Another community bans internet harassment

Two articles have been posted on this blog in the past week about the situation in St. Charles County, Mo., in which a teenage girl committed suicide as a result of a fictional internet boyfriend created by a former friend's mother.
Since that incident occurred in November 2006, the community in which it took place has passed a law outlawing internet harassment. Another community, nearby Florissant, has followed suit, according to an article in today's St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

The Florissant City Council voted unanimously Monday night to add harassment over the Internet to the city's definitions in its anti-harassment ordinance, saying it "is important to recognize a new form of harassment that has developed with extensive Internet usage in our society."

Councilman Tim Lee said he introduced the harassment measure at the behest of the mayor. It allows for up to six months in jail and a fine for violators and goes into effect in 10 days.

"It makes a statement," Lee said. "We're not going to tolerate this kind of thing in the city of Florissant."

The expanded definition of harassment follows a similar measure passed last week in Dardenne Prairie, where Internet harassment is now a misdemeanor a year after a 13-year-old girl killed herself there.

When her parents went public earlier this month with their claim that Megan Meier hanged herself after becoming upset about messages received from a fictitious MySpace account created by neighbors, the story made news — and brought outrage nationwide.

Columnist favors year-round schools

In a column in today's Los Angeles Times, Charles Fleming says he favors the concept of year-round schools:


By Charles Fleming
November 25, 2007
This winter, for the first time in years, my two daughters will experience vastly different winter breaks. Katie is a senior at North Hollywood High, which has just reverted to a traditional school schedule. She will be out of school from Dec. 14 to Jan. 7. Frankie is a junior at John Marshall, on the "A Track" of a nontraditional, year-round schedule. She'll be out of school from Dec. 21 to March 3. March 3!

Katie will spend her break at home, finishing college applications and studying for exams. Frankie will spend hers with family friends in Paris, eating pain au chocolat and studying at the Alliance Francaise. Which one sounds better to you?

The Los Angeles Unified School District's year-round school schedule was designed to reduce student overcrowding. Using some weird algorithm of occupancy, the "multitrack" plan eliminated traditional downtimes such as spring break and summer vacation and kept classrooms full for 51 weeks of the year -- leaving rooms vacant only during the last week of December. Experts say the program increased total classroom occupancy by 50% without requiring any new classroom construction. There are currently 199,000 kids -- 29% of the district's students -- going to school on 141 multi-track campuses, according to the LAUSD.

On this schedule, A Track kids like Frankie study from late August to late June, with a big break in January and February and a somewhat shortened summer vacation. Similarly, C Track kids study from early July to late April, with a big break in November and December, and B Track kids take up what's left over, attending school all year except for two long breaks, from late August to late October and late February to late April. Kids on the year-round schedule also have a slightly longer school day than other kids -- but in the end, their school year is 17 days shorter.

Now, however, most campuses are phasing out year-round schooling, and all will have done so by 2012. Education experts seem to agree that year-round schools are an effective stopgap measure at best, but are otherwise unacceptable. Many, noting that Los Angeles has more multitrack schools than New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami and Houston combined, have written that year-round schools produce lower grades, lower attendance and higher dropout rates.

As a parent, then, I am supposed to applaud Katie's return to the traditional school schedule and to wish Frankie were on it too. Most parents I know hate the year-round schedules. They want their kids in school from September to June, and out in summer, with a traditional winter recess for the holidays and a traditional spring break for Palm Springs and Cabo.

I don't. I think the year-round schedule, and especially the A Track, is terrific.

Both of my daughters, in addition to taking summer family vacations, working summer jobs and enjoying the traditional summer hang-time with friends, have gotten excellent value out of their winter breaks, or "intersessions." Katie used one year's holiday to go on an extended class visit to Spain and still had time to squeeze a semester's worth of "health and life skills" into a slightly more intensive six-week class during the intersession -- like attending summer school in the winter. The next year, she toured college campuses in Washington, Oregon and Northern California and still had time to prepare for a tae kwon do black-belt examination in the spring. (She passed.)

Frankie did something similar, eliminating her health and life skills requirement by taking an intersession course at Belmont High one year and fulfilling a physical education requirement by taking yoga at Los Angeles City College another. She still had time to do a driver's training course in advance of her 16th birthday. (She got her license.)

There have been other A Track attractions too. The earlier fall semester start means final exams come before the winter holiday break, not after, so the holidays aren't ruined by studying for -- or not studying for, but worrying about -- finals. The longer school day also means longer class times, which means more time to concentrate on individual subjects. (My daughters surprised me by listing that as an attribute.)

It's not just my kids. One of Frankie's friends spent last winter in China with his father. Another will spend this winter living with an Argentine family and studying Spanish in Buenos Aires. Several of Katie's friends took internships at Universal Studios during last year's intersession, while others attended intersession music classes on campus or scheduled daylong rehearsals for the school's spring performance of "Guys and Dolls." Another friend spent the winter in San Francisco working on a theater production of a musical written by her parents. She also exhibited her art at a gallery show during the same period.

The system isn't flawless, of course. My daughters have complained that year-round occupancy means no downtime for maintenance of the school. Classrooms, cafeterias and bathrooms that are never empty don't get cleaned, painted or repaired often enough. Because the tracks are divided by ZIP Code, both girls say, the tracks get Balkanized along ethnic lines. B Track at Marshall, for instance, draws from a heavily Armenian area and becomes heavily Armenian, while C Track draws from a Latino neighborhood and is more heavily Latino. That shouldn't matter, but when students from one track return to find kids from the other track sitting at "their" lunch tables, territorial squabbling and fighting break out.

The girls also complained that some teachers refused to treat the winter break as a real break, assigning homework and research and scheduling tests for the first day back at school. (Katie spent part of last winter reading "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." I failed to see a problem in this.) Other teachers, however, accompanied their students on intersession trips to Europe.





Of course, not every family can pay for the kid who wants to go abroad, or arrange activities or supervision for the one who wants to stay home. Families with young children, especially, find a paucity of day camps and day-care programs in January and February. As a work-at-home dad for most of my daughters' school years, I have often wondered how single, working parents work around L.A. Unified's scheduling oddities like "professional development days," "pupil-free days," "shortened days," "minimum days" and "reverse minimum days." I don't know how those parents manage having their A track kids out of school for two months in the middle of winter.

But I know what it's meant to me. Because my wife is a teacher and I am self-employed, we've all had our summers free for long family vacations. And this winter, I'll visit the Louvre and Le Deux Magots and hang out in Paris with Frankie, and not miss the traditional school schedule at all.

(Charles Fleming is an adjunct professor of journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communication. He is coauthor of the recently published nonfiction book "My Lobotomy.")

Community fights back in MySpace suicide case

A few days ago, Room 210 Discussion offered a post on a St Louis-area community that was outraged by the suicide of a teenager following her cyberspace relationship with a fictitious boy named Josh.
The backlash of the St. Charles Journal article that started the controversy continues and it has reached nationwide, including an article in the Los Angeles Times, which tells how the community is fighting back against the adult whose MySpace prank led to a teenager girl's death:

After their daughter's death, Tina and Ron Meier begged their other neighbors to keep the story private. Let the local authorities and the FBI conduct their investigations in privacy, they pleaded.

But after waiting for criminal charges to be filed against Drew, neighbors learned that local and federal prosecutors could not find a statute applicable to the case.

This community's patience has dried up. The furious neighbors -- and in the wake of recent media reports, an outraged public -- are taking matters into their own hands.

In an outburst of virtual vigilantism, readers of blogs such as RottenNeighbor.com and hitsusa.com have posted the Drews' home address, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and photographs.

Dozens of people allegedly have called local businesses that work with the family's advertising booklet firm, and flooded the phone lines this week at the local Burlington Coat Factory, where Curt Drew reportedly works.

"I posted that, where Curt works. I'm not ashamed to admit that," said Trever Buckles, 40, a neighbor whose two teenage boys grew up with Megan. "Why? Because there's never been any sense of remorse or public apology from the Drews, no 'maybe we made a mistake.' "

Local teenagers and residents protest just steps from the Drews' tiny porch. A fake 911 call, claiming a man had been shot inside the Drew home, sent law enforcement officers to surround the one-story, white-sided house. People drive through the neighborhood in the middle of the night, screaming, "Murderer!"

The Drews, who have mounted cameras and recording devices onto the roof of their house to track the movements of their neighbors, declined to comment for this article.

The decline of high school dances

In a column in the Chicago Sun-Times, Betsy Hart of www.betsysblog.com offers a critique of high school dances, which she says features dancing that seems to be more like foreplay:

BY BETSY HART www.betsysblog.com

Note to my kids: Get ready -- I'm going to chaperone every high school dance you attend.

My resolve actually preceded this week's Wall Street Journal article, "Freaked Out: Teens' Dance Moves Split a Texas Town." The front page piece just reinforced it.

According to reporter Susan Warren, Karen Miller was a chaperone at a high school dance in Argyle, Texas, a few years ago when she first saw couples doing the "freak dance." What that means is a girl's backside is essentially backed up to a boy's pelvis, and they bump and grind to the beat of the music in a sexually provocative way.

Other adults around Miller seemed oblivious. Miller separated at least one such young couple. The result? Mayhem.

Yes, many parents side with her and the new superintendent of schools there, Jason Ceyanes, who according to the Journal is cracking down on "sexually suggestive dancing -- and skimpy clothing. . ." in this growing and increasingly affluent Dallas suburb.

But another very active group of parents is ticked at him for "ruining" their children's recent homecoming "by making provocative dancing off-limits" writes Warren. One angry mom complained that she spent $400 on her daughter's dress "only to have her leave the dance after a few minutes because it was such a dud," she writes.

No, I'm not making this up.

Angry parents are even unearthing "dirt" on the superintendent and calling him a hypocrite. (He's divorced, after an earlier marriage and fatherhood at 17. One might better argue that his voice of reason also is the voice of experience.)

But my decision to one day chaperone any dances my four kids are allowed to attend arose not from the Journal article about that Texas town, but from a dear friend telling me about her own recent experience chaperoning a high school dance here in the Chicago suburbs. In recounting the sexually grinding moves of the kids, she said, "What I saw in the darkened gym was much more 'foreplay' than dancing."

Ouch.

Meanwhile, who knows high school dances better than DJs?

Writes Warren, "The problem is so widespread at school dances that DJs are feeling the heat, too." They may try to change the pace of the music when they see the kids getting worked up but "there's only so much a DJ can do," said one.

Back to Ceyanes. He fears that allowing the kids to get sexually aroused at the dances could be dangerous to students. (I would add, especially girls.) Duh. That may be one reason many schools around the country have banned, or tried to ban, such dancing altogether.

If the "$400 dress girl" had been sexually assaulted in the parking lot after the festivities because the dance wasn't a "dud," would her mom be happy, or suing the school?

It consistently stuns me that some of the very same parents who will carefully protect little junior and junioress from every scrape and bump early on, who will trail them carefully to super-safe playgrounds and rarely leave them to play unattended even in their own backyards, will then abandon their children to real dangers, including sexual ones, later on.

Why? Because they are proud of the public foreplay their children are engaging in? Because "sexiest child" is yet another competition for parents to engage in? Because they want their kids to "like" them?

Forget these reckless moms and dads. For those parents who want to act like parents, this information should be our own bucket of cold water.

Our response to our children's school dances could be, should be, a metaphor for how we raise them from the start: Find out what's going on, turn up the lights at all times, and always be ready to protect them from themselves whether they like it (or us!) or not.

Fake MySpace account leads to teen's suicide

Messages left on a fake MySpace account led to the suicide of a St. Louis area girl. Following is the story as it ran in the St. Charles Journal:

By Steve Pokin
Tuesday, November 13, 2007 2:55 PM CST


His name was Josh Evans. He was 16 years old. And he was hot.

"Mom! Mom! Mom! Look at him!" Tina Meier recalls her daughter saying.

Josh had contacted Megan Meier through her MySpace page and wanted to be added as a friend.Yes, he's cute, Tina Meier told her daughter. "Do you know who he is?"

"No, but look at him! He's hot! Please, please, can I add him?"

Mom said yes. And for six weeks Megan and Josh - under Tina's watchful eye - became acquainted in the virtual world of MySpace.

Josh said he was born in Florida and recently had moved to O'Fallon. He was homeschooled. He played the guitar and drums.

He was from a broken home: "when i was 7 my dad left me and my mom and my older brother and my newborn brother 3 boys god i know poor mom yeah she had such a hard time when we were younger finding work to pay for us after he loeft."

As for 13-year-old Megan, of Dardenne Prairie, this is how she expressed who she was:

M is for Modern

E is for Enthusiastic

G is for Goofy

A is for Alluring

N is for Neglected.

She loved swimming, boating, fishing, dogs, rap music and boys. But her life had not always been easy, her mother says.

She was heavy and for years had tried to lose weight. She had attention deficit disorder and battled depression. Back in third grade she had talked about suicide, Tina says, and ever since had seen a therapist.

But things were going exceptionally well. She had shed 20 pounds, getting down to 175. She was 5 foot 5½ inches tall.

She had just started eighth grade at a new school, Immaculate Conception, in Dardenne Prairie, where she was on the volleyball team. She had attended Fort Zumwalt public schools before that.

Amid all these positives, Tina says, her daughter decided to end a friendship with a girlfriend who lived down the street from them. The girls had spent much of seventh grade alternating between being friends and, the next day, not being friends, Tina says.

Part of the reason for Megan's rosy outlook was Josh, Tina says. After school, Megan would rush to the computer.

"Megan had a lifelong struggle with weight and self-esteem," Tina says. "And now she finally had a boy who she thought really thought she was pretty."

It did seem odd, Tina says, that Josh never asked for Megan's phone number. And when Megan asked for his, she says, Josh said he didn't have a cell and his mother did not yet have a landline.

And then on Sunday, Oct. 15, 2006, Megan received a puzzling and disturbing message from Josh. Tina recalls that it said: "I don't know if I want to be friends with you anymore because I've heard that you are not very nice to your friends."

Frantic, Megan shot back: "What are you talking about?"

SHADOWY CYBERSPACE

Tina Meier was wary of the cyber-world of MySpace and its 70 million users. People are not always who they say they are.

Tina knew firsthand. Megan and the girl down the block, the former friend, once had created a fake MySpace account, using the photo of a good-looking girl as a way to talk to boys online, Tina says. When Tina found out, she ended Megan's access.

MySpace has rules. A lot of them. There are nine pages of terms and conditions. The long list of prohibited content includes sexual material. And users must be at least 14.

"Are you joking?" Tina asks. "There are fifth-grade girls who have MySpace accounts."

As for sexual content, Tina says, most parents have no clue how much there is. And Megan wasn't 14 when she opened her account. To join, you are asked your age but there is no check. The accounts are free.

As Megan's 14th birthday approached, she pleaded for her mom to give her another chance on MySpace, and Tina relented.

She told Megan she would be all over this account, monitoring it. Megan didn't always make good choices because of her ADD, Tina says. And this time, Megan's page would be set to private and only Mom and Dad would have the password.

'GOD-AWFUL FEELING'

Monday, Oct. 16, 2006, was a rainy, bleak day. At school, Megan had handed out invitations to her upcoming birthday party and when she got home she asked her mother to log on to MySpace to see if Josh had responded.

Why did he suddenly think she was mean? Who had he been talking to?

Tina signed on. But she was in a hurry. She had to take her younger daughter, Allison, to the orthodontist.

Before Tina could get out the door it was clear Megan was upset. Josh still was sending troubling messages. And he apparently had shared some of Megan's messages with others.

Tina recalled telling Megan to sign off.

"I will Mom," Megan said. "Let me finish up."

Tina was pressed for time. She had to go. But once at the orthodontist's office she called Megan: Did you sign off?

"No, Mom. They are all being so mean to me."

"You are not listening to me, Megan! Sign off, now!"

Fifteen minutes later, Megan called her mother. By now Megan was in tears.

"They are posting bulletins about me." A bulletin is like a survey. "Megan Meier is a slut. Megan Meier is fat."

Megan was sobbing hysterically. Tina was furious that she had not signed off.

Once Tina returned home she rushed into the basement where the computer was. Tina was shocked at the vulgar language her daughter was firing back at people.

"I am so aggravated at you for doing this!" she told Megan.

Megan ran from the computer and left, but not without first telling Tina, "You're supposed to be my mom! You're supposed to be on my side!"

On the stairway leading to her second-story bedroom, Megan ran into her father, Ron.

"I grabbed her as she tried to go by," Ron says. "She told me that some kids were saying horrible stuff about her and she didn't understand why. I told her it's OK. I told her that they obviously don't know her. And that it would be fine."

Megan went to her room and Ron went downstairs to the kitchen, where he and Tina talked about what had happened, the MySpace account, and made dinner.

Twenty minutes later, Tina suddenly froze in mid-sentence.

"I had this God-awful feeling and I ran up into her room and she had hung herself in the closet."

Megan Taylor Meier died the next day, three weeks before her 14th birthday.

Later that day, Ron opened his daughter's MySpace account and viewed what he believes to be the final message Megan saw - one the FBI would be unable to retrieve from the hard drive.

It was from Josh and, according to Ron's best recollection, it said, "Everybody in O'Fallon knows how you are. You are a bad person and everybody hates you. Have a shitty rest of your life. The world would be a better place without you."

BEYOND GRIEF INTO FURY

Tina and Ron saw a grief counselor. Tina went to a couple of Parents After Loss of Suicide meetings, as well.

They tried to message Josh Evans, to let him know the deadly power of mean words. But his MySpace account had been deleted.

The day after Megan's death, they went down the street to comfort the family of the girl who had once been Megan's friend. They let the girl and her family know that although she and Megan had their ups and down, Megan valued her friendship.

They also attended the girl's birthday party, although Ron had to leave when it came time to sing "Happy Birthday." The Meiers went to the father's 50th birthday celebration. In addition, the Meiers stored a foosball table, a Christmas gift, for that family.

Six weeks after Megan died, on a Saturday morning, a neighbor down the street, a different neighbor, one they didn't know well, called and insisted that they meet that morning at a counselor's office in northern O'Fallon.

The woman would not provide details. Ron and Tina went. Their grief counselor was there. As well as a counselor from Fort Zumwalt West Middle School.

The neighbor from down the street, a single mom with a daughter the same age as Megan, informed the Meiers that Josh Evans never existed.

She told the Meiers that Josh Evans was created by adults, a family on their block. These adults, she told the Meiers, were the parents of Megan's former girlfriend, the one with whom she had a falling out. These were the people who'd asked the Meiers to store their foosball table.

The single mother, for this story, requested that her name not be used. She said her daughter, who had carpooled with the family that was involved in creating the phony MySpace account, had the password to the Josh Evans account and had sent one message - the one Megan received (and later retrieved off the hard drive) the night before she took her life.

"She had been encouraged to join in the joke," the single mother said.

The single mother said her daughter feels the guilt of not saying something sooner and for writing that message. Her daughter didn't speak out sooner because she'd known the other family for years and thought that what they were doing must be OK because, after all, they were trusted adults.

On the night the ambulance came for Megan, the single mother said, before it left the Meiers' house her daughter received a call. It was the woman behind the creation of the Josh Evans account. She had called to tell the girl that something had happened to Megan and advised the girl not to mention the MySpace account.

AX AND SLEDGEHAMMER

The Meiers went home and tore into the foosball table.

Tina used an ax and Ron a sledgehammer. They put the pieces in Ron's pickup and dumped them in their neighbor's driveway. Tina spray painted "Merry Christmas" on the box.

According to Tina, Megan had gone on vacations with this family. They knew how she struggled with depression, that she took medication.

"I know that they did not physically come up to our house and tie a belt around her neck," Tina says. "But when adults are involved and continue to screw with a 13-year-old - with or without mental problems - it is absolutely vile.

"She wanted to get Megan to feel like she was liked by a boy and let everyone know this was a false MySpace and have everyone laugh at her.

"I don't feel their intentions were for her to kill herself. But that's how it ended."

'GAINING MEGAN'S CONFIDENCE'

That same day, the family down the street tried to talk to the Meiers. Ron asked friends to convince them to leave before he physically harmed them.

In a letter dated Nov. 30, 2006, the family tells Ron and Tina, "We are sorry for the extreme pain you are going through and can only imagine how difficult it must be. We have every compassion for you and your family."

The Suburban Journals have decided not to name the family out of consideration for their teenage daughter.

The mother declined comment.

"I have been advised not to give out any information and I apologize for that," she says. "I would love to sit here and talk to you about it but I can't."

She was informed that without her direct comment the newspaper would rely heavily on the police report she filed with the St. Charles County Sheriff's Department regarding the destroyed foosball table.

"I will tell you that the police report is totally wrong," the mother said. "We have worked on getting that changed. I would just be very careful about what you write."

Lt. Craig McGuire, spokesman for the sheriff's department, said he is unaware of anyone contacting the department to alter the report.

"We stand behind the report as written," McGuire says. "There was no supplement to it. What is in the report is what we believe she told us."

The police report - without using the mother's name - states:

"(She) stated in the months leading up Meier's daughter's suicide, she instigated and monitored a 'my space' account which was created for the sole purpose of communicating with Meier's daughter.

"(She) said she, with the help of temporary employee named ------ constructed a profile of 'good looking' male on 'my space' in order to 'find out what Megan (Meier's daughter) was saying on-line' about her daughter. (She) explained the communication between the fake male profile and Megan was aimed at gaining Megan's confidence and finding out what Megan felt about her daughter and other people.

"(She) stated she, her daughter and (the temporary employee) all typed, read and monitored the communication between the fake male profile and Megan …..

"According to (her) 'somehow' other 'my space' users were able to access the fake male profile and Megan found out she had been duped. (She) stated she knew 'arguments' had broken out between Megan and others on 'my space.' (She) felt this incident contributed to Megan's suicide, but she did not feel 'as guilty' because at the funeral she found out 'Megan had tried to commit suicide before.'"

Tina says her daughter died thinking Josh was real and that she never before attempted suicide.

"She was the happiest she had ever been in her life," Ron says.

After years of wearing braces, Megan was scheduled to have them removed the day she died. And she was looking forward to her birthday party.

"She and her mom went shopping and bought a new dress," Ron says. "She wanted to make this grand entrance with me carrying her down the stairs. I never got to see her in that dress until the funeral."

NO CRIMINAL CHARGES

It does not appear that there will be criminal charges filed in connection with Megan's death.

"We did not have a charge to fit it," McGuire says. "I don't know that anybody can sit down and say, 'This is why this young girl took her life.'"

The Meiers say the matter also was investigated by the FBI, which analyzed the family computer and conducted interviews. Ron said a stumbling block is that the FBI was unable to retrieve the electronic messages from Megan's final day, including that final message that only Ron saw.

The Meiers do not plan to file a civil lawsuit. Here's what they want: They want the law changed, state or federal, so that what happened to Megan - at the hands of an adult - is a crime.

THE AFTERMATH IS PAIN

The Meiers are divorcing. Ron says Tina was as vigilant as a parent could be in monitoring Megan on MySpace. Yet she blames herself.

"I have this awful, horrible guilt and this I can never change," she said. "Ever."

Ron struggles daily with the loss of a daughter who, no matter how low she felt, tried to make others laugh and feel a little bit better.

He has difficulty maintaining focus and has kept his job as a tool and die maker through the grace and understanding of his employer, he says. His emotions remain jagged, on edge.

Christine Buckles lives in the same Waterford Crossing subdivision. In her view, everyone in the subdivision knows of Megan's death, but few know of the other family's involvement.

Tina says she and Ron have dissuaded angry friends and family members from vandalizing the other home for one, and only one, reason.

"The police will think we did it," Tina says.

Ron faces a misdemeanor charge of property damage. He is accused of driving his truck across the lawn of the family down the street, doing $1,000 in damage, in March. A security camera the neighbors installed on their home allegedly caught him.

It was Tina, a real estate agent, who helped the other family purchase their home on the same block 2½ years ago.

"I just wish they would go away, move," Ron says.

Vicki Dunn, Tina's aunt, last month placed signs in and near the neighborhood on the anniversary of Megan's death.

They read: "Justice for Megan Meier," "Call the St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney," and "MySpace Impersonator in Your Neighborhood."

On the window outside Megan's room is an ornamental angel that Ron turns on almost every night. Inside are pictures of boys, posters of Usher, Beyonce and on the dresser a tube of instant bronzer.

"She was all about getting a tan," Ron says.

He has placed the doors back on the closet. Megan had them off.

If only she had waited, talked to someone, or just made it to dinner, then through the evening, and then on to the beginning of a new day in what could have been a remarkable life.

If she had, he says, there is no doubt she would have chosen to live. Instead, there is so much pain.

"She never would have wanted to see her parents divorce," Ron says.

Ultimately, it was Megan's choice to do what she did, he says. "But it was like someone handed her a loaded gun."

Massachusetts Catholic school bans Harry Potter

A Massachusetts Catholic school has removed all Harry Potter books from its library, according to an article in today's Boston Globe:

But last month, students found that their favorite series had "disapparated" from the school library, after St. Joseph's pastor, the Rev. Ron Barker, removed the books, declaring that the themes of witchcraft and sorcery were inappropriate for a Catholic school.

"He said that he thought most children were strong enough to resist the temptation," said one mother who asked that her name not be used because she did not want her family to be singled out. "But he said it's his job to protect the weak and the strong."

The removal at St. Joseph's is the first reported instance that the wildly popular series has been banned in the Bay State, according to the American Library Association. But British author J.K. Rowling's series, which many educators credit with inspiring a generation of children to pick up a book, has been as controversial as it has been popular. Groups in at least 17 other states have tried to ban the books since the first one was published in 1998, prompting the library association last year to name the Harry Potter collection "the most challenged books of the 21st century."

Maine school board approves birth control for middle schoolers

A school board in Portland, Maine, has approved a measure that would allow middle school students to receive prescription birth control without their parents' knowledge:

The proposal, from the Portland Division of Public Health, calls for the independently operated health care center at King Middle School to provide a variety of services to students, including immunizations and physical checkups in addition to birth-control medications and counseling for sexually transmitted diseases, said Lisa Belanger, an administrator for Portland’s student health centers.

All but two members of the 12-person committee voted to approve the plan.

The school principal, Mike McCarthy, said about 5 of the school’s 500 students had identified themselves as being sexually active.

Washington Post article explores fall fundraisers

Fall seems to be the time for fundraisers and more fundraisers at American schools. An article in today's Washington Post explores the phenomenon:

Parents in the Washington area know -- as do their co-workers -- that fall is when a fourth "R" appears in the region's school curriculum: retailing. According to Michigan-based Sally Foster Inc., this region is its most-active single territory in the country, with more than 500 schools signed up to peddle its paper and other product lines. This week, as fall fund drives come to an end, schools and PTAs are tallying their sales not just of Sally Foster products but of cookie dough, magazine subscriptions, candy and countless other fundraising offerings, too.

Nationally, such product campaigns amount to $1.3 billion dollars of extra school funding a year, according to the Association of Fund-Raising Distributors and Suppliers. Schools in this area typically raise an average of $10,000 a year from Sally Foster sales, according to Matt Maher, the company's sales director for the Atlantic Coast Region. Some make as much as $35,000, he said. Sally Foster, like most of the programs, splits the profit evenly with schools.

Hugging banned at Illinois school

Claiming it clogs up the hallways, an Oak Park, Ill. high school has banned hugging:

"Last year we would see maybe as many as 10 students on one side (of the hallway), 10 on the other and then, going in opposite directions, would sort of have a hug line going on and you could see where that would be a problem," said Victoria Sharts, principal of Oak Park's Percy Julian Middle School.

So this year Sharts decided to draw the line on hug lines by banning all hugging among students within the building.

Sharts said, "Hugging is really more appropriate for airports or for family reunions than passing and seeing each other every few minutes in the halls."

When teachers started enforcing the new policy last month all hallways and classrooms in the 860-student school became hug-free zones.

Green interviewed on 50th anniversary of Little Rock integration

This year marks the 50-year anniversary of the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., one of the civil rights events students in my communication arts classes at South Middle School study each year.
Today's Washington Post features a profile and interview of Ernest Green, the first African American student to graduate from Central High School:

He spends his days negotiating multimillion-dollar deals as managing director of public finance for Wall Street stalwart Lehman Brothers with clients including the City of New York and the State of Connecticut. He has a big house in Northwest Washington, "a beautiful wife, three wonderful kids" and a lot of gratitude for the circumstances that catapulted him from segregated Little Rock into U.S. history as one of nine students to integrate Central High School 50 years ago today.

"It has been a tremendous boost for me," said Green, who turned 66 on Saturday. "It provided me with opportunities I never would have otherwise had. I had a tremendous window into the last half of 20th century."

Green returned to his home town this weekend for events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the desegregation of Central High. Five decades ago, Green and eight other students were escorted into the school by the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division under orders from President Dwight Eisenhower after Gov. Orval Faubus used the state's National Guard to block the integration effort.

New tardies policy creates problems for Jefferson City students

Students at Jefferson City High School are not happy with a new program designed to cut down on tardies:

After talking with area and state school officials, school administrators decided to go with a program known as “Start on Time.”

Offered by the group Safe and Civil Schools of Eugene, Ore. - which produces programs to help improve student behavior - “Start on Time” seeks to increase hallway safety and classroom climate, increase student and teacher interaction and decrease class interruptions.

High School Assistant Principal DeLinda Fitch, who worked on implementing the program for Jefferson City High School, said it looked like the program could reduce tardies by more than the 75 percent they initially predicted.

When the bell rings, the classroom doors are locked and teachers start teaching immediately.

Teachers who are in the hallway are known as the “Positive Sweep Team.” They gather the students left in the hallway after the bell rings, then take those students to a central location where administrators work with the students and give them either a warning or detention.

Then, a sweep team member escorts the student back to classroom to let the teacher know where he or she has been.

Luther said district officials believe that the high school tardy policy was put in place to maximize time in the classroom and to make the school a safer, more secure environment.

Students face prison terms for cheating

Nine New Hampshire students may go to prison for cheating on exams. The story was featured in this morning's Boston Globe:

School cheating scandal divides N.H. town
Criminal charges too harsh, some say

By Sarah Schweitzer, Globe Staff | September 19, 2007

HANOVER, N.H. - Academics is serious business in this well-to-do town, where life revolves around Dartmouth College. Ivy League credentials rank alongside Subaru wagons and restored farmhouses as status symbols, and high school students are expected to excel and land acceptances to prestigious universities.

So, as final exams loomed and pressure built last June at Hanover High School, some students hatched a scheme for acing the tests: One evening after school was out, a group of students entered the school building, authorities say. While some stood sentry in hallways, others entered a classroom and used stolen keys to break into a teacher's filing cabinet and steal exams for advanced math honors, advanced math, Algebra II, and calculus. Five days later, another group stole chemistry finals. In total, some 50 students are suspected of participating in the thefts, either helping to plan them or receiving answers from stolen exams.

Rather than issuing suspensions or grade demotions, school officials notified police. And after a seven-week investigation, the police prosecutor handling the case brought criminal charges against nine students. Last week, the prosecutor notified the nine students' parents that if they chose to take the cases to trial, he could raise misdemeanor charges to felonies, which carry possible prison terms of 3 1/2 to seven years.

Parents of the accused are furious and frantically trying to reduce charges to violations that carry no criminal penalties, penalties they say could harm their children's chances of attending college or securing employment. The scandal has divided the community, with some residents laying blame squarely on the nine accused students - dubbed "the Notorious Nine" - while others have questioned whether the intense competitiveness of 750-student Hanover High forced students into positions of having to cheat.

Some have also questioned the motives of police, suggesting they are using the incident to show that children of privilege - the parents of the accused include a physician, a business school professor, a hospital president, and a columnist at a local newspaper - are not above the law.

Christopher O'Connor, the prosecutor, said in a telephone interview that he is treating the students as he would anyone who had committed a crime of similar magnitude. Although 17-year-olds are treated as adults in criminal cases in New Hampshire, he said he had opted to charge them with Class B misdemeanors, which carry maximum penalties of $1,200 fines, rather than Class A, which carry possible prison terms.

"What I look at from my office . . . is whether someone should be held accountable for their actions and whether charges are consistent with the charges of other kids their ages," O'Connor said.

Nancy Gray, the Grafton County attorney who would handle the cases if O'Connor chooses to upgrade them to felonies, said the crimes the students allegedly committed are serious and deserve serious consequences.

"The parents need to be reasonable," she said. "This is technically a Class B felony offense. How can you reduce that to a violation-level offense - which is for something like spitting on the sidewalk? Although you don't want to hammer them, you want them to know this is serious."

But parents of the accused students say the charges are a draconian punishment for 17- and 18-year-olds.

"They are charged with watching their friends commit stupidity," said John Arbogast, whose son is charged with serving as a lookout.

"What's frightening as a parent is that a 17-year-old makes one little mistake and he's going to have a potential prison sentence," said Jim Kenyon, a columnist for The Valley News, whose son is also accused of acting as lookout and now attends private school.

Particularly troubling, parents interviewed said, is that the school turned the matter over to police; they said the incident should have been handled internally, where punishment would never have resulted in a criminal record.

"This always should have been a school matter," said Debbie Hadley, a nurse whose two sons have been charged.

School officials said that they are planning to conduct an investigation of the cheating allegations but that the alleged breaking and entering and theft portion belonged in the hands of police.

"We have never called the police for a cheating incident. But there is never a time when we would not call the police when someone breaks into our building," said Wayne Gersen, superintendent of School Administrative Unit #70, which oversees Hanover High School.

Gersen said that before the cheating scandal revelations, school officials had discovered two screens cut and teachers had reported keys missing for the science and math resource centers. The day before the alleged theft of the chemistry exam, a guidance counselor had witnessed three male students climb through a school window. The boys had told the counselor they were trying to retrieve notebooks to study.

"Hanover High students are very diligent and study very hard for exams. So it seemed a plausible explanation," Gersen said.

The school's investigation of the cheating has been delayed by the nine students' attorneys, who have advised their clients not to speak to the school until the criminal charges are settled. The school last week sent a letter to parents of the students promising that anything they say about the alleged cheating and theft would not be relayed to the police.

Gersen said that once the school concludes its investigation, students found to be involved will face school sanctions, which could include three-day suspensions for taking part in the theft and a zero grade on any exam where stolen information was used.

In addition, he said, school guidance counselors will make note of the cheating findings on the students' college applications.

Parents interviewed declined to allow their sons to speak publicly, citing the criminal cases.

In Hanover, efforts to stem cheating are underway. A committee of high school students, teachers, school board officials, and community members, with input from an ethicist, is discussing a reformulation of the cheating policy for Hanover High. A local church held a forum last Sunday to discuss the moral implications of the scandal, while the school principal last week called a meeting for the senior class to discuss the impact on the school.

Among Hanover High students, opinions about the scandal remain mixed.

"I think they should be given another chance because they made a mistake," said Tariku Foster, a sophomore who is friends with some of the accused students.

But others said the issue is clear cut.

"They're cheating. They're breaking into the school. They deserve what they got," said Hannah Stone, a freshman.

Only 20 percent of New York schools have newspapers

Is the school newspaper vanishing?

A survey of New York high schools indicates only about 20 percent have newspapers, though some are now starting to publish online news:

Of existing papers, critics are quick to point out that some are skimpy newsletters or quarterlies, too often little more than publicity pages for the school. "If you look at the papers you'll see that many have little to them. They don't write about anything going on in the school. They don’t seem to give people a way to be serious school citizens," says Leslie Seifert, an editor at Newsday who began a high school newspaper at Middle College High School in Queens in 1994. The Middle College High School News was entirely uncensored and covered controversial topics like drug addiction and violence at school.

Even at top-tier schools, papers like the one Seifert produced are often impossible. While these schools have been recognized for superior writing and production, censorship remains a problem. In 2005, the editors-in-chief of the Science Survey at Bronx Science wrote an anonymous article condemning the censorship of their paper by the school principal and distributed the article off school grounds. "Don't let the administration's obsession with conserving our school's 'impressive' reputation dampen your creative spirit," they wrote.

Schools reconsidering cell phone bans

An article in today's Washington Post indicates schools across the county are reconsidering previous bans on cellphones:

School boards everywhere are revisiting decade-old bans against portable communication devices in the classroom. Enacted with dire visions of drug dealers plying their trade, the rules have instead become an impediment to lacrosse moms trying to negotiate pickup times. Parents are also vexed by the notion that their children might not be allowed to call home during an emergency, the very scenario for which many such phones are purchased.

Chairman suggests changes be made in No Child Left Behind

Those of us who think the federal No Child Left Behind law leaves a lot to be desired were heartened Monday when Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., said changes need to be made in order for the law to continue:

But Miller said yesterday that schools should be able to include measures besides the reading and math tests in determining progress, such as graduation rates or the number of students passing Advanced Placement exams. "Many Americans do not believe that the success of our students or of our schools can be measured by one test administered on one day, and I agree with them," he said.

Jefferson City students to wear uniforms

Students at a Jefferson City High School
will wear uniforms for the first time when the 2007-2008 school year begins:

The uniform - developed by a committee of three students, three parents, three faculty members and the dean of students, Stan Ochsner - is extremely versatile.

Male students will stick with the traditional khaki dress pants. Female students can wear khaki slacks or plaid skorts. All students will wear either polo shirts or button-down collar dress shirts embroidered with the Crusaders logo.

The polo shirts come in navy, white or sunflower, both in long and short sleeves; the dress shirts in white or light blue only in long sleeves. They may also wear navy sweaters or sweater vests along with navy or gold crew neck sweatshirts, all embroidered with the Helias logo.

All shirts, sweaters, sweatshirts and skorts are purchased directly from Helias. Pants can be purchased by the students from an approved list which Helias keeps updated on its Web site. Students will also wear sturdy, leather dress shoes (closed heel and toe).

The concept of moving to a uniform came when Ochsner and other administrators had to re-define the dress code every year.

"With changing styles and students seeking loopholes, it was becoming more and more difficult to make the dress code professional," said Ochsner. "The decision was easy because we knew a fool-proof dress code was a battle we couldn't win."

Carthage student receives one-year suspension for shooting air soft gun

The parents of Carthage High School student Stefan Hukill, suspended for one year for shooting an airsoft gun at school are protesting the suspension:

In a letter to Hukill's mother, Superintendent Gary Reed said the student had violated school policy by possessing and firing an airsoft gun at another student on or adjacent to school property. He said district policy called for a 10-day suspension, with a recommendation for long-term suspension or expulsion. He said Kandy Frazier, then assistant principal, had suspended the student for 10 days, starting May 10, and would recommend an additional suspension.

"Based on the serious nature of Stefan's misconduct, the potential danger to himself and other students, and the possession and use of a weapon," Reed said he had affirmed the 10-day suspension and extended the suspension to one year. In addition, he said he had determined that Stefan "poses a continuing danger" and barred him from school pending the outcome of a disciplinary hearing.

In information prepared for the appeal hearing, Lasley said the decision meant that Hukill missed final examinations his junior year. He said the yearlong suspension was unreasonable and, if upheld, would mean that his client would be prevented from attending his senior year and graduating with his classmates.

Lasley said the incident was "a prank," and that Stefan shot a friend one time with a plastic, spring-operated airsoft gun that shoots round, plastic or rubber balls about the size of a pencil eraser. He said the incident happened on Main Street near the high school during the open lunch period. He said the friend was not hurt and lodged no complaint, and that no report on the incident was made by Sgt. Vann Bennett, school resource officer with the Carthage Police Department.

Lasley said the incident "is not on a par with a firearms violation,"
and that an airsoft gun is not listed among the weapons cited in school policies and regulations. He said the gun is see-through plastic, and the barrel is tipped in orange to distinguish it from a real weapon. He said the gun "obviously is not a firearm as described in school regulations and by the gun-free requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act."

School time down for everything except math, reading

One consequence of No Child Left Behind has been the decrease of time allotted to all subjects besides math and reading, according to an article in today's Washington Post:

The report by the District-based Center on Education Policy, which focuses on a representative sample of 349 school districts, found recess and physical education the only parts of the elementary school day holding relatively steady since enactment of the No Child Left Behind measure in 2002.

The survey provides grist for critics who say the federal testing mandate has led educators to a radical restructuring of the public school curriculum in a quest to teach to new state tests. But backers of the law, which is up for renewal this year, say that without mastery of reading and math, students will be hampered in other areas.

Final Joplin signing set for Devil's Messenger

What is expected to be the final Joplin signing for South Middle School eighth grade communication arts teacher Randy Turner's second novel, Devil's Messenger, will be held 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 28, at Hastings Books, Music and Video in Joplin.

Mr. Turner's first novel, Small Town News, was published in 2005. He is working on a third book, this one non-fiction, this summer.

New study indicates misinformation has been given about Internet dangers

A new study indicates sharing personal information does not increase the chances of teen internet users becoming victims:

victimization is more likely to result from other online behavior, such as talking about sex with people met online and intentionally embarrassing someone else on the Internet.

"For a long time, we really didn't know," said Michele Ybarra, one of the study's authors. "It made sense if you post or send information you increase your risk. It's also a very easy message: Don't post personal information and you'll be safe."

But Ybarra, who is president of the nonprofit Internet Solutions for Kids, warned that parents and educators must now reassess the lessons, saying resources may be wasted on tips that do not address the underlying problem.

Instead of discouraging children from communicating, she said, the better approach is to teach them about what at-risk behaviors to avoid and warning signs to spot.

"We now need to be a lot more specific and accurate in our message," she said.

The research, published in February, was based on telephone surveys of 1,500 Internet users ages 10 to 17.

In a separate study of 2,574 law-enforcement agencies, researchers found that online sex crimes rarely involve offenders lying about their ages or sexual motives. The 2004 study, published in Journal of Adolescent Health, said offenders generally aren't strangers, and pedophiles aren't luring unsuspecting children by pretending to be a peer.

"Most of these sexual-victimization (cases) happen at the hands of people they know, and a lot happen at the hands of peers," said Janis Wolak, co-author of both studies and a researcher with the University of New Hampshire's Crimes Against Children Research Center.

Study: 60 percent of young people don't follow the news

A Harvard study indicates 60 percent of young people do not follow the daily news:

Researchers interviewed 1,800 people between January and March and found that 28 percent of Americans between the ages of 12 and 17 said they pay almost no attention to news every day. Another 32 percent said they pay only casual attention to one news source a day.

"News is not something that gets a lot of time or attention or interest from teens," said Thomas Patterson, a professor of government and the press at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Among people aged 18 to 30, the poll found 48 percent said they are inattentive to daily news. Only 23 percent of older Americans said they largely ignore news.

In general, soft stories about celebrities interest young people more than hard news stories like congressional votes or developments in Iraq.

One reason teenagers may pay less attention to news than older Americans is only one in 20 young people rely heavily on a daily newspaper, according to the survey, which had a margin of error of 2 percent to 3 percent.

The poll was released amid tough times for many American newspapers, with falling readership and advertising revenue.

Even the Internet, the preferred way for teenagers and young adults to get news, is not stimulating interest in current affairs, Patterson said. Internet-based news, receives about the same attention from older adults as it does from younger ones, the survey found.

Unsuccessful cheerleader candidate sues school

A Victoria, Texas, teenager who failed to make the junior varsity high school cheerleading squad is suing the school:

Incoming freshman Wycoda Fischer was cut after tryouts were held for six positions on the squad. Seven girls tried out. The family contends that because an exception was made for the varsity cheer squad, nine girls were allowed on instead of the eight called for in the high school's cheerleader constitution, that an exception should also be made for allowing Wycoda on the squad. The high school principal and cheerleading sponsor approved the expanded JV squad, but superintendent Deborah Kneese ordered tryouts.

The Fischers, Billy and Wysenda, took their grievance to the school board on Monday, but the board upheld the superintendent's decision with a 5-1-1 vote.

According to testimony during the grievance hearing, the varsity was expanded to nine members because the sponsor made a mistake and told eight of the cheer candidates they had made the squad and there would be no tryouts, because it was believed the ninth candidate had withdrawn. She had not, and was allowed on the squad.

Kneese told the school board, "There was an error with regard to the varsity cheerleading tryouts. The decision was made to allow nine cheerleaders on the squad despite the provision in the constitution. The district was not going to penalize the student for its own error. No such mistake was made during the JV

tryouts. The mistake concerning the varsity squad has no bearing on the JV squad."

The threat to students' liberty

New York schools are coming under fire for violations of students' Constitutional rights as they increase security, according to a column by writer Nat Hentoff:

One of the many stories in the report concerns Wadleigh, a Manhattan public high school, where "every student, in order to enter the building [as at other schools], was required to walk through the metal detectors [and be searched]."

Over an eight-month period last year, police confiscated more than 17,000 items at numerous schools, but only a tiny number could be considered weapons, and none were firearms. The vast majority "were cell phones, iPods, food, school supplies." A young girl with a pacemaker at Wadleigh said that she needed her cell phone in case of a medical emergency, but the phone was seized nonetheless.

Survey: Bullying occurs more often offline

A Pew survey indicates that while one-third of teenagers indicate they have been bullied online, more than double that total say more bullying and harassment take place offline.

L. A. Times column takes issue with Supreme Court ruling

The backlash from Monday's U. S. Supreme Court ruling against the student who held the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" sign continues in a column in today's Los Angeles Times:

For the last decade, I've taught a history course with that title at New York University. My students and I examine the different purposes that Americans have assigned to public schools, including:

A. to teach the great humanistic traditions of the West;

B. to develop the individual interests of the child;

C. to promote social justice;

D. to prepare efficient workers.

Over the last four centuries, Americans have struggled to balance these goals — and many others — in their schools. To Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, however, there's only one right answer:

E. to instill discipline and obedience

That's what Thomas wrote this week in his strange concurring opinion in Morse vs. Frederick, better known as the "BONG HiTS 4 JESUS" case. A banner with those words was unfurled by senior Joseph Frederick outside his Alaska high school, and he was suspended.

Ruling 5 to 4 in favor of the principal who censored the banner, the court decided that the school's interest in discouraging drug use outweighed the student's free-speech rights. But Thomas went further, insisting that the student had no right to free speech in the first place and that the history of American education proves it.

He's wrong. Simply put, the accurate history in Thomas' opinion is not relevant. And the relevant history that he recounts is not accurate.

Let's start with what he got right. As he correctly asserts, America's first schools primarily promoted discipline. "Early public schools were not places for freewheeling debates or exploration of competing ideas," Thomas wrote. The mostly male teaching force in the early 1800s brooked little or no dissent, often whipping children who challenged adult authority.

True enough. But so what? Here's the part that Thomas leaves out. From the very birth of the common school system in the 1830s, the strict discipline that he celebrates came under fire from a host of different Americans. The most prominent champion of common schools, Horace Mann, warned teachers against excessive force and the suppression of students' natural inclinations.

That's one reason Mann and his generation backed the hiring of female teachers, who were seen as more kind, tolerant and nurturing. (The other reason was that schools could pay them less.) By 1900, roughly three-quarters of American teachers were women.

The early 20th century would bring another burst of change to American schools, centered on the question of democracy. To reformers like John Dewey, schools based on strict discipline — and its pedagogical companion, rote memorization — could never give citizens the skills they needed to govern themselves. Instead of fostering mindless obedience, then, schools needed to teach children how to make up their own minds — that is, how to reason, deliberate and rule on complex political questions.

To be sure, plenty of Americans still wanted teachers to bring the kids to heel. And it's fair to ask whether schools today promote the kind of inquiry that Dewey envisioned.

The point is not that Dewey was "right" or that everyone agreed with him. Rather, history teaches us that Americans have always disagreed on the proper goal for schools.

Post editorial: Supreme Court was wrong in bong hits decision

A decision handed down by the U. S. Supreme Court Monday limiting freedom of speech for students was wrong, according to an editorial in today's Washington Post:

Issues of drug use and drug policy are matters of serious contention. High school students must be able to debate them frankly -- and that might even involve students taking the position that bong hits are not that bad.

School apologizes for removing gay kiss from yearbook

Under the category of how times are changing, officials at a Newark, N. J. school have apologized to a high school student for removing a picture of him kissing another male student:

Andre Jackson, the student, said he was disappointed that the superintendent had not delivered the apology face-to-face and in public. Because of that, he said he didn't accept it as sincere.

"I would accept an apology -- a public apology," said Jackson, 18.

The school not only apologized, but said it would pay for providing copies of the yearbook with the photo to any student who asked for one.

Maryland students use candid Facebook photos to fill out yearbook

Some students at a high school in Bethesda, Md., thought their privacy had been invaded by the yearbook staff when it used photos from their Facebook sites to fill up the yearbook:

In addition to the usual images of blurry hallway traffic, lockers and teens slumped at desks, this year's Walter Johnson Windup included scenes of student life clearly not intended for the yearbook: impromptu snapshots at house parties and random weekend gatherings; portraits taken at arm's length on cellphones; and at least one image of students at what looks like a tailgate party, drinking from telltale red plastic cups.

One student, venting in the school newspaper, said seeing her Facebook pictures in the yearbook was "kind of stalker-y."

More information on Supreme Court student speech decision

School administrators are pleased with the decision handed down by the U. S. Supreme Court Monday limiting students' First Amendment rights, but the decision did not go as far as some of the administrators and the Bush Administration would have liked, according to an article in today's Washington Post:

Still, the court did not accept the broadest claims of Juneau school officials and some of their supporters, including the Bush administration, who had urged the justices to empower schools to restrict messages contrary to their "educational mission."

Two members of the majority, Justices Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Anthony M. Kennedy, made it clear that they gave Roberts the fourth and fifth votes he needed on the understanding that yesterday's ruling applied only to advocacy of illegal drug use.

In a concurring opinion joined by Kennedy, Alito wrote that yesterday's ruling "provides no support for any restriction of speech that can plausibly be interpreted as commenting on any political or social issue," including student opposition to the drug laws themselves.

U. S. Supreme Court limits students' free speech

Students in my eighth grade communication arts class last year discussed the U. S. Supreme Court involving an Alaskan student who carried a sign that said, "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" as the Olympic Torch was making its way through Juneau.

Today, the Court ruled that the student, Joseph Frederick, did not have his First Amendment rights violated when he was suspended from school for the incident. This is the Supreme Court decision:

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
MORSE et al. v. FREDERICK

certiorari to the united states court of appeals for the ninth circuit

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No. 06–278. Argued March 19, 2007—Decided June 25, 2007

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At a school-sanctioned and school-supervised event, petitioner Morse, the high school principal, saw students unfurl a banner stating “BONG HiTS 4 JESUS,” which she regarded as promoting illegal drug use. Consistent with established school policy prohibiting such messages at school events, Morse directed the students to take down the banner. When one of the students who had brought the banner to the event—respondent Frederick—refused, Morse confiscated the banner and later suspended him. The school superintendent upheld the suspension, explaining, inter alia, that Frederick was disciplined because his banner appeared to advocate illegal drug use in violation of school policy. Petitioner school board also upheld the suspension. Frederick filed suit under 42 U. S. C. §1983, alleging that the school board and Morse had violated his First Amendment rights. The District Court granted petitioners summary judgment, ruling that they were entitled to qualified immunity and that they had not infringed Frederick’s speech rights. The Ninth Circuit reversed. Accepting that Frederick acted during a school-authorized activity and that the banner expressed a positive sentiment about marijuana use, the court nonetheless found a First Amendment violation because the school punished Frederick without demonstrating that his speech threatened substantial disruption. It also concluded that Morse was not entitled to qualified immunity because Frederick’s right to display the banner was so clearly established that a reasonable principal in Morse’s position would have understood that her actions were unconstitutional.

Held: Because schools may take steps to safeguard those entrusted to their care from speech that can reasonably be regarded as encouraging illegal drug use, the school officials in this case did not violate the First Amendment by confiscating the pro-drug banner and suspending Frederick. Pp. 5–15.

(a) Frederick’s argument that this is not a school speech case is rejected. The event in question occurred during normal school hours and was sanctioned by Morse as an approved social event at which the district’s student-conduct rules expressly applied. Teachers and administrators were among the students and were charged with supervising them. Frederick stood among other students across the street from the school and directed his banner toward the school, making it plainly visible to most students. Under these circumstances, Frederick cannot claim he was not at school. Pp. 5–6.

(b) The Court agrees with Morse that those who viewed the banner would interpret it as advocating or promoting illegal drug use, in violation of school policy. At least two interpretations of the banner’s words—that they constitute an imperative encouraging viewers to smoke marijuana or, alternatively, that they celebrate drug use—demonstrate that the sign promoted such use. This pro-drug interpretation gains further plausibility from the paucity of alternative meanings the banner might bear. Pp. 6–8.

(c) A principal may, consistent with the First Amendment , restrict student speech at a school event, when that speech is reasonably viewed as promoting illegal drug use. In Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Dist., 393 U. S. 503 , the Court declared, in holding that a policy prohibiting high school students from wearing antiwar armbands violated the First Amendment , id., at 504, that student expression may not be suppressed unless school officials reasonably conclude that it will “materially and substantially disrupt the work and discipline of the school,” id., at 513. The Court in Bethel School Dist. No. 403 v. Fraser, 478 U. S. 675 , however, upheld the suspension of a student who delivered a high school assembly speech employing “an elaborate, graphic, and explicit sexual metaphor,” id., at 678. Analyzing the case under Tinker, the lower courts had found no disruption, and therefore no basis for discipline. 478 U. S., at 679–680. This Court reversed, holding that the school was “within its permissible authority in imposing sanctions … in response to [the student’s] offensively lewd and indecent speech.” Id., at 685. Two basic principles may be distilled from Fraser. First, it demonstrates that “the constitutional rights of students in public school are not automatically coextensive with the rights of adults in other settings.” Id., at 682. Had Fraser delivered the same speech in a public forum outside the school context, he would have been protected. See, id., at 682–683. In school, however, his First Amendment rights were circumscribed “in light of the special characteristics of the school environment.” Tinker, supra, at 506. Second, Fraser established that Tinker’s mode of analysis is not absolute, since the Fraser Court did not conduct the “substantial disruption” analysis. Subsequently, the Court has held in the Fourth Amendment context that “while children assuredly do not ‘shed their constitutional rights … at the schoolhouse gate,’ … the nature of those rights is what is appropriate for children in school,” Vernonia School Dist. 47J v. Acton, 515 U. S. 646 , and has recognized that deterring drug use by schoolchildren is an “important—indeed, perhaps compelling” interest, id., at 661. Drug abuse by the Nation’s youth is a serious problem. For example, Congress has declared that part of a school’s job is educating students about the dangers of drug abuse, see, e.g., the Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act of 1994, and petitioners and many other schools have adopted policies aimed at implementing this message. Student speech celebrating illegal drug use at a school event, in the presence of school administrators and teachers, poses a particular challenge for school officials working to protect those entrusted to their care. The “special characteristics of the school environment,” Tinker, 393 U. S., at 506, and the governmental interest in stopping student drug abuse allow schools to restrict student expression that they reasonably regard as promoting such abuse. Id., at 508, 509, distinguished. Pp. 8–15.

439 F. 3d 1114, reversed and remanded.

Roberts, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito, JJ., joined. Thomas, J., filed a concurring opinion. Alito, J., filed a concurring opinion, in which Kennedy, J., joined. Breyer, J., filed an opinion concurring in the judgment in part and dissenting in part. Stevens, J., filed a dissenting opinion, in which Souter and Ginsburg, JJ., joined.

More states testing high school athletes for steroids

More states are testing high school athletes for steroids, according to an article on Stateline.org:

A year after New Jersey became the first state to mandate random steroid testing for high school athletes, Texas and Florida are on the verge of launching their own testing programs, and Illinois may not be far behind.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) on Friday (June 15) signed into law the nation's most ambitious attempt to keep illegal performance-enhancing drugs out of high school sports. Florida's legislation still awaits the signature of Gov. Charlie Crist (R).


The Illinois High School Association also has plans to move ahead with a testing program as soon as next year, with or without the General Assembly’s help.

The programs will cost the states a considerable amount of money:

Texas’ program, which Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst (R) steered through the Legislature, will be the nation’s most expansive. Between 20,000 and 25,000 students in all sports in the coming school year — or about 3 percent of the state’s nation-high total of 742,341 high school athletes — will have their urine tested for steroids, according to Charles Breithaupt, athletics director for the University Interscholastic League, which will put the program into practice. The Texas Legislature has allotted $3 million a year for testing. Officials in neighboring Louisiana have shown interest in emulating the program.

Florida’s one-year pilot program would be much smaller, calling for testing of 1 percent of the state’s almost 59,000 high school athletes in football, baseball and weightlifting. The Legislature has allotted $100,000 for testing.

And as early results indicate, the cost may not be worth it:

In its testing program’s first year, New Jersey reported that every test for the fall 2006 sports season came back negative for steroids. The results from winter and spring sports have not yet been released. But the executive committee for the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, the organization in charge of the testing, has voted unanimously to renew the program for another year.

Emmett Till act passes House

The Emmett Till Act, named after the African American teenager whose brutal murder in 1955 helped spark the Civil Rights Movement, passed the House by a 422 to 2 margin.
The act calls for looking into cold cases of murdered African Americans. One of the sponsors of the bill was Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-Columbia.
The Emmett Till story is one that has been written about dozens of times during the third quarter research project in Mr. Randy Turner's communication arts classes at Joplin South Middle School.

Columbia schools considering uniforms

In her Class Notes Blog for the Columbia Tribune, Janese Heavin writes about the possibility of uniforms for Columbia public school students:

School board vice president Darin Preis knows the idea might not go anywhere, but he still wants to throw it out there -- school uniforms.

Preis plans to talk about the possibility of requiring uniforms during tomorrow's board retreat.

Research about uniforms at schools show mixed results. I've read testimonials from schools saying uniforms cut down on fights and distractions. Other studies, including one from a University of Missouri-Columbia professor, say uniforms don't really do anything.

Preis said he's aware of the concern that uniforms take away students' freedom of expression.

"But right now my desire for freedom of expression is butting heads with my desire for kids to be successful," he told me.

New York schools to pay students for good grades, attendance

How would you like to receive money just for showing up at school and making good grades?
That's what will happen to New York City students beginning this fall, according to an article in today's New York Times:

Under his plan, fourth-grade students will receive up to $25 for a perfect score on each of 10 standardized tests throughout the year. Seventh-grade students will be able to earn twice as much — $50 per test, for a total of up to $500. Fourth graders will receive $5 just for taking the test, and seventh graders will get $10.

Officials expect up to 40 schools to participate this fall, with a total of 9,000 students, in the pilot phase of the program, which will be monitored by Professor Fryer. After two years, they said, they will evaluate it for possible expansion.

Principals in the system's empowerment initiative — who have more autonomy to run their schools — can choose to join the program.

Similar, smaller programs for cash incentives to raise schoolchildren’s performance have been put in place elsewhere in the country. In Chelsea, Mass., for instance, students can receive $25 for perfect attendance. And in Dallas, some schools hand over $2 for every book a child reads.

Oregon law requires schools to come up with cyberbullying policies

Cyberbullying, the act of verbally abusing someone over the internet, continues to be a problem for the young people in our society and the Oregon legislature has done something about it, according to an article in the June 15 Portland Oregonian:

It starts with a MySpace comment. Maybe it's about a weekend indiscretion or a stolen boyfriend.

Then, like the flu, the cyberbullying spreads. Everybody has read it, and a student is in tears.

Cyberbullying -- when a nasty text message or online bulletin replaces a punch to the gut -- is a growing problem, said Kevin Blackwell, a social worker stationed at Hillsboro High School.

"I think I hear about some type of cyberbullying everyday," Blackwell said. "These kids are devastated; it's at such a wide scale."

Blackwell isn't the only one taking notice of this wired take on an old problem. The Oregon Legislature gave final approval Thursday to a bill that would require school districts to come up with a game plan for combating digital ruffians.

House Majority Leader Dave Hunt, a Gladstone Democrat, was the driving force behind the measure. Reports from constituents and, he said, some practical experience with his own children convinced him that a statewide call for policy was necessary.

"It's just becoming very apparent how different technology is in school," Hunt said. "We've got to make sure there are clear policies."

House Bill 2637 is an addition to Oregon bullying legislation passed in 2001. Specifically, the bill -- now on its way to the governor's desk -- defines cyberbullying as "the use of any electronic communication device to harass, intimidate or bully." Washington recently passed similar legislation.

One problem with the bill is going to be what school officials can do with cyberactivity that takes place away from school:

Identifying the problem is only half the battle. Though schools can punish students for things done and said at school -- if it has caused a significant disruption -- their authority off campus and on the Internet isn't so clear.

"You try to find at what point do we become involved?" Johnson said. "We have to be very careful of that."

This bill treads on the side of "better safe than sorry," by requiring schools to come up with ways to address cyberbullying that happens on campus, near campus, on school buses or at school-related activities. It doesn't bar schools from coming up with stricter policies, said Hunt, the Gladstone Democrat, it simply "establishes a base."

Another crackdown on cruising is on the horizon in Joplin

It appears the Joplin City Council is preparing for yet another crackdown on cruising Main, the most recent of several over the years.
Today's Joplin Globe features young people's reaction to the proposal:

By Mike Dwyer

Loud music, loads of people, fancy cars, and flurries of activity.

It’s cruise night on Joplin's Main Street, and it's easy to see why young people are drawn to it.

But all the elements that draw hoards of teenagers and young adults to Main Street have caused headaches for some in an increasingly residential downtown and prompted the City Council to revisit the issue of cruising.

The council discussed a variety of options for limiting what some have deemed an American pastime at an informal session June 3, but some cruising Main Street on a recent Saturday night said that placing further restrictions will limit recreational options for young people in a town they say doesn't have many.

Stefan Hokill, 17, of Carthage, said that if he weren't out with the crowd on Main Street on a Friday or Saturday night, he would "probably be going to parties and getting into a lot of trouble."

Instead, he said, he's out meeting people from Carl Junction, Webb City, Joplin — forming relationships that wouldn't have been fostered under any other circumstances.

"This is where we make friends," he said. "Carthage, Webb City — the rivalry — normally we hate each other."

Hokill said he usually stays out until about midnight and then goes home. Some downtown residents have expressed concerns that cruising-related activities often extend well into the early morning hours.

Cruising is defined by the city as a vehicle driving two times in the same direction past a control point during a two-hour period. Some say concerns raised are not from the cruising itself but rather the problems that are considered cruising-related — illegal drug activity, excessive noise, loitering and other peace disturbances.

According to city statistics, the Joplin Police Department received more than 900 calls in reference to cruising-related activities in 2005 and nearly 1,600 in 2006.

John Maxwell, 16, of Webb City, and Autumn Dorris, 18, of Carl Junction, said that fighting is a fairly common sight on a cruise night.

"A lot of drama starts on Main," Dorris said.

Maxwell said he probably sees one fight every weekend.

The council reached a consensus that an increased police presence on Main Street would be desirable, but these cruisers said that the Joplin Police Department, which accrues $20,000 a year in cruising-related overtime expense, has an overwhelming presence on Main Street.


"I think you see cops on every corner, pretty much," Dorris said.

Another idea endorsed by the council, though it took no action June 3, was to ban parking on Main Street during cruising hours. Councilman Phil Stinnett was a proponent of the idea, saying that it would eliminate many associated problems.

Cruisers balk at the idea. Cory Burton, 17, of Carthage, said with the price of gas at nearly $3 a gallon, he wondered who could afford a cruise night if parking were prohibited.

"The only place we can park is on the street," he said. "You've got to be able to park. Really, you’re here to congregate with people."

An ordinance prohibiting cruising was between 18th and 28th streets was passed in 1992. An idea discussed by the council was extending that ban to include the downtown area and limit the activity to the eight blocks between 10th and 18th streets where there are no residential units.

"That limits our places to hang out," Hokill said in his opposition to extending the ban.

Maxwell said cruisers driving north on Main Street through downtown typically turn around and head back north at First Street or Second Street.

The Police Department is in the process of gathering more statistics on cruising and related activities to present to the City Council in a few weeks. The council is expected to take some sort of action at that time.

Amber Lasley, 17, or Carl Junction, said she would understand if some limitations were imposed but a win-win situation must be worked so downtown residents and cruisers can coexist.

"Reasonable restrictions would be fine, but you can't ban cruising altogether," she said. "If there's no fighting, no vandalism, then I think it's fine. You’re wanting to meet new people."

The dangers of drunk driving

Today's Washington Post features a powerful article about the dangers of drunk driving:

Students at West Potomac High School in Fairfax County have heard, repeatedly, about the dangers of alcohol. After their graduation ceremony Thursday afternoon, the school sponsored an alcohol-free, all-night party. But in the end, young drivers take the keys, and their fates, into their own hands.

And so the defining image of the 2007 graduation season will be a white convertible Volkswagen Cabriolet, upside down, its roof gone, and four young lives gone with it. Two 18-year-old West Potomac graduates and two George Mason University students were killed late Thursday when their car suddenly veered into the path of a tractor-trailer on a ramp from the Capital Beltway. A fifth teenager, a 17-year-old West Potomac student, was hospitalized after being cut out of the wreckage.

The four kids had just received their diplomas, had their entire lives ahead of him and with one foolish lapse of judgment, it was all over. More information about the crash is featured in another Washington Post story, also published today:

"She said, 'Grandpa, I'm going to sleep out tonight at a girlfriend's house.' . . . I said, 'Okay, Renee, have a good time.' " Her grandfather fell asleep in his chair, his habit when Renee was out late. Four hours later, police knocked on his door to tell him she had been killed in a car accident. Lydia M. Petkoff, 18, the friend she was going to spend the night with, had also died in the crash.

Learning Shakespeare through hip-hop

Alan Sitomer, a teacher in a rough area of Los Angeles, has a new approach to teaching the works of classic authors like Shakespeare,Emily Dickinson, or Rudyard Kipling.
Sitomer relates the works of these authors to works by hip hop artists, according to an article in School Library Journal:

Ask the teens in Sitomer's class if they’ve heard of Ludacris, Tupac, or Nas and you’ll get a resounding yes. Ask the same kids if they know the works of Dickinson, Kipling, or Keats, and you'll get the same answer. In fact, these teens are experts at analyzing the poetry of hip-hop and the world’s greatest writers—and they can identify the symbolism, imagery, and irony in both.

What's so special about that? These at-risk students attend a severely overcrowded, low-performing school in East Los Angeles that’s surrounded by what Sitomer describes as "gangs, guns, and drugs." Prostitutes work the streets just a half mile away from the school, and many kids can’t take the most direct route home because it would put them in danger. "We have students every year who are victims of gang beatings, stabbings, and shootings," Sitomer says.

Life at school is rough, too. There's a campus probation officer who tracks students wearing electronic ankle bracelets and a canine crew regularly sniffs students for drugs and gunpowder. Many of the students are in foster care or come from troubled homes, so it's not surprising that more than 45 percent drop out.

The article offers examples of Sitomer's teaching including this one:

Dressed in a pair of Sketchers, jeans, and a lavender button-down shirt, the 40-year-old Sitomer walks around his classroom, telling a bunch of 10th-graders about one of his favorite writers. "You gotta realize that Shakespeare was a really cool dude," says Sitomer, who's so laid back that he’s a pretty cool dude himself. "I mean, he put rhymes down on paper about the same stuff that Biggie, Tupac, and Ice Cube laid down some of their best tracks about."

Sitomer goes on to explain that Hamlet deals with the abuse of power, greed, and feelings of desperate isolation, exactly the same things Tupac sang about in his famous song "Me Against the World."

"See, that's why we study literature," Sitomer continues, adding that inside the works of great writers we find universal themes of humanity. The whole point? That great literature isn't just about the past, it's very much a part of our lives today.

"Is there anyone in this room who hasn't felt all alone?" he asks, knowing very well that most, if not all, of his students can relate. "And have you ever wondered if it's 'you against the world'? Have you ever thought about whether it's worth it to go on or, as the Great Bard put it, 'To be or not to be?'"

Students shake their heads in acknowledgement and Sitomer knows he has a captive audience that really gets what he's talking about. "When the bell rings and students are still talking about your lesson on their way out from class, that’s when you know you’ve hit it out of the park," he says with pride.

British parents want webcams in classrooms

How would you like for your parents to be able to see everything you do in the classroom?

Parents in Great Britain would like to have that option through the installation of webcams in classrooms, according to a survey. Surprisingly, it appears many of the parents don't want the system to observe student or teacher behavior, but to be able to watch the lessons and help their children with homework.