Rather than deal with bullies, Christian school orders girl to "style" her natural African hair

When bullies at a Christian school in Florida (where else?) acted up, the administrators decided to order the target to get rid of her naturally-puffy African hair. After all, if students see African hair growing naturally, it's to be expected that they would be inspired to bad behavior, right? The administrators decided that the problem God created needed to be fixed by concealing God's handiwork. These geniuses figured this would be more reasonable than giving students a lesson on Christian virtues, civil rights, or the simple common sense of accepting the reality of biological differences among human beings.

My advice to Vanessa: don't fix it because it ain't broke. And learn from the experience you're living. Perhaps there's another Christian school nearby that has administrators whom God gifted with functioning frontal lobes.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to figure out how Vanessa is supposed to "style" her hair, since administrators claim they aren't requiring that she cut her hair or use chemical products. I think that's exactly what they intended, but they're backtracking now.

How can she limit the volume of her hair without chemicals or scissors? Even if she braided her hair, the shorter hairs, and the hair on the top of her head, would escape and puff out. Cornrows would be a solution, but I doubt that's what the school has in mind, especially since they would have to require all students to wear cornrows in order not to specifically target African hair.

I'm getting a kick out of picturing all the classrooms, with every child wearing cornrows. Blond cornrows, brown cornrows, red cornrows, black cornrows. It's actually kind of a beautiful thought, isn't it?


Is this the solution this school needs?

I'm guessing Rihanna's style would please Faith Christian's administrators:
Rihanna, at the 41st American Music Awards, November 24, 2013.
(Credit: Reuters/Lucy Nicholson)

Also, see my plan for voluntary separation of pedophiles.


UPDATE: ADMINISTRATORS CHANGE THEIR MINDS

Girl Who Faced Expulsion Over Natural Hair Gets To Stay At Private School
Nov 27, 2013
By Ruth Manuel-Logan
News One

On Monday, 12-year-old Vanessa VanDyke (pictured), who attends Faith Christian Academy in Central Florida, was faced with quite a dilemma.

School officials allegedly mandated that she restyle her natural hair or be expelled for a week. But, just one day after the bizarre request got national media attention, the edict was suddenly rescinded and Vanessa now gets to remain in school with her crowning glory as is, according to WKMG Local 6.

Vanessa has attended the private school for three years and had never experienced any bullying over her hairstyle until now. When Vanessa’s mom, Sabrina Kent, approached school officials over her daughter being taunted by classmates because her hair was not straight, they thought it would be in her best interest to straighten it.

The tween, who loves the texture of her hair, talked to Local 6 about her choice of hairstyle. “It says that I’m unique,” Vanessa said. “First of all, it’s puffy and I like it that way. I know people will tease me about it because it’s not straight. I don’t fit in.”

Kent told the news outlet that the school’s threat of expulsion over her daughter’s hair was not a solution to her daughter being bullied. “There have been people teasing her about her hair, and it seems to me that they’re blaming her,” Kent laments. According to the miffed mom, school officials allegedly informed her that Vanessa’s hair was a “distraction.”

The academy does have a dress code in place which also loops in how students can wear their hair. “Hair must be a natural color and must not be a distraction,” and the stipulations include, but are not limited to, mohawks, shaved designs and rat tails.

Despite the school’s strict dress codes, Kent is standing firm that her daughter’s hairstyle will not change. “I’m going to fight for my daughter,” Kent said. “If she wants her hair like that, she will keep her hair like that. There are people out there who may think that natural hair is not appropriate. She is beautiful the way she is.”

Faith Christian Academy officials released a statement on Tuesday regarding the hair-raising issue:

“We’re not asking her to put products in her hair or cut her hair. We’re asking her to style her hair within the guidelines according to the school handbook.”

[Maura Larkins' comment: I'm trying to figure this out. It seems they're saying that she needs to wear braids. But shouldn't all students be required to wear braids if that's what the school wants?]

Meanwhile, Vanessa and her mom will be lining up strategies over the Thanksgiving holiday just in case.

[Read more HERE.]


ORIGINAL POST:

African-American girl faces expulsion over 'natural hair'
by Ole Texan
Daily Kos member
Nov 27, 2013

An African-American teen says she faces expulsion because administrators at her private school want her to cut and shape her hair.

Vanessa VanDyke said she was given one week to decide to whether cut her hair or leave Faith Christian Academy in Orlando, a school she's been going to since the third grade.

Whoa!! This was my first reaction after reading this article. And don`t ask me why. I have trouble remembering when it was a time that I saw such beautiful hair on a teenager. Being the state of Florida giving this lovely girl one week to decide to whether cut her hair or leave Faith Christian Academy in Orlando, a school she's been going to since the third grade is not surprising to me.

But for now, she and her mother do not plan to change her hair because it is part of the 12-year-old's identity. But her natural hair style comes with a cost.

"It says that I'm unique," said VanDyke. "First of all, it's puffy and I like it that way. I know people will tease me about it because it's not straight. I don't fit in."

VanDyke said that first the teasing from other students, but now, school leaders seem to be singling her out for her appearance.

Faith Christian Academy has a dress code and rules against how students can wear their hair. The student handbook reads:

"Hair must be a natural color and must not be a distraction," and goes on to state examples that include, but are not limited to, mohawks, shaved designs and rat tails.

"A distraction to one person is not a distraction to another," said VanDyke's mother, Sabrina Kent. "You can have a kid come in with pimples on his face. Are you going to call that a distraction?"

Interestinly enough, Vanessa had her large, natural hair all year long, but it only became an issue after the family complained about students teasing her about her hair. Teasings escalated from obvious taunts into bullying from those whom I think were more envious of such beauty and not on account of distraction.

"I'm depressed about leaving my friends and people that I've known for a while, but I'd rather have that than the principals and administrators picking on me and saying that I should change my hair," said VanDyke.

It is sad, but highly commended that this teenager take a stand and fight for her principles, her right to be, and self determination to keep her hair. It is undisputable that Vanessa`s hair is her natural hair and is not tainted with hair dyes. Or at least it is not alleged by the Academy.

"I'm going to fight for my daughter," Kent said. "If she wants her hair like that, she will keep her hair like that. There are people out there who may think that natural hair is not appropriate. She is beautiful the way she is."

School administrators responded to an email asking about the issue, but did not provide any answers to questions. And I have to wonder why.

Lowndes County Schools' attorneys insists Kendrick Johnson video is "a raw feed with no edits"

Kendrick Johnson

Education attorneys at Lowndes County Schools insist the video they released of the day student Kendrick Johnson died is "a raw feed with no edits."

In my experience, school attorneys try very hard to conceal events in schools from the public, the courts and from parents of students who have been injured or killed.

"We're missing information." --Grant Fredericks, forensic video analyst

Click link to see school videos:

Kendrick Johnson footage released; expert finds it 'highly suspicious'
From Victor Blackwell
CNN
November 21, 2013

Missing video in teen gym-mat death?

(CNN) -- Kendrick Johnson's family waited months for hundreds of hours of surveillance video, hoping it would answer their questions. It only raised others.

Rather than showing how their 17-year-old son's body ended up in a school gym mat in January, the four cameras inside the Valdosta, Georgia, gymnasium showed only a few collective seconds of Johnson, jogging. The camera fixed on the gym mats was blurry...

"(The surveillance video has) been altered in a number of ways, primarily in image quality and likely in dropped information, information loss," he said. "There are also a number of files that are corrupted because they've not been processed correctly and they're not playable. I can't say why they were done that way, but they were not done correctly, and they were not done thoroughly. So we're missing information."

Two cameras in the gym are missing an hour and five minutes, their hiatus ending at 1:09, when Johnson enters the gym. Another pair of cameras are missing two hours and 10 minutes each. They don't begin recording again until 1:15 and 1:16, according to their time stamps.

What's certain, based on video from a camera outside the gym, is that numerous students walked into the gym during the hour and five minutes that the cameras weren't recording, but it's not clear whether that was sufficient to activate the cameras' motion sensors.

The time stamp on a camera outside the gym also appears to be 10 minutes behind the cameras inside the gym.

"I can't tell you whether there was no information recorded in the digital video system or whether somebody made an error and didn't capture it or whether somebody just didn't provide it," Fredericks said.

CNN has requested access to the original surveillance servers. But Fredericks cautions that the video could be gone, as newer surveillance would replace it if it wasn't recovered promptly from the school's digital video recorder.

The police have said they didn't receive a copy of the videos until several days after Johnson's body was found, according to an unredacted report obtained by CNN after a legal process.

Fredericks told CNN he found it "highly suspicious" that an hour of video could be missing, especially considering how the material was acquired by police.

"The investigator's responsibility is to acquire the entire digital video recording system and have their staff define what they want to obtain," he said.

According to an incident report from the Sheriff's Office, however, a detective watched a portion of the video then asked an information technology officer employed by the school board to produce a "copy of the surveillance video for the entire wing of the school with the old gym for the last 48 hours."

Five days later, the sheriff's report says, the IT officer delivered a hard drive to the detective, who verified it contained what he requested.

"Right now, what they've done, is they've left it up to the school district as to what it is they want to provide to the police, and I think that probably is a mistake," Fredericks said.

"You don't want somebody who might be party to the responsibility to make the decision as to what they provide the police."...


$10,000 Reward Offered In Death Investigation
...[previous story]by: Garin Flowers
WCTV
October 18, 2013

Valdosta, GA - A new surveillance video shows Kendrick Johnson wasn't alone in the gym.

An attorney for Lowndes High School says additional surveillance video shows other students in the gym around the time Kendrick Johnson walked in.

That video has not been released because officials don't have consent for the additional minors seen in the video.

Attorneys for the family of Kendrick Johnson plan to have a hearing with a Lowndes County judge on October 30.

They will seek a court order for that surveillance video inside of the gym and other areas that may add more evidence to the case.

Attorneys Chevene King and Ben Crump represent the family.

They're hoping the U.S. Department of Justice opens a formal investigation into the case. We spoke with the attorneys and the Johnson family on Friday.

"There were four cameras inside that gym, one of which was aimed in the direction of the corner where Kendrick's body was found," King said.

"If you have a video surveillance that shows what happened to Kendrick Johnson, doesn't the family at least deserve to see the truth," Crump said.

"The only time we'll be able to feel comfortable in some sort, when Kendrick get justice," said Kenneth Johnson, father of Kendrick.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation ruled Kendrick Johnson's death a result of positional asphyxiation.

The Johnson family conducted its own autopsy, which showed the teen died from blunt force trauma.

Bullied San Jose State University Student Allegedly Endured Racial Abuse

UPDATE: 4TH STUDENT SUSPENDED
Fourth San Jose State student suspended in hate-crime case
Los Angeles Times
November 23, 2013

A fourth San Jose State University student has been suspended in connection with an incident in which three others have been charged with a hate crime for allegedly bullying a black roommate, locking a bicycle chain around his neck and using racial slurs to demean him.

The 18-year-old male student from Los Angeles has not been identified because at the time of the alleged incidents he was a minor, according to university spokesman Pat Harris and Bay Area media reports. The student is also expected to be charged in the case...

ORIGINAL STORY

Bullied San Jose State University Student Allegedly Endured Racial Abuse
Nov. 22, 2013
By ALYSSA NEWCOMB
ABC News
Students Charged With Hate Crimes Against Roommate

A black college freshman in California who was allegedly subjected to racially-charged torment by his three white suitemates is described as a "mild-mannered, sweet kid" who was physically afraid of his roommates and what they would do if he reported the abuse.

From August until October, prosecutors allege three freshmen at California's San Jose State University taunted their black suitemate with racial epithets, Nazi imagery and on one occasion, clamped a U-shaped bicycle lock around his neck.

The three suspects, Logan Beaschler and Colin Warren, both 18, and Joseph Bomgardner, 19, have been suspended pending an investigation and are being charged with a misdemeanor hate crime and battery, police said. They have not yet entered a plea.

"[The victim] really wanted to just get along. I think he hoped this would go away, and I think another big part of it was he was physically scared of them," Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Erin West told ABCNews.com.

The victim's name has not been released to protect his identity.

"There were mean tricks played on him -- barricading him in his bedroom and putting their hands on him to put this bike lock around his neck," West said. "It seems clear the motivation for that battery was motivated by hate."

Instead of calling the victim by his name, West said the suspects called him "Three-Fifths," a reference to the fraction used more than a century ago to count slaves for the purpose of Congressional representation in the U.S. Census.

When the victim objected, she said they changed the cruel nickname to "Fraction."

As the semester progressed, West said the teen spent less time in his suite and instead went home on the weekends to escape the alleged torment.

His parents took him back to the residence hall one weekend in October and saw why.

"They saw the n-word written on a dry erase board in his suite and saw the confederate flag," West said.

The parents immediately filed a report with college officials. San Jose State University spokeswoman Pat Harris told ABCNews.com that an investigation was launched the same day housing staff was made aware of the allegations.

Two suspects were relocated to single rooms elsewhere on campus, while a third suspect, who was initially believed to be a bystander, was removed from the suite on Thursday when he was identified as an offender, Harris said.

Outrage and Sadness on Campus

The racially charged allegations have sent shockwaves through the San Jose State University community, which includes 31,000 students and 5,000 faculty members.

Supporters gathered around a statue of black Olympian Tommie Smith on campus on Thursday to show solidarity for the victim, who is still attending classes and living on campus.

The university's president, Mohammad Qayoumi, said in an email he was "outraged and saddened by these allegations."

"They are utterly inconsistent with our long-cherished history of tolerance, respect for diversity and personal civility," he said in an email to students and faculty that was obtained by ABCNews.com.

Qayoumi said the school speaks to freshmen about discrimination and harassment during orientation. However, the school plans to re-examine its diversity programs and safety measures within on-campus housing and throughout the university.

Attempts to contract the three students were unsuccessful.

San Ysidro School District wants no mention of cash handoff, burning records or criminal charges in EcoBusiness case

San Ysidro Schools doesn't think opposing attorneys should be allowed to see public records showing how much San Diego County Office of Education has paid to San Ysidro's lawyers for work in the EcoBusniess case. See also story at bottom of this post of punishment of a teacher who called in law enforcement when he saw documents burning in a San Ysidro school dumpster.

See all posts re Manuel Paul.
See all posts re Dan Shinoff.
See all posts labeled San Ysidro School District; also, a few stories are listed under "San Ysidro SD".
See all posts re Ecobusiness or Manzana/Ecobusiness.

MORE EFFORTS TO CONCEAL EVENTS IN SAN YSIDRO SCHOOLS AS CIVIL AND CRIMINAL CASES PROCEED

Our school tax dollars are hard at work in San Ysidro School District where the public is paying lawyers to tell the Superior Court that the burning of district records had nothing to do with a pending $18 million lawsuit about San Ysidro School District's decision to drop a contractor.

Photo: Aaron Burgin, SDUT

San Ysidro's lawyers also told the court that a cash handout from a contractor to Superintendent Manuel Paul sheds no light on how San Ysidro officials make decisions about contractors.

Stutz law firm was chosen by San Diego County Office of Education's Joint Powers Authority, which provides legal liability insurance to schools.

The California Bar Association says that public entity lawyers have no obligation to the public and are only beholden to the public officials they represent. If they are right, as they may well be, perhaps the law needs to be changed.

I think a school district belongs to the people who pay for it and the people for whose benefit it was created, not to the officials and others who have obtained power in its hierarchy.

P.S. I am wondering why the San Diego Union-Tribune laid off Watchdog reporter Aaron Bergin. It probably didn't help when Bergin wrote about another school attorney firm, Fagen Friedman Fulfrost, and its shenanigans at Carlsbad School District. SDUT owner Doug Manchester perhaps decided he had one Watchdog too many.

CNN reports that education attorneys at Lowndes County Schools insist the video they released recently of the day student Kendrick Johnson died is "a raw feed with no edits."

However, forensic video analyst Grant Fredericks says, "(The surveillance video has) been altered in a number of ways, primarily in image quality and likely in dropped information, information loss," he said. "There are also a number of files that are corrupted because they've not been processed correctly and they're not playable. I can't say why they were done that way, but they were not done correctly, and they were not done thoroughly. So we're missing information."

--Maura Larkins



San Ysidro tries to limit testimony
District wants cash handoff, criminal charges excluded from civil matter
By Jeff McDonald
SDUT
Nov. 17, 2013

Manuel Paul, 61, San Ysidro schools superintendent, is accused of filing false documents, perjury, and accepting gifts above state limits Manuel Paul, 61, San Ysidro schools superintendent, is accused of filing false documents, perjury, and accepting gifts above state limits.

Lawyers for the San Ysidro School District filed several motions last week in an $18 million lawsuit over solar installations, attempting to exclude any mention of cash handoffs, burning of district records or criminal charges against officials.

Daniel Shinoff, the attorney defending the South County district in a dispute with EcoBusiness Alliance, asked a judge to bar from the upcoming trial references to former Superintendent Manuel Paul’s admission that he accepted $2,500 in cash from a contractor looking to secure business.

Paul has said the money was for political signs, and the motions also ask the judge to omit references to amended campaign disclosure forms filed by trustees after Paul testified that’s what the money was for.

The district argues that its former superintendent is not involved in the lawsuit.

“First, this is a breach of contract action between the San Ysidro School District and EcoBusiness Alliance,” one motion states. “Manuel Paul is not a party.”

The documents also ask the judge to exclude witnesses and references to an FBI investigation into district business practices and an FBI probe into the burning and shredding of documents on district property in July.

The motions have yet to be ruled on by the judge hearing the suit, in which EcoBusiness Alliance is objecting to the 2012 cancellation of its $18 million contract to install solar power systems at district campuses.

The company is attempting to prove that the contract was canceled in part because officials maintain a “pay to play” culture that awards contracts to vendors who contribute gifts or cash to top district officials. The district rejected that claim, saying the deal fizzled because the company did not act on the agreement.

The attorney representing EcoBusiness Alliance called the motions a ploy and a waste of public funds.

The lawsuit is unrelated to criminal charges filed against Paul and Trustee Yolanda Hernandez, who were among 15 South County educators indicted by the grand jury a year ago on corruption charges. The DA is attempting to prove a pay-to-play atmosphere regarding school construction contracts in South County, at San Ysidro and two other districts.

Hernandez has pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge of filing a false form. Paul has pleaded not guilty to six remaining corruption charges.

The criminal case is scheduled for trial in 2014. The civil suit is expected to go to trial early next year.


MORE EFFORTS TO SILENCE REPORTS OF EVENTS IN SCHOOLS



Did Manuel Paul illegally burn San Ysidro School District papers?
Whistleblower placed on administrative leave
By Susan Luzzaro
San Diego Reader
Aug. 4, 2013

Curious reports continue regarding burned papers retrieved from a burn barrel in the maintenance yard of the San Ysidro School District...

A new twist to the story, however, is that the district has placed the whistleblower on administrative leave.

The sequence of events on July 3 began when a San Ysidro school teacher got a call from his union president who informed him of the possible burning of documents. He called his acquaintance, Art Castanares, one of the owners of EcoAlliance, a solar-power company. EcoAlliance has filed a breach-of-contract suit against the district.

The teacher and Castanares showed up at district headquarters at about the same time and found the burn barrel. They called the FBI and the San Diego police.

“I can’t even have an open burn in my backyard," said the teacher in a recent interview. "It doesn’t look right for someone in the district to be doing this.” The teacher said what appeared to be legal documents were visible among the ashes.

Though the teacher declined to release his name until he meets with his attorney, he worries he is already suffering the consequences of being a whistleblower. The district placed him on administrative leave on Tuesday, July 30...

PLAN: PEDOPHILES SEPARATED FROM CHILDREN

This post is mirrored HERE.

California State Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez (top left) watches as Maria Keever (left) and Milena Sellers Phillips (right) speak out against the proposed plan to release Douglas Badger from a state hospital. Badger, a repeat sex offender, has been accused of assaulting several young men and one 16-year-old girl. Christian Rodas for SDUT

I have an idea about where pedophiles should live. It would work for Douglas Badger (whose release is a hot issue here in San Diego), and it would work for those who have not offended, but who are sexually attracted to children.

It wouldn't just apply to child molesters who have served their prison terms. It would also prevent sexual assaults in the future by pedophiles who have not offended yet.

And it would be entirely voluntary on the part of the pedophiles. They'd rather live in my proposed development than in a trailer outside Donovan State Prison on Otay Mesa, the only viable location proposed so far for Douglas Badger. And even sociopaths might be smart enough to choose a life for themselves that wouldn't involve prison--at least not for sexual assaults on children.

I call upon real estate developers, particularly those who have benefited from the generosity of San Diego taxpayers--like Corky McMillan's company, for starters--to design a development where pedophiles would live. (Perhaps those with other illegal urges would also want to move in.)

No children would be allowed into this development, and no residents would be allowed to leave except in extreme circumstances, and they would be supervised by a guard while on the outside. Anyone who leaves without a guard would not be allowed back. This would not be a place from which predators could leave to commit crimes and then come back and hide. If they leave, my guess is that they'll probably end up in prison.

How would the problem of child pornography be handled? Perhaps residents would have to agree to have their computers regularly searched, and mail would be examined. This town would allow much greater freedom and opportunity than prison, or a trailer outside the gates of a prison, but residents would have to agree to give up some of their rights in order to make sure the community could not become a haven for criminals.

I am thinking of starting a petition to this effect.

The residents could own and run their own grocery stores, restaurants, and all manner of businesses, generating taxes to pay for guards and administrators of the development. The residents wouldn't be paying any taxes if we waited for them to offend and then put them in prison.

Maura Larkins


Housing For Sexual Predator Douglas Badger To Be Determined By Judge
By Dwane Brown
KPBS
November 12, 2013

GUESTS
Lorena Gonzalez, San Diego Assemblywoman
John Rice, Deputy District Attorney, San Diego County

County and state officials, along with concerned parents, voiced opposition Tuesday to the release of convicted sexual predator Douglas Badger. A court hearing to locate housing for 70-year-old Badger will be held Friday.

Douglas Badger, who has been diagnosed with a schizophrenic disorder and sexual sadism, has a history of sexual assaults dating back to 1974.

Badger, who has been diagnosed with a schizophrenic disorder and sexual sadism, has a history of sexual assaults dating back to 1974. His victims were primarily 18- to 29-year-old male hitchhikers, although in one case he assaulted a 16-year-old girl.

He was convicted in 1981 and served 10 years in prison. Shortly after his release in 1991, he re-offended and was again convicted of sexual assault.

In 1997, Badger was committed to a state hospital as a sexually violent predator. In August, a judge ruled that Badger could be safely released into the community with continued treatment and supervision.

Milena Phillips' is the creator of the Jonathan Sellers and Charlie Keever Foundation. Sellers, Phillips' son, and his friend, Keever, were killed by a sexual predator in 1993. Phillips strongly opposes releasing Badger back into the community.

"A repeat offender, a repeat sexual sadist — to let him in an area where he could be in walking distance of children is just unthinkable," Phillips said...


South County officials oppose sex predator's release
By Dana Littlefield
SDUT
Nov. 12, 2013

SAN DIEGO — In a pre-emptive move, two South County officials spoke out Tuesday against the pending release of a sexually violent predator, saying they do not want him placed in any of the communities they represent.

It remains unclear where Douglas Badger, a 70-year-old repeat sex offender, might be allowed to live after his release from a state mental hospital now that a proposal to place him in rural East County has been rescinded.

But state Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez and county Supervisor Greg Cox aren’t waiting to find out. They said at a news conference that Badger should not be released at all, given his history of attacking young men and a 16-year-old girl.

Only a handful of sexually violent predators have been released in San Diego County since legal changes went into effect that allowed those considered the worst offenders to be committed civilly to state hospitals after they served their time in prison. One offender remains under supervision in the community...

MY PLAN: PEDOPHILES KEPT SEPARATE FROM CHILDREN (without violating anyone's rights or using your taxpayer dollars)

California State Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez (top left) watches as Maria Keever (left) and Milena Sellers Phillips (right) speak out against the proposed plan to release Douglas Badger from a state hospital. Badger, a repeat sex offender, has been accused of assaulting several young men and one 16-year-old girl. Christian Rodas for SDUT

I have an idea about where pedophiles should live. It would work for Douglas Badger (whose release is a hot issue here in San Diego), and it would work for those who have not offended, but who are sexually attracted to children.

It wouldn't just apply to child molesters who have served their prison terms. It would also prevent sexual assaults in the future by pedophiles who have not offended yet.

And it would be entirely voluntary on the part of the pedophiles. They'd rather live in my proposed development than in a trailer outside Donovan State Prison on Otay Mesa, the only viable location that has been proposed so far for Douglas Badger. And even sociopaths might be smart enough to choose a life for themselves that wouldn't involve prison--at least not for sexual assaults on children.

I call upon real estate developers, particularly those who have benefited from the generosity of San Diego taxpayers--like Corky McMillan's company, for starters--to design a development where pedophiles would live. (Perhaps those with other illegal urges would also want to move in.)

No children would be allowed into this development, and no residents would be allowed to leave except in extreme circumstances, and they would be supervised by a guard while on the outside. Anyone who leaves without a guard would not be allowed back. This would not be a place from which predators could leave to commit crimes and then come back and hide. If they leave, my guess is that they'll probably end up in prison.

How would the problem of child pornography be handled? Perhaps residents would have to agree to have their computers regularly searched, and mail would be examined. This town would allow much greater freedom and opportunity than prison, or a trailer outside the gates of a prison, but residents would have to agree to give up some of their rights in order to make sure the community could not become a haven for criminals.

I am thinking of starting a petition to this effect.

The residents could own and run their own grocery stores, restaurants, and all manner of businesses, generating taxes to pay for guards and administrators of the development. The residents wouldn't be paying any taxes if we waited for them to offend and then put them in prison.

Maura Larkins


Housing For Sexual Predator Douglas Badger To Be Determined By Judge
By Dwane Brown
KPBS
November 12, 2013

GUESTS
Lorena Gonzalez, San Diego Assemblywoman
John Rice, Deputy District Attorney, San Diego County

County and state officials, along with concerned parents, voiced opposition Tuesday to the release of convicted sexual predator Douglas Badger. A court hearing to locate housing for 70-year-old Badger will be held Friday.

Douglas Badger, who has been diagnosed with a schizophrenic disorder and sexual sadism, has a history of sexual assaults dating back to 1974.

Badger, who has been diagnosed with a schizophrenic disorder and sexual sadism, has a history of sexual assaults dating back to 1974. His victims were primarily 18- to 29-year-old male hitchhikers, although in one case he assaulted a 16-year-old girl.

He was convicted in 1981 and served 10 years in prison. Shortly after his release in 1991, he re-offended and was again convicted of sexual assault.

In 1997, Badger was committed to a state hospital as a sexually violent predator. In August, a judge ruled that Badger could be safely released into the community with continued treatment and supervision.

Milena Phillips' is the creator of the Jonathan Sellers and Charlie Keever Foundation. Sellers, Phillips' son, and his friend, Keever, were killed by a sexual predator in 1993. Phillips strongly opposes releasing Badger back into the community.

"A repeat offender, a repeat sexual sadist — to let him in an area where he could be in walking distance of children is just unthinkable," Phillips said.

San Diego County Supervisor Greg Cox and state Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez also made remarks voicing their opposition.

The Department of State Hospitals originally proposed placing Badger in Campo, in the East County, but that was withdrawn by the owner. Officials will update a judge Friday on efforts to find suitable housing for Badger.

County Supervisor Dianne Jacob, who represents East County, said in September that she wanted Badger released to a trailer near Donovan State Prison in the southern part of San Diego.

Friday's hearing will be open for public comment.

City News Service contributed to this report.


South County officials oppose sex predator's release
By Dana Littlefield
SDUT
Nov. 12, 2013

SAN DIEGO — In a pre-emptive move, two South County officials spoke out Tuesday against the pending release of a sexually violent predator, saying they do not want him placed in any of the communities they represent.

It remains unclear where Douglas Badger, a 70-year-old repeat sex offender, might be allowed to live after his release from a state mental hospital now that a proposal to place him in rural East County has been rescinded.

But state Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez and county Supervisor Greg Cox aren’t waiting to find out. They said at a news conference that Badger should not be released at all, given his history of attacking young men and a 16-year-old girl.

Only a handful of sexually violent predators have been released in San Diego County since legal changes went into effect that allowed those considered the worst offenders to be committed civilly to state hospitals after they served their time in prison. One offender remains under supervision in the community.

Gonzalez and Cox said that other sexually violent predators — including Badger — had been allowed to live in South County, specifically in a trailer outside Donovan state prison in Otay Mesa. Badger lived in the trailer from June 2006 to October 2007.

Authorities at the time said he was sent back to the hospital for medical reasons.

“It’s not OK to dump people into these communities,” Gonzalez told reporters Tuesday outside the Hall of Justice in downtown San Diego.

Cox said Badger should remain at state-controlled facility, because he has shown previously that he cannot be trusted.

“If he had reoffended once before, what guarantees do we have that he won’t reoffend again?” the supervisor asked in a letter to San Diego Superior Court Judge David Gill.

A hearing has been scheduled for Friday in Gill’s courtroom, when state officials are expected to discuss ongoing efforts to find appropriate housing for Badger in San Diego County.

Badger was one of the first people classified as a sexually violent predator to be released in San Diego County after state legislators enacted laws in 1996 that extended custody for the worst offenders.

Originally, offenders who fit the criteria were sent to Atascadero State Hospital in San Luis Obispo County, where they had the option of participating in a specialized sex offender treatment program with the goal of someday being deemed safe for release.

The program was moved later to Coalinga State Hospital in Fresno County.

At first the law required the offenders to be committed to the hospital for terms of two years, but Jessica’s Law — passed by voters in 2006 — changed existing statutes to allow predators to be committed to the hospital indefinitely.

After one year, however, they have the right to petition for a new hearing to determine whether they still fit the predator criteria.

On Aug. 21, Gill ruled that Badger could be released into the community safely with continued outpatient treatment and supervision, such as GPS monitoring.

Authorities from the state Department of Hospitals announced a month later that Badger could be allowed to live in a semi-permanent mobile home placed on nearly three-acres on Hartfell Road in Campo.

Chicago should guarantee each child a great teacher--without firing any teachers

Chicago sounds a lot like Chiapas to me. At the bottom of this post is a plan for effectively utilizing all teachers. I think Chicago schools would benefit from the same plan I suggested for the teachers in southern Mexico.

Illinois Pension Reform
By Rosita Chatonda
Chicago Alliance of Urban School Educators

To be delivered to: The Illinois State Senate
Senator 13th District
111 Capitol Building
Springfield, IL 62706

Dear Senator Raoul,

My name is Rosita Chatonda and I am the Founding President of an upstart organization called C.A.U.S.E.., Chicago Alliance of Urban School Educators. CAUSE organizers teachers that are non-union and union members as well as parents and community. Since you are Senator of the 13th District and Pension Reform Sub-Committee Chair, I am contacting you with a pressing and urgent problem due to pension reform.

Please find enclosed information regarding the crisis facing many veteran teachers. In the last year there have been over 3,000 veteran teachers terminated. Many of these teachers pay into the pension system. Of the over 50 schools closed and 6 turn-arounds, 90% of the schools closed last year and 99% of the schools closed in previous years have been in the African American communities on the South and West Sides. In the last 4 years at least 6,000 African American teachers have lost employment. In addition, since these firings were spontaneous many teachers were left with the only option of survival, pulling their pensions down. Most of these teachers were near retirement will never be able to accumulate substantial years of service again. Hardest hit by this crisis are single parent educators.

The option for paying back into the pension fund and buying back years of services is that teachers will work in reciprocal systems in the State of Illinois for two years to buy their pensions back. Many teachers have reported trying to get jobs but cannot be rehired by CPS or any other reciprocal system. Many have the money to pay back but cannot find work for two years to fill the requirement under the pension contract.

We at CAUSE have been asked to bring this matter to the attention of the Illinois General Assembly and the Chicago Teachers Fund. We would like the two year restriction for buy-back of service to be lifted. We are asking that if teachers have the monies and are able to pay back, that they would be allowed to do so without working in a reciprocal system for two years. We would like teachers to have that option of buying back their pension since jobs in these reciprocal systems are virtually non-existent for thousands of veteran teachers.

As I have stated above, the African American Community has lost many teachers, since the late nineties, when Jackie Vaughn was CTU President, we have lost over 12,000 teaching slots. Our community has suffered a tremendous economic loss and well as the cost of human dignity. Please consider amending the pension reform laws to include a buy back for teachers needing to recover their pensions.

Sincerely,
Rosita Chatonda
Founding President of C.A.U.S.E. rcchatonda@yahoo.com



All Kids Can Have Great Teachers (Without Firing Any Teachers)
By: Maura Larkins
Voice of San Diego
September 7, 2012

No one really knows what’s going on in individual public school classrooms. Observations by principals tend to be fleeting and few. We don’t need to fire anybody, but we do need to use highly-skilled teachers and ordinary teachers where they can do the optimal good.

The truth is that the critical moments in learning don’t happen continuously five hours a day. They add up to at most a couple of hours each day, and probably much less. The rest of the time an ordinary teacher can handle lesson reinforcement, computer activities, art projects, silent reading, etc.

The best teachers should be able to rise far above average teachers on the salary scale — and they should have far more responsibility. In my plan, each classroom would have a full-time regular teacher. Several classrooms would share a master teacher, who would be responsible for student progress, teaching lessons part-time and guiding the regular teacher. Gifted regular teachers would be eligible to become master teachers. Instead of bringing in vendors selling the latest gimmick for tens of thousands of dollars, master teachers would do all necessary training.

Here’s the comparison for four classrooms and one extra salary (in thousands):

Currently: $60 + $60 + $60 + $60 + $60 = $300

New plan: $100 + $50 + $50 + $50 + $50 = $300 (minus exorbitant cost of education vendors)

If we add more money, we could have more master teachers. Meaningful evaluations of teachers would have to be instituted. Current evaluation systems are worse than useless. My plan would call for frequent observations by both master and regular teachers, who would observe classrooms in other districts to keep school politics at bay. The observations would have a beneficial side effect: they would allow teachers to pick up new ideas.

See more of my plan in the yellow column on the right of this page.

Vergara v. California challenges practice of protecting incompetent teachers

See all posts on evaluating teachers.

Students Matter and Vergara v. California Plaintiffs Oppose Motions for Summary Judgment
Plaintiffs Submit Compelling Evidence that the State of California Is Knowingly Forcing School Districts to Keep Ineffective Teachers in the Classroom, Harming Their Students
By Students Matter
Nov. 14, 2013

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 14, 2013 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Yesterday, Plaintiffs in Vergara v. California filed their summary judgment opposition in the Los Angeles Superior Court, asking the court to reject Defendants' baseless efforts to avoid a trial. Vergara v. California is a groundbreaking lawsuit that seeks to strike down five statutes in California's Education Code that prevent California's public schools from providing a quality education to all of their students.

"Over the past thirteen months, we have uncovered a wealth of evidence that the challenged statutes deprive students of their Constitutional right to equal access to a quality education," said Plaintiffs' co-lead counsel Theodore J. Boutrous. "We have thousands of documents, hours of testimony from Superintendents and human resources officials across the state, and compelling data from leading education experts. The evidence clearly demonstrates that the statutes prevent California school districts from prioritizing the best interests of their students when making decisions about teacher employment and retention. Plaintiffs deserve the opportunity to present their evidence at trial."

The Defendants, including the State of California, the State Superintendent, the California Department of Education, and the State Board of Education, asked the court in September to summarily dismiss Plaintiffs' claims without a trial. State Defendants were joined by the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers, who intervened in the case to defend the statutes.

But Plaintiffs—nine public schoolchildren from all over California ranging in age from eight to seventeen years old—have amassed a mountain of evidence demonstrating that the statutes violate the Equal Protection Clause by forcing school districts to keep failing teachers in the classroom year after year, with devastating consequences for the students assigned to their classrooms. Highlights from the evidence include:

Ineffective teachers are entrenched in California's public school system. The Superintendents of many school districts affirm that their districts are beleaguered by grossly ineffective teachers and attribute the continued employment of these teachers to the challenged statutes. Both the State Defendants and the teachers' unions concede that students in California are being taught by ineffective teachers.

Minority and low-income students are disproportionately likely to be taught by grossly ineffective teachers...

Federal Court says Google has protected authors while allowing users to search Google Books for information

I agree with Google: we have a right to information. It shouldn't be hidden away on bookshelves, incapable of being searched for.
Google cannot be stopped
The search giant crushed authors this week. Next up, advertisers. It would be scary, if it weren't so darn useful
Andrew Leonard
Salon
Nov 15, 2013

Google won a huge victory on Thursday when District Court Judge Denny Chin ruled that Google’s massive book-scanning project, Google Books, was protected by the doctrine of “fair use” against charges of copyright infringement. The main plaintiff, the Authors Guild, announced it would appeal the ruling, but the consensus reaction of academics and tech pundits came down in support of the decision.

Chin’s explanation of his ruling certainly didn’t leave much wiggle room.

“[Fair use] doctrine permits the fair use of copyrighted works ‘to fulfill copyright’s very purpose, “[t]o promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts,”‘” wrote Chin.

In my view, Google Books provides significant public benefits. It advances the progress of the arts and sciences, while maintaining respectful consideration for the rights of authors and other creative individuals, and without adversely impacting the rights of copyright holders. It has become an invaluable research tool that permits students, teachers, librarians, and others to more efficiently identify and locate books. It has given scholars the ability, for the first time, to conduct full-text searches of tens of millions of books. It preserves books, in particular out-of-print and old books that have been forgotten in the bowels of libraries, and it gives them new life. It facilitates access to books for print-disabled and remote or underserved populations. It generates new audiences and creates new sources of income for authors and publishers. Indeed, all society benefits.

Judge Chin provided no data to support his assertion that Google Books surely results in additional book sales, but that’s just a quibble. The decision is clearly a big win for Google — another successful step forward in the search giant’s quest to “organize the world’s information.”...

Most Americans want more even distribution of wealth--and that would change schools dramatically

Out of Balance (
A Harvard business prof and a behavioral economist recently asked more than 5,000 Americans how they thought wealth is distributed in the United States. Most thought that it’s more balanced than it actually is. Asked to choose their ideal distribution of wealth, 92% picked one that was even more equitable.

It's the Inequality, Stupid
Eleven charts that explain what's wrong with America.
—By Dave Gilson and Carolyn Perot
Mother Jones
March/April 2011 Issue

Want more charts like these? See our charts on the secrets of the jobless recovery, the richest 1 percent of Americans, and how the superwealthy beat the IRS.

How Rich Are the Superrich?

A huge share of the nation's economic growth over the past 30 years has gone to the top one-hundredth of one percent, who now make an average of $27 million per household. The average income for the bottom 90 percent of us? $31,244...

Shaming kids at mealtime: kid's school breakfast trashed over 30-cent debt

UPDATE: Jan. 30, 2014

Utah hops on the bandwagon, throwing out 40 lunches in front of children who were in debt. See story #4 below.

ORIGINAL POST:

We frequently see poor judgment among school personnel. Recently a cafeteria worker in Texas actually threw a child's breakfast in the trash! Locally, superintendent Lowell Billings of Chula Vista Elementary School District thought it was a good idea to shame school children at meal time (see the second story below). The third story below tells about a breakfast meal that was thrown away--but not in the trash--when Lowell Billings was in charge at CVESD.

Of course, the cafeteria worker wasn't paid a huge salary by the taxpayers in the expectation that she would use good judgment, but Mr. Billings was.

STORY #1: TEXAS

Kid's school breakfast trashed over 30-cent debt
by FaithGardner
Daily Kos
Nov 08, 2013

How's this for petty? A student on the reduced meals plan at Barber Middle School in Dickinson, Texas, was 30 cents short in his meals account when he came to the cafeteria to get his breakfast. Rather than figure out some kind of solution to the problem, a cafeteria worker decided it would be totally okay to throw the kid's breakfast in the trash.

Jennifer Castilleja of Dickinson County said she received a call from her son's school Wednesday morning and was told the cafeteria refused to let the boy eat unless she came in and paid the 30 cents owed.

When Castilleja told school officials she was on her way to the school to pay and asked that they let her son eat until she arrived, the school refused.

According to KTRK-TV, Castilleja says her son is on the reduced meal cost plan and her prepaid account had simply run out of funds.

Needless to say, not only was this petty and unnecessary (and waste of a perfectly good breakfast!), but it was humiliating for the kid. "There were kids all around him," his mother said. "I think he may have been a little embarrassed and upset and, of course, hungry."

Even besides the point this was 30 EFFING CENTS, I don't understand why anyone would feel it's acceptable to punish a sixth grader for insufficient funds in the meal account. And it's pretty common knowledge that skipping breakfast leads to poor focus and health in children.

Here's to hoping that cafeteria worker was reprimanded for their behavior, and that the school district takes a look at their policy of punishing schoolchildren for insignificant debts like these.

COMMENT: Samantha Kilgore
"This makes me both so sad and so angry. And I wonder, too, if the child had not been part of the reduced meals program, if the server would have just shrugged off the 30 cent difference, or allowed the child to have the meal and charged later for it."


STORY #2: CHULA VISTA


The Scarlet Cheese Sandwich
by Gerald Pugliese
June 18, 2007

Apparently elementary schools in California are having a tough time with delinquent school lunch debts. So, if the parents won’t pay, the kids will. Instead of a customary school lunch, children with debt get a meesly cheese sandwich. Richard Marosi of The Los Angles Times reports...


The Lunch of Shame
By Joe Deegan
San Diego Reader
Oct. 25, 2007

...Nobody seems surprised that Chula Vista Elementary School District's cheese sandwich menu wasn't nominated as one of this year's candidates [in the School Lunch competition]. The sandwich is two slices of American cheese slapped dry into whole-wheat bread.

[Maura Larkins' comment: No one likes being forced to eat something. The whole wheat bread is wonderfully healthy--but I fear that CVESD is doing aversion therapy with it. I fear that CVESD's policy will serve to make children prefer the less-healthy white bread. And of course, American cheese has little nutritional value.]

In June, harsh spotlights were shone on the district's practice of offering the "alternative meal" to kids whose parents were delinquent on their school lunch bills. Both the San Diego Union-Tribune and the Los Angeles Times singled out the Chula Vista district for using one of the more draconian approaches to the problem. Subsequently, the Union-Tribune ran an editorial condemning the practice. All critics seem to agree that children shouldn't be shamed in front of other kids by depriving them of schools' regular lunches. And they shouldn't be punished for their parents' irresponsibility.

The intent of the bland alternative meal, of course, was to induce the children to pester their parents to pay up. Chula Vista claimed that serving the cheese sandwich reduced its delinquency balance from $285,000 in 2003 to $67,800 this year.

For comparison, San Diego Unified School District, which is kindergarten through 12th grade, reports that as of June, its outstanding balance was $13,500. Joanne Tucker is food services marketing coordinator for the district. "The problem of delinquent accounts in the School Lunch Program is serious everywhere in the country," she tells me by phone. "After all, we're a business. I feel sorry that the Chula Vista district has gotten so much negative publicity over their program. The cheese sandwich meal is nutritious. I went to a conference in Chicago not long ago, and an official from a Kansas district told us, 'We're in the black.' People wanted to know how they did it, and he said that when parents had unpaid balances, his district didn't give their children anything to eat. Well, we would never do anything like that in San Diego."

I ask if San Diego Unified used the alternative-meal approach to collecting debt. "No," says Tucker, "our food services director is much too kindhearted. Each of our schools calls delinquent parents to remind them that they're past due. Some schools are more successful than others. Soon we are going to an automated calling program in the hopes of doing better."

On June 25, Speaker of the California State Assembly Fabian Núñez wrote a letter to all school districts in California to discover how many "are providing an 'alternative' -- and intentionally undesirable -- meal to their children.... These districts are...stigmatizing children to put pressure on their parents."

Lowell Billings, superintendent of the Chula Vista Elementary School District, responded to Núñez three days later. "We serve six entrees each day, one of which is a cheese sandwich on whole wheat bread.... Additionally, with each meal [including the alternative cheese sandwich meal] we offer a full salad bar, a full fresh fruit bar, a promotional item, and milk, all for the price of $1.50 for full-pay students and $.75 for low income half-pay students.

"The alternative meal largely targets students with families most able to pay.... I have great difficulty understanding this as a 'stigma meal' or a less than nutritional offering. We serve approximately 400 cheese sandwiches daily. [Sometimes] they are the meal of choice. Feedback from principals indicates that some students have been found to throw away a packed lunch to get an alternative meal. [Billings confessed to eating and liking the cheese sandwich too.] Furthermore, principals do not find widespread student self-esteem issues associated with our practice....

[Maura Larkins' comment: I'm sure Mr. Billings hears exactly what he wants to hear from principals. CVESD is a very top-down organization. I wouldn't be surprised if sycophant principals are actually agreeing with Mr. Billings that children don't have any problem being forced to eat something as a punishment for their parents. Why does Mr. Billings think that kids throw away a packed lunch? For exactly the same reason that they don't want cheese sandwiches shoved down their throats.]

"The delinquent meal balances are owed by the highest income families in our District. Why should we allow their indiscretion to impact those students who are most needy? There is a lesson in this for our students. Data [from] the Junior Achievement of San Diego and Imperial Counties show that the number one cause of college dropouts is not poor academic standing but credit card debt. Where do they learn this important life skill set? "Our state legislature," Billings concluded, "could benefit from this same lesson. I am fearful that the ongoing structural state budget deficit undermines our children's future."

[Maura Larkins' comment: I know for a fact that Lowell Billings has wasted $100,000s of taxpayer dollars trying to cover up wrongdoing in the district. Also, huge amounts are wasted on expensive programs that don't work. Maybe someone should make Lowell Billings eat cheese sandwiches. Perhaps then he'd be more careful with taxpayer dollars.]

Apparently, Núñez, who was recently skewered in a Union-Tribune editorial for using campaign funds for personal trips, was not convinced. In the July 5 Los Angeles Daily News, he wrote of "at least four school districts in the state [that] serve substandard lunches to children whose parents fall into arrears on payment into their child's lunch accounts." "If the 'dunce cap' were still in use as a schoolhouse punishment, there are several school officials in California who need to be assigned corners and fitted with cones.... Make no mistake," Núñez went on, "parents have a duty to fulfill their responsibilities.... But leave the kids out of it. Any dunce who allows the punishing of kids over their parents' mistakes is the one who deserves to be shamed."

But what of the superintendent's defense? It is not a good sign that at the end of his letter he changed the subject to the legislature's problems. To address the alternative meal's inclusion of salad and fruit bars made more sense. Even that, however, is less than reassuring, given kids' notorious aversion to salads. The additional fact that the Chula Vista district recently started serving a ham-turkey sandwich as another alternative meal was a concession to critics. Many parents had been arguing that constant repetition of only the cheese sandwich alternative would provoke kids to throw it away. Now there is even talk among district employees of occasionally offering tacos as the alternative meal.


STORY #3: CHULA VISTA

Here's another story of a school breakfast that was thrown out--but not in the trash. This also happened during Lowell Billings' term as superintendent of CVESD.

Formerly President of
Chula Vista Educators,
Peg Myers now works
for the district's
Human Resources Department,
keeping teachers in line










The morning after the May 27, 2008 meeting at Castle Park Elementary, one of the parents who spoke out at a meeting took her children in to the school, and came back to find that someone had thrown cereal and milk on her car.

Children are not normally allowed to leave the school cafeteria, where breakfast was being served at the time of the vandalism, with milk and cereal. At least one adult who is connected to the "Family" was in the cafeteria.

What interest would a child have in someone else's mother who spoke at a meeting? The speaker's own children are too young to come to the attention of kids old enough to pull a stunt like this.

But several staff members and teachers at Castle Park Elementary have demonstrated out-of-control hostility in recent years, attacking fellow teachers and principals with shocking malice. The longtime leader of the Castle Park Family was Peg Myers, whose work history demonstrates the bizarre interactions between the Castle Park Family and the district office. Two of the last three CVE presidents (Peg Myers and Gina Boyd) have come to the CVE presidency directly from Castle Park Elementary, and the other one, Jim Groth, aided the cover-up of wrongdoing at the school.


Story #4 Utah School Threw Out Students’ Lunches Because They Were In Debt
By Annie-Rose Strasser
Think Progress
January 30, 2014

A Utah school’s child nutrition manager threw out the lunches of about 40 elementary school students this week after the kids’ parents fell behind on payment.

Some parents at Uintah Elementary in Salt Lake City say they didn’t even realize they were indebted to the school. The school apparently made calls Monday and Tuesday telling some parents that there was a balance on their accounts, and the children of those who had missed the call were the ones whose lunches got thrown out.

According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the child nutrition manager’s original plan was to withhold lunches for kids whose parents hadn’t paid. But cafeteria workers were unable to distinguish who was on that list before serving. Once the food had been dished out, food safety codes say it can’t be given to another student and must be thrown away.

The children were given milk and fruit instead of a full lunch — the meal that the school says it gives any child who isn’t able to pay.

“So she took my lunch away and said, ‘Go get a milk,’ ” recalled one student, a fifth grader named Sophia. “I came back and asked, ‘What’s going on?’ Then she handed me an orange. She said, ‘You don’t have any money in your account so you can’t get lunch.’”

Parents were outraged by the move, calling it “traumatic and humiliating.”v Salt Lake City’s school district has apologized to parents and students for the incident. “We again apologize and commit to working with parents in rectifying this situation and to ensuring students are never treated in this manner again,” the district said in a Facebook note.

Still, the incident raises longstanding questions about child nutrition and low-income families. It is not the first time that students have had their lunch thrown out for insufficient funds. In November, a Texas middle school student’s lunch was thrown away because he was 30 cents short on payment.

But depriving children of food — and embarrassing them in front of their peers — isn’t the only option. In Boston, for example, public schools provide all students with cost-free breakfast and lunch no matter their financial situation.

A compelling set of evidence drives such decisions. Child hunger has lasting impacts on children’s mental health, as well as cognitive and social ability. And while more than one in five children lack stable access to food, only half of the students who are eligible for free breakfasts actually receive them.

Dad calls cops to teach son a lesson; cops shoot son dead

Don't call the cops to teach a kid a lesson. Find a better way. This kid took the family vehicle--is that a capital offense? Dad used power to control the kid, and pretty much guaranteed a criminal record for the young man at the very least. The kid tried to escape that fate. This is not a good way to teach kids how to deal with problems.

Dad calls cops to teach son a lesson; cops shoot son dead
Natasha Lennard
Salon
2013-11-08

Police car dashboard footage of the truck stolen by Iowa man's son: VIDEO

Take this tragedy as a cautionary tale: Do not call the police on your kids, or anyone's kids, or anyone, ever, in order to teach them a lesson.

Cops in Ames, Iowa, shot dead 19-year-old Tyler Comstock after his father, James, reported his van stolen. The teen had driven off with the van following a family dispute.

As Raw Story reported:

Police chased Tyler Comstock onto the Iowa State University campus and set up a blockade that resulted in Comstock ramming Officer McPherson’s vehicle. McPherson ordered Comstock to shut off his truck, and when he refused to comply, McPherson shot at him six times.

The Iowa medical examiner’s office says he was killed by two gunshot wounds to the chest.

Comstock's father reacted in horror to the tragic turn of events; yet another addition to the pantheon of trigger-happy cop killings. "He took off with my truck. I call the police, and they kill him,” he said.

The footage below was recorded from the car dashboard of the officer who shot Tyler Comstock:

Little boy draws a soldier, ninja and Star Wars character, each holding a knife or gun; Arizona school freaks out

Obviously, this school, like so many other schools, is run by geniuses.

Arizona Student's Halloween Costume Drawings Cause Firestorm At School
The Huffington Post
By Rebecca Klein
11/04/2013

Where one pair of parents saw innocent drawings of ninjas and soldiers, school administrators reportedly saw disturbing and threatening images.

Last week, the parents pulled their sons out of Scottsdale Country Day School in Arizona after the school’s headmaster reportedly threatened to expel their 8-year-old over a set of drawings. According to the child’s father, the drawings of a soldier, ninja and Star Wars character were meant to depict Halloween costumes. However, school administrators were upset that the drawings showed each character holding either a knife or a gun, according to CBS local affiliate KPHO-TV.

The school’s headmaster was also reportedly upset about what he saw as violent passages from the child’s journal, including ones about scenarios with killer zombies. The child’s father, Jeff, whose last name was omitted from the report, told KPHO that the journal contained other passages about saving the world and that his son has no history of violence.

Kathy Prahcharov, the school’s director of operations, told The Huffington Post that reports of the incident have been inaccurate. While she could not elaborate on what happened for confidentiality reasons, she said the student “was not threatened or expelled from the school.”

[Maura Larkins comment: Obviously the school made a stink about the pictures, or we wouldn't be hearing about it on national news. I think we're looking at some pathologically paranoid individuals who can't get a grip on the real world. How can we expect people with this mentality to recognize real problems?]

The charter school’s handbook states that “[a]ny behavior that is deemed threatening such as violent behavior, drawings depicting weapons, blood, or aggression” can be grounds for expulsion.

A number of schools across the country appear to have cracked down on students who use drawings, food or toys to depict guns and violence. In recent months, students have been suspended for actions such as chewing pastries into the shapes of guns or having gun key chains.

3 Serra HS Employees Suspended for Blackface Appearance

Saturday Night Live addressed a related issue in this Video.

3 Serra HS Employees Suspended for Blackface Appearance
Superintendent Cindy Marten refused to identify the employees or discuss the details of the suspension
By Paul Krueger and R. Stickney
NBC 7 San Diego
Nov 1, 2013

When San Diego Unified Superintendent Cindy Marten announced the suspensions, she called the incident a teachable moment.

After two football coaches were photographed in blackface, San Diego Unified District Superintendent Cindy Marten announced their suspension and called the incident "a teachable moment."

Serra High School principal Mike Jimenez initially refused to comment when asked about the photo showing head varsity football coach and physical education teacher Brian Basteyns and assistant football coach Howard Seeley and a third man in blackface.

District officials called for an investigation, the teachers union defended the coaches' actions and parents were divided on the issue.

On Friday, Superintendent Marten said the coaches were apologetic and did not mean to offend anyone with their costumes as the Jamaican bobsled team.

Marten refused to discuss the specifics of the suspension and said Principal Jimenez worked on the discipline and action taken.

Pressed for details, a district spokesman later clarified that it was three employees, not two as Marten announced, who have been suspended for two days without pay as a result of the photograph.

Lei-Chala Wilson, President NAACP San Diego Branch, said the organization hopes people understand that blackface is not funny.

“In 2013 there is no reason for someone to have to be in blackface,” Wilson said.

Blackface is defined as "makeup applied to a performer playing a black person."

Tammy Gillies with the Anti-Defamation League echoed those comments saying, "We applaud the strong leadership of the school district in taking this opportunity to further educate the San Diego community regarding sensitivity and respect for all people."

Marten said those who consider the response to the photo as overreaction need to understand that it's important for an education system to consider multiple viewpoints.

"Over-reacting is not okay and under-reacting is not okay," she said. "We're reacting as a community and coming together."

To those people who were not offended by the photo, Wilson said, “They are misguided and they need to learn their history."

Wilson said she was satisfied by the punishment handed down by Serra High School.

“As a community, we need to work together and this is a start and that’s why I’m happy about it," she said

Marten could not say if the coaches would be with Serra HS at Friday's game.

Basteyns (pictured right) and Seeley were also listed as coaches for the San Diego Force, a semi-pro baseball team in the Western Baseball Association on the organization’s website before it was disabled Tuesday.

Four out of five CVESD board members got their positions without running for election

Marissa Bejarano, who filled, without facing the electorate, the position that her father (former San Diego police chief and current Chula Vista police chief David Bejarano) obtained through appointment

See also: Pat Judd, David Bejarano, Pamela Smith, Larry Cunningham and Bertha Lopez spent tax dollars to prevent "trustee areas"

The following March 2012 article resonates even more strongly now that Marissa Bejarano (photo above) has replaced her father on the Chula Vista Elementary School District board without having to face the voters of Chula Vista.

Are Too Many Chula Vista Elementary School Board Members Handpicked?
By Susan Luzzaro
San Diego Reader
March 28, 2012

Jill Galvez, a Chula Vista resident and former city council candidate, believes if you want to be a trustee for the elementary school district "you should have to get out there and knock on doors, shake hands, and make your promises to voters face to face." That's why she is disappointed to learn that yet another trustee is going to be appointed.

On March 19 the Chula Vista Elementary school board announced trustee Russell Coronado's resignation, effective March 30. They voted to fill the position rather than hold a costly special election.

The Union Tribune reported on March 20 that three out of the five members initially got on the board through appointment: "Trustee David Bejarano was chosen out of a pool of 39 candidates in 2007 after Cheryl Cox stepped down following her election as mayor of Chula Vista. Luffborough was selected out of 23 applicants in 2009 after Bertha Lopez resigned to serve on the Sweetwater Union High School Board."


Trustee Larry Cunningham was appointed in 1998.

After the board fills Coronado's position, four out of the five trustees will have been appointed.

It is common knowledge that incumbents, appointed or not, have advantages. They receive name recognition and are more likely to receive campaign donations. Galvez, among others, believes that in order to avoid having a school board that picks its own members, appointees should agree to serve only as interim trustees and not seek re-election.


Board president, Pamela Smith, was not available for comment.

A Saudi man pretends to be a chauvinist about allowing women to drive

It's pretty hard to take offense at a song sung with such sweet sincerity.

VIDEO on Upworthy: Link