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SNIPPET: "PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- Islamist militants blew up a girls school in Pakistan's lawless Khyber tribal district Sunday, destroying the building and wounding four people in neighbouring homes, officials said. Two explosions ripped through the 18-room government high school for girls at Kari Gar village and a boy who watched the premises is missing..." SNIPPET: "Islamist militants, who have carved out a strong presence in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border, have destroyed hundreds of schools, mostly for girls, in the northwest of the country in recent years. Nearly 200 schools were destroyed in the Swat valley alone...

CHICAGO (CBS) ― About one in seven girls at Robeson High School are pregnant. Officials say a variety of factors are to blame. Chicago public school full of energy and spirit. It has about 800 girls, and 115 of them have something in common – something you might find disturbing. All those young ladies are moms or moms-to-be at Paul Robeson High School. It's not a school for young mothers, it's a neighborhood school. And all of the pregnancies have happened, despite prevention talk.

HENRICO, VA (WWBT) - Reports of shots fired at Virginia Randolph Community High School in the West End has put the school on lockdown. The school is located on Mountain Road near Woodman Road. All students are accounted for and safe. According to officials, one person is in custody. No other details are available at this time.

Friend of the D.C. Chapter of FreeRepublic.com, Eugene Delgaudio of Public Advocate, will be holding a freep of Obama outside Wakefield High School in Arlington, VA, tomorrow morning. He's inviting Freeepers in the Northern Virginia-D.C. area to join him.He'll be there from 10 a.m. onward through the 12 noon scheduled speech at the edge of the security perimeter at Dinwiddie and Geo. Mason. Look for the Gadsden flags and the angry Arlingtronians trying to run Eugene out of their liberal haven :-)

Here is inspiring video of a Mississippi High School Quarterback who potentially saved 22 children on a school bus by tackling a 14 year-old girl wielding a loaded gun and threatening to kill students. Kaleb Eulls was on the bus, and when he realized she had the gun he tackled the girl getting the gun away from her. He is now being hailed as a hero for his bravery. The video is grainy, but shows him tackling the girl, and also contains an interview with the hero. . . . (Watch Video)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (Aug. 31) - A judge ruled Monday that prosecutors withheld evidence in the trial of an ex-high school football coach charged with reckless homicide in the death of one of his players. The ruling came on the opening day of jury selection in David Jason Stinson's trial. The former Pleasure Ridge Park coach is also charged with wanton endangerment in the death of 15-year-old offensive lineman Max Gilpin, who collapsed during practice while running in 94-degree heat last August. Gilpin died three days later

Students Get New Assignment: Pick Books You Like David Walter Banks Lorrie McNeill gives her middle school students a wide choice of reading in Jonesboro, Ga. More Photos MOTOKO RICH Published: August 29, 2009 JONESBORO, Ga. — For years Lorrie McNeill loved teaching “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the Harper Lee classic that many Americans regard as a literary rite of passage. But last fall, for the first time in 15 years, Ms. McNeill, 42, did not assign “Mockingbird” — or any novel. Instead she turned over all the decisions about which books to read to the students in her seventh-...

A recent 93-page report on online education, conducted by SRI International for the Department of Education, has a starchy academic title, but a most intriguing conclusion: “On average, students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face-to-face instruction.” The report examined the comparative research on online versus traditional classroom teaching from 1996 to 2008. Some of it was in K-12 settings, but most of the comparative studies were done in colleges and adult continuing-education programs of various kinds, from medical training to the military. Over the 12-year span, the report found 99 studies in which there were quantitative...

Florida is changing its policy on youths who opt for a GED to finish high school in less than four years. Until now, those looking for a shortcut could earn the same diploma as others. But Education Commissioner Eric Smith says that's not fair... So Smith has notified school districts that all who take the General Educational Development test must now receive a high school equivalency diploma, just like dropouts who later go through the GED process.

It's no secret that Martin High School has been in trouble academically for several years. In fact, the state has threatened to take the school over if things don't change. Some say it's so bad that most students are having a tough time graduating, let alone getting ready for college. That’s why interim principal Dr. Severita Sanchez has been put in place. As our Concetta Callahan reports she's ready to get Martin High on the right track by having students speak English. Dr. Sanchez says her team has already started working on a plan of action because she says there...

With nearly one-third of all U.S. public high school students failing to graduate each year, AT&T* today announced results from the latest study conducted by Civic Enterprises and Peter Hart Research with America’s Promise Alliance entitled “On the Front Lines of Schools,” where the voices of our nation’s education practitioners reflect their outlook on the high school dropout crisis. ( ... ) Teachers and administrators who are confronted every day with daunting challenges in the classroom, understand the reasons students drop out of school, and express strong support for reforms in our schools to address dropout rates. The research indicates...

Idaho is about to get its first conservative high school, Nampa Classical Academy, to be opened next semester in Nampa, Idaho. Founder Isaac Moffett has organized the school as a public charter school. It's about time that a school based on American exceptionalism again grace the land and Moffett aims to fulfill that very goal. Nampa Classical will teach Latin and Western classics, including the Bible. The school will not teach "certain sex ed," will eschew anti-American rhetoric and troop bashing and will impart the "good of America, the good of Western civilization," Moffett said. Moffett has modeled his curriculum...

1. What is the supreme law of the land? 2. What do we call the first 10 amendments to the Constitution? 3. What are the two parts of the U.S. Congress? 4. How many justices are on the Supreme Court? 5. Who wrote the Declaration of Independence? 6. What ocean is on the East Coast of the United States? 7. What are the two major political parties in the United States? 8. We elect a U.S. senator for how many years? 9. Who was the first president? 10. Who is in charge of the executive branch?

Fla. school likely named for Mourning over Reno By MATT SEDENSKY Associated Press Writer Advertisement Buy AP Photo Reprints Your Questions Answered Ask AP: Following Sotomayor, movie closed captions MIAMI (AP) -- Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno appears to have lost in an unlikely matchup with former NBA star Alonzo Mourning. A committee charged with deciding what to call a new high school in North Miami was considering naming it after one of the two, and last week chose the athlete and his wife.

MIAMI - Miami-Dade officials have decided to name a new high school after former NBA star Alonzo Mourning. The Miami-Dade School Board voted today to name the new North Miami school after Mourning, rather than former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno.

Some Southern Lehigh High School students who camped in the school's courtyard overnight as a senior prank could face trespassing charges and disciplinary action. Brian McLaughlin of Upper Saucon Township police, who is assigned to the school as a resource officer, said 17 boys took part in the Monday night prank. He is investigating whether any others were involved.

Justice Thomas -- who otherwise never misses court -- skipped a SCOTUS session to speak at the graduation of his travel companions. High school seniors Terrence Stephens and Jason Ankrah, star football players at Quince Orchard High School in Gaithersburg, Md., were sitting on a plane returning from a recruitment session at the University of Nebraska when they struck up a conversation with the man sitting next to them. Their seat-mate just happened to be a major Cornhuskers fan. When they started chatting, Stephens and Ankrah didn't have a clue they were holding court with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas....

San Francisco -- A three-year battle over whether Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps belongs in San Francisco schools ended Tuesday night with a 4-3 vote by the school board to restore the military leadership program weeks before its scheduled expiration. More than 200 supporters and opponents of the program crowded into the school district headquarters to make their final pleas to the board. And their arguments were as emotionally charged as they were when the fight began in 2006. "To some of you, this is a political issue," Balboa High School sophomore Malik Douglas told the board. "But to me...

MONTVILLE, N.J. — A New Jersey high school student has been suspended for organizing a contest in which boys voted on the school's best-looking girls in a bracket modeled on the NCAA basketball tournament. Mike Butrym, of Towaco, says he was continuing a Montville High School tradition and believes his five-day suspension is too harsh. The contest was called "May Madness." Teenage boys chose 16 female students from each grade. Each day, they paired off the girls and judged them on their appearance. Winners advanced to the next round.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman will give a free presentation, “Return of Depression Economics,” at Lincoln North Star High School at 7 p.m. May 8. “The Lincoln Public Schools District is indeed fortunate – especially in this era of economic downturn – to host the current, reigning Nobel Prize winner in economics,” said Randy Ernst, social studies curriculum specialist at LPS. Krugman is an economist, columnist, author and professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University. [+]Enlarge Story Photo Paul Krugman, Nobel Prizewinning economist (AP Photo/Mel Evans) Story Photo Paul Krugman, Nobel Prizewinning economist (AP Photo/Mel Evans) He was...

Natural Selection Studies Based on Bad Statistics March 30, 2009 — Hundreds of studies claiming to show natural selection may be wrong, say scientists from Penn State and Japan.  PhysOrg reported today that “several statistical methods commonly used by biologists to detect natural selection at the molecular level tend to produce incorrect results.”  Many studies of human evolution have relied on these flawed methods.  If the methods were wrong, the conclusions are unreliable.  “Of course, we would never say that natural selection is not happening, but we are saying that these statistical methods can lead scientists to make erroneous inferences,”...

A Dobson High School Advanced Placement government class with strong opinions about Barack Obama watched the president's speech Wednesday on a small, grainy TV in the corner of their classroom. Principal, student talk hoops with Obama Obama lays out plan amid hundreds at Dobson Some of the students attentively watched the speech, giving questioning looks and comments, shaking their heads and laughing at some of Obama's words. Other students listened, occasionally glancing up to watch, while texting on their cell phones, reading a book or finishing school work. The gymnasium's events were shown simultaneously in rooms throughout the Mesa school,...

Here is video of a brawl between two Alabama High School Basketball teams that quickly spread to the fans as well. Nothing like sportsmanship to make you feel good inside. . . . . (Watch Video)

PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. ... After decades of grooming a handful of high school students in an exclusive research class to succeed in the elite national Intel Science Talent Search, school administrators this year, for the first time, required every seventh grader to do original research. With similar goals in mind, the district has added honor societies in English, art and music — for a total of seven — to recognize students whose overall grades may keep them out of the National Honor Society. Since 2003, it has expanded its menu of Advanced Placement courses to 25 subjects and opened them...

JONESBORO, Ga. -- A high school dance team at Jonesboro High School has been disbanded. The move announced Tuesday comes after parents complained about a provocative dance routine that was performed by the 8-member group at a Jan. 13 basketball game. Jacqueline Evans, a school district spokeswoman, said the squad will not be allowed to perform or represent the school for the remainder of the school year. A video showing the dance, titled "The Sluts of Jonesboro," had also been posted on YouTube, but has since been removed from the web site. "The team will not perform for the remainder...

A former Hunterdon County school official pleaded guilty yesterday to embezzling more than $90,000 from Delaware Valley Regional High School, saying he stole most of the money from the cafeteria. Robert P. Walsh, 43, of Forks Township, Pa., admitted in federal court in Camden that he committed the crime from 2005 to 2007 while he served as the school's business administrator and then superintendent, authorities said. "This was a top school official, well-compensated, whose charge and duty was to protect the interests of the school district and its students," Acting U.S. Attorney Ralph J. Marra said. "Instead, he acted as...

A double slaying east of Colorado Springs on Thursday was the result of a gang-related clash over a stolen iPod, the El Paso County Sheriff's Office said. The suspect, 19-year-old Juan Vasquez, was arrested early Friday in the shooting deaths of two male high school students at a park in the Cimarron Hills area, sheriff's spokeswoman Lt. Lari Sevene said. The victims were identified as 18-year-old Uriel Rascon and 17-year-old Luis Burciaga. Rascon attended Sierra High School, and Burciaga went to The New Horizons School, an alternative high school. Both schools are in Harrison School District 2. Vasquez is being...

An East Tennessee High School is dealing with two confirmed cases of the drug resistant Staph infection known as MRSA. The school is still open but some family members still have their concerns. The cases of MRSA are considered isolated and no students are considered at risk. Both confirmed cases are of teachers but school officials are still taking extra precaution to try and protect students from getting MRSA. Jessica Sharp is one of many concerned family members in Union County, after hearing word of MRSA cases at Union County High School. "It’s not just only the students that would...

Imagine a school where GLBT students can walk down the hall without fear of being called names or even suffering physical assault; where unlike the majority of America’s schools, where fellow students, and sometimes teachers, hurl verbal harassment, queer youth are safe among others who understand them, because the school is designed for GLBT students to call their own. Arne Duncan, chief of Chicago’s school system, envisioned such a school for Chicago. If it had been approved, The Social Justice High School-Pride Campus school would have joined Harvey Milk High School in New York City as a haven for GLBT...

Teen Sues NYC High School; Others Allege 'Separate Room' Where Agents Hand Out Fistful Of Discipline NEW YORK (CBS) ― A high school in Queens is under fire after students said they were abused by school safety agents. Now a teenager is suing. Rojan Morgan is suing Hillcrest High School after he says several school safety agents assaulted him after he brought a cell phone to school. "They took me to a back room, inside of the school and started to beat me," Morgan said. "When I came to the school I was ignored and shut out and that's how...

SCARSDALE, N.Y. — The Advanced Placement English class at Scarsdale High School used to race through four centuries of literature to prepare students for the A.P. exam in May. But in this year’s class, renamed Advanced Topics, students spent a week studying Calder, Pissarro and Monet to digest the meaning of form and digressed to read essays by Virginia Woolf and Francis Bacon — items not covered by the exam. A similarly slowed-down pace came at a cost for some students in one of Scarsdale’s Advanced Topics classes in United States history; it was still in the 1950s at the...

Again freepers are the smartest people I know so I thought I would ask here. I am looking for a good summer camp in the Science/Math/Tech field to send my daughter (16) to this summer. I was wondering if any of you freepers know of any good summer programs/camps in the US.

A 34-year-old teacher from Petaluma was arrested Saturday morning in San Mateo on several felony charges relating to trying to meet and seduce a minor, according to Burlingame police detectives, who made the arrest. At approximately 9:45 a.m., Burlingame police detectives arrested Scott Eugene Dietlin on charges of sending harmful matter (via electronic e-mail) with the intent to seduce a minor, attempting to contact a minor with intent to commit a sexual offense, and arranging to meet with a minor with intent to commit a sexual offense, according to a police press release. This arrest was the culmination of a...

RANCHO BERNARDO — Kevin Change said it was strange the first time he saw an advertisement across the bottom of his calculus test. But now he and his classmates look for them. “It's really interesting to see what it is each time,” said Change, 16, a junior at Rancho Bernardo High School. Some are pithy one-liners, hawking the names of local businesses: “Brace Yourself for a Great Semester! Braces by Henry, Stephen P. Henry D.M.D.” Others are inspirational quotes, like “Keep the company of those who seek the truth, and run from those who have found it – Vaclav Havel.”...

Two men on a motorcycle used water pistols to spray acid on girls walking to school Wednesday in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, blinding at least two of them, military spokesmen said. U.S. Col. Greg Julian said Afghanistan's National Military Command Center told him that four girls were hurt in the incident. Two were blinded and remain hospitalized, and two were treated and released, he said. The men escaped after the attack, and no one claimed responsibility for it, but Arab-language network Al-Jazeera said Taliban militants were suspected to be responsible. The incident occurred about 8 a.m. near Mirwais...

Officials at Papillion–La Vista South High School have suspended two students who allegedly used insensitive language during a social studies class discussion about the presidential election. The school said the juniors made comments about President-elect Barack Obama that had racial and religious undertones. School officials declined to release the names of the two juniors and did not say how long they'll be kept out of classes. They also didn't disclose exactly what the students said, but indicated that the suspension fell under the Papio-La Vista School District's harassment policy. "It basically says that any language that's offensive, based on gender,...

91-0 Game Tough for Both Teams ESTERO, Fla. - The Estero High football staff gathered in head coach Rich Dombroski's office late Friday, almost in stunned silence. Earlier that night, Estero lost to Naples High by 13. Not by 13 points. By 13 touchdowns. That's right: Naples 91, Estero 0. < snip > A half-hour away in Naples, Eagles coach Bill Kramer - the man on the winning end - could use one of those. He looked at the scoreboard late in the game, saw 91-0, and said he felt sick to his stomach. Kramer's team ran only 31...

Next up is post-high-school planning. I break these activities into two areas: those for students who want to go to college, and those for students who don’t. I try to get my students to do the best they can, whatever that means for them. For students who don’t want to go to college, this means making sure they meet all of the requirements to graduate. For students planning to go to college, the process is a bit more complicated. Armed with information from college conferences that I attend every fall, I sit down with my seniors to make sure they...

LAST MONDAY, Sean Fisher of Waldwick collapsed while running drills. It was reported he may have had an undetected heart condition. Fisher died that day. It was his 13th birthday. On Tuesday, Douglas Morales of Cliffside Park died of injuries sustained during a football practice the previous week. He ruptured a blood vessel to the brain. He was 17 years old. Communities are in mourning, young athletes are unsettled by the untimely deaths of teammates and parents are trying to figure out what happened and how to prevent it from recurring. While each case is different and it’s too early...

ANAHEIM A north Orange County high school has been told it can no longer ban a Bible club from meeting on campus and must offer them listings in the school's yearbook and Web site, it was reported Thursday. Until the federal court ruling, students had been prevented from starting a Bible club at Esperanza High School in Anaheim. Placentia-Yorba Linda School District officials argued that only curriculum-related groups are allowed on campus, the Los Angeles Times reported. But in issuing a preliminary injunction last Thursday, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney said that Esperanza does allow other groups -- such...

For the second consecutive year, SAT scores for the most recent high school graduating class remained at the lowest level in nearly a decade, according to results released Tuesday. But the College Board, which owns the exam, attributes the lower averages of late to a more positive development: a broader array of students are taking the test, from more first-generation college students to a record number of students — nearly one in seven — whose family income qualifies them to take the test for free.

Students in Stripes? by: Deborah Lambert, August 25, 2008 At least one Texas high school has finally decided to get tough with students. Starting this fall, anyone who violates the dress code at Gonzales High School will spend the rest of the day in a prison-like jump suit. Opinions differ on the merits of this plan. “Some parents said the jumpsuits will make students feel like prisoners, but the district said it’s just a way to keep the children dressed appropriately for school,” according to NewsChannel6.com. Student Jordan Meredith suggests that his schoolmates may end up having the last laugh....

A shooting at Central High School ended the day before it even began as one student was fatally shot Thursday morning. Students were in the cafeteria of the school when witnesses said they saw two male students shoving and would end with the death of Ryan McDonald, age 15. The school went into lockdown immediately as students run into rooms and teachers locked doors. Other area schools were also put into lockdown mode. The shooting occurred at 8:11 a.m. and the school resource officer was at the school at the time. By 8:13 a.m. Knoxville officers had arrived at the...

If college students can take more than four years to graduate, why not high school students? State educators are considering a proposal to raise the number of years before graduation for some Michigan high school students. Under today's regulations, students count as "dropouts" in state records if they don't finish high school in four years -- even if they receive their diplomas within the next year. But that could soon change. "This is great news," said Mary Beth Handeyside, director at Omni Adult and Alternative Education, the alternative high school of Carrollton Public Schools. "It's not only in the interest...

Deploying a long-promised tool to track high school dropouts, the state released numbers today showing that 1 in 4 California students quit school in the 2006-07 school year, including 1 in 3 in Los Angeles. The rates are considerably higher than previously acknowledged but lower than some independent estimates. The figures are based on a new statewide tracking system that relies on identification numbers that were issued to all California public school students beginning in fall 2006. The ID numbers allow the state Department of Education to track students who leave one school and enroll in another, even if it...

Brooklyn teen Quashon Burton thought bringing a laxative-laced cake to school would be "funny" - but he's not laughing now.   After two teachers were sickened and he was hit with an assault charge, the senior is worried his whole future is collapsing like a half-baked souffle. "I'm pretty scared," Burton told the Daily News Thursday outside his home in Brownsville.  "I didn't mean to have this whole thing blow out of proportion. I thought it would be a senior prank that everyone would think is funny." Burton, 17, and pals Tiara Peoples and Kenny Ramirez got the idea to...

Grapevine High School senior Anjali Datta holds the highest grade-point average of the 471 students graduating from Grapevine High School this year. In fact, Grapevine-Colleyville ISD officials believe her GPA of 5.898 may be the highest in the high school's history. It's still not enough to make her the valedictorian, which brings a one-year college scholarship from the state. Her closest competitor's GPA is 5.64. No one disputes that she's the top student in her class numerically. The problem rests with another number entirely. Anjali rocketed through high school in only three years. But a school district policy states: "The...

River Dell Regional High School was one of three schools statewide to get a grant for its random drug testing program, federal officials said today. The school was awarded $43,100 for the upcoming school year as part of a $5.8 million grant program from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Schools in Hillsborough and Brick also received grants. “It’s another tool to reinforce positive decisions,” said Stephen Schatz, spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. “It’s really geared toward treatment.” River Dell Superintendent Patrick Fletcher said the money will fund better testing that...

FRESNO, Calif. — The valedictorian at Fresno's Bullard High School won't be attending college in the United States this fall because he's scheduled to be deported. Arthur Mkoyan's 4.0 grade-point average qualified him to enter one of the state's top universities. But the 17-year-old and his mother have been ordered back to Armenia after their last appeal for asylum failed.

The principal of T.C. Roberson High School says an alleged assault on a student has been blown out of proportion, but the teen's mother says her son is the victim and the school isn't sticking up for him. Principle Bob Weinkle says he ordered an internal investigation of the incident, and says while there may have been as assault, he doesn't believe it had a sexual motive. However, the 15-year old victim's mother says that is not the case. Elizabeth Murray says two boys pinned her son against a wall and sexually assaulted him while he was clothed. The Buncombe...