Schools

Police identify 200 children as potential terrorists

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Drastic new tactics to prevent school pupils as young as 13 falling into extremism

Two hundred schoolchildren in Britain, some as young as 13, have been identified as potential terrorists by a police scheme that aims to spot youngsters who are “vulnerable” to Islamic radicalisation.

The number was revealed to The Independent by Sir Norman Bettison, the chief constable of West Yorkshire Police and Britain’s most senior officer in charge of terror prevention.

He said the “Channel project” had intervened in the cases of at least 200 children who were thought to be at risk of extremism, since it began 18 months ago. The number has leapt from 10 children identified by June 2008.

Read morePolice identify 200 children as potential terrorists

California Teachers Rally as 26,000 Job Cuts Loom

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March 13 (Bloomberg) — California teachers organized protests in more than a dozen cities today as about 26,000 may lose their jobs because of spending cuts the Legislature approved last month to keep the state from running out of money.

School districts across the most-populous U.S. state have been warning thousands of teachers that they may be fired as a result of California’s declining tax collections. The plan signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger last month cut $8.4 billion from schools and community colleges out of $15 billion trimmed from state spending through June 2010.

“These cuts are going to hurt an entire generation of children and damage California’s public education system for years to come,” David Sanchez, president of the California Teachers Association union, said in a statement.

Read moreCalifornia Teachers Rally as 26,000 Job Cuts Loom

Why are we fingerprinting children?

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“It’s odd that this drive towards fingerprinting children coincides with the government’s keenness to expand the national DNA database – we already have one of the largest in the world – with more than four million people on file, including nearly 1.1 million children.”

“Odd too that VeriCool is reported to be part of Anteon, an American company that is responsible for the training of interrogators at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib.”

Schools claim it cuts costs and time – but the civil liberties implications are vast
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As voters express concern about surveillance technology, is it becoming second nature to the Facebook generation – used to publishing intimate details of their private lives on the worldwide web – who, in later life, may be less vociferous in their opposition to such schemes?

An increasing number of today’s schoolchildren are forgoing the humiliating daily name call of registration, and are instead having to “fingerswipe” in and out of class, or to give it its proper name: biometric registration. According to campaign group LeaveThemKidsAlone, schools have fingerprinted more than two million children this way, sometimes even without their parents’ consent. A statement on its website claims: “It’s part of an enormous softening-up exercise, targeting society’s most impressionable, so they’ll accept cradle-to-grave state snooping and control.”

Read moreWhy are we fingerprinting children?

CCTV installed to monitor classrooms

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CCTV cameras and microphones are being installed in schools to monitor children’s behaviour and teachers’ performance in what union leaders described as ‘Big Brother’ tactics.

CCTV installed to monitor classrooms
Although taking part in the monitoring sessions is voluntary, headteachers say they expect the majority of their staff to participate Photo: GETTY

Four schools in Salford, Greater Manchester, have installed cameras and microphones in special training classrooms.

The 360-degree cameras are so powerful that observers can see what children are writing.

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Court rules that private school can expel lesbian students

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Relying on the 1998 state Supreme Court ruling which allowed the Boy Scouts of America to deny admittance to gays and atheists, a San Bernardino, California court has ruled that California Lutheran High School does not have to follow anti-discriminatory laws.

California state law forbids anti-gay bias in public schools, but the court determined that California Lutheran is actually a “social organization” and is not subject to such laws.  It was decided, therefore, that the school was within its rights to expel two students for admitting to their sexual orientation.

– You can read the court’s ruling by clicking here.

The case came about as a result of two 11th grade girls who were questioned by the principal about their sexual orientation.  The principal was ‘alerted’ by another student who saw comments written on the girls’ My Space page.

The girls were suspended as a result of the answers given to the principal.

Read moreCourt rules that private school can expel lesbian students

Face scanners to be installed in schools

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Schools could be fitted with futuristic face scanners which screen pupils’ faces with an invisible infra-red light as they attempt to enter the building to keep out strangers.

The system, which is being trialled in a UK school next week, can also be used to allow children to take out library books and buy their lunch.

It is among a host of high-tech security measures introduced in schools in a bid to keep pupils safe.

Some schools have brought in fingerprint and eye scanners, while others are planning to put radio transponder chips in pupils’ uniforms to keep tabs on them.

But there are fears the technology breaches children’s civil liberties.

One school installed an iris scanner in 2003 but removed it a year later after it failed to recognise some students and led to lengthy queues.

Read moreFace scanners to be installed in schools

California: Parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children

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Homeschooling Banned in California as State Turns Parents Into Criminals for Teaching Their Own Children

(NaturalNews) A California appeals court has ruled that homeschooling of children is illegal unless their parents have teaching credentials from the state.

“California is now on the path to being the only state to deny the vast majority of homeschooling parents their fundamental right to teach their own children at home,” said Michael Smith, president of the Home School Legal Defense Association.

The court overturned a lower court’s finding that homeschooling did not constitute a violation of child welfare laws.

“California courts have held that … parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children,” Justice H. Walter Croskey said.

Read moreCalifornia: Parents do not have a constitutional right to homeschool their children

Finnish Student Kills 10 at College, Commits Suicide

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Such actions are just a mirror of our society.
If you have time do some research on Prozac, Zoloft and Ritalin(= Concerta) linked to school shootings and suicide. _________________________________________________________________________________

Sept. 23 (Bloomberg) — A student in Finland opened fire at his college in the western town of Kauhajoki, killing 10 people before turning his gun on himself, the government said, in the country’s second school shooting in a year.

Gunfire erupted at 10:54 a.m. local time, Interior Minister Anne Holmlund said, and police surrounded the catering school, about 330 kilometers (205 miles) from Helsinki. The suspect died from a gunshot wound to the head, said Rauno Ihalainen, director of the Pirkanmaa hospital district. At least one other person was injured in the incident.

Read moreFinnish Student Kills 10 at College, Commits Suicide

Fifth Grader Suspended For Wearing Anti-Obama Shirt

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This child just forgot to add Bush, Cheney, McCain, Clinton, Paulson etc.

The other side of the shirt should read: “Ron Paul, Freedom’s Best Friend.”
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An 11-year-old boy in Colorado was suspended from school after he refused to take off a shirt that read, “Obama is a terrorist’s best friend.” His father says that the school is violating his son’s First Amendment rights.

Daxx Dalton, a fifth grader at Aurora Frontier K-8 School in Aurora, Colo., wore the homemade shirt on a day when students were asked to show their patriotism by wearing red, white and blue, according to MyFOXColorado.com.

When he was given the choice of turning the shirt inside out or being suspended, Dalton chose suspension.

“They’re taking away my right of freedom of speech,” he said. “If I have the right to wear this shirt I’m going to use it. And if the only way to use it is get suspended, then I’m going to get suspended.”

Read moreFifth Grader Suspended For Wearing Anti-Obama Shirt

42 Percent Of State Public Schools Below Standards

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Forty-two percent of Connecticut public schools failed to meet performance standards required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, according to figures released by the state Department of Education today.

That list includes about 100 more schools than last year, reflecting heightened standards for schools.

Read more42 Percent Of State Public Schools Below Standards

School Shooting Drill Terrifies Unknowing Teachers

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This is absolute madness. They have intentionally traumatized innocent children and teachers.
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WCAU-TV
updated 2:15 p.m. ET Sept. 9, 2008

About 50 teachers at a New Jersey school experienced a terrifying moment when a shooting rampage turned out to be a drill, but the teachers didn’t know it.

It happened Aug. 28 at the Phillipsburg New Jersey Early Learning Center.

A man burst into the library and started shooting. But the gun didn’t have any bullets, just blanks.

Teachers took cover under child-sized tables, crying and trembling.

“People are crying. The girl next to me is trembling and shaking. You heard people crying. You heard other people praying. It was pretty dramatic,” one teacher said.

The school district put the drill in place to test staff readiness.

The Phillipsburg School Board heard from angry teachers and parents Monday night.

The board is reviewing the drill.

Source: MSNBC

The CCTV cameras spying on hundreds of classrooms

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CCTV monitors classrooms at one in 14 schools, according to a survey.

The poll of teachers also found that almost a quarter feared there might be more cameras hidden around the campus that they did not know about.

Most said their schools were fitted with surveillance cameras. Almost 80 per cent said there were cameras at the entrance and more than 7 per cent said there were some in classrooms.

Nearly 10 per cent of teachers polled by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers said there were cameras in the lavatories.


Big brother is watching you: One in 14 schools is monitored by CCTV

Read moreThe CCTV cameras spying on hundreds of classrooms

Children will learn by downloading information directly

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Children will learn by downloading information directly into their brains within 30 years, an education expert has predicted.

Chris Parry, the new chief executive of the Independent Schools Council, said “Matrix-style” technology would render traditional lessons obsolete.

He said: “It’s a very short route from wireless technology to actually getting the electrical connections in your brain to absorb that knowledge.”

Read moreChildren will learn by downloading information directly

10-year-old scholar takes Calif. college by storm

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10-year-old takes college by storm

Sophomore holds an A-plus average in subjects like algebra, astronomy

DOWNEY, Calif. – With the end of another school year approaching, college sophomore Moshe Kai Cavalin is cramming for final exams in classes such as advanced mathematics, foreign languages and music.

But Cavalin is only 10 years old. And at 4-foot-7, his shoes don’t quite touch the floor as he puts down a schoolbook and swivels around in his chair to greet a visitor.

“I’m studying statistics,” says the alternately precocious and shy Cavalin, his textbook lying open on the living room desk of his parents’ apartment in this quiet suburb east of Los Angeles.

Within a year, if he keeps up his grades and completes the rest of his requirements, he hopes to transfer from his two-year program at East Los Angeles College to a prestigious four-year school and study astrophysics.

‘Wormholes’ a primary interest
One of his primary interests is “wormholes,” a hypothetical scientific phenomenon connected to Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. It has been theorized that if such holes do exist in space, they could — in tandem with black holes — allow for the kind of space-age time travel seen in science fiction.

“Just like black holes, they suck in particulate objects, and also like black holes, they also travel at escape velocity, which is, the speed to get out of there is faster than the speed of light,” Cavalin says. “I’d like to prove that wormholes are really there and prove all the theories are correct.”

First, he has statistics homework to finish. Later, he’ll work with his mother, Shu Chen Chien, to brush up on his Mandarin for his Chinese class. Then it’s over to the piano to prepare for his recital in music class.

His father, Yosef Cavalin, frets about the piano-playing, noting that his only child recently broke his arm pursuing another passion, martial arts. He has won several trophies for his age group.

Read more10-year-old scholar takes Calif. college by storm

Israel’s Defense Minister authorizes nationwide emergency drill

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Barak authorizes nationwide emergency drill

Defense establishment, government and cabinet all to participate in exercise simulating crisis situation as part of upcoming national emergency drill to be held in April. Drill part of implementation of lessons from Second Lebanon War.

Read moreIsrael’s Defense Minister authorizes nationwide emergency drill