Kirby Moore is a dye deliquent. After her stepsister Chelsea dyed her hair to a slightly darker color (and received accolades from her teachers), Kirby dyed her hair dark brown. When she appeared at her school in England, she was whisked away and confronted with the dress code — and her all-too-dark image. Her hair was unnaturally dark and she must remain secluded until she is again “natural.”
Category: Academia
This may have been a case where considerable time and money could have been saved with a brief conversation with some ten year olds in any school playground. My alma mater, The University of Chicago, has completed an exhaustive study and determined that bullies actually enjoy inflicting pain on others.
An elementary teacher in Fayetteville, North Carolina is under attack after a video has surfaced where she appears to criticize John McCain and embarrass a student who supported her in her fifth-grade glass at Mary McArthur Elementary School. Diatha D. Harris also calls the Iraq war “senseless.”
An interesting fight is brewing at the University of California. Alexander McPherson, 64, is a leading biologist who has taken a stand against mandatory sexual harassment training on principle. Among other things, he objected to the requirement as an infringement of academic freedom and an act of political correctness. He may lose his tenured position and the University may lose a researcher responsible for $20 million a year in grants.
Continue reading “Leading California Professor Suspended Over Refusal to Take Mandatory Sexual Harassment Training”
The Juneau Board of Education has agreed to a settlement in the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case that led to a Supreme Court decision in its favor. Under the settlement, former Juneau-Douglas High School student Joseph Frederick will receive a $45,000 payment.
Continue reading “Alaska School System Settles “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” Case”
St. Olaf in Northfield, Minnesota Professor Philip Busse has resigned under pressure after he recounted in an article on Huffington Post how he tore down a McCain campaign sign. He is now only only out of a job but he is charged with misdemeanor theft.
Continue reading “Minnesota Professor Ousted After Tearing Down McCain Sign”
This one is unbelievable. Fifth-grader Jordan Hood was asked to draw a Halloween mask last week at the Pooler Elementary School in Georgia. He did a classic vampire-dripping-blood-with-sharp-teeth picture (see on left). He even wrote “I Kill for Blood,” which is a nice touch. His art teacher thought it was fine and even helped him complete it. However, the picture pushed his homeroom teacher Melissa Pevey off the deep-end of Pooler. She pulled him from class and sent him for psychiatric evaluation. The school even suggested that he might be a member of the Bloods street gang.
Continue reading “Georgia Fifth-Grader Asked to Draw Scary Mask and Then Suspended For It”
Tara Miller, a teacher at the Faith Ringgold School of Arts and Science in Hayward, California is under attack this week after parents learned that she asked her kindergarteners to sign card pledging to support gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people. Putting aside how much a 5-year-old would know about transgender people, Miller wants the cards filled out as part of National Ally Week.
Faculty members at Tulane Law School (where I began my teaching career) are searching for the culprit in a dastardly crime: the theft of one of Mr. Rogers’ shoes from the Children’s Museum during the Barrister’s Ball. It appears that someone took a different meaning to his question “could you be mine?” when they spotted the unguarded display. As Mister Rogers might say, the question is now “can you return it?” — I knew you could.
When Chad Hardy created the “Men on a Mission” Calendar of shirtless Mormon hunks, he thought is was a fun idea. Church elders disagreed and excommunicated him. Now, Brigham Young University has denied him a diploma and said that he cannot receive on until he is reinstated by the Mormon church. This could make for a very interesting constitutional and contractual challenge.
In Vacaville, California, parents prefers their music teachers to remain one gender — or at least give them notice when a gender changes. When a music teacher returned to school as a man after an operation, parents protested and children have been pulled from his class.
Continue reading “Music Teacher’s Sex Change Operation Causes Outcry at Foxboro Elementary”
There is an interesting feud in San Francisco after first-grade students to the wedding of their Lesbian teacher’s wedding. Opponents of same-sex marriage object that this is a major religious and political controversy and that the event (where students threw rose petals on teacher Erin Carder and her now wife Kerri McCoy) was “indoctrination.”
Chicago school officials are recommending the creation of a “gay-friendly” high school to accommodate rising numbers of gay and lesbian students and reduce harassment in the school system. I have long been opposed to the increasing specialization and balkanization of the public school system. While I support this worthy purpose, I believe that it has a negative impact on the goals of a public system as a whole. It is hard to oppose such schools like School for Social Justice Pride Campus, but I believe that the solution is to expel abusive and homophobic students — not remove the victims.
Randolph Flechsig, president of Davenport University in Michigan has pleaded guilty to a DUI and refusing to take a breath test during his arrest. The video below shows the arrest. Davenport was declared the “College President of the Year” in 2003. While a spokesperson first denied alcohol was the culprit (as opposed to a diabetic complication), he now admits to multiple Bloody Marys. Of course, he can claim that unlike a college president in Iowa recently, he did not have a picture taken pouring a beer keg in the mouth of a student.
Continue reading ““College President of the Year” Arrested for DUI”
A Marianna, Fla. middle-school teacher, Greg Howard, will not be fired after he allegedly explained to his class what supporters of Barach Obama really mean by “Change.” He reportedly wrote the word on the board as an acronym: “C.H.A.N.G.E. — Come Help A (N-word) Get Elected.” It appears that in Florida, openly racist lesson plans are merely cause for a 10 days suspension and a relocation to a new job within the district.
Continue reading “Florida Teacher Fined But Retained After Allegedly Racist Lesson for Middle School Students”