No Divorce Until You Reach Puberty

An eight-year old Saudi Arabian girl who was married off by her father to a 58-year-old man has been told she cannot divorce her husband until she reaches puberty. Lawyer Abdu Jtili said the divorce petition was filed by the unnamed girl's divorced mother in August after the marriage contract was signed by her father and the groom. "The judge has dismissed the plea because she [the mother] does not have the right to file, and ordered that the plea should be filed by the girl herself when she reaches puberty," lawyer Abdullah Jtili told the AFP news agency.
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Police Are Allegedly Assaulted By A 12-Year-Old Girl

It was a little before 8 at night when the breaker went out at Emily Milburn's home in Galveston. She was busy preparing her children for school the next day, so she asked her 12-year-old daughter, Dymond, to pop outside and turn the switch back on. As Dymond headed toward the breaker, a blue van drove up and three men jumped out rushing toward her. One of them grabbed her saying, "You're a prostitute. You're coming with me." Dymond grabbed onto a tree and started screaming, "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy." One of the men covered her mouth. Two of the men beat her about the face and throat. As it turned out, the three men were plain-clothed Galveston police officers who had been called to the area regarding three white prostitutes soliciting a white man and a black drug dealer.
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Children forced into cell-like school seclusion rooms

A few weeks before 13-year-old Jonathan King killed himself, he told his parents that his teachers had put him in "time-out." "We thought that meant go sit in the corner and be quiet for a few minutes," Tina King said, tears washing her face as she remembered the child she called "our baby ... a good kid." But time-out in the boy's north Georgia special education school was spent in something akin to a prison cell -- a concrete room latched from the outside, its tiny window obscured by a piece of paper.
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Man throws shoes at Bush in Iraq

A man threw his shoes at President George W. Bush and was dragged away by security officials during the president's farewell trip to Iraq. The incident occurred as Bush was appearing Sunday with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Bush ducked and wasn't hit by either shoe. Bush joked, saying that all he can report was that it was a size 10 shoe. then calmly took questions.
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32 graves at centre of investigation into Florida reform school

AN investigation has been opened into 32 anonymous graves at a Florida reform school after claims that young orphans and tearaways were flogged and tortured to death by guards. Former residents of the Florida School for Boys in Marianna believe that the shallow graves, which date to the 1950s and 1960s, contain the crushed skulls and broken bones of fellow inmates, and that staff meted out brutal punishments to boys as young as 8 for “crimes” such as singing or eating an extra pancake at breakfast.
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Teacher Throws Fit Over Student's Linux CD

In an age where Windows and OS X reign supreme, it's no wonder that a middle school teacher became enraged after discovering one of her students distributing what she believed to be bootlegged copies of an operating system in class. While teacher "Karen" was clearly operating under the assumption that she'd scored a minor victory for the Microsofts and other downtrodden software giants of the world, the particular operating system that she ended up disciplining her student for was a freely distributable version of Linux.
Read full article (or comment)  |  Original article source

School autopsy tours canceled

For the first time in nearly a decade, the Oakland County Medical Examiner's Office isn't offering public school tours this year after a bizarre coincidence this past spring in which a high school group from Waterford watched the autopsy of a 14-year-old girl from the same district.
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Pelahatchie Students Claim Girl Possessed By Devil

Students at a Pelahatchie high school said, for three days this week, a girl there spoke in tongues and made grave predictions for her classmates. Some of those predictions included when students would die. Pelahatchie High School students called the 16 WAPT newsroom convinced that an evil spirit had taken over Lashundra Clanton. "It was disturbing to a lot of students," Pelahatchie sophomore Rob Sparks said.
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Thinking, college degrees and unschooling curriculums (forum posts)

Thinking
Alternatives to college degrees?
Unschooling "Curriculums"

School-Free: Alternative education around the world

There doesn't seem to be much easy-to-find info on school alternatives in countries that aren't the US... So we now have a wiki dedicated to this purpose. It will probably grow slowly, and mostly based on what people can tell us from personal experience. So if you know anything about education alternatives in your country (or any country), please edit the wiki and add everything you know, as well as links to further info, etc. (Ignore the fact that it still has the default theme - I'll make it pretty later. For now info is more important.)

Teachers take flight from state schools

Growing numbers of teachers are quitting state schools to work in the independent sector. About one in four (12,000) of the teachers in private schools has been "poached" from the state sector, shows research by the University of Kent. In the past year alone, 1,500 teachers quit, the highest number for at least two decades, which compares with just 400 a year making a similar decision in the mid-1990s. The figures were released by Professor Francis Green at a conference to promote state and independent school partnerships in London yesterday.
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Elementary student stabs classmate with pencil

Investigators say the suspect stabbed a 10-year-old girl with a pencil causing a puncture wound on the upper portion of her back. Detectives have charged the suspect with assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury. Meanwhile, the victim did not require emergency medial assistance for her wound. She returned to school Thursday.
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Student Arrested For 'Passing Gas'

A student at a Florida school has been arrested after authorities say he was "passing gas" and turned off his classmates' computers. According to a report released Friday by the Martin County Sheriff's Office, the 13-year-old boy "continually disrupted his classroom environment" by intentionally breaking wind. He then shut off some computers other students were using.
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At vocational schools, suspensions are down

While the number of students who have been suspended from public schools over the past few years has remained relatively constant, some local districts - particularly vocational technical schools - have bucked the trend and cut their rates, sometimes sharply. Driving the change, said officials, is an effort to deal with students individually and get them involved in school, an increased emphasis on detention rather than suspension, and perhaps, in the cases of regional vocational schools, attracting more students, which allows the schools to be choosier in their admissions.
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Teachers accused of checking pupils' underwear to make they are wearing the right colour bras and pants

A row erupted today over claims that teachers were checking pupils' underwear to make sure they comply with a new school uniform policy. Parents said their children were told what colour pants and bras they can wear and teachers were doing 'spot checks' under the new rules introduced at Kings School in Winchester. Staff at the mixed 11 to 16-year-old comprehensive dismissed the claims and said they only issued guidance on what was appropriate to wear. But parents said it was 'ridiculous' and an invasion of their children's privacy.
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Schools react to 'Kick a Ginger Day' joke

For some, it's a joke. To others, though, it urges violence against a visible minority. A movement called "Kick a Ginger Day" had many people seeing red yesterday and caused some Manitoba schools to issue stern warnings to students. The Nov. 20 event was inspired by a South Park episode where one character argues gingers -- people with red hair -- are disgusting, soulless and inherently evil.
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Experts: Interrogation of boy, 8, 'out of bounds'

The third-grader's legs dangle from an overstuffed leather chair as he answers the questions of two female police officers. His manner and voice are casual, even helpful, but his words are shocking. Police say an 8-year-old boy confessed to murder. Legal analysts say the questioning crossed the line. And so, legal analysts say, were the methods police used to obtain them. By the time the boy was finished talking, say police in St. Johns, Arizona, he'd confessed to a premeditated double murder.
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Proposed school catering to gays expands mission

Organizers behind a plan to develop Chicago's first public high school catering to gay and lesbian students have changed the name and broadened the focus of the school to include all disenfranchised groups of students, according to officials. The revised plan is expected to be voted on Wednesday by the Chicago Board of Education. It comes after religious leaders, some gay rights activists and Mayor Richard Daley expressed concerns that developing the proposed School for Social Justice's Pride Campus would segregate gay youths. If the school is approved, it will be named the Social Justice Solidarity High School when it opens in 2010.
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Privacy, sheeple, fate & student unions (forum posts)

Does school shorten lifespan?
Fate vs. Free Will
Check Out This "Teen Advice" List..
Are sheeple doing anything wrong?
Privacy From Parents
Forming a student union at your school

Limit 'risky' book, couple says

Cindy and James Dacus should know by early December the outcome of their months-long fight to restrict elementary students' access to a book about two male penguins that raise a chick together. Officials at Ankeny's East Elementary School, where in late February the couple's kindergartner found the book, "And Tango Makes Three," denied the couple's request to remove the book or move it to a parents-only section. The couple's appeal to the school board is expected to be acted on next month.
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Girl, 5, beaten 'for the hell of it'

A 5-year-old girl was beaten bloody with a metal rod and had her face shoved in her own vomit before one final beating left her dead on the family's dirty basement floor, a Manitoba court heard yesterday. Samantha Kematch and her common-law husband, Karl McKay, are accused of first-degree murder in the 2005 death of Phoenix Sinclair. The couple is also accused of trying to pass off another child as Phoenix to convince welfare investigators and the RCMP that their daughter was still with the family.
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Wisdom and lots of rebellion (forum posts)

Making small changes through rebellion
Do you think this would work?
what is "wisdom"?
Another uniform rebellion

Boy slits girl's throat in Montrose High lobby

A 14-year-old boy calmly walked into the entrance of Montrose High School this morning, grabbed a girl from behind and slit her throat in front of her sister and dozens of classmates. The sophomore girl, Mallory Haulman, was taken by ambulance in serious condition to Montrose Memorial Hospital, where she underwent several hours of surgery and is now recovering, said William Woody, a family friend who also works with the girl's father at the Montrose newspaper.
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Strong Education Blunts Effects Of Alzheimer's Disease, Study Suggests

A test that reveals brain changes believed to be at the heart of Alzheimer's disease has bolstered the theory that education can delay the onset of the dementia and cognitive decline that are characteristic of the disorder. Scientists at the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that some study participants who appeared to have the brain plaques long associated with Alzheimer's disease still received high scores on tests of their cognitive ability. Participants who did well on the tests were likely to have spent more years in school.
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Man Kills Teacher for 21-Year-Old Grudge

A 37-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of killing his high school teacher for inflicting corporal punishment 21 years ago. Police Monday sought an arrest warrant for the man, identified only as Kim, for murdering his former teacher, 58-year-old Song. Kim allegedly stabbed Song to death, who was entering his home in northern Seoul around 9:40 p.m. Saturday.
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Eliminating Soda From School Diets Does Not Affect Overall Consumption

With childhood obesity increasing, school administrators and public health officials are reducing availability of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) in schools. Researchers found that reduction or elimination of SSB from school menus has little effect on total consumption by adolescents.
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The Roman Catholic Church has issued guidance for future priests to have psychological tests to weed out those unable to control their sexual urges. A senior churchman said a series of sex scandals had contributed to the rewriting of the guidelines. The authors said screening would help avoid "tragic situations" caused by what they termed psychological defects. The guidance says the voluntary tests should also aim to vet for those with "deep-seated homosexual tendencies".
Read full article (or comment) | Original article source

Sexy prof strips for students

Furious parents have called for a saucy teacher to be sacked after she put on a saucy strip show for her 15-year-old pupils. The German minx was supposed to be supervising a start of term party. But things got out of hand as the pretty teacher put on her own s-extracurricular activities for the teen pupils.
Read full article (or comment) | Original article source

Student Suspended for Selling Sandwiches and Challenging Cafeteria

A 17 year old high school student wanted to spread his passion for cooking by selling gourmet sandwiches on his high school campus. But his business turned into a bust when the principal caught wind of his aromas. Because of health concerns and permit issues he had to stop selling sandwiches. As punishment the principal suspended the student chef for two days.
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'Musical' switched for 'Sex' in Megaplex mix-up

Some Utahns attending the weekend opening of Disney's biggest movie of the year were exposed to a little more than they were expecting. Friday night, managers at the Megaplex Theatre at the District, 11400 South Bangerter Highway, switched one of the showings of "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" to a larger auditorium to accommodate more people. They forgot, however, to switch the movie that had previously been scheduled for the room.
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Eternity, learning, justice & hypochondria (forum posts)

Do kids really learn faster then adults?
Everywhere All the Time
Eternity
Just 'dis justice again.
School is impossible with hypochondria

Sniffer dogs in teenage bedrooms

Retired sniffer dogs that have spent years on police patrol are now working in the private sector in the US - sniffing out teenagers' bedrooms. Parents can rent a dog and handler for $200 (£125) an hour from Sniff Dogs, a firm operating in New Jersey and Ohio. The dogs are highly trained and can detect illegal drugs.
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Students face punishment for `Hit a Jew Day'

At least four students from a suburban St. Louis middle school face punishment for allegedly hitting Jewish classmates during what they called "Hit a Jew Day." The incident happened last week at Parkway West Middle School in Chesterfield. District officials said Thursday they believe that fewer than 10 children of the district's 35 Jewish students were struck.
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89-Year-Old Woman Accused Of Theft Over Football

An 89-year-old Ohio woman faces a charge of petty theft because neighborhood children said she refused to give back their football. Edna Jester was placed under arrest last week and taken to the police station in Blue Ash. Police say there had been an ongoing dispute over the errant football and a child's parent called to report that Jester kept the ball after it landed in her yard again.
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6 new interesting forum topics.

Who wants to help me?
a message for those leaving
Homeschooling was illegal??
Conversing with the enemy - End of school?
Dropping out - the parent's decision, or the kid's?
Illusions of Grade Advancement

Father takes son to court for idleness

A father took his 20-year old son to an Islamic court in northern Nigeria for idleness, asking that he be sent to prison for refusing to engage in productive activities, state news agency NAN said Friday. (...And you thought your country was bad?)
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New teacher on SS, coercion and nice guys (forum posts)

Why don't you like school?
Teacher
A tribute to the nice guys.
My rant on coercion

Students, parents bare claws over dress codes

It took only an hour for parents in Omaha, Neb., to get in touch with the American Civil Liberties Union. Their children — 23 of them — had been suspended from school for wearing the wrong clothes. The teenagers, all students at Millard South High School, were ordered to stay home from one to three days in late August for wearing T-shirts that memorialized Julius Robinson, 18, a Millard South football player who was shot to death in June. The shirts were being sold to help raise money so Robinson’s family could buy a headstone for his grave. But to officials of the Millard Public Schools, the words “Julius RIP” on the shirts were disruptive. After consulting with Omaha police, they also said the shirts could be considered gang-related.
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Walkouts, rebellion and wisdom (forum posts)

What's really preventing us from doing a walkout?
Who actually did a walkout?
Does minor individual rebellion help?
Does age determine wisdom?

Teen starved for years in horrendous case of abuse

Jon Pomeroy, the girl's biological father, and Rebecca Long, the girl's step mother, are each charged with first- and second-degree criminal mistreatment. Sheriff spokesman John Urquhart says the girl weighed only 48 pounds when contacted by deputies Friday, and had been given only little food and water for several years. "This is a horrendous case of child abuse," Urquhart said. "It was described as a concentration camp survivor. That's what she looked like."
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12-year-old fined £50 for being ill

Bradley Brooks was returning home from a birthday party when he started feeling unwell. He put his plastic drink bottle on a telephone junction box and was sick. But he was then stopped by community wardens who issued him with a fine.
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Teen sent nudes of self, could be classified sex offender

A 15-year-old girl accused of distributing nude photos of herself to other minors could be classified as a sex offender. The student at Licking Valley High School in Newark was arrested Friday after school officials discovered the materials and brought in the school's resource officer for a police investigation.
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Students Accuse Bus Driver Of Stopping On Tracks

Some students aboard a school bus in Volusia County said it was a terrifying ride home for them on Monday afternoon. The students said the driver stopped the bus on some railroad tracks along International Speedway Boulevard and refused to move until the children quieted down. During the incident, the Campbell Middle School students said a train approached them.
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Teen accused of putting bombs in family's beds

A South Fayette teen has been jailed on charges that he tried to kill his family by exploding homemade bombs in their beds as they slept over the weekend. Police seized a cell phone and computer from Christopher's room. The boy's pages on MySpace and text messages on two cell phones indicated that he had been in communication in preceding days with two other people who helped him devise the bombing plan and a getaway.
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Charter schools far outshine public in 'No Child Left Behind' standards

Utah's charter schools performed far better than their traditional public school counterparts in meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals for the federal education program No Child Left Behind. Utah charter schools also outperformed traditional public schools on the Utah Performance Assessment System for Students (U-PASS) test, a state complement to AYP.
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Teacher ‘told students what ‘CHANGE’ stood for’

The Jackson County School Board has taken action against a teacher who apparently made racial commentary on presidential candidate Barack Obama. "She told me that he wrote on the board 'Can You Help A Nigger Get Elected, and then laughed about it," said Shelia Christian, a mother of one of Howard's students.
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US mom admits helping son build weapons cache

A woman admitted she helped her troubled, bullied 14-year-old son build a cache of weapons by buying him a rifle and gunpowder, but investigators still don't know if she was aware her son was planning a deadly school attack. Michele Cossey, 46, pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of child endangerment. She admitted that she bought him a rifle with a laser scope and gunpowder, which investigators said he was using to build grenades.
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Cops: Teen hired pair to kill his mom for money

A Colorado teenager hired men to kill his mother so he could use her money to get breast implants for his girlfriend, police said. Weis' mother, Hyun Weis, was attacked Thursday with a small wooden baseball bat at her home but escaped, authorities said. She was released Friday from a hospital.
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Growing up, international walkout and why people say school is good (forum posts)

Why do adults say school is good?
International Walkout
"They want to grow up too fast"

2 weeks after Hurricane Ike, kids are still not in school

Since Hurricane Ike knocked out power at their elementary school two weeks ago, Jakin and Jared Cordova have been playing a lot of video games. For the 9- and 6-year-old brothers, it's awesome. For their mother, not so much. "We try to give them stuff to do reading-wise, do outside stuff, make them go to the park," a frustrated Natalie Cordova said. "They're still just playing video games a lot."
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Nine Children From One Family Abandoned at Safe Haven

The mother of nine kids left at an emergency room in Creighton University Medical Center died from a brain aneurysm 17 months ago, days after delivering the youngest child. The father, Gary Staton, dropped off the kids Wednesday night at 8 p.m., officials at the Department of Health and Human Services said. "I was with her for 17 years, and then she was gone. What was I going to do?" Staton said. "We raised them together. I didn't think I could do it alone. I fell apart. I couldn't take care of them."
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Teen Pees In Teacher's Drink, Police Say

Investigators said officers arrested the 13-year-old at Castle Rock Middle School on Friday, and he's now facing a felony charge. Castle Rock police said the victim was a woman who was teaching four eighth-grade boys Friday when one of them peed in her drink. The teacher walked into her class just in time to catch the boy zipping up and discovered urine in her plastic drink bottle, officers said.
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Struggles, teaching, time-management and more (forum posts)

The Human Struggle
Becoming a teacher...
school isn't al at fault
Time management is impossible
The Total Transformation (aka The Total Brainwashing)

Raising children and traffic lights (forum posts)

Illegal to raise your children. - Essentially the government is saying that it is illegal to keep your children home ~7 hours for around 180 days out of the year. If you decide not to let your kids go then a nice truancy officer knocks on your door and says you'll be fined and sent to court if you don't send them to school.
No Traffic Lights? - I read an article (can't remember where) on a town in Germany, or possibly the Netherlands, where they took down all the traffic lights and road signs. Vehicles and pedestrians both had equal right-of-way. Accidents were actually reduced.

Gunman opens fire at school, 9 dead

HELSINKI, Finland (AP) — A gunman opened fire at students at a vocational school for adults in western Finland on Tuesday before shooting himself, police said. Finnish media reported nine people were killed and the gunman was wounded. The shootings began just before 11 a.m. local time as about 150 students went to class in Kauhajoki, 180 miles northwest of Helsinki. Witnesses said panic broke out as the hooded gunman entered the school and began firing.
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New Study Suggests Social Networks May Be 'Educational'

Social networks like Facebook and MySpace have reputations as time–sucking procrastination tools, but a new study from the University of Minnesota suggests the opposite. Social networks build beneficial technological, creative and communication skills, the study says, leading the researchers to actually describe social networks with the adjective "educational," CNET reports.
Read full article (or comment)  |  Original article source

Burma's secret schools of dissent

While there are 54 officially recognized schools for Burmese refugees in Thailand bordering Burma, Mr. McLaughlin says countless more are run secretly by activists. A network of jungle schools exists in Burma, too, often hidden deep in the mountains along the Thai border or in territory held by ethnic rebels long engaged in war against Burma's junta. "In the secret schools in Burma, students tell their friends in government schools about political rights and challenge their preconceived notions of what the rest of the world is like," Shwe says. "In this way we hope that more people within Burma will learn about the true political situation of the country and one day act to change it."
Read full article (or comment)  |  Original article source

Study finds new anti-psychotics no better than generics for kids

Texas has spent nearly $300 million since 2003 on expensive anti-psychotic medications for poor children – drugs that cost more, have worse side effects in kids and are no more effective than older generics.
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Controversy, grades and midlife crises (forum posts)

What are some of your most controversial opinions?
Just thinking about recieving grades.
Mid-life crisis

Homeland Security, Sesame Style

When it comes to securing the homeland, who better to help you sleep at night than various characters from the popular children’s show, “Sesame Street" ... ?!? Seriously. In a move that will make Bush administration detractors bring back those duct tape jokes again, the Department of Homeland Security has partnered up with the famous children’s show.
Read full article (or comment)  |  Original article source

UK government issues death sentence on suicide websites

THE GOVERNMENT reckons laws on “suicide websites” are too lax and need rewriting before they do serious damage. In other words, ‘If we can’t make people financially secure and happy enough to not want to do themselves in, we can at least make it bloody difficult for them to do so!’
Read full article (or comment)  |  Original article source

Marietta School Bus Chaos Posted On YouTube

Parents are criticizing Marietta school officials after a video of a chaotic school bus ride was posted on YouTube. The incident began last Friday, when school officials said the driver pulled over to write up students who were being unruly. A cell phone camera captured students on the bus getting more upset, after the students claimed the bus driver refused to let them off. The students can be seen and heard on the video screaming for help. Students are also seen jumping off the bus through the emergency exit.
Read full article (or comment)  |  Original article source

Phoenix teacher resigns, accused of showing porn in class

The teacher had connected his personal computer to a projector screen for a photography lesson. He then assigned half the class to grab cameras and take pictures; the remaining students had an in-class assignment. That’s when the student said the teacher began viewing the videos. "He forgot the projector screen was turned on and he started watching porn and we were all just like sitting there shocked that he was watching this in front of the class," the student said. "He was just all into it, I don’t even think he was paying attention to us, he was just all in his computer."
Read full article (or comment)  |  Original article source

Mom steals daughter's identity to become cheerleader

A 33-year-old woman is accused of stealing her daughter's identity to attend high school and join the cheerleading squad. She allegedly attended practices, received a cheerleader's locker and went to a pool party at the coach's house.
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Principal Regrets Making Students View Poop

A Colorado Springs elementary school principal has apologized for making students look inside a soggy bag of human feces and urine. Peyton Elementary Principal Michael Auclaire said he wanted to make a point to the students because someone had been leaving human waste on the floor and toilet seats in a girl's lavatory generally used by fourth- and fifth-graders.
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Children aged eight enlisted as council snoopers

Children as young as eight have been recruited by councils to "snoop" on their neighbours and report petty offences such as littering, the Daily Telegraph can disclose. The youngsters are among almost 5,000 residents who in some cases are being offered £500 rewards if they provide evidence of minor infractions.
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Education, war and spreading the word (forum posts)

Education in the U.S.
The Avenger spread about 500 SS pamphlets at his school :)
feelings about war
My ubiquitous alternative to school

Homework answers and stuff

A bunch of new things: Answers to Homework Questions - This will attempt to convince you not to bother doing homework, but if you must do it, it will also tell you how to do it in the least painful way possible.
The Benefits of Homework (sarcasm) - A bunch of different ways that homework benefits students. Or doesn't. It depends on how you interpret it, really.
Homework Help & Answers forum - A new forum where you can get help with homework. This may or may not be permanent, it depends.

Scheduling screwup makes school start on Saturday

Albany High students arrived by car, foot and city bus. It almost looked like a regular school day, except it was Saturday. The high school opened this weekend, allowing students to pick up their course schedules after a problem with the school's scheduling system forced administrators to cancel the first two days of school last week.
Forum Post: People of SS, behold...Albany high schools
Read full article (or comment)  |  Original article source

Lawsuit: Girl raped after driver kicked her off school bus

According to the suit naming Thornton Township High School District 205, Kickert Bus Line and bus driver Nicole Dyer, the unnamed minor was on her way home from school July 11 when some students shot off fireworks on the bus. Dyer became upset and kicked all the students off the bus, leaving them to walk home. The unnamed girl walked about a mile through a "high-crime" neighborhood in south suburban Harvey, where three men kidnapped her, took her to an unknown location and "gang-raped her for hours," the suit claims.
Read full article (or comment)  |  Original article source

Boy, 13, bullied after losing his hair is banned from wearing a baseball cap to school

Since losing his hair to a serious illness as a young child, Dale Platts and his baseball cap have become inseparable. The New York Yankees hat has not only helped the 13-year-old to cope with the cruel taunts of other children, but also protects his head and lashless eyes from the sun. But the schoolboy has now been ordered to remove the cap after his school decided it went against its uniform policy.
Read full article (or comment)  |  Original article source

Holiday key to school standards?

Why do we persist in releasing pupils for the school holidays in August, when it is relatively cloudy, windy and wet, while cooping them up in exam halls when it is sunny, warm and dry?
Read full article (or comment)  |  Original article source

How Do You Discover Your Interests?

How do you find out what you're interested in? - You shouldn't feel bad when someone says you've "quit" something, especially your parents. My dad thinks I keep giving up on stuff. I disagree. I was merely investigating and after all that time, I became even more interested in what I liked than before because I discovered what I really loved to do.
Forum Post: Discovering your interests

In Texas School, Teachers Carry Books and Guns

“Our people just don’t want their children to be fish in a bowl,” said David Thweatt, the schools superintendent and driving force behind the policy. “Country people are take-care-of-yourself people. They are not under the illusion that the police are there to protect them.” Some residents and parents, however, think Mr. Thweatt may be overstating the threat. Many say they rarely lock their doors, much less worry about random drifters with pistols running amok at the school. Longtime residents were hard-pressed to recall a single violent incident there.
Read full article (or comment)  |  Original article source

Ohio teen fires gun in school hall; no one injured

A distraught student carrying more than 30 rounds of ammunition shot a handgun twice in his high school's hallway Tuesday and threatened to kill himself before two administrators persuaded him to surrender, police said. No one was injured at Willoughby South High School, northeast of Cleveland, Willoughby police Lt. Randy Sevel said.
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The war is not over

New poem: The war is not over, by 26:
It's that time of year again
To take your books
Go back to hell
They say you're learning, that's a lie
We did it last year
It didn't take us anywhere
... (more)

Love, life and dropping out (forum posts)

Love and dependency - When you love someone enough, I think it's natural to be somewhat dependent on them
Life - Is one long race. It's survival of the fittest.
Don't Drop Out - Obviously there are legitimate reasons to drop out, but if it's purely dislike of formal schooling, your best option is to remain in school.
I think I'm ready to quit. - I've been an A+ student for the entire duration of my time in school. Well, I'm going to be turning 18 soon and as far as I can tell, all of my work and sacrifice means exactly jack shit.

Hundreds of students suspended for wearing the wrong belt

Hundreds of students at Seagoville High School were banned from classes Tuesday for dress code violations. Belt violations, to be exact. The dress code calls for students to wear a plain black or brown belt with a plain buckle. Anything that can be considered decoration is a strict violation of dress code. You have to wonder what is more distracting from a student's education: a belt bearing something that is considered "decoration" (oh, the horror), or suspending nearly half the student body?
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Teacher Gave Kids Drugs, Police Say

The students who put together the 2007 yearbook at Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville dubbed Theresa C. Duarte "the coolest woman alive." But Montgomery County police say the former English teacher and yearbook adviser's relationship with two students turned criminal in June, when she gave them cocaine -- one of them on two occasions -- in her Rockville home.
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Texas boy, 13, sentenced to 15 years in prison

A 13-year-old boy who admitted stabbing a teenage friend to death earlier this summer has received a 15-year sentence as part of a plea agreement. The boy was 12 at the time of the June 6 stabbing. Authorities said the boy, whose name is not being released because of his age, stabbed 14-year-old Keith Dancer in the heart with a steak knife during a dispute.
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Rebellion, blame, and dropping out (forum posts)

Why don't you... - Rebel. I keep reading all over the forums "but they'd give me a detention" and stuff like that. They only have power over you because you LET them.
Blame it All on School - be conscious of whom or what you blame...you might be unconsciously creating a scapegoat.
How to drop out. - It's not as easy as everyone says. There has to be some (somewhat vague) way that works for everyone. Let this thread be the official place to figure out what that is.

Nebraska law allows abandonment of teens

Nebraska’s new “safe-haven” law allowing parents to abandon unwanted children at hospitals with no questions asked is unique in a significant way: It goes beyond babies and potentially permits the abandonment of anyone under 19. While lawmakers may not have intended it, the month-old law raises the possibility that frustrated parents could drop off misbehaving teens or even severely disabled older children with impunity.
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School To Put Students In 'Prison' Jumpsuits As Punishment

A school in Texas will force students who don't follow the rules to wear prison-like jumpsuits for the day if they break the dress code. A school board official said it's "worth a try" because it's a way to keep the district's conservative values intact.
Forum Post: Texas school system, ankle bracelets and jumpsuits?
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Work vs school, sex and age (forum posts)

why work is better than school - there's no homework, once you go home you can leave it all behind until your next day at work; you get paid for all the work you do... (and more)
Sex vs Dating/Marriage - My question is: can two people maintain a purely sexual relationship, where they are not friends at all? Would you consider that acceptable or superficial and wrong? Why?
Age of majority - The day I turn 18....I can just leave? Stop going to school, stop going home to my dad.....could I just, walk out the door and never come back?

Texas truant students to be tracked by GPS anklets

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Court authorities here will be able to track students with a history of skipping school under a new program requiring them to wear ankle bracelets with Global Positioning System monitoring. But at least one group is worried the ankle bracelets will infringe on students' privacy. "Students and parents must understand that attending school is not optional," Penn said. "When they fail to attend school, they are breaking the law."
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Some back ex-principal's treatment of lesbian

When a high school senior told her principal that students were taunting her for being a lesbian, he told her homosexuality is wrong, outed her to her parents and ordered her to stay away from children. He suspended some of her friends who expressed their outrage by wearing gay pride T-shirts and buttons at Ponce de Leon High School, according to court records. And he asked dozens of students whether they were gay or associated with gay students.
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Student Killed in Shooting at Tenn. School

A student fatally shot a 15-year-old classmate Thursday at a high school, police said, as other teenagers watched in horror as the victim clutched his chest and fell to the floor. Police identified the victim as Ryan McDonald, a sophomore who lived with his grandmother and had alopecia, a condition that left him bald since he was 3 and the target of endless teasing as a child.
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Colleges Want to Talk About Drinking Age

On the face of it, the notion seems counterintuitive, but to the presidents of some of the nation's most prestigious colleges, it makes a lot of sense: Lowering the legal drinking age might get students to drink less.
But any chance for the academic leaders to begin a public discussion of their theory -- that allowing people as young as 18 to drink legally might promote moderation -- has been lost in a wave of criticism from health experts, transportation officials, government leaders and opponents of drunken driving.
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City Council meeting blabbers about saggy pants for five hours

"I'm not laughing because this is a serious issue," said Councilman Wendell Gilliard, who brought a mannequin to council chambers to demonstrate the clothing style he sought to criminalize. Councilman Tim Mallard offered support for the ordinance, saying it might be helpful in neighborhoods like the East Side. "I don't care if it's unconstitutional," said Mallard. "It sends a message." Riley said the ordinance could only be constitutional if a court agreed that wearing pants three inches below the waist is obscene.
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Can kids get a digital high?

Internet censorship justification plan #48527: call it a drug... We all know that music can alter your mood. Sad songs can make you cry. Upbeat songs may give you an energy boost. But can music create the same effects as illegal drugs? This seems like a ridiculous question. But Web sites are targeting your children with so-called digital drugs. These are audio files designed to induce drug-like effects.
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Slaves, predators and intelligent people (forum posts)

our natural "predator"
Are intellegent people born from hard times?
The Education of Free Men vs. That of the Slave

Parents Let Kid Drop Out of High School to Focus on Guitar Hero

Blake is so dedicated to gaming that his parents let him quit school so he can better concentrate on it. They pay for home tutors instead. Mom and Dad do this, even though there are very few people in this country who make their living playing competitive video games. That is not to say that it was an easy decision for them to let Blake leave school last September. They would have preferred that he stay in high school with his brother. But he bugged them until they let him quit. "We couldn't take the complaining anymore," says Hunter. "He always told me that he thought school was a waste of time."
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A Homeschooling Win in California

Back in February, a California court stunned the homeschooling families in the state when it declared that Mom or Dad had to have a credentialed teaching degree — or else their kids would be considered truants. On Aug. 8, however, the same judges made an equally surprising reversal of this decision. Judge H. Walter Croskey, presiding over the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles, wrote that as long as parents declare their home to be a private school, they may continue to homeschool their children, even if the parents do not have credentials.
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Mistakes and Solutions (forum posts)

Making mistakes - One of the reasons school is so horrible is because they punish mistakes, immediately. Did you answer a question incorrectly? Then it will be marked wrong. This is an extremely pointless and very destructive cycle.
Some Ideas for New U.S. Education System - Some radical new ideas for a completely different education system. How could we redistribute $485 billion per year?

My GED story - Why it works and why you should consider it

New article in Alternatives section: My GED story - Why it works and why you should consider it by .xstrike-anywherex.
Why dropping out is a viable option, and why you should consider it.
Forum Post

Plan to put Tasers in Uniontown schools gets mixed reviews

The president of a school safety consulting firm said districts like Uniontown Area, which is considering arming its police officers with Tasers, have to take a conservative approach to their deployment and develop a comprehensive policy. But an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union said it's hard for him even to see a need for Tasers in a school setting.
Forum Post: Tasers in Schools?
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Mocked for being fat, then stabbed to death

Linda Zimase was known as Phumba because his classmates thought it was funny that he was fat like the cartoon warthog. The 16-year-old boy was teased incessantly, had no friends and came home upset almost every day. He preferred to walk away from fights and never stood up for himself, his sister Precious said on Thursday. This week Linda died - stabbed to death in the Roodepark High School on the West Rand.
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Video shows police punching teen 13 times in face, then tasering him

The video shows undercover Deputy Brian Tollison pulling over a truck driven by a drug suspect and beating the teenage driver while what appears to be a back-up deputy held him down. Once back-up deputies arrived, 18-year-old Jeremy Rucker was pulled out of the truck and tasered and kicked while lying prone on the ground.
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Missouri Police taser injured boy 19 times

Doctors believe 16-year-old Mace Hutchinson broke his back and heel after falling, as his injuries are consistent with such a fall. The boy's family does not understand why police would have tasered the teen 19 times after he was so seriously injured.
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German Court Keeps Five Kids Because Parents are Homeschoolers

A homeschooling family in Southern Germany spent six hours in a grueling German Family Court session this week with the hopes of regaining custody of their six homeschooled children, who have been held in state custody since January. After the long and confusing session, the Gorbers regained custody of their 3-year-old son. The judge, meanwhile, retained custody of five other Gorber children now being kept in foster care and youth homes pending a court-ordered psychological evaluation of the parents.
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A few notable forum topics

Judging people
Literacy Rates, Reading, and School
Following your dreams and probability

Over-cautious parents stop play

Children are being denied adventurous play because their parents are nervous about exposing them to risk, a new survey suggests. The UK-wide poll, commissioned by Play England, found half of 7-12 year olds have been stopped from climbing trees. It also showed 21% of those surveyed had been banned from playing conkers, and 17% were not allowed to play chase.
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Interesting forum posts

Words
chalk
How do you feel about actually doing things?
Quotes for Hard Times

Interesting forum topics

On school being a place where you can make mistakes
Simple ways to defy school
Different big bang theory

State Board of Education Approves New Restrictive Homeschool Regulations

Among other things, the new regulations require annual notification of a parent’s intent to homeschool on a future form developed by OSSE (Office of the State Superintendent of Education), maintenance of a portfolio of schoolwork, and up to two annual portfolio reviews by the OSSE to determine whether a homeschool program, in OSSE’s opinion, is providing “regular, thorough instruction” in the required subjects. No guidelines are provided by the Board giving the OSSE arbitrary discretion to implement these provisions.
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Teens Challenged to do Hard Things

Alex and Brett Harris, 19-year-old homeschooled twins, are trying to give adults and teens a wake-up call. In their book, Do Hard Things, they attempt to explode the myth of adolescence. They show that prior to the early 20th century, people were either children or adults. Family and work were the primary occupations of the group we now call “teenagers.” Teens, though it was often driven by economic necessity, were given real-world responsibility. Today, few teens are expected to imitate responsible adults, but are rather immersed in a frivolous peer culture.
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Interesting forum topics

The Control Manifesto
Language Limitations
Why people do things they don't like.

Google Knols and stuff

Google has made this new thing where you can basically create your own personal Wikipedia. The thing about that is that the odds of your "Knol" pages ranking pretty well in the search engines is pretty high... So I'm making a whole bunch of School Survival pages up there. So far I've got: The teenage rebellious stage is a myth, 12 Funny Reasons Why School is Good for You, How to be a good teacher, School Survival (intro page), School Alternatives, and How To Unblock Myspace At School.

US: Help End the Torture of Youth in Residential Programs!

In a move that could have implications for D.C.’s troubled special education system, a panel of lawmakers Wednesday passed sweeping legislation that gives federal authorities the right to inspect private children’s clinics and schools. Proponents of the measure said it would protect children and their families from fly-by-night operators who promise miracle cures to mentally ill or disabled children and then warehouse the children with little regard to their safety or welfare.
Forum Post: Help End the Torture of Youth in Residential Programs!
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Some interesting forum topics (again)

What Is Evil?
What keeps us from being wicked?
Death
Students.

Bill proposed to ban students from wearing bulletproof vests to school

Someone walks into school wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a gun. What do you do to prevent this from happening in future? Why, ban bulletproof vests, of course!
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Some interesting forum topics

Are there country(ies) without a fucked up school system?
Equality of ages
Jobs w/o skill/college
School violence-what's the cause?

Schools want troops to turn into teachers

Troops to Teachers is a federally funded program that encourages qualified military personnel to become teachers, especially in high-need areas, such as math, science, vocational education and special education.
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Why are public schools so bad at hiring good teachers?

Apparently, getting rid of incompetent teachers is really hard, and it seems there's nothing on a prospective teacher's résumé that indicates how he or she will do in the classroom (oh, the irony). They should make new teachers read this guide before they let them teach :)
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Warning over home alone children

UK: Many parents could face prosecution for leaving their children home alone during the summer holidays, a children's charity has warned. The Children's Legal Centre is calling for clarification of existing law, which fails to specify at what age children can be left on their own. Parents who fall foul of the law can face up to 10 years in prison.
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Call for more searches of pupils

UK: Teachers should be able to search pupils to stop them bringing alcohol and drugs into school, says a review on tackling bad behaviour among pupils.
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Alternatives section expanded - 10 new articles

The alternatives section has been divided into categories: homeschooling & unschooling, online schooling, dropping out/GED, and charter schools. Each of those have 3 new articles in them (except charter schools, which only has one so far). Eventually the alternatives section will (hopefully) contain info about anything anyone would ever want to know about alternatives to school :)  ... I'm also working on adding a section for alternative streams of income and interesting jobs, but that's not up yet.
Here are some of the new articles: Unschooling is Quality Time, The Legal Requirements For Home Schooling in the US, How You Can Prepare For Your GED, Eligibility and Requirements for the GED Test.

Bush signs bill overhauling eavesdropping rules

President Bush signed a bill Thursday that overhauls rules about government eavesdropping and grants immunity to telecommunications companies that helped the U.S. spy on Americans in suspected terrorism cases. He called it "landmark legislation that is vital to the security of our people."
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Alternatives to year 11 and 12 in Australia

How to get into university early and skip the last 2 years of high school in Australia.
Forum Post: Alternatives to year 11 and 12? (Australia)

Google ordered to give YouTube user data to Viacom

A US judge has ordered Google to expose to Viacom the video-viewing habits of everyone who has ever used YouTube in a decision condemned by the Internet giant and privacy advocates. US District Court Judge Louis Stanton backed Viacom's request for data on which YouTube users watch which videos on the website in order to support its case in a billion-dollar copyright lawsuit against Google.
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New webchat

We have a new webchat... this one loads faster, doesn't require Java, and has more features. You can still use the old one too, if you want... just select it before you connect. It doesn't matter which one you pick, they both end up in the same place :)

Man dressed as penis disrupts graduation

A 19-year-old man dressed as a penis was arrested for disturbing a high school graduation today at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. He allegedly interrupted the Saratoga Springs High School graduation by marching across SPAC's stage in an inflatable 6-foot penis costume while diplomas were being given out, and sprayed parts of the 5,000 people in the crowd with Silly String.
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Student hacker who upped his grades faces 38 years in jail

Prosecutors claim that he repeatedly broke into Tesoro High School, then used teachers’ passwords to hack into computers and change his test scores. If convicted on all 69 counts, including altering and stealing public records, computer fraud, burglary, identity theft, receiving stolen property and conspiracy, he could spend almost four decades in prison.
Forum Post: Guy hacks school computer and gets 38 years in jail
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School exclusions 2,200 per day

More than 2,200 children in England are excluded from school every single school day, show official figures. The annual statistics, showing pupils removed for disruptive and bad behaviour, show short term exclusions have risen to 425,600.
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Students' laxative-spiked cake sends Brooklyn teachers to hospital

Teachers were thrilled when students at a Brooklyn high school sweetly offered them slices of homemade cake last week. But the innocent-looking treat contained a nasty surprise - it was laced with laxatives that sent two educators to the hospital and sickened three other staffers. Now, three seniors at the Brooklyn School for Global Studies in Cobble Hill have been suspended for the prank and barred from graduation - and were under arrest last night.
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More Problems for Homeschoolers in Germany

Homeschool families continue to be aggressively pursued by school authorities and youth welfare officials. In addition, homeschoolers in Germany have more cause to be concerned than in the past because of action by the federal parliament that has made it easier to take children from homeschooling parents. Under the old law, government officials had to show that the child was in danger because of abuse by the parents. All that is required under the new law is that the child’s welfare is in danger, a vague requirement that is undefined by the current law.
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How to access blocked websites from school

New guide up: How To Unblock Myspace At School (I only called it that because lots of people search for Myspace). Has a short list of proxies, and a whole bunch of other methods you can use to unblock websites.

'Coward teacher' deprived of certificate

China's education authorities have revoked the teaching certificate of a "coward teacher" who left his students behind as he escaped during the May 12 quake. He later defended his behavior which triggered heated disputes on the Internet. Fan Meizhong, nicknamed Fan Paopao by netizens who condemn his escape in the May 12 quake, defends himself saying he would sacrifice everything, including his mother's life, for his survival.
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Students told attendance at religious ceremony was mandatory

Attendance at the May 19 baccalaureate at Immaculate Conception Church in Las Vegas was listed as mandatory in three separate written notices the administration sent to students. The notices also promoted a senior Mass at Immaculate Conception, but that was listed as optional. Robertson principal Richard Lopez said that despite the notices, going to baccalaureate was optional and students could opt out by talking to him. The Las Vegas Optic reported that Lopez did not call back when the newspaper asked how students would know they could opt out and why the event was listed as mandatory.
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