What I learned at school today

Demand for Top Charter Schools Outweighs Supply

2011-08-25T07:14:00.001-07:00

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/lifestyle/2011/08/24/more-demand-for-top-charter-schools-than-supply

"There's no fights like other schools. No drugs. We are like a family," added Valencia, a 10th grader at the Gulfton campus.

It is a family that would clearly be much larger if YES prep had more than it's current 5,400 slots.

"I feel that students are suffering and that families are suffering too. I feel that we are slowing down innovation. I think that's what charter schools bring to the education community," Bernal said.

Abigail Valencia says along with her classmates, she's on a mission to change the perceptions that low income, minority kids have difficulty succeeding.

"We are going to prove those statistics wrong," she insisted.

Teen Sexting Ring Busted in Vermont

2011-08-21T11:18:00.001-07:00

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/teen-sexting-ring-busted-vermont/story?id=14341089

Vermont police said that 22 high school students, ages 14 to 17, took part in a teen sexting ring, using school-issued laptops to view photos of nude and partially nude adolescent girls.

Girl Forced to Apologize to Boy Who Raped Her

2011-08-18T10:58:00.001-07:00

http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2011/08/girl-forced-apologize-boy-who-raped-her

Girl Forced to Apologize to Boy Who Raped Her

—By Kevin Drum

| Wed Aug. 17, 2011 1:38 PM PDT

A special ed girl in a Missouri middle school reported that she was raped a couple of years ago. But school officials insisted that her story was made up and badgered her into recanting:

Following instructions from the school, the girl wrote an apology to the boy she accused of raping her and had to personally give it to him, according to the lawsuit. She was then expelled for the remainder of the 2008-09 school year....The girl returned to the middle school for the 2009-10 school year and tried to avoid the boy, according to the lawsuit. It didn't work. She was sexually assaulted again [in the school library] but didn't tell anyone because she was afraid of being expelled again.
....School officials were notified of the incident and allegedly doubted the girl's claim, saying they'd "already been through this," according to the lawsuit. The girl was also examined and found to have been sexually assaulted. However, she was suspended from school for "disrespectful conduct" and "public display of affection," her lawyers wrote in the lawsuit.

I'll grant that it's impossible to know for sure what happened based on just one side of the story. Still, a forensic exam after the second rape showed that the girl had indeed been sexually assaulted, a DNA match was made to the boy she had accused of raping her, and the boy then pleaded guilty to charges in juvenile court. But the school district continues to say that it bears no responsibility for any of this. WTF?

Do You Know Where Your Child Is? Not with his teacher, we hope.

2011-04-13T07:23:00.001-07:00

http://stlouis.cbslocal.com/2011/04/13/collinsville-teacher-ousted-for-ordering-students-to-remove-underwear

COLLINSVILLE, Ill. (AP) - A southwestern Illinois special-education teacher has been ousted after allegedly ordering students to remove their underwear to determine which child soiled his pants.

The Belleville News-Democrat reports that Collinsville’s school board voted Monday not to renew the contract of the unidentified Webster Elementary School teacher.

The newspaper reports a letter sent to parents this week indicated the teacher saw feces on the classroom floor March 30 and had each of the seven children go separately into a private bathroom stall and remove his or her underpants. The third and fourth graders then were told to put their clothes back on and exit the stall to show their underpants to the teacher.

The letter says the teacher was not ever present in the stall.

Park Middle School Teacher Wanted for Alleged Inappropriate Touching of Male 8th Grade Student

2011-03-28T15:50:00.001-07:00

http://www.kron4.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=666

Do You Know Where Your Child Is? Not with his teacher, we hope.

ANTIOCH (KRON) -- A warrant is now out for a Park Middle School teacher accused of what Antioch police call "illicit touching of an 8th grade male student."

Investigators say they learned of the allegations against Charles Redmond of Pittsburg last Thursday. Witnesses say the teacher made inappropriate comments to male students and touched one of them over the victim's clothing.

After police started investigating the allegations, authorities say Redmond left a note for his family and may have fled to Mexico. Detectives secured a $100,000 warrant for him.

If you've seen Redmond or know of other potential victims, contact Antioch police or your local authorities.

Stay tuned to KRON 4 and KRON4.com for the latest on this developing story.

Do You Know Where Your Child Is?

2010-08-02T11:21:00.001-07:00

Original Link:

http://my.opera.com/cwbywz/blog/2008/10/04/do-you-know-where-your-child-is-not-with-his-teacher-we-hope

Ever found yourself yearning for those good old school days? Well, school and teachers change.

I might be a little torn on the subject and believe it changes with varying circumstances. If my 18 year old boy scored with the 22 year old teachers aid... no harm, no foul. Then when my 12 year old is raped by a 52 year old English teacher... different story.

You judge for yourself.

Ashley Renee Flores - Teacher at East Junior High School in Ponca City, Oklahoma, Arrested On Accusations Of Repeatedly Raping Student. Had Sex With Teen While Own Children Were In The House
Brooke Biggs, a 27-year-old physical education teacher at at Grissom Middle School and asst. girl's athletics coach at Penn High School in Mishawaka, Indiana has been arrested on suspicion of seducing a female student.

Sandra Binkley, a 36-year-old math teacher at Portland high School in Portland, Tennessee has been arrested and charged with statutory rape by an authority figure after police say she had sex with a 17-year-old student.

Carrie McCandless, a former social studies teacher and cheerleading coach at Charter High School is back in jail following a probation violation - She was caught having sex with a fellow parolee. McCandless was convicted in the summer of 2007 for having a sexual relationship with a 17 year old student from Charter High School during a class trip to Estes Park, Colorado in 2006. McCandless is the wife of the school's principal, Chris McCandless.

Alyson Perri-Jarvis, a 36-year-old third grade teacher at Southern Oaks Elementary School in Largo, Florida has been arrested on accusations that she had an ongoing sexual relationship with a 16-year-old boy from her neighborhood.

Sheral Lee Smith, a 37-year-old former teacher at New Summit School in Jackson, Mississippi has been arrested and charged with statutory rape and drug charges involving a 14 year old student.

Debra Lafave, 26, is serving three years house arrest and seven years probation after pleading guilty to having sex with the 14-year-old boy in a classroom and her home in June 2004 was arrested Tuesday for violating her probation, state records showed.

Autumn Leathers, 24, a teacher from Frostburg, Md., has been charged with having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old student. The affair allegedly began when he was 15.

Adrienne Laflamme, a 60-year-old long-time employee of the Brevard County School District, faces 15 counts of unlawful sex with a minor after authorities arrested her for having sex several times with a 17-year-old student she taught while he was in custody at a juvenile detention center this spring.

Shannon Hrozek, a 42-year-old English teacher at Westfield High School in Texas, was charged with sexual abuse of a child charge after a school administrator caught her performing oral sex on a student in a locked, dark classroom.

Kelsey Peterson, a 25-year-old math teacher and basketball coach in Nebraska, was arrested in Mexico after allegedly running off with a 13-year-old former student. Peterson, who has been charged with crossing the border to have sex with a minor, has claimed in federal court that she was strong-armed into the relationship by the teen.In letters, the boy called Peterson his "Baby Gurl" and said their relationship was "just not about the sex but that it was pretty good," according to the court documents.

Beth Ann Chester, a 26-year-old high school gym teacher at Moon Area High School in suburban Pittsburgh, was busted after allegedly sending a student a nude picture by text message. Chester, who is married, faces charges of child sexual abuse and statutory sexual assault.

Allenna Williams Ward, a 23-year-old female middle school teacher has admitted to having sex with five boys in Clinton, S.C.
Jennifer Mally, a Paradise Valley High School teacher in Phoenix, Ariz., is accused of having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old male student.

Erica Umosella, 28-year-old teacher Kingsway Regional High School, is charged with three sex-related offenses, including first-degree sexual assault, for an alleged relationship with a 17-year-old student.
Wendie A. Schweikert, 36, of Belton, S.C.,an elementary school teacher, was arrested and charged with two counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor. The former fifth-grade teacher accused of having sex with her 11-year-old student

Silvia Johnson, 41, of Golden, Colo., was sentenced to 30 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to charges of throwing parties for high school boys where she supplied alcohol, drugs, and had sex with some.
Mary Kay LeTourneau was convicted in 1997 of having sex with a 13-year-old boy, but after spending 7½ years in prison she went on to marry him. They have two children together.
Lisa Lynette Clark, 37, of Gainesville, Ga., was charged with child molestation after being accused of having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy whom she married last week. Clark is allegedly pregnant with the boy's child, which allowed her to take advantage of a loophole in Georgia law to marry the boy.

Sandra Beth Geisel, 42, a former English teacher at Christian Brothers Academy in Albany, N.Y., pleaded guilty to felony rape for having sex with a 16-year-old student at the school. She was originally charged with three counts of rape and one count of performing a criminal sexual act, but worked out a plea deal that resulted in just a six-month jail sentence.
Rachel Holt, a 34-year-old Delaware science teacher, has been charged with 28 counts of first-degree rape after allegedly having sex with her 13-year-old male student 28 times in the last week of March 2006.

Jennifer Rice, 31, a former elementary school teacher, was arrested for investigation of kidnapping, five counts of first-degree child rape, and four counts of child molestation. Rice was working as a contract teacher at McKinley Elementary School earlier this year and the alleged victim was a student in her class.

Chris Lynn Morris, a 29-year-old Washington County, Utah, school teacher, charged with sleeping with male student and with five counts of rape.

Pamela Turner Rogers, a recently married Tennessee PE teacher is accused of having sex with a 14-year-old student. She was with 15 counts of sexual battery by an authority figure and 13 counts of statutory rape. Judge sentences Pamela Rogers to 7 years In Prison. Before she started her prison term, she broke her probation by sending the child nude pictures of herself and received an additional two years.
ina Sinha, 40, began having sex with the second pupil at the exclusive Manhattan school, which encourages pupils to learn and develop their creativity at their own pace, when he was 12, Assistant District Attorney Florence Chapin told the court. Sinha began sex liaisons with the first boy, now a city police officer, when he was 13 and she was 29, the prosecutor said, adding that the liaisons lasted for years. Besides rape and sodomy, Sinha is charged with criminal impersonation, bribing a witness, tampering with physical evidence, endangering the welfare of a child and falsely reporting an incident. If convicted on the rape or sodomy charges, she would face up to 25 years in prison.

Becci M. Hill, of Martinsville, was accused of having a sexual relationship with the 15-year-old, whom she had mentored at one point, according to authorities. She was a special-needs counselor with the Wayne Township school district in Indianapolis. Hill was arrested in July after a police officer saw her and the teen engaging in sexual activity in a car on a rural road

Mariella Brenlla, a 40-year-old Miami-Dade middle school teacher, was arrested for lewd and lascivious battery on a juvenile in connection with allegations that she had sex with a 14-year-old boy.

Christina Butler, 33, taught the ninth grade at Middleton High School in Tampa until she was was arrested and charged with lewd and and lascivious battery after she admitted having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student.The 2002 Teacher of the Year, has been charged with having sex with her 17 year old teacher’s aide.

Janelle Batkins, 42, faces nine counts of criminal sexual conduct in the third degree for allegedly having sex multiple times with a 17 year old student. Batkins, a former French teacher at Roseville High School in Mount Clemens, Michigan, pleaded not guilty to the charges. The teen's mother first alerted authorities after discovering the alleged relationship, then later the student gave testimony saying that he and Batkins had sexual intercourse at Batkins' home and in her car on several occasion.Michigan's age of sexual consent in 16, but because Batkins was a teacher and considered in a position of authority she now faces third degree charges.
Jennifer Gwynn Tarkenton, 34, was a special education teacher at Greenwood Lakes Middle School in Lake Mary, Florida, prior to her arrest after she was caught allegedly having sexual intercourse with a 12-year-old boy. According to reports, the victim told police that Tarkenton picked him up at his home at 10 p.m. and then drove to a pharmacy where she purchased condoms. Tarkenton then drove to an isolated spot, parked and sexually abused the boy three times.
Sarah Elizabeth Joel, 31, was charged on three counts of lewd and lascivious battery after a 16-year-old student told police that he and Joel had sexual encounters at her home over a Christmas break. The "relationship" began when the student was 15 and would visit Joel at her home to talk over his problems. Joel was a teacher at Harmony High School in Osceola County, Florida, prior to her arrest.
On January 25, 2008, Loni Folks, 24, was arrested and charged with sexual battery of a 16-year-old male student. Folks, who is now on administrative leave, was a fifth-grade teacher at W.L. Smith Elementary in Petal, Mississippi.
Rebecca Bogard, 27, was arrested on January 21, 2008, in Biloxi, Mississippi after allegedly having sexual contact with a 15-year-old student. Bogard, who was suspended with pay from her teaching job at Fernwood Alternative School, has been an elementary teacher for over three years.
Keri Ann Brekne, 28, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at Lopatcong Middle School in Warren County, New Jersey, was arrested on January 25, 2008 for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old female student at Brekne's home in Pennsylvania.

Beth Modica, 44, has a resume many would envy. She is a former assistant district attorney for Rockland County and Queens, New York and a former PTA president, married to the Spring Valley Chief of Police and a mother of four. Dubbed the "Soccer Mom" by media, Modica was arrested and charged with one count of third-degree rape, four counts of third-degree criminal sexual assault, four counts of third-degree sexual abuse and 26 counts of endangering the welfare of a child after she allegedly supplied beer and marijuana to high-school students during a pool party at her Sloatsburg home. She is also accused of having intercourse with a 16-year-old and oral sex with a 15-year-old during a party at her home.
Angela Stellwag, 27, a New Jersey mayor's daughter and a substitute teacher, was charged with four counts of sexual assault and one count of endangering the welfare of a child. According to police, Stellway, while working as a substitute teacher at Beverly City Elementary School, allegedly had sex with a 14-year-old student
Laura Sieradzki, 34, a former special education teacher at McHenry High School in Freeport, Ill., plead guilty to sexually abusing a 17-year-old male student
Tampa teacher Stephanie Ragusa, 28, was arrested and charged with five counts of lewd and lascivious battery of a 14-year-old male student.
On March 13, 2008, former Lumberton Texas high school teacher, Kathy White, 42, admitted to having sex with a 17-year-old student in September 2004. White, who could have faced a 20-year prison sentence, received 10 years probation, a $2,000 fine and is ordered to complete 300 hours of community service.
Christel Gravlin, 33, a former beauty queen and married mother of two, pleaded guilty on March 3, 2008, to one count of 3rd-degree rape. Gravlin, a former 10-grade teacher at Lisbon Central School in Lisbon, New York, admitted to having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old male student.
Mary Jo Spack, 45, a teacher at Freedom High in Tampa Bay, was arrested and charged with two counts of contributing to the delinquency of minors and one count of unlawful sex with a minor.
Lisa Robyn Marinelli, 40, a substitute teacher at Mitchell High School in Port Richey, Florida, was arrested and charged with unlawful sex with a 17-year-old minor. Allegedly the two had sex multiple times and places, including Marinelli's home.
Julie Petty, 36, of White Bluff, Tennessee, worked as a softball coach and substitute teacher at William James Middle School prior to her arrest for sexual battery and statutory rape. Petty was accused of touching a 14-year-old female eighth grade student in an inappropriate way.
Jill C. Lewis, 26, a teacher in Brazoria County, Texas, was accused of having a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old male student.
Gay Lyn Turley, 43, taught and coached at an Arizona high school in Mesa for at least 18 years until a woman, now 21, accused Turley of violating her when she was 16-years-old. Reportedly, Charmai Choate was 16 when she and Turley first engaged in a sexual relationship.
Emily Kate Janes, a married 23-year-old former high school English teacher in Deer Park, Texas, pleaded guilty to having sex with an 18-year-old student. She was sentenced to four years deferred adjudication.
Carolyn Hatcher, 26, a former teacher and house parent at the Mid-Western Children's Home in Pleasant Plain, Ohio, plead guilty to three counts of sexual battery. Her victim, a 16-year-old boy, had come from an abusive home and was placed in the group home for protection.
Former Florida fourth grade teacher, Kelly Lynn Dalecki, had sex with a 13-year-old boy several times at her home and in a park.
On Feb. 21, 2008, Marla K. Meek was sentenced to five years in prison with four years suspended, after she pleaded guilty to carnal knowledge of a juvenile. Meek, a former teacher at South Beauregard Junior High, in DeRidder, Louisiana, was arrested for having sex with a 15-year-old student in October 2006.
Melissa Michelle Deel, 32, of Bristol, Tenn., taught eighth grade ancient world history and contemporary issues before being arrested and charged for felony carnal knowledge and taking indecent liberties with a child.

Okay, there seems to be no end to this. It is like entering a list of people in that received speeding tickets in Texas. But I do want to leave you with one last interesting one.
Carol Lynn Flannigan, age 51, received a five-year prison sentence and 10 years of sex offender probation when released, in exchange for having a 19-month sexual relationship with an 11-year-old student.

Flannigan pleaded guilty to lewd and lascivious acts in exchange for reducing the original capital sexual battery charges in order to avoid a trial and a possible life sentence. The boy's father reported that he also had sexual relations with Flannigan.

According to statements given by the boy, sex occurred in Flannigan's classroom, in her van, in a Civil Air Patrol parking lot, a park and a hotel room. Also, according to the boy, Flannigan's husband, Douglas DePue, knew about the sexual relationship, but ignored it. DePue has denied any knowledge of such a relationship. The victim and his father settled a $1.5 million dollar suit against DePue.

The gist of all of it is... the boy's father was having an affair with the teacher. He put his son up to the charges so they could extort money from the husband. This is one case where the "victims" dad should be the one going to jail but nope, he gets 1.5 million dollars.

US high school ends 'Beat the Jew' game - U.S. news- msnbc.com

2010-06-05T22:00:00.001-07:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37515803/ns/us_news

MSNBC.com

US high school ends 'Beat the Jew' game

By CHRISTINA HOAG

Associated Press Writer

The Associated Press

updated 12:35 p.m. PT, Fri., June 4, 2010

LA QUINTA, California - Seven seniors at a Southern California high school were facing disciplinary action for participating in a game called "Beat the Jew" in which losers were subjected to "incineration" or "enslavement," a school administrator said Friday.

The game involved some students playing the role of Nazis who blindfolded and dropped off other students playing Jews who must find their way back to the campus, said Sherry Johnstone, assistant superintendent of personnel for Desert Sands Unified School District.

It was not immediately clear exactly if or how losing players were punished, she said.

Seven seniors at La Quinta High School could be suspended or barred from graduation, among other measures, Johnstone said.

"This is appalling to us," she said. "We want our students to understand the horror of a title like this."

The district referred the matter to police because of the possibility that the game contained a threat, said La Quinta police Lt. Jason Huskey. No threat had been found so far, but the investigation was ongoing, he said.

The district started investigating a week ago after students reported the game to administrators.

The game was promoted online, attracting about 40 students. Seven showed up to play one evening in the campus parking lot, Johnstone said.

The district is working with Jewish organizations to review its tolerance curriculum. A voluntary tolerance program will be held after school next week.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37515803/ns/us_news/

MSN Privacy . Legal

Florida teen set on fire: ‘That school is terrible’ - TODAY People

2010-04-20T11:14:00.001-07:00

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/36661414/ns/today-today_people

Michael was referring to Deerfield Beach Middle School, which he had been attending in October when he and another boy had a difference of opinion over a $40 video game and a stolen bicycle. On a Monday by an apartment complex swimming pool, the one boy and several friends allegedly doused Michael with rubbing alcohol and set him on fire. Michael likely saved his own life by leaping into the pool to put out the flames.

Read more:http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/36661414/ns/today-today_people/#ixzz0lfJvhIoG

Spying school district update: turned on webcams 42 times, FBI isn't sure that's legal -- Engadget

2010-02-21T14:25:00.001-08:00

http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/20/spying-school-district-update-turned-on-webcams-42-times-fbi-i

Remember the Pennsylvania school district that was accused of remotely flipping on the webcams of students' laptops? As if the civil suit filed on behalf of those students wasn't going to be enough trouble for the Lower Merion representatives, now it seems the FBI wants to know just what's going on, launching an investigation into the practice. For its part the district said that it remotely activated the cams 42 times, and that it only did so with the bestest of intentions: when trying to locate a missing laptop. It would also like to point out that only two employees had the power to flip the switch, and that they only captured images -- never sound. Because, you know, surreptitiously watching your kids is so much less menacing when there's no audio involved.

Seventh Grader Sues School Over Right to Wear Pro-Life T-Shirt

2009-07-06T15:12:00.001-07:00

Don't go against the thought police. Things like this are only controversial when the schools disagree. Didn't seem that big of a deal during the last election when teachers were advocating their choice of candidates.

A California mom says her public school administrators violated her daughter's First Amendment rights when they ordered the seventh-grader to take off her pro-life T-shirt.

Anna Amador has gone to court on behalf of her daughter, who she says was ordered by her principal to change her shirt on "National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day." The shirt the girl was wearing displays two graphic pictures of a fetus growing in the womb.

The incident occurred in April 2008 at McSwain Elementary School, a K-8 school in Merced, Calif. Amador alleges in her legal complaint that school Principal Terrie Rohrer, Assistant Principal C.W. Smith and office clerk Martha Hernandez mistreated her daughter and denied the girl her First Amendment rights when they ordered her to leave the cafeteria and change her shirt.

"Before Plaintiff could eat [breakfast] she was ordered by a school staff member to throw her food out and report immediately to Defendant Smith's office, located in the main office of McSwain Elementary School," the complaint reads.

"Upon arriving at the main office, Defendant Hernandez, intentionally and without Plaintiff's consent, grabbed Plaintiff's arm and forcibly escorted her toward Smith's office, at all times maintaining a vice-like grip on Plaintiff's arm. Hernandez only released Plaintiff's arm after physically locating her in front of Smith and Defendant Rohrer...

"Smith and Rohrer ordered Plaintiff to remove her pro-life T-shirt and instructed Plaintiff to never wear her pro-life T-shirt at McSwain Elementary School ever again...

"Completely humiliated and held out for ridicule, Plaintiff complied with Defendants' directives and removed her pro-life T-shirt, whereupon, Defendants seized and confiscated it. Defendants did not return Plaintiff's property until the end of the school day."

The school administrators dispute some of the allegations, said Anthony N. DeMaria, attorney for the McSwain Union Elementary School District.

"I think the school district has a very strong defense," DeMaria said. "The complaint does not properly characterize the events that happened. Certainly we dispute some of the events."

He said he was unable to reach the administrators to determine which parts they say are incorrect, because school is out for the summer. Rohrer, the principal, told FOXNews.com on Monday that she could not issue a statement without consulting with the school superintendent and their attorney. The other defendants and school district employees did not respond to calls and e-mails from FOXNews.com.

The school district sought to get the case thrown out due to "failure to state a cognizable claim," but a U.S. Eastern District Court judge ruled last month that all but one of Amador's claims could go forward.

The complaint quotes school district officials saying that they ordered Amador's daughter to remove the shirt because it constituted "inappropriate subject matter" in violation of the school's dress code, which bans clothing with "suggestion of tobacco, drug or alcohol use, sexual promiscuity, profanity, vulgarity, or other inappropriate subject matter."

Amador claims in the legal complaint that other students at the school have been allowed to wear expressive shirts, and she blames the school for “inconsistently applying their Dress Code based upon subjective determinations as to which messages are acceptable and which messages are not.”

One of the girl's lawyers, Mark A. Thiel, said that the images on her shirt of a fetus in the womb were same as those in her science textbooks. He said no student had complained about the shirt, and he said the girl's parents were not called when the incident took place.

"This was a young girl, not even in high school. But they didn't call," he said.

A spokeswoman for the local Planned Parenthood chapter declined to take sides in the case.

"Even offensive speech is protected as long as it doesn’t impinge upon the rights of others," said Deborah Ortiz, vice president of public affairs for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte.

"School administrators have a mission to educate, and the student’s right to political speech should be protected in balance with this education mission."

UCLA law professor and First Amendment expert Eugene Volokh said Supreme Court precedent appears to support the girl's case.

"During the Vietnam War, the Supreme Court ruled that wearing black arm bands [at school, to protest the war] was OK,” Volokh said. “If students can wear armbands in protest, why can't they wear a pro-life shirt?"

He said the case would be different if there was evidence that the shirt could have led to disruption or fighting.

"Schools have a lot more authority than the government does in regulating speech,” he said. “If someone is speaking on a street corner and it looks like other people are going to start a fight over it, the government's job is to protect the speaker. That is not the case in schools. We need to make sure students learn. So if speech is highly disruptive, well … in that case we can suppress it.

"But the school's position that they can restrict speech just because they find it inappropriate is not correct."

But the fact that it's a K-8 school with very young children could change things, said Brooklyn Law School professor William Araiza. He pointed to the 2007 Supreme Court decision in Morse v. Frederick, where the court allowed a high school to suspend students in Juneau, Alaska, who waved a banner that read “Bong hits 4 Jesus” from across the street during an Olympic torch relay, because it was seen as promoting illegal drug use.

“[The school] could almost use a “bong hits” kind of rationale about protecting students from inappropriate messages,” Araiza said. “For instance, would you allow a 4th grader to wear a gruesome picture of a bomb scene? You probably wouldn't.”

First Amendment attorney William Becker, who represents Amador, disagreed that the shirt could be seen as containing inappropriate messages.

"The message of the T-shirt is that life is sacred," he said. "One would be very hard pressed to find anything wrong with that particular idea, except that some people do object to the political message.”

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,530284,00.html

Teacher charged with sexual assault

2009-07-02T22:12:00.003-07:00

http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=286867&src=109

EDWARDSVILLE -- A southern Illinois high school health teacher is charged with sexual assault for an alleged five-month relationship with one of her students.

Edwardsville police say 37-year-old Kasey E. Johnes of Glen Carbon was arrested Wednesday. She's being held on $100,000 bond at the Madison County Jail.

Police allege Johnes had a sexual relationship with the male student that started in the fall and ended in February.

The student, a senior at Edwardsville High School, was 17 at the time of the alleged relationship but has since turned 18.

The school district has placed Johnes on unpaid leave.

She's also charged with aggravated criminal sexual abuse. It was not immediately clear whether she has an attorney.

Teacher charged in sex scandal headed for trial

2009-07-02T22:12:00.001-07:00

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=6981531

FARMINGTON -- A former Bountiful Jr. High School teacher accused of carrying on a sexual relationship with a teenage boy is apparently headed for trial.

During an appearance in 2nd District Court Monday, an attorney for Valynne Bowers, 40, indicated there would not be a plea deal, citing "legal issues" that have complicated the case.

Outside of court, Bowers' attorney Richard Gallegos said Davis County prosecutors had offered Bowers a chance to plead "straight up" to first-degree felony charges of rape and sodomy. Bowers apparently rejected the deal, believing the facts of the case did not match the charges.

Gallegos said prosecutors offered Bowers a chance to plead guilty to the original charges of rape and forcible sodomy, both first-degree felonies. But Gallegos says the charges don't fit the crime. "I certainly don't think there's any coercion or duress or lack of consent on the alleged victim's part," he said.

He plans to ask the court to look at the statute, which says the teen could not consent to sex because Bowers held a special position of trust with the him.

Gallegos noted the alleged victim was not in Bowers' class when she began the relationship with him, nor did it happen at school.

Gallegos planned to file court motions to challenge the enhancement. He would not rule out calling the teenage boy to the witness stand, telling reporters that under testimony, facts of the case might change.

Bowers marched out of the courthouse, refusing to speak.

Bowers is one of two teachers accused of having sex with the same teenage student.

The other teacher, Linda Nef, 46, struck a plea deal with prosecutors earlier this month. She's expected to be sentenced on July 21.

Teacher Charged With Assaulting Pupil

2009-07-02T22:11:00.001-07:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31131551

PONTIAC, Mich. - A Pontiac Central High School teacher accused of hitting a ninth-grade student has been charged with assault.

Bradley Keith Thompson, 39, was arraigned at the 50th District Court in Pontiac Friday.

He was given a $500 personal bond and ordered not to have contact with the victim and not to return to the place where the alleged assault took place.

Thompson has been suspended with pay while the investigation into the alleged assault Tuesday continues.

The ninth-grader's grandfather and mother said school officials told them the incident is on videotape, but neither has seen it. Also, police will not release the surveillance video.

The mother of the student said her son told her Thompson pushed him in the hallway and then slammed his head into the door when he realized the student was back in school when he thought he was suspended. She said her son went to the office and called her to tell her Thompson shoved him.

Teacher Union President Irma Collins is denying the allegations. She said Thompson has been with the school for six years, is well-liked and has a perfect record.

Collins claims the student attacked Thompson and he was only trying to subdue the student until security arrived. "The boy came to the teacher's room and said all of these other things to him. The teacher walked to the door and asked him to leave – it's not on the camera – then he took and just took both of his fists and punched the teacher's chest and knocked him back and walked away.

"The teacher immediately secured him to prevent any further assault on himself. As the boy struggled, he held him firmly to keep from any further injury on himself," Collins said on behalf of the teacher.

"The teacher will be completely cleared of all these charges," she added.

Attorney Cyril Hall, who is representing the student, said he is contemplating a civil lawsuit.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31131551/

Teacher Charged With Misconduct

2009-07-02T22:10:00.003-07:00

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/19108165/detail.html

NEW HAVEN, Mich. -- A substitute teacher and coach at New Haven High School turned himself in to police Monday morning after he was accused of having inappropriate relationships with several female students.

Darryl Anthony Peterson Jr., 27, has been arraigned on three counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct.New Haven Police Chief Michael Henry said the department received a call from the school with the allegations on March 27. After an investigation, the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office issued warrants for Peterson.The district's superintendent said Peterson had previously been contracted through an outside agency to work as a substitute teacher and coach, but was immediately removed from the school once the allegations surfaced.Peterson's bond for all charges was set at $25,000. Police said he would be tethered to his home after his release from the Macomb County Jail.Peterson's next court date is scheduled for April 13 at the 42-B District Court.

West Virginia: Former Va. teacher charged with sexual abuse

2009-07-02T22:10:00.001-07:00

http://www.herald-mail.com/?module=displaystory&story_id=178686&format=html

HEDGESVILLE, W.Va. - A former Frederick County, Va., teacher was arrested Wednesday on charges that he had a sexual encounter with a 17-year-old student while he was employed as a teacher in February, the Berkeley County Sheriff's Department said.

Eric Newman, 26, of Hedgesville, was charged with one count of sexual abuse by a parent, guardian or person in a position of trust to a child, Sgt. B.F. Hall said in a news release.

Hall said the alleged encounter with the female student took place at Newman's residence in Hedgesville on Feb. 3, 2007, while Newman was a teacher at Millbrook High School in Winchester, Va.

Newman, who no longer is employed as a teacher, agreed to turn himself in after a joint investigation between the Berkeley County and Frederick County sheriff's departments, Hall said. Investigators served a search warrant at Newman's home March 11 and recovered evidence, Hall said.

Newman was arraigned at the Berkeley County Judicial Center and released on bond, Hall said.

Frederick County (Va.) Superintendent of Schools Patricia Taylor said she could not comment on police matters.

Teacher Charged with Having Criminal Sexual Contact with Woman : WFMZ-TV 69News

2009-07-02T22:09:00.001-07:00

http://wfmz.com/view/?id=720876

A teacher in New Jersey is behind bars, accused of having criminal sexual contact with a woman. Walter Brandt was arrested Wednesday. He works as a teacher here at North Warren Regional High School in Warren County. Officials say he has been suspended.

Teacher charged with having sex with students

2009-07-02T22:08:00.001-07:00

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/v-print/story/1399384.html

DURHAM - A former Southern High School teacher who was charged with having sex with two students turned himself in Monday morning.

Jamal Butler, 30, of Calibre Park Drive is charged with two counts of sexual offense with a student. He is currently out of jail on a $20,000 bond.

Butler allegedly had sex with two 16-year-old female students between July 1 and Jan. 8, according to arrest warrants.

School officials conducted an investigation along with police after allegations were made, said Michael Yarbrough, Durham Public Schools spokesman.

Butler, who became Southern's band teacher in August 2007, resigned Jan. 29, Yarbrough said.

Karate Teacher Charged With Raping Students

2009-07-02T22:07:00.001-07:00

http://www.onntv.com/live/contentbe/EPIC_shim.php?story=sites/ONN/content/pool/200711/453287664.html

NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio - A Brunswick karate instructor has been indicted on 80 sex charges involving two children.

Police said 31-year-old Gary Gray had sex with two students from Gray's Karate for Kids, a North Royalton karate school owned by Gray's wife.

The alleged victims are 14 and 17, police said.

Charges against Gray include rape and sexual battery. He pleaded not guilty and is being held on $2 million bond.

Teacher charged with sex assault

2009-07-02T22:06:00.001-07:00

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=6894182&rss=rss-wtvd-article-6894182

ZEBULON (WTVD) -- Police accuse a teacher at Wakelon Elementary School with sexually assaulting a student.

George Johnson, 60, is charged with indecent liberties with a child and indecent liberties by a teacher.

Investigators say the victim was a student at the school.

Wake County Public Schools says Johnson resigned from his teaching job last month.

Violin teacher charged with student sex abuse

2009-07-02T22:05:00.001-07:00

ELLICOTT CITY, Md. - Howard County police say a 67-year-old violin teacher has been charged with sexually abusing an 11-year-old student.

Police said Ming Yueh Liang of Ellicott City has been charged with eight sex offenses and eight counts of second-degree assault. Police said Monday the victim and her mother told investigators that the teacher touched the child repeatedly during private lessons at his home. The mother said she was present during the lessons between March and May, but had an obstructed view of her daughter and the teacher.

Investigators are urging other students who may have been abused to contact police.

Police said Liang has been released on unsecured bond.

http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=25&sid=1702230

Teacher charged with making threats

2009-07-02T22:04:00.001-07:00

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22956972

Teacher charged with making threats

Pa. woman allegedly upset over class assignment faces 17 counts

The Associated Press

updated 4:22 p.m. PT, Fri., Feb. 1, 2008

DOYLESTOWN, Pa. - A teacher who was upset because she didn't get her preferred classroom assignment left more than a dozen scribbled threats at her elementary school and a suspicious device in a student's desk, authorities said.

Susan Romanyszyn, 45, was charged Thursday with 17 counts of making terroristic threats in connection with the incidents at Longstreth Elementary School in Warminster in October.

Authorities said the fourth-grade teacher scribbled messages on school walls and on paper that threatened bomb and gun violence. The messages were written in sloppy handwriting with numerous misspellings and some with crudely drawn cartoons, police said.

A prosecutor said the actions stemmed from Romanyszyn's assignment to teach fourth grade rather than fifth grade. "She was upset or disgruntled at not getting the classroom assignment she wanted," Bucks County District Attorney Michelle Henry said.

Police also allege Romanyszyn put a water bottle containing white power and screws into a student's desk and scattered nails around the lot where teachers parked, leading to school trips and activities being delayed or canceled.

In an interview with police, Romanyszyn denied having anything to do with the incidents and said she wasn't upset about not getting a fifth-grade teaching position, according to a court document. Her attorney rejected the allegations.

Surveillance cameras, evaluations
"In a case like this, you go on a person's character, and the character of this woman is out there for inspection," Sara Webster said. "Nobody says she's an angry person. She loved what she did, and she loved her students and she always got good evaluations."

Romanyszyn was arrested after authorities interviewed students, administrators and teachers and reviewed footage from school surveillance cameras, Warminster Police Chief Michael Murphy said.

Romanyszyn, who has been on administrative leave since Oct. 22, turned herself in to police and was released after posting $100,000 bail. She faces up to 10 years in jail if convicted.

Romanyszyn was previously a middle school teacher at Eugene Klinger Middle School, where in 2004 she was one of two elementary mathematics teachers selected as a state finalist for the Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22956972/

Teacher Charged With Being Drunk in Class

2009-07-02T22:03:00.001-07:00

LOUDOUN, Va. (AP) - A middle school teacher has been placed on administrative leave after being charged with being drunk in her Loudoun County classroom.

Sheriff's spokesman Kraig Troxell says officials at Sterling Middle School called authorities to report that reading specialist Mary Ann Livoti, 56, of Hamilton appeared to be intoxicated in a classroom before 11 a.m. with students present.

Troxell says Livoti was arrested and placed in the county's adult detention center jail until she was deemed to be sober. Troxell says the county Commonwealth's Attorney planned to review the case to determine whether more charges are warranted.

Livoti has been a teacher with LCPS for about 13 years, Byard said. She worked with the system from 1978 to 1982, then came back in 1998. She has worked at Sterling Middle School since 2000 as the reading specialist, LCPS spokesman Wayde Byard said.

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=600&sid=1284991

Teacher Charged After Alleged Indecent Exposure

2009-07-02T22:02:00.001-07:00

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- A popular Montgomery County middle school teacher is under arrest Thursday for allegedly exposing himself to students.

Montgomery County Police say 43-year-old Charles Bouma, an eighth grade math teacher at Argyle Middle School in Silver Spring, was arrested and charged with indecent exposure, disorderly conduct and disturbing a school operation.

Bouma allegedly exposed himself and engaged in sexual activity while driving in a convertible beside a school bus carrying students from the Academy of the Holy Cross on Monday around 3:15 p.m. near Rockville Pike and Tuckerman Lane, police say.

After the incident, Bouma followed the bus and drove around each side, causing "considerable commotion" on the bus, police say.

The students on the bus were members of the Holy Cross crew team and on their way to practice. The crew team coach wrote down Bouma's license plate and called police to report the incident.

Bouma has been placed on administrative leave, Montgomery County Public School spokesman Brian Edwards says.

"Naturally, this is a very disturbing situation for us," Edwards says. "We will be informing parents of the information we have. If they have any questions, they can speak with the principal about the incident."

Edwards says Bouma is a very popular teacher and passed a background check when he was hired in 2000.

Police are investigating the possibility of other incidents involving Bouma. Anyone with information should call the Montgomery County 2nd District Investigative Section at 301-657-0112.

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=598&sid=1126176

Teacher Puts Sex Clip of Self on Students DVD

2009-07-02T21:55:00.001-07:00

ELK GROVE, Calif. —

A Northern California elementary school teacher sent her students home for the summer with a video of class memories, only the DVD included six seconds of her having sex on a couch.

Officials at the Elk Grove Unified School District asked families of the teacher's 24 students to get rid of the DVD after the unintended clip was found spliced in a scene where children were sharing stories in class.

"Just destroy them," said spokeswoman Torrey Johnson.

Johnson said the teacher, Crystal Defanti, sent the DVD home with her students from Isabelle Jackson Elementary on the last day of class Friday. She learned of the mistake after a parent called her. She then called all the parents to ask them to destroy the DVD.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,529920,00.html

Seven Teens Shot at Detroit Bus Stop Near High School - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

2009-06-30T16:47:00.001-07:00

Two gunmen in a green minivan opened fire on a group of teenagers at a bus stop near a Detroit high school, authorities said.

At least seven students attending classes at Cody High School were among those shot, and three of them are in critical condition, according to Detroit Police spokesman Rod Liggons.

Five of the victims were waiting for a bus after summer school classes let out. All seven of the victims were between the ages of 14 and 17.

Detroit EMS acting chief Jerald James told FOX News that the victims appeared to be in good condition and were talking in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

The gunmen exited a vehicle and "asked for a person by name" before they "opened fire at the crowd," said Detroit Public Schools Police Chief Roderick Grimes. Detroit Police were looking for two suspects in a green minivan, said spokesman Rod Liggons.

Another summer school student, 15-year-old Bria Wilson, said she was standing at the bus stop when she heard the gunfire. She said she was facing away from the shooters and ran away after the shots were fired. But she saw a 16-year-old male friend lying on the ground, bleeding.

"They were so close — it almost hit me," she said.

A woman was seen being handcuffed and taken into police custody, but it was not known whether she was a suspect in the shooting, according to local reports.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,529601,00.html

FOXNews.com - Teens Charged as Adults in Football Sex Assault Case - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

2009-06-04T09:08:00.001-07:00

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,525065,00.html

TAMPA, Fla. —

Four Florida middle-school students are being charged as adults in the alleged sexual assaults on a classmate in a school locker room.

The teens are accused of holding down a 13-year-old flag-football teammate and assaulting him with a broomstick and hockey stick. The victim told investigators the boys had harassed and bullied him for nearly two months.

State attorney's office spokeswoman Pam Bondi said Wednesday that each boy faces four counts of sexual battery, stemming from "multiple incidents on different dates."

Each count carries a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.

Three of the boys charged are 14 and the other is 15.

Each pleaded not guilty at a hearing Wednesday and had a $15,000 bond set.

Tacoma teacher found guilty in kidnap, rape case

2009-04-21T09:27:00.001-07:00

http://www.thenewstribune.com/topstories/v-printerfriendly/story/715185.html

A Pierce County judge Monday convicted Jennifer L. Rice of kidnapping and raping a 10-year-old boy she taught at Tacoma’s McKinley Elementary School two years ago.

Superior Court Judge D. Gary Steiner also found Rice, 33, guilty of raping the boy’s older brother and ruled one of her crimes was predatory, qualifying her for an extra-long prison sentence.

The former teacher faces more than 25 years in prison when sentenced June 5. Steiner ordered Rice, who’s been in jail since her arrest in summer 2007, remain there until sentencing.

Rice, the mother of young children, wiped at tears after Steiner made his rulings.

The convictions followed a brief “stipulated facts” trial. Prosecutors and Rice’s defense team agreed to a set of facts in the case, and Steiner reviewed them before making his decision. Rice agreed to the trial instead of a straight plea in order to preserve some of her appellate rights, said her attorney, Gary Clower.

The arrangement was, in essence, a guilty plea by Rice. She admitted she had sexual intercourse with both boys on separate occasions – the older brother was 15 at the time – and that she kidnapped and molested the younger boy, according to court records.

Steiner convicted Rice of four crimes: first-degree kidnapping, first-degree child molestation and two counts of third-degree rape. Steiner found the child-molestation crime was a predatory offense because the victim was one of Rice’s students.

That designation – required when a teacher is accused of certain sex crimes – invokes stiff sentencing requirements: a minimum term of 25 years or the high end of the standard sentencing range, whichever is longer. In Rice’s case, the high end is 26 years, according to previously filed court documents.

Prosecutors contended in court documents that Rice began a sexual relationship with the 10-year-old boy that lasted from December 2006 to August 2007, when she sneaked him out of his home and drove him to Ellensburg where they had sex at a rest stop before she returned him home.

Prosecutors also charged her with twice having sex with the boy’s older brother in July 2007.

Rice previously argued that the law that classifies some crimes as predatory is unconstitutional because it wrongly curtails the powers of the state’s prosecutors by restricting their discretion. Steiner rejected that argument in July 2008.

Clower indicated in court his client might want to renew that argument at the appellate level.

Prosecutors originally charged Rice with 13 crimes but agreed to drop all but four in exchange for her stipulating to the facts Steiner reviewed Monday.

The deal means the victims won’t have to testify in open court while guaranteeing Rice will get a long sentence, deputy prosecutor Mark Lindquist said.

The victims’ parents last month sued the Tacoma, Bethel and Yelm school districts, contending the districts negligently hired and supervised Rice and didn’t do enough to protect students from her. Rice also taught at the North Thurston School District.

The state has revoked her licenses to teach and serve as a counselor.

Ohio School Says Teacher Resigned After Taking Students to Strip Club

2009-04-17T19:10:00.001-07:00

A southwest Ohio teacher has resigned after acknowledging she accompanied four female students to a male strip club, a school spokesman said.

Butler Tech school district spokesman Bill Solazzo said 47-year-old Lori Epperson resigned Thursday. He said Epperson told Edgewood High School administrators that the students — all cheerleaders at the school north of Cincinnati in Trenton — asked her to take them to the bar in February.

Epperson told school officials in an e-mail that she got permission from the parents of the 17- and 18-year-olds to bring them to Club Masque in Dayton.

Epperson taught marketing at the school and previously served as a coach for the district's eighth-grade cheerleaders.

Student killed in love triangle involving teacher - Yahoo! News

2009-04-14T15:11:00.001-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090414/ap_on_re_us/teacher_love_triangle

CHANDLER, Ariz. – An 18-year-old high school student caught with his 48-year-old math teacher in her bedroom was stabbed to death by her boyfriend, who was himself a former student of hers, police said Tuesday.

Chandler police said 20-year-old Sixto Balbuena told them he never meant to kill Samuel Valdivia. He allegedly told police "the blade went in like going into butter" and that he just wanted to show Valdivia how much he hurt him by sleeping with Tamara Hofmann.

Balbuena, a Navy sailor on leave from California, was arrested on a charge of second-degree murder after police found him covered in blood and told them about the killing. He was in jail Tuesday and did not have a lawyer.

Balbuena found his girlfriend naked and Valdivia in his boxer shorts in the woman's bedroom around 2:40 a.m. Friday, according to police reports and court documents.

Balbuena told police that Valdivia apologized to him before Balbuena began kicking, punching and throwing things at him, according to a police probable cause statement.

Police said Balbuena told them he "wanted to teach the victim a lesson," and stabbed him in the lower side with a kitchen knife, according to the court document. Valdivia later died at a hospital.

He also threw Hofmann to the floor jumped on top of her and demanded to know how long she had been cheating on him, according to the document.

Police said Hofmann taught Valdivia math at El Dorado High School in Chandler and was also Balbuena's teacher when he attended Marcos de Niza High School in Tempe.

A call to both schools was not immediately returned Tuesday. Hofmann's phone number is unlisted.

Balbuena is the one who called 911. He told officers he felt remorse for stabbing Valdivia after seeing him lying on the floor struggling to breathe, police said.

Arizona School Bus Driver Accused of Having Sexual Relationship With Student

2009-02-28T22:22:00.001-08:00

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,502624,00.html

A high school bus driver in Yuma has been arrested on suspicion of having an ongoing sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student.

The Yuma County Sheriff's Office said Friday that Sixto Rocabado Jr., 31, was arrested Wednesday after the parents of the female student reported that he had left inappropriate messages on the girl's MySpace.com page.

Sheriff's spokesman Capt. Eben Bratcher says investigators learned that Rocabado was the girl's school bus driver and had allegedly had sexual contact with her over the last few weeks.

Rocabado was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault, custodial interference, kidnapping, sexual abuse and sexual assault.

He is being held in the Yuma County jail on a $239,265 bond.

Shooting erupts at high school basketball game

2009-01-12T08:35:00.001-08:00

http://deseretnews.com/article/content/mobile/1,5143,705276541,00.html?printView=true

CHICAGO — Five people were shot as spectators left a crowded high school basketball game Friday in what police called a possibly gang-related attack that sent panicked students running into a snowy street on the city's South Side.

Five males — three in serious condition and two in critical — were taken from Paul Laurence Dunbar Vocational Career Academy around 8 p.m., said Chicago Fire Department spokeswoman Eve Rodriguez. Hospital spokespeople said later that at least three were expected to be treated and released.

"It was crazy. It was like killers on the loose," said Joshua Glaze, 15, a freshman at the school.

The game was in overtime and some students began to leave the building, Glaze said.

A vehicle then drove up and a person or people inside started shooting into the crowd, said Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis.

No suspect has been identified or arrested, but the shooting was "isolated" and possibly gang-related, Weis said. Two hundred officers were in the area looking for suspects, he said.

Dunbar freshman Shaneisha Turman, 15, said she saw a silver truck pull up to a bus stop outside the school. People inside the truck pretended to fire a gun and then "they really started shooting," she told the Chicago Tribune.

People were shouting, "'They're shooting!"' Turman said. "It was a lot of people shouting and running."

Police blocked access to streets at least two blocks from the high school to make way for ambulances and police cars.

Andres Durbak, director of the city schools' Office of Safety and Security, said video taken in and around the school has been handed over to police.

"This is a tragedy," Durbak said.

Police spokeswoman Monique Bond declined to characterize the victims beyond gender and would not say whether they had attended the basketball game. She added that they were "not necessarily students."

The high school has about 1,600 students and is the alma mater of Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson.

Mass. teacher accused of having sex with teen

2009-01-12T08:29:00.001-08:00

http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2009Jan10/0,4670,TeacherRape,00.html

ROCKLAND, Mass. — An elementary school teacher accused of having sex with a teenage boy pleaded not guilty to rape charges Friday.

Christine A. McCallum, 29, of Rockland, is accused of having multiple sexual encounters with the boy that began when he was 13 years old. The alleged incidents occurred in Abington and Rockland.

McCallum was released on $10,000 bond after she pleaded not guilty to three counts of rape at Brockton District Court for the incidents in Abington. She also pleaded not guilty later Friday in Hingham District Court on four additional counts for the alleged rapes in Rockland.

The married fifth-grade teacher has been fired from her job at Woodsdale Elementary School in Abington, Superintendent Peter G. Schafer said Friday.

"We are aware and are deeply concerned about the disturbing allegations against her, and we will be fully cooperating with the authorities," Schafer said in a statement.

Rockland police Chief John Llewellyn said his officers and Abington police arrested McCallum at her home Thursday night.

Plymouth District Attorney Tim Cruz said McCallum was working as a teacher's aide and tutoring the boy's younger brother when the relationship began. Cruz said the father of the boy, now 16, went to authorities recently after he found some correspondence between his son and McCallum.

"The allegations are very disturbing, when you are alleging that a grown woman in a position of trust ... is allegedly having a sexual relationship with a child," Cruz said.

In court, Assistant District Attorney Michael Scott said McCallum had become like a surrogate mother to the boy, who lives in Abington and was being raised by a single father. He said the relationship progressed to kissing and sex after McCallum plied the boy with alcohol.

McCallum's attorney, Frederick McDermott, said there was no evidence his client ever had sex with the teen. He said she acted as the boy's surrogate mother, but that relationship ended in July 2007 after she caught the boy stealing liquor from her home.

McCallum was ordered to stay away from the boy, his family, and all children under 16. She also must wear a tracking device and surrender her passport.

A telephone message left at a number for a Christine A. McCallum in Rockland was not immediately returned Friday.

Junior High arrest leads to haul of stolen guns

2008-12-12T20:57:00.001-08:00

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/565329.html

When three students were arrested last week at Bethel Junior High School, officers did a routine check of the serial number on the revolver they recovered in a 15-year-old’s book bag.

In a database of weapons, the gun showed up as stolen. That prompted an investigation that culminated with the student, his older brother and two other juveniles being charged with scores of weapons offenses.

Investigators said Thursday that the 15-year-old and his 21-year-old brother, Christopher Aguon, broke into a Vancouver, Wash., firearms store Nov. 30 and stole about 130 weapons within minutes. After deputies arrested the younger brother at the Spanaway school, the serial number on the revolver highlighted the connection.

“That’s a good example of why we should have a national database,” Pierce County sheriff’s spokesman Ed Troyer said Thursday night. “The sooner we can tie our databases together, the sooner these things won’t slip through the cracks.”

The investigation involved the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, the Vancouver Police Department and a Clark County task force.

Investigators said students at Bethel Junior High became alarmed last week after hearing of a gun on campus, and told a school resource officer, who notified the Sheriff’s Department. Investigators also found a weapon in a trash can near the school. The 15-year-old and two 14-year-olds were arrested and reportedly were not cooperating with investigators.

The Pierce County juvenile faces 126 counts of theft of a firearm, and charges of burglary and criminal conspiracy to traffic in stolen property, according to the Vancouver Police Department. He was being held at Remann Hall juvenile jail in Tacoma. The News Tribune commonly does not name juveniles charged with crimes.

ATF spokesman Nick Starcevic said the bureau was working with the U.S. attorney to charge the 21-year-old with federal offenses – federal courts do not try juveniles.

Two other juveniles were arrested in Clark County on related charges.

Starcevic said a combination of good investigating and good luck led to the arrests. It’s unusual to make arrests so soon on a theft this large, he said, and it was especially good since most or all of the weapons were recovered.

“It’s a good thing we were able to recover them in short order,” he said. “Now we have 126 guns that won’t become crime guns. We got lucky, to get back 126 is great.”

The store, Brightwater Ventures, reported about 130 missing weapons, and was doing an audit to see if all that were missing have been found, Starcevic said.

Bethel School District Superintendent Tom Seigel said the students brought the two guns to sell at school, and that there wasn’t a threat of violence.

But the extent of the investigation and the sheer amount of weapons are staggering, he said. And what began the investigation was involvement from students.

“We can’t hold school unless people feel secure. We take security very seriously,” he said just after hearing of the recent charges. “But the first line of defense is the kids. It’s OK for them to come forward and tell us there’s a threat.”

Georgia Middle School Staff in Trouble Over Inflatable Mattress Sex

2008-12-11T16:22:00.001-08:00

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,465064,00.html

AUGUSTA, Ga. — Several Richmond County educators are being reprimanded after officials uncovered a sex scandal involving teachers, coaches and the principal of an Augusta middle school.

Superintendent Dana Bedden says seven Spirit Creek Middle School faculty members have been implicated in a series of incidents that included daytime sexual encounters on an inflatable mattress in the school's public safety office.

No students were involved in any of the encounters, which came to light after a former teacher sent an e-mail about the allegations to school system leaders.

Denise Ogden resigned in November after her involvement in a love triangle that also cost former Principal Sharon McAlevy and former school board public safety officer Ronnie Collins their jobs.

Middle Schoolers Suspended for Sex Activities in Class

2008-12-11T16:21:00.001-08:00

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,465407,00.html

Three students at a Broward County middle school have been suspended for what school officials say was inappropriate sexual activity in a classroom.

The students from Glades Middle School in Miramar were suspended this week and face expulsion. School officials and police say the students are about 13 years old and more may be involved.

Two teachers have been reassigned while the district investigates. The activity was allegedly going on in their classrooms.

Authorities have not described the inappropriate conduct.

Principal Krista Herrera sent a letter home with students Tuesday, assuring parents that students at the school are safe.

Florida Boy Arrested For Gas Attack

2008-12-01T13:04:00.001-08:00

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/1121083gas1.html

NOVEMBER 21--A 12-year-old Florida student was arrested earlier this month after he "deliberately passed gas to disrupt the class," according to police. The child, who was also accused of shutting off the computers of classmates at Stuart's Spectrum Jr./Sr. High School, was busted November 4 for disruption of a school function. A Martin County Sheriff's Office report, a copy of which you'll find below, notes that the 4' 11" offender admitted that he "continually disrupted his classroom environment by breaking wind and shutting off several computers." The boy, whose name was redacted from the police report released today, was turned over to his mother following the arrest. The young perp turned 13 on November 15. (2 pages)

Boy, 13, Stabs Self in Front of Classmates

2008-11-25T12:09:00.001-08:00

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,456866,00.html

A 13-year-old boy who had just broken up with his girlfriend stabbed himself in his U.K. school in front of horrified classmates, the Daily Mail newspaper reported.

The boy, who was not identified, reportedly walked in to the classroom, told his girlfriend, “I know you don’t love me,” and stabbed himself in the stomach with a small kitchen knife in front of about 30 other students and a teacher, according to the Mail.

The boy was rushed to a local hospital where he had emergency surgery. He was listed in serious but stable condition, the paper reported.

“We are deeply shocked by this tragic incident at our school, and our immediate and paramount concern is the welfare of the injured student and those who witnessed the incident,” the school’s principal, Andrew Davis told the Mail.

Missing Teenage Girl Found in Illinois Teacher's Closet

2008-11-25T12:08:00.001-08:00

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,456432,00.html

A missing 17-year-old girl was found hiding in a closet at a male teacher's home near Chicago after he told police he didn't know where she was — prompting officers to arrest him on a charge he lied to them.

Eric Wood, 24, who teaches at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Waukegan, Ill., was charged only with obstructing justice in the bizarre case surrounding the disappearance of the girl.

The teen's family filed a missing-person report on Nov. 8.

The following day, Lake County Sheriff's deputies found the girl at Wood's Beach Park house after Wood allowed them in to search for her. He initially told authorities that he knew nothing about the girl's whereabouts.

The girl's brother said she and Wood have been in regular contact since they met at a Milwaukee car show in July, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. The teen is a student at Zion-Benton High School, and her brother said he called police last month in an effort to stop her get-togethers with Wood.

Wood was "dropping off his 17-year-old sister at home after hours," the police report said.

The high school student and Wood told police and their families that they were just friends, according to the paper.

"We were told by the police that if nothing sexual was going on between them that there was nothing they could do," the teenager's brother told the Sun-Times on Thursday. "We are holding the police responsible if something happens to her."

Cops in Zion, Ill., said they didn't find any indication that a crime had been committed when the girl's brother first notified them.

"Our officer contacted (Wood) and told him to stop seeing the girl," Zion Police Chief Larry Booth told the newspaper.

Waukegan School District officials declined to comment about Wood's relationship with the teen and his arrest.

Wood is expected to appear in Lake County Circuit Court on Dec. 9.

Click here for more on this story from the Chicago Sun-Times.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

YouTube - Teacher belittles soldiers child for supporting McCain

2008-11-08T10:30:00.001-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bvqmY1eM-s

The video says enough.

Print Story: Boy doles out hundreds of fake $20 bills at school on Yahoo! News

2008-09-04T14:56:00.001-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080904/ap_on_fe_st/odd_fake_money_school&printer=1;_ylt=AlkM.3ZmPquyUdXO_yDeDKcuQE4F

Authorities say an 8-year-old boy was handing out hundreds of dollars in fake $20 bills at an Ocala elementary school. School officials reported the boy to police on Tuesday.

The fake bills were discovered when a child tried to use one to pay for lunch. An administrator then tracked down several other students with fake bills. Those students all identified the boy.

The boy — who was not identified — was turned over to the Department of Children and Families after authorities learned his guardians had warrants for their arrest.

In all, the counterfeit money added up to 44 notes or $880. Police say they don't know who produced the fake currency.

FOXNews.com - School Remains Quiet About Girl's Abuse at Class Sleepover - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News

2008-09-04T14:48:00.001-07:00

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,416546,00.html

A primary school student in Australia was made to undress and was sexually threatened by two men during a class sleepover — but no attempt was made to warn the public even though the offenders are still at large.

The incident was only revealed Thursday because teachers raised the alarm about school safety.

One revealed the two men were waiting in the bathroom when the girl got up during the sleepover and took photos of her during her ordeal.

South Australia's Acting Education Minister Jay Weatherill has ordered a review of school supervision guidelines after being alerted by The Advertiser Wednesday.

No public alert had been issued by the Education Department or SA Police following the incident at a primary school earlier this year. The offenders remain at large. Weatherill last night said the incident was "disturbing".

"The Education Department's extensive guidelines for camps, excursions and sleepovers were updated only last year and set out stringent requirements for safety and supervision of students," he said, in an emailed statement. "In light of this recent incident, however, our School Care Centre (an Education Department-SA Police agency) will revisit these to ensure they are adequate and understood by all principals."

The school and police Wednesday confirmed an incident had occurred during a class sleepover.

Police said two men waiting in a toilet had threatened a girl into performing an act of indecency on a day earlier this year. A teacher, who wished to remain anonymous, Wednesday said the incident raised the question of "how safe are our schools?"

"During the night-time sleepover, a girl went to go to the toilets and there were two men waiting for her in the toilets and they made her undress and took photos of her," the teacher said.

The News Tribune (Lite) - Former Federal Way teacher charged again

2008-08-27T09:22:00.001-07:00

http://www.thenewstribune.com/front/topstories/v-lite/story/461745.html

Former Federal Way teacher charged again

STEVE MAYNARD; steve.maynard@thenewstribune

A former Federal Way elementary music teacher was charged Tuesday with molesting a young relative about five years ago. Scott Riley, 53, was charged with first-degree child molestation. The victim told authorities in July that she was 4 or 5 years old at the time of the incident.

Court documents filed Tuesday contend that Riley poses a threat to the safety of the community and that he may be conducting private music lessons with minor children.

The charge arose after Riley pleaded guilty in December to assaulting an 11-year-old girl in his music room at Twin Lakes Elementary School. Riley avoided jail time and having to register as a sex offender by admitting to fourth-degree assault in a plea agreement.

Along with Riley’s 12-month suspended sentence in that case, King County Superior Court Judge Laura Gene Middaugh also sentenced Riley to undergo a sexual deviancy evaluation and complete all recommended treatment.

In April, Riley disclosed to his sexual deviancy treatment provider that he touched the female relative sexually while she was staying overnight, documents state. He claimed to have been dreaming at the time.

In July, the girl, now 10, told authorities how the molestation occurred while she was visiting Riley’s condominium. She said Riley touched her private area while she was in bed with him.

When she asked Riley the next day why he touched her, he said she must have dreamed it and told her not to tell anyone, court documents state. She told authorities she did not speak up earlier because she was afraid of getting in trouble.

Neither Riley nor his attorney returned phone calls for comment Tuesday.

Federal Way police arrested Riley on July 11 on investigation of first-degree child rape. He remains out of custody until he’s arraigned Sept. 8 at the Regional Justice Center in Kent.

First-degree child molestation of a family member carries a minimum jail sentence of 51 to 68 months. A judge could increase the sentence up to life imprisonment, said Dan Donohoe, spokesman for the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

Riley lived in Federal Way at the time of the incident with the relative. He now lives in Puyallup.

He resigned from the Federal Way School District effective Dec. 31 and surrendered his state teaching certificate.

The student told Federal Way police that Riley slid his hand under her buttocks over her clothing while she was practicing a song.

Riley did not admit touching the student, but did state in plea documents that he caused “imminent fear of bodily injury” in the girl.

The Federal Way School District sought to fire Riley after he was charged, and court records revealed he lied about having a sexual relationship with a student in his former district.

While assistant principal at Pahrump Valley High School in Nevada, Riley married the young woman in February 1998, after she had graduated in June 1997. They had two children and divorced in 2002.

During divorce proceedings, the now ex-wife said she and Riley “had sexual relations throughout my entire senior year of high school.”

Only about 30 percent of Clover Park’s 10th-graders passed the math

2008-08-25T09:33:00.001-07:00

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/458603.html

This is why we homeschool.

"Only about 30 percent of Clover Park’s 10th-graders passed the math portion of the WASL in 2007. That’s 20 points lower than the statewide average. And many residents have complained that there’s too much unruliness in some of the city’s schools."

Teen Dead in Tennessee High School Shooting in Cafeteria, Suspect in Custody - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

2008-08-22T08:08:00.001-07:00

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,407843,00.html

olice in Tennessee have identified the victim of a deadly high school shooting in Knoxville.

Fifteen-year-old Ryan McDonald was a sophomore who lived with his grandmother and had a condition that left him bald and the target of endless teasing as a child.

The shooting happened in the school's cafeteria before classes started this morning. Police say the suspected shooter was taken into custody minutes later on a nearby street.

Authorities haven't identified the suspect. The district superintendent says the suspect knew the victim. Police say the shooting wasn't a random act.

Students who witnessed the incident described the scene. Fifteen-year-old Chad Griffin says there was "blood everywhere" and McDonald started "walking and holding his chest." Griffin says he was hit by McDonald's arm as he fell over.

The suspect and victim knew each other, Knox County School System Superintendent Bill McIntyre said.

• Click here for photos.

"This wasn't a shooting that was a random act," Roehl said. "It was an individual directing his aggression toward another individual, not the school or the students inside the school."

The cafeteria was a popular place to gather before classes started at 8:30 a.m., students said. Chad Griffin, 15, and Josh Matthews, 14, said that they were sitting about 10 feet away from the victim and talking when they heard a sharp noise.

Griffin at first thought someone had dropped a book and then looked around.

"He got shot and started walking and he was holding his chest. There was blood everywhere. And then he fell and his arm hit me," Griffin said.

Matthews said he thought it was a fake at first but then realized the shooting was real.

"I took off running and ran outside and called my mom," Matthews said.

Students in the cafeteria began crying and scrambling to leave, while others tried to get in the room, thinking they had missed a fight, witnesses said. Students began to gather around the victim, said freshman Jared Wohlford, 14. "Everybody started running out real fast saying, 'He got shot,"' he said.

Authorities haven't released the names of the victim, who died at University of Tennessee Medical Center, or the suspect. No other students were injured.

The school, which has about 1,400 students, was placed on lockdown after the shooting. Classes were dismissed and students were bused to a nearby church so they could be picked up by their parents.

Student killed in shooting at Tenn. school - Yahoo! News

2008-08-21T13:11:00.001-07:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080821/ap_on_re_us/tennessee_school_shooting

A student fatally shot a 15-year-old classmate during a dispute Thursday at a Knoxville high school, as other teenagers watched in horror as the victim clutched his chest and fell to the floor.

Police identified the victim as Ryan McDonald, a sophomore who lived with his grandmother and had alopecia, a condition that left him bald and the target of endless teasing as a child.

"He tried to have a tough exterior, like a shield, to fit in," his uncle Roger McDonald said. "He was a good kid ... who was dealt some bad cards in life."

The shooting happened shortly after 8 a.m. at the Central High School cafeteria, Chief Deputy Bill Roehl said, and the suspected shooter was taken into custody minutes later on a nearby street. The suspect and victim knew each other, Knox County School System Superintendent Bill McIntyre said.

Authorities hadn't identified the suspect, who was to be charged in juvenile court and represented by the public defender's office.

"This wasn't a shooting that was a random act," Roehl said. "It was an individual directing his aggression toward another individual, not the school or the students inside the school."

Griffin at first thought someone had dropped a book and then looked around.

"He got shot and started walking and he was holding his chest. There was blood everywhere. And then he fell and his arm hit me," Griffin said.

Matthews said he thought it was a fake at first but then realized the shooting was real.

"I took off running and ran outside and called my mom," Matthews said.

The school, which has about 1,400 students, was placed on lockdown after the shooting. Classes were dismissed and students were bused to a nearby church so they could be picked up by their parents.

FOXNews.com - Ex-Gym Teacher Gets Jail Time for Having Sex With Student, 14, and Leaving Dirty Voicemails - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

2008-08-21T08:03:00.001-07:00

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,407744,00.html

A former gym teacher who had sex with a 14-year-old student and sent him erotic cell phone messages was sentenced Wednesday to up to three years in prison, in part because she called the boy after she was charged.

The boy's family had been willing to settle for a sentence less than prison until they found out Beth Ann Chester had contacted him, prosecutor Laura Ditka told the judge.

Chester, 27, was led away in handcuffs after apologizing and pleading guilty to statutory sexual assault, corruption of a minor and criminal use of a cell phone.

"I know this is the punishment I deserve," she said of the 1 1/2- to 3-year prison sentence she received.

The boy was a freshman when Chester met him last fall at Moon Area High School. The ninth-grade teacher and volleyball coach resigned unexpectedly in December citing "personal reasons." She was arrested in early January after she confessed to having sex with the boy, including once in a school parking lot.

"We were obviously hoping for something less than jail, but there was undeniably an episode of contact there. She called him on the phone," defense attorney Robert DelGreco Jr. told The Associated Press. "The condition of her bond was there to be absolutely no contact with the boy."

DelGreco didn't excuse Chester's behavior, but sought to explain it by noting that her marriage was troubled when she met the boy. That caused her to become closer to her students than she should have been, DelGreco said.

"She treated them more as her classmates than a teacher-student relationship," DelGreco said.

Chester's divorce is pending.

Authorities said the boy and Chester began exchanging text messages in October after she got his cell phone number from a member of her volleyball squad. The boy told police he fell in love with Chester as their text messages and other contacts became more frequent. The two also exchanged nude pictures of each other.

The boy's parents found some text messages Chester sent the boy in December and confronted her. They agreed not to press charges if she resigned.

After Chester resigned, another teacher told the school's principal about the her relationship with the teen. School officials referred the matter to police.

The boy's family had been willing to settle for a sentence less than prison until they found out Beth Ann Chester had contacted him, prosecutor Laura Ditka told the judge.

Chester, 27, was led away in handcuffs after apologizing and pleading guilty to statutory sexual assault, corruption of a minor and criminal use of a cell phone.

"I know this is the punishment I deserve," she said of the 1 1/2- to 3-year prison sentence she received.

"She treated them more as her classmates than a teacher-student relationship," DelGreco said.

Chester's divorce is pending.

The boy's parents found some text messages Chester sent the boy in December and confronted her. They agreed not to press charges if she resigned.

After Chester resigned, another teacher told the school's principal about the her relationship with the teen. School officials referred the matter to police.

STDs Run Rampant at Pa. School District, CDC Steps In

2008-06-27T14:33:00.001-07:00

STDs Run Rampant at Pa. School District, CDC Steps In

A Pennsylvania school district has such a high number of students with sexually transmitted diseases that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has stepped in to track down students at risk for HIV.

It’s estimated that 10 percent of the 3,000 middle and high school students in the Delaware Valley School District in Milford, P.A., are infected with an STD — including one confirmed case of HIV, Times Herald Record reported Friday.

On top of those figures, about two dozen teenage girls in the school system have tested positive for pregnancy.

A non-profit health clinic in Milford said they estimate more than 300 students contracted a sexually transmitted disease in the past year. Officials also told the paper students as young as 12 years old reported being sexually active.

The clinic eventually alerted the school district to the alarmingly high numbers. School officials then sent a letter home to parents on June 15.

“It was sad to see the letter,” Tara Johnson, a Milford parent with a son in middle school, told the Times Herald. “We live in the kind of district where everybody works very hard to give the appearance that everything is perfect.”

A 15-year-old girl, who will enter tenth grade in the fall at Delaware Valley, told the paper she can’t believe the news.

“That somebody in our school in northeastern Pennsylvania had HIV was just shocking,” said Rachel McKean.

Kristen Bruce, a nurse practitioner with the Milford clinic, said most of the cases were the human papillomavirus (HPV).

HPV infections are very common, according to the Mayo Clinic. It’s estimated that close to 25 million people in the U.S. have HPV infections, which can cause genital warts and related lesions. Some strains of HPV are linked to cervical cancer.

Bruce told the paper she wasn’t surprised by the numbers, citing a recent CDC study that found at least one in four teenage girls nationwide, between the ages of 14 and 19, has a sexually transmitted disease.

Dr. Keith Ablow, FOX News Channel's psychiatry correspondent, said he too, was not surprised.

"Young people are desperately looking for anything that will make them feel human, as our culture plunges into the unreality of the Internet, technology and media," he said. "The easy way to try to convince yourself that you can still feel when nothing seems real is to have sex and experience pleasure and maybe even have a baby who can hold you and make you feel loved."

The Board of Education is currently revising the health curriculum, which places heavy emphasis on abstinence.

Dr. Joseph Rahimian, an infectious disease specialist at St. Vincent's Hospital in New York City, said besides education, parents need to be aware of Gardasil, a cervical cancer vaccine that protects against four types of HPV.

"Regardless if you think your child is sexually active, getting the HPV vaccine is in the best long-term interest of these young girls," Rahimian said. "I think HPV was always a problem and it is often underestimated. There's no study that abstinence is a highly effective form of prevention for any of these infections."

Fourth-Grade Teacher Convicted of Planting Threatening Notes Throughout School - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

2008-06-26T15:41:00.001-07:00

FOXNews.com - Fourth-Grade Teacher Convicted of Planting Threatening Notes Throughout School - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

A fourth-grade teacher on Thursday was found guilty of planting terrorizing notes throughout her Philadelphia-area elementary school.

Susan Romanyszyn was convicted of 11 counts of leaving threatening messages in the hallways of Longstreth Elementary School in the fall, when she was a teacher there, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

In October, 15 notes including the messages "You die today," "Bomb today" and "I have a weapon and a nife," were found at the school, The Morning Call reported. In addition, a fake bomb was found in a student's desk and nails were scattered in a faculty parking lot.

"'I believe I became [the scapegoat] when the parents and school needed someone to blame,'" The Morning Call reported of her testimony.

The jury took 11 hours before reaching a verdict. Romanyszyn was found not guilty of creating a weapon of mass destruction, according to the newspaper.

"I think it will give people peace of mind to have closure," Keely Mahan, principal of the Bucks County, Pa., elementary school, told the Inquirer. "But it is not a happy time. It is a sad situation."

Romanyszyn is under house arrest at least until her sentencing in a month. The crimes carry a maximum sentence of 73 years in jail.

She wept when the verdict was read.

"I'm innocent," she told reporters as she left court.

Click here to read more on this story from Philly.com.

Elementary-school teachers are poorly prepared by education schools to teach math

2008-06-26T06:34:00.001-07:00

Having Trouble With Math? Teachers Are Too, Study Finds - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

For kids to do better in math, their teachers might have to go back to school. Elementary-school teachers are poorly prepared by education schools to teach math, finds a study being released Thursday by the National Council on Teacher Quality.

Math relies heavily on cumulative knowledge, making the early years critical.

The study by the nonpartisan research and advocacy group comes a few months after a federal panel reported that U.S. students have widespread difficulty with fractions, a problem that arises in elementary school and prevents kids from mastering more complicated topics like algebra later on.

The report looked at 77 elementary education programs around the country, or roughly 5 percent of the institutions that offer undergraduate elementary teacher certification.

It found the programs, within colleges and universities, spend too little time on elementary math topics.

Author Julie Greenberg said education students should be taking courses that give them a deeper understanding of arithmetic and multiplication. She said the courses should explain how math concepts build upon each other and why certain ideas need to be emphasized in the classroom.

Teacher candidates know their multiplication tables, but "they don't come to us knowing why multiplication works the way it does," said Denise Mewborn, who heads the University of Georgia department of math and science education.

The university was cited in the report for having an "exemplary program," while nine others met basic requirements. The rest offered too little math coursework or coursework that was considered weak, according to the report.

The University of Georgia requires teacher candidates to take courses to help them understand concepts underlying elementary-school math, as well as math courses not designed for teachers.

The report found significant differences in the number and kind of courses required by each education program.

Education schools also are not being selective enough, the report stated. Most require applicants to take an admissions test, usually around their sophomore year of college. But the test, which typically includes reading, writing and math sections, is far too easy, according to the report.

"Almost anyone can get in. Compared to the admissions standards found in other countries, American education schools set exceedingly low expectations for the mathematics knowledge that aspiring teachers must demonstrate," said the report.

U.S. children often fall in the middle or bottom of the pack when compared to other students on international math tests.

Jane West, vice president of government relations for the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, said her organization had not received a copy of the report Wednesday. The National Council on Teacher Quality plans to release it publicly at a news conference Thursday.

The report also criticized the tests education students take when they complete their coursework, which are generally relied on by states in granting teacher licenses. In many cases, the prospective teachers are judged on an overall score only, meaning they could do badly on the math portion but still pass if they do well in the other areas.

Since states oversee the preparation of the nation's school teachers, the report recommends they set tougher coursework and testing standards.

Francis Fennell, the past president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, said the report fails to examine the math instruction students receive while attending community colleges, where many elementary-school teachers start their higher education.

He also said the study's authors should have surveyed teachers to get their views on how well prepared they were to teach math.

Fennell, who instructs teacher candidates in math at McDaniel College in Westminster, Md., said a common area of weakness among his students is fractions — the same subject the national math panel described as a weak area for kids. "Part of the reason the kids don't know it is because the teachers aren't transmitting that," he said.

To boost teachers' understanding of math, the math departments at universities ought to place more emphasis on training educators, Fennell added.

4 Homemade Bombs Found at Maryland High School; 2 Students Charged

2008-05-14T20:19:00.001-07:00

4 Homemade Bombs Found at Maryland High School; 2 Students Charged

Two homemade bombs containing toilet cleaner and tinfoil packed inside plastic bottles exploded at a Fort Washington high school Wednesday, authorities said. No one was injured.

A total of four bottle bombs were found inside Friendly High School, but only two exploded, according to Sgt. Mario Ellis, a spokesman for the Prince George's County Sheriff's Office. Two students were apprehended Wednesday and are facing charges.

The high school was evacuated for several hours while firefighters searched and ventilated the building. Students waited outside until the school reopened about 12:30 p.m., Ellis said.

A student set off a similar device last week at Crossland High School in nearby Temple Hills, authorities said, adding that students probably learned how to make the bombs using instructions on the Internet.

Texas Substitute Teacher Arrested After Coming to Class Drunk

2008-05-14T20:14:00.001-07:00

Texas Substitute Teacher Arrested After Coming to Class Drunk

A substitute middle school teacher suspected of being drunk in class was too intoxicated to complete a sobriety test and was arrested, authorities said.

Thomas Brownlee, 56, was in a classroom Tuesday with students and another staff member for about 20 minutes, Richardson school district spokesman Tim Clark said. Another teacher suspected Brownlee was drunk and told a campus police officer.

A Dallas police report states that Brownlee "had slurred speech, breath smelling of an alcoholic beverage and bloodshot eyes."

The officer stopped issuing a sobriety test out of concern for Brownlee's safety, according to the report.

Brownlee was charged with public intoxication, police said.

A telephone listing for Brownlee was disconnected.

Clark said students were never alone with Brownlee, and that the district had used him as a substitute teacher before without incident.

Florida Substitute Teacher Fired, Accused of Wizardry

2008-05-07T06:31:00.001-07:00

Florida Substitute Teacher Fired, Accused of Wizardry

A Florida teacher may have to pull an unemployment check out of his hat after performing magic in front of students, according to reports.

Jim Piculas said he made a toothpick disappear and reappear in front of students at the Rushe Middle School in Land 'O Lakes, Fla., Local6.com reported. He said he later got a call from the supervisor of teachers, saying he had been accused of wizardry.

"I get a call the middle of the day from head of supervisor of substitute teachers. He says, 'Jim, we have a huge issue. You can't take any more assignments. You need to come in right away,'" he told Local6.com.

Piculas said he’s concerned the incident may prevent him from being considered for future jobs.

Homemade Bottle Bomb Packed With Hooks, BBs Explodes at California School

2008-04-30T13:55:00.001-07:00

Homemade Bottle Bomb Packed With Hooks, BBs Explodes at California School -

Authorities say a crude bomb containing fish hooks and BBs packed inside a plastic bottle exploded this weekend at a Northern California junior high school. No one was injured.

Police found the homemade device Sunday night on the basketball court of Bidwell Junior High School.

Chico Police Sgt. Dave Barrow says officers also found two unexploded bottles near the court.

Authorities don't believe anyone was in the area at the time of the explosion.

Barrow says homemade devices are showing up more frequently on house porches and mailboxes in the Chico area. This was the first time the bottles have contained dangerous shrapnel.

South Carolina Teen Accused in School Plot Wanted to Kill Jesus

2008-04-29T21:33:00.001-07:00

South Carolina Teen Accused in School Plot Wanted to Kill Jesus

Federal authorities say a South Carolina teen accused of plotting to blow up his high school told police that he wanted to die, go to heaven and kill Jesus.

A dark portrait of Ryan Schallenberger emerged Tuesday in a federal courtroom as prosecutors argued the teen needs a psychological evaluation.

An ATF agent says Schallenberger told a sheriff about his wish to die after his arrest. Prosecutors also played a 911 tape of the teen's mother calling police after he smashed his head into a wall. She says on the tape her son threatened to shoot police if they were called to his home.

Authorities say the teen bought materials to make several bombs and had written a journal detailing his plans to attack Chesterfield High School.

Oregon School Decries 'Gang Sign' Eyebrow Grooming

2008-04-29T21:28:00.001-07:00

Oregon School Decries 'Gang Sign' Eyebrow Grooming -

One Portland school is telling some students: shave your eyebrows or go home.

Several students at Centennial High School have picked up on a trend to shave lines into their eyebrows. They say it's a fashion statement; school administrators, however, contend it's a gang sign.

Centennial administrators are telling students who shave the lines that they can't return to school until they take care of the problem — by shaving their eyebrows off. Four students have been sent home. One came back immediately with a bandage covering the shaved brow. The others are still out of school.

Assistant Principal Mark Porterfield said the students are not suspended, but they are not allowed in school until they cooperate.

Andy Gonzalez, a junior at Centennial, was studying for a test when a security guard approached him and told him to go home. He told the teenager that the one vertical line down his brow looked like a gang symbol and said, "If you're going to come to school like that, don't come at all."

Gonzalez, 17, says he isn't in a gang and shaved the lines to look cool and impress girls. But he says he'd be humiliated if he had to shave his brows off.

The vertical line in brows was popular with rappers years ago and has returned recently with hip-hop star, Soulja Boy. But police say gangs have co-opted the trend for their own use.

In this case, Gresham police say members of Southside 13, a prominent Latino gang in east Multnomah County, are marking themselves by shaving one line into an eyebrow and three lines in the other to symbolize 13.

"We don't dictate policy for any schools," Officer David Schmidt of the East Multnomah County Gang Enforcement Team said. "We just tell them what we see the latest trends are. This is a way for them to identify each other. In a school setting, it intimidates other kids."

Centennial implemented the rules about the eyebrows after other area high schools, including Gresham, did.

But other schools say their policy is different, they only look for the markings of the 13 style and would not send students home for having different shavings. If students did shave the symbols into their eyebrows, Gresham administrators say they would ask them to fill in the marks with an eyebrow pencil.

Centennial students say they are getting conflicting messages about what is allowed and when they can return. They also say officials have not announced the rules.

Junior Jasiel Carmona says he was told by a vice principal that he could return if he colored his eyebrows in with makeup, but a security guard told him he's have to shave them off.

15-year-old Boy brings handgun to Mount Tahoma High School | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA

2008-04-29T21:24:00.001-07:00

15-year-old Boy brings handgun to Mount Tahoma High School | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA

Classes were dismissed early and activities canceled at Mount Tahoma High School on Monday after a previously-suspended 15-year-old boy brought a loaded handgun to campus.

No one was injured and the gun was not fired, Tacoma police spokeswoman Gretchen Aguirre said.

The 10th-grader was booked into Remann Hall juvenile jail on suspicion of bringing a dangerous weapon on school grounds.

Tacoma police were trying to determine where he got the revolver and what – if anything – he planned to do with it.

“We’re just not getting a lot of information,” Aguirre said.

Officers interviewed several other students about the incident.

“It was an isolated incident,” Aguirre said.

The student had been suspended from Mount Tahoma High School, 4634 S. 74th St., Tacoma, and forbidden to return to the campus. On Monday morning, a teacher spotted him in the building, Tacoma School District spokeswoman Stacy Flores said.

The teacher knew the student had been suspended and notified an off-duty Tacoma police officer working at the school, Tacoma schools spokeswoman Leanna Albrecht said.

The officer stopped the student, who had already left the building, and searched him. The officer “found a loaded handgun on him,” Aguirre said.

The school was in a lockdown for nearly two hours as officers investigated. The lockdown was lifted around noon, and students were dismissed at 12:15 p.m., nearly two hours early.

In addition, all afternoon activities and practices were canceled, Albrecht said.

School officials sent out a telephone message to Mount Tahoma parents and posted the early dismissal information on schoolreport.org. They plan to send a letter home with the students today.

Classes and activities will be back to normal today, officials said.

Prosecutor Says South Carolina Student to Face WMD Charge

2008-04-29T15:22:00.000-07:00

n 18-year-old accused of planning to bomb his high school will be charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, which carries a possible life sentence, the top federal prosecutor in South Carolina said Tuesday.

Ryan Schallenberger also will face two lesser federal charges stemming from what authorities say was a scheme to detonate explosives in a suicide attack on his high school in the small town of Chesterfield, near the North Carolina line.

The student will be charged in federal court in Florence on Tuesday afternoon, said Kevin McDonald, the acting U.S. attorney for South Carolina.

McDonald said the federal charge comes into play mostly because Schallenberger ordered materials that can be used for bombs through the mail.

William Spencer, the teen's court-appointed attorney, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.

Schallenberger was arrested on state charges Saturday. Authorities say his parents called police because he had ordered 10 pounds (4.5 kilos) of ammonium nitrate, which they retrieved after getting a delivery notice from the postal service. Ammonium nitrate is a fertilizer that was a component in the deadly 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Authorities have said Schallenberger could have assembled deadly bombs within minutes with the materials they found. Police said they also discovered bombing plans including a hand-drawn map of the school, a hate-filled journal lauding the Columbine killers and an audiotape that authorities say was to have been played after Schallenberger died.

Schallenberger has been charged by the state with making a bomb threat, and county prosecutor Jay Hodge planned Tuesday to charge him with possession of bomb-making materials.

Schallenberger was to appear in a Chesterfield courtroom Tuesday afternoon for a bond hearing during which state prosecutors said they planned to request that he undergo a mental evaluation. He was to be taken to federal court later in the day.

McDonald said the federal charges will be resolved before the state case.

Authorities said Schallenberger's journal did not specify targets of an attack, or a date that he planned to carry it out. Police Chief Randall Lear said Schallenberger was "just mad at the world."

Schallenberger's mother and stepfather, Laurie and John Sittley, are "heartbroken," according to Sheriff Sam Parker.

"They were very concerned about his future education. I kind of explained to them and told them we've got to deal with two options here, we've got to deal with his education or with his life," Parker told ABC television's "Good Morning America" on Tuesday.

The Sittleys have not commented publicly on the case. Their phone number is unlisted, they did not attend a court hearing Monday and their home about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the school was blocked by "No Trespassing" signs later that day.

McDonald said Schallenberger will be charged with federal counts of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to use explosives on a building that gets federal funding, and using interstate commerce to obtain explosives to be used against people and property.

Authorities have said Schallenberger bought the ammonium nitrate off eBay and that company said it's cooperating in the investigation.

Eighth-Grader Faces Felony Charge for Planting Nuts in Lunch of Allergic Classmate

2008-04-29T15:20:00.002-07:00

An eighth-grader in Kentucky is accused of putting peanut butter cookie crumbs in the lunchbox of a classmate with a severe peanut allergy.

The allergic student did not eat the cookies Thursday at Morton Middle School in Lexington.

Fayette County schools spokeswoman Lisa Deffendall says the accused student was arrested on a felony wanton endangerment charge. The student will face charges in the juvenile court system.

Deffendall says it was well known that the other student suffered allergies. There was no known history of problems between the two 13-year-olds.

For those allergic to peanuts, trace amounts of peanut oil can cause severe reactions and even death.

Suspended Tampa Middle School Teacher Arrested a Third Time on Charges of Having Sex With Students

2008-04-29T15:20:00.001-07:00

A suspended middle school teacher out on bail for allegedly having sex with two students will be back in court Tuesday after police say they caught her having sex with one of them again.

Stephanie Ragusa, 29, was arrested for the third time in about six weeks on charges of sex with a minor, MyFOXTampa reported. She was being held without bond at the Orient Road Jail.

"I can assure you that we are doing everything we can right now to make sure that she’s not out at liberty to do this again," said Hillsborough County Sheriff's Lt. Fred Asteasuainzarra.

Officers discovered Ragusa and the now-16-year-old boy at his house about 12:20 p.m. Monday, the arrest affidavit states. Ragusa had gone to the teen's house to discuss the criminal case but wound up in bed with him, police said.

Detectives nabbed the woman as she was leaving and getting into her boyfriend's truck. Ragusa remained behind bars Tuesday, charged with two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor.

Ragusa was first arrested March 13 and charged with having sex at least three times with a Davidsen Middle School student, then 14, between January and May of 2007. During that relationship, police say she began another with a second Davidsen boy, who was 15 when they started sleeping together in February of 2007.

Ragusa and the second teen, who was one of her math students, had sex at least 20 times, according to the sheriff.

She was initially released March 18 after posting bail, but was re-arrested April 15 when investigators say they determined she'd had sex with a second student. She has been charged with several counts of lewd and lascivious battery.

Ragusa was previously arrested on charges of driving under the influence in 2005, according to police records.

She last taught at Martinez Middle School but remains suspended without pay, according to the Hillsborough County School District.

Police: Indiana Beating of 12-Year-Old Classmate Posted Online Similar to Florida Attack

2008-04-19T08:25:00.001-07:00

Indiana Beating of 12-Year-Old Posted Online Similar to Florida Attack

A group of middle school girls videotaped the beating of a 12-year-old schoolmate and posted it on the Internet in an attack that authorities believe was inspired by a similar one in Florida, police said.

No charges have been filed and police said they have not yet interviewed all the girls, ages 12-14, who are students at Clarksville Middle School in Indiana. The girls' identities were not released because they are juveniles.

The victim, who was treated for cuts and bruises at a hospital, was the daughter of a police officer, said Police Chief Dwight Ingle.

Police said the girls lured the victim to a parking lot near a warehouse in the town just north of Louisville, Kentucky, on April 12 and beat her up. The violence was videotaped and later posted on the video-sharing Web site PhotoBucket, Ingle said. It has since been removed.

The video begins with one girl arguing with the victim and escalates into a fight during which the 12-year-old is repeatedly hit in the head as other girls watch and laugh, police said.

Detective Darrell Rayborn said Thursday that police believe the plot was inspired by a similar scheme in which a group of teenage girls in central Florida posted the videotaped beating of a 16-year-old victim online. Parts of that video have been widely seen on TV and Youtube.

Clarksville school Superintendent Stephen G. Fisher said he did not anticipate disciplinary action against the students because the fight did not occur on school grounds.

Family Outraged After Colorado 3rd Grader Suspended for Sniffing Shirt With Marker on It

2008-04-17T22:29:00.001-07:00

The family of a Colorado third grader is furious after he was suspended for sniffing his shirt. School administrators accused 8-year-old Eathen Harris of trying to get high by huffing a stripe of magic marker on his shirt, MyFOXColorado reported.

Harris’ teacher reported him for misbehaving and Harris Park Principal Christopher Benisch handed him a three day suspension.

James Harris, Eathen’s father, insists the punishment is too extreme.

“[The school] automatically assumed that he was huffing a marker,” James Harris told MyFOXColorado. “He is in third grade, he's 8-years-old. And I think that's a ridiculous assumption.”

When James Harris went to the school to argue his son did not know any better, the suspension was reduced from three days to one. He still does not think the school has done enough.

Principal Benisch stands by his decision, telling MyFOXColorado he believes the markers pose a serious safety issue if misused.

He says Eathen Harris’ punishment stems from repeatedly sniffing the marker on his shirt, even after being told to stop.

"We really want to send a clear message to that student and the other students that we're responsible for that,” Benisch told MyFOXColorado. “This is a real true danger.”

Machete-Wielding Teens Attack Australian High School; 19 Injured

2008-04-17T22:28:00.001-07:00

Five teenagers brandishing baseball bats and machetes rampaged through a suburban school Monday and hit a teacher over the head, police said. Eighteen students were treated for minor injuries.

The drama unfolded as hundreds attended an assembly in an outdoor area of Merrylands High School. As the attackers moved in, teachers rushed the students back to class, where they sought refuge behind locked doors, under desks, even in a cupboard.

"I find it very difficult to believe the brazenness of how they entered the school," Police Detective Inspector Jim Stewart said. Such school violence is rare in Australia.

The teens, between the ages of 14 and 16, were arrested and likely would be charged with assault and other crimes, Stewart said.

Police refused to say whether the teens were students at the school. They were still being questioned by police late Monday.

A 43-year-old teacher was treated at a hospital after being hit on the head with a bat when he tried to stop the attackers, and 18 students were treated for cuts from broken glass and other minor injuries, Stewart said.

Two of those students -- a 13-year-old boy and a 14-year-old girl -- were taken to a hospital for further treatment, police said. No one was seriously injured, Stewart said.

Some students reported the gang was armed with two machetes.

"We were having an assembly and a bunch of guys walked in with some machetes and baseball bats and they said they were looking for some kid," an unnamed male student told Ten Network television news.

"Teachers made an announcement; they rushed us all into the class rooms, locked us in," he added.

Another student said children panicked in the classrooms and hid under tables and desks as teachers barricaded doors.

Worried parents rushed to the school as students flooded the airwaves with mobile phone calls and news of the attack was broadcast.

A mother later told Ten that "children were passing out -- fainting because they couldn't breath for panicking."

Stewart said the attackers defied teachers who tried to stop them, but did not challenge police when they arrived, and surrendered their weapons without a struggle. The raid lasted just six minutes, the Education Department in New South Wales state said.

Education Department regional director Tom Urry apologized to the concerned parents who had to wait at the school gates for hours before seeing their children.

"It is a very confusing situation," Urry told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

"Once the police are on site, it's a crime scene, so it's a combination of two departments trying to make sure that when we do release students, we actually release them to people who are their parents," he added.

New York City Teacher Arrested After Biting Student, 11, at Elementary School - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

2008-04-12T10:38:00.001-07:00

Police: New York City Teacher Arrested After Biting Student, 11, at Elementary School - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

Police say they have arrested a Bronx teacher after she bit an 11-year-old student on the shoulder at the child's elementary school.

Police say the 44-year-old teacher is charged with third-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child. Both are misdemeanors.

Police could not immediately say what motivated the teacher to bite the student. They say she bit him while they were in the cafeteria of P.S. 79.

The mother of the child refused medical attention for him. Police say his skin was not broken by the bite.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Education says the teacher will be reassigned away from the school and students, pending the outcome of the case.

Cops: 3rd-graders aimed to hurt teacher - Yahoo! News

2008-04-02T19:15:00.001-07:00

Cops: 3rd-graders aimed to hurt teacher - Yahoo! News

A group of third-graders plotted to attack their teacher, bringing a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape and other items for the job and assigning children tasks including covering the windows and cleaning up afterward, police said Tuesday.

The plot by as many as nine boys and girls at Center Elementary School in south Georgia was a serious threat, Waycross Police Chief Tony Tanner said.

"We did not hear anybody say they intended to kill her, but could they have accidentally killed her? Absolutely," Tanner said. "We feel like if they weren't interrupted, there would have been an attempt. Would they have been successful? We don't know."

The children, ages 8 and 9, were apparently mad at the teacher because she had scolded one of them for standing on a chair, Tanner said. A prosecutor said they are too young to be charged with a crime under Georgia law.

School officials alerted police Friday after a pupil tipped off a teacher that a girl had brought a weapon to school, Tanner said.

Police seized a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape, electrical and transparent tape, ribbons and a crystal paperweight from the students, who apparently intended to use them against the teacher, Tanner said.

Nine children have been given discipline up to and including long-term suspension, said Theresa Martin, spokeswoman for the Ware County school system. She would not be more specific but said none of the children had been back to school since the case came to light.

The purported target is a veteran educator who teaches third-grade students with learning disabilities including attention deficit disorder, delayed development and hyperactivity, friends and parents said.

The scheme involved a division of roles, Tanner said. One child's job was to cover windows so no one could see outside, he said. Another was supposed to clean up after the attack.

"We're not sure at this point in the investigation how many of the students actually knew the intent was to hurt the teacher," Tanner said.

The parents of the students have cooperated with investigators, who aren't allowed to question the children without their parents' or guardians' consent, he said. Authorities have withheld the children's names.

Police expected to forward the results of their investigation to prosecutors, Tanner said.

Children in Georgia can't be charged with a crime unless they are at least 13, District Attorney Rick Currie said.

Martin told The Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville, Fla., that administrators would follow school system policy and state law in disciplining the students.

"From what I understand, they were considered pretty good kids," Martin said. "But we have to take this seriously, whether they were serious or not about carrying this through, and that's what we did."

Four mothers of other third-grade students at Center Elementary called for the immediate expulsion of the suspected plotters.

Stacy Carter and Deana Hiott both cited school system policy stating that any student who brings "anything reasonably considered to be a weapon" is to be expelled for at least the remainder of the school year.

"We don't want our children around them," Carter told the Times-Union. "The one with the knife could have stabbed my child or someone else's child at lunch or out on the playground."

"This is an isolated incident, an aberration. ... We have good kids," Center Principal Angie Coleman told the newspaper.

Student Sues Wisconsin School After Getting a Zero for Religious Drawing

2008-04-01T12:24:00.002-07:00

A Tomah High School student has filed a federal lawsuit alleging his art teacher censored his drawing because it featured a cross and a biblical reference.

The lawsuit alleges other students were allowed to draw "demonic" images and asks a judge to declare a class policy prohibiting religion in art unconstitutional.

"We hear so much today about tolerance," said David Cortman, an attorney with the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian legal advocacy group representing the student. "But where is the tolerance for religious beliefs? The whole purpose of art is to reflect your own personal experience. To tell a student his religious beliefs can legally be censored sends the wrong message."

Tomah School District Business Manager Greg Gaarder said the district hadn't seen the lawsuit and declined to comment.

According to the lawsuit, the student's art teacher asked his class in February to draw landscapes. The student, a senior identified in the lawsuit by the initials A.P., added a cross and the words "John 3:16 A sign of love" in his drawing.

His teacher, Julie Millin, asked him to remove the reference to the Bible, saying students were making remarks about it. He refused, and she gave him a zero on the project.

Millin showed the student a policy for the class that prohibited any violence, blood, sexual connotations or religious beliefs in artwork. The lawsuit claims Millin told the boy he had signed away his constitutional rights when he signed the policy at the beginning of the semester.

The boy tore the policy up in front of Millin, who kicked him out of class. Later that day, assistant principal Cale Jackson told the boy his religious expression infringed on other students' rights.

Jackson told the boy, his stepfather and his pastor at a meeting a week later that religious expression could be legally censored in class assignments. Millin stated at the meeting the cross in the drawing also infringed on other students' rights.

The boy received two detentions for tearing up the policy. Jackson referred questions about the lawsuit to Gaarder.

Sometime after that meeting, the boy's metals teacher rejected his idea to build a chain-mail cross, telling him it was religious and could offend someone, the lawsuit claims. The boy decided in March to shelve plans to make a pin with the words "pray" and "praise" on it because he was afraid he'd get a zero for a grade.

The lawsuit also alleges school officials allow other religious items and artwork to be displayed on campus.

A Buddha and Hindu figurines are on display in a social studies classroom, the lawsuit claims, adding the teacher passionately teaches Hindu principles to students.

In addition, a replica of Michaelangelo's "The Creation of Man" is displayed at the school's entrance, a picture of a six-limbed Hindu deity is in the school's hallway and a drawing of a robed sorcerer hangs on a hallway bulletin board.

Drawings of Medusa, the Grim Reaper with a scythe and a being with a horned head and protruding tongue hang in the art room and demonic masks are displayed in the metals room, the lawsuit alleges.

A.P. suffered unequal treatment because of his religion even though student expression is protected by the First Amendment, according to the lawsuit, which was filed Friday.

"Students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate," the lawsuit said. "No compelling state interest exists to justify the censorship of A.P.'s religious expression."

High School Graduation Rates Plummet Below 50 Percent in Some U.S. Cities

2008-04-01T12:24:00.001-07:00

Seventeen of the nation's 50 largest cities had high school graduation rates lower than 50 percent, with the lowest graduation rates reported in Detroit, Indianapolis and Cleveland, according to a report released Tuesday.

The report, issued by America's Promise Alliance, found that about half of the students served by public school systems in the nation's largest cities receive diplomas. Students in suburban and rural public high schools were more likely to graduate than their counterparts in urban public high schools, the researchers said.

Nationally, about 70 percent of U.S. students graduate on time with a regular diploma and about 1.2 million students drop out annually.

"When more than 1 million students a year drop out of high school, it's more than a problem, it's a catastrophe," said former Secretary of State Colin Powell, founding chair of the alliance.

His wife, Alma Powell, the chair of the alliance, said students need to graduate with skills that will help them in higher education and beyond. "We must invest in the whole child, and that means finding solutions that involve the family, the school and the community." The Powell's organization was beginning a national campaign to cut high school dropout rates.

The group, joining Education Secretary Margaret Spellings at a Tuesday news conference, was announcing plans to hold summits in every state during the next two years on ways to better prepare students for college and the work force.

The report found troubling data on the prospects of urban public high school students getting to college. In Detroit's public schools, 24.9 percent of the students graduated from high school, while 30.5 percent graduated in Indianapolis Public Schools and 34.1 percent received diplomas in the Cleveland Municipal City School District.

Researchers analyzed school district data from 2003-2004 collected by the U.S. Department of Education. To calculate graduation rates, the report estimated the likelihood that a 9th grader would complete high school on time with a regular diploma. Researchers used school enrollment and diploma data, but did not use data on dropouts as part of its calculation.

Many metropolitan areas also showed a considerable gap in the graduation rates between their inner-city schools and the surrounding suburbs. Researchers found, for example, that 81.5 percent of the public school students in Baltimore's suburbs graduate, compared with 34.6 percent in the city schools.

In Ohio, nearly 83 percent of public high school students in suburban Columbus graduate while 78.1 percent in suburban Cleveland earn their diplomas, well above their local city schools.

Ohio Department of Education spokesman Scott Blake said the state delays its estimates by a few months so it can include summer graduates in its calculations. Based on the state's methodology, he said Columbus graduated 60.6 percent of its students in 2003-2004, rather than the 40.9 percent the study calculated.

By Ohio's reckoning, Columbus has improved each year since the 2001-2002 school year, with 72.9 percent of students graduating in 2005-2006, Columbus Public Schools spokesman Jeff Warner said.

Warner said the gains were partly because of after-school and weekend tutoring, coordinated literacy programs in the district's elementary schools and bolstered English-as-a-second-language programs.

Cleveland's current graduation rates are also higher than the statistics cited in the new report, school district spokesman Ben Holbert said.

Spellings has called for requiring states to provide graduation data in a more uniform way under the renewal of the No Child Left Behind education law pending in Congress.

Under the 2002 law, schools that miss progress goals face increasing sanctions, including forced use of federal money for private tutoring, easing student transfers, and restructuring of school staff.

States calculate their graduation rates using all sorts of methods, many of which critics say are based on unreliable information about school dropouts. Under No Child Left Behind, states may use their own methods of calculating graduation rates and set their own goals for improving them.

The research was conducted by Editorial Projects in Education, a Bethesda, Md., nonprofit organization, with support from America's Promise Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The alliance is based on a joint effort of nonprofit groups, corporations, community leaders, charities, faith-based organizations and individuals to improve children's lives.

Police: Teacher Told Class to Hit Tardy Student

2008-04-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

A Delta high school English teacher punished a student who was late for class by ordering him to do push-ups and sit-ups and letting other students hit him when he failed to complete the exercise, police said Monday.

Brian Havel, 22, faces charges of child abuse in the case, which allegedly happened March 14, said Delta Police interim Chief Roger Christian. He said police began investigating after the student, who is 15 or 16-years-old, told his parents what happened.

Christian said Havel demanded that the student do a certain amount of push-ups or sit-ups in a set amount of time when he arrived late for class. Christian said the student either refused to do the exercise or didn't finish in time.

"This was a disciplinary process that this teacher had used or was using," Christian said.
He said one of the students suggested they be allowed to hit their classmate for not completing the exercise and Havel let them. Christian said about 10 to 15 students participated in hitting him.

The student suffered no injuries, Christian said. The case is now being handled by the Delta District Attorney's Office.

It's unknown whether Havel still works at the high school. He has an unlisted phone number and could not be reached for comment.
He will appear in court next month.

Probe Expanded of Junior High Students' Exchange of Nude Pics by Cell in Utah

2008-04-01T12:21:00.000-07:00

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,344433,00.html

An investigation into naked photos exchanged by cell phone among a group of junior high students has expanded to include at least 28 cases.

The Davis County Attorney's Office is looking into cases at five junior high schools and three high schools.

The case originated from a report from a parent of a Farmington Junior High student that kids there were exchanging naked pictures.

County Attorney Troy Rawlings says even if it's consensual, such pictures are legally child pornography. He says one student told him "everybody with a cell phone" is doing it.

Fife high school teacher takes plea deal in harassment case

2008-04-01T12:20:00.000-07:00

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/local/story/323246.html
A Fife High School teacher has pleaded guilty to sending sexually suggestive text messages to a former student.

But the six other charges against business teacher Steven Weidenbach were dropped in a plea agreement.

Weidenbach, 28, was charged last November with seven misdemeanor counts based on text messages and phone calls a prosecutor said he sent to two current and three former Fife High students, all females.

Weidenbach asked current and former students in text messages what was the “most scandalous” thing they have ever done and who they would bring to a desert island, police records say.

Weidenbach, who is on paid administrative leave, pleaded guilty to one count of telephone harassment. He did not admit guilt, and entered the plea because he believed a jury would find him guilty, court records say.

Weidenbach received a two-year deferred sentence and must undergo a psychological evaluation. If he is not found guilty of a crime in the next two years, his conviction will be dismissed.

Four counts of telephone harassment and two counts of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes were dropped.

Jeff Short, deputy superintendent for the Fife School District, said Weidenbach will remain on paid administrative leave while the district completes its own investigation. He said Weidenbach’s guilty plea is “not necessarily” grounds for dismissal, since he pleaded guilty only to harassing a former student.

The former student told police that Weidenbach started text-messaging her in November 2006, when she was 18. She graduated in June 2006.

She said Weidenbach asked her who she’d slept with, what teacher she would want to spend time with and what the “most scandalous” thing she’d ever done was. The former student said Weidenbach, who lived near her, also said, “Too bad they put the fence up in your backyard, can’t see you in the hot tub anymore,” police records say.

She said she never felt threatened by the comments, “maybe just a little weirded out,” police records say.

The teacher’s text messages were first reported in October of last year; the district then put Weidenbach on leave.

Weidenbach pleaded guilty to a gross misdemeanor, punishable by up to a $5,000 fine and one year in jail.

Fife prosecutor John Rodabaugh, who offered the plea deal, couldn’t be reached for comment Monday. Fife Municipal Court Judge Kevin Ringus accepted the agreement March 25.

Weidenbach pleaded not guilty to all seven counts in November.

He was in his fifth year of teaching at Fife High. He also was adviser for the school’s Future Business Leaders of America club.

Weidenbach did not return phone calls Monday from The News Tribune.

“My client’s position was a lot of what he was alleged to have said was misinterpreted,” said Donald Winskill, Weidenbach’s attorney. “The prosecutor knew he had proof problems. We knew we had exposure. It was a compromise.”

Steve Maynard: 253-597-8647

Mother: School Took Girl's Crutches

2008-03-31T16:26:00.001-07:00

Mother: School Took Girl's Crutches

TAMPA - Patricia Elalem said she couldn't believe her daughter's kneecap dislocated after what at first seemed like a minor injury.

Even more troubling to Elalem is what might have caused the injury to worsen. Elalem says a nurse at Walker Middle School in Odessa took away 13-year-old Amber's crutches last month, forcing the girl to walk in pain.

Patricia Elalem said the nurse told her she had to remove the crutches because of a school policy prohibiting them without a doctor's note and that the intent is to prevent other students from being injured.

"I was floored," Elalem said. "You don't take medically prescribed treatment away from a child."

Elalem has filed a notice of intent to sue the Hillsborough County School District. The notice is required by law for legal action against a government entity and gives the school district 180 days to respond.

Her attorney, Tom Parnell, said he did not know what damages he would seek because Amber is still recovering from surgery to repair her knee. "I'm hoping at her age she's able to recover," he said.

If Amber walking without the crutches has caused long-term damage, Parnell said, he will pursue a claim that the school nurse violated the girl's civil rights.

School district spokeswoman Linda Cobbe said the district's office of professional standards is investigating a complaint Elalem filed about the licensed practical nurse, Denise McKee.

"The school and the parent have two different stories," Cobbe said, noting she could not elaborate because of the pending litigation.

There is no district policy requiring a doctor's note for crutches, but the district's supervisor of school health has issued an e-mail to principals stating students must produce a doctor's note to use crutches or a wheelchair, Cobbe said.

"We ask for a doctor's prescription or a doctor's note, but there's nothing that says take away the crutches," Cobbe said.

Amber is an avid athlete who participates in basketball, track and soccer, Parnell said. She had orthopedic surgery March 13 to repair her knee after walking without the crutches and now carries a doctor's note at all times about using the crutches, he said.

The girl initially hurt her knee while kicking a ball Feb. 3, her mother said. The injury seemed minor until the next day, when Amber complained to McKee about the pain. Elalem said when she picked Amber up from school, she spoke to McKee about taking Amber to Tampa General Hospital, where Elalem works as a registered nurse.

Amber was diagnosed with a strained ligament; the teenager's knee was placed in a brace called an immobilizer, and she received crutches, with instructions not to put weight on the knee, Elalem said.

On Feb. 6, when Amber returned to school, McKee phoned Patricia Elalem asking for a doctor's note for the crutches, Elalem said. Elalem said she didn't know the note was required but phoned the hospital to have a doctor fax a note to the school.

The school fax machine wasn't working, so McKee never received the note, Parnell said.

That morning, McKee took away Amber's crutches, Parnell said.

"She didn't give her access to the elevator. So Amber was forced to walk up and down the stairs until about 1:30 p.m., when she couldn't take the pain anymore," he said.

Elalem said her daughter called her, saying, "I can't walk. Come and get me."

On the way home, Amber said, "You know, the nurse took my crutches this morning and made me walk all day," Elalem recalled.

"I got home, took her immobilizer off, and her kneecap was on the side of her leg," Elalem said.

Amber tried physical therapy for a few days but needed knee surgery, her mother said. She had a reaction to the pain medication and was admitted to the hospital for three days. She now is taking medication and watching her diet because she has developed symptoms of an ulcer, her mother said.

"It's been a nightmare. It hasn't stopped," she said.

2 Female Teachers Arrested for Fighting During School

2008-03-20T21:07:00.001-07:00

FOXNews.com - Cops: 2 Female Teachers Arrested for Fighting During School - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

tags: no_tag

California Student Stops Out-of-Control School Bus; Gets Detention for Skipping Class

2008-03-17T15:26:00.001-07:00

California Student Stops Out-of-Control School Bus; Gets Detention for Skipping Class - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

A 15-year-old girl who stopped an out-of-control school bus she was riding on was handed a Saturday detention instead because she was skipping school.

Marina High School student Amanda Rouse was on a bus with 40 elementary school students Wednesday morning when the driver fell out of her seat after a turn and hit her head.

Rouse jumped up and applied the brakes, bringing the bus to a halt after striking two parked cars. No one was injured.

But Rouse said she was punished because she wasn't supposed to be on the bus.

Rouse said she fell ill on the way to school, but instead of calling in sick, she asked the bus driver for a lift back to the bus yard before the accident happened. She must attend Saturday school as punishment for failing to call in sick that day.

"She is in trouble with school because she made the wrong decision," said Rouse's grandmother, Sally Correll. "But I can't help but believe that she was where God wanted her to be."

3 Middle School Students Plotted to Kill Classmates, Themselves

2008-03-15T13:25:00.001-07:00

FOXNews.com - Authorities: 3 Middle School Students Plotted to Kill Classmates, Themselves - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

Three middle school students were charged Friday with plotting to kill their classmates and themselves, police said.

Two boys and a girl, all 13, were taken into custody shortly after the plan was discovered on March 5. Their mental health was evaluated before they were transferred Friday to a juvenile detention center, said Volusia County sheriff's spokesman Gary Davidson.

Investigators said in a news release the ringleader had exchanged instant messages with a DeLand Middle School classmate, saying "I will kill every person I see. ... Everyone will pay for what they did to me."

The student, who claimed he was being teased and picked on by other students, threatened to lock the cafeteria doors during lunch and shoot everyone in sight, according a sheriff's office news release.

"They will all die along with me," the student wrote, according to the release. "The massacre will happen soon."

The classmate was so disturbed she sent the messages to a family member, who contacted the sheriff's office. Deputies tracked down the student at his home hours later and took him into custody.

Other students at the middle school also told investigators they heard two seventh-graders openly discussing the plot with the ringleader, police said. They were later taken into custody as well.

The ringleader had asked another classmate whether he could get a gun, but the classmate said he couldn't, according to the sheriff's office. The classmate wasn't among those charged.

On the ringleader's MySpace page, he expressed admiration for the teenagers responsible for the Columbine High School killing spree, according to police.

A detention center official would not say whether any of the students had attorneys.

Florida School District Knows Sex Scandals

2008-03-15T09:55:00.001-07:00

ABC News: Florida School District Knows Sex Scandals

he arrest Thursday of a middle school teacher accused of having sex with a teenage student has thrust a Florida school district made famous by Debra Lafave into an uncomfortable yet familiar position.

Stephanie Ragusa, a 28-year-old special education teacher, was arrested Thursday and charged with five counts of lewd and lascivious battery for what sheriff's deputies in Hillsborough County described as a consensual sexual relationship with a 14-year-old male student.

Ragusa's alleged affair took place between January and May 2007 and included intercourse on at least three occasions and oral sex twice, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. The encounters took place in Ragusa's Tampa apartment and in the back seat of her Lexus, according to the sheriff's office.

A school resource officer met with the student, now 15, after rumors began swirling about an affair involving a teacher. Detectives then interviewed the teen and his parents. The teen told authorities that Ragusa had a pair of tattoos on "either side of the groin area" that could only be seen if the teacher was naked.

Under police direction, the teen called Ragusa, who "admitted to the interaction" and also said she knew of the "repercussions for having engaged in the act," according to the sheriff's office.

Hillsborough investigators consulted with the state attorney's office and obtained a warrant for Ragusa's arrest. Ragusa, who appeared in court today, is being held at the Hillsborough County Jail without bail.

District Plagued by Sex Scandals

Ragusa was a teacher at Davidsen Middle School last year when the alleged affair took place. Davidsen is part of the Hillsborough County school district, which has come to know teacher-student sex scandals intimately in large part thanks to Debra Lafave.

The bombshell blonde, arguably the highest-profile female teacher involved in a student sex scandal this century, also taught at a Hillsborough County middle school, the Greco Middle School. Lafave is currently serving three years of house arrest and seven years' probation after pleading guilty to having sex with a 14-year-old male student during a 2004 affair. She was 23 at the time.

Lafave violated her probation by discussing her personal life with a 17-year-old female co-worker at a restaurant, but she avoided prison when a Florida judge ruled in January that her violations were neither "willful nor substantial" enough to merit jail time.

B-Ball Coach Has Lesbian Affair

During the same period as Lafave's affair, Jaymee Wallace, a math teacher and girls basketball coach at Wharton High School in Hillsborough County, was having a consensual lesbian relationship with a female student basketball player. The two-year relationship began with a note from Wallace, then 28, to the student, 14: "I think you're attractive. Do you feel the same?" The affair lasted nearly two years, even through Wallace's marriage.

Wallace was arrested in November 2005. The student asked a Florida judge before Wallace's October 2007 sentencing to spare the woman jail time. The student's family, however, told the judge it wanted her to serve at least three years, which is exactly the prison sentence she received plus three years of probation. Like Lafave, she also must be registered in a sex offender database.

In October 2007, Christina Lin Butler, a 33-year-old special education teacher at Hillsborough County's Middleton High School, was arrested after admitting to having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old male student there.

Police conducting surveillance in Butler's neighborhood pulled over a Jeep Cherokee that was swerving and traced the vehicle to Butler. The driver told police that his "friend" Christina had lent him the car, according to ABC News' Tampa affiliate, and another passenger said the driver was in a relationship with Butler. Police investigated and arrested Butler after she admitted the sexual relationship to police.

Butler was booked on a single charge of lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor. She was released from the Hillsborough County Jail after posting a $7,500 bond, according to sheriff's office records.

Butler, a temporary employee, has been suspended without pay and was notified that she will not be offered a position next year, Linda Cobbe, a spokeswoman for the Hillsborough County School District, told ABC News.

In Jail, Suspended From School

Ragusa received a letter in jail Thursday night notifying her that she was suspended with pay, Cobbe said, adding that Hillsborough school superintendent MaryEllen Elia will ask the county's school board next week to revoke Ragusa's payment during the suspension.

Ragusa, who was also booked in Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office in July 2005 on a charge of driving under the influence, did not notify school officials of that previous arrest when she applied for a teaching position in August 2006.

"She apparently falsified information," Cobbe said, "She checked that she had no prior arrests."

The suspended teacher has a degree in political science from the University of South Florida, Cobbe said, and had nothing in her application file that would indicate that she was a threat to students. "There's no way to predict who is going to enter into an affair with a student," Cobbe said. "We certainly didn't know she had tendencies like she's done."

Hillsborough School District is the eighth largest school district in the country, Cobbe said, with more than 15,000 teachers, 236 schools and 192,000 students. A reputation for teachers preying on students is hardly what the school district wants, and Cobbe said that district officials do everything they can to vet employees.

When problems do arise, the school district does not hide. "We address it every time it happens," Cobbe said, describing ethics classes every teacher must take that address inappropriate relationships with students. "We don't stand for it."

Cobbe did acknowledge that the district, like all others in Florida, is required by the state to have a certain number of teachers per students, a mandate that means a lot of hiring in what until recently was a very fast-growing county.

"We have a few teachers who have been accused of crimes that are unconscionable," Cobbe said. "We have more than 15,000 teachers who are dedicated and trustworthy."

Teacher Yanked From Classroom After Alleged 'Perky' Comment About Female Student's Body

2008-03-14T15:24:00.001-07:00

FOXNews.com - Teacher Yanked From Classroom After Alleged 'Perky' Comment About Female Student's Body - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

A Florida history teacher is out of the classroom after allegedly telling a 13-year-old student she had “nice, perky t**s” in front of the class, wftv.com reports.

The student accused William Musto, 44, of making the inappropriate comments about her body last Friday at Discovery Intermediate School in Poinciana, Fla. Musto has been reassigned to non-teaching duties while the Osceola County Sheriff's Office and the Department of Children and Families investigate, wftv.com reports.

While the victim’s mother says she is filing a police report, some students are coming to Musto’s defense.

"He didn't do anything! He just corrected someone about a dress code," one emotional student told wftv.com.

"He acts like a kid. He tries to be cool with the kids. Sometimes words just come out and it's too much," another student said.

Osceola County School District will not release Musto’s disciplinary record, but some students told wftv.com that last Christmas Musto dressed up as Santa and had girls sit on his lap.

Musto will be working away from students until the investigation is complete, wft.com reports.

Bethel High School to add security as rumors about racial violence fly

2008-03-14T07:54:00.001-07:00

Bethel High School to add security as rumors about racial violence fly | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA

Bethel High School will have extra security staff on hand today amid rumors that gang- or race-related violence might flare at the Spanaway school.

District officials say they haven’t found anything to substantiate the rumors, which began circulating after two racially tinged fights last week. But they’re providing extra security just in case problems surface.

In a phone call to parents Thursday, Bethel High Principal Wanda Riley said two deputies will patrol the school all day today.

“In addition to increased security, we have made it clear to students that we take a zero tolerance approach to fights and inappropriate language – including racially charged incidents,” she said in a written copy of the automated phone message. “We are taking every precaution to keep our learning environment safe and secure for all students.”

The concerns appear to have started when a black girl accidentally bumped a white boy during the busy passing time between classes last Thursday, district spokesman Mark Wenzel said. Words were exchanged between the two students, and the boy ended up telling the girl something to the effect of “Go back to your country.”

After talk of the incident spread, a fight broke out later that day at the school, with several white boys on one side and several black boys on the other side. During the fight, the youths struck each other and called each other racial slurs. No one was seriously injured, but the five teens involved – including the boy who was bumped earlier that day – were immediately suspended and remain out of school, Wenzel said Thursday.

The next day, on Friday, another racially charged fight erupted at school between a black boy and white boy. Both students were suspended.

Starting last Friday morning, the school increased security so that at least one to two Pierce County Sheriff’s deputies, who serve as school resource officers, were on the premises during the entire school day.

The school normally has two district security staff members on site, in addition to a sheriff’s deputy, who spends most of his time as a school resource officer at Bethel High but also covers other schools.

There have been no racially motivated clashes this week, except for the rumors that something could happen today.

But the school has been using last week’s incidents as a way to teach tolerance, Wenzel said. On Thursday, school administrators talked to every class about the fights, the extra security precautions, and the school’s expectation of student behavior, including respect for individuals’ backgrounds.

Earlier in the week, several administrators, including district diversity coordinator Nick Jones, met separately with friends of the black suspended youths and with friends of the white suspended youths, Wenzel said. Then the groups met together.

The goal was to engage the students in a “really honest conversation about race and civility,” Wenzel said. The school plans to resume discussions in classrooms next week.

The conversations will build on the school’s ongoing efforts to promote diversity. For instance, a student group called United Cultural Congress stages a diversity fair with performances every spring, Wenzel said. In the past, staff have participated in cultural diversity training.

The 10th- through 12th-grade school enrolls about 1,300 students; the student body is 10 percent black, 7 percent Hispanic, 8.6 percent Asian American, 4 percent American Indian and 70 percent white, according to the state Superintendent of Public instruction Web site.

Bethel 10th-grader Martin Amacker said students have heard rumors of a shooting today, but none of his friends thinks anything will happen. “I’m not worried,” the 16-year-old said.

Amacker said most Bethel students get along with people of different backgrounds, but he said certain teens hang out in cliques with their own race.

“Some people at our school are stupid. They have problems with different people,” said Amacker, who’s black and Korean. “They talk bad about other races … or yelling white power. … I hang out with anyone I can get along with. Most people get along.”

Florida Middle School Teacher Charged for Sex With 14-Year-Old Student

2008-03-14T07:45:00.001-07:00

FOXNews.com - Florida Middle School Teacher Charged for Sex With 14-Year-Old Student - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

A Hillsborough County middle school teacher has been arrested and is charged with having sex with a 14-year-old student.

Deputies arrested 28-year-old Stephanie Ragusa around 5 p.m. Thursday.

According to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, Ragusa had a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old boy at Davidsen Middle School from October of 2006 to May of 2007.

Detectives said the victim was never actually a student of Ragusa's; he was a student at Davidsen Middle School while she taught there.

She is currently a 7th grade math teacher at Martinez Middle School in Tampa.

The school got a tip, and detectives interviewed the boy. They say they got enough information to move forward with an arrest.

Ragusa was booked into the Orient Road Jail Thursday night.

Parents reacted to the news with shock and anger.

"It's hard enough as a student to be in the classroom and learn what the education standards are today, let alone whether a teacher sis pursuing a student," said parent Christine Baer.

A school district spokesman called the allegations disappointing.

"When we hear of allegations like this, we turn it over immediately, because it is a criminal matter for law enforcement, it is not just a school matter," said Hillsborough Schools spokesman Steve Hegarty.

Ragusa is charged with five counts of lewd and lascivious battery.

Student Suing After Being Awakened by Teacher

2008-03-13T08:04:00.003-07:00

FOXNews.com - Student Suing After Being Awakened by Teacher - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

Danbury officials have been notified they are being sued by a student who was awakened in class by a teacher who made a loud noise.

Documents filed with the Town Clerk, a prelude to a lawsuit, claim that a sleeping student suffered hearing damage when his teacher woke him up by slamming her hand down on the boy's desk. in December.

Attorney Alan Barry says 15-year-old Vinicios Robacher suffered pain and "very severe injuries to his left eardrum" when teacher Melissa Nadeau abruptly slammed the palm of her hand on his desk on Dec. 4.

A city official says the matter has been referred to Danbury's insurance carrier.

Connecticut School Rethinks Suspension for Eighth Grader Caught With Contraband Candy

2008-03-13T08:04:00.001-07:00

FOXNews.com - Connecticut School Rethinks Suspension for Eighth Grader Caught With Contraband Candy - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

An eighth-grade honors student who was suspended for a day, barred from attending an honors dinner and stripped of his title as class vice president after he was caught with contraband candy in school will get his student council post back, school officials said.

Superintendent Reginald Mayo said in a statement late Wednesday that he and principal Eleanor Turner met with student Michael Sheridan's parents and that Turner decided to clear the boy's record and restore him to his post.

Michael was disciplined after he was caught buying a bag of Skittles from a classmate. The classmate's suspension also will be expunged, school officials said.

The New Haven school system banned candy sales in 2003 as part of a districtwide school wellness policy, school spokeswoman Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo said.

"I am sorry this has happened," Turner said in a statement. "My hope is that we can get back to the normal school routine, especially since we are in the middle of taking the Connecticut mastery test."

Turner said she should have reinforced in writing the verbal warnings against candy transactions.

Michael had said that he didn't realize his candy purchase was against the rules, but he did notice that the student selling the Skittles on Feb. 26 was being secretive.

Massachusetts Teacher Resigns After Violent Lesson With Student Is Caught on Video

2008-03-12T08:24:00.001-07:00

Massachusetts Teacher Resigns After Violent Lesson With Student Is Caught on Video - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

A high school teacher has resigned after video of him re-enacting a violent scene from George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” with a 14-year-old freshman surfaced on the Internet, according to MyFOXBoston.

It was supposed to be a creative lesson in a Dudley, Mass., English class, but the reenactment turned rough after Tom Reidy allegedly used the student as a prop, MyFOXBoston reported.

A student taped the encounter with a cell phone and posted the video on the Web.

Community opinion is divided over whether the man should have lost his job over the "play" fight.

“It’s more likely this was voluntarily entered into by both individuals there,” Dudley Police Chief Steven Wojnar told FOX News on Tuesday. “It’s hard to tell what was going on, but there is always the chance that someone could get hurt or injured.”

Wojnar said no charges have yet been filed, but there are a lot of people with information that police still want to speak to.

“This is a personal matter," said Dudley schools superintendent Sean Gilrein in a statement. "Mr Reidy was in his first year of teaching at Shepherd Hill Regional High School and tendered his resignation on Saturday, March 8th.”

Click here to watch the video at MyFOXBoston.com.

Elementary School Custodian Booked With Raping 10-Year-Old Boys

2008-03-12T08:23:00.001-07:00

FOXNews.com - Elementary School Custodian Booked With Raping 10-Year-Old Boys - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

A custodian at an elementary school has been booked with raping two 10-year-old boys at the school, Slidell Police said Monday.

Dino Jay Schwertz, 41, of Slidell, was arrested Saturday after an investigation into what officials first suspected was a bullying incident at the school. Schwertz was booked with six counts of aggravated rape, police said during a news conference.

The investigation began after one boy's mother complained to both the Slidell Police Department and to school officials that her son had been assaulted by another 10-year-old student. After interviewing the victim, authorities determined Schwertz, a school custodian at the time, had sexually assaulted him, police said Monday.

During the investigation, detectives also learned that the other boy involved in the bullying incident allegedly had been sexually assaulted by Schwertz as well, police said

Three New Jersey Teens Charged With Sexually Assaulting Special Education Student

2008-03-12T08:20:00.001-07:00

FOXNews.com - Three New Jersey Teens Charged With Sexually Assaulting Special Education Student - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

Three teen boys are charged with sexually assaulting a special education student in a northern New Jersey home, authorities said Tuesday.

One of the attackers is 18 and the others are 16; the girl is 16, said Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office.

All are students at Montclair High School. The attack allegedly took place Thursday afternoon at the home of the 18-year-old after the students skipped classes, Loriquet said.

The mental capacity of the girl was still being determined, he said.

"The victim told a girlfriend who told a Montclair High guidance counselor," who notified authorities, Loriquet said.

Authorities identified the 18-year-old as Romal Roberts. He and the 16-year-old boys were charged with aggravated sexual assault in an 18-count indictment. The names of the 16-year-olds, who are juveniles, would not be released unless they are tried as adults.

Evidence from the Montclair home was seized and is being tested, Loriquet said.

The three suspects all surrendered. Authorities have not yet determined of others were involved, he said.

The case revived memories of a notorious sex attack on a 17-year-old mentally retarded girl in neighboring Glen Ridge in 1989 by schoolmates. Several Glen Ridge High School athletes served prison terms after being convicted. The case was dramatized in an ABC television movie in 1999.

Student Kills Self in Front of 150 Classmates at Alabama High School

2008-03-06T18:42:00.001-08:00

FOXNews.com - Student Kills Self in Front of 150 Classmates at Alabama High School - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

A student recently charged in a robbery fired a gun into the ceiling of his high school gym and then killed himself in front of about 150 classmates, police said.

Jajuan Holmes, 18, fatally shot himself about 10 a.m. at Davidson High School, police Chief Phillip Garrett said. He described the shooting as an isolated incident and said no one else was injured.

Holmes was charged a few weeks ago in a Dairy Queen robbery, which may have been a factor leading to the shooting, Garrett said. But he said the teen's death remained under investigation.

He said there had been no indication that Holmes might be suicidal.

Chelsea Smith, a fourth-year student, said she was seated in the gym bleachers when Holmes appeared at the top of the bleachers and walked down to the center of the gym court.

"He had a gun to his head," she said.

Smith said a coach walked toward Holmes, who pointed the gun at the coach until the coach retreated. She said Holmes then fired into the ceiling and shot himself.

Grief counselors were sent to the school, said Nancy Pierce, a spokeswoman for the Mobile County school system. She said classes would resume Friday.

TRENTON, N.J. — A developing plot to stage a "military-style assault" at a high school near the end of the school year has been foiled, authorities said.

2008-03-06T09:24:00.001-08:00

FOXNews.com - N.J. Authorities Foil 'Military Style' School Massacre Plot - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

A developing plot to stage a "military-style assault" at a high school near the end of the school year has been foiled, authorities said.

One person has been charged in the ongoing investigation, which began this week after officials at Belvidere High School heard allegations that a 17-year-old senior male student was developing a hit list of students and teachers, State Police spokesman Capt. Al Della Fave said Wednesday night.

School officials notified Belvidere police, who soon got state police, the FBI and the region's Joint Terrorism Task Force involved.

State police detectives Michael Lamonaco and Kenneth Koenig, working with officials from the other agencies, then began a more extensive investigation and spoke with nine of the student's acquaintances, described by Della Fave as five juveniles and four adult males, all of whom live in or nearby White Township. Della Fave would not say whether any of them were also students.

"Investigators learned that the military-style plot was being developed, and that (those involved) had begun doing surveillance work at the school and were working to identify possible escape routes," Della Fave said.

Authorities notified the 17-year-old student's father, who voluntarily surrendered some guns in his house to authorities. Della Fave said that all the weapons were legally registered and that the father has been assisting investigators.

The student, whose name was not disclosed, has been hospitalized for a mental health evaluation, Della Fave said. He has not yet been charged.

James M. Shipps, 22, of , was charged with creating a false public alarm, making terroristic threats and hindering apprehension, Della Fave said. He was being held in the county jail on $50,000 bail. It was not immediately clear whether he had a lawyer.

Della Fave credited teamwork of local, state and federal officials with foiling what he said could have been "a truly horrible" incident.

"This is an example of the partnerships we need to have, and why it's important for people to report suspicious activity," he said.

Former teacher sentenced in sex case

2008-02-19T19:48:00.001-08:00

Former teacher sentenced in sex case - Yahoo! News

A former middle school teacher was sent to prison for six years Tuesday for having sexual encounters with five teenage boys. Authorities said Allenna Ward, 24, met 14- and 15-year-old boys at the school where she taught as well as at a motel, a park and behind a restaurant.

"I apologize from the depths of my heart," Ward said in court.

Police began investigating last year after school officials found a note believed to have been written by Ward to one of the boys. Some of the victims were students at Bell Street Middle School in Clinton, where Ward taught. She was fired about a year ago.

Ward pleaded guilty in September to three counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor and three lewd acts on a minor.

Forensic psychiatrist Donna Schwartz-Watts said Ward is not a pedophile, but rather a childlike victim suffering from personality disorders and a repressed childhood. Schwartz-Watts said the minister's daughter lived a sheltered life but really was a "free spirit" who never got a chance to break away from her family.

Prosecutors painted Ward's crimes in a harsher light and said she violated the trust that parents place in teachers.

Some of the victims' families attended the sentencing but did not speak during the court hearing.

"I just feel like justice has been served," the sister of one victim said after the hearing. "We're just glad that it's all over."

The Associated Press does not normally identify victims of sexual crimes.

Ward's lawyer Donald Hocker cited the psychiatric testimony in asking for home imprisonment for his client. Hocker said Ward will be vulnerable to physical and emotional abuse at the hands of other prisoners.

"It's an awful case with awful consequences, but Allenna Ward is not an awful woman," Hocker said in court. He declined to speak to a reporter after the hearing.

Ward was sentenced to 15 years in prison for each lewd act count, but the punishments were suspended to six years. She also was sentenced to six years on each second-degree criminal sexual conduct count. The sentences are to run concurrently.

Teen Charged With Manslaughter After Schoolyard Beating Leaves Classmate Dead

2008-02-08T10:41:00.001-08:00

FOXNews.com - Teen Charged With Manslaughter After Schoolyard Beating Leaves Classmate Dead - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

OLATHE, Kan. — A Kansas teen was charged with involuntary manslaughter Wednesday in the death of a 16-year-old schoolmate who collapsed after a fight that was captured on a bystander's cell phone.

Teacher Shot, Stabbed by Husband at Ohio Elementary School; Husband Later Found Dead

2008-02-07T11:56:00.001-08:00

Teacher Shot, Stabbed by Husband at Ohio Elementary School; Husband Later Found Dead - Local News |

PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — A teacher's husband charged into her fifth-grade classroom Thursday morning, then stabbed and shot her as students watched, police said. He later was found dead in his home after apparently shooting himself during a standoff with police.

Texas Elementary School Principal Charged With Molesting Boy

2008-01-30T18:13:00.001-08:00

News Link

AN ANTONIO — An elementary school principal has been charged with molesting a 13-year-old student, and police said they're investigating the possibility that there could be other victims.

Michael Alcoser, 41, was arrested Tuesday on a charge of aggravated sexual assault and jailed on $75,000 bond.

Police searched Alcoser's home last week and took computers, digital cameras and videos as part of an investigation that was prompted by a mother's complaint, according to an arrest affidavit. The mother claimed a school employee told her of rumors that Alcoser had "done something" to her son.

The affidavit said police confiscated images of the alleged victim, two compact discs that "depicted adult men having sex with adolescent male children" and handwritten notes from children that were "inappropriate and sexual in nature."

Police also seized pictures of other unidentified children.

"In these cases, historically, we are never done with one victim," Police Sgt. Gabe Trevino said. "Odds are good there may be more victims."

Sexual misconduct plagues U.S. schools: 2,500 incidents over 5 years, across all types of districts

2008-01-28T19:33:00.001-08:00

Sex misconduct plaguing schools - Education- msnbc.com

Repost since original link offline.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=3755182

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-10-20-teachermisconduct_N.htm

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071108/BLOGS02/71107071/1048

Teacher Arrested After Forcing Pupils to Undress at Knifepoint, Stealing Their Underwear

2008-01-28T19:01:00.001-08:00

FOXNews.com - Teacher Arrested After Forcing Pupils to Undress at Knifepoint, Stealing Their Underwear - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News

Teacher Arrested After Forcing Pupils to Undress at Knifepoint, Stealing Their Underwear

Florida Principal Faces Child Porn Charges After Nude Images Found in Office

2007-12-21T22:51:00.001-08:00

FOXNews.com - Florida Principal Faces Child Porn Charges After Nude Images Found in Office - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

Florida Principal Faces Child Porn Charges After Nude Images Found in Office

Teacher Arrested After Offering Good Grades For Oral Sex

2007-12-21T10:01:00.001-08:00

FOXNews.com - Teacher Arrested After Offering Good Grades For Oral Sex - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

BARTOW, Fla. — Police say a Bartow High School student hoping to improve her math grades through extra credit instead got a lewd request from her teacher.

Isaac Nathan Tillis was arrested after repeatedly telling student she could earn an "A" if she gave him oral sex. He lured the girl into a teacher's lounge bathroom on Wednesday, but once inside police and the girl sprung a trap.

Teacher calls police after karaoke scare

2007-12-14T15:05:00.001-08:00

Guns N' Roses karaoke scares teacher - Weird news- msnbc.com

ROXBURY, Conn. - Karaoke can be scary, but threatening? A school custodian's impromptu after-hours karaoke performance prompted a police response when a teacher thought she was being threatened over the loudspeaker.

Cops: High School Hockey Coach Had Sex With Player, 16

2007-12-08T08:40:00.001-08:00

FOXNews.com - Cops: High School Hockey Coach Had Sex With Player, 16 - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

n a statement, the coach admitted to having sex with the unidentified teen when they spent a weekend together at his home after the girl told her father she was sleeping over a friend's house. He also admitted to showering her with gifts and sending her suggestive test messages, MyFoxTwinCities reported.

Teacher charged with sex crimes loses counseling license

2007-11-23T16:11:00.001-08:00

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/updates/story/211163.html

The state has revoked for 20 years the registered counselor credential of a former Tacoma elementary school teacher charged with having sex with one of her students.

The Department of Health announced the action against Jennifer L. Rice this week.

Rice earned a master's degree in marriage and family therapy from Pacific Lutheran University in 2000 and received her first state counseling credential in 1999, according to health department records.

Rice voluntarily surrendered her teaching credentials to the state Superintendent of Public Instruction's Office earlier this year.

Rice, 31, is accused of kidnapping and raping a 10-year-old boy, who was one of her students at McKinley Elementary School last year. Pierce County prosecutors charged her during August and September with 13 felony counts involving the 10-year-old and another youth who wasn't one of her students.

$1 million claim hits Fife Schools

2007-11-22T07:38:00.001-08:00

$1 million claim hits Fife Schools | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA

A student and her mother accused the Fife School District on Wednesday of failing to protect the girl from retaliation on campus after she accused a teacher of sending sexually suggestive text messages to her.

High School Cheerleaders Flash Crows

2007-11-16T19:48:00.001-08:00

FOXNews.com - High School Cheerleaders Suspended for Flashing Crowd During Britney Spears Routine - Local News | News Articles | National News | US News

Six of eight Ripon High School cheerleaders won't get the chance to perform "one more time" after school officials booted them from the football field and suspended them for two days for lifting their skirts during a Britney Spears routine.

Teacher Sends Suggestive Messages to Students

2007-11-16T10:52:00.001-08:00

Teacher’s suggestive messages detailed | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA

A Fife High School teacher sent sexually suggestive text messages to current and former students, asking what was the “most scandalous” thing they had ever done and how much money it would take for them to strip, police records say.

School killer had ties to US school plot

2007-11-10T13:11:00.001-08:00

FOXNews.com - Report: Police Discover Link Between Finnish School Shooter and U.S. Plotter - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News

The YouTube killer who shot dead eight members of his school in Finland before turning his gun on himself had internet contacts with an American teenager who was planning a shooting spree in a high school in Philadelphia, it was claimed yesterday, according to a Times of London report.

Teacher Arrested in Mexico, boy released

2007-11-03T08:20:00.001-07:00

Teacher arrested in Mexico, boy released - Yahoo! News

LEXINGTON, Neb. - A female schoolteacher was arrested in Mexico and the 13-year-old boy she allegedly ran away with was turned over to his relatives, a prosecutor said Saturday.