Remember that federal lawsuit a former Hannibal High School student filed against the school district?

Dylan Mardis, identified in the lawsuit as DJM, alleged that the school district infringed on his First Amendment rights when it suspended him for threats he allegedly made against his classmates in an online chat with a friend. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, and eventually the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, sided with the school district, and the case was dismissed in Monroe County circuit court shortly thereafter at the request of Mardis’ attorney, Branson L. Wood III of Hannibal.

Education law experts across the country, including the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va., kept an eye on this case because of its implications for off-campus student expression.

SPLC included DJM v. Hannibal School District in a recent review of off-campus student expression cases. These sorts of cases are important, the center says, because the Supreme Court has been asked to hear four off-campus speech cases this term, which could thrust this category of student expression further into the limelight (disclosure: the author of the blog post linked here is a friend).

DJM v. Hannibal School District isn’t among the cases that have been forwarded to the Supreme Court, and its dismissal at the circuit court level in Missouri seems to indicate that the case is closed (Judge Rachel Bringer’s words in the Case.net file). Further, SPLC’s executive director told me back in May that since this case revolves around alleged threats, which aren’t protected under the First Amendment, it’s not a good test case for the Supreme Court to use in deciding how to treat off-campus speech. However, that doesn’t automatically preclude the Mardis family and their attorney from appealing the case to the Supreme Court — and if the high court does take any off-campus speech cases this term, that certainly could muddy the waters.

Stay tuned.

Grace Douglas, a Hannibal Middle School seventh-grader living with autism, became part of the school’s cross-country team this year. Under the terms of a special agreement with the Hannibal School District and the Missouri State High School Athletic Association, Grace runs with an adult partner, usually Marlene Rodenbaugh.

In the video below, Rodenbaugh, herself the mother of a child with autism, talks about teaching “good running mechanics” to Grace as the girl learns how to run competitively.

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After a long summer, Hannibal’s public schools come alive again today. I dropped in on Oakwood Elementary School to watch the first-day-of-school festivities unfold. (Thanks to Principal Penny Strube and the gang for letting me visit.)

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In the midst of a short agenda for Wednesday’s Hannibal Board of Education meeting, as district officials discussed progress toward the school’s state-mandated achievement benchmarks, the principal of Veterans Elementary School shared the best practices that have brought her school up to snuff with state standards and made achievement a priority.

Veterans last year met all of its Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals — state benchmarks mandated under the federal No Child Left Behind Act and measured in part by the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) tests for third- through eighth-graders — for the first time since 2006. Some key factors in that progress: a positive attitude and an eye toward results.

Beverly Walker emphasized in her presentation that attitude and action have been key to the school’s achievement. Faculty have studied the book “212: The Extra Degree” and implemented its message of finding a tipping point to act and get results. That’s been borne out in what Walker termed “results-oriented meetings” among faculty and administrators, aimed at quickly finding and effectively solving problems.

At the same time, positivity is key, Walker said. For example, kids struggling with school are called not problem kids, but “success kids.” “We believe that they will be successful,” she said.

Besides addressing achievement, the school targets social development — specifically, the problem of bullying, which Hannibal Middle School also has worked to address — by holding regular class meetings, a phenomenon unique to Veterans that assistant principal W.T. Johnson said has been “implemented as a lifelong intervention.” Teachers set aside intentional time to discuss with their students social skills, anti-bullying techniques and conflict resolution, as illustrated in a video Walker screened of first-grade teacher Denise Hudson discussing bullying with her young pupils.

Walker called Veterans a school full of leaders who are working to ensure the school’s success. Their leadership will become even more crucial next year, as Superintendent Jill Janes announced at the end of Walker’s presentation that the principal will retire at the end of this academic year.