JJ News Maker: School

Showing posts with label School. Show all posts

Monday, February 13, 2012

Ten States Get Leeway on School Law - Wall Street Journal

President Barack Obama on Thursday authorized 10 states to ignore key provisions of the No Child Left Behind law, a move to circumvent the unpopular legislation that won cheers from the states but prompted concern from Republicans and some civil-rights groups.

The Obama administration said it would grant Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey and Tennessee the power to design their own school accountability systems, instead of using the one mandated by the decade-old federal law. Florida, Georgia and Oklahoma received waivers on condition they adopt specific policies promised in their applications.

New Mexico had also applied for a ...

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Sunday, February 12, 2012

LA school in child abuse scandal reopens - CNN

A Miramonte Elementary School student was among adults and children who demanded the school return to normal Thursday.NEW: Superintendent announces that ousted teachers can return if investigation clears themNEW: Teachers union says it will file a grievance on behalf of unfairly removed facultyNEW: Student attendance is only 68%, down from 90% last weekNEW: More than 100 parents and students protest the removal of their teachers

Florence, California (CNN) -- As scandal-plagued Miramonte Elementary School reopened Thursday with a completely new staff, Los Angeles school officials announced that ousted teachers could return to the school if they clear an ongoing investigation into faculty sexual misconduct.

Meanwhile, student attendance was only 68% Thursday, down from 90% last week, and the new faculty eased students into the dramatic changes by having them write goodbye notes to their old teachers.

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy issued a statement saying those old teachers could return as a response to the Los Angeles teachers union's claim the system didn't have a plan for the school. The union said it would file a grievance on behalf of unfairly displaced teachers.

"We again communicated with the teachers today to make explicit the fact that when the investigations are complete and nothing emerges with a particular teacher, that teacher's assignment is to be Miramonte Elementary School," Deasy said in a statement.

"Further, the ridiculous claim that LAUSD does not have a plan is, of course, also not true. We are putting our plan into action as we speak, which assures student safety and support, continues an outstanding educational experience, and helps our adults," Deasy said.

Earlier Thursday, United Teachers Los Angeles President Warren Fletcher accused the school system of "making it up as they go along and the kids are paying the price."

"Parents and students want their teachers back," Fletcher said in a statement.

In a press conference outside the school, joined by parents, Fletcher added: "Parents' concerns have reached a new height as indicated by the parents standing behind me because they know that this is a huge disruption for every child and makes a tragic situation worse."

The system shut down the school Tuesday and Wednesday and removed the entire staff, from janitors to principal, after two teachers were charged with felony lewd acts with pupils. The reconstitution meant the school's 85 teachers were abruptly removed from the year-round school, which serves about 1,400 students in kindergarten through 6th grade.

Former Miramonte teacher Mark Berndt, 61, who resigned last year amid a school board's firing proceedings, was charged last week with 23 felony counts of lewd acts with pupils, a sheriff's spokesman said Wednesday. He is accused of taking bondage photos of more than two dozen students in his classroom, including some with suspected semen-filled spoons at their mouths.

Berndt is being held in lieu of $23 million bail, authorities said.

This week, a second teacher, Martin Bernard Springer, 49, of Alhambra, was charged with three felony charges of lewd acts with a girl under age 14.

Meanwhile, the new faculty and principal worked to put pupils at ease at the school, located in unincorporated Los Angeles County within the Florence-Firestone area, about 6 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.

"We're going to try to move as quickly as possible to get back to learning, to get back to any sort of routine at a school that has been anything but routine the last several days," said school system spokesman Tom Waldman.

School officials said staff will be calling families whose kids were absent Thursday.

One parent, Yolanda Rivera, pulled her daughter out of the school Thursday because she wasn't satisfied with the new staff.

"What guarantees me that those teachers aren't going to be like the last abusive teachers?" Rivera said to CNN. "They hurt us when they closed the school for two days. Why can't I keep my kid out of school?"

Edgar Flores kept his daughter out of school Thursday, and both protested outside the structure, along with more than 100 parents and children, who chanted to live guitar music, "We want, we want, our teachers back!"

"We need to hurt the school economically, and then they're going to realize that getting rid of the teachers was wrong," Flores said.

Gina Adelman, one of the school's new counselors, said teachers broke the ice with students by going around the room and asking each student what was their name, favorite color, favorite pet or pet name, and favorite toy. Adelman said she was transferred from from a middle school.

Students also wrote a formal goodbye note to their old teachers because the school was abruptly restaffed and kids weren't allowed to extend any farewells, Adelman said.

"There were several different messages, but most of them wrote, 'I will miss you' and 'Thank you for being my teacher,'" Adelman said. "One wrote, 'I will do my best,' and I thought that was lovely.

"There was one child who in the course of writing a note, completely unaided, said, 'You had to leave because something bad happened,'" Adelman added. "I said that was a very nice letter."

The school's new principal, Dolores Palacio, 66, said many of the new teachers had been laid off because of budget cuts in the past.

"These teachers are absolutely qualified. All of them were reviewed and investigated," said Palacio, a 31-year veteran of the school district who was retired until she was called into duty at Miramonte. "They are all qualified and experienced."

She chose to come out of retirement because "it's an elementary school and I'm a principal," she said. "It's a nice community, and the parents are wonderful, and what happened was to no fault of the parents or the children. If I could do something to help, I was happy to do it.

"It will take more than two days to get to know the staff really well," Palacio added. "The most important thing is that they want to be here."

Parents can visit the school any time, she said.

CNN's Stan Wilson and Casey Wian contributed to this report.

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Saturday, January 29, 2011

Panama City Shootout: School Board Members Fight Back - ABC News

A gunman killed himself after opening fire on a Florida school board meeting. He was confronted by two school officials, one who attacked him with her purse, and another, the security chief, who fired his gun at the shooter.

Police said a 56-year-old man disrupted the the Bay District School Board meeting in Panama City, Fla., walked up to the podium, pulled out a can of red spray paint and painted a large letter "V" with a circle around it.

"The shooter approached the front of the board members, spray painted a symbol on the wall and fired an unknown amount of rounds," said Panama City Police Department spokesman Sgt. Jeff Becker.

"After he painted the symbol he was confronted by a board member [Ginger Littleton] who knocked the gun with her purse," he said.

Inside the meeting was reporter Nadeen Yanes of ABC News afiliate WMBB-TV, who shot exclusive video of the incident.

The gunman released all of the women and children, but held an unspecified number of men.

A fire fight broke out between the gunman and Mike Jones, a former school board member and district security chief, Becker said.

"After reviewing the evidence, the suspect took his own life," said Becker.

Police would not confirm the shooter's identity until his family had been notified. Becker would not speculate on the shooter's motive or meaning of the "V" symbol. Becker also would not confirm the total number of bullets fired.

Yanes said at least 10 shots were fired.

No other injuries were reported.

Police are watching the video Yanes shot of the confrontation.

Beth Deluzain, executive director of the Bay Education Foundation, who works on the second floor of the building said she was not told to leave and things seemed to be under control

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Tuesday, November 23, 2010

school board member to resign over anti-gay post - CNN

Clint McCance, vice president of the Midland School District in Arkansas, says he will resign.NEW: Clint McCance says his wife and children have left state over safety concerns Clint McCance apologies for remarks, calls them "ignorant""I would never support suicide for any kids," he says after advocating suicide for homosexuals

(CNN) -- A school board district member in Arkansas who came under fire for an anti-gay post on a social networking site regrets the comments and will resign his seat, he told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Thursday.

"I'm sorry I've hurt people with my comments," Clint McCance, vice-president of the Midland School District in Pleasant Plains, Arkansas said. "I'm sorry I made those ignorant comments and hurt people on a broad spectrum."

McCance wrote on his personal Facebook page that he wanted gay people to commit suicide, according to The Advocate, a newspaper focusing on gay news.

McCance used the terms "queer" and "fag" repeatedly, promised to disown his own children if they are gay and stated that he enjoys "the fact that [gay people] give each other AIDS and die."

On Thursday, he disowned the comments.

"I would never support suicide for any kids," he said. "I don't support bullying of any kids."

"I'd like to extend apologies to those families that have lost children, for all those children who feel that suicide is the only way out, especially for the five families who have already lost children," he said, referring to a rash of recent suicides by gay teens. "I brought more hurt on them... they didn't deserve that and I do feel genuinely bad for them."

Though he disapproves of homosexuality, McCance said that "I give everyone a chance and try to love everyone."

McCance said that he has received an outpouring of criticism over his comments, including "thousands of phone calls, hate mails, people threatening to kill my family and me."

He said he has sent his wife and two kids out of the state because of fears for their safety and that he is installing a security system at his home.

"I'm reaping what I've sown," he told CNN. "I've had a lot of hate speech thrown at me and my family on every level."

He said he would resign from the school board to spare the district the bad press and distractions of dealing with the fallout from his comments. "If they decide after five or ten years to vote me back in, then I'll run again," he said.

McCance's comments had drawn criticism from education officials in his district and at the state level.

"I strongly condemn the statements that appeared on Mr. Clint McCance's Facebook page," Tom Kimbrell, Arkansas commissioner of education, said in a statement Wednesday. "... The statements attributed to Mr. McCance constitute a significant departure from statements we expect from our school leaders. The divisiveness and disruption of these comments cause me to seriously question the ability of Mr. McCance to remain as an effective member of the Midland School Board."

The Midland School District had also denounced the posting. "The district strives to foster an environment that discourages all forms of bullying," it said in a statement this week, "and an environment that encourages a safe and productive educational climate [for] all of our students. The district is very diligent in pursuing and addressing bullying of any variety on our campuses."

The state Department of Education had said it was "dismayed to see that a school board official would post something of this insensitive nature on a public forum like Facebook."

Because McCance's Facebook page is not accessible publicly, the Advocate said it learned about the posts after being provided with a screen shot.

The posts were made, according to The Advocate, in response to a bullying awareness campaign sponsored by GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. The "Spirit Day" campaign aimed to foster recognition of bullying directed at gays and the effects it can have on young people through a series of events held on October 20.

One aspect of the campaign encouraged people to wear purple to honor those who had committed suicide after experiencing anti-gay bullying, and to show solidarity with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered youth who face the same pressures.

According to the screen grab obtained by The Advocate, McCance wrote the following about the event: "Seriously they want me to wear purple because five queers committed suicide. The only way im wearin it for them is if they all commit suicide. I cant believe the people of this world have gotten this stupid. We are honoring the fact that they sinned and killed therselves because of their sin." (sic)

The post spurred a Facebook page encouraging the Midland School District to fire McCance. More than 60,000 people had "liked" the page as of Thursday evening.

However, not everyone disagreed with McCance's comments, which he had defended on his page by citing his religious beliefs.

Gays and lesbians are "thinking they're all right, and [God is] going to let them think that and go to hell for believing what they're doing is right," pastor Harry Craig, of Pleasant Plains Full Gospel Church, told CNN Little Rock affiliate KARK.

On Tuesday, the federal government warned that bullying and harassment in schools often includes violations of federally protected civil rights. Officials warned that school administrators who fail to properly deal with harassment risk being cited for civil rights violations. In extreme cases, such violations could lead to cuts in federal funding.

A group of protesters had traveled Thursday to Pleasant Plains, where they held a demonstration to call for McCance's resignation.

Watch Anderson Cooper 360° weeknights 10pm ET. For the latest from AC360° click here.

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Sunday, October 24, 2010

School district settles webcam spying suit for $610000 - Computerworld

Computerworld - A suburban Pennsylvania school district accused of spying on students using school-issued laptops has agreed to pay $610,000 to settle litigation stemming from its controversial practice.

Under the proposed settlement, the Lower Merion School District will pay $185,000 to two high school students who had sued the district earlier this year for allegedly snooping on them. The remaining $425,000 will go to attorneys fees.

The proposed settlement was approved by the district's school board of directors Monday. It results from a "lengthy, court-ordered mediation" between all concerned parties, board President David Ebby said in a statement.

"Though we would have valued the opportunity to finally share an important, untold story in the courtroom, we recognize that in this case, a lengthy, costly trial would benefit no one," Ebby noted. The statement did not elaborate on what untold story Ebby was referring to.

The school district, in Ardmore, Pa., has been at the center of a huge controversy over its use of a specialized embedded software product for tracking stolen, lost or missing school-issued laptops. The district provided laptops to about 1,800 of its high school students, but did not inform them about the embedded tracking software, which could be used to remotely activate Webcams on the laptops.

In February, Blake Robbins, a district high school student, and his parents, filed a lawsuit against the school district accusing it of spying on him in his home. The lawsuit charged Lower Merion with remotely activating the Webcam on Robbins' laptop to take thousands of pictures of Blake and others members of his family, including some of Blake in his bedroom partially undressed, and some of him sleeping.

The lawsuit was filed after a school official accused Blake of selling drugs and taking pills based on a photograph captured by the school computer at his home. In court documents, lawyers for Blake accused Lower Merion officials of taking thousands of webcam photos and screenshots of numerous other students, many of whom had never reported their laptops as being missing or stolen.

An investigation conducted on behalf of the district later found that school-issued laptops had taken more than 30,000 photographs, using the activated tracking software.

In July, a second individual , Jalil Hassan, a former high school student from the same district, also sued, claiming that his laptop had snapped close to 500 photographs of him over a two-month period.

The school district itself vigorously denied it had spied on the students and claimed that the only reason it had installed the tracking software was to help it locate laptops reported as lost, missing or stolen.

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