Boston Lawyer Blog

First Circuit Clarifies Scope of Students’ Free Speech Rights at Public Universities

Published on: August 15, 2025 | by Naomi Shatz

Where is the line between free speech and sexual harassment? Students at public schools have both the right to free speech and expression, and the right to educational environments free of discrimination and harassment. At times, these rights can seem to run headlong into each other. When one student says something derogatory or offensive to another student, whose rights prevail?

Recently the First Circuit has been developing its jurisprudence in this thorny area. Last summer the Court held that a middle school could restrict a student’s expressive activity that demeaned and offended other students—in that case, wearing a shirt that said “There are Only Two Genders.” Then last month in Doe v. University of Massachusetts et al., the Court held that a college student who made a few comments that touch on sexual topics directed at different students, coupled with some non-sexual physical acts, was engaged in constitutionally-protected expression. These two cases have started to illustrate where the boundaries of protected student speech lie.

Back to School Basics: What You Need to Know About Academic Misconduct

Published on: August 7, 2025 | by Naomi Shatz

If you or your child is accused of engaging in academic misconduct, you’ll get a crash course in how the college or university bureaucracy works to process these cases and sanction students. Before that happens–and to prevent that from happening–it is important to understand a few key points about academic misconduct in higher education.

Lesson #1: Read the handbook and syllabi

Students (and schools) are required to follow the handbooks, policies, and syllabi they receive. While sitting down to pore over hundreds of pages of regulations is no one’s idea of a fun way to start the year, students are expected to know what is in these documents, and will be sanctioned if they violate the rules they set out. It is particularly important for students to read their professor’s syllabi carefully, because each professor may have different rules about what kind of work is and is not acceptable in their class. It is the student’s responsibility to know the rules for each class they are in, and to follow those rules.

Lesson #2: Academic misconduct is a broad category

In a previous post I explained how colleges define plagiarism, probably the most common form of academic misconduct. Colleges will sanction students for plagiarism if the student intentionally or accidentally copies, quotes without proper attribution, or incorporates language or ideas from some other person into their work. Colleges also deem it plagiarism if students work together on an assignment but do not list their co-collaborators on the work they turn in.

Unauthorized use of AI is another area where students are increasingly being disciplined for academic misconduct. Each school, and each professor, may have different rules about whether and how students can use AI platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grammarly, and CoPilot. When students are allowed to use these tools, they may be required to disclose that use. Some professors may prohibit their use altogether.

Appeals Court Reaffirms Students’ Right to Sue in Court for Sexual Harassment

Published on: July 31, 2025 | by Naomi Shatz

This week, the Appeals Court decided a case examining how students can bring claims under Chapter 151C, the Fair Educational Practices law.

In Doe 99 v. Cheffi et al., a former public high school student who alleged she had been sexually abused by a teacher sued the City of Chelsea and others for negligence and under Chapter 151C, which prohibits educational institutions from harassing students. The City moved to dismiss the Chapter 151C claim, arguing that the plaintiff was required to file her complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination (MCAD) before she could bring her claim in court.

In Recent Decisions the SJC and MCAD Highlight the Broad Protections of Anti-Retaliation Law

Published on: May 27, 2025 | by Naomi Shatz

Last week, the SJC decided City of Newton v. Commonwealth Employment Relations Board, a case considering what an employee must show to make out a prima facie case of retaliation under the Massachusetts public employee collective bargaining law. The week before, the MCAD decided MCAD and Nom v. Acton Auto Body Inc. et al., also assessing what evidence an employee claiming retaliation must show to make out a prima facie case.

City of Newton was brought on behalf of a Newton police sergeant who also served in leadership roles in his union. In those roles, he repeatedly came into conflict with the police chief as he asserted employees’ rights under their union contract. Two years after becoming the union’s president, the police chief involuntarily transferred the sergeant from a specialty assignment in the Traffic Bureau to the Patrol Bureau. In the Traffic Bureau the sergeant had worked a regular daytime schedule with weekends off; in the Patrol Bureau he had to work nights on a rotating schedule. The transfer came with an 8% pay increase for working nights, which the sergeant said was less important to him than the regular schedule he had before the transfer.

The union filed a charge with the Department of Labor, and eventually the Commonwealth Employment Relations Board (CERB) decided that the transfer was an adverse action, and that the City had not met its burden to show that the reason for the transfer was not retaliatory. The City appealed, and the Appeals Court decided that because the sergeant received the pay increase his CBA required, the transfer was not an adverse action.

First Circuit Holds that School Districts, Not Parents, Decide School Policy and Rejects “Parental Rights” Argument to Out Transgender and Non-Binary Students

Published on: February 20, 2025 | by Naomi Shatz

Since 2012, Massachusetts laws have prohibited discrimination based on gender identity, including in education. The Massachusetts Department of Education has had longstanding guidance in place instructing schools to use students’ preferred names and pronouns while at school. This week, in Foote v. Ludlow School Committee, the First Circuit Court of Appeals decided whether a school policy that followed this state law and DOE guidance violates parents’ constitutional right to direct the upbringing of their child. The school won. CONTINUE READING ›

Massachusetts Law Prohibits Schools from Complying with Anti-Trans Athlete Executive Order

Published on: February 8, 2025 | by Naomi Shatz

Youth sports are a huge part of the American education system, something many parents, schools, and communities place a high value on maintaining. Studies demonstrate the many mental, social, emotional, and physical benefits children derive from participating in organized athletics. In fact, during Trump’s previous presidency the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition Science Board published a pamphlet noting that “Research shows that participating in youth sports can lead to immediate and long-term benefits for youth, their families, and communities.” By executive order and federal agency guidance, President Trump is now trying to deny those benefits to trans girls and women who want to participate in sports with the rest of their peers. The Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, Title IX, and Massachusetts anti-discrimination statutes prohibit schools, colleges, universities, and athletic organizations from following the new executive order. CONTINUE READING ›

What is the Current Status of Title IX and its Enforcement?

Published on: February 4, 2025 | by Naomi Shatz and Niamh Gibbons

In the last month, actions by the courts, the President, and Congress have significantly impacted and may further change how Title IX is enforced across the country.

Title IX: Background and Enforcement

Title IX is a federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education. It is one of the shortest laws on the books, with the operative provision stating: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” Laws like this can be enforced in two ways: through the courts and through administrative agencies. Individuals have a right to bring lawsuits under Title IX in court, where it is the job of the court to interpret what the law means. In addition, federal agencies has enforcement powers to investigate and address violations of federal law. For Title IX, that agency enforcement power rests with the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice. People whose right to be free from discrimination in education have been violated can file complaints with those agencies, which can then investigate the educational institutions and impose corrective action, including the withholding of federal funds. The U.S. Department of Education issues regulations interpreting the laws it enforces and explaining how it will apply those laws when it engages in enforcement action. In 2020 the first Trump administration issued regulations overhauling Title IX enforcement; in 2024 the Biden administration issued a new set of regulations that was immediately challenged in federal courts in various red states. CONTINUE READING ›

Massachusetts Earned Sick Time Law: What it Does and Who it Covers

Published on: December 11, 2024 | by Naomi Shatz

In 2014 voters in the Commonwealth approved a ballot measure that created the Massachusetts Earned Sick Time Law (G.L.c. 149 § 148C) (MESTL), which guarantees most Massachusetts workers up to 40 hours of earned sick time per year. Last month the coverage of the law expanded to cover physical and mental health needs arising from pregnancy, surrogacy, assisted reproductive technology, or adoption loss.

Who does the law apply to?

The law applies to almost all employees whose primary place of work is Massachusetts. The regulations under the law define “primary” place of work as a place the employee works more than any other place; for an employee who works in multiple states it is the state in which she spends the most of her time. For example, if an employee works remotely for a company, and spends 40% of her time working from Massachusetts, 30% working from Florida, and 30% working from California, Massachusetts would be the primary place of work. CONTINUE READING ›

First Circuit Upholds Dress Code Prohibiting “There are Only Two Genders” Shirt

Published on: June 10, 2024 | by Naomi Shatz

Yesterday, the First Circuit issued its decision in L.M. v. Middleborough et al., a case we discussed previously on this blog. The case concerned whether a public middle school could prohibit a student from wearing a t-shirt that said “There are only two genders.” The district court had held that the school could, relying on the seminal case of Tinker v. DeMoines Independent Community School District. CONTINUE READING ›

First Circuit Hears Oral Argument in “There are Only Two Genders” T-Shirt Case

Published on: February 28, 2024 | by Naomi Shatz

Two weeks ago the First Circuit heard oral argument in a case that touches on some of the most hot-button issues in education law: student speech rights and discrimination against LGBTQ students. In L.M. v. Town of Middleborough, the Court must decide whether the Middleborough public schools could tell a student he was not allowed to wear a t-shirt that says: “There are only two genders.”

The case started in March 2023, when seventh grader L.M. wore a shirt to school that said “there are only two genders.” L.M. made this political statement against a backdrop – according to the school—of repeated concerns at the school about bullying of LGBTQ students and several students at the school contemplating or attempting to die by suicide, including students who attributed those actions to anti-LGBTQ experiences at the school. After receiving complaints from students and staff, the principal told L.M. he had to take the shirt off if he wanted to go back to class. L.M. declined, and his parents picked him up and took him home for the rest of the day. L.M. was not disciplined for wearing the shirt and wore other shirts with various political messages with no incident. In May 2023 L.M. wore the shirt to school again—this time with a piece of tape that read “censored” covering the words “only two.” L.M. was sent to the principal during his first class and removed the shirt rather than be excluded from school for the rest of the day.

The District Court Case