hmmm
Category: Education,
Police shooting near Yale exposes complex racial divide
The images from the police bodycam video of two officers firing at an unarmed black couple in their car have reverberated throughout New Haven.
…In January, New Haven officials approved the creation of a Civilian Review Board to monitor and independently investigate alleged police misconduct — an effort more than 20 years in the making.
…The redlining of neighborhoods — in which federal agencies in the 1930s allowed for discriminatory lending practices that disenfranchised black home buyers — created the segregation and racially divisive attitudes prevalent in New Haven and its majority white suburbs.
…New Haven, where about one in four residents live in poverty, and the portion of Hamden that borders the city represent a microcosm of the housing policies and income inequality that persist today throughout the United States.
…”Yale and these other Ivy League schools are in a land grab race, competing for endowment funds and land. They want to buy up properties to build expensive apartments, luxury living with the gyms and coffee houses and yoga studios. They’re arguing that they’re scaling up neighborhoods and gentrifying, but the reality is it’s only for those who can afford it.”
…The shooting near Yale’s campus has also brought up questions about how the university’s police force operates and why an officer fired a weapon in an off-campus encounter.
…The Black Students for Disarmament at Yale said it favors the school’s officers being unarmed and restricted in where they can patrol off campus.
…A white student called campus police on a black Yale graduate student who had been napping in a common room.
…Upon releasing Eaton’s bodycam footage …State Police Commissioner James Rovella could not detail why the officers opened fire after commanding the driver to open the car door. Witherspoon could be seen on Eaton’s bodycam getting out of his car at that moment.
Eaton only turned on the bodycam after the shooting, and Pollock failed to turn his on at all.
Witherspoon, who was [not armed, was] not charged [with any crimes.]
Police shooting near Yale exposes complex racial divide
sigh….
Broward County: Christopher Krickovich filmed punching, pepper-spraying teenager
That teen’s phone bounced onto the pavement. A 15-year-old went to pick it up and, in a widely circulated video shot by a bystander, he did so in front of a deputy wielding pepper spray. The deputy triggered the spray at the teen’s face, and he only made it a few steps before the deputy threw him to the ground.
Another deputy, Christopher Krickovich, straddled him, smashed his forehead into the asphalt several times and punched him in the head. The teen extended his arms.
…Later, the officer said he responded to the call as an active-shooter scenario, even though no shots were fired. [A lack of ability to exercise judgement like this should be grounds for firing. Incompetence should never ever be rewarded, let alone accepted as justification for egregious violence and abuses of pwer.]
…“Oftentimes, training doesn’t get to the philosophical root to explain to officers why you need to do X, Y or Z,” Klinger said. “Rather, it’s just, ‘Do X, Y or Z.’ It’s very easy for officers to misapply.”
Klinger added: “If there is a problem with the particular use of force, and [deputies] were doing what they were trained to do and told to do, you can’t criticize them.” [What? Watch me… If an officer cannot use reason and critical thought well enough to be responsible for their own choices and actions they not only have no business wearing a badge they are a danger to the community they are charged with protecting.]
This random and uncalled for level of unrepentant violence and bullying is what parents invite into their communities when they give approval to law enforcement officers in school. The child was lucky not to be shot dead.
‘Could You Draw A Dot Within 50 Miles Of Your House?’: Why The U.S. May Have A Geography Literacy Problem | Here & Now
Spann thought there was something technically wrong with the maps he was posting. But after getting the help of a group of social scientists, he found that most people just can’t find their house on a map.
This is a dangerous problem, he says. A significant number of Americans live in tornado-prone areas, and others may be dealing with different environmental threats, like flooding, earthquakes or tsunamis.
…A large part of the problem is smartphones, which have GPS systems that give turn-by-turn directions. People don’t [use and read] maps anymore, he says.
sigh…
Surveillance video shows Chicago police dragging female student down stairs, using stun gun
In the new video, they can be seen pinning her to the ground, throwing several punches and eventually using a stun gun on her three times.
…[The student] was initially charged with two felony counts for aggravated battery against a peace officer. Those charges were later dropped by the State’s Attorney’s Office.
“The Board of Education and the Chicago Police Department continue to fail our children,” Howard’s lawyer, Andrew M. Stroth, said. “An unarmed, 16-year-old girl was beaten, kicked, punched and Tasered by Officers Johnnie Pierre and Sherry Tripp at Marshall High School.
The school hung on to this surveillance video for months. School oficials might as well have ordered the officers to assault and abuse the youth themselves.
Video shows CPD officers dragging, punching, using stun gun on Marshall HS student | abc7chicago.com
Video shows Chicago police officers dragging a 16-year-old Marshall High School student down a flight of stairs, punching her, and using a stun gun on her.
What the video shows does not [show is] the story the officers …told when the incident happened in January.
…Police said they were told to escort Howard out of the school after she was removed from class for having her phone out.
…As the person in the yellow shirt walks away, video shows one of the officers immediately grab Howard and throw her to the ground.
…Video from another angle shows the officers dragging Howard down the stairs, and at the bottom one officer is holding her arm while the other is holding her leg.
“In the video you can see they pull her by the leg down the stairs, the whole flight of stairs.”
…One officer …kick[s] and punch[es] Howard as he’s holding her on the ground. Video shows her thrashing on the floor …before the officer ultimately deploys his stun gun.
Video shows CPD officers dragging, punching, using stun gun on Marshall HS student | abc7chicago.com
the fact that the officers involved still have their badges shows the contempt the Chicago Police Department has for the citizens they are charged to protect. If the police and court were at all interested in law and order or justice the officers would be in jail.
This thuggish abuse of power and unrepentant bullying and violence is what people are inviting into the lives of children and young people when police officers are in schools.
Executive Order Ties Research Funding To Free Speech Guarantee : NPR
Trump specifically called out “professors and power structures” that keep young Americans from “challenging rigid far-left ideology,” and lamented that many universities have become “increasingly hostile” to free speech.
…”The executive order essentially directs federal agencies to ensure colleges are following requirements already in place,” reported the education publication Inside Higher Ed. “And it doesn’t spell out how enforcement of the order would work.”
Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education, called the executive order a “solution in search of a problem” and cautioned that it provides no clear steps on implementation.
“It is neither needed nor desirable, and could lead to unwanted federal micromanagement of the cutting-edge research that is critical to our nation’s continued vitality and global leadership,” Mitchell said.
Executive Order Ties Research Funding To Free Speech Guarantee : NPR
Churlish and moronic.
‘School Hardening’ Not Making Students Safer, Say Experts
It’s the proverbial “Quick Fix,” in the form of millions of dollars allocated to “target harden” schools. Eager to demonstrate decisive, quick action to understandably anxious parents, officials have purchased products ranging from mega-expensive state-of-art surveillance technology, to metal detectors, facial recognition software, bullet-proof whiteboards, and fortified entries.
Kenneth Trump, a school safety expert, calls it the triumph of the “wow over the how.”
..While improving physical security in schools is essential (specific recommendations in the report include installing internal locks and limiting the number of entry points), “we cannot convert our schools into prisons and treat our students like prisoners,” said Pringle.
…While educators, school leaders, and school safety experts are championing proven best practices, the $2.7 billion security industry is working overtime – with noticeable success – to convince districts that sophisticated and expensive products and services are the answer to their problems.
According to AP, security firms in 2018 “helped Congress draft a law that committed $350 million to equipment and other school security over the next decade. Nearly 20 states have come up with another $50 million, ad local school districts are reworking budgets to find more money.”
“School safety is the wild, wild West,” security consultant Mason Wooldridge told AP. “Any company can claim anything they want.”
The security hardware and product industry has hijacked school safety, says Ken Trump.
“They have become increasingly organized in their lobbying of Congress and state governments. Their focus includes taking school security out of the hands of education agencies and put under the authority of homeland security departments, which, by their nature, tend of focus on the physical security measures and infrastructure hardening,” Trump says.
According to available research, as a school safety strategy, target hardening doesn’t work and is likely counterproductive.
‘School Hardening’ Not Making Students Safer, Say Experts – NEA Today
hmmm
Betsy DeVos Explains “Benefits” of Larger Class Sizes
Why waste time and energy on conducting research when you can just make it up instead?
Betsy DeVos Explains Benefits of Larger Class Sizes | C-SPAN.org
The look on the face of the guy sitting behind her is everything,
‘Major distraction’: school dumps iPads, returns to paper textbooks
[A] Sydney school has declared the e-book era over and returned to the old-fashioned hard copy version because it improves comprehension and reduces distraction.
…”[Students] have messages popping up and all sorts of other alerts,” said Mr Pitcairn. “Also, kids being kids, they could jump between screens quite easily, so would look awfully busy and not be busy at all.”
…Teachers also found the iPads …did not contribute to students’ technology skills.
…”The ease of navigation through the textbook was easier with the hard copy. …They learn better the more faculties they use, the more senses they use in research and reading and making notes.”
…Research into [the preference for] hard-copy textbooks “points to greater perceived comfort, comprehension, and also retention of what’s been read,” she said. “Some have found that there’s less immersive involvement [in digital text].”
…When students were asked about the general themes of a text, …the printed version made them better able to answer specific questions.
The study’s authors suggested print be preferred when an assignment demands more engagement or deeper comprehension.
‘Major distraction’: school dumps iPads, returns to paper textbooks
hmmm
Over 2 hours of screen time a day can affect children’s brains, study finds
The study found that children who have more than two hours of screen time a day got lower scores on tests focused on thinking and language skills.
….These negative effects occur because children don’t know how to translate two-dimensional skills learned on a screen to the real, three-dimensional world. “If you give a child an app where they play with ..,virtual blocks, and stack them, and then put real blocks in front of them, they start all over.”
Over 2 hours of screen time a day can affect children’s brains, study finds – INSIDER
hmmm
‘Traumatic’ MCAS Question Removed From Exam After Students Complain | Edify
Teachers’ unions and advocacy groups on Wednesday demanded that state education officials invalidate an MCAS exam after the test contained a now-removed question asking students to write from the perspective of an “openly racist” character in the novel “The Underground Railroad.”
…According to the groups, the exam asked students to “write a journal entry from the perspective of the character Ethel, who is openly racist and betrays slaves trying to escape.”
…The press release from the unions and advocates, however, included a statement from the book’s author slamming the exam.
“Whoever came up with the question has done a great disservice to these kids, and everyone who signed off on it should be ashamed,” Whitehead said in the release.
‘Traumatic’ MCAS Question Removed From Exam After Students Complain | Edify
wow
9-year-old U.S. citizen detained by Border Patrol for 32 hours at Mexico border while walking to school
She did not explain why Julia was held for about 32 hours.
…Galaxia, Julia’s mother, also said that they forced her son, Oscar, to sign a document insisting that Julia was his cousin, not his sister.
“He was told that he would be taken to jail and they were going to charge him for human trafficking and sex trafficking,” she told NBC 7.
Julia was eventually released after the Mexican consulate got involved.
Detaining in the first place is ridiculous. If they can’t exercise better judgement than this, why are these individuals still employed by Border Patrol?
But bullying a child into lying about his family is unconscionable, the officers involed should be in jail.
Thousands of Moroccan teachers stage protest over pay terms
About 10,000 teachers staged a new protest in the Moroccan capital Rabat on Sunday to demand permanent jobs, hours after police had used water cannon to disperse an overnight demonstration.
Thousands of Moroccan teachers stage protest over pay terms | Reuters
hmmmm
Students perform haka to pay tribute to classmates killed in Christchurch – YouTube
Students from various schools paid tribute to two of their peers who died in the Christchurch shooting by performing a haka, a ceremonial Maori dance to mourn the victims and honour the dead. They were joined by scores of fellow students to form a deafening chorus.
Students perform haka to pay tribute to classmates killed in Christchurch – YouTube
n/t
Why the college admissions scandal brings up affirmative action
Factors such as donations, athletics and legacy status are baked into the admissions process, which has traditionally benefitted wealthy families. Yet affirmative action, which is intended to help underrepresented minorities, gets intense scrutiny and legal challenges.
…There is little discussion about underqualified white students who benefit from preferences in the admissions process such as sports, family influence and legacies. …Legacies are applicants who are regarded preferentially because they are the children of alumni. They also tend to be white and wealthy.
…Athletes of patrician sports, such as sailing or water polo, are recruited to college athletics. These types of sports aren’t accessible for students from inner-city schools.
…It is not affirmative action that threatens the fairness in the college admissions process, its supporters say, but rather the advantages of the rich and powerful.
…Americans are “not entirely wrong” to think “that elites are rigging the system for their own benefit and for the benefit of their families,” he said.
Why the college admissions scandal brings up affirmative action – CNN
hmmmm
New York judge won’t let unvaccinated children return to school
A federal judge, citing an “unprecedented measles outbreak” in suburban Rockland County, New York, has denied a request to let 44 unvaccinated children return to school.
New York judge won’t let unvaccinated children return to school – MarketWatch
hmmmm
NEA Today: Here’s What Happens When High School Starts Later in the Day
In 2016, Seattle public schools changed the starting bell from 7:50 am to 8:45 am.
By providing a group of sophomore biology students at each school with sleep-tracking watches and a daily sleep diary, the researchers collected the data two weeks prior to the schedule change and two weeks after. They found that the students on average gained an extra 34 minutes of sleep.
Following the later start time, students were also more alert and engaged in class, absences and tardiness decreased, and final grades increased by 4.5 percent.
Starting school later also helped students combat the symptoms of chronic sleep deprivation, such as fatigue, depression, and memory and cognition impairment.
…Low-income students make up almost two-thirds of the population at Franklin High, compared with only 12 percent over at Roosevelt High. Although Roosevelt’s students experienced little change after the hour setback, Franklin students’ tardiness and first-period absences dropped to levels similar to Roosevelt’s students.
…The task force’s report also pointed out districts would likely save money on programs for disciplinary actions, school health clinics, counseling, and class failures. Students are less likely to need these programs when they get more sleep.
Here’s What Happens When School Starts Later – NEA Today
hmmmm
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