Tag: public schools

UFO records archive finds new home with Rio Rancho Public Schools

The City of Vision is home to the largest collection of records about UFO sightings in North America.

KOB 4 found out you’ll soon be able to read through all of them yourself, and it sounds like they’ll need a lot of time.

“How you interpret what a UFO is, you know, is it miss identification of something prosaic? Is it alien? Is it something else? It doesn’t matter, at the end of the day it’s history,” said David Marler, executive director of the National UFO Historical Records Center.

Marler believes that history belongs to everyone.

“Whether you relegate UFOs, to fact fiction or folklore, it’s part of our history, it’s part of our culture. And I feel that regardless of belief, or non belief in the subject, we need to preserve this element of our culture,” said Marler. 

Marler built an addition to his Rio Rancho home to house the thousands of documents he’s collected over the years. Everything from declassified Project Blue Book files to newspaper clippings, air traffic control radio recordings are all packed inside a small room.

“It is essentially a traditional historical archive, albeit dedicated to a non-traditional subject,” said Marler. 

His collection, officially known as the National UFO Historical Records Center, is growing. Marler says more archivists are sending him their collections, so everything is under one roof.

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School APOLOGISES For Teaching Children That ISIS Is A Terrorist Group After Muslims Complain

A middle school in New Jersey has issued an apology for teaching children that the Islamic State (ISIS) is a designated terrorist organisation.

Students at Schuyler Colfax Middle School in Wayne, New Jersey, were asked to select one answer in a multiple choice test that fits with the description, “It is a terrorist organization that commits acts of violence, destroys cultural artifacts, and encourages loss of life in order to achieve its goal of global rule under strict Islamic Sharia law.”

The choice of answers was the Islamic State, Peru’s The Shining Path, al Qaeda, and the Palestinian Liberation Organisation, with Islamic State being the ‘correct’ answer.

In response, a group known as ‘Teaching While Muslim’ (TWM), charged “We have seen anti Muslim & anti Palestinian sentiments, teachers, and content in our schools over and over again. But we must not allow it to continue.”

The social media post from the group continued “Call and email everyone that you can. This is NOT okay on a million levels. Go. And yes. This is real.” 

The post ended with the hashtags “anti-Muslim racism” and “Islamophobia.”

In a further statement, the group claimed that the test “wrongly implies that terrorism is a fundamental part of an ‘Islamic State,’ and has a ‘goal of achieving global rule under strict sharia law.’” 

The group further described that as “anti-Muslim hate” and “factually inaccurate,” asserting “This is a continuation of US and Zionist propaganda aimed at fear mongering against Muslims AND Palestinians.”

“Why is the PLO on that quiz?” The statement continued, despite it being the incorrect answer to the question. 

“This is indoctrinating children to hate Muslims and making Muslim students targets of bigotry and prejudice in a place where they should feel safe,” the statement concluded.

Following this, the school caved and issued an apology.

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Louisiana becomes first state to require that Ten Commandments be displayed in public classrooms

Louisiana has become the first state to require that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public school classroom under a bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Jeff Landry on Wednesday.

The GOP-drafted legislation mandates that a poster-sized display of the Ten Commandments in “large, easily readable font” be required in all public classrooms, from kindergarten to state-funded universities. Although the bill did not receive final approval from Landry, the time for gubernatorial action – to sign or veto the bill – has lapsed.

Opponents question the law’s constitutionality, warning that lawsuits are likely to follow. Proponents say the purpose of the measure is not solely religious, but that it has historical significance. In the law’s language, the Ten Commandments are described as “foundational documents of our state and national government.”

The American Civil Liberties Union said Wednesday it was joining Americans United for Separation of Church and State and the Freedom from Religion Foundation to file a lawsuit challenging the new Louisiana legislation.

“The law violates the separation of church and state and is blatantly unconstitutional,” the groups said in a joint statement. “The First Amendment promises that we all get to decide for ourselves what religious beliefs, if any, to hold and practice, without pressure from the government. Politicians have no business imposing their preferred religious doctrine on students and families in public schools. “

In April, State Senator Royce Duplessis told CBS affiliate WWL-TV that he opposed the legislation. 

“That’s why we have a separation of church and state,” said Duplessis, who is a Democrat. “We learned the 10 Commandments when we went to Sunday school. As I said on the Senate floor, if you want your kids to learn the Ten Commandments, you can take them to church.”

The displays, which will be paired with a four-paragraph “context statement” describing how the Ten Commandments “were a prominent part of American public education for almost three centuries,” must be in place in classrooms by the start of 2025.

The posters would be paid for through donations. State funds will not be used to implement the mandate, based on language in the legislation.

The law also “authorizes” – but does not require – the display of the Mayflower Compact, the Declaration of Independence and the Northwest Ordinance in K-12 public schools.

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California Senate Approves Ban on Schools Informing Parents of Student’s Gender Identity

California lawmakers voted June 13 to advance legislation to ban school districts from notifying parents about social gender transitions at school without the student’s permission.

The state Senate voted 29–8 to approve Assembly Bill 1955 and send it back to the Assembly for final approval of amendments.

Sen. Susan Eggman (D-Stockton), who presented the bill on behalf of its author, Assemblyman Chris Ward (D-San Diego), and the 13-member California Legislative LBGTQ Caucus, said before the vote the bill would “put some guardrails” on the “forced outing” policies passed recently by some California school boards.

“We know some of those policies have not been able to go into effect. We know some of those school board members have since been recalled,” she said.

One such California school board member, Temecula Valley Unified School District Board President Joseph Komrosky, is set to be recalled after a June 4 special election in which 51 percent of voters supported his removal. The district currently requires school staff to notify parents if their children change their name, pronouns, or other such information in their school records.

The new bill codifies in law guidance from the California Department of Education that “schools must consult with a transgender student to determine who can or will be informed of the student’s transgender status, if anyone, including the student’s family.”

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High school DEI office accuses students of ‘white supremacy’ over senior gift of Thor mural in Washington State

Student council members at a Washington state high school were accused of promoting white supremacy after proposing a mural of the school’s unofficial mascot, the hammer-wielding Norse god Thor, be painted as their senior gift. 

The school district’s diversity, equity, and inclusion office raised concerns that the painting represents white supremacy and would need to be accompanied by women and people of color to meet the Evergreen Public School district’s racial and gender equity standards, KTTH reports. Klarissa Hightower is the Director of Equity and Inclusion at Evergreen Public Schools.

Student councilors at Mountain View High School in Vancouver proposed the artwork because their school’s mascot is The Thunders, and the name “Thor” translates to “thunder.” There is already a statue of Thor at the school’s main entrance, which added further confusion among the student body government.

Members of the council were summoned to appear before district staff, including the equity advancement specialist. “They had an issue with the image not being racially and gender inclusive, as well as upholding an image of pure colonization, white power, white supremacy, and even going as far as to say that it was alluding to racist and anti-black imagery in the south,” student council member Tara told KTTH. Tara said it was a “very uncomfortable position for a bunch of high school students to be put in.”

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Seventh Grader and Sisters Expelled from School Following Principal’s Controversial Decision to Limit Free Speech Over Use of the Word ‘Patriotism’

A California seventh-grade student, Jimmy Heyward, who recently went viral after his principal censored his patriotic speech, has now been banned from attending the school next year.

The Gateway Pundit reported last month that Heyward was a student at Saint Bonaventure Catholic School, where Principal Mary Flock reportedly told him to edit his campaign speech for the role of Commissioner of School Spirit and Patriotism, instructing him to remove “all parts about patriotism.”

The incident was first shared by LibsofTiktok, who wrote, “This is Jimmy. A middle schooler in California… His principal allegedly made him change his speech and remove all mention of patriotism. When he refused, she reportedly didn’t allow him to give the speech and he was forced to sit there humiliated, and watch the other contenders give their speeches…”

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Appeals Court Upholds Ban on Student Wearing ‘Only Two Genders’ Shirt

A U.S. appeals court on June 9 upheld a ban preventing a Massachusetts middle school student from wearing a shirt reading “There are only two genders.”

Another prohibition by school administrators, this time blocking the same student from wearing the shirt with “only two” covered by tape, on which was written “censored,” is also allowed under court precedent, according to the ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

“The question here is not whether the t-shirts should have been barred. The question is who should decide whether to bar them—educators or federal judges. Based on Tinker, the cases applying it, and the specific record here, we cannot say that in this instance the Constitution assigns the sensitive (and potentially consequential) judgment about what would make ‘an environment conducive to learning’ at NMS to us rather than to the educators closest to the scene,” U.S. Circuit Judge David Barron wrote for a unanimous panel of the court.

In Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1969 ruled that a ban on students wearing armbands in protest against the Vietnam War violated the students’ First Amendment rights.

U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani cited the ruling when in 2023 she ruled in favor of the administrators at the John T. Nichols Middle School (NMS) and Middleborough School District in Massachusetts against Liam Morrison (L.M.), the boy who wore the “two genders” shirt to school.

“[The school] permissibly concluded that the shirt invades the rights of others,” Judge Talwani said before quoting Tinker. “Schools can prohibit speech that is in ‘collision with the rights of others to be secure and be let alone.’”

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Maryland Elementary School Tries To Force Students To Say The Pledge

It’s been over 80 years since the Supreme Court ruled in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that schoolchildren can’t be forced to say the Pledge of Allegiance. One Maryland elementary school, however, has yet to get the memo.

According to the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a First Amendment nonprofit, Twin Ridge Elementary School officials sent an email on April 26 informing staff that state law requires “all students and teachers are required ‘to stand and face the flag and while standing give an approved salute and recite in unison the pledge of allegiance.'” 

But the email failed to note that there is a clear exception to this requirement encoded in state law—not to mention a decades-old Supreme Court ruling. Maryland law explicitly states that “any student or teacher who wishes to be excused from the requirements” of the pledge law would be excused.

“While non-participation may upset others who believe the pledge is an important expressive act, that reaction cannot overcome the First Amendment’s protection of those who decide to abstain,” Stephanie Jablonsky, a senior program officer at FIRE, wrote in a legal letter to the school last week. “Peaceful refusal to endorse a specified viewpoint cannot be grounds for punishment. The same holds for teachers and staff.”

FIRE has called on Twin Ridge Elementary to “correct its April 26 directive and notify staff of their rights and their students’ rights” to not recite the pledge.

Unfortunately, this is far from the first time that public schools have attempted to force students and staff to say the Pledge of Allegiance in recent years.

In 2018, officials in a Texas school district settled with a student who was expelled for refusing to stand for the pledge. But before the case was over, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton publicly took the school’s side and attempted to intervene on their behalf in the federal case.

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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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