Free Republic

<p>Lawmakers are considering bill that would make it easier to charge and prosecute teachers with distributing harmful material to minors.</p> <p>Proponents say that would give needed protection to students. Opponents say it could criminalize the teaching of biology or controversial works of literature and that communication is a better option.</p>

WHAT IS SLDS? The STATE LONGITUDINAL DATABASE SYSTEM, is a comprehensive database compiled ON EACH CHILD. This data is not aggregate data, it is linked specifically to the child. DATA that is collected will FOLLOW THE CHILD through to their adult years and BEYOND. In fact, that is the PURPOSE of the SLDS, to provide a database that “grows” along with the child into their CAREER YEARS. The Workforce Data Quality Initiative’s Mission Statement from the United States Department of Labor’s website reads: “The long-term Workforce Data Quality Initiative and SLDS goal for States is to use their longitudinal data...

GUSTINE, Texas — A group of students at an elementary school in Texas were apparently asked to lower their pants for a poop inspection on Monday. School educators told two dozen students they were regularly finding feces on the gym floor. The students were then separated into groups of boys and girls and ordered to “pull down their pants” so administrators could “check if they could find anything.” Maria Medina, whose 11-year-old daughter was searched, said her daughter’s privacy was violated. She told WFAA the teachers involved should be fired.

EDMOND, Okla. – A local biology teacher’s multiple choice question about abortion is upsetting students’ parents. Edmond Santa Fe High School officials confirmed Tuesday several biology teachers at the school gave their students a “non graded exercise” – a discussion starter – on human genetic disorders. “You’ve found out that the child you (or your wife) carries has the gene for dwarfism. A new therapy exists that may repair this gene before the child is born. What do you do?” the first question on the exercise asks. A. Allow the child to be born with the gene, and we will...

North Dakota United is a group formed by the state’s two largest unions: The teachers and the public workers. The group claims to represent over 11,000 people, and describes itself on its website as a “professional organization.” You’d think, from the way they describe themselves, that they mostly concern themselves with professional development and advocacy on issues of importance to government employees. Which is all well and good. That’s exactly what you would expect from an organization like that. What you might not expect is the group meeting in “solidarity” with advocacy groups pushing positions far outside the scope of...

Grit And Gratitude Join Reading, Writing And Arithmetic On Report Cards BY LORETTA KALBLKALB 01/27/2015 Outside Harry Dewey Fundamental Elementary School in Fair Oaks, Amanda Christensen recalled the first time she saw the detailed report card for her three children. “At first it was very complicated,” Christensen said. “You see all these new things and you don’t understand quite what they mean.” Case in point: Her kids are now graded on their level of grit. “What does my child have to do to get a grade in that?” she wondered. Across the state, report cards are undergoing a sea change...

January 28, 2015 (ThePublicDiscourse.com) -- It reads like fiction: an estimated 50 to 75 percent of American men were infected with a sexually transmitted disease (STD); in thousands of families, an STD killed one, two, even five of their children; and an incredible 30 percent of all blindness was attributed to STDs. The transmission of STDs was an urgent concern of national health and security—so serious, in fact, that soldiers were court-martialed if they were found to be infected. These statistics are not from a third-world country in the midst of the AIDs pandemic. These are estimates of syphilis and gonorrhea...

A northern California high school where sex ed was taught by members of Planned Parenthood apparently had at least two instructors with interesting sidelines. Parents of children who attend Acalanes Union High School in Lafayette, Calif., along with local area groups, had been demanding for months the district tell them exactly who was teaching the sex education program. Some of the answers they received did not make them happy. At least two of the instructors had questionable day jobs, with one conducting sex toy workshops at a local porn shop. Another, who dubbed herself a “pleasure activist,” had attended pornography...

How was it that 48 governors entered Race-to-the-Top without knowing outcomes? It was one of the many “crises” exploited by the Obama administration. While the public was focused on a series of radical moves coming in rapid-fire succession, like the health care bill and proposed trials and imprisonment of 9/11 terrorists on domestic soil, governors, worried about keeping school doors open, signed on. Many politicians and pundits praised Obama on this singular issue, repeating the official rhetoric about raising standards. It stands to reason, though, that education policies would be consistent with Obama’s agenda. After all, one of his most...

YouTube video here

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Seven homeschoolers in Arkansas who were seized by the Garland County Sheriff’s Department this month remain in state custody after a court hearing on Thursday over the matter. Hal Stanley, a pastor, and his wife Michelle state that they are in shock after their children were removed from their Hot Springs home on Jan. 12 following an anonymous complaint. The situation began last month as a social worker with the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS) showed up at the Stanley’s door after receiving a complaint that the children were permitted to go outside in the...

I heard a sound byte today from the FOX internet ...

In Charlotte County, Florida, students, parents, and extended family members are protesting high school textbooks that they believe are “promoting Islam.” Families that were concerned about the history books demanded the school to hold a meeting. Over 300 people attended and some protesters sported neon shirts that said, “Nothing but the truth.” According to one parent, “They’re pushing Islam and they’re putting down Christianity.” Another parent, Richard Gromalski, stated that the textbooks are biased and have a disproportionate amount of pages devoted to Islam. Not only are there disproportional amounts of pages devoted to Islam, there is text that claims...

Ontario Catholic parents hoping their children attending a Catholic school will be spared an explicit sex-education curriculum that allegedly will teach their children about masturbation, to question their sexual identity as male or female, and about diverse family structures are out of luck. Education Minister Liz Sandals stated on TVO’s The Agenda yesterday that Catholic schools will not be able to opt out of the curriculum being forced upon Ontario’s schools by lesbian Premier, Kathleen Wynne. “There is one curriculum document, and it’s our expectation that all four systems [English and French Catholic, English and French public] will be using...

Syracuse’s Nation of Islam representative Mark Muhammad will join the city’s school board at the mayor’s request ... Muhammad’s ties to the Nation of Islam – he’s Louis Farrakhan’s local representative – that have some questioning how the group’s radical views on education and race will play into his new role. And it doesn’t appear that they will get any easy answers. A Post-Standard reporter questioned Muhammad about his affiliation with the Nation of Islam, and how the group’s beliefs, such as the needed segregation of black and white students, will guide his leadership. ... he doesn’t want the public...

This school encourages food fights. An Alabama middle school asked students to bring canned goods to school so they can throw them at potential gunman. W.F. Burns Middle School in Valley, Ala., said the tactic is part of the ALICE method, which stands for alert, lockdown, inform, counter, evacuate, and teaches students what to do during a shooting. Principal Priscella Holley sent a note home to parents Friday asking them to send their students back to class with an eight-ounce can of beans, corn, soup or any other food. Arming kids with cans that can be used as weapons gives...

Former Deputy Minister of Education Dr. Ben Levin (L), who was arrested in 2013 for making child pornography, attends Toronto Pride in 2013 with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. Ontario’s lesbian Premier, Kathleen Wynne, has specifically requested that the proposed sex-education curriculum slated for all schools next fall include a component teaching kids about giving sexual “consent” from “the very earliest stages.”Wynne asked the Ministry of Education to “finalize a new health and physical education curriculum that gets at some of the root causes of gender inequality, and starts at the very earliest stages to develop an understanding of healthy...

If all you knew about racial violence came from the protestors at a Manhattan Sunday brunch, you would know that black people are victims of relentless white violence. In the real world, black mob violence and black-on-white crime are astronomically out of proportion. Especially in schools. Especially directed at teachers. Especially this week in Monroe, Yonkers, Little Rock, and Buffalo. Let’s start in Monroe, Louisiana. Facebook videographer “Tanglewood Hard Hitta” transports us into the middle of a few dozen black teenage girls fighting and screaming. Teacher’s aide David Payne was trying to break it up when Ryan Marquez Gix took...

The school board in Superior, Wisconsin voted last week to reject a complaint filed by an unidentified parent seeking the removal of a book that promotes homosexuality. The complaint was lodged against the book, “Emma and Meesha My Boy: A Two Mom Story”, which is being used in elementary school classrooms as early as 1st grade. The book, which is several years old and popular in the homosexual community, is designed to expand children’s understanding and definition of what constitutes a family. Well-known actress and homosexual activist Rosie O’Donell stated years ago, “I read it—I loved it—[my partner’s daughter] Chelsea...

A former Connecticut high school teacher awaiting sentencing over a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student has been arrested again after allegedly threatening to kill one of her accusers. Police say 32-year-old Danielle Watkins of Norwalk was arrested Friday. She was first arrested in July, accused of having sex with one student at Stamford High and giving marijuana to another. Police say she threatened one of the victims at a doughnut shop Friday. Watkins pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault and risk of injury to a minor last month under a deal with prosecutors. The agreement calls for her to...