Free Republic

FULL TITLE: Moment distraught mom of a seven-year-boy films her son being cuffed by police and then taken for a psychiatric evaluation after school officials say he 'punched a teacher' A Miami mother of a seven-year-old boy expressed outrage on Saturday when she saw her son handcuffed by police after he is said to have hit his teacher and then taken to a mental institution. Mercy Alvarez was in tears as she saw her son leave the principal’s office at the Coral Way K-8 Center in Miami escorted by a police officer on Thursday. The officer handcuffed the boy after...

Done right, home schooling is a very low-cost, personalized educational option, conducted in a safe, non-violent environment--your home. Statistics consistently indicate that home-schooled students excel in higher education and go on to lead functional, productive lives. There are, of course, a number of life’s little inconveniences and impediments that operate against successful home-schooling. First, the parent-child chemistry has to be there. Many parents have told me that it simply would not work for their Matthew or Emily. Home-schooling my own son would have been the ultimate test of my patience. Both parties have to be committed and emotionally in-sync with...

Teenage girls shouldn’t have to take their pants off in front of random teenage boys. The Clark County School District disagrees. According to a concerned parent and student, the principal of a local high school is allowing a male student to use the girls’ locker room to change for physical education class. “Last year, sometime during the year, he just started coming and changing in the locker room with us,” said a girl who was in PE class. “I felt uncomfortable and would try and hide and change somewhere else. Other people in my class told me that they felt...

KANAWHA COUNTY, WV (WOWK) - A worker at a mental health facility for boys has been charged in connection to a hidden camera found in a bathroom, according to deputies. The Kanawha County Sheriff's Office tells 13 News that David Franklin Kidd Jr., 44, of Belle, was arrested in June 2017. Kidd was employed at The Art of Three Rivers in Dunbar, a facility of boys with mental disabilities and was a classroom aide for Kanawha County Schools.

Back in December (just in time for the Christmas break), George Mason High School in Falls Church, Virginia held a school assembly with a special guest speaker. Washington Post columnist, author and Pulitzer Prize winner Amy Ellis Nutt arrived to lecture the children on a number of subjects, particularly transgender issues. That’s not surprising since she’s still pushing her 2015 book, Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family. Cathy Ruse at The Daily Signal has a long, well developed breakdown of the speech given at the assembly as well as the question and answer session which followed. (Be warned...

BENTON, Ky. -- Authorities say at least five students were shot Tuesday morning at a southwestern Kentucky high school. A suspect in the incident at Marshall County High School in Benton, Kentucky, has been apprehended, according to officials with Marshall County Emergency Management. Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin tweeted soon after the incident that at least one person died in the shooting, but said there is "much yet unknown" as first responders continue to operate at the school. Tragic shooting at Marshall County HS...Shooter is in custody, one confirmed fatality, multiple others wounded...Much yet unknown...Please do not speculate or spread hearsay...Let’s...

ELLIS COUNTY -- The Ellis County Sheriff's Office has a 16-year-old student in custody after a school shooting Monday morning that left a 15-year-old injured. Just before 8 a.m., an active shooter was reported at Italy High School in Italy, Texas.

Editor’s note: This column was co-authored by Emmett McGroarty.Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is a bit of a puzzle. Every speech she gives is a grab bag of praiseworthy philosophical statements combined with dismaying practical proposals. Her recent presentation to the American Enterprise Institute is a good example.She began with remarks about the Common Core national standards. Especially in her home state of Michigan, conservatives were discouraged by DeVos’s nomination because of her past support of Common Core and her efforts (through organizations she founded and/or funded) to thwart the parents who opposed them. She disavowed her previous support and then...

A female student who told school administrators she'd been sexually assaulted by a teacher was suspended and then forced to apologize to the accused perpetrator and hug him, according to an indictment against three Colorado school officials handed down Wednesday. Principal David Gonzales, Vice Principal AJ MacIntosh and counselor Cheryl Somers-Wegienka of Prairie Middle School in Aurora, Colo. were named in the indictments, FOX31 Denver reported. The Cherry Creek School District informed parents MacIntosh and Gonzales were placed on administrative leave “pending the outcome of the court proceedings.” Somers-Wegienka stopped working at the school before the indictment. The indictment stems...

FULL TITLE: Deaths threats cause school board lockdown after teacher was handcuffed in video - while superintendent DEFENDS the $38,000 raise that started the scuffle A Louisiana school board's office went on temporary lockdown after getting death threats from around the world in response to widely viewed video of a teacher screaming while being handcuffed at a school board meeting. The threats have come from as far away as South America, Australia and England, as well as other U.S. states, Vermilion Parish School Board President Anthony Fontana told The Advertiser. He said they've been reported to the FBI and local...

A former Union High School teacher who in 2011 called homosexuality a "perverted spirit" that "breeds like cancer" has agreed to a three-year suspension of her teaching certificates. The posts on Jenye "Viki" Knox's personal Facebook page eventually caused the special education teacher and faculty adviser to the school's Bible study group to resign. She later filed a federal lawsuit claiming school officials had violated her free speech and religious rights.

FULL TITLE: Pennsylvania teachers mocked disabled fifth-grader in a voicemail to her mother after they forgot to hang up the phone A mother is suing a Pennsylvania school district after she says three teachers made fun of her daughter, who is a special needs student, in a voicemail that was left on her phone. Beth Suhon said her daughter's math teacher at Claysville Elementary initially called her in February 2015 to inform her that her daughter was struggling in school and left a voicemail. But he never properly hung up the phone and continued to speak with two other teachers,...

California has become the first state in the union to mandate the use of LGBT-inclusive textbooks in elementary schools and have given parents no way to opt out. The choice has been made for them. It’s the law. That law requires a “fair, accurate, inclusive, and respectful” treatment of homosexual, bisexual, transgender, and lesbian Americans despite the historical insignificance. “We’re not trying to make anybody gay; we’re not saying there’s an agenda; we’re not saying that these people are better than other people; what we’re saying is this is another group of Americans and they face certain prejudices,” said state...

My recent columns have focused on the extremely poor educational outcomes for black students. There's enough blame for all involved to have their fair share. That includes students who are hostile and alien to the educational process and have derelict, uninterested home environments. After all, if there is not someone in the home to ensure that a youngster does his homework, has wholesome meals, gets eight to 10 hours of sleep and behaves in school, educational dollars won't produce much. There's another educational issue that's neither flattering nor comfortable to confront. That's the low academic quality of so many teachers....

FULL TITLE: Parents sue school district after their severely bullied 13-year-old daughter hanged herself and left behind note 'apologizing for being ugly' The parents of a 13-year-old girl who committed suicide in November after being bullied for two years are suing her school district over a wrongful death claim. Rosalie Avila, 13, hanged herself inside her family's Yucaipa, California home on November 28 and was later declared brain dead before being taken off life support December 4. Her parents, Freddie and Charlene Avila, allege that their eighth-grade daughter was relentlessly bullied at Mesa View Middle School by fellow classmates who...

We've come full circle on school discipline: Now students beat the teacher. "City teachers pleaded with district administrators Monday to help support them as they deal with what they are calling an unprecedented level of misbehavior among children, some of which is resulting in physical violence against teachers," Felix Rodriguez Lima reported on Fox 43 from Harrisburg, Pa. on November 21, 2017. "The Harrisburg Education Association says the behavioral issues have prompted the resignations of at least 45 teachers between July and October, and further resignations have since occurred, according to association president Jody Barksdale." "Some of the worst behavior...

It turns out Muslims in the USA really are oppressed after all. How would you like to come over from the Middle East and attend an explicitly Catholic school like Loyola University Chicago, only to discover that Christmas is treated as if it were somehow a bigger deal than Islamic holidays, despite 5% of the students being Muslim? Sajedah Al-khzaleh grouses in the student paper that “there is a lack of public festivity compared to Christmas.” Sajid Ahmed, prayer coordinator for the terrorism-associated Muslim Students Association, says he “wishes Muslim holidays were just as prominent.” No worries; P.C. educrats are...

Superintendent Adrian E. Allison says man on paid administrative leave pending investigation of ‘disturbing and unprofessional’ behavior. A McKinley High School teacher is under investigation after a video surfaced that shows him tackling a student to the ground. The roughly 15-second video, obtained by The Canton Repository on Tuesday, shows a student standing with his backpack near another student’s desk in a classroom when the teacher and two other adult men approach. The teacher places his hand on the student’s left arm to pull him away from the desk, and the student jerks his arm away. The teacher then grabs...

FULL TITLE: Principal Who Screamed at Pro-Life Teen: “I Don’t Give a S— What Jesus Says” Says His Life’s Been a Wreck Ever Since Earlier this year and assistant principal at a Pennsylvania high school was caught on video yelling profanities at pro-life teenagers who are holding signs demonstrating against abortion. The teenager, Conner Haines, was part of a Christian group called Project Frontlines that was hosting a “holocaust of abortion” display on the public sidewalks outside the school. The pro-lifers showed photos of aborted babies and other information to help educate the public about abortion. Haines and his sister...

1) Good Christmas present for smart people. Somewhat complex sophistries are explained in simple terms. It’s fun knowing how this stuff works. 2) This book is a guidebook to what’s really going on in our public schools. Weird, unproven theories and methods are commonplace, such as Sight-words to teach reading, Constructivism to teach knowledge, Common Core Math to teach arithmetic, and so on. Once you understand these gimmicks, then you can fight back more successfully against the school system. 3) A group, whether 2 people or 20 people, can use this book to initiate and focus discussions. You can pick...