When noose was found on the door of a black professor, there was national outrage and campus protests. Will we get the same level of outrage in this case, over an incident in the same building? Or will Columbia University prove that it is the hotbed of anti-Semitism that it has been accused of being in recent years?

A swastika was found spray-painted on a Jewish professorÂ’s office door yesterday morning at Teachers College at Columbia University, the second time in less than a month that one of the collegeÂ’s professors has been the target of bias.

The professor, Elizabeth Midlarsky, a clinical psychologist who has done studies on the Holocaust, said the collegeÂ’s associate provost called to notify her of the swastika. Ms. Midlarsky said it was actually the third time in recent weeks that she had been the target of bias.

On Oct. 17, she said, she found an anti-Semitic flier in her mailbox at work. She said she found two more copies of the same flier in her mailbox on Oct. 24. She said she reported those incidents to Columbia officials.

“I see this as an attack of extreme hate and extreme cowardice by someone trying to make a point,” Dr. Midlarsky said yesterday. The police said they had no suspects.

The school employs scholars who deny the legitimacy of Israel -- including one that denies Jews ever occupied the area that is today Israel. Students have been harassed and belittled by professors because of their Jewish faith and Israeli citizenship. Will this act of anti-Semitism be treated as seriously as the incident of racism a couple of weeks back? Or are some groups more equal than others at Columbia?

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One good thing is coming out of the decision to allow schools in one Maine community to dispense birth control to children as young as 11. These same schools will now start following state law and require the reporting of sex involving those under the age of 14 to the authorities.

Portland's school-based health centers have not been reporting all illegal sexual activity involving minors as required by law, but they will from now on, city officials said Thursday.

Cumberland County District Attorney Stephanie Anderson questioned the health centers' reporting practices after the Portland School Committee decided last week to offer prescription birth control at the King Middle School health center.

The King Student Health Center has offered comprehensive reproductive health care, including providing condoms and testing for sexually transmitted diseases, since it opened in 2000. The school serves students in grades 6 to 8, ages 11 to 15.

Maine law prohibits having sex with a person under age 14, regardless of the age of the other person involved, Anderson said.

A health care provider must report all known or suspected cases of sex with minors age 13 and under to the state Department of Health and Human Services, she said. Abuse also must be reported to the appropriate district attorney's office, Anderson said, when the suspected perpetrator is someone other than the minor's parent or guardian.

"When it's somebody under age 14, it is a crime and it must be reported," Anderson said. "The health care provider has no discretion in the matter. It's up to the district attorney to decide."

It seems that school officials hadn’t bee following the law, including the health care “professionals” at the school clinic. I hope that while the local DA subpoenas the records of the clinic to determine whether past criminal violations have not been reported, and that appropriate sanctions are taken against the licensure of those who failed to follow the law.

After all -- we in education have a legal obligation, not to mention a moral one, to protect the children in our care.

Posted by: Greg at 12:15 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Is anyone else disgusted that a public university would cave in to a request like this?

Yesterday, the University of Delaware asked Asaf Romirowsky to step down from an academic panel at the University of Delaware because another panelist, University of Delaware political scientist Muqtedar Khan, didn't want to share the podium with anyone who served in the Israeli Defense Forces. Romirowsky, who holds joint American/Israeli citizenship and lives in Philadelphia, had been invited to join Khan, his colleague in political science, Stuart Kaufman, a staff member of the National Security Council during the Clinton administration, and a graduate student to discuss anti-Americanism in the Middle East. The program was organized by the College Republicans, the College Democrats, and the Students of Western Civilization Club. The Leadership Institute provided the funds for the panel, which met on the University of Delaware campus on Wednesday evening. The students offered Romirowsky the opportunity to come to campus next week and speak alone, with no other panel members who might object to his presence.

Khan is not just a faculty member at the university – he is also a staff member of the Brookings Institution and spoke the same day at the Pentagon. That he would make the request indicates his inability to fairly deal with any Israeli student – and perhaps any Jewish student. It also indicates that he is someone who has no place helping to guide and direct the formation of our national defense policy.

But more disturbing than the request is the willingness of a public university to give in to the demands of an anti-Semitic pig like Khan. The appropriate response would have been to rescind the invitation to Khan – and to review his employment status in light of the questions raised by the request. To take the path they did was to cave in to dhimmitude.

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I grew up the son of a military officer during time of war. I know what it is like to have a parent gone, and the anticipation of their safe return. Most schools try hard to support such kids – and I love the way this school handled this homecoming.

Brittainy and Madison were hoping their dad, Maj. Robert Thomas, would come home from Iraq in the next couple of weeks.

So it's no wonder they were bowled over when he walked into their school's gymnasium during a student program about patriotism Thursday.

"I thought we were just going to read our (essays) about patriotism," said Brittainy, 11, and a fifth-grader at Atwood Elementary School in Macomb Township. Atwood is in the L'Anse Creuse Public Schools district.

"I had no idea my dad was going to be here," she said. "I'm just really happy my dad is home."

Madison, 6, was also surprised.

"I thought my dad would be home for my birthday on Nov. 8," she said. "I guess I was wrong."

The girls' father returned home Thursday morning after serving in the Army in Iraq for about a year.

I encourage you to read the rest of the article. I’m proud of these fellow educators who handled this special situation with class and dignity – and who turned a special family event into a special learning experience for the whole school.

And call me a sucker, but I cried while reading about the event.

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Writer and activist David Horowitz was brought in to speak at Emory University by the College Republicans as part of Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week. The response of those opposed to his message was not debate or discussion – instead, it was to resort to fascist tactics to silence the speech they oppose.

The most disturbing part of the report on the incident is found here.

Protesters began their efforts as soon as Horowitz was introduced with boos and chants of "Heil Hitler." Despite the people who stood with their backs to Horowitz and the shouting of obscenities and other remarks from audience members, Horowitz attempted to deliver his speech that covered academic freedom and radical Islam. The loud chants, sign-waving, and disruptive gestures continued to escalate from audience members until the atmosphere was so chaotic that even the police present were unable to subdue the crowd. Horowitz was led off stage and left the campus under tight security, and the event came to an abrupt end.

Rather than remove those engaged in harassment and disruption under relevant disorderly conduct statutes and university regulations protecting academic freedom, the authorities removed the victim instead and silenced his message. You should have tazed them, bro!

Is academic freedom dead in America? Or is it available only to those with a politically correct message and the dictators they coddle?

Is it time for the federal government to begin investigating – and prosecuting – the repeated series of civil rights violations committed by Islamists, illegals, and Leftists against conservative Americans?

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1 . They are so insane, they would at the same time say they support GLBT Rights! Amazing! Fight back against those that stone gays to death! Democracy NOT Theocracy! STOP KUFFARPHOBIA Demonstration at Whitehall in London, 12pm Friday 10/26/07! I think we all must start calling the Islamofascists 'racists'. We should scream that they are hateful towards the Christian race, and the Jewish race, and the Hindu race, and the Atheist Race, that they are Christianityphobiasts. They will scream that Christianity is not a race, and we'll say: "See, Islam is NOT a race either. And by the way, the Bible doesn't say to convert, conquer or kill non-Christians; like the Koran says to do to non-Muslims. So there YOU RACIST hater of non-Muslims! You're a Kuffarphobic!" Be careful all you in London Friday 10/26! absurd thought - God of the Universe says don't call a spade a spade Islamist terrorism not related to Islam absurd thought - God of the Universe says you have NO rights to hate religions that demand to convert you absurd thought - God of the Universe calls for sick ideologies that deny human rights KILL adulterers and gays absurd thought - God of the Universe says be very afraid... of saying the wrong things TRUTH is especially BAD http://absurdthoughtsaboutgod.blogspot.com . .

Posted by: USpace at Thu Oct 25 17:17:50 2007 (7glBz)

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Do you really want that email read by just anyone? After all, it can happen, either through your mistake or the forwarding habits of others.

First, letÂ’s make one thing clear. Does the local superintendent of schools want to kill any of her teachers? No, she does not.

In fact, for the most part, residents seem relatively pleased with the performance of the Catskill schools superintendent, Kathleen P. Farrell, who in less than three years has gained a reputation as a can-do presence in a tough job.

* * *

Back and forth the discussion went, until Oct. 3, when Dr. Farrell wrote an e-mail message to the district’s director of facilities, John Willabay. She vented a bit and then allowed: “Please go KILL these people....Please, please, please.”

Then she sent it — not just to him — but, accidentally, to an unknown number of others as well, including Terri Dubuke, a sixth-grade teacher who was one of the critics. Ms. Dubuke read it in shock and referred it to the teachers’ union, and the matter was discussed at a closed-door school board meeting on Oct. 17.

It is stuff like this that causes our principal to caution us regularly at faculty meetings about being too quick to respond in anger or with a sarcastic tone.

But my question is this -- why does Farrell still have her job? After all, the head of the district union points out the disparity in treatment.

“If a student had written that, we would have been under lockdown and the student would have been escorted from the building,” she said. “Same thing if it had been a teacher. But when you have the person doing the policing writing it, none of that happens.”

Not only would a student or teacher have been escorted from the building, it is quite likely that a kid would have been expelled or a teacher fired. After all, we must have zero tolerance for threats of violence, even silly, blowing off steam type of threats that are not threats at all. Otherwise the little sociopath in third period could claim discrimination when his "People to slay" list is found along with detailed plans on how to assault the school.

Shouldn't the rules apply to everyone? And if not, doesn't that show the silliness of the zero tolerance rule?

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I've said it before -- we try to send too many folks to college. The result is that kids who would do well in a trade sort of tune out a high school curriculum that they don't see as relevant to them.

Why don't we have more places like this?

“How many of you guys got a hooptee, raise your hand?” Carlos Caraballo asked his senior auto shop at Automotive High School in Brooklyn.

A dozen boys, roughly half the class, raised their hands and began discussing their hooptees. The term is street slang for a cheap, functional car favored by city youths who often tinker tirelessly to make the car a speedster.

Hooptee repair prowess is not the guiding mission at Automotive High, in the Greenpoint section of Brooklyn, but it is a fringe benefit, said Mr. Caraballo, who teaches auto mechanics at the school, the largest auto trade school in the nation.

Besides training in repairing cars and other aspects of the industry, Automotive offers a regular high school education.

Why am I such a big fan of programs like the one at Automotive High? Maybe it has to do with seeing kids at my school light up when they talk about their co-op (our name for the vocational program) classes, and the skills they are learning there. Or maybe it is having seen the good such programs do during the years, after his retirement from the Navy, when my dad ran a Job Corps center on the West Coast. But either way, I know that we have too many students for whom college is either not an option or not their choice. Let's go back to the days when we had an educational program for them, one that got them both the basic skills they needed to be a literate, functional, educated member of society AND the skills they needed to function in the workplace.

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Good grief!

A South Carolina high school freshman has been expelled from school for possession of a butter knife.

Amber Dauge was by all accounts a good student at Goose Creek High School. She had joined the Junior ROTC program and was a member of the school's chorus. But she says officials have overreacted to an honest mistake.

"I know I made a really stupid decision, but I don't think I should be expelled for it," Amber told WCIV-TV, the ABC affiliate in Charleston, which first broke the story.

"She was at home making toast and she looked up, saw the clock, and said, "Oh I'm going to be late," her stepfather, Steven Heinz, explained to ABC News' Law & Justice Unit.

"She ran out the door and locked herself out with the butter knife still in her hand."

"Now, she could have rang the doorbell and got us up and left the butter knife at home," Heinz said.

"And she could have dropped the knife on the porch, I guess. And I guess she could have, when she got to school, walked in and turned it in [school officials] Â… but she left it in her locker and forgot about it."

Heinz said Amber opened her locker a week later, and the butter knife fell out. A fellow student made a wisecrack about the knife that was overheard by a teacher, who reported it to school officials, according to Heinz.

Amber was immediately suspended for five days, pending an expulsion hearing that officials say was mandatory under by the school's "zero tolerance" policy toward weapons or potential weapons.

I love the fact that they are giving the girl a hearing prior to the mandatory expulsion, after which the letter was mailed on the same afternoon, indicating that there was already a decision made prior to the hearing.

One school official makes it clear that this was essential, given the heinous nature of AmberÂ’s offense.

"It's not what we would consider to be a traditional butter knife," Bailey told ABC News. "Even though it's blunt on the end, it does have a serrated edge."

Bailey acknowledged Amber's clean disciplinary record — beyond a minor uniform infraction. "Despite the fact that the student was an exceptional student, this has nothing to do with how good she was in the classroom. She was in possession of a knife."

Oh, heavens – a serrated edge! Sounds like the knives my wife and I use for dinner each night. I mean, she might have been able to engage in an act of violence like slicing a banana or cutting a sandwich in public! She had to go, especially given the flagrant disregard for uniform policies in the past. This child is clearly a menace to society who should be locked up!

At least the administrative ass in question does have some compassion for the family.

"Certainly, if it was my child, I would have a different perspective," she said. "But if you're a school administrator, your perspective has to be broader. You have to consider the safety of the entire student population."

What a moron – there was no safety issue here. But in the interest of making sure that no parent after a student starts hacking up classmates with a samurai sword, anything that bears a vague resemblance to a dangerous weapon (including a harmless kitchen utensil) must be banned and harshly punished.

What morons!

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I will never minimize sexual abuse of a child. Not by a parent, not by a clergyman, not by an educator.

That said, I want to make a point about these numbers from an Associated Press article.

The seven-month investigation found 2,570 educators whose teaching credentials were revoked, denied, surrendered or sanctioned from 2001 through 2005 following allegations of sexual misconduct.

However, the article also points out that there are some 3 million educators in the US.

Let's do the math.

2570÷3,000,000=0.000857

There you have it -- less than 1/10 of one percent of teachers received any sort of sanction for sexual misconduct. And if you factor in the total number of teachers who taught during that time, the percentage is even smaller. After all, teachers retired or left the profession or died during those five years, and they were replaced with new teachers.

But even if one assumes the number is ten times as high -- 1% -- that still puts the frequency of sexual abuse at or below the national average for groups like clergy, lawyers and doctors -- and parents.

I've had a former colleague in teaching forced from the profession due to sexual misconduct. I have no tolerance for it, and would report in a heartbeat any teacher I knew of who engaged in such activity. But I continue to be reminded of this situation that I wrote about a few years back.

I watched a colleague suffer through such an accusation a few years ago. A decent, compassionate, dedicated man, he had a trio of girls who were doing poorly in his class accuse him of giving them lewd looks and groping them. It wasn't true -- they just wanted out of his class so they could get As instead of Bs. He was suspended from work, and had to go home and tell his pregnant wife about the accusation (it was a difficult pregnancy, and his wife lost the baby that week). Once cleared, he was still the subject of rumors -- even though one of the girls admitted that she had lied. Even today, four years later, there still lingers a hint of scandal around his name, and certain parents will insist that their children be assigned to other classes. It is certain that he will never be hired as an administrator in this or any other district, despite completing his certification requirements a few weeks after the accusation was made; I wonder if he could even get a teaching job outside of the district. After all, there will always be those who will remember the accusation and be certain that these girls didn't lie.

Some may criticize me for this, but for once in my life I'm going to agree with the NEA on an issue.

“Students must be protected from sexual predators and abuse, and teachers must be protected from false accusations,” said NEA President Reg Weaver, who refused to be interviewed and instead released a two-paragraph statement.

I want abusers out of the classroom -- but I also want real sanctions against those who make false accusations of sexual misconduct knowing that it puts them in control and let's them punish a teacher who "made the mistake" of assigning a student the grade they earned or punishing a disciplinary infraction that a student committed.

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What do you think?

Two girls at a Florida high school were booted from a football game for painting their bodies to show school spirit, even though boys with painted bodies were allowed to stay.

Manatee High School student Monica Cummings, 17, and her friend Jessyca Altenbach, 17, painted their entire bodies in school colors for a big game this week.

However, both were kicked out of the game in the first quarter.

"People think we did it to be rebellious senior teenagers but we did it because we wanted to show school spirit," student Monica Cummings said. "That's all we did it for."

School district policy states that it is up to administrators to decide whether something is appropriate or not and in this case, the principal decided that the girls' outfits were not appropriate.

Once the girls came in, there were a number of people who came up to the principal, the assistant principal and other school administrators who were very upset over their appearance, school spokeswoman Margi Nanney said. "We have never had complaints about the men or the boys."

It is ugly.

It is tacky.

But inappropriate? No more so than when guys do it – and there needs to be a “one-size-fits-all” policy for stuff like this. After all, the girls did cover all areas that they society (and the law) expects them to cover with clothing. Would those tops have gotten them kicked out if they had not done the body-painting?

Posted by: Greg at 11:34 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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My students and I get the daily "treat" of Channel One news in our classroom during fifth period. I think it serves a small purpose, in that it does expose some of the kids to the only news they will get in an average day. And it has sparked interesting comments.

But there was a line in today's broadcast (October 16, 2007 -- at 7:55 in the video) that struck me as somewhat over the top. In discussing the current debate over the House resolution on the Armenian genocide, they explain why Turkey is so important, and include the description of the country as "a secret ally of Israel".

Secret? Not if it can be discovered by student journalists like the folks at Channel One. And certainly not after they disclose it to students at 11,000 schools. But not to worry -- the relationship between the two nations is quite public knowledge -- as this Wikipedia article shows.

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I just knew that the administration at GWU wasnÂ’t going to apply the same rules to the leftists who put up a poster containing hate speech against both Muslims and conservatives as they would have if the conservatives had been responsible for the hate speech against Muslims.

George Washington University President Steven Knapp has no plans to take disciplinary action against a group of students involved in an anti-Muslim flier hoax, a university spokeswoman said yesterday.

"We have established judicial policies and procedures," university spokeswoman Tracy Schario said. "I am confident that President Knapp will let them take their course."

However, Mr. Knapp "reserves the right to intervene" in the university's student-judicial process, she said.

Graduate student Adam Kokesh and senior Brian Tierney with five other students took responsibility Tuesday for the fliers, which contained the phrase "Hate Muslims? So Do We!" The students said the posters were "creative political action" to draw attention to the upcoming Islamo-Facism Awareness Week starting Oct. 22.

Jason Mattera, spokesman for the national conservative group Young America's Foundation said Mr. Knapp's inaction shows political bias and is unfair to the campus chapter of the group, whose name was inserted the fliers.

"He's going to expose himself as a liar," Mr. Mattera said. "When it first emerged, he said we're not going to tolerate it. Now that it turns out it's liberals he's going to show where his political views lie."

When President Knapp thought that the conservatives had made and posted these fliers, it was stated that such speech would not be tolerated and the perpetrators would be expelled. Now that a group of liberals have confessed their guilt in this case, he has backed off that statement and will let them off with a slap on the wrist.

WhereÂ’s Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to protest this injustice? Too busy protecting the Jena thugs, no doubt.

Posted by: Greg at 10:20 AM | Comments (74) | Add Comment
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You know, after making it clear that hate speech would not be tolerated and would be dealt with harshly when they thought it came from conservatives, will they impose the same penalty upon the actual perps?

A national conservative group yesterday called on George Washington University to expel students who admitted that they targeted the group in a hoax that covered the campus with hundreds of anti-Muslim posters.

"Vicious personal attacks levied on students are intolerable and should not go unpunished," Ron Robinson, president of the Young America"s Foundation, told university President Steven Knapp.

In a letter obtained by The Washington Times, Mr. Robinson cited a statement by Student Association Executive Vice President Brand Kroeger, who said he "would support expulsion" of students responsible for distributing the "heinous" posters.

After the browbeating of the Young America’s Foundation chapter leaders and demanding that they voluntarily limit their own speech activities in light of the posters “as a sign of good faith”, the GWU officials need to make sure that little clique of left-wing and Islamist students seeking to censor the conservative organization receives precisely the punishment that the administration had in mind for the victims of this attack. After all, this was hate speech against both Muslims and conservatives – and unless GWU wishes to be shown to be an intellectually and morally vacant cesspool of liberalism, they need to stand by their publicly declared standards.

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I don’t know about you, but I find this shirt sort of funny – in a sick sort of way, of course.

What I don't find at all amusing is the over-reaction of the universities involved, and the chilling of speech protected by the First Amendment.

Texas Tech has banned the sale of a T-shirt bearing the likeness of Michael Vick hanging the dog mascot of rival Texas A&M.

The red and black shirts, with text that says "VICK 'EM" on the front — in an apparent reference to the Aggies' slogan "Gig 'em" — was created by a Tech student who was trying to sell them before Saturday's game in Lubbock.

The back of the shirt shows a football player wearing the No. 7 Vick jersey holding a rope with an image of the mascot Reveille at the end of a noose. Vick, who faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to a federal dogfighting charge, is suspended indefinitely by the NFL.

Tech officials announced the fraternity that sold the shirts was suspended temporarily and will face judicial review for allegedly violating the solicitation section of the students' code of conduct. The school said it wouldn't allow the sale on campus of items that are "derogatory, inflammatory, insensitive, or in such bad taste."

No more shirts are being produced, the school said in a release.

A&M officials, in a statement, thanked Tech administrators for "their response and action regarding this matter."

Now I realize that the Aggies take Miss Reveille very seriously. She goes to class with a cadet handler, and if the dog barks during class the professor is required to dismiss the students. They bury her predecessors in sight of the field, so they can still watch the games. But doesnÂ’t being so offended by a t-shirt go a bit too far?

And for the school to suspend a frat and hold hearings about a shirt that is a tastelessly satirical parody is a bit of a stretch. After all, the First Amendment does protect such speech – and as a state school, Texas Tech would appear to lack the authority to take any action against this constitutionally protected activity.

If anyone knows where I can get a couple in 3X, let me know.

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As we give the kids a half day off so that the teachers of the district can gather to work on plans to improve student test scores on the TAKS test (not student learning -- student test scores), I'm pleased by this Bob Herbert piece in the New York Times today.

Not only has high-stakes testing largely failed to magically swing open the gates to successful learning, it is questionable in many cases whether the tests themselves are anything more than a shell game.

Daniel Koretz, a professor at Harvard’s Graduate School of Education, told me in a recent interview that it’s important to ask “whether you can trust improvements in test scores when you are holding people accountable for the tests.”

The short answer, he said, is no.

If teachers, administrators, politicians and others have a stake in raising the test scores of students — as opposed to improving student learning, which is not the same thing — there are all kinds of incentives to raise those scores by any means necessary.

“We’ve now had four or five different waves of educational reform,” said Dr. Koretz, “that were based on the idea that if we can just get a good test in place and beat people up to raise scores, kids will learn more. That’s really what No Child Left Behind is.”

The problem is that you can raise scores the hard way by teaching more effectively and getting the students to work harder, or you can take shortcuts and start figuring out ways, as Dr. Koretz put it, to “game” the system.

Time and again I have been run through the latest fad training system designed to help me improve student test scores. The problem, though, is that some of these practices run directly contrary to encouraging the higher order thinking skills we ought to be encouraging. And what's worse, teaching everything that is (or could be) on the test for my students means short-changing them on what everyone agrees is more important material. That is why world history students in many districts get less than two weeks -- combined -- studying ancient Greece and Rome. And since my grade level test is 50% American history (and they haven't taken US History since 8th grade), I have to devote time going back and re-teaching that content, further short-changing mastery of the world history content my students ought to be learning.

I'm all for standards, but I just don't se our current system as working. And that isn't a Texas thing. It is a national problem.

Posted by: Greg at 10:38 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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They have in every single state , every single time.

Lotteries have raised billions of dollars, and of the 42 states that have them, 23 earmark all or some of the money for education.

For years, those states have heard complaints that not enough of their lottery revenue is used for education. Now, a New York Times examination of lottery documents, as well as interviews with lottery administrators and analysts, finds that lotteries accounted for less than 1 percent to 5 percent of the total revenue for K-12 education last year in the states that use this money for schools.

In reality, most of the money raised by lotteries is used simply to sustain the games themselves, including marketing, prizes and vendor commissions. And as lotteries compete for a small number of core players and try to persuade occasional customers to play more, nearly every state has increased, or is considering increasing, the size of its prizes — further shrinking the percentage of each dollar going to education and other programs.

In some states, lottery dollars have merely replaced money for education. Also, states eager for more players are introducing games that emphasize instant gratification and more potentially addictive forms of gambling.

I'll set aside the moral issues of gambling, because I do not believe gambling to be, per se, immoral. What i will point to instead is that little bit you may have missed in that last paragraph. The lottery dollars haven't supplemented the education budget -- they have simply changed the source of those dollars. This legislature appropriates those dollars for education and then shouts "Hallelujah! Look how generous we are being with the schools and the children." What they leave out is that they then shift an equal amount away from education and use it for other state expenditures, meaning that the schools in Texas really get a big nothing burger. And that is the case in many other states as well. When voters approved the lottery in those states, they were sold a bill of goods.

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Or at least get someone to watch for you.

After all, you are responsible for what happens when you aren't there, too.

ome parents in Fort Bend County are outraged after their children said they witnessed a pair of eighth-graders engaged in a sex act, right in the middle of class.

Parents told KPRC Local 2 that they received the unsettling news about an incident at Crockett Middle School in a letter that went home on Friday.

"My mouth flew open when you told me just a few minutes ago," Lubergha Munson said. "I didn't expect you to say anything like that. I thought you were going to say they were fighting or something."

The principal sent letters home with some students explaining a situation that was reported to campus administrators last week.

The principal reported that the students, a boy and a girl, made inappropriate sexual contact with each other while other students watched.

The kids have been given appropriate discipline. I can only imagine the impact of this incident on the teachers present employment and future career.

Posted by: Greg at 09:24 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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If these useless idiots want to have a socialist club in their school, so be it.

A new group at Roosevelt High School discusses socialism every Thursday morning. Not everyone is comfortable with the Young Socialist Club's views, but federal law says school districts must allow all student organizations.

The Young Socialists Club at Roosevelt High School is looking for new members. Their flyer asks for students to quote "Come explore the vast realm that is socialism." But also on the flyer is a picture of Karl Marx, who is best known as a revolutionary communist. One of his famous quotes, "Workers of the World Unite," is printed boldly on the handout. But Roosevelt Principal Don Ryswyk says those references do not concern him.

He says, “At Roosevelt we have young Democrats club, we have the young Republicans club and they were asking for a young Socialists club and so I saw it as an equity issue and the students talked to me about some of the things they were going to research and I also saw it as an educational club.”

Under the Equal Access Act passed in 1984, no school administrator can pass judgment on school clubs.

I’m just curious – will the Young Socialists make a point of studying Joseph Stalin and Pol Pot? How about the Cultural Revolution? And let’s not forget the glories of national Socialism, while they are at it.

And IÂ’m rather curious about this statement.

But he says if a club harms students, or is based on hate, it will not be accepted.

Ryswyk says, “I'm not going to allow a club into my school that's gonna be harmful or hateful or anything like that and there needs to be some good.”

So I guess this means that Ryswyk considers socialism to be a harmless thing, despite the many ills it has caused. And I wonder who gets to set the standard of what is harmful or hateful? Does he have an objective standard, or will it be his own personal opinions?

Posted by: Greg at 12:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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You folks know I'm an ardent supporter of student First Amendment rights -- but I recognize that there are limits. So when I first saw information about this incident, I wanted more details.

Well, now we have more details -- and I come down on the side of the school here.

A Texas high school sophomore's parents might sue after the school booted the student from campus for wearing a John Edwards for 2008 president T-shirt.

Pete Palmer, a sophomore at Waxahachie High School, says he didnÂ’t think he was doing anything wrong wearing the political shirt to school.

But according to the Waxahachie Independent School District dress code, students can't wear shirts with political slogans.

“T-shirts, other than WISD clubs, organizations, sports, or spirit t-shirts, college or university t-shirts or solid-colored t-shirts, are prohibited," according to the policy.

Peter and his folks, however, claim the regs interfere with free speech -- and they are correct. The problem, however, is that it does not IMPERMISSIBLY interfere with free speech.

You see, dress codes -- even school uniforms -- are generally acceptable, provided that they are applied in an even-handed manner. In a case like this, where we have a school creating a rule that bans all but school-related t-shirts and college/university t-shirts with writing on them, you have a clearly defined policy. Assuming that it is consistently applied in an even-handed fashion, there can be no argument made that the speech ban that results was content-based, and so the regulation would pass constitutional muster.

It would be nice if Palmer's dad, a lawyer, actually cited more extensive precedent to support his position. Instead, we get only this shallow reasoning that is based more on emotion than the law.

“It’s a first amendment constitutional right that people have fought and died for and I don’t know why he should give it up just because Waxahachie thinks it would be okay or neat for him to do so,” Paul Palmer said.

Paul referenced a recent Vermont case where a student wore an anti-Bush shirt to school and the courts ruled in his favor.

Well, if the school were arguing that it is "ok or neat" for kids to surrender their rights, that would be one thing -- but that isn't the argument. Instead, the argument is that for valid disciplinary and academic reasons, the school restricts dress to promote student safety and academic performance. Such regulations of student dress are regularly upheld by the courts.

But what about Tinker and all the other cases I cite on a regular basis? Well, all of them note that schools may impose content-neutral restrictions upon student speech so as to maintain order and discipline in a school setting. None of them goes so far as to suggest that any regulation that impinges upon student speech is inherently invalid. Based upon this, I would expect any suit to be dismissed on its merits before trial.

This is not to say that I think the policy is everything it should be. If the Palmer family has a problem with it, I'd suggest running for the school board on a platform that calls for the elimination or modification of the dress code.

And then there is always this neat suggestion from Capitol Annex, which I think is the perfect way to creatively comply with the policy and still get your message across. Heck, as I read the policy I see nothing to prohibit the young man from wearing a polo shirt with an Edwards logo on it, or from wearing a campaign button on his shirt and a bumper sticker on his backpack. In short, it isn't the message that is the problem here, it is the means he is choosing to communicate it. That fact will certainly doom any litigation.

Others blogging include The Right Side, Right Voices, Austinist, Right on the Left Coast, Dallas Blog, Stop The ACLU

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Posted by: Greg at 10:53 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Twenty-five years ago, my father was intimately involved in arranging college credit for advanced technical training completed by sailors at Service School Command Great lakes and other Navy training programs around the country. It therefore warms my heart to see this bit of news about the expansion of a similar program in the Army.

The Army plans to offer accredited college credit hours for its training programs with enough offerings that a soldier could retire with a bachelor's degree.

The program is called the College of the American Soldier and is viewed as a recruitment tool as the Army seeks to expand its force.

With the offering, the Army will be able to tell recruits to come in to learn a skill and to obtain an education, said Lt. Gen. Benjamin Freakley, who outlined the program during a breakfast meeting Tuesday with reporters.

Freakley is head of Army Accession Command, which is responsible for recruiting and the initial training of soldiers. He said the Army is working with colleges to gets its training programs accredited, and hopes to begin the program in February.

Under it, every new recruit in basic training will have the option of obtaining a technical certification in a skill such as welding or potentially 17 hours of college credit in leadership, first aid and other areas, he said.

"The idea would be, by the time you are a staff sergeant, somewhere between six and 10 years in the Army, you're going to have your associate's degree," Freakley said.

Soldiers who attend the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy could get 45 hours of credit because they have to write and take classes in areas such as literature and public speaking, he said. Those who retire as a master sergeant or sergeant major could have a bachelor's degree through the program, he said.

My only questions -- who will issue this degree, and will these credits be accepted for transfer by colleges and universities? The program my father was involved in creating actually counted these courses for college credit through several different schools, and were accepted as a part of their degree programs. Will these be captive credits that will only earn you a degree through the College of the American Soldier, or will you be able to get out with that associate's degree and transfer to Podunk State College, Big State University or Prestigious East Coast University?

Posted by: Greg at 10:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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