Tag: public schools

Chicago Teacher Placed on Leave Over Facebook Post Expressing Support for ICE

A Chicago-area elementary school teacher has been placed on administrative leave after daring to express support for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on his personal Facebook account.

According to Fox News, the teacher, who worked at Gary Elementary School in West Chicago, posted a simple message last week: “GO ICE.”

That was enough to trigger a full-scale meltdown from activists in the heavily Hispanic community, who immediately launched a coordinated campaign to have the teacher fired.

A flyer circulated online alongside a Change.org petition demanding the teacher’s termination and urging parents to keep their children home from school in protest.

One user wrote:

“To be clear — I will be keeping my kids home in solidarity with families in our community and across the country who are living in fear because of ICE, and as a clear message to [redacted] that what he posted is not acceptable to me. This is not about forcing the district to act prematurely or bypass due process—which could invite costly federal litigation or a national spotlight that brings ICE back to terrorize our community.

I do believe [redacted] needs to fully feel how hurtful and alienating his words were. An empty school makes it unmistakable that his views do not align with this community. Ideally, that discomfort will lead him to choose employment elsewhere—without the district being pressured to violate due process or risk inviting additional danger into our community. He must be held accountable for the harm caused, even as we allow proper process to run its course. I trust the district to handle this responsibly and with care.”

Fox News Digital reported it could not independently locate the Facebook post, and the teacher’s account appears to have been deleted.

In an email to parents obtained by Fox News Digital, West Chicago Elementary School District 33 Superintendent Kristina Davis revealed that the teacher initially submitted a resignation on Friday, then withdrew it before the school board could act, allowing him to report to work on Monday.

“The district has obtained legal counsel to conduct an investigation beginning on Monday,” Davis wrote.

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Minnesota teacher insults student’s intelligence during ugly classroom clash over Renee Good’s death

A veteran Minnesota high school teacher bizarrely raged over the details surrounding anti-ICE protester Renee Good’s death during a heated argument with a student — which ended when she insulted the boy’s intelligence, according to video of the disturbing scene. 

Becker High School social studies teacher Dr. Heather Abrahamson grew increasingly agitated as she insisted that ICE agent Jonathan Ross used unnecessary deadly force against Good, 37, according to Libs of TikTok, which posted the clip and identified Abrahamson in a Tuesday X post.

“His move should have been to go like this if he was really afraid. Your job as a police officer is to de-escalate,” the instructor can be heard saying while the camera is pointed at other students sitting at their desks in the Becker classroom. 

The video then pans to show Abrahamson, who is standing within inches of the unidentified student’s face, as she repeatedly interrupts his claim that Ross “had a split second” to decide whether to kill the mother of three.

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OC School District Official Accused of $14M Embezzlement

Jorge Armando Contreras, 52, of Yorba Linda allegedly siphoned more than $14 million from the district over a seven-year period and used it to buy luxury items, a $1 million Yorba Linda residence and cosmetic treatments from a dermatologist.

“I was most surprised by the amount he is alleged to have stolen,” said Debbie Peterson, former mayor of Grover Beach in San Luis Obispo. “In the last few months of his tenure at the district, he was averaging almost $370,000 a month in addition to his substantial salary.”

Peterson is the author of The Happiest Corruption: Sleaze, Lies, & Suicide in a California Beach Town and CITY COUNCIL 101 – Insider’s Guide for New Councilmembers.

“The bad news is at the local government level, we simply do not have the checks and balances that we do at the federal level where the legislative, executive, and judicial branches balance power and accountability,” she said.

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Federal probe sought to refocus school districts’ priorities

A public watchdog has filed a federal complaint against a Wisconsin school district that prefers to hire “diverse” and “culturally competent” teachers rather than effective ones.

Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public’s Trust, says the West Allis-West Milwaukee School District’s 2025-2030 strategic plan details goals of “increasing staff diversity” and prioritizing “hiring and retaining a diverse workforce that better reflects our student population.”

His team, which monitors public officials and institutions for ethics, transparency, and accountability, filed this federal complaint after taking similar action against another school district in Vermont.

“We received a tip from a concerned citizen … and what we discovered when we looked into it was yet another school district that was prioritizing politics and ideology over the civil rights and the needs of students,” Chamberlain summarizes.

They are setting goals for certain ethnicities and using terms like “equity,” which Chamberlain says is wrong.

“People in education know … that means putting the needs of certain students above the needs of others based upon certain characteristics that the students can’t control and using criteria like that rather than merit and looking to improve student achievement overall,” he details.

Though the strategy does include plans to increase student success as well, the Daily Caller says the district admits that only 33% of its third grade students are testing proficient or advanced in literacy and 33% of its eighth graders are earning the same status in mathematics on the state exam.

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They Trained Us How to Hide Kids’ Gender Changes from Mom and Dad: Teacher Whistleblower

A former public school teacher in Olympia, Washington, says educators were instructed to conceal sensitive student information from parents, including changes to gender identity and pronouns, during his time working in the Olympia School District.

Ryan Defant, who now teaches at Evergreen Christian School in Olympia, made the claims while describing his experience as a teacher at Centennial Elementary.

Defant said that during multiple staff meetings, teachers were trained on how to use internal systems to keep certain student information hidden from parents.

“My name is Ryan Defant right now. I’m currently teaching at Evergreen Christian school, and I live in Olympia, Washington. I used to work at Centennial Elementary in the Olympia School District, and I can recall several staff meetings where we were trained and showed how we can hide information from parents using our skyward program,” Defant said.

Skyward is a widely used student information system that allows families to access grades, attendance records, and other school-related information.

According to Defant, teachers were instructed on how to enter data into the system in a way that blocked parental access.

“Skyward program was where we did our grades and attendance and information for families to access, but we had a teacher, and a couple teachers actually train us on how we can input information into skyward that was behind a wall that parents couldn’t access,” he said.

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Minneapolis Public Schools Cancel Classes and Activities for Rest of Week

Minneapolis Public Schools announced Wednesday night that all classes and activities were canceled for the rest of the week and that students would not have to do ‘e-learning’ at home while schools are closed.

Protests are expected in the coming days after a woman driver was shot and killed by a federal officer when she allegedly tried to run him over during a protest against ICE in a Minneapolis residential neighborhood Wednesday morning.

The Department of Homeland Security has surged up to 2,000 federal agents into Minnesota this week for immigration enforcement and investigations into billions of dollars in fraud involving mainly Somali immigrants ripping off federally funded Medicaid and other welfare programs.

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Minnesota To Mandate K–12 Ethnic Studies Instruction In 2026

In the coming weeks, school boards across the Land of 10,000 Lakes state will decide on curricula to meet ethnic studies mandates for the 2026–2027 academic year.

There appear to be limited alternatives to the free instructional materials developed with taxpayer dollars and endorsed by the state teachers’ union.

That curriculum instructs 6th graders to learn the 13 guiding principles of the Black Lives Matter movement; 7th graders on how protesters have breached federal buildings; and higher schoolers to “identify plans of action that people have used to resist, refuse, and create alternatives to oppressive systems,” according to the materials developed by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender and Sexuality Studies (RIDGS).

“Students will be able to explain how race is socially constructed and how that social construction has been used to oppress people of color, specifically in relation to Jim Crow, segregation, and racial covenants,” reads the description for the 11th and 12th-grade Jim Crow of the North course.

The Center of the American Experiment, a Minnesota-based education policy organization that opposes partisan and race-based curricula, is helping districts find politically neutral alternatives that it says are more like traditional social studies and history electives and less like social justice advocacy guidance.

“The words ethnic studies have been hijacked,” Catrin Wigfall, a policy fellow with the center, told The Epoch Times.

“But boards [of education] have more power in this than they might think.”

Additionally, state laws allow parents to review a curriculum and opt their child out of any instruction they find objectionable, in which case the school is required to provide alternative materials, Wigfall said.

The Minnesota Department of Education defines ethnic studies as an interdisciplinary area of instruction that “analyzes how race and racism have been and continue to be social, cultural, and political forces, and the connection of race to the stratification of other groups.”

The state law requires public schools to incorporate ethnic studies lessons in mandatory social studies courses across all grade levels, in addition to offering a stand-alone ethnic studies elective course for high school juniors and seniors.

In 2023, the Minnesota Department of Education stipulated that the ethnic studies context is expected to be embedded in other subject areas, including math, physical education, and health, as courses are periodically revised.

The Center of the American Experiment argues that those standards habituate angry, inaccurate, and “identity-first” ideological and political perspectives.

By definition, ethnic studies should focus on global histories, cultures, and religions, but the instruction pushed in Minnesota schools forces a polarizing and narrow political worldview, Wigfall said.

“It’s been a bait and switch campaign,” she said.

The center endorses the American Experience curriculum by the Foundation Against Tolerance and Racism, which Johns Hopkins has approved as a model for ethnic studies instruction, as a suitable alternative to the University of Minnesota’s instructional materials.

In addition, the 1776 Unites free curriculum focuses on historical stories that “celebrate black excellence, reject victimhood culture, and showcase African-Americans who have prospered by embracing America’s founding ideals,” according to its website.

Wigfall said her organization will work with school districts to navigate curriculum choices and the timetable for meeting state requirements across various subject areas.

The center isn’t advocating litigation over the mandate, but local education leaders, under federal Title VI provisions, have legal recourse if they are forced to foster a hostile learning environment under state requirements.

“It will be interesting to see what the rollout looks like,” she said. “When you emphasize tribalism, what does that do to knowledge development?”

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Artificial Intelligence In The Classroom Destroys Actual Intelligence In Students

Ialways assumed that before AI destroyed our humanity, we’d at least put up a fight. No, I’m not talking about AI gaining consciousness and physically enslaving us (though I’m certainly not ruling that out as a possibility) — but it is alarming how quick many are to accept AI usage not just in their daily lives, but in education.

As an educator, I’ve heard high school teachers and college professors alike defend teaching AI usage in the classroom: “The technology isn’t going away, so kids have to learn how to use it responsibly.” “AI can be a useful tool.” “Learning how to write the right prompts is a marketable skill.” They say we should not only allow but encourage students to use AI to brainstorm ideas, write outlines, and provide feedback on their work.

On the surface, these suggestions can seem benign. Our society is pushing the idea that AI usage is not only inevitable but good. “You’re a writer,” a silky tone on an advertisement for AI software sings, “even if you are the kind who relies on AI.” Okay, so that’s not the exact verbiage, but that’s the idea we’re being sold. We’re reassured that AI can simply be a legitimate “tool.” You are a writer even if you use an AI generator. You are an artist just by instructing prompts. You are a creator, although it’s the algorithms doing the creating.

If the goal is simply to produce outcomes, one could argue that AI usage should not just be tolerated but encouraged. But education shouldn’t be about producing outcomes – whether it be a sparkling essay or a gripping short story – but shaping souls. The purpose of writing isn’t to instruct a prompt or even to produce a quality paper. The purpose is to become a strong thinker and someone who enriches the lives of everyone, no matter their profession. 

Each and every step of the struggle it takes to write is essential. Yes, it can all be arduous and time-consuming. As a writer, I get how hard it is and how tempting it might be to take shortcuts. But doing so is cheating oneself out of growth and intellectual payoff. Outsourcing parts of the process to algorithms and machines is outsourcing the rewards of doing one’s own thinking. Organizing ideas, refining word choices, thinking about tone are all skills that many citizens in this nation lack, and it’s often apparent in our chaotic, senseless public discourse. These are not steps to be skipped over with a “tool,” but rather things people benefit from learning if they value reason. Strong writing is strong thinking.

But these thoughts aren’t just my own opinions. A recent MIT study shows that AI usage decreases cognitive function like critical thinking. Seems rather odd to insist that something proven to weaken our brains should be introduced to places where institutions of learning, isn’t it?

Many argue that in order to thrive in today’s job market, young people need to master the skill of “writing prompts.” The assumption is that it’s a great skill to learn how to tell a robot to do a job for you; a skill so great, in fact, that we need to send kids to school for it.  For decades, educators have argued kids need screen time to prepare them for today’s job market. They acted as if using the internet were a skill that needs years of training when in reality three-year-olds naturally become experts. Let us first focus on developing the minds of the youth — something best done without AI assistance — and then let them use those skills in the workplace as needed. Students should aspire to be more than mere “prompt writers,” but minds capable of thinking, reasoning, and perseverance.

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School District Accused of Putting Disabled Students in Wooden Crates While Promoting “Diversity”

Every major failure in public education follows the same pattern: administrators become fluent in slogans while their most basic duties collapse.

The unfolding scandal in the Salmon River Central School District is a case study in how a system that advertises “values” can fail students in practice—spectacularly, expensively, and with little accountability.

Salmon River Central School District serves roughly 1,300 students in Fort Covington, New York, near the Canadian border. The district spends approximately $41 million annually, translating to about $29,000 per student. Under any reasonable standard, that level of funding should produce strong academic outcomes and attentive student support.

Instead, just 16% of students are proficient in math and only 25% in reading on state exams. Those numbers reflect a deeper systemic failure that extends far beyond this single district and across much of the public education system.

Yet a visit to the district’s public-facing materials tells a different story. The front page of the district’s website prominently emphasizes diversity, language, and institutional values, projecting moral seriousness and cultural awareness.

That messaging now stands in stark contrast to allegations that elementary students with disabilities were confined in wooden “timeout” boxes—structures parents described as resembling small padded cells.

According to reporting confirmed by local outlets, district officials are under investigation after images circulated on social media showing wooden enclosures built inside two elementary schools.

The district acknowledged that three such crates existed, claiming they were never used and have since been dismantled.

Parents told a very different story at a community meeting, alleging that their children were placed inside the boxes as a form of seclusion.

One parent of a minimally verbal child said his son described the structures as a place students were sent “to calm down,” regardless of emotional state.

That description alone should alarm anyone familiar with special education law.

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NYC teachers discover teens can’t read clocks after school cellphone ban

Time got away from them!

New York City teachers have found that scores of teenagers can’t read traditional clocks after a cellphone ban in schools statewide — because students figured the skill would be useless in the digital era, according to a report.

“The constant refrain is ‘Miss, what time is it?’” said Madi Mornhinweg, who teaches high school English in Manhattan.

“It’s a source of frustration because everyone wants to know how many minutes are left in class,” she told Gothamist. “It finally got to the point where I started saying, ‘Where’s the big hand and where’s the little hand?’”

Many tech-minded teens have no clue what time it is during the course of the school day because classrooms generally only have analog clocks on the walls, teachers told the outlet.

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