Student suspended for 10 days for saying "noose"

He said that he knew how to tie a noose but he wouldn't because he didn't want to get into trouble. Little did he know that just talking about a noose would get him suspended. Amazing! Kids actually hit other kids and nothing happens to them but say the word "noose" and you get kicked out of school for 10 days.

Travis Grigsby loves playing drums, but he and his friend Alex Coday weren't able to play for two weeks after they were suspended. It started after the band's performance at a football game. Some kids on the drum line said they were talking about the best knots to use to tie up the drum equipment.

"Someone asked if anybody knew how to tie a noose and Travis did admit he knew how to tie a noose," Kim Grigsby said.

Travis' mom said her son is almost an Eagle Scout, he knew how to tie it, but told his friends he wouldn't because you could get in trouble for that. Later, a black student on the drum line told the teacher he was offended.

"Travis was accused of using a racial slur for saying the word 'noose.' Then he was suspended for 10 days," Kim said.

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School squanders $50,000 contribution

Corruption and no accountability, I certainly wouldn't send funds to this school:

As Coolidge High slashed its budget for teachers and supplies in spring 2003, the struggling school received a welcome infusion of cash from one of its biggest benefactors. The AOL Time Warner Foundation sent a check for $50,000 to hire a technology expert who would ensure that students had working computers.

The money went into Coolidge's student activity account, which enabled school administrators to use it to stage a gospel fundraiser. Fewer than 50 people attended.

Within months, almost all the money from the foundation was gone. School auditors later determined that Coolidge officials "misused and/or misappropriated" almost $47,000 of the grant.

Coolidge has a history of losing charitable contributions.

Science teacher Terry Nostrand raised $20,610 from the Tony Hawk Foundation and Project Learning Tree in 2003 to build a skateboarding park at the high school. She deposited the money into the student activity fund. When she tried to retrieve the money the following year, she "kept getting one story after another," Nostrand recalled. "Runaround, runaround, runaround."

Nostrand never did get answers about whether the money was stolen or lost to bad accounting. Auditors attempted to trace the money within the student account but declared the records "unauditable." The city had to repay the donors, and the skatepark eventually was built elsewhere.

AOL had been trying to help Coolidge students since 1998. The foundation had donated money for scholarships, equipped most of the classrooms with computers and printers and sent several large checks, records show.

[...]

In September 2004, school auditors asked the D.C. inspector general to investigate. Investigators confirmed the auditor's findings but closed the case without referring it to federal prosecutors. They reported that AOL "does not wish to operate in a punitive mode."

And I bet the kids still don't have a computer teacher. When you hear of schools not having enough money, you might want to remember this story.

Pagan students can take time off to observe religious holidays

I don't think it's a smart idea to give students another excuse for cutting class.

At Marshall University, pagan students are now allowed to miss classes to observe religious holidays or festivals.

A new policy makes the university in Huntington, W.Va., with an enrollment of about 14,000, possibly the only college in the country to protect pagans formally from being penalized for missing classes, although many institutions have policies intended to protect students of every faith.

One Marshall student, George Fain, took advantage of the policy on Thursday, missing class in observance of Samhain, a pagan and Wiccan holiday honoring the dead.

“I think we may have opened a door,” Ms. Fain said of the policy. “Now that we know we can be protected, that the government will stand behind us and we feel safe, it’s going to be more prevalent.”

The decision to allow pagan students to make up missed work is an extension of existing policy toward members of other religious groups, said Steve Hensley, the dean of student affairs at Marshall.

Parisian intelligentsia objects to move to suburbs

The intelligentsia does not want to move in the same neighborhood with the proletariat because there is not enough bourgeoisie (sorry but the article screams out for Marxist language).

Susan, I feel your pain!

It can be so frustrating to know that you did everything that you could do and yet it wasn't good enough. Just know that you are far ahead of those who took algebra all those years ago and remember nothing!

But more importantly, remember that you have the the mind of Christ:

1 Corinthians 2:16 "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

And wisdom that comes from God:

1 Corinthians 1:30 He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom and our righteousness and sanctification and redemption.

And that is so much more valuable than algebra (though math is very important as I keep telling my Sarah).

I'm praying for you as well. I know that you will persevere because you know how important it is to demonstrate to your daughters the importance of facing your failure and not allowing it to defeat you or stand in the way of your goals.

Mom accused of neglect for homeschooling

Shouldn't school districts be used to homeschooling now and know that they can't force parents to send their kids to school? I think if I were the parents I would sue the school for harassment and for failure to protect my kids from intimidation:

A Missouri public school is pursuing a complaint against a mother for withdrawing her son and daughter from the school and teaching them at home, after an apparent threat to the daughter's life at the school.

The case involves Moberly, Mo., mother Anita Nicoli, who withdrew her daughter and a son from Moberly Middle School recently after what she has described as a two-year campaign of intimidation by other students.

The breaking point came when another student, who allegedly had harassed and assaulted her daughter, drew a picture of herself holding a gun and pointing it directly at Nicoli's daughter. The picture was passed around among students, she said.

But she now has been cited in a complaint filed by the school after she withdrew two of her children.

[...]

The incident that she perceived as a threat was especially egregious, she told WND, because the student who drew the picture showed it to her daughter, and then other students saw it as well. One student told a teacher, who took the picture. But Nicoli said when she found out and wanted a copy of the offending picture to pursue a complaint, the school told her it had been lost.

[...]

The last situation with her daughter happened when the other student hit her daughter in the face with a locker door, leaving a bruise on her check. Then the other student slapped her daughter, punched her, and threatened to "kick" her.

I think this school has a lot of nerve charging the parent with neglect when they did nothing about the bullying.

PC run amok in California

See what happens when you elect a RINO to office?

"Mom and Dad" as well as "husband and wife" have been banned from California schools under a bill signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who with his signature also ordered public schools to allow boys to use girls restrooms and locker rooms, and vice versa, if they choose.

N.J. Students Forced To Eat On Floor

In NJ we pay over $14,000 per child to educate our children which is why it's incredibly aggravating to hear stories like this.

Bergen County parents are floored by a new school lunch policy. Their children were forced to eat their lunch on the floor.

[...]

The cafeteria holds around 300, some outside picnic tables are provided, and seniors can leave for lunch. But parents and some students were quick to speak out to school leadership against hundreds left to floor dining -- and got nowhere.

[...]

Even the local health department decries eating on the floor. In a letter they sent to the school, they call the practice, "very unsanitary." Yet in order for Mahwah High School to lengthen its teaching time, they opted to push all 1,000 students through a single, 43-minute lunch period.

"This allows teachers to go into greater depth in their discussions," Superintendent Montesano said.

[...]

Since our interview, the school says it forbids the floor dining, opting instead for gym bleachers and other seating.

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It's stories like this that reinforce my decision to opt out of public education. Notice that the parents wishes are ignored. In private school these concerns would have been addressed promptly. Here mismanagement is tolerated and there's not much a parent can do to make sure the system is changed.

This is yet another example of the need for school choice. When the school district is doing a good job then people will want to send their children there but if the schools in a particular district are mismanaged then it's in the best interest of the community to introduce competition to provide the children with an education that is worth the amount being paid by the tax payers.

History teacher asks parents to sign letter renouncing their citizenship

A Junior High School teacher told his students that their parents had to sign a letter renouncing their citizenship as part of a lesson on the Declaration of Independence. And there were actually some parents who did it:

Bidwell Junior High School administrators said a letter sent home with students in an eighth-grade class Tuesday was a good idea for a history lesson, with bad execution.

The letter, which appeared to ask parents to renounce their U.S. citizenship, prompted phone calls to the school from several irate recipients.

[...]

He concluded the letter with "After careful consideration of the facts of our current situation, I have decided to announce to everyone that I am no longer a citizen of the United States, but a free and independent member of the global community."

"The point was, I wanted to ask parents if they would sign such a letter if conditions that existed prior to the Revolution were happening now," he said. "I just wanted to start a discussion."

[...]

Chico resident Michael Hill said he was told by his daughter, Kaytlen Hill, 13, that the assignment was to have parents sign the letter and return it to class Wednesday.

"The lesson being taught in class was that the U.S. kidnaps innocent people and takes them to Cuba, where they are kept indefinitely and tortured," Hill said he learned through his daughter.

When Hill asked her if Brooks mentioned Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the U.S. imprisons terrorist suspects, he said his daughter replied "yes."

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Hill sounds like a pretty smart guy, he did what I would have done, removed my daughter from the class. I wouldn't have allowed her to be taught by some moron who abuses his position for political purposes.

Low Income Kids Getting Paid to Stay in School

I'm all for finical incentives to get kids to do something. I've bribed my kids to do stuff, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. What I like about this is that it's private money that's being used. The public isn't picking up the tab:

Local high school students will soon be cashing in for hitting the books.

A new pilot program promises to pay them to stay in school.

More than 20,000 Arizona teens dropped out of the class of 2006.

To fight the problem, 75 students from low income families at Amphi High and 100 from Rincon high were picked for the new program.

The students will get $25 a week as an incentive to stay in school.

A local nonprofit will pay for the project.

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PBS Democrat Debate: Biden on the achievement gap

Why does he say that blacks start school with a disadvantage? He says, "We do not give single mothers in disadvantaged homes the opportunities that they need in order to know what to do to prepare their children." Then he goes on to talk about how children develop vocabulary when their mom talks to them. He seems to imply that "disadvantaged" moms aren't doing that and need to be educated.

What does he think is the role of the federal government? How does the federal government "educate" moms to talk to their kids? Why should the federal government tell a mom how to raise her children and why would he think that she doesn't know how to raise her kid? The whole response struck me as patronizing, as if the "disadvantaged" don't know anything and need the big, white liberal to come in and tell them how to raise their child. How about the local government provide a better education for their children? How about giving the parents a choice as to where they educate their child? How about the schools force parents who aren't involved to get involved in their child's education? How about they teach the kids at the kindergarten level and up the importance of staying in school? All of these things should be handled at the local level, not the federal level.

Tags: Biden

Professor facing termination for emailing Washington's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation

This is absolutely amazing. When the words of our history are banned because they "offend" someone, then it's time to pack it in. These are the words of our founding president, one of the greatest leaders in our history. These words are a part of the national record and a college should understand that. Academic inquiry and preservation of knowledge by passing it down to future generations used to be the goal of colleges, now they are just indoctrination centers and a place to prepare to get a job. True education appears to be a thing of the past:

The Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) has placed a professor on forced administrative leave and has recommended that he be terminated for e-mailing a Thanksgiving message to his colleagues last November. On the day before Thanksgiving, Professor Walter Kehowski sent out the text of George Washington’s “Thanksgiving Day Proclamation of 1789” and a link to the webpage where he’d found it—on Pat Buchanan’s web log. After several recipients complained of being offended by the e-mail, MCCCD found Kehowski guilty of violating the district’s Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) policy and technology usage standards. Kehowski then contacted the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) for help.

“It simply boggles the mind that a professor could find himself facing termination simply for e-mailing the Thanksgiving address of our first president,” FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. “This situation is an embarrassment to MCCCD and would be laughable if a professor’s most basic rights and very livelihood weren’t on the line.”

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Tags: Washington, college, Thanksgiving Day Proclamation