Free Republic

COLUMBUS, Ga. -- A high school student was suspended for 10 days for refusing to end a mobile phone call with his mother, a soldier serving in Iraq, school officials said. The 10-day suspension was issued because Kevin Francois was "defiant and disorderly" and was imposed in lieu of an arrest, Spencer High School assistant principal Alfred Parham said. The confrontation Wednesday began after the 17-year-old junior got a call at lunchtime from his mother, Sgt. 1st Class Monique Bates, who left in January for a one-year tour with the 203rd Forward Support Battalion. Mobile phones are allowed on campus...

A student who claims he was expelled from a training program for prospective teachers because of his support for corporal punishment and his opposition to multicultural education filed a $40 million lawsuit yesterday and demanded to be reinstated.

It wasn’t a gun that caused police to lock down Marshall Junior High School in Clovis. It was a burrito. Police locked the school down after a citizen saw a student walking into school with a long, skinny object wrapped in a white cloth. He thought it was a gun and called police. Officers searched for the student while the school was on lockdown. But the student came forward first, admitting he had what they were looking for – a two-and-a-half-foot-long burrito. The student had taken the burrito, wrapped in foil and a white cloth, to present in a culinary...

A concerned citizen spotted a male juvenile carrying a suspiciously concealed item into Marshall Junior High School early Thursday morning. Police were called. The school was locked down. Adjacent streets were closed and law officers were perched on roofs with weapons. The drama ended about two hours later when the suspicious item was identified: A 30-inch burrito, prepared as an extra-credit assignment and wrapped inside tinfoil and a white T-shirt. “I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry,” school Principal Diana Russell said after the mystery was solved. “Overall, I’d say we had a good learning day.” The incident began...

A Trinity International University minority student unhappy about attending the school was charged with a hate crime after she confessed to sending racially threatening mail to minority classmates, prompting a temporary evacuation of black and Latino students from campus, authorities said Tuesday. Alicia Hardin, 19, of Chicago, an African-American woman, was trying to convince her parents that the Bannockburn school was too dangerous for her, police said. "We believe she wanted to attend a different college, and she thought if her parents saw Trinity as an unsafe environment, they'd let her transfer," Lake County Assistant State's Atty. Matthew Chancey said....

SOUTH BEND — A former aide at Greene Intermediate Center is in jail after her arrest Tuesday on nine felony charges related to inappropriate sexual activities with special education students she supervised. Schmeca White, 27, of the 800 block of Huey Street, was taken into custody at her home shortly before noon Tuesday. Chief Deputy Prosecutor Ken Cotter said White is accused of performing various sexual acts or causing students to perform sex acts in a classroom during their lunch period. The reported incidents occurred during November and December while the teacher with whom White worked was away from the...

Like many other students, over the past four years at DePaul, I’ve had very little opportunity to directly see the administration working for the well-being of the student body. In fact, I would say quite the opposite. I’ve seen computers taken out of dorm rooms, free prints removed and tuition and fees increased. That is until recently. DePaul University, more specifically Dean Dumbleton from the School for New Learning and Vice-President Doyle from the office of student affairs made a very difficult decision to protect the students. During this year’s fall quarter at the Loop Campus Student Involvement Fair, representatives...

An edited version of the Pledge of Allegiance has raised a controversy at Everitt Middle School in Wheat Ridge. Eighth-grade counselor Margo Lucero, filling in for absent principal Kathleen Norton, changed a portion of the Pledge from "one nation under God" to "one nation under your belief system," while on the public- address system Wednesday morning.

DePaul’s Jihad against academic freedomApril 18th, 2005 DePaul University in Chicago is one of the fastest growing universities in the country. It has become the largest Catholic-affiliated university in America. Muslim and Arab students are one of the segments of DePaul's student population that has seen the greatest increase in numbers in recent years. Although no figures are available, these students are an important source of revenue for the University, and many may well pay full tuition, making their attendance particularly lucrative. Perhaps in recognition of this market segment, the University hired Norman Finkelstein to teach in its Political Science...

SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn. -- Four South Windsor high school students were sent home Friday after T-shirts they wore bearing anti-gay slogans caused disturbances, students and school officials said. The boys, who wore white T-shirts with the statement, "Adam and Eve, Not Adam and Steve," say their constitutional right to free speech was violated. "We were just voicing our opinions," said Steven Vendetta, who made the T-shirts with his friends, Kyle Shinfield, David Grimaldi and another student who was not identified by the Journal Inquirer of Manchester. "We didn't tell other people to think what we're thinking. We just told them...

A speech about academic freedom turned into a "violation of First Amendment rights," according to Dana Cloud, a member of the International Socialist Organization. Six people, including one juvenile, were arrested Wednesday night after protesting David Horowitz's speech at Townes Hall at the UT School of Law. The Texas Federalist Society hosted the meeting and invited Horowitz, a right-wing advocate and author of the Academic Bill of Rights, to speak. Opposition groups were holding signs and speaking out during Horowitz's speech on Wednesday, but when they were told to stop speaking, some took out noisemakers to mark their disapproval of...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Irony has never been so transparent. The visit of conservative and self-proclaimed anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly to Penn State Wednesday has been denied by Young Americans for Freedom as a counter to Take Back the Night but acknowledged as a "happy coincidence." While 200 people marched through campus to fight rape and sexual assault, Schlafly spoke to a group of 100 listeners about why women should carry guns to deter such crime. The absurdity that 20,000 female college students should need to carry firearms to protect themselves from rape is as obvious...

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. -- A ninth-grade student has accused officials at a Southern California high school of discrimination for suspending him for wearing lipstick and eye makeup. James Herndon, 16, said the five-day suspension imposed Monday by administrators at San Bernardino's Pacific High School was unfair because females are allowed to wear cosmetics on campus. "If I can't wear makeup," he said, "then the girls or the staff can't wear makeup." Herndon says his black lipstick and red eye makeup express the Wiccan religious beliefs he shares with his mother, a priestess in the neo-pagan faith. The suspension violates his...

Unless you're among the bean-sprout-sized minority of Americans who describe themselves as "vegans" (vegetarians who also won't touch milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, or even a dollop of honey), you may have been alarmed by the publicity surrounding an article appearing last month in the journal Pediatrics. The anti-milk piece -- written by activists from the PETA-affiliated Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) -- concluded that feeding milk to children is unnecessary, and that there are better ways (kale, tofu, turnip greens, or spinach, for instance) for kids to get the calcium they need. In reaching this result, PCRM relied on...

Pasadena Independent School District superintendent Dr. Rick Schneider has banned the book "Forever" by popular children's author Judy Blume from the shelves of libraries within the district. The book had previously been found in the collections of one intermediate and three high schools. Advertisement "It is never an easy decision to pull a book from the shelves. The superintendent has the responsibility to put materials in the system that are educationally suitable and appropriate. In this particular case, after reading the book, he felt that, though the theme is not unsuitable certain passages are and decided to remove the book,"...

Students are being sexually assaulted on school buses and the Montgomery County school system has not done enough for its students to protect them from other forms of bullying and abuse, local lawmakers told school officials Thursday. The County Council's demand that school officials better protect children comes on the heels of an incident in which a 12-year-old girl was groped by classmates on Valentine's Day en route to Roberto Clemente Middle School in Germantown. After it was reported that the girl's parents were unsatisfied with the response offered by police and schools, several parents stepped forward with tales of...

An online friend, not on Free Republic, is on his local school board. He's a good, conservative guy, in my dealings with him; the kind of person FReepers want to see on school boards. Contract negotiations with the teachers union are getting very adversarial. He is feeling a little outgunned, as the union tend to bring in seasoned hardball labor contract negotiators, whereas the school board members are elected regular citizens without much experience in this sort of thing. I know where he is at, but would prefer to not reveal his location and school district, since I haven't asked...

Thirty elementary school children died of food poisoning yesterday after eating a native delicacy made from cassava flour at the San Jose Elementary School in Mabini town, Bohol. San Jose Vice Mayor Ester Tabigi said authorities had not yet determined exactly how many children had fallen ill, but at least 50 were still in critical condition last night in various hospitals in the nearby towns of Ubay and Talibon. Some children were brought as far as the provincial capital of Tagbilaran City, some 100 kilometers from Mabini. Reports said the children, mostly second and third-grade pupils, started complaining of stomach...

COLUMBUS, Ohio - For the first time, sociologists have mapped the romantic and sexual relationships of an entire high school over 18 months, providing evidence that these adolescent networks may be structured differently than researchers previously thought. James Moody The results showed that, unlike many adult networks, there was no core group of very sexually active people at the high school. There were not many students who had many partners and who provided links to the rest of the community. Instead, the romantic and sexual network at the school created long chains of connections that spread out through the community,...

Viewpoints differ on which firearms rules stay within the law and keep students safe Parker Howell Senior News Reporter January 19, 2005 While the Oregon University System's contentious rule restricting Concealed Handgun License holders from carrying firearms on university campuses has remained static since graduate student Brian Stubbs challenged it in court last year, debate continues over what balance of power between gun owners and the OUS will create the safest campuses. Supporters of concealed firearms say the OUS policy violates state law, and concealed handguns are a right necessary for self-defense. Opponents argue that handguns on university campuses are...