Officials at the Berkeley Unified School District are investigating an allegation that Jefferson Elementary School teacher Gwen Martin not only told her students that Santa and the Easter Bunny were fakes but told them that God is very real.
Continue reading “Making the Naughty List: California Teacher Tells Students that Santa and Easter Bunny Do Not Exist”
Category: Academia
Jennie Killip, the women’s officer at the students’ union at Manchester University, considered traditional toilet signs to be insulting to transgender students by referring to “Gents” or “Ladies” or “Men” or “Women.” What if you are somewhere in between, she asked. So, the school changed the signs to “Toilets with urinals” and just “Toilets.” The result was chaos as students ran about trying to decide where to go to the bathroom.
Academics around the country are playing a weird new trivia game akin to Where’s Waldo — Collegiate Edition. I have been challenged by professors to name all of the colleges that Palin attended in her long pursuit of a college degree. Palin pools appear the rage among the academic set. For those who want to check their academic trivia, the answer is below. (Hint: she switched six times in six years but one college was a repeat)
Harvard University appears to have made a curious choice in its dining halls. Harvard University Dining Services has been supplying index cards with nutritional information for people concerned about fat and calorie content — part of a national trend to give more information to consumers. It has now, however, pulled the cards after students and parents complained that it would worsen eating disorders like anorexia nervosa.
The good people on the board of education in Clovis, New Mexico have voted to review all of the content of all student publications after a Yearbook published pictures of lesbian couples in their high school. Principals are also empowered to censor such publications like the Plainsman Yearbook. The Plainsman of Clovis High will be be both plain and straight.
Continue reading “Keeping the Plainsman Plain (and Straight): New Mexico Board of Education Takes Over Student Publications After Lesbian Yearbook Picture”
Even at eleven years old, Daxx Dalton shares his father’s intense conservative views and displayed those views by wearing a tee-shirt to school that read “Obama is a terrorist’s best friend.” The fifth grader wore the tee-shirt on a day when the students at Aurora Frontier K-8 School were asked to wear red, white and blue to show their patriotism. The school suspended him for the infraction and created a first amendment controversy.
Continue reading “Student Suspended for Wearing Political Tee-Shirt in Colorado”
It appears that working for Obama will not only put you in good stead with God but gain you some badly needed credits at the University of Massachusetts. School officials have moved to rescind an offer of two college credits for students who volunteer for Democrat Barack Obama. This follows a Denver professor who assigned students an essay to write critical things about GOP Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin.
Recently, a study from one of my former colleagues at Tulane Law School attracted national attention, including on this blog. The study by Tulane Law Professor Vernon Palmer and Loyola assistant professor of economics John Levendis found a disturbing correlation between contributions and voting on the Court. The Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Pascal F. Calogero Jr., has now released a letter from Tulane Law School Dean Lawrence Ponoroff apologizing to the Court for errors in the study.
Continue reading “Tulane Law School Issues Apology for Errors in Study of Louisiana Supreme Court”
Hilton Head Island International Baccalaureate Elementary School officials have supplied yet another example of blind mindless application of policies. They has suspended a student for having a broken pencil sharpener.
Continue reading “Student Suspended for Broken Pencil Sharpener”
Literature Professor Joy Ladin wants to put the she back into Yeshiva. Formerly known as Jay Ladin, 47, has returned to the school as a woman and was put on leave after an outcry from religious conservatives at the school. She has now been reinstated over the objections of some of the faculty.
Continue reading “Joy Returns to Yeshiva, But Some are Not Joyful”
John McCain’s campaign is getting a lot of flak over showing a picture of Walter Reed Middle School, located in Los Angeles rather than Washington’s Walter Reed Medical Center. Of course, it was a lot better than Senator Sen. Lindsey Graham speaking about how successful the Administration has been with a backdrop of row after row of graves.
Continue reading “Walter Reed Middle School Becomes Political Backdrop and National Talking Point”
Los Angeles has now officially opened its $350 million downtown high school the Edward R. Roybal Learning Center. It is only a decade over due and more than the operating budgets of some small nations. It appears that economics and good government will be elective courses at Roybal.
UCLA is facing a renewed controversy over the use of race in its admissions policies after Political science professor Tim Groseclose resigned in protest from the Admissions committee. He has charged that the school is covering up illegal use of race as a selection criteria — a long simmering controversy at the school.
Continue reading “UCLA Faces New Controversy Over Use of Race in Admissions”
After the removal of Iowa Central Community College President Robert Paxton for a chugging picture at a boat party, it appears that academics are having some serious alcohol problems this week. Prosecutors in Pittsburgh have called for the jailing of Carnegie Mellon University professor and former Dean Jeffrey Hunker, 51, who has been charged with drunken driving three times in eight days. In the first incident, Hunker ran over a yard, hit a tree, and then ran into a house. Hunker was computer security director in the Clinton administration. He was then hired as dean of Carnegie Mellon’s H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management in 2001.
Continue reading “Carnegie Mellon Professor Arrested Three Times in Eight Days for Drunk Driving”
Iowa Central Community College President Robert Paxton has had his share of controversies, including a past indictment for fraud. However, it was a picture of Paxton holding the spigot of a small beer keg over the mouth of a young woman on the boat that finally convinced the school board to let him go. He will not go empty handed, however. He will eventually take an impressive $400,000 from the school — and can presumably keep the keg. Moreover, he could use the picture to secure a job as a spokesman in the recent campaign of university presidents to lower the drinking age for college students.