Tag Archives: education

Variety reports that GOP Florida state Sen. Alan Hays plans to introduce a bill that would require that all public high school and middle school students watch the latest movie by Christianist filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza. The plan is sure to draw fire from liberals not only because D’Souza is a prominent conservative but because he is also behind the movie, …

Earlier this year two “undercover” members of the “ex-gay” group Voice Of The Voiceless visited LGBT student centers at seven Virginia colleges to see what would happen if they requested help in rejecting their homosexuality. According to the group, all seven colleges advised them that “ex-gay” therapy doesn’t work and often results in self-harm. Enter the Liberty Counsel: On behalf …

Via Religion News Service: A lesbian student who married her partner was expelled from an Oklahoma university one semester shy of her sports management degree. Christian Minard married Kadyn Parks on March 17, 2014. Christian Minard, 22, attended Southwestern Christian University, a school affiliated with the International Pentecostal Holiness Church in Bethany, Okla. As part of her admission requirements, she …

Via Business Insider: Starbucks announced late Sunday it will pay for thousands of its workers to take courses through Arizona State University to complete their bachelor’s degree. The Starbucks College Achievement plan will let full- and part-time workers choose from 40 undergraduate degree programs at ASU that will be delivered online. 135,000 employees are eligible. “There’s no doubt the inequality …

Jared Padgett, the 15 year-old Oregon high school student who yesterday marched onto campus and murdered a classmate, had exactly the interests you would expect. Police Chief Scott Anderson revealed that Padgett was armed with a legally owned AR-15 rifle, which he stole from his home and used to open fire and kill Emilio Hoffman, 14, and wound coach Todd …

“I’ve stepped up to the microphone to address my students hundreds of times before. But this was different. My hands were sweaty; I was shaking. I’m the principal of Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington, D.C. Last Thursday, I stood in front of a thousand people, including my students, teachers, even D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, and came out. ‘I’m a …

Hawaii state Rep. Bob “Crazy Eyes” McDermott has apparently finally won one of his many crackpot crusades. Hawaii is making its sex education classes for middle school students opt-in, responding to critics by giving parents responsibility to affirm they want their children to be taught the course. The Department of Education said Friday that the shift from an opt-out policy …

Woodrow Wilson High School principal Pete Cahall came out last week during his school’s LGBT pride event. There’s no word yet this morning on whether Westboro has actually followed through on their threat to picket the school today.

Yesterday a Washington DC high school principal came out during his school’s LGBT pride event. This morning he talked to local television.  The second clip below is his coming out speech to students, all of whom seemed to react positively.

CBS News reports: A LGBTQ pride celebration at D.C.’s Woodrow Wilson High School led to a big surprise for students Wednesday, as Principal Pete Cahall came out as gay in front of the crowd. Cahall tells WNEW’s Matt DelSignore that he just turned 50 and was “tired of hiding.” “I would be a hypocrite if I tell kids to ‘be …

A Catholic school in Pennsylvania is apologizing to parents after recalling party invitations that feature “poor role model” Ellen DeGeneres. The school’s principal has vowed to destroy the invitations once they are returned. It was “completely wrong” to use DeGeneres’ picture because the lesbian celebrity “lives her life outside the teachings of the Catholic Church,” St. Andrew Elementary School principal …

Florida’s Commission of Education yesterday denounced a GOP state legislator who claims that standardized testing is designed to turn students gay. Via the Associated Press: American Institutes for Research is administering new statewide tests for students in Florida. The testing aligns with the nationwide Common Core standards that some states have accepted while others have rejected. Republican Rep. Charles Van …

Friendly Atheist blogger Hemant Mehta is part of a group that will hand out his book, The Young Atheist’s Survival Guide, at a Kentucky high school. Creation Museum head Ken Ham is ever so pissed. “The reason for handing out this atheist book is to attack the Bible and the Christian faith-and the atheists really just want Bible distribution by …

A 15 year-old Vancouver student has developed an HIV test that delivers a result in a matter of seconds. IFI Science reports: Nicole Ticea is a Grade 10 student at the private girl’s York House School, Vancouver. As part of a collaboration program with Simon Fraser University she developed a test using Isothermic Nucleic Acid Amplification. This allows users to …

Peter LaBarbera has posted a letter from his lawyer in which he threatens to sue Salon and writer Kate Geiselman because she quoted him as saying, “Are you effing kidding?” And since LaBarbera doesn’t curse, that quote constitutes defamation meant to expose him to “public hatred, contempt, ridicule, shame or disgrace.” Seriously. “By your false and defamatory statements you have …

This weekend beloved novelist Armistead Maupin will receive an honorary doctorate from his alma mater, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. From their announcement: Armistead Maupin, Carolina Class of 1966, grew up in Raleigh. As an undergraduate here he wrote a column for the Daily Tar Heel and was elected vice president of the senior class. After graduation, …

The US Department Of Education today issued a declaration that Title IX of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimination against transgender students. Today’s announcement appears to provide nationwide federal protections similar to those recently approved in California, which anti-gay groups continue to attempt to repeal. An excerpt: Title IX’s sex discrimination prohibition extends to claims of discrimination based …