Free Republic

Neighbors of a suburban schoolteacher who is accused of seducing a 13-year-old boy are still reeling from the shocking allegations lodged against the “clean-cut” woman who appeared to be dedicated to her husband and her job. “When you talk to her, she is quiet, really nice,” said Erica Mara, 20, who lives across the street from Christine McCallum, 29, who was charged Friday with seven counts of statutory rape. No one answered the door at McCallum’s home on Central Street in Rockland yesterday. Mara questioned how McCallum, a teacher at an Abington elementary school, would find time to have an...

FOB FALCON — U.S. and Iraqi Soldiers joined community leaders Oct. 12 to hand out backpacks and school supplies to students at four schools in the Abu Tshir community of southern Baghdad’s Rashid district. The event was one of four school-supply distributions conducted Oct. 12 - 16 in the Abu Tshir, Saha, Mechaniks and Five Farms areas of southeastern Rashid, said Army Capt. Neville McKenzie, a detachment team leader from Wappingers Falls, N.Y., assigned to Company D, 404th Civil Affairs Battalion. “This is an opportunity for the National Police and the neighborhood advisory council to provide school bags for the...

Today there are 3 stories in WorldNetDaily about sex abuse of student. There are new reports every day not only in WorldNetDaily but in other conservative news sites as well. Can you imagine the outrage, the front cover featured articles, and 60 minute "special reports" from the mainstream media if these were voucher, charter, or private schools? If these reports were from charter or private schools, can you imagine the wails calling for the complete closure of these schools? ( When was a government school ever shut down for abuse, mismanagement, waste, or fraud?) Ah,,,be we know that down on...

University of Wisconsin officials are being warned their refusal to recognize Christian student groups is illegal. In recent weeks, the University of Wisconsin-Superior has denied recognition of the school's InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison has derecognized the Knights of Columbus. The officials allege the groups violate school's "anti-discrimination policy" by not allowing non-Christians to serve in leadership positions, according to the Arizona-based public-interest legal group Alliance Defense Fund, which notes non-recognized groups are denied access to campus facilities and student funding. "Christian student groups shouldn't be treated differently from other student organizations," said ADF Senior Legal Counsel...

The Boston public school system has made no progress in hiring black and Hispanic teachers during the last decade even as it has recruited a more diverse group of principals. Nearly half of Boston's 58,600 students are black, but only a quarter of the teachers are -- the same proportion as in 1995 when Thomas W. Payzant became superintendent. Hispanic students, the district's fastest growing ethnic group, make up 33 percent of the city's student body, but Hispanics are just 9 percent of the 5,246 teachers. Asians comprise 9 percent of Boston students, while Asian teachers are at 5 percent....

Deadly Immunity Robert F. Kennedy Jr. investigates the government cover-up of a mercury/autism scandal By ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. In June 2000, a group of top government scientists and health officials gathered for a meeting at the isolated Simpsonwood conference center in Norcross, Georgia. Convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the meeting was held at this Methodist retreat center, nestled in wooded farmland next to the Chattahoochee River, to ensure complete secrecy. The agency had issued no public announcement of the session -- only private invitations to fifty-two attendees. There were high-level officials from the CDC and...