Schools

Governor Signs Executive Orders Barring Transgender Athletes From Women’s Sports

March 31, 2021 Lexi Lonas, The Hill. Educate! Schools, South Dakota, Sports, Transgender Rights

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) has signed executive orders barring transgender athletes from women’s sports in the state. “Only girls should play girls’ sports,” Noem tweeted on Monday. “Given the legislature’s failure to accept my proposed revisions to HB 1217, I am immediately signing two executive orders to address this issue: one to protect fairness in K-12 athletics, and another to do so in college athletics.” The executive orders direct the state’s Department of Education and Board of Regents to align its policies so only those who are biologically female can participate in women’s sports. Last week, Noem refused to sign the GOP bill barring transgender athletes from women’s sports.

New Study: School Streets Improve Air Quality

March 14, 2021 London.gov. Create! health, Schools, Transportation, United Kingdom (UK)

London, UK - Closing the roads around schools to traffic at pick-up and drop-off times has reduced polluting nitrogen dioxide levels by up to 23 per cent and is strongly supported by parents, new research published by the Mayor Sadiq Khan reveals. To measure the air quality benefits of the new School Streets, 30 cutting-edge sensors from the Breathe London network were installed at 18 primary schools across Brent, Enfield and Lambeth to record nitrogen dioxide levels. The air quality monitoring project, funded by FIA Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies, was launched in September 2020 to give the most accurate indication yet of how the School Streets scheme is working. Since April 2020, almost 350 School Streets have been delivered across London with funding from Transport for London (TfL) and the boroughs to tackle children’s exposure to air pollution and improve their health.

Are Urban Schools A Site of Occupation?

March 5, 2021 By Chetachukwu Agwoeme, Hood Communist. Educate! Black America, Cities, Militarization, Occupation, Schools

In the third season of Black Lightning, the fictional Black city of Freeland was living under a military occupation by the ASA (the quasi governmental organization occupying Freeland). Not only did the city have heavily armed troopers patrolling the streets, but also had troopers patrolling the schools– detaining anyone they deemed a threat – using violence if necessary. In episode four, students are in a classroom discussing similar military occupations in multiple countries around the world and their harmful effects on the people being occupied. Some students agree, but then others claim the ASA occupying their city might be a good thing, suggesting that the ASA’s presence comes with safety. As they are discussing, the ASA comes into the classroom to detain (and abduct) a student named Tavon, under the suspicion of having powers.

Military Recruiters Don’t Belong In High Schools

September 1, 2020 By Sidney Miralao, Foreign Policy in Focus. Educate! Economic insecurity, Military Recruitment, Schools, Wars and Militarism

Since the end of the draft in 1973, the U.S. has relied on an all-volunteer service to maintain its 1.3 million-member global police force. Over the years the military has used a number of different recruitment methods, but the target audience has always been the same: high schoolers. The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 significantly changed how military recruiters reach teenagers. Section 9528 mandates public high schools give military recruiters the same access to students that college recruiters get, including their personal contact information. Schools became gold mines for recruiting “future soldiers.” Recruiters at my high school in Fairfax County, Virginia always set up shop in the cafeteria. For the next two hours, they would sit through the four different lunch periods and give their spiel to whoever was curious enough to stop at their station.

Disastrous US School Openings Lead To 2,500 Infections Across 44 States

August 24, 2020 Evan Blake, WSWS. Educate! COVID-19, Republican, School reopening, Schools

Within weeks, the reopening of schools across the United States has already become a complete catastrophe. Outside of the mobilization of educators, parents and the broader working class to halt this homicidal policy, there will be rapid acceleration of the spread of the deadly COVID-19 disease throughout every region of the country. Because no government agency at the local, state or federal level is systematically tracking work-related COVID-19 cases and deaths, Kansas teacher Alisha Morris took it upon herself to begin compiling this data in a spreadsheet. The list, which is now curated by roughly 35 people, has been shared in the dozens of Facebook groups that have been set up to oppose the unsafe reopening of schools and has been viewed tens of thousands of times by educators, parents and students.

School Cancelled In Arizona Area After ‘Sick Out’ Over Reopening

August 17, 2020 Andrew Hay, Reuters. Resist! COVID-19, School reopening, Schools, Teachers Strike

An Arizona school district that ignored state safety guidelines and voted to begin in-person learning on Aug. 17 has had to cancel classes after staff said it was unsafe to return and called in sick. Greater Phoenix’s J.O. Combs Unified School District canceled all instruction for Monday due to “insufficient staffing,” days after its board disregarded state benchmarks on when students can safely return to classes during the pandemic. The “sick out” underlined the difficulties in returning to in-person learning in the United States after schools in Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama closed this week as students and staff were infected with COVID-19 or forced to self-isolate from exposure.

Utah Teachers Oppose Schools Reopening

August 12, 2020 Alyssa Faith and Summer Autumn, Worker's World. Resist! COVID-19, School reopening, Schools, Teachers

School districts across Utah are planning to open with in-person classes for the start of the new school year, despite the state having twice the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus as they did when schools closed in March. Governor Gary Hubert requested school districts open for in-person learning, while leaving planning and procedures up to individual school districts. School boards have been making minimal changes without input from teachers, school employees and parents. The Granite Education Association, representing teachers in Utah’s largest school district, held a rally outside the district offices during a school board meeting on Aug. 4. The rally was attended by approximately 600 workers. They demanded the school board listen to workers and do more to keep employees and children safe.

Major New Study Calls For A Ban On Facial Recognition In Schools

August 10, 2020 Fight for the Future. Organize! Facial Recognition, Schools, Student Rights, Surveillance

A new study from the University of Michigan on the use of facial recognition in schools is recommending that lawmakers and school administrators ban the use of this technology in educational settings. The researchers behind the study write that facial recognition in schools “will likely have five types of implications: exacerbating racism, normalizing surveillance and eroding privacy, narrowing the definition of the ‘acceptable’ student, commodifying data, and institutionalizing inaccuracy. Because FR is automated, it will extend these effects to more students than any manual system could.” “Using facial recognition in schools amounts to unethical experimentation on children,” said Evan Greer (she/her), deputy director of digital rights group Fight for the Future who have been organizing to ban facial recognition for more than a year.

Parents Stand With Educators On Safety Before Reopening Schools

August 5, 2020 Brenda Álvarez, NEA Today. Resist! COVID-19, Essential worker, Reopen Economy, Schools

Many parents nationwide are questioning whether it’s safe to send their kids back to a brick and mortar school this fall. With varied life circumstances, and different districts and schools choosing different options, it’s a daunting decision to make. For Florida’s Raquel Pantoja Lias, a mom of a rising fourth grader in Broward County, it’s a hard “no.” Under an emergency order from the state education commissioner, most schools are scheduled to reopen on August 19 for in-person learning, five days a week, a plan supported by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Billionaires Push To Reopen Schools Without A Plan

August 2, 2020 G. Dunkel, Workers.org. Educate! COVID-19, health, Reopen Economy, Schools

Schools in the U.S. provide students with much more than an education. They provide child care, meals (for 14 million students), medical services (mostly for students with disabilities), psychological counseling, supervised physical activity and social connections. There are more than 135,000 educational institutions and 56.6 million students in grades K through 12. Since 2014 the majority of all public school students have been children of color. (National Center for Education Statistics) While all parents want their children to be able to return to school, more than two-thirds polled want schools physically reopened only if safe.

Strikes Are An Option To Force Schools To Reopen Safely

July 30, 2020 By Madeline Will, Education Week Teacher. Organize! COVID-19, Schools, Strikes, Teacher's Union

The executive council of the American Federation of Teachers has voted to pursue various tactics—including strikes—to keep schools from reopening for in-person instruction without proper safety measures. "If authorities don't protect the safety and health of those we represent and those we serve, as our executive council voted last week, nothing is off the table—not advocacy or protests, negotiations, grievances or lawsuits, or, if necessary and authorized by a local union, as a last resort, safety strikes," said AFT President Randi Weingarten in a Tuesday speech during the national teachers' union's biennial convention. The resolution passed by the 45-member council says that school buildings can only open in places where the average daily community infection rate among those tested for COVID-19 is below 5 percent and the transmission rate is below 1 percent, and where there is effective contact tracing. Safeguards also need to be put in place, the AFT says...

After Cutting Ties With Police, Minneapolis Schools Quietly Hire Private Police

July 23, 2020 By Susan Du, City Pages. Educate! Education, Police in Schools, Privatization, Schools

On Sunday, more than 100 Minneapolis teachers and families rallied in the parking lot outside the Davis Center, the district headquarters, to protest the hiring – without prior warning – of what they suspect will be “rent-a-cops” with even less accountability than licensed police officers. “When we said we didn’t want any more SROs, any more police officers in our buildings, we did not mean, 'hire a bunch of private security officers and put them in our buildings,'” said MFT president Greta Callahan, a teacher at Bethune Community School in Near North. “Let me ask you a question. If I order a sandwich, and I say, ‘Hold the mayo,’ does that mean put a bunch of Miracle Whip all over it? They’re missing the point.” The teachers’ union asked concerned students and parents to call the district with two demands: stop the PSSS hiring process, and involve the public on how school security will be reconstructed.

Trump Threatens To Cut Funding For Schools That Don’t Reopen

July 10, 2020 Marlee Kokotovic, Nation of Change. Educate! COVID-19, Education, health, Reopen Economy, Schools

President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos are threatening to cut off federal funding to schools that do not open their doors this fall due to coronavirus concerns. In a recent Tweet he suggests it is a Democrat ploy to hurt him politically by tweeting: “In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families.” In a conference call with governors across the country, Devos stated: “Risk is involved in everything we do, from learning to ride a bike to riding a rocket into space and everything in between.”

Calls To Eliminate School Police Intensify Amid Protests

June 12, 2020 Theresa Harrington and Ali Tadyon, EdSource. Resist! Education, Police, Police violence, Schools

Amid calls to defund municipal police in the wake of George Floyd’s killing by Minneapolis police, two Oakland Unified school board members are pushing to eliminate the district’s police force. This is an acceleration of a demand that dates back nine years, when activists began calling on the district to dissolve its police department after a black student was shot and killed by a district police sergeant. The proposal by board members Roseann Torres and Shanthi Gonzales says the district would call on Oakland City Police in emergencies. It has the support of the teachers’ union. It’s unclear if the resolution to be introduced Wednesday will get majority support. The board may hold a special meeting next week to vote on it, or could vote on it June 24, Gonzales told EdSource.

We Protest Police In The Streets, So Why Do We Let Police In Our Schools?

June 5, 2020 By Dave Stieber, The Chicago Reporter. Educate! Education, Police, Racism, Schools

There is a large body of research that shows that having police in schools negatively impacts student learning and makes kids feel unsafe. It took the murder of Philando Castille in 2016 and George Floyd, but the Minneapolis Public School Board voted last night to cut ties with the Minneapolis Police Department. We have examples in Chicago and across the country of police abusing our students in schools. This includes police tasing a student, body-slamming a 12-year-old, flipping a student’s desk and dragging them across the floor, slapping and kicking a student, and arresting students as young as six years old. Our students are being charged with crimes that would normally be handled through existing internal disciplinary policies if not for the police presence in schools.

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