Kathleen Conn, Ph.D., LL.M., J.D. has been chosen as the recipient of the Pennsylvania Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (PASCD) 2013 Outstanding Research and Publication Award. This award is presented annually to a member of the association who has researched and published within the past two years. Conn is a member of the education faculty at Neumann where she teaches in the Ed.D. program. 

Conn’s article T.K. and J.C.: Guidance for Schools Dealing with Bullying and Cyberbullying was published this spring in the Northeastern University Law Journal. The article reviews the opinions of two district courts, one for California and one from New York, that give advice to administrators dealing with bullying and cyberbullying in K-12 public schools. The J.C. decision was a response to a female student who posted a YouTube video demeaning a classmate. The court analyzed the school's right to discipline students for speech and expression originating off-campus.

In T.K., the student involved was a special education student bullied in school.
In the article Conn discusses the courts' rationales and how they apply to public schools and the responsibilities of school administrators dealing with bullying and cyberbullying. She also recognizes the two decisions as providing guidance for courts in other jurisdictions which are now facing a flood of bullying and cyberbullying litigation.

PASCD’s Annual Awards Program honors members whose contribution to the organization or education profession deserves special recognition. This year’s award will be presented on November 4 at 12:30 p.m. during the 63rd PASCD Annual Conference at the Hershey Lodge and Convention Center, Hershey, PA. 

Conn’s background spans the sciences, law and education. She holds a B.S. in physics from St. John’s University, an M.S. in medical physics from UCLA, a Ph.D. in physics and biology from Bryn Mawr College, and an LL.M and J.D. from Widener University School of Law. In addition, she holds a host of certifications from the Pennsylvania Department of Education. She has more than 20 years of experience in the classroom and another 11 as curriculum supervisor and principal in the Tredyffrin-Easttown, West Chester, and William Penn School Districts.

Her special fields of interest and legal expertise are in the areas of First Amendment rights of students in K-12 public schools, public schools’ legal responses to technology misuse, and bullying, including cyberbullying, and peer sexual harassment in schools.