Tag Archives: education

The BBC reports: Canada’s largest school board is cancelling new school trips to the United States until further notice. The Toronto District School Board announced the decision citing “uncertainty” with regards to who may be affected by US President Donald’s Trump’s latest travel restrictions. Twenty-five already scheduled trips will go ahead as planned. The school board joins the Girl Guides …

The Houston Chronicle reports: U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, a former Texas governor and Texas A&M University Aggies Yell Leader, said Wednesday the election of the first openly gay president of the institution’s student body was “stolen” and that the student who had the most votes was disqualified through a process that “made a mockery of due process and transparency.” …

Milo ended up with 6% of the vote. The Huffington Post UK reports: Alt-right journalist Milo Yiannopoulos has lost the election for Glasgow University rector in a landslide defeat to human rights lawyer Aamer Anwar. Despite the support of a vocal student faction on campus, former Breitbart News editor Yiannopoulos took just 533 of 8,210 student votes for the role …

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas A&M University’s first openly gay student body president is set to take office next month, marking a milestone for the largest public university in the state. Bobby Brooks, an economics junior at the flagship campus in College Station, was elected by A&M students as the university’s 74th student body president March 9. In an interview …

Entertainment Weekly reports: Count Chelsea Clinton among the many people whom Elizabeth Warren inspired when she refused to be silenced in the Senate. Clinton, the daughter of former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former U.S. President Bill Clinton, is writing a new children’s picture book showcasing inspirational women in American history, EW can exclusively announce. The book is …

Via press release: Commuters passing through Springtown, Texas on Route 199 will likely notice a new black billboard emblazoned with a red inverted pentagram framing a goat’s head underneath, which reads: “Paid for by The Satanic Temple.” More prominently, the primary message states: “Never be hit in school again. Exercise your religious rights.” According to The Satanic Temple spokesperson, Lucien …

The Washington Post reports: President Trump on Thursday will unveil a budget plan that calls for a sharp increase in military spending and stark cuts across much of the rest of the government including the elimination of dozens of long-standing federal programs that assist the poor, fund scientific research and aid America’s allies abroad. Trump’s first budget proposal, which he …

The Associated Press reports: An Orlando businessman is raising money for scholarships for gay students in order to honor the 49 patrons killed during the Pulse nightclub massacre. Barry Miller said Monday the fund would award 10 scholarships each year, each worth $4,900. Students would have to self-identify as “out,” attend an institution of higher learning full time and have …

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos today met with three LGBT rights groups to discuss the Trump administration’s revocation of Obama’s guidelines on transgender student protections. Chris Johnson reports at the Washington Blade: Stephanie White, executive director of Equality Michigan, said her organization sought out the meeting to convey the “profound negative consequences” of the withdrawal of the guidance protecting transgender students. …

The Texas Tribune reports: After 13-plus hours of emotional testimony, largely in opposition, the Senate State Affairs Committee voted Wednesday to advance the so-called Texas “bathroom bill” to the full chamber. The vote was 7-1; Sen. Judith Zaffirini voted against, and Sen. Charles Schwertner was not present at the meeting but asked to be shown as voting yes. The vote …

Ben Winslow reports at Salt Lake City’s Fox affiliate: Utah lawmakers have passed a bill repealing a controversial law forbidding discussion in classrooms of anything that could be construed as “promotion” of homosexuality. Senate Bill 196’s passage might also get the state out of a lawsuit filed by three students and a pair of gay rights groups. The bill, sponsored …

From a report issued Monday by the Anti-Defamation League: White supremacists, emboldened by the 2016 elections and the current political climate, are currently engaged in an unprecedented outreach effort to attract and recruit students on American college campuses. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has cataloged 104 incidents of white supremacist fliering on college campuses since the school year began in September …

The New York Times reports: The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would not hear a major case on transgender rights after all, acting after the Trump administration changed the federal government’s position on whether public schools had to allow transgender youths to use bathrooms that matched their gender identities. In a one-sentence order, the Supreme Court vacated an …

ABC News reports: Angry social media users flew into an uproar Monday evening after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos issued a statement that some said ignored the context under which historically black universities were created. The statement called historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) “real pioneers when it comes to school choice,” and came shortly after President Donald Trump held a …

CNN reports: Lawyers for Gavin Grimm, a transgender teen who is barred from using the boys’ bathroom at his Virginia high school, told the Supreme Court Thursday that his challenge to the school board policy should go forward, arguing that the restrooms “must be equally available to all boys and all girls, including boys and girls who are transgender.” The …

The Washington Post reports: As both a transgender person and a longtime Republican, Caitlyn Jenner felt compelled to speak out on the Trump administration’s decision Wednesday to revoke federal guidelines specifying that transgender students had the right to use public school restrooms that matched their gender identity. In a video posted to social media Thursday, the former Olympic decathlon champion …

The Hill reports: New Education Secretary Betsy DeVos defended the Trump administration’s decision to rescind protections for transgender students, arguing that the protections were an “overreach” of the Obama administration. “This issue was a very huge example of the Obama administration’s overreach, to suggest one-size-fits-all, federal government approach,” DeVos said on Thursday at the conservative conference CPAC. DeVos was initially …

The Associated Press reports: A Pennsylvania school district has agreed to remove a granite Ten Commandments monument from outside a high school and pay $164,000 in legal fees to settle a federal lawsuit. The Freedom From Religion Foundation said it received a signed settlement Tuesday from the New Kensington-Arnold School District saying it will relocate the 6-foot-high monolith from near …

From the Family Research Council: The Trump administration’s reversal of this mandate on schools is a victory for parents, children, and privacy. The Obama administration resorted to this coercive policy because they knew parents and schools could never be persuaded to force boys and girls to shower together, stay together on school trips, and use the same locker rooms and …

The New York Times reports: President Trump rescinded protections for transgender students that had allowed them to use bathrooms of their gender identity, overruling his own education secretary and placing his administration firmly in the middle of the culture wars that many Republicans have tried to leave behind. In a joint letter, the top civil rights officials from the Justice …