From our story on the site today (and note, here’s a more updated story):

Seven grainy images of a teacher at her desk in a Lafayette High School classroom are at the center of a lawsuit filed by the student who took the photos and posted them on the Internet.

The lawsuit alleges that school officials violated constitutional rights of free speech and free expression when they disciplined the student, a sophomore, after learning of the incident.

The Rockwood School District, however, claims the student was suspended for disruptive behavior that violated school rules. They assert the boy and two fellow classmates scammed the…

The National Endowment for the Arts released a study today that says we’re reading less than we used to. Among the findings of the study, recounted in this story by the Associated Press:

• In 2002, only 52 percent of Americans ages 18 to 24, the college years, read a book voluntarily, down from 59 percent in 1992.
• Money spent on books, adjusted for inflation, dropped 14 percent from 1985 to 2005 and has fallen dramatically since the mid-1990s.
• The number of adults with bachelor’s degrees and "proficient in reading prose" dropped from 40 percent in 1992 to 31 percent in 2003.

Here’s…

St. Louis may be a stride away from attracting a national model of high-energy, no-excuses charter school for troubled students, if the well-respected Knowledge Is Power Program sets up shop in the St. Louis School District.

The new charter school organization operates with a combination of long days, Saturday classes and exhaustive teacher attention.

Civic leaders here — including St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay — have apparently been working for years to attact these quality charter schools.

Today’s story explains that the foundation has submitted an application to build five KIPP schools in St. Louis over 10 years.

“It’s clear it’s going to…

When lawmakers started the current property tax reassessment system in 1985, they promised it would shield residents from skyrocketing property tax increases, even if their home’s assessed values went through the roof.

A story in Monday’s paper says that some St. Louis County taxpayers say the system is not working. The various taxing jurisdictions are supposed to roll back their rates so that the rates produce, with some exceptions, the same amount of money that they did before reassessment.

People have been complaining that they have received sharp increases in their assessments and tax bills. Their complaints have drawn the…

Megan Coulter spent two days in detention hall at her school. The crime: Hugging her girlfriends on school grounds.

Apparently, at Mascoutah Middle School, that’s a violation of school district policy. Our story for Wednesday’s Post-Dispatch will outline the specifics in more detail.

“It was a simple arm-over-the-shoulder thing. It wasn’t even bodies pressing,” Coulter said. “I knew there was a policy on public displays of affection, but I didn’t know you could get into trouble for something as little as a hug. I didn’t think it was serious.”

Coulter had been warned two weeks earlier after hugging a male friend at a football…