Free Republic

What do you call a nation where a high school student can graduate with honors—yet cannot read or write?You call it America in 2025.This week, we learned about Aleysha Ortiz, a 19-year-old who graduated from Hartford Public High School in Connecticut with academic distinction—despite being illiterate. She is now suing the school district, alleging negligence, emotional distress, and a complete abdication of duty by the educators and administrators who were supposed to serve her. Her story, reported by CNN, is both infuriating and emblematic of a national crisis that’s been engineered from top down.Aleysha’s early assessments showed severe learning challenges....

Dwindling enrollment has left about 150 Chicago schools half-empty, while 47 operate at less than one-third capacity, leading to high costs and limited course offerings, a joint report from Chalkbeat Chicago and ProPublica reveal.

Ten people have been killed in a school shooting in the Austrian city of Graz, police have said. The incident took place at Dreierschützengasse secondary school in the north-west of the city. Six females and three males were killed in the attack, according to Interior Minister Gerhard Karner. Police said the 21-year-old gunman took his own life in a school bathroom shortly after. A further 28 people are being treated for their injuries in hospital, according to local media reports. The gunman was an Austrian man and former Dreierschützengasse student who didn't graduate from the school, Karner told a news...

The San Francisco Unified School District will not be moving forward with a controversial equity grading strategy that was proposed this week after significant backlash. The strategy, known as "Grading for Equity," was presented during a SFUSD Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, according to Superintendent Maria Su, with the goal of offering "professional development opportunity in standards-based grading." Under the proposed standards, how a student scores on the final exam, which could be taken multiple times, would be what counts toward their grade for the semester, according to the Voice of San Francisco.

An Oregon middle school encouraged students to dress up as "drag queens" and their favorite "queer hero" this week in celebration of Pride Month, but one parent said families weren't notified ahead of time. At the Arts & Technology Academy in the Eugene School District 4J, students celebrated "Pride Spirit Week" with a different theme each day intended to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, according to a memo obtained by Fox News Digital. On Monday, students were encouraged to "wear as many colors as they could" for "Rainbow-Out" day. On Tuesday, they were told to wear all black "in remembrance of...

A Texas mother has been arrested and charged for allegedly buying ammunition and tactical gear for her son's planned "mass targeted violence" at his middle school, officials said. Ashley Pardo, 33, was arrested on Monday and charged with aiding in commission of terrorism after she allegedly provided ammunition and tactical gear to her son, whose behavior demonstrated plans for a "mass targeted violence" aimed at Rhodes Middle School in San Antonio, according to an affidavit obtained by ABC News.

An alleged teen killer accused of stabbing a sporting rival in cold blood has been thrown another bone after being granted bail. Karmelo Anthony has now been told he can graduate from high school, Daily Mail can reveal. Frisco Independent School District's about-face, deciding Anthony, 17, can graduate from Centennial High School despite his first-degree murder charge, as confirmed by his adviser and spokesman Dominque Alexander to DailyMail.com. The reversal is likely to be controversial. The murder case has become a flashpoint about race and privilege, garnering national attention. Anthony is accused of stabbing Austin Metcalf, 17, in the chest...

Seven Georgia students — some as young as 5 — were arrested for allegedly attacking their 7-year-old classmate during an early morning bus ride to school, according to police. The alleged attackers, who range in age from 5 to 14, were slapped with battery charges for the vicious beatdown that erupted while their bus was en route to Mattie Lively Elementary School in Statesboro on April 18, the Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday. Police said they were notified of the heinous assault roughly a week later and identified the troubled students after reviewing the transport’s security footage, which captured...

They’ve filed complaints with the Department of Education Local parents who opted their kids out of a student survey about sexual activity and gender activity are “livid” after the district still gave the survey to them. Burlington parents have now filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Education in the wake of survey-gate, claiming the district violated the “Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment” by giving the questionnaire to students against their parents’ wishes. The controversial survey last month that was given to both middle and high school students in Burlington Public Schools had questions about: sexual intercourse, sexual orientation, gender...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York state would ban cellphones in public schools “bell to bell” beginning with the next school year under an agreement announced late Monday by Gov. Kathy Hochul.“We’ve protected our kids before from cigarettes, alcohol, and drunk driving, and now we’re protecting them from addictive technology designed to hijack their attention,” Hochul said in announcing the plan as part of a tentative budget agreement with state lawmakers.Hochul, a Democrat, did not immediately detail plans for the ban. Her office has previously said that schools would have some flexibility over how to implement it, with districts deciding...

SVU detective exposed the buffalo school system

When I was in fifth grade at Central Elementary School, all the girls were obsessing over Judy Blume's "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret." The school library had two copies, and there was a waiting list to borrow the book. But there was another problem: Mrs. Horvath, the school librarian. She would not allow children to check out the book without explicit parental permission. And for good reason. It includes mature themes, like masturbation, menstruation, and young girls obsessing over their breast size. When my name came up on the list, Mrs. Horvath marched 10-year-old me down to the...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California is spending $500 million to put an additional 1,000 electric school buses on the road as federal cuts and freezes paused efforts in other states to replace aging diesel-fueled fleets that are more polluting. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced Wednesday that 1,000 zero-emission school buses and related charging infrastructure will be provided to over 130 rural, low-income and disadvantaged school districts. The state grants add about 500 more charging stations for school buses to more than 200 stations already in operation in districts. The expansion contrasts efforts in other states that were hampered by the...

The U.S. Supreme Court is weighing the extent to which parents can opt their children out of public school instruction in which LGBT-themed books are read as part of the curriculum. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Tuesday morning in the case of Mahmoud, Tamer, et al. v. Taylor, Thomas W., et al. The case centers on whether public school parents in Montgomery County, Maryland — the state's largest school district — have a constitutional right under the First Amendment to exempt their children from lessons that feature LGBT ideology. Eric Baxter of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty...

ASHBURN, Va. (DC News Now) — The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) said a substitute teacher was arrested for indecent exposure outside Stone Hill Middle School Monday morning. LCSO said deputies responded to the school in the 22000 block of Carter Meadow Terrace in Ashburn just before 10:45 a.m. It had been reported that a man was engaging in a sexual act while alone inside a parked car. Man arrested for sexual assault inside Target in Reston, police say The car was about 30 feet from the school’s perimeter fence and 200 feet from the rear entrance, LCSO noted. Wade...

London -- Keir Starmer hailed the contributions of British Sikhs across all walks of life in the UK in his Baisakhi greetings from 10 Downing Street on Sunday. Having hosted a special reception earlier this week to mark the festival symbolising the birth of the Khalsa, Starmer posted a video on social media showcasing the festivities along with his Baisakhi message. “It’s really fantastic to be able to come together and to celebrate the contribution of British Sikhs to our nation, and what a contribution that is and has been and will be into the future,” said Starmer. “From across...

Apparently, accurately observing and assessing reality is only okay when someone is obviously lying about their age. If you notice that they’re lying about their biological sex though? You’re a fascist, bigot, racist, homophobe, Trump-supporter, Nazi… you name it. In perhaps one of the most absurd stories I’ve ever read (from where else but Oregon?), a local high school called the cops on “Madison,” a 15-year-old “girl” trying to enroll in classes—there was a problem though, and it wasn’t the fact that “Madison” was actually a bearded male, but that he was lying about his age!Oh, and “Madison” also appears...

A Texas high school star athlete was stabbed in the heart and left to die in his loving twin brother’s arms following a fight over a seat at a track meet, the boy’s heartbroken father said. Austin Metcalf was attending a track and field championship between other area schools at Kuykendall Stadium in Frisco, Texas, when the fatal attack happened on April 2. Metcalf, a junior at Frisco ISD’s Memorial High School, was in the stands at the stadium when a confrontation broke out between the teen and 17-year-old Karmelo Anthony. Anthony, a senior at Centennial High School, was allegedly...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) defended California law allowing teachers to not tell parents about students changing their gender identity by stating that under the prior law, “a teacher would be fired if a teacher did not report or snitch on a kid talking about their gender identity. I just think that was wrong. I think teachers should teach. I don’t think they should be required to turn in kids.” After Newsom criticized Democrats, host Bill Maher asked, “So, what do you say to people who say, well, this sounds all very good,...

The “worst of the worst’’ MS-13 leader busted a half-hour from the US Capitol on Thursday was recruited by the killer gang while still in middle school, officials said — as they released his stone-cold mugshot. Henrry Josue Villatoro Santos, a 24-year-old illegal migrant and accused gang kingpin from El Salvador, was nabbed hiding in his mother’s home in Woodbridge, Va. “We believe he was recruited in middle school — in middle school!” US Attorney General Pam Bondi told “The Ingraham Angle’’ on Thursday night. “He’s been living here illegally with friends and family, and the Biden administration did absolutely...