Free Republic

Danielle Pelletier said she never once had to serve a detention when she attended Winslow High School more than two decades ago. But her clean record ended Friday. Pelletier, 39, served her first detention, reporting to Room 24 of the high school promptly at 2:15 p.m. for a one-hour stay. The Vassalboro mother served the time in place of her daughter, who had been given the punishment because of an unexcused absence. Pelletier requested the stand-in arrangement, she said, because she was the one who elected to pull her daughter out of class 30 minutes before the end of the...

Today, public schools across North America are often faced with rebellious, unruly students. This phenomenon reflects a mismanagement of the school's code of discipline. There is no standard interpretation of discipline within our public education system. Many schools see discipline as something harsh, punitive and old-fashioned. They want school to be a friendly place that is fun and exciting for the students, without rules to stifle individuality. Paradoxically, school can be fun and exciting for students only when they are learning something worthwhile, and when they feel confident because they know their place and are familiar with the rules of...

After high school senior Michael Holloman refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, raising his fist defiantly in the air, the principal gave him two choices: detention or corporal punishment. Holloman chose the paddle. His father chose to file suit. The Alabama student's case was argued Friday before the federal appeals court in Atlanta, just days after the appeals court in San Francisco declared the Pledge unconstitutional because it contains the words "one nation, under God." But that wasn't the issue before the Atlanta appeals court on Friday. Instead, the three-judge panel was asked to decide whether schools have the...

"The 16-year-old high school junior [with his father, above] from Salida, Calif., is a C student with a filthy mouth who has been known to saunter into class on his own schedule. And, yes, as Russell readily admits, after a bout of name-calling with a white classmate last fall, he threw the first punch in a fistfight that left him battered and his adversary with five stitches over his left eye. But is Russell actually a victim?…." Learning While Black You've heard of racial profiling on the roads and in the skies. But are minority kids also being unfairly singled...

<p>MAYOR Bloomberg is sure talking large about wanting control of the public schools through the abolition of the city’s antiquated Board of Education.</p> <p>He’s now thinking of downsizing and moving the Board of Ed’s gargantuan Brooklyn headquarters to the refurbished Tweed Courthouse downtown, close to City Hall, where he might temporarily gain some more leverage over its bureaucracy, at least until, and if, the Legislature acts to give him direct control of our schools.</p>