Free Republic

TRUMP PUTS EVERY PUBLIC SCHOOL IN AMERICA ON NOTICE

RICHMOND, Va. — Barack Obama Elementary School will not open this week due to mold, and students will temporarily relocate to Clark Springs Elementary School while remediation continues. Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras said in a message to families Monday that teachers and staff setting up classrooms discovered "additional areas of mold growth (for example, behind bulletin board paper)," prompting the district to send everyone home for additional cleaning and testing. "All of this is realistically going to take several days. So we will not be returning to the Obama building this week. Our goal is to do so...

Earlier this summer, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced that 50 organizations would no longer receive grants for the teen pregnancy prevention program (TPP), including Planned Parenthood. A federal judge has now blocked that change, though the organizations won't begin receiving funding again yet. Key Takeaways: * In June, over 50 organizations, including Planned Parenthood, were informed that they would no longer receive TPP grants due to the inclusion of "sexually explicit" content in their program materials. * Planned Parenthood and other groups have been criticized for including age-inappropriate, graphic sexual content in their sexual education programs....

GAFFNEY, S.C. - Cherokee County Sheriff Mueller said three suspects are in custody following a shooting at a bus stop in Gaffney that left a 17-year-old dead. Officials said three people were involved in the death of 17-year-old Jomiltron Sentell Fair Jr., who was shot in the back of the head while boarding a school bus outside of his apartment complex on Wednesday morning. Suspect captured following manhunt The sheriff said 18-year-old Keveon Ken’Dre Covington has been captured following a manhunt that began around 7 a.m. on Thursday. Sheriff Mueller said a perimeter was set up along Concord Road, Highway...

Kansas students have been forced to put cell phones into lockers before they set foot in class as part of a blanket ban on the devices in schools across the state. Thousands of students in grades K-12 are banned from using their cell phones during the school day under HB 2299, which outgoing Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly signed into law in March and hailed as a tool to “reduce distractions in the classroom.” School districts are granted the flexibility to enforce the policy as they see fit. Schools in the Kansas City public school district have spent $150,000 on special...

The head of one the country’s top medical schools sparked outrage during a tense House hearing after refusing to say that only women can get pregnant. Dr. Sam Hawgood, chancellor of the University of California San Francisco, was pressed by Washington lawmakers Tuesday over the school’s guidelines against using the term “pregnant women,” while testifying about the impact of DEI initiatives in medical schools. “Doctor Hawgood, you see UCSF’s Classroom Guide, titled ‘Framework for Gender and Sex Concepts in Teaching,’ advises against using the term ‘pregnant women,'” Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois said. “Instead, it says to use ‘pregnant people.’...

An appeals court on Tuesday ruled that part of Florida’s law restricting how race and gender are taught in classrooms, specifically provisions restricting how those topics are taught in colleges, violates free speech rights. In a 2-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit determined part of the Stop Wrongs Against Our Kids and Employees Act, or Stop WOKE Act, signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in 2022 is unlawful. The law was designed to restrict public universities, K-12 schools and private workplaces from promoting certain concepts related to racism, gender and systemic privilege. This week’s...

Two teachers were stabbed during an assault that involved students during dismissal at a Harford County elementary school Tuesday. Deputies responded to Roye-Williams Elementary School around 3:30 p.m. after a call for assistance from staff. Deputies arrived to find the two victims suffering from stabbing injuries. Evidence found at the scene was consistent with an attack. No students were hurt during the incident.

Denver Public Schools board members voted unanimously May 20 to dismiss a 50-year-old foreign language teacher following a district investigation and an independent review into student complaints about a class assignment. The board voted 7-0 after meeting in executive session to consider the firing of Jennifer Honka. Honka taught French Language and Culture at Northeast Early College for all of her eight years with the district. Officially, Honka was fired for incompetence and neglect of duty. There was no public debate among the board members prior to the vote. Honka's classroom instruction first came into question during the 2023-24 school...

A Washington school superintendent accused of helping cover up several sexual assault allegations at a high school was recorded on body camera as officers led her out of district headquarters in handcuffs and shoved her into a police cruiser. New footage released Friday shows Longview Public Schools Superintendent Karen Cloninger being arrested at district offices following a months long investigation. Investigators alleged she tried to conceal reports of sexual assaults involving Mark Morris High School basketball players in a locker room. The investigation previously led to several players being arrested on rape charges back in February, according to KLOG 100.7....

C-SPAN coverage features cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath testifying before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation regarding the impact of screen time and classroom technology on youth. In his testimony, Dr. Horvath warned lawmakers that Gen Z is the first generation in modern history to underperform previous generations across cognitive measures like attention, memory, and general IQ. He argued that introducing digital devices into learning environments has actively contributed to this cognitive decline, as human brains are not biologically wired to learn from screens. This is the first generation in human history that is getting DUMBER...

San Francisco public school officials’ sneaky new plan for massive school closures was hidden even from the district’s furious school board, according to a new report. The San Francisco Unified School District plans to close an unidentified number of schools by 2030 to deal with some 14,000 empty seats in the rapidly shrinking district, according to a memo sent to parents last month. Like other urban districts in California and across the country, the City by the Bay has seen years of enrollment declines in public schools which reflect declining birth rates and other demographic changes blamed on rising prices,...

TACOMA, Wash. - At least five people were injured after a stabbing incident at Foss High School in Tacoma, Washington on Thursday afternoon. Officers responded to a call of a possible stabbing stemming from a fight, and found four students and a security guard injured. Police said it remains unclear whether all the victims were stabbed or hurt by other means, such as falling, and the extent of their injuries is not yet known, though they are believed to be non-life-threatening. All five victims were taken to a local hospital, where officers are working to gather updates. Authorities said it...

During operational activity in the area of Bint Jbeil, IDF soldiers located more than 130 weapons inside a school. Among the weapons located were Kalashnikov rifles, pistols, and additional weapons. Alongside the weapons, the troops also found Hezbollah flags and other terrorist organization insignia. The forces confiscated the weapons and continued operations to search the area and clear it of terrorists. The Hezbollah terrorist organization systematically exploits the civilian population in Lebanon...

At least 16 people have been injured after an ex-student opened fire at a high school in south-eastern Turkey. The attacker, who was in his late teens, fired "indiscriminately with a shotgun" before killing himself with the weapon after being "cornered by police", local governor Hasan Şildak said. Those injured include 10 students, four teachers, a cafeteria worker and a police officer, he said. The incident happened at around 09:30 local time (06:30 GMT) at the Ahmet Koyuncu Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School in Siverek district. It has since been evacuated. The wounded were taken to hospital, with five...

FIRST ON FOX: One of the largest school districts in the country is facing allegations that it lets teachers decide if parents are sufficiently "supportive" enough to tell them about their child's desire to switch genders. Trump-aligned America First Legal (AFL) filed a formal complaint against Montgomery County Public Schools, which is in the suburbs of Washington, D.C., with the Departments of Justice and Education, alleging it has been violating the constitution and other federal law through its "Gender Identity in Montgomery County Public Schools" handbook. AFL goes on to allege the school district repeatedly instructs staff to condition parental...

Five years ago, I blew the whistle on a school I loved. Did it make a difference? I taught high school English at an independent school in New Jersey for seven years. I loved the school’s focus on resilience and growth. I loved my colleagues, who challenged and nurtured our students, including my own children, who attended the school. And I felt lucky to be part of such a vibrant learning community. That all changed in 2014. A young dean, fresh from an education conference hosted by the National Association of Independent Schools, led the faculty in what we now...

The brother of a terrorist who rammed a vehicle into a Michigan Jewish preschool was a Hezbollah commander, Israel Defense Forces have said. Ayman Muhammad Ghazali, 41, was shot dead after driving the vehicle into Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, Mich., on Thursday. His brother, Ibrahim Muhammad Ghazali, was responsible for managing weapons operations within a specialized branch of Hezbollah’s Badr Unit, the IDF said in a statement Sunday morning. This unit of the Lebanese terror group is responsible for launching hundreds of rockets toward Israeli civilians throughout the recent war with Iran, the IDF said. Ghazali’s two brothers,...

A Los Angeles high school’s “secrecy policy” kept a California couple in the dark about their only child’s gender identity, helped “sever” the family’s relationship — and ultimately drove the teen to suicide, his parents alleged. Dylan Parke was already struggling to fit in as a sophomore at Palisades Charter High School in Los Angeles in 2019-2020 when he told school staffers he would use she/her pronouns and go by the name “Aria,” as he transitioned into a woman. Parke had been diagnosed with depression, was in mental health treatment and “appeared easily influenced and preoccupied with how others perceived...

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins pressed Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) on Wednesday over why he was the only Senate Democrat who did not sign a letter pressing for an investigation into the strike on an elementary school in Iran. Fetterman joined The Source to discuss the ongoing U.S. military operation and his view of the war as it continues through its second week. Reporting on Monday claimed that the U.S. campaign in Iran was responsible for a strike on a girls’ elementary school that killed 175 people, most of whom were children. In a letter addressed to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth,...