The US schools with their own police

The US schools with their own police: "More and more US schools have police patrolling the corridors. Pupils are being arrested for throwing paper planes and failing to pick up crumbs from the canteen floor. Why is the state criminalising normal childhood behaviour?

The charge on the police docket was "disrupting class". But that's not how 12-year-old Sarah Bustamantes saw her arrest for spraying two bursts of perfume on her neck in class because other children were bullying her with taunts of "you smell".

"I'm weird. Other kids don't like me," said Sarah, who has been diagnosed with attention-deficit and bipolar disorders and who is conscious of being overweight. "They were saying a lot of rude things to me. Just picking on me. So I sprayed myself with perfume. Then they said: 'Put that away, that's the most terrible smell I've ever smelled.' Then the teacher called the police."

The policeman didn't have far to come. He patrols the corridors of Sarah's school, Fulmore Middle in Austin, Texas. Like hundreds of schools in the state, and across large parts of the rest of the US, Fulmore Middle has its own police force with officers in uniform who carry guns to keep order in the canteens, playgrounds and lessons. Sarah was taken from class, charged with a criminal misdemeanour and ordered to appear in court...."

A History of Violence: How Our Culture of Fear is Compromising America's Schools

A History of Violence: How Our Culture of Fear is Compromising America's Schools: "In the wake of yet another school shooting, a 45-year veteran of the classroom explores the impact of fear in the schoolhouse.

I went to junior high and high school in Hiram, Ohio, only about twenty miles away from Chardon, whose students experienced this week the latest of what seems to be an endless series of murders in places that are supposed to be our secular sanctuaries. Deadly violence in a schoolhouse seems a most brutal desecration.

What ensues also fits a pattern: an eruption of grief, followed by a brief, evanescent unity in our community, our nation. And then comes the finger-pointing. Pointing a finger--analogous, of course, to pointing a pistol...."

Bullying may have pushed Chardon shooter

Bullying may have pushed Chardon shooter: "TOLEDO, Ohio (WUPW) - Classmates of the Chardon High School gunman describe him as an outcast who had been bullied in school. Experts in the school system in Toledo say noticing signs of emotional distress is the key to keeping kids safe.

"It's just tragic, and it sends a huge shock wave through our country, and to all the schools. Because we'd like to think that this is the safest place to be on the planet. But then something like this happens and everybody's fearful," said Frank DiLallo, Prevention and Intervention Schools Consultant for the Catholic Diocese of Toledo.

An exact cause of the rampage at Chardon High School is still unclear. However, some students say bullying may have played a part. That possibility has school officials in the Toledo area thinking about their procedures...."

RSA Animate - Changing Education Paradigms

Florida GOP Considers Bill Which Would Allow Student Government To Vote For School Prayer Over Objection Of Religious Minorities

Florida GOP Considers Bill Which Would Allow Student Government To Vote For School Prayer Over Objection Of Religious Minorities: "School sponsored prayer has been unconstitutional for years. This is because a publicly funded school cannot put one religious group over another. It would alienate those who practice different religions or none at all. But a new bill in the Florida Senate would circumvent the Constitution by allowing student government to vote for the kind of school prayer they want over the objections of religious minorities.

According to the ACLU of Florida, Senate Bill 98 “would let school districts overrule the objections of religious minorities and organize school-sponsored prayer under the banner of student government. Under the bill, school officials would be able to skirt the Constitutional protections of religious liberty by letting students actually vote on what kind of prayers the school will allow and conduct...."

Prayer in Public Schools an Essential Right – Except for Muslims

Prayer in Public Schools an Essential Right – Except for Muslims: "Apparently it’s ultra-super important for Christian kids to be able to pray at school but not so much for Muslim kids. We’ll get to that in a minute; first let’s make clear how the whole prayer in school thing works.

It’s not that kids can’t pray, no matter what the Religious Right tells you. They can. They just can’t do it with the support of the school, because that’s a violation of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause. The “public school prayer myth,” fueled by Christian fundamentalism and embraced by Republican political theology, rears its head just about every day somewhere in the country even while regularly ordering graduation ceremonies to be held in churches. But that’s gist for another article....."

If I Was A Poor Black Kid...

It's Time To End Bullying

1/2 of Students Sexually Harassed in School

Stand up for kids, not CEOs!

Islam

So I had quite a long conversation with a Muslim coworker tonight and boy did I learn a whole lot of things that people in power/Christians don't want us to know. Apparently not all Muslim women wear a Hijab 24/7. Some of them only wear them while they're praying or in a Mosque. I totally didn't know this and it sort of blew my mind. I also got the Taliban explained to me a little bit. Apparently they're like a huge gang that some really smart/crazy/rich person makes out of poor and uneducated people. Which in a way makes sense because if you're in those conditions some people will do anything to get out of them and listen to pretty much anyone.

Which is why the best thing we can do for these people is to educate them and give them a chance at life where they don't have to live in poverty and be uneducated. If you haven't read my blog post Where Do We Go From Here I really encourage you to do so. It is very insightful and elaborates on some of the points I made in this post about education.

9/11: Ground Zero Students Sick 10 Years Later

Tipping the Scales

Hazing: Head Dunked In Feces Filled Toilet - Mom Sues

So That's What "No Child Left Behind" Means

NYC Mandating Sex Ed For Students

John Kasich finally admits that he’s been pushing for school consolidation all along

John Kasich finally admits that he’s been pushing for school consolidation all along: "In the final months of the 2010 gubernatorial campaign, Governor Strickland’s campaign and his allies in education starting warning people in rural districts that a vote for John Kasich was a vote to consolidate your kids local school district out of existence..."