Free Republic

Lily Eskelsen García: “Thoughts and prayers are not enough.” WASHINGTON - November 15, 2017 - NEA President Lily Eskelsen García issued the following statement in reaction to yesterday’s shooting in Northern California, which targeted students and educators at Rancho Tehama Elementary School:“We pray for the victims of this latest tragedy in Tehama County, California, and the schoolchildren and adults shot by another out-of-control man who could spray bullets through a classroom and down the street with a rapid-fire weapon. We’re grateful to the educators who heroically protected their students in this rural school, the heroes in a Texas church, and...

In 2012, the State of New Hampshire passed a measure that eased the state’s intervention into the operations of homeschooling families by reducing the number of filings parents would have to submit in order to get state approval for their efforts to educate their children. This move, according to Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA), reduced the amount of notices homeschooling parents would have to submit from 3 to just 1 and has produced no negative problems since becoming law. Now, about five years after the 2012 measure was passed, state lawmakers are eyeing up a plan to roll back...

“As educators spend more and more of their own funds each year to buy basic essentials, Republican leaders chose to ignore the sacrifice made by those who work in our nation’s public schools to make sure students have adequate books, pencils, paper and art supplies,” Lily Eskelsen García, the president of the National Educational Association, said in a statement. Read the rest of the article here.

An Air Force One veteran turned Indiana high school referee was slammed with an 18-month suspension for choosing to walk out of a game he was refereeing after he saw an athlete kneeling during the National Anthem. Jim Saddler, 67, said he couldn’t help himself when he saw a volleyball player taking a knee during the “Star Spangled Banner.” He said that he was barely able to contain his anger when he saw fans “sitting on their butts” during the anthem, but seeing an athlete kneeling was what pushed him over the edge. “What they did just upset me so...

In place of academic excellence for all, the district’s primary mission is now to ensure that students think correctly on social and political issues — most importantly, on race and “white privilege.” District leaders enshrined this new mission in EPS’s “All for All” strategic plan, adopted in 2013. The plan mandates that, going forward, the EPS must view “all teaching and learning experiences” through the “lens of racial equity.” If “equity” meant “treating kids equally,” all thinking Minnesotans would support it. In this context, however, it’s code for racial identity politics — a simplistic blaming of “white privilege” for the...

A Queens public-school teacher — fired for warning his fifth graders to “quiet down or someone will come in and shoot us” and showing up late or skipping school 76 times in two years — is suing for his job back. At PS 101 in Flushing in January 2014, he told students to “put your f–king hands down” before warning, “If you guys do not quiet down then someone will come in and shoot us,” according to departmental charges. Tefler — wearing an American-flag thong — told a Post reporter in the hallway of his apartment building, “Not today, I’m...

We must be getting close to the endgame. The moonbats who dominate education are becoming forthright about their agenda. From Florida: Boca Raton is going to let a teacher put up a 6-foot-tall pentagram, painted blood red, with a wooden image of the holy [sic] symbol of Satan in the middle of it. The teacher is Preston Smith of Boca Raton Community Middle School, a public school. City officials say they have to allow his deliberately offensive display or get sued. It will be in Boca Raton’s Sanborn Square, on Federal Highway, just in time for the holidays. A giant...

Though there's some debate about the exact figure, one thing is certain: Homeschooling families nationwide are saving taxpayers a ton of money. The Pioneer Institute, a free-market think tank in Boston, estimates the savings are roughly $22 billion annually. "The homeschool families are paying their taxes, their property taxes, their local taxes, of course, their state and local taxes, and a small percentage of those go to the state and federal departments of education, and an even smaller percentage back to the local schools," explains Will Estrada, director of Federal Relations at the Home School Legal Defense Association. "But then...

Mississippi second-grade teacher fired for saying black people should “move back to Africa” According to this article from the New York Post, a Mississippi second-grade teacher was recently fired for posting the following on her Facebook page:“If blacks in this country are so offended, no one is forcing them to stay here. Why don’t they pack up and move back to Africa where they will have to work for a living. I am sure our government will pay for it! We pay for everything else.”Wow. Her statement is highly rude and offensive, and is totally inappropriate for someone who teaches children....

Parents warned of elementary educators' 'brazen' indoctrination plan! The influential Family Research Council in Washington, D.C., is warning parents of “brazen” indoctrination plans being pursued by teachers, even in elementary schools. The latest instance, FRC explains, is in Florida, where a fifth-grade teacher sent home a note to parents mandating that students use only politically correct pronouns in class. “One thing that you should know about me is that I use gender neutral terms. My prefix is Mx. (pronounced Mix). Additionally, my pronouns are ‘they, them, their’ instead of ‘he, his, she, hers.'” The Tallahassee Democrat newspaper reported math and...

Craig Roffman, 41, a former James Madison High School English teacher, was originally arrested on child porn charges in 2005 after police caught him with illicit images, reported the New York Post Friday. After Roffman agreed to a plea deal and lost his teaching job, a state judge deemed the former teacher “not a threat” and sentenced him to only four months of weekends in jail. “The psychologists, who are top-notch guys, found that he is not a threat to children and not a threat for recidivism,” said Joseph Grob, Roffman’s lawyer at the time.

'It's just bizarre. I told my daughter not to turn it in' Roy High School teacher Candace Thurgood says she has been giving the same “Know Thyself” quiz to students in her “Adult Roles and Financial Literacy” class for years without complaint, but the questionnaire first published in a 1981 Dear Abby column is not playing so well this year. Thurgood was removed from the classroom and placed on leave from Utah’s Weber School District after parents learned of the class exercise where respondents are asked about their sexual histories and drug and alcohol abuse. The 30 questions are scored...

Wife unit and I just completed painting our childrens rooms. Theme should be between K-3 , boy and girl. What posters/themes centered on education and religion would you put in their room? Below is a small list I have brainstormed, and I am interested in things that just ARENT taught as much anymore or not emphasized enough. When I was growing up my room was filled with posters to keep my mind going......most were hand made by mom. I'm sure there are nice ones that homeschoolers and teachers use that maybe I'm not thinking of. Thanks! FReegards!

Two teachers in Louisiana were arrested after they were accused of harassing an 11-year-old girl, CNN reported. The girl's mother went to the school board, as well as local authorities, and ultimately had her daughter removed from the classroom of Ann Marie Shelvin. According to police, Shelvin then threatened to fail three other students if they didn't fight the 11-year-old, and also told the girl to "go and kill herself."

Zach Ruff is an assistant principal in Downington, Pennsylvania and he really doesn’t like people who are pro-life, or Christian. Like, not at all. On Wednesday, one of Ruff’s students, 16-year old Conner Haines, decided to express his opinion that abortion was wrong on the PUBLIC sidewalk that runs in front of his High School. Conner was joined by his 19-year old sister and the two held pro-life signs while telling passers-by that abortion was a murder but that they could find forgiveness in Jesus. Soon after they began their completely legal demonstration, Ruff appeared and the situation immediately grew...

DOWNINGTOWN, Pa — An assistant principal at Downingtown STEM Academy has been placed on administrative leave after a video captured him screaming and cursing at two teenage abolitionists outside the school Friday afternoon. Sixteen-year-old Conner Haines and his 19-year-old sister Lauren went to the school to talk to students about the abortion holocaust and share the Gospel with them. Abolitionists frequently take signs and literature to the public sidewalks outside high schools as part of Project Frontlines, a nationwide effort to expose high school students to the evil of abortion, challenge their worldviews, and show the way of salvation from...

A Boone County school teacher says she let students Thursday see and one student photograph her at school wearing a jacket saying “Tuck Frump,” with letters composing the f-word highlighted in white. Cheryl Judy, who’s now receiving backlash online, said she only briefly revealed the anti-President Trump statement at school to about six to eight high school students. . . . She said she’s been a West Virginia public school teacher for about 23 years, 13 or 14 of those in Boone. She said she’s also the secretary for the Boone branch of the American Federation of Teachers, one of...

FULL TITLE: BREAKING NEWS: Former Tennessee teacher is arrested and his 15-year-old student is found safe in northern California Former Tennessee teacher Tad Cummins was arrested in northern California overnight and 15-year-old Elizabeth Thomas whom he was alleged to have kidnapped was found safe. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation broke the news in a tweet shortly before noon local time on Thursday and promised to release additional details during a press conference scheduled for 3pm. Siskiyou County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Kelly Giordano in California said Cummins' Nissan Rogue was found Wednesday night near the Oregon border. Scroll down for video

Three senior House Democrats asked U.S. teachers Monday to destroy a book written by climate scientists challenging the environmentalist view of global warming. The Democrats were responding to a campaign by the conservative Heartland Institute copies of the 2015 book, “Why Climate Scientists Disagree About Global Warming” to about 200,000 science teachers. Democratic Reps. Bobby Scott of the Committee on Education, Raúl M. Grijalva of the Committee on Natural Resources, and Eddie Bernice Johnson of the Committee on Science, Space and Technology all issued a statement telling teachers to trash the book. “Public school classrooms are no place for anti-science...

A group of top House Democrats banded together Monday to condemn a political group for disseminating books skeptical of climate change to public high schools. "Lying to children about the world we live in to further corporate polluter profits is cruel," said Rep. Raul Grijalva, ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee. "If climate deniers think our public schools are the right place for their propaganda, they need to be exposed in no uncertain terms." The group in question, the Heartland Institute, is a long-time climate change skeptic, and in recent weeks it has been emboldened by President Trump's...