Homework during summer vacation prompts lawsuit.

Byline: Jamaal Abdul-Alim

MILWAUKEE _ In an effort to teach educators a lesson about the importance of summer vacation, a Whitnall High School student and his father have filed a lawsuit against the boy's math teacher that seeks to bar teachers from requiring homework over the summer.

In the lawsuit, 17-year-old Peer Larson and his father, Bruce Larson, argue that school officials have no legal authority to make students do homework over the summer because the state-required 180-day school year is over.

"It is poor public policy," Bruce Larson argues in the lawsuit. "These students are still children, yet they are subjected to increasing pressure to perform to ever-higher standards in numerous theaters.

"Come summer, they need a break."

But some observers say the schools and courts need a break from lawsuits such as the one brought by the Larsons.

"If I were a judge, I would not only dismiss the lawsuit, I'd levy a fine against the father for misusing the courts," says Philip K. Howard, a lawyer and legal reform advocate based in New York City and author of the bestseller "The Death of Common Sense." …