Free Republic

Adam Stinnett looks up to his older stepbrother – a soldier in the U.S. Army. So when it came time to get a haircut, the seven-year-old told his mother he wanted a basic military-style cut. And that’s exactly what he got – high and tight – just like his stepbrother. Adam got his haircut on March 8. On March 9, his mother got a letter from the principal of Bobby Ray Memorial Elementary School in McMinnville, Tennessee. It seems they were not all that thrilled with the second grader’s new hairdo. The principal told Amy Stinnett that her son’s haircut...

When a Queens first-grader refused to join their public school fight club, a group of “twisted sisters” who were supposed to be tutoring her made the little girl pay. The mother of 7-year-old Taniya Jules claims in court papers that her daughter was pounded by a pack of eighth-graders for refusing to battle a classmate — and then dragged by the hair down the hallway of her school and slammed into the walls. -snip Two other first-grade girls and a boy were also victimized, Gore said, by a fearsome foursome that was supposed to be tutoring the kids as part...

... “New Day” anchor Alisyn Camerota asked Atwell, “What do you say to kids out there that are trying to figure out what they want to do when they grow up and might be considering teaching?” “Um, honestly, right now I encourage them to look in the private sector,” Atwell replied. “Because public-school teachers are so constrained right now by the Common Core standards, and the tests that are developed to monitor what teachers are doing with them. It’s a movement that’s turned teachers into technicians, not reflective practitioners. And if you are a creative, smart young person, I don’t...

Is it legal in NY for a school to issue an "anonymous" survey to students asking about their family's gun ownership, access to firearms and other questions? This was given to my son today. I am furious about the intrusion, the manipulation of our children and the sliminess of how it was done. I am collecting information to formulate a response to the school. Anyone out there know if this kind of survey is even legal?

A young man hired by the Chicago Public Schools to help students during arrival and dismissal at a charter school has been charged with shooting a 17-year-old girl just blocks from the school on the Far South Side.

When some Idaho parents learned last week that a transgendered student was sharing the same bathroom with their teenage daughter, the news didn’t sit well with them. Jacob Smith and Pauline Adams approached the Boise school district, concerned for their daughter’s privacy and safety. According to KIVI-TV: “The Boise School District explains that under federal law, the district is required to provide access to public facilities consistent with the student’s gender identity.”

What a Nation under Allah looks like Who needs ISIS when you’ve got lefty educrats with the same agenda? Making some parents furious, a Pine Bush, New York high school courted controversy by teaching kids to recite our national Pledge of Allegiance in Arabic even changing “one nation under god” to “one nation under Allah.”The morning’s regularly scheduled announcements included the Arabic reading of the pledge. According to students, the announcement was greeted by catcalls and angry denunciations in classrooms throughout the school by students who felt the reading was inappropriate.The reading became the subject of angry talk throughout the...

Students at Pine Bush High School in Pine Bush, New York, knew right away there was something not quite right about the Pledge of Allegiance. That’s because the pledge was being recited in Arabic. “One nation under Allah,” the student body president announced over the intercom system on Wednesday. Reaction in the upstate New York high school was swift, and so was the backlash, The Times Herald-Record reports. Furious students tried to shout down the recitation in their classrooms. Other students sat down in protest. School Superintendent Joan Carbone told the newspaper that the Arabic pledge “divided the school in...

In a scathing resignation letter about the issue, Oklahoma City math teacher Juli Sylvan blasted the controversial Common Core standards and exposed numerous serious problems with the Obama-backed scheme — including the fact that it is being quietly implemented in apparent defiance of state law. Among the most troubling elements, according to Sylvan — a veteran teacher with more than two decades in the classroom — is the data-mining of children, which she said she is not willing to facilitate. However, the problems with the administration-promoted national school standards are much more wide ranging. From using ineffective teaching methods and...

Scandinavian Middle School vice principal Joe DiFilippo was placed on paid administrative leave Monday after being recorded on video saying, “I don’t like black kids,” Fresno Unified School District officials said.

Some schoolchildren claim another student bragged about having marijuana. They inform school administrators. An assistant principal finds a leaf and a lighter in the boy’s knapsack. The student is suspended for a year. A sheriff’s deputy files marijuana possession charges in juvenile court... There was only one problem: Months after the fact, the couple learned the substance wasn’t marijuana.

Earlier this school year, a sixth-grader in the gifted-and-talented program at Bedford Middle School in Bedford, Virginia was suspended for one year after an assistant principal found something that looked like a marijuana leaf in his backpack. The student, the 11-year-old son of two school teachers, had to enroll in the district's alternative education program and be homeschooled. He was evaluated by a psychiatrist for substance abuse problems, and charged with marijuana possession in juvenile court. In the months since September, he's become withdrawn, depressed, and he suffers from panic attacks. He is worried his life is over, according to...

SIOUX FALLS — Proposed standards for science education in South Dakota’s public schools became the latest Monday to receive criticism from some parents whose values are at odds with the direction of the state Department of Education. The state Board of Education held a public hearing that was split between science professionals who strongly support the new standards and opposing parents who disbelieve climate change and evolution. State law requires the board to hold four public hearings on changes in school standards. The board will reach its decision on the science proposal after the fourth hearing set for May 18...

The Platte Institute, a non-profit research think tank based in Nebraska, released a report on how to better cater to America’s education needs. Their idea? Use education savings accounts, known as ESAs, or private scholarships to help children of poverty-stricken families to obtain a better quality of education. The report referred to the stark differences between college graduates and high school dropouts, where the unemployment rate is typically 11% for dropouts and 4% for college graduates. The report also pointed out how Nebraska is seeing rising poverty, where 1 out of every 3 Hispanic children under the age of 17...

Moody’s Investors Service on Friday announced it had reduced its rating on Chicago Board of Education debt to one level above junk bond status. Moody’s downgraded the rating to Baa3 from Baa1 on the board’s general obligation debt. That rating applies to a total of $6.3 billion in outstanding debt held by Chicago Public Schools. That lowered rating, according to Moody’s, “reflects CPS’s continued reliance” on its reserves to cover ongoing operating expenditures, “particularly pension contributions, which will steadily increase in the coming years.” ... the lowered CPS rating also takes into account the city’s own credit rating, which also...

While a 12-year-old student recorded with her cell phone, her teacher delivered a nearly 7-minute profanity-laced lecture. (snip) Diana says she took the recording to the principal Tuesday morning, but wasn’t satisfied with the reaction. “She asked me to delete the video, not to have the video in my phone, not to do anything with it,” said Diana. But Diana didn’t delete it.

Students in one class at South Windsor High School were subjected to a poem that their superintendent and some parents call “highly inappropriate” material. The poem contains language that describes sexual acts. The teacher, whose name has not been released, read the Allen Ginsberg poem “Please Master” aloud in an English class for high school students. That poem was written in 1968. He had another poem banned in the 1950s for obscenity. Parents were shocked when they heard and read the material for themselves. “I don’t understand how that actually got into a high school class,” said one parent who...

When she served as chancellor of Washington, D. C.’s public schools, Michelle Rhee’s policies provoked scorn from Capital City teachers, to put it mildly. Long gone from the D. C. scene, Rhee’s approach is still benefiting D. C. students. “Ninety-one percent of the students on opportunity scholarships graduate from high school compared to 77 percent of the students in D. C. public schools,” Patrick Wolf of the University of Arkansas said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last Thursday. Currently, there are 22 states with private school funding programs, according to Dr. Wolf. Additionally, some states have Educational Savings...

New York City public schools have added two Muslim holidays to the school calendar, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina announced Wednesday. Schools will now close for Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, making New York City the largest school district in the nation to recognize the two holidays on the official school calendar. “We are committed to having a school calendar that reflects and honors the extraordinary diversity of our students,” said Farina. De Blasio said the change means that Muslim families won’t be forced to choose between observing the holidays and sending their kids to school....

The unidentified female teacher was found deceased inside a classroom at El Dorado High School at 1641 Valencia Avenue just before school started Monday morning, according to Placentia Police Lt. Eric Point. KNX 1070’s Pete Demetriou reports students and another teacher got her down to the floor and called 911 about 8:40 a.m. this morning The discovery was made after students said the classroom door was locked during first period, according to Point. A neighboring teacher unlocked the door and students found the teacher hanging, Point said. ... The death is believed to be a suicide, but no note was...