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Bay State schools will be able to try a new curriculum with LGBTQ-themed history, English and health this fall that proponents say is an effort to help all students see themselves reflected in classrooms. The curriculum, developed by a team of teachers with Massachusetts Safe Schools Program for LGBTQ Students and the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth, will be released this summer. It will feature lessons on the 1969 Stonewall Riots and writings by gay and lesbian authors such as Langston Hughes and Willa Cather. It will also feature lessons like how Nick Carraway’s love for Jay Gatsby may have...

While the national debate continues on whether school teachers should be allowed to posses firearms in classrooms, one Pennsylvania school district is moving forward with arming its teachers... with baseball bats. The Millcreek School District, which is located near Erie, announced it is arming up to 500 teachers with baseball bats in case of an active shooter, WICU-TV reported. The district said it spent $1,800 on the 16-inch wooden bats. The bats are not quite the same size used in baseball games. Typical baseball bats are at least 30 inches long.

Thousands of Oklahoma teachers walked out of school Monday and protested at the state capitol for higher salaries and increased funding. Oklahoma legislators approved a $6,100 raise for state teachers across the board in an attempt to evade the walk-out, but teachers proceeded with the protest, NBC News reported. “My niece sits on the floor in her middle school English class in Moore, Oklahoma, because they’re overloaded into the class and don’t have enough furniture,” Edmond Public Schools elementary teacher Carrie Akins told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “My son in ninth grade had to get an override on his...

Clark County School District educators have won an arbitration over their 2017-2018 contract that will provide increases in pay and health care contributions. The district says the estimated $52 million deal could cause another major budget shortfall. Teachers will move a step in the salary schedule effective June 1, 2018. The district’s contributions to health care through the Teachers Health Trust also will increase from roughly $538 to $583 a month. That increase will be retroactive to July 1, 2017.

Teachers carried signs and marched during a rally at the state Capitol in Oklahoma City on Monday calling for higher wages. Last week, the legislature in Oklahoma City voted to give teachers an average raise of $6,000 per year, or roughly 16 percent, depending on experience. Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican, signed the package into law, but teachers said it was not enough. They have asked for a $10,000 raise as well as additional funding for schools and raises for support staff like bus drivers and custodians.

Oklahoma teachers walked off the job on Monday, closing schools statewide as they demanded salary rises for some of the lowest-paid educators in the United States and more funds for a school system reeling from a decade of budget cuts. “We’re walking because our students deserve more,” the Oklahoma Education Association, the state’s largest union for educators with about 40,000 members, said over the weekend. Oklahoma’s Republican-controlled legislature last week approved the state’s first major tax increase in a quarter century to help fund pay raises for teachers, hoping to avert a strike with a $450 million revenue package. The...

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One-by-one school districts across central Kentucky announced their closure the day before spring break, as Republicans in the House and Senate rammed through a mystery pension reform bill. The 291 page bill was not made public, and was inserted into a waste-sewage piece of legislation on Thursday, and then sent though the lower and upper chambers with Republicans carrying the bill. Fayette County schools was among the first to announce a closure on Thursday night, as more than a thousand teachers called in sick from work and there were not enough substitutes to cover the absences. “All Fayette County Public...

Kids are typically expected to take a back seat when it comes to national politics and policy, but with what's going on right now that cannot happen any longer. I'm 16 years old, I'm a junior high school student, I cannot vote. That does not mean I can't do anything. It's time for students, everywhere, across the country, whether you're in a blue state or red state, to get involved, to speak up in your own local communities. It's time that students have this conversation at the dinner table with their parents and let them know that enough is enough!

The Trump administration plans this summer to scrap a controversial Obama-era discipline rule forced on schools to close racial gaps in suspensions and arrests but that critics say pressures educators to turn a blind eye to escalating bad behavior. The federal directive, issued jointly in 2014 by the US departments of Education and Justice, warned public school districts receiving federal funding — including New York City — that they could face investigation and funding cuts if they fail to reduce statistical “disparities” in discipline by race. On average, the administration noted, black students are suspended at three times the rate...

Disarming willing and qualified teachers and other school staff is stupid. There has been a lot of talk about “arming teachers” recently, but that's really never been the issue. The real issue is about disarming teachers who would like to be carrying. Like any other controversial subject, any discussion of school safety must begin with some agreement on basic facts and mutual understanding of terms and definitions.We can't come to a consensus on solutions if we can't agree on what the words we are saying actually mean. When gun owners and politicians talk about “arming teachers,” we are not...

<p>DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Actress Charlize Theron says the idea of arming teachers after recent U.S. school shootings or “adding more guns” to the situation is “so outrageous.”</p> <p>The South African says: “I have a very personal experience with gun violence. I lost my father to gun violence.”</p>

The Trump administration on Sunday unveiled a series of proposals on school safety and gun restrictions in the wake of the recent shooting in Florida, including a push for states to provide firearms training for school staff members. White House officials said the administration will establish a federal commission to assess how to best address gun violence in schools, though it will not propose any legislation of its own. The administration will also not push for universal background checks or an increase in the age requirement to purchase a rifle. Instead, as part of an effort to "harden" American schools,...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A week ago today, Gov. Jim Justice announced a proposed settlement to West Virginia teachers walkout that barely lasted the evening. Today, Justice received cheers as he signed the bill that will lead to an average 5 percent pay increase for educators. The agreement worked out with legislators also applies an average 5 percent pay increase to other state employees. Schools were expected to open again on Wednesday, bringing to an end a statewide strike that caused classes to be empty for nine days straight. “We have to move away from the idea that education is a...

RUSH: This from TheHill.com, it was breaking news an hour ago, I’ve been sitting on it here, ’cause I just made a judgment. Here’s the headline: “Teacher in Custody After Georgia Police Respond to Report of Shots Fired — A teacher was arrested after police responded to reports of shots fired at a high school in Georgia. The Dalton Police Department tweeted at about 12:30 p.m. that a subject, believed to be a teacher, was barricaded in a classroom at Dalton High School. No children were hurt or in danger, police said.” Wait. Update: The teacher is in custody. Dalton,...

DALTON, Ga. -- A teacher is in custody after police say he barricaded himself inside a classroom at a high school in northwest Georgia Wednesday, police say. Police responded to the report of shot or shots fired at Dalton High School in Dalton and reported via Twitter that a person, believed to be a teacher, was barricaded inside. A Dalton police spokesperson told CBS News the teacher had a gun. CBS affiliate WDEF reports the situation began around 11:30 a.m. when the teacher blocked students from entering his class. When the principal tried to unlock the door, they heard a...

In the aftermath of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, President Trump has repeatedly proposed hardening schools by allowing teachers to carry firearms in their classrooms. This doesn't mean teachers would be forced to do so, but those willing to go through training and take on the responsibility should have the option. The proposal has been met with praise and criticism from many, but it should be noted this isn't a new or alien concept. School districts around the country already have polices allowing teachers to carry firearms, enabling them to combat a violent threat should one show up on...

An Ohio sheriff said hundreds of local school employees signed up for a class to receive training on how to use a firearm in the aftermath of a high school shooting in Florida that left 17 people dead. “We put it online, we thought we’d get 20 school teachers maybe. Within 20 minutes we had 40. Within an hour we had 100. Within four hours we had 200. By the next morning, at 300, we cut it off,” Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones said on “Fox & Friends.” There are currently only a few schools in the state that allow...

Israel has historically been vocal concerning gun violence, opposing open-carry legislation and one law that would allow concealed weapons on campuses. He began implementing body cameras for his deputies in 2016. This week, Israel announced that deputies guarding Broward County Schools will now carry rifle, including AR-15s... a police officer assigned to Stoneman Douglas resigned after failing to enter the Parkland school as a gunman opened fire and killed 17 students and faculty. Israel said Deputy Scot Peterson should have “went in. Addressed the killer. Killed the killer.” The sheriff placed two other deputies under investigation for their handling of...

Ohio teachers are flocking to a gun training class being offered by an Ohio Sheriff’s department. Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones told Fox & Friends that when they decided to offer the firearm training class to teachers they expected maybe 20 educators to sign up — instead there were hundreds. “We put it online, we thought we’d get 20 school teachers maybe. Within 20 minutes we had 40. Within an hour we had 100. Within four hours we had 200. By the next morning, at 300, we cut it off,” Jones said. The class was open to teachers as well...