Free Republic

When Kevin Jones discovered that his 10-year-old daughter had created several secret social media accounts and was dating a boy, he was understandably upset. His response was to dress her in a pink T-shirt that reads: “I’m 10 Years Old” on the front and “5th Grader” on the back. She also donned barrettes, pink shoes, and a Sofia the First cartoon backpack. Jones posted photographs from all angles on his Facebook page as punishment for her rule-breaking, along with an update that reads, “Here’s the consequence behind her actions. An age-defining shirt. Yes people she is 5’9” & 10 years...

FULL TITLE: Three school teachers set to be fired after private chat room emails reveal shocking discussion about their 'moron' special needs students Three elementary teachers in a New Jersey school district have been caught having a shocking conversation about some of their special needs students, referring to them as 'morons' and 'short bus kids' - and are now set to be fired as a result. The teachers - Tyler Van Pelt, Maria Weber and Maryellen Lechelt - allegedly engaged in an inappropriate online discussion on October 23 while training in a new technology to be implemented in their school...

A former USC professor once on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted fugitives list was sentenced to five years in federal prison Monday for flying to the Philippines and sexually assaulting underage boys he had met online. In addition to the sentence, Walter Lee Williams, 66, of Palm Springs, will be required upon release to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life and will be on 10 years of supervision Williams, previously known as a well-respected academic, had pleaded guilty and admitted engaging in illegal sexual contact with minors in foreign places. As part of a plea...

I hate Republicans. I can’t stand the thought of having to spend the next two years watching Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Ted Cruz, Darrell Issa or any of the legions of other blowhards denying climate change, thwarting immigration reform or championing fetal “personhood.” This loathing is a relatively recent phenomenon. Back
 in the 1970s, I worked for a Republican, Fred Lippitt, the senate minority leader in Rhode Island, and I loved him. He was a brand of Republican now extinct—a “moderate” who was fiscally conservative but progressive about women’s rights, racial justice and environmental preservation. Had he been closer to...

During Saturday´s protests about the lack of indictments in the cases of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, CUNY adjunct professor and creator of erotic poetry Eric Linsker picked up a trashcan and tried to throw it at police officers. Two police lieutenants were attacked by the crowd when the officers tried to arrest Linsker. Newsday described the incident: They were on the roadway of the [Brooklyn] bridge about 8 p.m. when they heard reports of "debris being thrown on the walkway" at police officers who were walking alongside demonstrators involved in Saturday´s New York City rally against police shootings of...

Law school exams often present legal conundrums ripped from headlines of the day, but one UCLA law professor is apologizing for basing a test question on what is apparently a taboo subject -- the fallout from the police shooting of a black man in Ferguson, Mo. Professor Robert Goldstein said the exam question was designed to test students’ ability to analyze the line between free speech and inciting violence. It cited a report about how Michael Brown’s stepfather, Louis Head, shouted, “Burn this bitch down!” after a grand jury decided not to indict Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson in the...

Writing for the Christian Post, Melissa Barnhart notes that, "The Rev. Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritans Purse, says the government's attacks against Christianity and bans on traditional Christmas themes while society glorifies sin is 'like little children shaking their fist at Almighty God.' 'What's happening is we're glorifying sin, we're lifting up sin. And it's like little children shaking their fist at Almighty God,' Graham told Fox News host Megyn Kelly during a Wednesday segment of 'The Kelly File.' Speaking about atheists and secularists' actions to ban celebrations of Christmas in schools and government...

In single-sex classes, which are common for sex education, students must be allowed to go to the class of the gender they consider themselves to be rather than their actual gender, the U.S. Department of Education directed schools that receive federal funds in a Dec. 1 memo. The memo, from the department's Office for Civil Rights, provides guidance for K-12 schools for when they are allowed to have same-sex classes or extracurricular activities and remain in compliance with Title IX, a 1972 law to protect against gender discrimination in education programs that get federal aid. Schools may divide students by...

A high school in Northern California is under fire for vastly overstepping boundaries in its sex education curriculum. A sex education class at Acalanes High School in Lafayette is being taught by employees of Planned Parenthood, and the content of the lessons and the materials being utilized, are highly controversial. Parents of the students are infuriated that they had not been given advanced notice that the sex-ed class was being taught by Planned Parenthood employees. Parents are further angered by the methods and materials being used in the lessons, which include a checklist that asks students whether they are “ready...

Students at one northern California high school are learning more than just the birds and the bees. Along with local area groups, some parents are irate that their children’s sex ed class at Acalanes High School in Lafayette is being taught by employees of Planned Parenthood without their prior knowledge. They are also fuming over the methods and materials being used, including a checklist that asks students if they are “ready for sex” and another worksheet that describes how to give and obtain consent, as well as a diagram that uses a "genderbread" person for lessons in gender identity. “[Parents]...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog Attention Dr. Blake Armstrong of South Texas College: here’s why your comparison of the Tea Party to the Nazis is inaccurate The Blaze recently reported:Prof. Tells Students Not to ‘Tell Anybody’ About His Vexed Tea Party ‘Analogy’ — He Didn’t Know It Was Already Caught on VideoDec. 8, 2014A psychology professor at South Texas College in Weslaco, Texas, was seemingly caught on video last month comparing the tea party to the Nazis of the 1930s in Germany.He then told his students not to “tell anybody” about his remarks — but one of his students had already...

If you sign up for Denver college professor Charles Angeletti's American Civilization class, be forewarned that you're going to have to recite his invective-filled 'New Pledge' -- and according to some of his students, also be ready to swallow a big helping of his politics. Angeletti, who teaches at Metropolitan State University of Denver, has students learn an anti-American spoof of the Pledge of Allegiance that denounces the U.S. as a Republican-controlled bastion of injustice, all while spewing his own far-left brand of politics, according to current and former students.

RALEIGH The question of whether high school students should be taught that America’s status is “exceptional” compared with other nations dominated debate Monday over the redesigned Advanced Placement U.S. History course. Larry Krieger, a retired history teacher and national activist, urged the State Board of Education to demand that the College Board revise the AP U.S. History course because its 70-page framework omits the mention of “American exceptionalism” that was in previous guidelines. Instead of teaching that America is “a force for good in the world” and stands for democracy and freedom, Krieger said, the new course is designed to...

Students who oppose gay marriage are homophobic, according to an audio recording of a Marquette University instructor who went on to say that gay right issues cannot be discussed in class because it might offend homosexuals. I reached out to the 20-year-old student at the center of this outrageous episode and the story he tells should serve as a warning to anyone who thinks religious schools are safe havens for open discourse. The story was first reported on a blog run by a Marquette University professor and was picked up by the good folks over at The College Fix. The...

Los Angeles (CNN) -- The Los Angeles public school district will pay more than $139.2 million to the families of 81 children allegedly abused by an elementary teacher now serving a prison sentence for lewd conduct, officials said Friday. John Manly, one of the plaintiffs' attorney, called the amount "the largest settlement in the history of the United States against a public entity involving child abuse." The settlement comes after the district earlier paid $30 million to settle 63 other students' claims alleging they were victims of sexually lewd acts by Mark Berndt of Miramonte Elementary. A teacher for 30...

In the spring of 2006, midway through George W. Bush’s second presidential term, Princeton historian Sean Wilentz published a piece in Rolling Stone that posed a provocative question: Was Bush the worst president ever? He said the best-case scenario for Bush was "colossal historical disgrace’’ and added: "Many historians are now wondering whether Bush, in fact, will be remembered as the very worst president in all of American history." The Wilentz assessment was probably a bit premature. It is difficult to judge any president’s historical standing while he still sits in the Oval Office, when political passions of the day...

Schools found ‘indoctrinating pupils about gay people’ will face being closed down under new rules designed to promote ‘British values’, the Government confirmed today. The Department for Education insisted it was ‘nonsense’ to suggest teachers would have to give lessons on gay rights. But a spokesman insisted Ofsted, which has introduced the new rules the wake of the Islamist Trojan Horse plot to radicalise pupils in Birmingham, was right to ensure schools were not breeding grounds for homophobia. A spokesman said: ‘Ofsted are rightly ensuring that schools do not indoctrinate pupils about gay people - or any other people -...

In a new campaign to reportedly raise awareness of "privilege," the University of San Francisco is handing out fliers telling anyone who is white, straight, Christian, or "able-bodied" that they are privileged and need to "check their privilege." The campaign was put together by three professors at the college and Student Life. The fliers also claim that if you believe that your gender identity and biological gender are the same (that is, if you consider yourself a male and you are biologically male), you are privileged as well. No matter who you are, no matter what your situation in life,...

[T]he current "Common Core" mandate, by which the federal government has enlisted the states to federalize the U.S. school curriculum, cut[s] off traditional local control. Once you control what is taught, you needn’t care where, by whom, or how that is done, you have eliminated all competitors... Common Core represents a fair start toward total federal control of U.S. education... [T]he Progressives so enamored of "diversity" are... dead set against any diversity in educating citizens... [I]f one recalls the works of John Dewey, the patron saint of the progressive education movement, the avowed goal is... to turn out useful and...

PASADENA (CBSLA.com) — The estranged partner of a Pasadena high school science teacher is accused of unlawfully accessing the man’s account and sending hundreds of nude photos to students and adults on his email list. The emails contained a nude photo of John Muir High School teacher Richard Rosa. After an investigation, it was determined that Rosa was out of the country at the time the emails were generated. Authorities determined Rosa’s estranged partner, David A. Galvan, 38, accessed Rosa’s account and sent the emails because he was angry over their relationship ending. In addition to sending the email to...