Tag: public schools

Vermont Cops Terrorize High School Students With ‘Mock Shooting’

A group of Burlington, Vermont, high school students were touring a local police department as part of a forensics class this week. In the middle of a presentation from a detective, the unthinkable happened: a masked gunman burst into the room and seemed to open fire.

The students were terrified. One says she dove on the ground, hurting her knee. Another says she reached for her phone to text her mother.

But soon, the students realized that they weren’t actually being shot at. Instead, they were the victims of a bizarre “demonstration” from the local police.

According to Seven Days, a Vermont independent newspaper, the students had no idea that the presentation would involve a mock shooting. Students were watching a detective speak at the front of a room when they heard screams. Two women ran in, followed by a man wearing a ski mask, who—it seemed—began firing.

“I’m shaking and crying because I’m like, ‘Oh my god, I’m gonna get shot,'” one student told Seven Days. “It felt so real.”

The students eventually realized that the shooting was fake after police officers in the room failed to do anything to stop the apparent gunman.

While performing a fake mass shooting with high schoolers was obviously a terrible idea, it’s unclear whether high school staff also share some blame for needlessly terrifying the students. 

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Federal Appeals Court Denies Parents The Right To Opt Their Children Out Of Reading LGBTQ Books

A parent’s group made up of Muslims, Christians and Jews and the Kids First Organization filed suit last year against the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland for forcing their children to read books that involve gay, transgender and non-binary characters in different situations. On Wednesday, their appeal of an original filing was denied.

The parents’ objection, relayed through their lawyers from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, stated the curriculum was a violation of their religious rights under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. The parents demanded an opt out for their children Montgomery County Public Schools so they would not have to use the books mentioned. The system denied that opt out right.

The books were approved for use in the school system’s classrooms in 2022. The suit was denied in the lower court causing parents to file an appeal to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The lower court had declined to issue a preliminary injunction against the s citing the parents “lack of standing” in the issue.

On Wednesday the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals court in Richmond, Virginia stated that parents had not demonstrated how the MCPS book policy violated their right to exercise their religious freedom. U.S. Circuit Judge G. Steven Agee said the group had not given enough evidence to show that teachers were using LGBTQ+ books in their classrooms and had not demonstrated what teachers were teaching through the books.

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This Student Was Allegedly Suspended for Saying ‘Illegal Aliens.’ Did That Violate the First Amendment?

A 16-year-old boy has kicked off a free speech debate—one that’s already attracting spectators beyond his North Carolina county—after he was suspended for allegedly “making a racially insensitive remark that caused a class disturbance.”

The racially insensitive remark: referring to undocumented immigrants as “illegal aliens.” Invoking that term would produce the beginning of a legal odyssey, still in its nascent stages, in the form of a federal lawsuit arguing that Central Davidson High School Assistant Principal Eric Anderson violated Christian McGhee’s free speech rights for temporarily barring him from class over a dispute about offensive language.

What constitutes offensive speech, of course, depends on who is evaluating. During an April English lesson, McGhee says he sought clarification on a vocabulary word: aliens. “Like space aliens,” he asked, “or illegal aliens without green cards?” In response, a Hispanic student—another minor whom the lawsuit references under the pseudonym “R.”—reportedly joked that he would “kick [McGhee’s] ass.” 

The exchange prompted a meeting with Anderson, the assistant principal. “Mr. Anderson would later recall telling [McGhee] that it would have been more ‘respectful’ for [McGhee] to phrase his question by referring to ‘those people’ who ‘need a green card,'” McGhee’s complaint notes. “[McGhee] and R. have a good relationship. R. confided in [McGhee] that he was not ‘crying’ in his meeting with Anderson”—the principal allegedly claimed R. was indeed in tears over the exchange—”nor was he ‘upset’ or ‘offended’ by [McGhee’s] question. R. said, ‘If anyone is racist, it is [Mr. Anderson] since he asked me why my Spanish grade is so low’—an apparent reference to R.’s ethnicity.”

McGhee’s peer received a short in-school suspension, while McGhee was barred from campus for three days. He was not permitted an appeal, per the school district’s policy, which forecloses that avenue if a suspension is less than 10 days. And while a three-day suspension probably doesn’t sound like it would induce the sky to fall, McGhee’s suit notes that he hopes to secure an athletic scholarship for college, which may now be in jeopardy.

So the question of the hour: If the facts are as McGhee construed them, did Anderson violate the 16-year-old’s First Amendment rights? In terms of case law, the answer is a little more nebulous than you might expect. But it still seems that vindication is a likely outcome (and, at least in my opinion, rightfully so). 

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Wisconsin elementary school teacher, 24, busted for ‘making out’ with 5th-grader — three months before wedding

A 24-year-old Wisconsin elementary school teacher was arrested Wednesday for allegedly “making out” with her fifth-grade student — less than three months before her wedding.

Madison Bergmann’s alleged abuse of the 11-year-old boy came to light when the student’s mother overheard her son talking to the teacher on the phone, CBS News Minnesota reported.

The victim’s parents allegedly found texts between the pair, and the boy’s father then stormed into River Crest Elementary School with printouts of the conversations.

The deranged text chain included messages from Bergmann allegedly discussing multiple encounters inside the classroom during lunch or after school.

She is also accused of telling the child how much she enjoyed him touching her and “making out,” the charging documents state.

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‘Equity’ Grading Is the Latest Educational Fad Destined To Fail

Modern public-education history is littered with novel education theories that have failed so spectacularly that the terms are now used as pejoratives. For instance, when I was in elementary school in the 1960s, the “New Math” focused on teaching abstractions rather than fundamentals. You can find reams of research documenting its failure decades later, but the evidence was recognized almost immediately.

That then-new approach “ignored completely the fact that mathematics is a cumulative development and that it is practically impossible to learn the newer creations if one does not know the older ones,” according to Morris Kline’s 1973 “Common Core,” a set of educational standards embraced by California and 39 other states in 2010. On hindsight, it also deserves a failing grade.

“Despite the theory’s intuitive appeal, standards-based reform does not work very well in reality,” read a 2021 Brookings Institution report. “The illusion of a coherent, well-coordinated system is gained at the expense of teachers’ flexibility in tailoring instruction to serve their students.” Don’t get me started on some of the loopier ones: pass-fail grading, the replacement of phonics with whole-language learning, and Social Emotional Learning (SEL).

“Education in the United States has lurched from fad to fad for the better part of a century, finding ever-ingenious ways to underperform preceding generations,” explained investigative reporter Joe Herring in a 2022 piece reviewing some of them. Apparently, there isn’t enough productive employment for education PhDs, so they spend their time dreaming up big experiments to improve education rather than focusing on the obvious ones.

The process gains life as evidence pours in about the latest underperformance. And the latest data certainly is impressive, albeit in a depressing way. Following COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, traditional public schools (and California’s in particular) couldn’t rise to the occasion. Teachers’ unions slowed re-openings. Test scores plummeted, especially for poor and minority students. Many students checked out permanently, as soaring chronic absentee rates prove.

Always eager to embrace easy-button solutions rather than, say, ideas that promote competitiveness and excellence, our school bureaucracies are on to some “innovative” ideas that have a ballpark-zero chance of improving educational outcomes. The new ones are based around the concept of equity. As with every education reform fad, they sound OK in the elevator pitch. Who doesn’t support equity? But they will create a mess that further impedes student progress.

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Wisconsin Bird Group Teaches Fourth Graders All About The ‘Gender Fluid’ Wild Kingdom

Well, everybody’s heard about the bird. The bird is, after all, the word. In this post-apocalyptic “diversity, equity, and inclusion” age, the gay bird, the trans bird, the bi-bird, is the word. Or bi-bi birdie, if you prefer. 

The Southern Wisconsin Bird Alliance, formerly known as Madison Audubon, offers “LGBTQIAP+ in Nature,” a class exploring the diverse range of sexuality and so-called gender fluidity in the animal kingdom. To fourth-graders. 

“We know that there is a beautifully wide range of ways that humans identify, and scientists have learned that there are many examples of plants and animals that are LGBTQIAP+ in nature, too!,” the alliance declares on its website. You can come out now, lavender. Your secret’s out. And ferns, the lesbians of plants, you’re not fooling anyone. 

“We created a lesson on this topic last year and recently shared with one of our fifth grade groups. It provided a great opportunity to build inclusive community within the classroom and led to thoughtful questions and discussion from the kids,” the environmental group gushes. 

Just in case you’re scoring along at home, the ever-expanding alphabet of depravity in human beings is now being foisted on unsuspecting flora and fauna.

Kids can learn all about fish “that change sex (sometimes repeatedly)” — without the help of child-mutilating doctors. They can catch up with “bisexual bonobos” (real swingers, those monkeys), or “gender fluid” hummingbirds.  

The lesson is open to grades four through eight, “with options for adjusting for elementary students through high school.” Do they save the pansexual pandas for the upperclassmen? 

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Raunchy Drag Show During New Mexico Prom Leads to Principal Being Removed and Several Employees Placed on Leave

A New Mexico high school principal has been removed, and several employees were placed on leave after a raunchy drag performance at the prom left parents outraged.

Students say that the drag performer flashed their crotch, “did twerk on a couple of students,” and “let students twerk on them.”

The lewd performance took place at the prom for Atrisco Heritage Academy High School in Albuquerque on April 20.

NBC News reports, “In a video on TikTok, students can be seen gathering around the performer in thigh-high black boots and a matching body suit, as the performer is bending over, squatting and dancing provocatively.”

The performer has been identified by local station KOB 4 as “Mythica Sahreen.”

“Honestly, it was really interesting, and I didn’t mind it. But the thing is it’s the place and where it happened, full of minors, you know, it wasn’t very appropriate for prom,” a student told the station.

Another student added, “Could have kept it more on the side of like it being more PG with the fact that they kind of did twerk on a couple students it wasn’t exactly the best, but it was something that did happen. And they did let students twerk on them.”

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Black athletic director of Baltimore high school arrested for creating AI deepfake of white principal to stage race hoax

A Maryland school athletic director was arrested at BWI-Marshall Airport after it was discovered that he had allegedly spread an AI-generated impersonation of the Pikesville High School principal that framed the principal as being racist. Dhazon Darien, 31, is looking at many charges due to the deepfake, including stalking, theft, disruption of school operations, and retaliation against a witness.

The police investigation began in January when a voice recording alleged to be school principal Eric Eiswert began making the rounds. Eiswert was temporarily removed from his position as head of the school and the school received many phone calls and social media comments and messages over the recording after it was spread on social media, according to The Baltimore Sun.

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Rutherford Institute Threatens First Amendment Lawsuit Over Censorship of Religious Content From High School Valedictorian’s Graduation Speech

The Rutherford Institute has come to the defense of a Florida high school valedictorian whose graduation speech was censored by school officials to alter and remove religious content.

Lucas Hudson, a valedictorian of the Collegiate Academy at Armwood High School in Hillsborough County, Fla., was ordered by school officials to remove religious references from his graduation speech in which he thanked the people who helped shape his character, reflected on how quickly time goes by, and urged people to use whatever time they have to love others and serve the God who loves us. School officials gave Lucas an ultimatum: either remove most of his speech’s religious content or he would not be speaking at all. In coming to Lucas’ defense, attorneys for The Rutherford Institute warn that the school’s actions violate the rights to freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment, Florida law, and the School District’s policy, and could expose the school to a lawsuit.

“If America’s schools are to impart principles of freedom and democracy to future generations, they must start by respecting the constitutional rights of their students,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “While the government may not establish or compel a particular religion, it also may not silence and suppress religious speech merely because others might take offense. People are free to ignore, disagree with, or counter the religious speech of others, but the government cannot censor private religious speech.”

As valedictorian of the Class of 2024 for the Collegiate Academy at Armwood High School, Lucas Hudson was provided the opportunity to give a graduation speech in May 2024. Lucas’s planned speech thanked the people who helped shape his character, reflected on how quickly times goes by, and briefly urged people to use the short amount of time we have to love others and to serve the God who loves us and who sent his son, Jesus, to save us. However, after submitting his speech to the principal, Lucas was told that his speech would not be accepted unless he reduced and changed the religious content. Although Lucas modified his speech, the religious message was still not acceptable to school officials who told Lucas that he needed to “make appropriate adjustments” to his speech by the next day or he would not be speaking at all. Lucas then changed his speech to only include a short sentence about the privilege of knowing the God who saved him.

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‘Grading for Equity’: Promoting Students by Banning Grades of Zero and Leaving No Class Cut-Ups Behind

Joe Feldman has faced many tough crowds in the course of successfully selling his “Grading for Equity” program to school districts across the nation. During the consultant’s presentations, teachers concerned that his approach lowers standards have rolled their eyes, questioned his understanding of students, and worse.

“A guy in the front row got his stuff together and walked out of the room,” Feldman told RealClearInvestigations.

Despite the frequent resistance from teachers, dozens of districts from California to Massachusetts are giving the consultant’s ambitious project a shot. As schools face a series of crises, including a spike in chronic absenteeism and sharp academic decline, grading for equity offers a path to better grades and higher graduation rates. Its practices include the removal of behavior in calculating grades, the end of penalties for late assignments, allowing students to retake exams, and a ban on zeros as the lowest mark.

Since the pandemic, districts have been lowering standards by making grading more lenient to help struggling students, according to several studies. But Feldman insists that his sweeping overhaul isn’t part of that controversial trend. He says the practices he promotes are a matter of fairness and accuracy in an educational system that’s stacked against blacks, Latinos and other disadvantaged students.

Grading for equity, however, stirs enough dissent among teachers and parents that some districts have dropped the difficult revamp in mid-stream. They say Feldman’s reforms are a form of leniency that brings out the worst in some students, hurting the very kids he wants to help.

“What’s most troubling are the practices that lower expectations, like giving a 50 percent grade instead of a zero even when a student doesn’t attempt the assignment,” said Meredith Coffey, a former teacher and now a researcher at Thomas B. Fordham Institute who co-wrote a report on grading for equity. “If students know that they could do nothing and get 50 percent, why would they work hard? Many would do nothing.”

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