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