Tag: public schools

Venezuelan Illegal Alien Former Illinois School Teacher Arrested by ICE After Driving Tren de Aragua Gangsters to Chicago House Party Massacre That Killed Three and Wounded Five

A 32-year-old Venezuelan illegal immigrant who was teaching in an Illinois classroom has been arrested by ICE for allegedly acting as the driver and getaway accomplice for two Tren de Aragua (TDA) gang members during a brutal December 2024 mass shooting in Chicago that left three people dead and five others wounded.

Giovanna Mercedes Moreno Occhipinti, a Venezuelan national with dual Italian citizenship, entered the United States in October 2021 under the Visa Waiver Program but overstayed her visa.

She was taken into ICE custody on May 13, 2026, and is currently being held at the Grayson County Detention Center in Leitchfield, Kentucky, pending removal from the country, Fox News reported.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, Occhipinti drove two alleged TDA gang members, Ricardo Granadillo Padilla and Edward Martinez Cermeno, to a house party in Chicago’s Gage Park neighborhood on December 2, 2024.

The gunmen opened fire on the crowd. Three people were killed and five were wounded. Federal authorities say she then helped the shooters flee the scene of the slaughter.

Chicago Police arrested Occhipinti just three days later, on December 5, 2024, after finding multiple weapons in her vehicle. But because Chicago and Illinois are militant sanctuary jurisdictions, she was released without ICE ever being notified, despite the obvious public safety threat tied to a triple homicide.

The two actual shooters were eventually deported. One had even been released from ICE custody earlier by a federal judge due to prosecutorial issues. Occhipinti remained free in the community and was reportedly working as a teacher at a school in the Chicago suburb of Elgin until HSI agents finally tracked her down months later.

Illinois officials have refused to disclose to DHS which school employed her.

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California’s Gender Secrecy Law Suffers Another Setback in Federal Court

A federal appeals court temporarily blocked a California gender secrecy law that allows schools to hide students’ “gender transitions” from parents. 

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit struck another blow to the law on Thursday, siding with the City of Huntington Beach over the State of California. A three-judge panel issued a preliminary injunction blocking the law as litigation continues, specifically citing the Supreme Court’s March ruling against the law in a separate case called Mirabelli v. Bonta. 

“In light of Mirabelli, the Movants are likely to succeed on the merits of their constitutional claim, including the required threshold showing of Article III standing,” the panel wrote.

Nick Barry, senior counsel at America First Legal (AFL) representing the City of Huntington Beach in the case, called the Ninth Circuit’s decision a “powerful vindication of parental rights.”

“California cannot use state law to force schoolteachers and administrators into a conspiracy of silence against parents. California’s law, and similar school policies, use state coercion to intentionally interfere with the parent-child relationship and separate a child from their parent,” Barry said in a statement. “That is wrong and unlawful. The Constitution is clear — parents have the right to know what is happening with their children and make decisions regarding their mental health, and no state law can override that fundamental protection.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed the law in July 2024, making California the first state to ban school districts from requiring staff to inform parents if their child changes “gender” identification at school.

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LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho resigns amid ongoing investigation

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Superintendent Alberto Carvalho resigned on Sunday, bringing a abrupt end to his tenure leading the nation’s second-largest school system.

The resignation came nearly four months after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executed early-morning search warrants at his San Pedro home and district headquarters, an ordeal that led the Board of Education to place him on paid administrative leave just days later.

Authorities have not publicly disclosed the exact nature of the federal investigation, though sources indicate it is tied at least in part to the district’s contract with AllHere, an educational technology firm that provided a short-lived artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot before collapsing into bankruptcy amid fraud charges against its founder.

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NY Pride Group Disbands After Drag Queen Founder – A School Board Member – Arrested On Child Sexting Charges

A New York LGBTQ+ advocacy group has canceled a scheduled pride parade and disbanded after its founder was arrested on child-sexting charges. 

Travis J. Longo, 46, of Cazenovia – a drag queen and a member of the Cazenovia School District Board of Education (of course), was arrested on Thursday and charged with four counts of endangering the welfare of a child after allegedly sending sexually explicit communications to a child under the age of 12. 

In a now-deleted Facebook post, the group Longo founded, Cazenova Pride Inc., announced that it is “canceling this year’s Pride Festival and all associated events, and we are dissolving as an organization.” 

“This decision follows serious criminal charges against Travis Longo, the founder of Cazenovia Pride Fest and a longtime figure in our organization,” the post continues. “Travis Longo has no further affiliation with Cazenovia Pride Inc.”

Longo, who reportedly performed as a drag queen under the name “Anita Buffem,” was listed as a “hostess” at the first Pride festival in Cazenovia in 2021, which was organized by Pride Cazenovia, The Blaze reports.

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Arkansas Governor Sarah Sanders Announces Big Gains in Test Scores After Schools Ban Critical Race Theory and Gender Nonsense to Focus on the Basics

Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas has announced that the state is making big gains in education after moving to ban the teaching of Critical Race Theory, gender nonsense and other forms of ‘social justice’ in schools.

It’s amazing what can be done when schools focus on teaching basic things like reading, writing, and math.

Sanders also encouraged teachers by raising their pay and creating incentives for success. She is basically doing the opposite of every Democrat governor in the country and it’s working.

FOX News reports:

Gov Sanders reveals ‘major breakthrough’ on education as red state positions itself as ‘blueprint’ for nation

As Democrats across the country criticize education programs in red states, Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is touting a major achievement in her state she hopes will serve as an education blueprint for all states, regardless of politics, nationwide.

“The thing we’re most excited about is the fact that so many Arkansas students are doing better now than they would have been doing pre-LEARNS legislation,” Sanders told Fox News Digital on the day her office announced a “major breakthrough” in education following implementation of a 2023 Republican-backed statewide education overhaul, known as the LEARNS Act.

The law also raised the minimum teacher salary from $36,000 to $50,000, created performance-based teacher bonuses, boosted literacy support, funded school safety initiatives and banned critical race theory and classroom teachings related to critical race theory, gender identity, sexual orientation and sexually explicit materials.

Arkansas public school students are seeing sharp gains on a new statewide exam, with proficiency rates rising more than 7% across all grades and subjects in just three years under the state’s conservative education reforms. Since 2024, student proficiency has increased by more than 7% and by more than 5% since 2025, according to the governor’s office.

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White Kids Are Now Less Than Half of All Students Enrolled in American Schools, Latino Numbers Surging

White students now make up less than half of all kids enrolled in American schools from pre-K through graduate programs, according to new Census Bureau data.

The shift represents a significant demographic change in the nation’s education system.

According to a report from Axios, as of October 2024, white non-Hispanic, non-multiracial students account for 48.8 percent of total enrollment across public, private, and homeschool settings.

This marks a decline from 46.7 million white students in 2000 to 36.6 million in 2024.

Latino enrollment has grown sharply over the same period.

In 2000, there were 10.2 million Latino students.

By 2024, that number had risen to 18.4 million, making Latinos the second-largest group at 24.4 percent of total students.

The demographic change is most visible in early childhood and K-12 education.

White non-Hispanic children make up around 47 percent of students in nurseries and kindergartens, and 48 percent in elementary and high schools.

In higher education, white students still hold a slim majority at 51.1 percent, though this is expected to continue declining as more diverse K-12 students move through the system.

The report did not state how many of the rising Latino population are illegal migrants.

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Public Schools Are In A Downward Spiral

After decades of steady growth, attendance in U.S. K-12 public schools has shifted drastically. Over the past five years, registration has fallen by 2.3 percent, or 1.18 million students, and schools show no signs of rebounding. Lower birth rates are the primary driver of the downturn. The number of births has decreased steadily in recent years, with 690,000 fewer children born in 2024 than in 2007.

California lost nearly 75,000 K-12 students as of the 2025-26 school year, a slide more than twice as steep as the previous year.

Since 2017-2018, the Golden State has seen a 10 percent decline.

New York City has also been hard hit.

As of the 2025–26 school year, 793,300 students are enrolled in K-12 schools, down nearly 10 percent from 2020.

The loss of enrolled students has prompted some desperate measures. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is offering “free” childcare for 2-year-olds regardless of their parents’ income. In 2024, parents of toddlers spent an average of more than $23,000 on center-based childcare, according to the NYC Comptroller.

For those still attending public schools, chronic absence—the percentage of students missing 10 percent or more of a school year—is a growing problem. As of January 20, the latest data show that chronic absenteeism, which surged from 15 percent pre-COVID to 28 percent in 2022, remains elevated at 24 percent.

Nat Malkus, American Enterprise Institute’s director of education policy, notes that the surge in absenteeism affects districts of all sizes, racial backgrounds, and income levels. However, the data reveal significant racial and ethnic disparities, with 39 percent of black students, 36 percent of Hispanic students, 24 percent of white students, and 15 percent of Asian students chronically absent.

A major factor behind rising absenteeism is that many students lack motivation to attend school. In 2024, Gallup and the Walton Family Foundation surveyed more than 1,000 Gen Z students ages 12 to 18 and found that only 48 percent of those enrolled in middle or high school feel motivated to attend. Only half said they do something interesting in school every day. Similarly, a 2024 EdChoice poll found that 64 percent of teens said school is boring, and 30 percent view it as a waste of time.

Additionally, a 2024 survey revealed that nearly 64 percent of school parents say K-12 education is headed in the wrong direction, up 8 points from 2023.

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White British Children Set to Become Minority in England’s Schools, Department of Education Data Reveals

England’s latest school census has revealed a historic demographic turning point, with White British pupils having fallen below 60 percent of the school population for the first time, confirming what critics of mass immigration have warned for years—the country is being transformed, potentially irreversibly, at breathtaking speed.

According to Department for Education data for the 2025–2026 school year, pupils identified as White British now make up just 59.7 percent of schoolchildren in England. Pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds have reached nearly 39 percent, a record high.

Only a decade ago, White British pupils made up roughly 70 percent of all schoolchildren. In just ten years, the share of White British children in England’s classrooms has fallen by around ten percentage points.

The data, for opponents of mass immigration, are not just school statistics, but evidence of a national transformation that has advanced without clear public consent, serious parliamentary debate, or honest warnings from the political class.

British academic and commentator Matt Goodwin has pointed to the figures as proof that demographic change is accelerating. He argues that classrooms offer the clearest preview of Britain’s future because today’s pupils will become tomorrow’s voters, workers, parents, and citizens.

The trend is visible across the education system. In state-funded secondary schools, the White British share has dropped from 71 percent to 59 percent over the past decade.

Primary schools show the same pattern. White British pupils have fallen from 68 percent to just under 60 percent.

But the nursery figures are the most striking. White British children now make up only 47 percent of nursery pupils, down from 69 percent in 2016–2017.

That means White British children are already a minority among England’s youngest pupils. This, for a growing number of critics of globalist imposed demographic change at a rate never before seen, is the real warning sign—not a distant forecast, but the demographic future arriving in real time.

London has already passed the point completely. White British pupils are now a minority in every one of the capital’s 33 local authorities.

The same transformation is spreading far beyond London. In Milton Keynes, White British pupils account for 41.5 percent of schoolchildren.

In Blackburn, the figure stands at 38.4 percent. Bradford records 37.3 percent, while Wolverhampton is at 34.5 percent.

The numbers are lower in some of England’s largest urban centers. Manchester stands at 28.7 percent, while Birmingham is listed at 23.6 percent in one section of the source material.

Leicester records 19.5 percent. Barking and Dagenham stands at 14.9 percent, Luton at 13.7 percent, and Slough at just 9.2 percent.

One section of the source material lists Birmingham even lower, underscoring how dramatically some areas have changed. But the precise local figure matters less than the national reality: the White British share of England’s school-age population is falling fast.

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4 California School Districts Under DoJ Review Over Gender Ideology, Sex Ed Policies

Four California public school districts face federal inquiries into whether their policies and practices regarding instruction on sexual orientation and gender ideology violate students’ civil rights.

The districts under Justice Department review are all in Northern California, with three in Monterey County—Graves Elementary School District, Santa Rita Union School District, and Soledad Unified School District—as well as San Francisco Unified School District. Their students range from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.

The reviews will determine whether the districts notify parents of their right to opt their children out of instruction on sexual orientation and gender ideology, also known as SOGI, and whether district practices align with federal protections against sex discrimination.

“This Department of Justice will not tolerate local school authorities trampling on the rights of parents concerning the education of their children,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the department’s Civil Rights Division said in a June 8 statement.

“The Supreme Court’s recent decisions in ‘Mahmoud’ and ‘Mirabelli’ have put all school districts on notice: policies that keep parents in the dark about sexuality and gender ideology in the classroom must end now.”

California law mandates sex education to encompass these topics, and state provisions give parents the right to opt their children out of the instruction on these subjects, either entirely or in part.

The San Francisco Unified School District has previously told its teachers that neither parental permission nor notification is needed to teach or discuss SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) topics in the classroom.

In addition, SOGI topics “appear to be embedded in California’s social studies and history classes,” according to the DOJ statement.

The reviews will also cover policies permitting access to single-sex intimate spaces such as bathrooms and locker rooms, in addition to girls’ sports teams, based on a student’s perceived gender identity rather than sex. The Justice Department will decide whether these policies are in compliance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The four districts all receive federal taxpayer funding, subjecting them to Title IX’s prohibitions on sex discrimination in education programs and activities.

The department will evaluate whether the districts have enacted changes in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions in Mirabelli v. Bonta.

“Plaintiffs alleged that California’s policies permitted disclosure of a student’s gender transitioning at school only if the student consented,” the ruling states.

“Plaintiffs claimed that these policies violated their rights under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

“We conclude that the parents who seek religious exemptions are likely to succeed on the merits of their Free Exercise Clause claim.”

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Massachusetts Public School District Permits Sikh Students to Carry Knives While Banning Weapons for All Other Students

Hopkinton Public Schools in Massachusetts has a policy that carves out a specific religious exception to its strict no-weapons rule, allowing initiated Sikh students to carry a ceremonial knife known as a kirpan on school grounds, while prohibiting knives, guns, replicas, and other weapons for every other student.

The policy, formally created in 2024, makes Hopkinton the first school district in the state to explicitly accommodate the kirpan for Sikh students.

These policies have received new scrutiny following the sentencing of Vickrum Digwa, a 23-year-old Sikh man convicted of murdering 18-year-old British university student Henry Nowak in Southampton, England, on December 3.

Digwa stabbed Nowak five times with an 8-inch dagger he carried in addition to a kirpan.

Under the district’s general weapons policy, possession of any “dangerous weapon” is banned on school premises, at school-sponsored events, or on school transport. This includes guns, knives, pocket knives, slingshots, brass knuckles, explosives, ammunition, and even replicas or toys that resemble weapons.

Violations can lead to suspension, expulsion, police referral, and possible exclusion by the School Committee.

However, the policy includes a dedicated section titled “Considerations for Recognized Religious Artifacts Resembling Weapons.”

It directs that sacred religious articles must be approved annually before the start of each school year or before the student begins carrying the item. The district evaluates exceptions based on school safety and reserves the right to suspend permission during specific events.

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