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An Analysis of Litigation against Kansas Educators and School Districts under the Kansas Tort Claims Act
This dissertation examines the significance of the Kansas Tort Claims Act of 1979 on state of Kansas court decisions in litigation against Kansas school districts and their employees. Through providing a historical perspective of the adoption and abolishment of the doctrine of sovereign immunity in the United States, which subsequently led to the enactment of the Federal Tort Claims Act, and ultimately led to the Kansas Tort Claims Act, the researcher analyzes pertinent case law and scholarly commentary pertaining to school negligence litigation. The goal of the analysis is to answer the following research question: How have Kansas state courts interpreted the Kansas Tort Claims Act in litigation against state school districts and their employees? Although the KTCA provides citizens with a vehicle for redress against governmental entities by virtue of tort claims, the KTCA also provides immunities from liability for governmental entities and their employees under exceptions to the KTCA. Most notably, the discretionary function exception and the recreational use exception are two exceptions to liability applied in a significant number of tort cases against Kansas school districts and employees. The case law analysis provides explanations for the types of actions of negligence that Kansas courts have qualified for school district or school employee liability, and, when permitted, negligent actions that qualified for immunity under a KTCA exception to liability.
Beneath Missouri Skies: Pat Metheny in Kansas City 1964-1972
The New Yorker recently referred to Pat Metheny as “possibly the most influential jazz guitarist of the past five decades.” A native of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, just southeast of Kansas City, Metheny started playing in pizza parlors at age fourteen. By the time he graduated from high school he was the first-call guitarist for Kansas City jazz clubs, private clubs, and jazz festivals. Now 66, he attributes his early success to the local musical environment he was brought up in and the players and teachers who nurtured his talent and welcomed him into the jazz community. Metheny’s twenty Grammys in ten categories speak to his versatility and popularity. Despite five decades of interviews, none have conveyed in detail his stories about his teenage years. Beneath Missouri Skies also reveals important details about jazz in Kansas City during the sixties and early seventies, often overlooked in histories of Kansas City jazz. Yet this time of cultural change was characterized by an outstanding level of musicianship.
The Effect of Didatic-Intellectual Training Versus Relationship-Oriented Training Upon Counseling Behavior
This study compares the effects of a relationship-oriented practicum to those of a mixed, didactic-intellectual, relationship-oriented practicum upon counseling behavior and personality. These effects are determined by ratings of audiotape recordings as well as by a personality inventory. The audiotape ratings measure changes in counseling behavior, while the personality inventory measures personality changes.
An Experimental Analysis of Preference Problems in a Self-Control Choice Procedure by Adults with Mental Retardation
The original purpose of this study was to determine if Tegretol has an effect on the impulsive behavior exhibited by people with mental retardation. This was to be accomplished through a replication of the self-control choice procedures used by Ragotzy, Blakely, and Poling (1988). The procedure involved three stages. First, subjects chose between stimuli that provided either one or three edibles. Then the stimuli associated with the smaller and larger edibles were reversed. Following this, the procedure required the implementation of successively longer delays to the larger reinforcer. However, none of the subjects who participated was able to make the discriminations necessary to proceed, i.e., the subjects did not systematically select the stimulus associated with the larger magnitude edible choice. The identification and rectification of these errors in discrimination became the focus of this study. Various procedures were used to enhance discrimination, including fading, adjusting the magnitude of the edibles, and stimulus changes. None of these changes was successful in teaching the subjects the necessary discriminations.
Interaction Effects of Office Education Programs, Community Size, and Teacher Attitude on the Attitudes Held by High School Office Education Students Toward Office Employment
The purpose of the study was to ascertain whether significant differences in attitudes held by office education students are associated with (l) the type of office education program in which students were enrolled, (2) the size of the community in which the students lived, and (3) the attitude held by the classroom teacher.
Misidentified Flying Objects? A Critique
Critique reviewing Stuart Twemlow's paper and presenting some evidence for the existence of unidentified flying objects (UFOs).
Misidentified Flying Objects? An Integrated Psychodynamic Perspective on Near-Death Experiences and UFO Abductions
Article proposing an integrated psychodynamic perspective to account in part for a variety of similarities between near-death experiences and UFO abductions. The psychodynamic psychology of these experiences implies that their "realness" is mainly a function of that psychology, rather than primarily of an objectifiable external reality. Clinical and research examples highlight the theoretical and practical usefulness of this model.
Regional Highlights from Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States
This fact sheet describes climate change scenarios in the Great Plains region of the United States.
The Relative Effectiveness of Two Methodologies in the Development of Composition Skills in College Freshman English
The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of determining the relative effectiveness of the Christensen Rhetoric Program and of a traditional write-revise approach in freshman English composition classes.
Response to Commentaries on "Misidentified Flying Objects?"
Article responding to commentaries on the paper, "Misidentified Flying Objects?" elaborating a middle ground position regarding the question of what is "really real."
A Study of Near-Death Experiences and Coping with Stress
Study investigating the effect of a near-death experience (NDE) on an experiencer's ability to cope with stress. The intent of the study is to determine whether changes reported by experiencers have a practical, psychological application in their day-to-day lives.
The Validity of the Weighted Application Blank as a Predictor of Tenure in the Nursing Home Industry; A Test of Two Models
The first purpose was to develop and validate a quantitative selection tool, the weighted application blank, tailored to the nursing home industry. The second purpose of this study was to determine whether data scaling and increased statistical rigor can reduce the frequency of type I and type II errors in the weighted application.
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