Free Republic

President Barack Obama voiced hope Friday that the swine flu virus will run its course "like ordinary flus" as officials reported more than two dozen new cases and scores more schools shut down. The government issued new guidance for schools with confirmed cases, saying they should close for at least 14 days because children can be contagious for seven to 10 days from when they get sick. That means parents can expect to have children at home for longer than previously thought. The Education Department said that more than 400 schools had closed, affecting about 245,000 children in 18 states....

Criminal charges against a junior at Dakota Ridge High School, who wore a T-shirt saying "NOBAMA" before an appearance and speech last fall by Michelle Obama at the school, were dropped Thursday. Blake Benson, 17, was one of three students at the school who chose to "stay and campaign" for Sen. John McCain when Michelle Obama spoke at the school on Nov. 3. At the time of his arrest, Benson was holding a McCain-Palin campaign sign. He was handcuffed and taken to the school's administrative office, said Dan Recht, a Denver lawyer who took the case on behalf of the...

ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) - Montgomery County Public School officials say they're closing Rockville High School until further notice due to a probable swine flu case involving a student. School officials say the school will be closed on Friday under the order of state and county health officials. Deputy Secretary for Public Health Frances Phillips says the student represents the ninth probable case of swine flu in the state, but there are no confirmed cases yet. Montgomery County's health director Dr. Ulmer Tillman says the student last attended school on Monday. School officials were alerted to the case around 6:30 p.m....

MISSION VIEJO, CA – A federal judge is expected to rule any day now on whether a high school history teacher accused of disparaging Christians in class violated the First Amendment and should be disciplined. Capistrano Valley High School teacher James Corbett, a 36-year educator, was sued in December 2007 by sophomore Chad Farnan for purportedly promoting hostility toward Christians and advocating "irreligion over religion" in violation of the First Amendment's establishment clause. The clause, which prohibits the government from making any law "respecting an establishment of religion," has been interpreted by U.S. courts to also prohibit government employees from...

NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) - Tests have confirmed that eight New York City schoolchildren had a type A influenza virus, likely swine flu, city Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden said on Saturday. Samples have been sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for further testing to see if they are indeed the unusual H1N1 flu strain that has killed up to 68 people in Mexico and may have sickened others, Frieden told a news conference. "In every single case, illness was mild. Many of the children are feeling better," Frieden said. "What is concerning about this...

YAKIMA, Wash. -- A 5-year-old student at Apple Valley Elementary in Yakima headed home on the bus with more than books in his backpack. Inside was a smelly package his father never imagined he'd be toting around

As I watch Washington politics I am not easily given to rage. Washington politics is a game and selfishness, out-sized egos and corruption are predictable. But over the last week I find myself in a fury. The cause of my upset is watching the key civil rights issue of this generation — improving big city public school education — get tossed overboard by political gamesmanship. If there is one goal that deserves to be held above day-to-day partisanship and pettiness of ordinary politics it is the effort to end the scandalous poor level of academic achievement and abysmally high drop-out...

Penn State University's "Department of Counseling and Psychological Services" has a video presentation that should leave any decent American shocked, saddened, and yes, even enraged. Credit David French of National Review Online for posting what might be the most definitive four minute expose on the tragedy of higher education in America. Indeed, Penn State's shameful video production of "The Worrisome Veteran" can provide all Americans some priceless insights into the kind of surreal institutions liberals create when left unchecked. "The Worrisome Veteran" is part of Penn State's "Worrisome Student Behaviors" video series which is designed to provide faculty and students...

There is an election about change coming soon, and Barack Obama is on the ballot. In a vote planned for this month, Webster Magnet Elementary in St. Paul will give its families, staff and community members the chance to recommend that the school become the first in Minnesota to carry the new president's name. The grade school was going to change names anyway to reflect its new focus on service learning, said Principal Lori Simon, and people thought Obama's commitment to community service made his name worth considering. The school's site council voted Thursday to put two choices on the...

Marine fights to wear dress blues at high school graduation April 10, 2009 Marine Pfc. Garrett Miles-McCarthy graduated from boot camp in San Diego only last month but he is already in his first battle: against his hometown school board. The 18-year-old wants to wear his dress blues uniform at his high school graduation ceremony in El Paso, Texas. He finished his coursework in December and immediately shipped out to Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego. School officials have said no, that all grads have to wear cap and gown, no exceptions. The mayor, a local congressman and others are...

April 8, 2009 SNIPPET: "The lawsuit, handled by U.S. District Court in Reno, alleges that Elhifny faced death threats and harassment and school administrators did nothing to stop the abuse. Cox said that wasn't true, and the teen was unable to give any description of her tormenter — including his or her gender, size and tone of voice. He said the high school tried to investigate her claims but was unsuccessful because of the lack of information."

EDMONTON -- Somewhere in the city, children as young as 11 and 12 are gathering in basements and playing intricate, graphic sex games. I first heard about these parties a few years ago from my 12-year-old daughter, who said kids at her school played games where each girl had to perform oral sex on several boys

There was a time when teachers would freak at the sound of Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze" or "Stone Free." Now the San Francisco school district wants them to get in the spirit. "Remember the first time you heard Jimi Hendrix?" reads the cover of the district's new 51-page education guide. "Our plan is as transformational now as his music was then!" The manifesto is aimed at transforming the educational "experiences for every child in each of our schools." To drive home the point, a portrait of the '60s rocker - looking somewhat pensive, somber and perhaps stoned - graces the...

Teen Bites Students - Dad Blames "Twilight" Did a Middle School student take “Twilight" too seriously? His dad thinks so. This after a 13-year-old boy gets in trouble for allegedly biting 11 students. It sounds crazy – but that’s the story out of Des Moines.

Starting this August, elementary and middle-school students in one school district in Westminster, Colo., won't be assigned to grade levels based on age. Instead, they'll fall into multi-age levels based on what they already know and will move up only as they master new material. The concept makes sense to many education experts because it matches how kids actually learn: One student needs three hours to figure out fractions while another takes a full day.

Milford, CT (AHN) - Following an incident where a child was struck in the groin and had to be hospitalized, a Connecticut middle school has banned all physical contact. East Shore Middle School principal Catherine Williams sent letters out to parents this week informing them of the policy, WCBS TV in Milford, Conn. reported. Williams said violating the policy could result in "parent conferences, detention, suspension and/or a request for expulsion from school," she said in the letter. Some parents at the school are angry about the rule because it goes for non-violent contact like hugging, high-fives and handshakes.The Connecticut...

Ooopsie. Looks like the public school teacher that is responsible for turning a group of young black teens into an Obama Nazi Youth Corps has been suspended pending an investigation for posting the video of his mind numbed paramilitary Obama youth drill team’s little soiree.

Bubba writes: Beverly Person (Band of Mothers) has been keeping me up to date on the campaign against Bill Ayers. Today it's about Naperville High School's invitation to this terrorist nutcase to speak at an assembly of their students. A confessed and unrepentant domestic terrorist, and accused cop killer has been invited to speak to high school students about social justice. Did you catch that? I'll repeat: A confessed and unrepentant domestic terrorist, and accused cop killer has been invited to speak to high school students about social justice. Beverly's (and many others) campaign against this event is showing...

Public education today is a mess. It has been ruined by parents whose legitimate concern for their kids has been translated into illegitimate interference with the educational process. Aiding and abetting the parents are legislators who have passed laws that empower parents and students at the expense of professional educators, and a judiciary that imposes its will on the educational process without regard for the realities of education. About thirty years ago, it became fashionable to think that everyone who had an opinion about education should weigh in on the appropriate way to teach children. A thriving cottage industry grew...

A substitute teacher who was allegedly drinking on the job at a St. Paul elementary school last month has been charged with a misdemeanor. Karl F. Gehrke, 43, was teaching a fourth-grade class at Roosevelt Elementary West Side School of Excellence on March 10 when students reported to the principal that he was drunk and "drinking something out of a clear bottle with a gray top." "I'm glad that there is an appropriate law that addresses the situation," said St. Paul City Attorney John Choi. "The behavior, I think, was offensive and outrageous to the community." According to the complaint,...

For nearly two years, single mother Heather Plano (name changed to protect privacy) had juggled her children’s illnesses and medical care along with their public school attendance and homework. Having one child with a severe blood disorder and immune system problems, Heather finally decided that homeschooling would be better, not only for his health but also for his academics, as he would not miss classes due to illness. Just before Christmas in 2008, Heather officially withdrew her son from public school and began homeschooling. On January 5, the LaSalle County truant officer called Heather to inform her of a meeting...

Flood of U.S. aid doesn't always match schools' needs By Sam Dillon Published: March 22, 2009 RANDOLPH, Utah: Dale Lamborn, the superintendent of a somewhat threadbare rural school district, feels the pain of Utah's economic crisis every day as he tinkers with his shrinking budget, struggling to avoid laying off teachers or cutting classes. Just across the border in Wyoming, a state awash in oil and gas money, James Bailey runs a wealthier district. It has a new elementary school and gives every child an Apple laptop. But under the Obama administration's education stimulus package, Mr. Lamborn, who needs every...

...Such defiance and disrespect produce a culture of perpetual failure for everyone, students and teachers alike. Do not dismiss the significance of the fact that predominantly black Gibbs High had 42 teacher transfer requests last year, the highest number for a Pinellas school. Although black students account for 19 percent of the total enrollment, they represent 40 percent of all suspensions and more than half of all student arrests. And this is just the beginning of the return to neighborhood schools. What causes these discipline problems? Ray Tampa, president of the St. Petersburg chapter of the NAACP and a former...

School Board laments crisis By JOHN L. GUERRA Citizen Staff When former Adult Education and Career Coordinator Monique Acevedo resigned March 3 after allegations surfaced that she bought a $300 pair of sunglasses and an airline ticket using her school district credit card, no one knew how wide-reaching the investigation into allegations of financial abuse would go. Her resignation, announced by her husband, Schools Superintendent Randy Acevedo, launched two weeks' of daily revelations that have shaken the community's confidence in the school district and angered teachers and principals who've been asked to do without certain supplies because of a tightening...

LITERACY teachers are planning a subliminal campaign to undermine phonics as an approach to teaching reading by subconsciously linking it with the idea of failure. The target of their campaign is NSW Education Minister Verity Firth, who last week announced the nation's first direct comparison of phonics-based reading methods with other techniques. In a group email sent to a network of literacy educators, associate professor in education at Wollongong University Brian Cambourne proposes flooding Ms Firth's office with emails that associate phonics based approaches with failure "at an almost subconscious level". ..... Professor Cambourne denied he was proposing a campaign...

A North Carolina judge presiding over a bitter divorce case has ruled that three home-schooled children must start attending public school — a decision their mother angrily says was based on her religious beliefs. Wake County Judge Ned Mangum granted Thomas and Venessa Mills joint custody of their children — ages 10, 11 and 12 — and ruled that the children's "best interest" would be served by sending them to public school this fall, according to a temporary custody order. But Venessa Mills insists her association with the Sound Doctrine Church played a "big factor" in Mangum's ruling, in which...

From Vice, a post-apocalyptic photoessay of public schools left abandoned in Detroit. The above image is captioned: A box elder tree grows from a soil made of ash and pulp from science textbooks in the Detroit Public Schools' Roosevelt Warehouse. A man's body was discovered in a frozen lift shaft here. It is assumed he had been there for some months as his face had decomposed. More Detroit gothic here. More on the failure of the Detroit public education system here. More money for the city's schools here.

Another South Bay physical education teacher was arrested on suspicion of having an inappropriate relationship with a student — the third in two weeks. Megan Sainsbury, 31, a teacher and former coach at Prospect High School in Saratoga, was arrested Wednesday on three misdemeanor counts of "annoying or molesting'' a 17-year-old student, according to court documents. The alleged misconduct occurred between October 2007 and January 2009. According to court records, Sainsbury and the student kissed and touched, but there is no evidence they had sex. They allegedly exchanged text messages of a romantic nature. Sainsbury bought the teen gifts, including...

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Authorities arrested two high school students in suburban Atlanta on Thursday after they were warned that one of the students planned to "do harm" at the school with a weapon, police said. ------------------------------------ Police arrested Forrest Busby, 17, at Woodstock High School and found a revolver he is said to have brought to school and hid in the bathroom ceiling, authorities said.

Four students knelt on a classroom floor during lunch at the Albert Payson Terhune Elementary School today and performed the afternoon Muslim prayer ritual.   It was the first time the students had prayed in the school during school hours. And it may end a controversy over what arrangement the district should make to ensure the children’s constitutionally protected right to exercise their religion during school hours.  School parent Rola Awwad has been seeking a private place for her 10-year-old son, Adam, to pray in school since the fall. The district offered to let him pray at recess — either outside...

This Morris County community [Rockaway Borough] of 6,000 residents and two schools has been among a growing number of suburban districts in New Jersey expanding into public preschool, seeing the benefits of starting early to teach children learning and social skills. Now, more programs may be on the horizon, under an ambitious — some say overly ambitious — plan approved by Gov. Jon S. Corzine and the State Legislature in last year’s new school funding formula. Modeled after court-required preschools in the state’s urban districts, the far-reaching law calls on virtually every district to start providing all-day programs for their...

For CCSU student John Wahlberg, a class presentation on campus violence turned into a confrontation with the campus police due to a complaint by the professor. On October 3, 2008, Wahlberg and two other classmates prepared to give an oral presentation for a Communication 140 class that was required to discuss a “relevant issue in the media”. Wahlberg and his group chose to discuss school violence due to recent events such as the Virginia Tech shootings that occurred in 2007. Shortly after his professor, Paula Anderson, filed a complaint with the CCSU Police against her student. During the presentation Wahlberg...

Americans made history in 2009. On January 20, we inaugurated the first African-American to the highest office in the land; Barack Obama became the 44th President of the United States and leader of the free world. This momentous milestone comes more than a century after Abraham Lincoln preserved a divided nation and unshackled the chains of slavery for hundreds of thousands of African-American men, women and children. Yet, even after nearly 150 years, millions of poor minority children, predominantly African-American students, remain trapped in schools that are failing to provide the knowledge and skills that will raise them out of...

Behaviour among children has got worse since the cane was abolished, according to parents. Government research showed some mothers and fathers believed corporal punishment was an "effective method of control" when they were at school. They said the decision to outlaw physical chastisement contributed to a decline in discipline. The comments - in a study backed by the Department for Children, Schools and Families - come just months after a fifth of teachers called for the cane to be reintroduced to restore order in the classroom. This week, a report by Ofsted suggested traditional discipline methods such as suspending hundreds...

Washington, D.C.—Today the Center for Union Facts (CUF) announced the “winners” of its “Ten Worst Union-Protected Teachers” contest, which the group launched in March 2008. The contest allowed anyone 13 and older to nominate the worst union-protected teachers in America through CUF’s website www.TeachersUnionExposed.com. After receiving over 600 nominations, CUF has identified the ten worst and offered each of them $10,000 to quit the profession forever. The purpose of the contest was to illustrate that unions have made it so difficult and costly to get rid of bad teachers that it can be easier to pay them to quit. “Unsurprisingly,...

The 24-page booklet by the National Education Association and American Psychological Association, tells students that homosexuality is a "normal expression of human sexuality". "What's so scary and dogmatic about this report is that it communicates that religious-based viewpoints are harmful, and even dangerous," said Candi Cushman, education analyst for Focus on the Family Action. The booklet particularly targets the idea that homosexuality is a condition that can be changed. It instructs educators, "Schools should be careful to avoid discussions of transformational ministry in their curriculum." Brian Raum, senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund, said that the talk of...

SAN FRANCISCO — The cellphone industry has a suggestion for improving the math skills of American students: spend more time on cellphones in the classroom. At a conference this week in Washington called Mobile Learning 09, CTIA, a wireless industry trade group, plans to start making its case for the educational value of cellphones. It will present research — paid for by Qualcomm, a maker of chips for cellphones — that shows so-called smartphones can make students smarter. Some critics already are denouncing the effort as a blatantly self-serving maneuver to break into the big educational market. But proponents of...

More than a dozen students at the District's Cardozo High School were injured yesterday and 16 were arrested after a large group of girls began fighting in the basement lunchroom and several smaller fights broke out nearby, police and witnesses said. ... Alan Etter, a spokesman for the D.C. fire department, said that about 15 students complained of injuries and that five were treated at hospitals. "Basically it was a huge brawl going on in the cafeteria, and we had to evacuate the hallways," said Laneisha McCauley, a ninth-grader at the 816-student school in the Columbia Heights area of Northwest...

A Colorado school district does away with grade levels To overcome low test scores and a high dropout rate, the district is implementing radical reforms. Westminster, Colo. - School districts across the US are trying to improve student performance and low test scores. But few have taken as radical an approach as Adams 50. For starters, when the elementary and middle-school students come back next fall, there won't be any grade levels – or traditional grades, for that matter. And those are only the most visible changes in a district that, striving to reverse dismal test scores and a soaring...

Teacher accused of prostitution won't resign Friday, February 13, 2009 3:56 PM By Holly Zachariah THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH * Audio of an undercover sheriff's officer negotiating a deal for sex with the suspect. NOTE: This clip contains explicit content. BELLEFONTAINE, Ohio - A woman advertised online that she needed help paying her bills so she was looking for someone - a man or a woman, she didn't care - who would pay her for sex. The ad on the "casual encounters" section of the popular Web site Craigslist described her as a 35-year-old, bisexual professional female with blond hair, brown...

Cops: Georgia high school student showed images to classmates FEBRUARY 12--Meet Curtis Pickard. The Georgia student was arrested this week after he allegedly used his cell phone to take "upskirt" photos of a teacher, which he then showed to fellow high schoolers. According to a Columbia County Sheriff's Office report, Pickard, 17, surreptitiously snapped photos of Greenbrier High School teacher Ellen Hotchkiss on Monday. After several students on Tuesday told a school safety officer that he was showing the photos around, the officer seized Pickard's phone. The 33-year-old Hotchkiss, pictured at right, examined the images and "identified her legs and...

Letters from parents often complain of a sense of futility in trying to argue with their own children, who have been fed a steady diet of the politically correct vision of the world, from elementary school to the university. Some ask for suggestions of particular books that might make a dent in the know-it-all attitude of some young people who have heard only one side of the story in classrooms all their lives. That is one way of going about trying to de-program young people. There are, for example, some good books showing what is wrong with the "global warming"...

Ralph Surman, a national executive member of the Association of Teacher and Lecturers, said a significant number of young people who were brought up by single mothers in the 1980s are now doing nothing with their lives, have no work ethic, few social skills and cause higher crime rates. Mr Surman, a deputy head of Cantrell Primary and Nursery School in Bulwell, Nottingham, said: "We must talk about a class of uber-chavs. They are not doing anything productive and are costing taxpayers a fortune. "It is very difficult, almost impossible, to take these people now and provide basic social and...

She and brother-in-law convicted for using his McDonough address to enroll boy A Clayton County woman says she was only trying to do right by her teenage son when they moved into her sister’s home and enrolled him in the Henry County school system. But that enrollment — at a time when area schools are loath to take nonresidents — was a costly move. A Henry County Superior Court jury found both Tanja Revette Hale of Rex and her brother-in-law, James Lewis of McDonough, guilty of one count each of “making a false writing” this week in what is believed...

www.catholicnewsagency.com Parents say love of their children led to objecting to state-imposed school course Fermín Civiac and Maite Escudero Madrid, Feb 6, 2009 / 04:38 pm (CNA).- The organization Professionals for Ethics is making public the testimony of some parents who are objecting to the state-sponsored course Education for the Citizenry, saying love for their children and concern that they receive a proper moral formation are some the main reasons they are rejecting the controversial course promoted by the  Socialist government.Marta Carmona Soriano, who objects to her children taking the course, says the opposition by parents is just the beginning.  This...

A St. Paul teacher is under fire after she made an offensive joke about the Holocaust. According to Hazel Park Middle School Academy officials, the 8th grade English teacher sent an e-mail titled 'Torture Time!' via interoffice mail to alert other employees about a Holocaust simulation she was planning for her class next week. In it, she wrote the Feb. 13 exercise was going to be a 'day of sheer pleasure for the staff being themselves as Nazi Officers and becoming Adolfs.' "She was trying to be sarcastic and amusing," said the school's principal Coleman McDonough. It further explained the...

Hundreds of students, teachers, politicians and community leaders stood in the snow to watch the unveiling of a blue and gold sign proclaiming a Hempstead elementary school is now named after President Barack Obama. Hours of speeches, songs and dance preceded the moment, as part of a ceremony to rename Ludlum Elementary School.

HEMPSTEAD, New York: Students got their wish Wednesday as their school was officially renamed Barack Obama Elementary School.

A committee of the Rapid City School Board wants to fix the system’s broken budget by recruiting homeschoolers. The Rapid City School Board created a committee last summer to examine budget issues for the school system. On January 22, their recommendations were made public. The report suggested that the school system could find additional revenue sources by “recruiting more homeschooled students into the district.” Other recommendations were made, as well. Homeschoolers already feel somewhat taken advantage of. Not only do they pay for an expensive public education for the children of others, but they pay the full cost of educating...