Short Takes: Bomb-making, Harassment Suit

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Jennifer Pinkowski -- School Library Journal, 9/1/2006

A Florida high school student was permanently expelled after a librarian caught the teen searching on the Internet for instructions to build a chemical pressure bomb. According to The Ledger of Lakeland, FL, the librarian alerted police. Though booted from the school, the student was not charged with a crime. School officials did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Kansas parents are suing the school district they say didn't protect their daughter against the predations of a librarian now in jail for sex-related charges involving the girl. The unnamed parents are going after Kansas City's Piper School District for $575,000, charging that the school failed to guarantee the girl's right to an education free of discrimination based on gender, required by Title IX of the Educational Amendment of 1972.

As reported in the Kansas City Star, the parents claim the school district had received previous complaints that 31-year-old assistant librarian Yancy Holden sexually harassed female students and still did not remove him from his position, which created a hostile and abusive school environment for the female freshman—a violation of Title IX.

Last year, Holden pleaded guilty to one count each of indecent liberties with a child and aggravated indecent liberties with a child at the school. He's currently serving a three-year prison sentence.