Free Republic

Ripping up the playground rulebook is having incredible effects on children at an Auckland school. Chaos may reign at Swanson Primary School with children climbing trees, riding skateboards and playing bullrush during playtime, but surprisingly the students don't cause bedlam, the principal says. The school is actually seeing a drop in bullying, serious injuries and vandalism, while concentration levels in class are increasing.

End of Title: . . . to pay family billsThe mother of a student who was kicked out of high school after starring in gay porn to help pay his family's bills said she couldn't be prouder. Melyssa Lieb, from Cocoa, Florida, said she vehemently supports her son, 18-year-old Robert Marucci, who was suspended from his high school after classmates discovered his explicit career. 'I think he's the most awesome person in the world,' she told WKMG through tears. 'He stood up and he was the man of the house when I couldn't be.' Following outrage over his suspension, the...

Anyone who has still not yet understood the utter cynicism of the Obama administration in general, and Attorney General Eric Holder in particular, should look at the Justice Department's latest interventions in education. If there is one thing that people all across the ideological spectrum should be able to agree on, it is that better education is desperately needed by black youngsters, especially in the ghettoes. For most, it is their one chance for a better life. Among the few bright spots in a generally dismal picture of the education of black students are those successful charter schools or voucher...

Attorney General Eric Holder slammed schools’ disciplinary standards that result in a “disproportionate number of minorities being penalized. These school administrators may feel that they’re being fair because the same rules apply to all students. But I’m saying this kind of simplistic notion is not good enough.” Holder suggested that “differences in the subcultures of students from different racial, social, and economic backgrounds must be considered. Minorities who have been subjected to generations of oppression have a right to strike back against this oppression. An action that might justifiably be regarded as unwarranted if committed by a member of the...

... The ruling, issued by arbitrator Frederic Horowitz, is a reduction from the 211-game suspension Rodriguez was handed by MLB commissioner Bud Selig back in August, but it’s still the longest drug-related suspension in MLB history. For the 38-year-old Rodriguez, it means the loss of an entire season and $25 million in salary. The Yankees will gain $27.5 million worth of salary relief for luxury tax purposes, since the average annual value of his deal is what counts there. That will aid the team’s attempt to get below the $189 million threshold to reset their luxury tax rate, but it...

January 08, 2014, 12:54 pm Holder: School discipline racially biased, overly harsh By Ben Goad Attorney Gen. Eric Holder called upon the nation’s school districts Wednesday to re-think “zero tolerance” disciplinary policies that he said disproportionately punish minorities and push too many students into to the justice system. “Alarming numbers of young people are suspended, expelled, or even arrested for relatively minor transgressions like school uniform violations, schoolyard fights, or showing “disrespect” by laughing in class,” Holder said during a speech in Baltimore. Holder’s remarks accompany the release Wednesday of new federal guidance from the departments of Justice and Education...

he Obama administration is issuing new recommendations on classroom discipline that seek to end the apparent disparities in how students of different races are punished for violating school rules. Civil rights advocates have long said that a "school-to-prison" pipeline stems from overly zealous school discipline policies targeting black and Hispanic students that bring them out of school and into the court system. Attorney General Eric Holder said the problem often stems from well intentioned "zero-tolerance" policies that too often inject the criminal justice system into the resolution of problems. Zero tolerance policies, a tool that became popular in the 1990s,...

On December 4, 2013 Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.5-million member American Federation of Teachers(AFT), spoke on C-Span about bullying, particularly of gay students. Ms. Weingarten said, with surprise in her voice, that she doesn't understand why gay students are still bullied in public schools, because in 2013, "It's cool to be gay." She also said she is gay, and now speaks about it openly.As a psychotherapist, I tell clients that being surprised by another person's behavior often results from erroneous assumptions about the person, usually because you see them as you want them to be rather than as they...

A 6-year-old boy has been suspended from a Colorado school for kissing a girl on the cheek. School officials in Canon City are accusing the boy of sexual harassment and they want it on his school record.

A Chicago-area high school pulled a senior student from class on Thursday after he showed up to school wearing a Jesus costume for Halloween. Shortly after, the school then reversed its decision and allowed the teen to return to class wearing the costume. Angenetta Frison, mother of Marshon Sanders, a senior at Highland Park High School in Chicago's northern suburbs, said in a statement to a local news outlet that her son was asked to remove his Jesus costume after two teachers at his high school reportedly complained that the costume was offensive. The costume consisted of a long white...

With a 4-point grade average, a schedule stuffed with honors classes and a mission to Africa already behind her, Catelyn Meador doesn’t seem like the typical teenager who would get suspended for bringing a weapon to school. Like hundreds of thousands of minors caught up in zero-tolerance policies since the craze began two decades ago, Catelyn is serving a sentence that, rather than teaching her something, only hurts her academic future. Already, the 17-year-old has had to drop AP chemistry and was told last week that the make-up math work she did while on a 5-day suspension won’t count. Fortunately,...

An Alabama high school student killed himself after he was threatened with severe legal consequences — including registration as a sex offender — because he went streaking at a football game. The student, 15-year-old Christian Adamek, died from wounds he sustained while attempting to hang himself, according to The Daily Mail. Adamek ran naked across the field at a September 27th football game between his school, Sparkman High School, and Grissom High School. The incident was recorded and put on Youtube, and many students remarked that the prank had made Adamek — already a popular student, according to reports —...

The push for radical transgender rights in schools is trumping privacy rights at one Colorado high school. A male student at Florence High School who claims to be a transgender has been harrassing girls in the bathroom. When parents complained, school officials said the boy's rights as a transgender trumped their daughters' privacy rights. As the controversy grew, some students were threatened with being kicked off athletic teams or charged with hate crimes if they continued to voice concerns. The Pacific Justice Institute sent the school a letter warning against squelching privacy rights. "We're not going to stand by and...

The rights of a transgendered Colorado high school student are being put ahead of girls the boy harasses in the girls bathroom. A male student at Florence (CO) High School who claims to be transgendered has caused controversy by harassing female students in the girls room, but will not face any discipline – this despite vocal protests from the girls’ parents. ‘The boy’s rights as a transgender trump their daughters’ privacy rights,’ the school has told concerned parents, according to CBN. Unidentified because all involved are minors, the students are being threatened with removal from sports teams or even hate...

This isn’t the Los Angeles Unified School District, either, but a school in relatively conservative Orange County that seems to have a strange and inconsistent notion of stamping out images of firearms. Sophomore Haley Bullwinkle had already worn the NRA t-shirt she received as a gift from her father to her high school several times without anyone questioning her about it. Last week, though, she got sent to the principal’s office and was told she had to remove it because the T-shirt from the nation’s largest gun-safety instruction organization promoted gun violence. What about the school’s drill team, Haley’s father...

On my daily commute home from work I passed a small shopping center in Chichester, PA where I saw a young boy and girl holding signs in front of the Family Dollar store. I initially thought they were raising money for something but as I slowed down I read the words "I STOLE" on the boy's sign. I turned around and drove by again to get a closer look at what the signs actually said. photo 2.jpg I STOLE CANDY FROM FAMILY DOLLAR. MY MOTHER DID NOT RAISE ME THAT WAY. photo 1.jpg I STOLE A $100 CELL PHONE FROM...

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - Three Virginia Beach seventh graders learned their fates Tuesday morning when they were suspended for shooting airsoft guns on private property. During a hearing with a disciplinary committee Tuesday morning, Aidan Clark, Khalid Caraballo and a third friend were given long-term suspensions in a unanimous vote. The suspensions will last until June, but a hearing will be held January 27 to determine if they will be allowed back in school sooner. The students' parents initially told WAVY News' Andy Fox their children were expelled, but when Fox looked at the official letter from the school,...

administrator, Millard Jones told FOX23 that Terrance Parker was fully aware what was expected. However, for his young daughter, it just hurts. "They didn't like my dreads," said Tiana. FoX23 reviewed the school's dress code. It states, "hairstyles such as dreadlocks, afros, mohawks, and other faddish styles are unacceptable."

A Fluvanna County Middle School principal’s effort to instill discipline on the first day of classes has sparked a social media outcry among parents and an Internet effort to get her removed. An online petition says Yardley Farquharson “yelled and screamed” at students, barred them from talking in hallways and suspended their bathroom privileges for the first and last 10 minutes of classes. Some 200 county residents had signed the petition by Wednesday afternoon, asking the Fluvanna County School Board to remove Farquharson from her job. Parents referred to her behavior as bullying. Others, including some parent volunteers and school...

The family of the 7-year-old boy from Ann Arundel County elementary school who was suspended for making a gun shape out of a pastry has tried to clear the boy’s record. This story made headlines across the country as the gun control debate has taken center stage among many elementary schools as some school administrators flex their muscles with a “zero tolerance policy” that excuses itself from common sense. But according to the Baltimore Sun school officials denied the boy’s family’s appeal on Monday, not allowing the boy’s record to be expunged of the incident. Robin Ficker, attorney for Park...