Tag Archives: education

Via press release: GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today announced participants in Spirit Day. Taking place on October 19, Spirit Day inspires millions around the world to wear purple or ‘go purple’ online in a unified stand against bullying and to show support for LGBTQ youth. To support this effort, Kellogg Company launched a video featuring its …

The Jackson Clarion-Ledger reports: A predominately black public school in Mississippi named after Jefferson Davis will have its Confederate tied namesake stripped next year and replaced with the title of another president whose character students, parents and teachers have said is more fitting— Barack Obama. Davis Magnet IB PTA President Janelle Jefferson announced at the Jackson Public Schools Board of …

Cleveland’s CBS affiliate reports: A flier posted all over the main classroom building at Cleveland State University targets the LGBTQ community. “Kinda just surprised and disgusted,” one person on campus said about the flier. The flier depicts an illustration of a man with a rope tied around his neck. It also gives statistics of what it claims are suicide rates …

Andy Humm reports at Gay City News: Abel Cedeno, 18, the bullied gay teen charged with killing one classmate, Matthew McCree, 15, and wounding another, Ariane Laboy, 16, with a knife spoke to Gay City News from Rikers Island on Sunday, recounting the incident, the anti-gay bullying that preceded it for years, and the way it intensified on September 27 …

The New York Post reports: The Bronx student who allegedly stabbed a classmate to death and seriously injured another was bullied for his sexual orientation — and will be put on suicide watch in jail, it was revealed in court Thursday. Abel Cedeno, 18, is facing murder charges for allegedly killing classmate Matthew McCree, 15, and critically injuring Araine LaBoy, …

The New York Times reports: Reversing a key part of government policy on campus sexual assault, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Friday issued new temporary rules that could give accused students greater protection against campus rape and sexual misconduct claims. Ms. DeVos said that colleges may now use a higher standard of evidence before finding students responsible for sexual assault, …

From the Facebook page of Nicholas County Democrats: On Tuesday morning, September 5th, 2017, an openly gay student from Clay County High School in Clay, West Virginia, boarded the school bus of part-time driver, Robert Belt, and sat down beside another student. Allegedly, Robert Belt, also a full-time Clay County Sheriff Deputy, dressed in full uniform, announced over the bus …

USA Today reports: Saying the Obama administration “weaponized” the U.S. Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights to work against students and schools, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Thursday said she would replace the current approach to addressing sexual misconduct on college campuses with “a workable, effective and fair system” that more explicitly takes into account the rights of the …

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration is preparing to redirect resources of the Justice Department’s civil rights division toward investigating and suing universities over affirmative action admissions policies deemed to discriminate against white applicants, according to a document obtained by The New York Times. The document, an internal announcement to the civil rights division, seeks current lawyers interested …

CBS News reports: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie signed legislation Friday requiring the state to give guidance to public schools about policies for transgender students, including blocking the schools from forcing the students from using bathrooms that conflict with their gender identities. The civil rights group Garden State Equality applauded the Republican governor for signing the measure saying that Christie …

The Denver Post reports: Hundreds of people gathered at the Colorado statehouse Wednesday morning in protest of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and her Denver speech Thursday at the annual meeting of the American Legislative Exchange Council. “This needs to make a statement,” said Suzanne Ethredge, president of the Pueblo Education Association, a teachers union. Ethredge drove up from Pueblo with …

Salt Lake City’s CBS affiliate reports: She is a life-long member of the LDS church with the needed ecclesiastical endorsement to hold a current temple recommend — her faith’s standard of being a believer in good standing. Now she has taught her final class at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg, Idaho, after she declined to retract a Facebook statement supporting the LGBT …

The Chicago Tribune reports: The president of the country’s largest labor union, Lily Eskelsen García of the National Education Association, told delegates at her organization’s annual gathering that they would not work with the Trump administration because the president and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos could not be trusted to do what is in the best interests of children. Eskelsen García …

Yesterday the Sesame Street team tweeted out the above image to their nearly two million followers, many of whom responded with utter joy. As you may know, last month Trump budget director Mick Mulvaney cited Big Bird in defense of his proposal to cut the entire budget for the Corporation For Public Broadcasting. And of course, he had it all …

Oklahoma City’s CBS affiliate reports: A school district at the center of one of America’s most conservative states plans to join a gay pride celebration this weekend. According to OKCPride.org, the annual festival represents the unity between the LGBTQ community and its supporters. For the first time, Oklahoma City Public Schools will be involved in the festival. OKCPS plans to …

Time Magazine reports: When Rhode Island’s teacher of the year posted a photo of his April meeting with President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania at the White House Oval Office Thursday, it quickly went viral. The striking picture shows Nikos Giannopoulos holding a lacy fan and wearing a rainbow pin among other meaningful accessories. Giannopoulos says he picked strategic …

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports: Donna Kikkert, 59, who is pursuing a bachelor’s degree at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, said she wanted to study the classics. When the professor of her Advanced Creative Writing Poetry course selected works other than those of Robert Frost, Edgar Allan Poe and others of interest to Kikkert, she said she asked faculty to reconsider …

The Texas Tribune reports: Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday called a special session of the Texas Legislature starting July 18. Abbott asked lawmakers to first pass key legislation that would keep some state agencies from shuttering. That “will be the only legislation on the special session [call] until they pass out of the Senate in full,” Abbott said. Abbott laid …

Mic.com reports: Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) slammed Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos Tuesday when she “refused to affirm” that her department would protect students from discrimination in her testimony before the Senate. “I think that’s very important for the public to know that today, the secretary of education, before this committee, refused to affirm that she would put forward a …

Vox reports: A single student’s case has turned into a massive legal decision for all transgender Americans. On Tuesday, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Kenosha Unified School District in Wisconsin violated the rights of a trans student, Ash Whitaker [photo, with his mother], when it refused to let him use the boys’ bathroom. According to the …