Editor's note: This was written Feb. 9, 2015, but was not published and is slightly modified here.

In loco parentis, meaning "in the place of a parent," indicates that an organization or institution can act in a child's best interest in the absence of the child's parents. This historic agreement was rooted in English common law and reflected a standard expectation of parents toward schools; schools readily took on the responsibility of absentee parenthood at the primary, secondary and even university levels as part of the educational process. Since the late 1940s, however, the inviolability of this concept has been eroded by civil libertarians seeking to secure constitutional protections and freedoms for students at every level of education. In the 1960s, numerous "adult citizen" rights,

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