PUBLIC MARKS from jasontromm with tag school

A federal court has issued an order that will prevent a New Jersey school from censoring students' Christian musical selections in future talent shows. The Alliance Defense Fund said the order comes down in favor of an elementary school student who, when she was a second-grader in May 2005, had been chosen to participate in the competition, and then picked "Awesome God," made famous by the late singer-songwriter Rich Mullins, to perform. Officials at Frenchtown Elementary School denied her permission, a decision endorsed by the board of education, citing not only the song's religious content but its "proselytizing" nature.

I'm starting to think that if Jesus Himself came back to earth, there'd be no shortage of people around who would criticize his every move. I guess that's just the way we've become. When I managed to convince the hateful, horrible members of the Westboro Baptist Church to call off their planned "protests" outside the funerals of the little Amish girls in Pennsylvania, I didn't expect to get a ticker tape parade or anything. In fact, I wasn't looking to do anything at all except figure out how to use my radio show to thwart these people from hurting the Amish mourners any further.

Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have filed a civil rights lawsuit in defense of the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of a seventh grader who was ordered by Maryland middle school officials to stop reading her Bible during free time at school or face disciplinary action. Institute attorneys have asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland to declare that prohibiting students from reading Bibles or other religious texts during their free time is unconstitutional.

Michigan State Senator Beverly Hammerstrom, a Republican, has introduced a bill requiring all girls entering the sixth grade to receive a vaccination that protects against cervical cancer. Under the bill, Michigan would become the first state in the nation to require the vaccine for school entry. Since the virus that causes cervical cancer can be sexually transmitted, some parents say giving it to young girls presupposes that they will engage in premarital sex -- and may even encourage such behavior. ()() I'm against mandatory vaccinations in general and this vaccination in particular. It doesn't have a proven track record like the chicken pox vaccination. It's almost impossible to prove that it's working to protect the general population.

A federal court of appeals unanimously struck down a Florida school board policy barring students from distributing religious literature on campus. Represented by the public-interest group Liberty Counsel, student Michelle Heinkel of Cypress Lake Middle School in Fort Myers had sought permission to distribute religious and pro-life literature about the "Day of Remembrance," set aside to remember unborn children killed by abortion.

If the school decides to remove a communist propaganda book from the library shelves you can count on the ACLU to fight it crying “book ban”. If students are being required to take Muslim names, play jihad games, and bow down in the direction of Mecca you can count on the ACLU to be silent. But when it comes to a tiny New Testament being distributed to students the ACLU think it is unconsititutional.

An Indiana judge fed up with teenage traffic violators is kicking them in the seat -- the driver's seat. Porter Superior Judge Julia Jent is sentencing the ticketed teens to the embarrassment of riding the school bus, if they are found guilty in her courtroom. The judge, said she knew she had reached the teen when the girl started crying outside her courtroom. With that, she figured she found the right punishment. "Oh my God, you would have thought I gave her and her mother the death penalty," Jent told the paper.

An Ohio school board is expanding sex education following the revelation that 13 percent of one high school's female students were pregnant last year. There were 490 female students at Timken High School in 2005, and 65 were pregnant, WEWS-TV in Cleveland reported. The new Canton school board program promotes abstinence but also will teach students who decide to have sex how to do so responsibly, bringing the city school district's health curriculum in line with national standards. ()() Sounds like they're closing the barn door after the horses have gotten out.

The nerd has persisted as a consistent character of high school practically since the invention of group education. We see him with frequency in our own lives, and in pop culture, too. The nerd reliably makes an appearance in every teen-targeted blockbuster, novel or comic. But now, the stereotypically male nerd is almost exclusively female. No longer is nerdiness -- diligence and commitment to school -- so derogatory a characteristic. In fact, now, it is socially prized, but just in young women. Male nerds? No more. ()() I'm afraid my daughter might be slipping into this new category of girl geek.

In an age when we continue to debate "a woman's right to choose" when it comes to a girl aborting her baby and we are told that it is the girl's body and no one else should make decisions affecting it, a boy has no such rights. A girl can be given birth control by the school nurse and even abortion information without her parents knowledge or consent, but a boy can be prohibited from making decisions that affect his life and body. At least the courts are consistent. They forbid parental involvement in either case. In some states, though, parents are held responsible for their kids' illegal and anti-social behavior. Why is it that parents supposedly have power to keep their kids from committing crimes, but can be denied power when it comes to their child's health and welfare?

The proposed school meal price hikes are not small change, said Elizabeth Velez, the mother of three. "I'm going to go broke," she said. Her kindergartner and two high school students purchase breakfast and lunch at school. >:-D Instead of whining, how about getting your ass out of bed earlier and feeding your kids breakfast at home?

Compare and contrast... In Dallas, a school district strikes the words "In God We Trust" from the photo of an enlarged nickel on a yearbook cover for fear of offending students of differing religions. In California, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals (the one that outlawed the Pledge of Allegiance for its reference to God) approved putting public school students through Muslim role-playing exercises.

A federal judge in Louisville, Kentucky, granted a temporary restraining order prohibiting a prayer from being said during graduation ceremonies at an area high school after a Muslim student on the planning committee objected and garnered the help of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Now that hundreds of thousands of parents have discovered for themselves how the public school system is an incredibly inefficient and ineffective means of providing children with an education, it is interesting to note that some of them are beginning to turn skeptical eyes on the hallowed institution of the university.

A group of Baptist leaders called on its members Friday to "speak positively about public education" in response to a conservative movement to pull Baptist children out of public schools. Fifty-six pastors and organizational leaders - some from the conservative Southern Baptist Convention and others from the more moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship - signed a letter supporting public schools.

Zoe Hinkle thinks her miniskirt is fashionable. Her school's principal says otherwise. The fourth-grader plans to hold a rally after school Friday along with some classmates at Streams Elementary School in Upper St. Clair. The girls want to let school administrators know they don't appreciate being told their dresses are too short. ()() I guarantee my daughter will never wear a skirt that short to school. If she does I will burn all her clothes and then make her wear uniforms to school.

Students at Shaw Heights Middle School are no longer allowed to wear anything that is patriotic, including camouflage pants, because they have become a political symbol for a version of patriotism.

At the center of the storm was Overland High School teacher Jay Bennish, whose lecture in a world geography class last month also included harsh words about capitalism, U.S. foreign policy and the invasion of Iraq.

A middle school student faces expulsion for allegedly posting graphic threats against a classmate on the popular MySpace.com Web site, and 20 of his classmates were suspended for viewing the posting, school officials said. ()() Way to go! This shows absolutely Zero Intelligence on the part of school administrators.