools; I’m sure some of you reading this are now recalling the “cases” you argued lo these many years ago.
But this weekend, high school students from across the state are going from trial court to appellate court during the inaugural Maryland Invitational Moot Court Tournament on Saturday at the University of Baltimore School of Law.
Teams of students from seven schools are competing: Bishop Walsh (Cumberland), Friends, Owings Mills, Park, Potomac, Severn and Walter Johnson (Bethesda). They will argue before a number of state circuit and appellate court judges; retired Court of Appeals Judge Alan Wilner and Court of Special Appeals Judge Shirley Watts are scheduled to preside over the final.
“Mock trial offers a greater opportunity for those whose strengths lie in the presentation of material,” said Chris Lambert, the mock trial coach at Owings Mills and an event organizer. “In moot court, you might stress analytical qualities more.”
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By: Danny Jacobs
On a day Baltimore (and beyond) remembers William Donald Schaefer, perhaps it’s fitting a comprehensive, statistical report about the city he loved was released.
The verdict of the Baltimore Neighborhood Alliance-Jacobs France Institute at the University of Baltimore? The city is “right-sizing.” I’ll let Matthew Kachura, the author of “Vital Signs 9,” explain:
“Right-sizing” means that the city’s expectations are in line with what can and should be expected of it. Baltimore’s population is not going to bounce back to its post-war highs, and the kind of industry boom we saw here in the 1940s and ’50s is not going to return. Instead, we’re showing resiliency by strengthening our neighborhoods in ways that improve the quality of life, whether it’s a program to rehab vacant houses or an effort to encourage high school students to graduate on time. In an era of limited resources, the city has managed to stay viable by these and dozens of other strategic investments. Based on what we’re seeing in the data, Baltimore has been experiencing some improvements during these tough times.
Not sure how the former mayor would feel about that assessment. Nevertheless, here are some of the numbers from the report:
- The city’s population was more than 635,000 in 2009, down 2.4 percent from 2000.
- The number of homes in foreclosure jumped 60 percent between 2008 and 2009, and the total is double the number from 2005.
- The teen birthrate fell from 83.3 teens out of 1,000 in 2000 to 60.1 teens per 1,000 in 2009.
- Median household income increased nearly 30 percent between 2000 and 2009, although it fell between 2008 and 2009 to just under $39,000.
- The violent crime rate fell, from 26.2 violent offenses per 1,000 people in 2000 to 15.3 in 2009.
- Juvenile arrests on drug charges declined between 2000 and 2009, as did the number of high school students who dropped out of high school.
By: Danny Jacobs
University of Maryland law school Dean Phoebe Haddon was in San Francisco last week to receive the Society of American Law Teachers’ Great Teacher Award. Haddon was honored at a dinner Friday night.
Haddon is a longtime SALT member and served as co-president from 1997-1999.
“It’s a tremendous organization. I’m proud to be a part of it,” she said last week from the Bay Area. “It certainly helped develop me as a law professor and taught me to be a better teacher.”
The award cites in part Haddon’s role in protecting the law school’s environmental law clinic during the General Assembly’s session last year, a controversy sparked by the clinic’s representation of environmentalists suing Perdue Farms and family farmers.
The SALT meeting coincides with the annual meeting of The Association of American Law Schools, which meant Haddon was doing a lot of schmoozing when she wasn’t attending programs.
“I spend a lot of my time at this type of meeting talking to alums in the area,” she said.
By: Jon Sham
By now you’ve probably heard about the new editions of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by NewSouth Books that will not include any mention of the n-word, which had originally appeared in the book more than 200 times.
The n-word will be replaced by the word “slave,” part of an attempt by Auburn University professor Alan Gribben — who worked with NewSouth on the new edition — to keep the book in the hands of students.
The Washington Post’s Adam Serwer connects this move to the Republicans in the 112th Congress, who, in reading the Constitution on Thursday, planned to omit the section that counts slaves as worth only three-fifths of a person (also known as the “three fifths compromise”).
Serwer says reading this section reminds us that even a great and noble document like the U.S. Constitution can be flawed, and we should not ignore blemishes in our history. (Isn’t that how we learn from them?) Huck Finn itself is not a blemish, but of course the language and treatment are representative of that terrible time — a time that should be neither celebrated nor forgotten.
In Tempe, Ariz., about 12 years ago, parents sued a high school for making the book part of required reading for students. The case made its way to a federal appeals court and the parents eventually lost.
Other than that, there has been little involvement from government and courts on banning Huck Finn or other books. But maybe it’s time for an “official” opinion. Maybe it’s time somebody stepped in and said: OK, no more censoring books. And if a parent, or a teacher, or a student is still against it, they can be given an alternate assignment.
I think if you are going to teach books in school, students should be reading them in their original form.
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By: Danielle Ulman
Good morning! Here are some law links for your pre-Solstice perusal:
Category: Air travel, Charities/nonprofits, Copyright, Uncategorized, Washington Post, education, law, law blog round-up, lawsuits, sports, technology
By: Danny Jacobs
It seems students at the University of Maryland School of Law have already gotten a great present this holiday season: no tuition increase next year. This despite other schools within the University of Maryland, Baltimore seeing an average tuition increase of 4 percent for the 2011-2012 year.
UPDATE 12/17/10: A UMB spokesman reminded me that a tuition freeze does not happen just because the law school announces it. Tuition rates have to be approved by the Board of Regents, a vote that follows the General Assembly’s approval of Gov. Martin O’Malley’s budget.
In a memo to all UMB students about tuition and fees, published yesterday at Above the Law, President Jay Perman said the one-year freeze at the law schools was made “due to unique and striking changes in the economic environment for the legal profession.”
Law school Dean Phoebe Haddon, in a subsequent memo to law students also in ATL, elaborated:
Holding tuition at the current level in the upcoming academic year has been a top priority for me. The impact of the economic downturn on the legal employment market, combined with the large amount of debt many of you carry, has caused the faculty and administrators of the Law School great concern. Relative to the other professions, the legal sector has been especially hard hit, with tens of thousands of law jobs lost. Many of us also believe that this downturn is resulting in a fundamental restructuring of law practice that will require careful financial planning for all of us going forward.
Haddon added that the law school will make-up its shortfall to UMB by dipping into its short-term savings.
“I have been actively meeting with supportive alumni, friends and foundations seeking financial support so that the fund balance will be replenished,” Haddon wrote.
Calling UM Law alumni: Does the tuition freeze make you more likely to donate to your alma mater? Less likely? Or does it not affect your decision at all?
By: Danny Jacobs
We’ve written about the tough legal job market for law school students, and the dean at UB Law recently told us he anticipates the number of law schools in the country will shrink in the years to come.
This apparently has not deterred administrators at the University of Delaware, which will study the possibility of opening a law school in Newark in the fall of 2015. The law school would be the second one in the state (after Widener) but the only public one.
Above the Law is skeptical of UD’s venture:
You see, the rationale for this new law school is that it’ll make the University of Delaware look good to have a law school. It has nothing to do with legal education or professional services. Sure, some will say that because of Delaware’s unique role in corporate governance, a state law school makes sense. But that’s not why they’re doing it. The corporate law stuff will be an add-on tagline some marketer weaves in as the school fights for funding and public recognition. It’s not going to be a core value of the new school. From the very start, the president is telling you what the core values will be: taking the University of Delaware to “the next rank” of American higher education — a “rank” that will decided by U.S. News, no doubt.
Any Delaware alums out there want to chime in? Also, do you think this new law school have any impact on Maryland’s two law schools?
By: Danny Jacobs
I’ll be speaking with some college journalists at my alma mater tonight and next week about social media, but I’m also going to offer this pearl of wisdom: Don’t drink – even a sip – if you’re scheduled to see the university president and governor at a football game.
Just ask Daniel Burnett, editor-in-chief of the University of Georgia’s student newspaper. He was asked to leave the president’s box during Saturday night’s game against Georgia Tech and resigned Monday from his post at The Red And Black.
An assistant to Georgia’s president said Burnett’s behavior was “disruptive enough to the point” he was escorted out. Guests in the box included the governor and governor-elect of Georgia.
Burnett, 22, said he had been drinking at a tailgate prior to entering the president’s box. He said he did not think he was being disruptive but university officials also had the right to remove him.
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By: Erin Drenning
A North Carolina teenager made national news Wednesday when the ACLU filed a lawsuit on her behalf, claiming her public high school violated the girl’s constitutional rights by suspending her four times this year because she wears a piercing in her nose.
The Johnston County school system has a dress code that bans facial piercings, among numerous other fashion choices it considers to be distracting or disruptive. Reaching back into the recesses of my brain to my second semester of Con Law, I seem to recall that school dress codes will hold up under judicial scrutiny so long as they are reasonable and rationally related to a legitimate educational purpose, such as maintaining safety or discipline.
Surely Clayton High School isn’t the first in the nation to put an across-the-board content-neutral ban on body art, claiming it’s distracting to others and disrupts the pedagogical process. So why did the ACLU choose this case?
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By: Danny Jacobs
Baltimore County Public Schools opened two weeks ago, and for the first time in two years it will not have to provide monitoring reports on its homeless students based on a federal lawsuit settlement two years ago. That’s because the Public Justice Center, which brought the lawsuit, found the school system has significantly improved its treatment of homeless students.
The lawsuit filed on behalf of three homeless families alleged BCPS “failed or refused… to identify, inform and provide educational stability and continuity to these homeless students” as required under a 1987 federal law. A consent decree reached as part of the settlement required monitoring reports and training of personnel.
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