Tag: public schools

Missouri 13-Year-Old Suspended for Making a Rifle Out of Dr. Pepper Cans

A 13-year-old Missouri middle school student was suspended for sharing a photo of his weekend art project on his private Snapchat account. The student, W.G., and his mother Riley Grunden are now suing the school district, principal, and superintendent for violating W.G.’s constitutionally protected First Amendment right to creative expression and for labeling him a “cyberbully” on his permanent record. 

While at home after school on September 14, 2024, W.G. took a photo on his personal electronic device of Dr. Pepper cans assembled into the shape of a rifle to mimic a social media trend of “can art,” according to the lawsuit filed by Goldwater Institute’s American Freedom Network. He then posted the photo on his personal Snapchat story to share with his friends. The post was accompanied by a trending audio file, titled “Ak47,” which includes a voiceover saying, “This is the famous AK47, with over 50 million manufactured in ten countries, the AK47 is the most popular assault rifle in the world.” 

The following day, W.G.’s mother received a phone call from W.G.’s school principal, who informed her that another parent had reported the Snapchat post and that W.G. would be subject to a search before entering the school premises the next day. The day after the search, Grunden met with the principal, superintendent, and school resource officer, where she and W.G. were told that, even though the superintendent had found “no credible evidence of any danger,” the Snapchat post had “brought fear to other students” and could be interpreted as a “terrorist threat.” As a result, W.G. would receive three days of out-of-school suspension for cyberbullying. Before this incident, W.G. had no history of bullying or cyberbullying. Now, Grunden is suing on behalf of her son’s free expression rights. 

Although adolescent social media and internet use is one of today’s hot topics, the Supreme Court has made it clear that schools do not have the right to punish students for constitutionally protected speech that has no connection to school safety. 

The Court’s 2021 Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. opinion reiterated schools’ limited ability to regulate off-campus speech only when speech materially disrupts the educational environment, and hedged against the temptation to censor all off-campus speech. Rather, the Court warned that “courts must be more skeptical of a school’s efforts to regulate off-campus speech, for doing so may mean the student cannot engage in that kind of speech at all.” Additionally, in the 2023 Counterman v. Colorado opinion, the Court established that speech could only be punished as a “true threat” if the speaker anticipated that the expression would be perceived as threatening. 

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How No-Consequence Schooling Turns Kids Like Karmelo Anthony Into Killers

Earlier this month, 17-year-old high school student Austin Metcalf was stabbed to death at a track meet in Frisco, Texas. Metcalf died in his twin brother’s arms.

As an educator who lives just down the road, I know too well how our system failed to keep Metcalf out of harm’s way.

Karmelo Anthony, also 17, has been charged with first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing. They had never met before the track meet, according a witness. Anthony brought a knife to the track meet and sat under another team’s tent. When asked to move, he reportedly refused and became aggressive. Metcalf stepped in to ask him to move again, to which Anthony responded, “Make me move,” according to Metcalf’s twin, who watched the events. Then Austin Metcalf grabbed Anthony’s backpack and Anthony stabbed him in the chest, his brother said.

Some have tried to make this about race — Metcalf was white, Anthony was black. But let’s not make this about race. This is about human decency and the culture that has eroded it.

A dangerous mindset has won over many young men today. It tells them that nothing really matters — burn it all down and take what you can. It demands respect while offering none in return. It scoffs at authority, mocks standards, and justifies any action that serves one’s immediate desires. I have seen this mindset spread in my years working at a relatively well-off suburban high school down the road from Metcalf’s school. Countless examples come to mind.

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School’s HR chief: ‘We’re going with the black person … no matter what’

The O’Keefe Media Group released undercover video of Jonathan Ferrer, the HR Director for Summit Public Schools, a charter network operating in California and Washington, admitting to race-based hiring.

Ferrer admitted to violating Title VII, California FEHA (prohibits discrimination) and school policy.

“You get presented with, on equal merits, like a white person or a black person or whatever. Yeah, we’re going with the black person,” Ferrer told the undercover OMG reporter.

“Whenever there’s a qualified candidate and they happen to identify differently or present differently, we’re probably going with that person… That’s what DEI is all about,” Ferrer told the undercover journalist.

“We have one trans teacher in our district, and, so, I think it’s just culturally, we just naturally look for those folks,” he said.

When asked if Summit Public Schools would ever hire a Trump supporter, Ferrer said, “I don’t think we would hire them.”

“We do have DEI questions built into our selection process,” Ferrer said. “We have a rubric… if they say any of these things, this is not someone who’s answering the question the way we’re aligned to answer the question.”

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Judge Rules School Can Ban ‘XX’ Protests Over Males in Girls’ Sports

The Bow School District was acting within its authority to kick two soccer dads out of a girls game for wearing pink “XX” wristbands as a silent protest against biological males playing on girls’ teams, a federal judge ruled Monday.

But one of the dads, Anthony Foote, told NHJournal he plans to keep fighting for what he sees as the rights of women and girls.

“What was our offense? Supporting girls’ sports and defending biological reality?” Foote said. “This ruling is a slap in the face to every parent who believes schools should be a place of fairness, not political indoctrination. The judge openly admitted that Pride flags are allowed because they promote ‘inclusion,’ but wristbands defending women’s sports are banned because they might ‘offend’ someone. That’s viewpoint discrimination, plain and simple — and it’s unconstitutional.”

United States District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe ruled against Foote, Kyle Fellers, Eldon Rash, and Nicole Foote in a 45-page order denying their preliminary injunction against SAU 67. The parents are being represented by the Institute for Free Speech, a legal nonprofit that promotes parents’ rights. Del Kolde, the senior attorney, said he is still considering his next steps in this case.

“We strongly disagree with the Court’s opinion issued today denying our request for a preliminary injunction. This was adult speech in a limited public forum, which enjoys greater First Amendment protection than student speech in the classroom. Bow School District officials were obviously discriminating based on viewpoint because they perceived the XX wristbands to be ‘trans-exclusionary.’ We are still evaluating our options for next steps,” Kolde said.

The crux of McAuliffe’s ruling is that while Fellers, Foote, and the others acted within their First Amendment rights to protest, venues like school athletic events are considered “limited public forums” and school officials acted within their legal authority to restrict what the parents said and did.

“The question then becomes whether the School District can manage its athletic events and its athletic fields and facilities — that is, its limited public forum — in a manner that protects its students from adult speech that can reasonably be seen to target a specific student participating in the event (as well as other similar gender-identifying students) by invited adult spectators, when that speech demeans, harasses, intimidates, and bullies. The answer is straightforward: Of course it can. Indeed, school authorities are obligated to do so,” McAuliffe wrote.

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Showdown Looms Over Trump’s DEI Ban in Public Schools

Several blue states have joined New York in resisting federal efforts to end diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in public schools.

Leaders in California, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Wisconsin, and Washington said they wouldn’t provide a signed statement to the federal government by an April 24 deadline to certify compliance with President Donald Trump’s executive order prohibiting practices such as diversity training, affinity groups by race and gender, preferential hiring practices by race, and classroom curricula that include progressive ideologies such as critical race theory.

The federal correspondence sent to state education agencies asked leaders to report back on behalf of all their school districts. New York was the first state to dismiss the request, and the other states followed suit last week.

“There is nothing in state or federal law—including Title VI—that outlaws the broad concepts of ‘diversity,‘ ‘equity,’ or ’inclusion,’” David Schapira, California Department of Education deputy superintendent, wrote in an April 11 letter to school districts.

States and districts that don’t comply risk losing federal education funding in accordance with Civil Rights law and a 2023 Supreme Court decision banning racial preferences in college admissions, the federal letter states.

It’s unclear where other states stand in this process. The Department of Education informed The Epoch Times that Puerto Rico, a U.S. commonwealth, had complied with the order, but the agency had not reported updates by state.

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The Education Bureaucrats Are Still Coming For America’s Children

Last month, President Trump started making good on a campaign promise to end federal tyranny over American education. After his newly minted Secretary of Education Linda McMahon laid off roughly half of her department’s workforce, the president signed an executive order directing her to preside over the complete elimination of the department.

Needless to say, the usual suspects in the educational establishment are very upset by this move to crush an important revenue stream. After the mass firings, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten whined that “denuding an agency so it cannot function effectively is the most cowardly way of dismantling it.” She made no mention of her own cowardice in the face of Covid-19, which provoked the revolution in education that she and her cronies have spent the past several years trying to suppress.

While the proposed demise of the Department of Education is certainly a reason for celebration, educational reformers must keep the pressure on. Educrats (especially teachers unions) still have very deep pockets combined with a complete lack of conscience regarding their effect on American children, so it will take more than just the end of the federal government’s covering fire to slay this dragon.

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SICK: Sociopathic Leftist in Michigan Supposedly Angered Over School Policy on Gay Pride Flags THREATENS Life of a Board Trustee With a Luigi Mangione Reference 

Luigi Mangione’s cold-blooded murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson has garnered sympathy from radical leftists across the country. One man in Michigan was inspired enough by what Mangione did to issue an apparent threat on the life of a school board trustee in Michigan.

As the Daily Wire reported, school board members in Grosse Pointe, Michigan were left stunned after a local leftist activist threatened the life of School Board Trustee Sean Cotton.

Ian Seaman said during his remarks he was angry over the school’s policy on hanging gay pride flags in classrooms and there would be a price to pay.

Video footage captured from Seaman’s speech also shows him wearing a backpack, just like Mangione did during the brutal murder of Thompson.

“It’s one thing to say, you know, we don’t want rainbow flags in our schools and to have, you know, the people that you pay $60,000 a year in journalism salary to, to repeat the talking points, Seaman said to Cotton.

“It’s another thing to pay $60,000 a year, which is a teacher’s salary to a Republican action committee or anything like that,” he added before his remarks took an even darker turn.

“So, fortunate for you, I am no Luigi. But to some disgruntled teen with his or her father’s pistol or rifle, any of the other things you prefer in school other than rainbow flags, you might be a Brian Thompson.”

The audience applauded after hearing Seaman’s awful remarks.

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Here Are The WhatsApp Messages Those British Parents Were ARRESTED For…

A British couple who were arrested for complaining about their child’s school in a WhatsApp group have revealed the messages that led to their insane incarceration.

As we highlighted earlier this week, Police arrested Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levin in front of their daughter on suspicion of malicious communications, harassment, and causing a nuisance on school property.

Mr Allen noted “we have never even been told what these communications were that were supposedly criminal, which is completely Kafkaesque.”

Now the messages have come to light, and they are completely innocuous.

The couple complained about the process school governors were undertaking to appoint a new headteacher, and were sent a letter by the school warning them to stop discussing it.

Following this, Levine texted the group saying “they think they have a right to control everyone” adding that parents are free to “discuss anything they like”.

She further ironically joked that the school would have them arrested, writing “Can you imagine what the ‘action’ is? Hello, 999, one of the school mums said something mean about me in a school mum WhatsApp group. Please can you arrest them?”

Allen added that “No public body has the power to control what people say about it.”

The Daily Mail noted that other parents in the group supported that sentiment.

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Parents ARRESTED For Complaining About Their Kid’s School In WhatsApp Group

The parents of a nine year old British girl were arrested by police who came to their home after they complained about their child’s school in a WhatsApp chat group.

Yes, really.

The Times reports that Police arrested Maxie Allen and Rosalind Levin in front of their daughter on suspicion of malicious communications, harassment, and causing a nuisance on school property.

The pair were thrown in a jail cell over comments they made about the Cowley Hill Primary School in Borehamwood,

The report notes that the parents had taken issue with the school’s process of hiring a new head teacher, with school governors stepping in and issuing them with a warning for causing “disharmony”.

The school later completely banned the parents from the premises and were told they could only communicate via email.

The parents were then allegedly accused by the school of making “disparaging” remarks about the institution and “casting aspersions” in a  parents’ group on WhatsApp, prompting the school to contact police. 

The police then ordered the parents to remove their child’s from the school, which they did, yet they were still arrested a week later on their own doorstep and kept in jail for 11 hours.

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Feds Investigating Maine DOE Over Allegations That Schools Are Hiding Gender Transitions from Parents

The U.S. Department of Education has launched an investigation into the Maine Department of Education over allegations that schools in the state may have violated federal law by hiding student gender transitions from parents.

The probe, announced on Friday, will look for breaches of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

The U.S. D.O.E. said in a press release:

This investigation comes amid reports that dozens of Maine school districts are violating or misusing FERPA by maintaining policies that infringe on parents’ rights. The districts’ policies allegedly allow for schools to create “gender plans” supporting a student’s “transgender identity” and then claim those plans are not education records under FERPA and therefore not available to parents.

This action, alongside SPPO’s investigation initiated yesterday into the California Department of Education, is in furtherance of U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s directives to strengthen FERPA enforcement by taking action against schools misusing FERPA and clearing the backlog of complaints submitted to SPPO that accumulated under the Biden Administration.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education said in a statement, “We take seriously any allegations that schools or state agencies may be denying parents their lawful rights to access their children’s education records. This investigation will determine if Maine’s policies and practices align with federal law.”

“Parents and guardians have the right to access their child’s education records to guide and safeguard their child’s mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Any policy to the contrary is both illegal and immoral,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet with several young people who shared their detransitioning stories. It is deeply concerning to hear that teachers and school counselors in Maine are reportedly encouraging and helping students to undergo so-called ‘gender transitions’ while keeping parents in the dark. The Trump Administration will enforce all federal laws to safeguard students and families.”

Parents Defending Education Founder and President Nicole Neily said of the investigation, “Under the previous Administration, we were fighting to protect our children from irreversible ‘sex changes’ – a path too often facilitated by school personnel who we entrusted with our children. We are proud to stand with President Trump and Secretary McMahon to hold school districts accountable and ensure no child is socially transitioned behind parent’s backs by teachers or administrators,”

Maine’s Department of Education has not yet issued a statement addressing the matter.

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