Free Republic

Traditional values. The crunchiest elements of my left-wing upbringing are back — except this time, on the right. The Make America Healthy Again movement, helmed by the science-avoidant Secretary for Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., purports to steer the country away from the ills of modern living toward a more natural way of being. I know this lifestyle well. Growing up in Boston’s then gentrifying Jamaica Plain in the 1990s, my family belonged to a community center where it was rumored that the Moosewood Cookbook brown glop served therein was occasionally spiked with the devil’s lettuce. Today’s...

Conservative activist Cam Higby was attacked outside Washington’s Union Station this week while attempting to engage in peaceful political discussions. The incident comes as Higby launches his “Fearless Tour,” an effort he says that is inspired by the late Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated while engaging in similar dialogue. In the viral clip, a woman is first seen kneeling beside Higby, reaching for his MAGA hat. As Higby repeats, “Stop, stop, stop,” the woman, identified as Taylor Forte, grew more aggressive, standing up and trying to rip the hat from his head before knocking him over in his chair. Higby...

Educators and a top California lawmaker are demanding an investigation into an elementary school teacher who shared a photo in a work group chat showing a black toddler wearing an ankle monitor. John Solomon, a fifth-grade teacher at MacArthur Elementary School in Lakewood and a prominent leader in the Teachers Association of Long Beach, is under fire after a colleague shared the distasteful message he sent about their young students in May. In the text to the 11-member group chat, Solomon included a photo of a cartoon black toddler smiling while wearing an ankle monitor on one foot, according to...

The Trump administration’s Department of Education has opened a new investigation into Fairfax County Public Schools over allegations that a high school social worker arranged abortions for teenage students without their parents’ knowledge. The probe, announced as an enforcement action, stems from claims dating to the 2021-22 school year at Centreville High School, where a social worker allegedly scheduled an abortion appointment for a student, paid the abortion fee and pressured a second student into the abortion, according to reports. The district, one of the nation’s largest, faces potential loss of federal funding if it fails to respond adequately. The...

Leftists effectively run public education through teachers unions, which maintain power by funneling members’ money into the Democratic Party. They are leftists in the full sense of the term; that is, they are evil: X image on link Rest in peace, Trooper Werner Foerster.

OREM, Utah (KSL) – Students from a school in Utah are traumatized after a classmate brought a gun on a field trip and shot themselves in front of others. Police said the ninth grader from Canyon View Junior High shot themselves while on a field trip at South Fork Park. That student was flown to a local hospital, where they died. KSL does not normally report on suicides, but because the student brought a gun to school and fired it in front of other students, it brings it to another level. A group of ninth grade students put up a...

A Virginia mother filed a federal civil rights complaint Sept. 24 against Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), alleging administrators allowed a male student with facial hair to repeatedly enter the girls’ locker room at her daughter’s high school and watch female students change. Filed with the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the complaint says the 14-year-old daughter first encountered the sophomore boy Sept. 2 in the locker room at West Springfield High School (WSHS). She and other students alleged he stood and watched them undress. According to the filing, administrators said the male student identifies as female....

A former high school administrator in California raped a 17-year-old student on campus, impregnated her and then begged her on a wiretapped phone call to abort the child, warning that keeping the baby would “ruin” his and his children’s lives. That’s the details of a lawsuit filed this week against the shuttered Contra Costa School of Performing Arts and its accused employee. The civil suit, brought by the student — identified as Jane Doe — and her mother, Janice Doe, in Contra Costa County Superior Court, accuses Gerard Michael Flaherty, 43, of using his position as the school’s climate and...

The state’s largest teachers union came in for sharp criticism on Wednesday after it asked school districts to defend educators from bullying and harassment for speaking out on the death of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk. In a joint statement, Max Page and Deb McCarthy, the president and vice president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, argued that the “ongoing campaign by extreme-right conservatives to discredit and defund public education has grotesquely exploited the shooting death of Charlie Kirk to launch attacks against people commenting on this public figure’s beliefs and statements.”

More than 100 Texas educators are now facing the end of their teaching careers after posting vile, hateful, and violent content celebrating the assassination of conservative leader Charlie Kirk. Governor Greg Abbott announced on Sunday that the Texas Education Agency (TEA) has begun investigations into teachers who cheered Kirk’s murder and even incited additional violence online. Abbott confirmed that these educators will not only have their teaching certifications suspended but will also be permanently barred from working in Texas public schools. In a strongly worded letter to superintendents, TEA Commissioner Mike Morath condemned the educators’ despicable behavior, noting that such...

Attorney General Pamela Bondi issued a memorandum to all United States Attorneys highlighting the Department of Justice’s policy to prevent and act upon violations of parental rights and First Amendment liberties in educational settings. Bondi directed United States Attorneys to work with federal, state, and local partners to identify and respond to credible threats against parents whose federal rights have been violated. 20250908-AG-Bondi-Memo by scott.mcclallen "The First Amendment guarantees the right of every citizen to speak freely, assemble peaceably, and petition the government for redress of grievances-including at public school board meetings," the memo said. "These rights do not yield...

Teachers in Florida FIRED for openly celebrating Charlie's death, despite warnings not to do so. DeSantis doesn't mess about. Who wants such evil teachers around their kids?

Why are so many teachers quitting? In this video, we explore the shocking reality that many high school students can’t read at even a basic level—and the heartbreaking impact it’s having on dedicated educators. Watch real stories, expert insights, and the growing crisis in our classrooms.

The writing’s on the wall — if you can read it. Sobering national test results show more high school seniors are struggling with math and reading than at any point in recent decades, with Education Secretary Linda McMahon calling out a “devastating trend” Tuesday. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) — commonly referred to as the Nation’s Report Card — showed just 35% of high school seniors were proficient in reading, the lowest score since the assessment began in 1992. The math score for 12th-graders was even worse, with just 22% achieving proficiency, the lowest point since the current...

A Northern California high school football team has been rocked by a shocking locker-room hazing incident that was reportedly recorded on a cell phone. At least three unidentified varsity football players at Elk Grove High School are accused of humiliating a freshman student by pulling his pants down and simulating sexual acts on him, two sources with knowledge of the situation told The Sacramento Bee. The players involved in the incident were reportedly suspended from the team, according to The Bee, which reports they already missed Elk Grove's home opener on Friday. Elk Grove Unified School District spokesperson Lisa Levasseur...

Two opposing political groups stood on Jackson Middle School’s lawn. One group, decked out in rainbow colors, sporting bright pink socks, sea-green hair, and trans flags, held their signs up in the air, presenting them both to the cars passing by and to the conservative group behind them. But the group behind them, in the process of holding a press conference on the lawn, was not there to oppose transgender ideology. They were there to hold the Fairfax County School Board accountable during an ongoing investigation by the Virginia State Police. The investigation began when Walter Curt, an independent investigative...

A former “Teacher of the Year” has pleaded guilty to having an “ongoing relationship” with one of her female students starting when the girl was just 15. Brandyn Martin Hargrove was convicted on Wednesday of 12 criminal counts connected to her sexual assault of the ex-student while she was a teacher at Brazoswood High School in Clute, Texas. The formerly-decorated educator was sentenced to 10 years of probation and a 10-year probated sentence, meaning she won’t face any time in prison, despite grooming her student and having a sexual relationship with the minor, which continued until the girl turned 17,...

Parents of an 11-year-old girl have asked the Supreme Court to hear their complaint against a Massachusetts school district that secretly transitioned her to (sexual deviancy) — even having her work with a gender-transitioning nonprofit behind their backs. Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri say the Ludlow School Committee, a Massachusetts public school system, socially transitioned their daughter against their wishes. School officials at Baird Middle School in Ludlow allowed her to transition to a (censored) identity, use boys’ facilities, go by a male name and use nonbinary pronouns, the parents’ complaint states. “For more than a century, this Court has...

A Northern California schoolboy learned a painful lesson after he decided to punch a staff member inside a high school gym - only to be dramatically body-slammed to the ground seconds later by a school resource officer. The wild confrontation unfolded Tuesday at Lincoln High School in Placer County, about 30 miles north of Sacramento, where a class of freshmen was watching from the bleachers. Video of the melee, which has gone viral on social media, showed the boy in a heated argument with a male teacher. The staffer appeared to lightly place a hand on the student's arm in...

A one-time Colorado “counselor of the year” is accused of sexually assaulting a female student over several years — and threatened to kill herself if the girl ever came forward, according to police. Cassandra Poncelow, 40, met her accuser in her high school counseling office in the Poudre School District in Fort Collins, Colo. — and later began bringing her to her home for “sleepovers,” according to court documents obtained by 9News. The student — who is now an adult — met with police in July and claimed she was assaulted more than 100 times over several years at Poncelow’s...