Tag Archives: education

Texas School Superintendent Busted In Child Sex Sting

NBC News reports: A Texas school superintendent sent lewd photos to an undercover officer posing online as a 15-year-old girl he planned to meet with, authorities said. Michael Keith Stevens, 47, superintendent of the Itasca Independent School District, was arrested Thursday and accused of online solicitation of a minor, according to court records. “He sent pictures of his private parts …

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Moms For Liberty Harasses Florida High School Into Reprinting Yearbook Without Pages On LGBTQ Students

The Orlando Sentinel reports: Seminole County Public Schools is offering to reprint this year’s Lyman High School yearbook and remove two pages for parents upset about LGBTQ+ content, prompting criticism that the district isn’t standing up to bigotry. The pages highlight the school’s LGBTQ+ community and provide definitions of terms such as genderfluid and pansexual. A few parents and students …

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Utah School District Removes Bible From Libraries After Complaint It Violates 2022 Law On Obscene Materials

Salt Lake City’s ABC affiliate reports: Copies of the King James Bible are being removed from school library shelves at elementary and junior high facilities in Davis County, Utah, after a complaint that the scriptures feature material inappropriate for younger children. The complaint was filed by an unknown person in March after a statewide law passed in 2022 allowed residents …

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Desegregation Order Issued For Mississippi Schools

The Associated Press reports: Federal courts have issued desegregation orders for 32 school districts in Mississippi, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division’s assistant attorney general said Thursday. The desegregation orders fit into a broader body of civil rights work launched in Mississippi that is examining jails, police departments and hate crimes in the state, according to Assistant Attorney …

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TX Gov Gets Bill Mandating Armed Guards At Schools

The Texas Tribune reports: Texas lawmakers sent a sweeping school safety measure to Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday, including in their response to last year’s Uvalde massacre a requirement to post an armed security officer at every school and provide mental health training for certain district employees. The measure also gives the state more power to compel school districts to …

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QAnon Nutjob To Oversee Tennessee Social Studies

Popular Information reports: Last week, Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton [photo] announced that he had appointed Laurie Cardoza-Moore to serve on the Tennessee Standards Recommendation Committee to oversee “Social Studies materials being reviewed for use in classrooms statewide.” Cardoza-Moore, known for holding extremist views and promoting conspiracy theories, has called “U.S. history textbooks” currently used in classrooms the “greatest national …

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Texas Passes Bill Requiring Ratings For Library Books

The Texas Tribune reports: House Bill 900, which would set new standards for school libraries to keep sexually explicit content off bookshelves, is heading to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk. Librarians, legal experts and some parents are concerned that the bill’s language is vague and broad enough to ensnare books that are not inappropriate. “House Bill 900 is simply another tool …

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TX Fails To Pass Ten Commandments In Classrooms Bill

The New York Times reports: A push to inject religion into public schools across Texas faltered on Tuesday after the State House failed to pass a contentious bill that would have required the Ten Commandments to be displayed prominently in every classroom. The measure was part of an effort by conservative Republicans in the Legislature to expand the reach of …

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Texas Lawmakers Approve Bill To Place Chaplains In Public Schools, Sponsor Refused To Ban Proselytizing

The Texas Tribune reports: Speaking to state lawmakers last month, Rocky Malloy argued that putting unlicensed religious chaplains in schools could prevent youth violence, teen suicide and teacher burnout. And he rejected concerns that school chaplains might use their access to recruit kids to Christ. Chaplains “are not working to convert people to religion,” Malloy, the head of the National …

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Florida School: Teacher’s Pro-Confederacy Video Is OK

The Daily Beast reports: A Florida middle-school teacher who had his class watch a self-made, pro-Confederacy video for Confederate History Month has filed a complaint against his school district for launching an investigation into his questionable teaching practices. Collier County Public Schools looked into a video that Manatee Middle School social studies teacher Jonathan Papanikolaou had his students watch during …

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DeSantis Signs Bill Defunding College Diversity Efforts

The Washington Post reports: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill into law Monday barring the state’s colleges and universities from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, and limiting how race can be discussed in many courses. The move comes amid a larger conservative attack on higher education DEI programs, which DeSantis and others say reinforce racial …

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Florida Teacher Investigated For Showing Disney Film

The Guardian reports: Florida education officials allegedly told a school teacher that she was under a misconduct investigation after, her friend claimed, she showed students the Disney animated film Strange World. The purported investigation following this alleged showing of Strange World comes amid rightwing Republican governor Ron DeSantis’s attacks on educators that include book censorship and limitations on discussions of …

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College Coach’s Anti-Gay Slur Costs Him $1M/Year

ESPN reports: West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins will return to the sideline next season in the wake of using an anti-gay slur in a radio interview earlier this week. Huggins has agreed to a million-dollar salary reduction, a three-game suspension and sensitivity training. Huggins’ suspension will take place during the Mountaineers’ first three regular-season games, and his contract will …

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Florida Approves “De-Woked” Social Studies Textbooks

Politico reports: Florida’s Department of Education as of Tuesday approved dozens of social studies textbooks for use in local schools after initially rejecting many over content the DeSantis administration found objectionable. Publishers in many cases tweaked the content in their books after an initial review from the state, according to the state’s education agency. State education officials flagged several potential …

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Michigan School District Bans Backpacks Because Guns

NewsNation reports: Public schools in Flint are enforcing a policy banning backpacks, including those made of clear plastic material, amid concerns over firearms, weapons and threats. The Flint Board of Education voted 7-0 to ban backpacks for the remainder of the school year. The new policy allows small purses for personal items, clear plastic bags for gym clothes and lunchboxes …

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Illinois Set To Forbid Book Bans By Schools, Libraries

Politico reports: Illinois is poised to become the first state to punish public institutions that ban books. Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker has said he supports a House bill that would withhold state funding from any of the state’s 1,600 public or school libraries that remove books from their shelves. It passed in the Illinois Senate on Wednesday, and Pritzker is …

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Ousted Florida Principal Visits David Statue In Italy

The BBC reports: A US principal forced to resign after parents complained about an art lesson showing one of the world’s most famous sculptures has visited the masterpiece. Hope Carrasquilla and her family went to see Michelangelo’s David on Friday at Florence’s Accademia Galleria. They came at the invitation of museum director Cecilie Hollberg, who said that she was grateful …

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CDC: 25% Of High School Students Identify As LGBTQ

ABC News reports: A new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows over one out of every four high school students in the United States identifies as LGBTQ. Using data it collected in 2021, the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS) found that 74.2% of American high school students identified as heterosexual. The CDC surveyed …

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DeSantis Board Denies Tenure For Five Professors

Inside Higher Ed reports: During a contentious Board of Trustees meeting Wednesday, five professors at the New College of Florida were denied tenure—even though they had already received approvals at every other point in the process. Those professors are the latest casualties of the culture-war politics that led conservative trustees appointed by Florida governor Ron DeSantis to spearhead a self-declared …

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Florida Educator May Lose Job For Criticizing DeSantis

The Associated Press reports: Florida officials are threatening to revoke the teaching license of a school superintendent who criticized Gov. Ron DeSantis, accusing the educator of violating several statutes and DeSantis directives and allowing his “personal political views” to guide his leadership. Such a revocation by the state Department of Education could allow DeSantis to remove Leon County Superintendent Rocky …

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