Free Republic

New York City and its teachers' unions have reached a deal to put an end to a bizarre and Kafkaesque system in which suspended teachers are placed in holding centres, dubbed "rubber rooms", doing nothing on full pay in some cases for as long as 10 years. The rubber rooms — so nicknamed after the padded cells of old-style mental hospitals — have become a symbol of the unacceptable face of the city's education system, which is the largest in the US. Around 600 teachers are currently occupying the temporary reassignment centres, as they are officially known, in locations across...

A group of Oakland parents, frustrated by a nearly two-year battle to remove a reportedly abusive teacher, went on strike Thursday, pulling their children out of school and onto a picket line at the district's downtown headquarters. Close to 80 percent of Lazear Elementary School's 300 students didn't show up for school Thursday - a loss of almost $9,000 in state funding for the day - and apparently a wake-up call for district and teachers union officials who met with the parents Thursday afternoon to try to resolve the issue. The boycott was a last resort for the parents, who...

The system that Lower Merion school officials used to track lost and stolen laptops wound up secretly capturing thousands of images, including photographs of students in their homes, Web sites they visited, and excerpts of their online chats, says a new motion filed in a suit against the district. More than once, the motion asserts, the camera on Robbins' school-issued laptop took photos of Robbins as he slept in his bed. Each time, it fired the images off to network servers at the school district. Back at district offices, the Robbins motion says, employees with access to the images marveled...

...Beaverton Middle School teacher Jason Levin's group wants to infiltrate the Tea Party to discredit the organization. But since Levin's name has been associated with the "Crash the Tea Party" Web site, he has been harassed by people who say they belong to that group. Levin told KATU-TV that his phone has been ringing around the clock and his answering machine is recording threats...

In an ideal world this reprehensible man would be fired for abusing state resources and time. But, in Oregon, he will probably be given a bonus and elected union boss. Can you imagine this monster has influence over children and he's encouraging people to feign racism and exploit it? i hope there is a special place in Hell for this man.

The Rochester school district says that a teacher's use of his school e-mail account to send a message urging staff to join a counter-rally against Thursday's Tea Party Patriots rally violated the district's e-mail policy. "The District considers an e-mail message that was sent out by a District employee on Friday, April 9, 2010, an inappropriate use of District e-mail. In compliance with the District policy, all personnel issues will remain confidential and the District will take appropriate action according to our policies," according to a statement released Monday by the district. The teacher sent an e-mail to other teachers...

NJ school cancels cross-dressing fashion show after complaints Last Updated: 1:04 PM, April 13, 2010 Posted: 1:03 PM, April 13, 2010 A school superintendent in New Jersey said a "misunderstanding" led an elementary school teacher to mandate that all students -- including young boys -- dress as women in a now-canceled fashion show to honor Women's History Month, FOXNews.com reported Tuesday. "I wish the letter had been clearer and had been worded differently," Maple Shade Township School Superintendent Michael Livengood told FoxNews.com, referring to a letter sent home to the children's parents last week informing them of the assignment. "But...

A teacher at Genesee Elementary School in Auburn has been arrested for stealing lunch money. Police say 37-year-old Alan Robinson of Ithaca, a third-grade teacher at Genesee, used children's subsidized school lunch cards to buy himself lunch, and then never repaid the students. Robinson would have kids bring their own lunch to school, and then use their personal ID numbers to buy himself lunch. According to a state database, Robinson's salary is $50,000 a year. The investigation began after a parent saw suspicious charges on her bill. Robinson has been charged with three counts of petit larceny and three counts...

The little girls' room won't be just for little girls anymore, if the Maine Human Rights Commission has its way. The commission is taking heat over a controversial proposal to ban schools from enforcing gender divisions in sports teams, school organizations, bathrooms and locker rooms. It says forcing a student into a particular room or group because of his or her biological gender amounts to discrimination. The issue came to light last year when the commission ruled that, under the Maine Human Rights Act, a school had discriminated against a 12-year-old transgender boy by denying him access to the girls'...

According to Fox News, Maine is considering banning the little boys, little girls rooms, boys vs girls locker rooms, boys and girls sports teams, etc. Reason: Sexual discrimination. I'm sorry folks, but the people running our government are full blooming idiots! Vote thm ALL out!!

A Northfield middle school teacher admitted in court Wednesday that she bit off a chunk of a stranger's ear while in a St. Paul cafe last month, severing a piece of flesh that police presume she swallowed. Susan M. Mwarabu, 30, of Rochester, pleaded guilty in Ramsey County District Court to third-degree felony assault. She remains free pending sentencing May 20.

To celebrate women's history month this year, grade school boys are being forced to dress up like women at the Maple Shade School District in Burlington County, New Jersey and some parents are none too happy about it. According to Beth F. Norcia, Principal of the Maude Wilkins Elementary School, the cross-dressing scheme was set up as a contest to celebrate women's history month among the Burlington County schools. The idea, says Principal Norcia, is for the kids to dress up as women through various periods of American history. When a nonplussed parent called the school to inquire about the...

(Newser) – USA Swimming has been rocked by the disclosure that 36 coaches have been banned for life for molesting teen athletes over the last 10 years, according to a suit brought by victims' families. Coaches secretly videotaped, fondled, and were otherwise indecent with their charges, court papers reveal. One coach in Indiana set up a camera in a "special" shower room and secretly filmed his athletes while they bathed, ABC News reports. In some cases, the itinerant coaching lifestyle allowed predators to stay one step ahead of authorities and victims' families. Another coach, who was sentenced to 40 years...

After more than a quarter century of debate, Yale faculty members are now barred from sexual relationships with undergraduates—not just their own students, but any Yale undergrads. The new policy, announced to faculty in November and incorporated into the updated faculty handbook in January, is “an idea whose time has come,” says Deputy Provost Charles Long, who has advocated the ban since 1983. In his decades at Yale, Long has seen many faculty-student romances. Most turn out fine, he says, but others are destructive to students. “I think we have a responsibility to protect students from behavior that is damaging...

Durham, N.C. — A former Duke University employee should serve "a substantial period of incarceration" followed by a lifetime of supervision for sex crimes against a child, according to sentencing guidelines for the crime filed last week in district court. Frank M. Lombard, 43, was sentenced Monday to 27 years in prison. He pleaded guilty in December to a federal child sex charge. He was arrested in June after authorities said Washington police caught him in a sting operation. Lombard was charged with attempting to induce someone to cross state lines to engage in a sexual offense. He pleaded to...

PHILADELPHIA — Who knew a school cafeteria could be so much fun? A space where hundreds of Philadelphia charter school students have been eating their lunches during mundane weekdays has been doubling in its off-hours as nightclub, offering dancing and drinking despite an expired liquor license. City and school officials are not happy about the arrangement between Club Damani and the Harambee Institute of Science and Technology Charter School, which serves about 450 children in kindergarten through eighth grade. Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said in a letter to Harambee on Monday that "a school and a nightclub cannot coexist in the...

<p>Two female high-school teachers who were caught with their pants down -- literally -- in an empty classroom are set to be slapped with "misconduct" charges by school officials.</p> <p>James Madison HS romance-language teachers Alini Brito and Cindy Mauro were interrupted by a curious custodian during their alleged lesbian romp, which allegedly occurred after hours at the Brooklyn school late last year.</p>

The sexual and physical abuse of children and young people is a global plague; its manifestations run the gamut from fondling by teachers to rape by uncles to kidnapping-and-sex-trafficking. In the United States alone, there are reportedly some 39 million victims of childhood sexual abuse. Forty to sixty percent were abused by family members, including stepfathers and live-in boyfriends of a child’s mother—thus suggesting that abused children are the principal victims of the sexual revolution, the breakdown of marriage, and the hook-up culture. Hofstra University professor Charol Shakeshaft reports that 6-10 percent of public school students have been molested in...

BURBANK, Calif. (AP) - A former middle-school teacher who stunned police with her unsolicited confession that she'd had an affair with a 14-year-old former student pleaded no contest Thursday to charges of unlawful sex with a minor. Amy Victoria Beck was ordered to return to court May 7 for sentencing. Her attorney, Michael Williamson, said she is expected to receive two years in state prison. Beck, 33, pleaded no contest to one count each of unlawful sex with a minor and performing lewd acts on a minor. Originally charged with five counts of engaging in sex acts with a person...

A West Jordan teen says his middle school detention supervisor performed sex acts on him while he was being punished -- and with another student sleeping at a desk in the same room. At a preliminary hearing Wednesday, Andrea L. Billingsley, 31, was bound over for trial on seven felonies, including a new rape charge that was added after the teen testified that he also had had sex with her in her car. The teen was 15 when he and a classmate claim they had sexual encounters with Billingsley, who supervised in-school suspension at West Jordan Middle School. Billingsley has...