World-Shaker

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Facebook post about hungry child gets school bus driver fired

Let’s role play.

You’re a school bus driver at Haralson County Middle School in Georgia. A 6th-grader gets on your bus and complains he’s hungry.

You ask him why he’s hungry. The kid says he was 40 cents short on his lunch card, so he was denied food.

When this scenario played out for bus driver Johnny Cook, he took to his Facebook pageto express his shock and offer to help any child who is short of lunch money.

However, as CBS Atlanta reports, the school wasn’t too pleased with this expression of concern.

Chart of the Day: Student Loan Debt is Skyrocketing

It’s also yet another fault line between young and old that’s not likely to turn out well. My generation got a cheap college education when we were young, and we’re getting good retirement benefits now that we’re old. Pretty nice. But now we’re turning around and telling today’s 20-somethings that they should pay through the nose for college, keep paying taxes for our retirements, and oh by the way, when it comes time for you to retire your benefits are going to have to be cut. So sorry. And all this despite the fact that the country is richer than it was 50 years ago, and will be richer still 50 years from now.

But at least today’s kids don’t have to worry about being drafted. That’s something, I suppose.

"Barshinger seems to think it is inconceivable that there could be anything wrong with the survey, since people with good intentions worked on it for “over a year.” Yet the survey forms that Dryden picked up from his mailbox 10 minutes before his first class on April 18 not only asked about illegal behavior; they had students’ names on them, thereby destroying any assurance of confidentiality. Even if the people who selected the survey were not trying to get students to incriminate themselves, that was the inevitable result if students who had broken the law by drinking or using illegal drugs answered the questions candidly."

— School Board Reprimands Teacher for Telling Students About Their Right to Remain Silent

"Some people say that we can’t afford to help our kids through school by keeping student loan interest rates low,” said Senator Warren. “But right now, as I speak, the federal government offers far lower interest rates on loans, every single day–they just don’t do it for everyone. Right now, a big bank can get a loan through the Federal Reserve discount window at a rate of about 0.75%. But this summer a student who is trying to get a loan to go to college will pay almost 7%. In other words, the federal government is going to charge students interest rates that are nine times higher than the rates for the biggest banks–the same banks that destroyed millions of jobs and nearly broke this economy. That isn’t right. And that is why I’m introducing legislation today to give students the same deal that we give to the big banks.
Big banks get a great deal when they borrow money from the Fed,” Senator Warren continued. “In effect, the American taxpayer is investing in those banks. We should make the same kind of investment in our young people who are trying to get an education. Lend them the money and make them to pay it back, but give our kids a break on the interest they pay. Let’s Bank on Students… Unlike the big banks, students don’t have armies of lobbyists and lawyers. They have only their voices. And they call on us to do what is right."

— Elizabeth Warren: Students should get the same loan rate as big banks

Principal fires security guards to hire art teachers — and transforms elementary school →

…the dream of a school founded in the arts, a school that would give back to the community as it bettered its children, never materialized.

Instead, the dance studio was used for storage and the orchestra’s instruments were locked up and barely touched. 

The school was plagued by violence and disorder from the start, and by 2010 it was ranked in the bottom five of all public schools in the state of Massachusetts.

That was when Andrew Bott — the sixth principal in seven years — showed up, and everything started to change.

“We got rid of the security guards,” said Bott, who reinvested all the money used for security infrastructure into the arts.

And now it’s one of the fastest-improving schools in the state.

"Now Republicans in Ohio have come up with a new approach. In Ohio, eight of the 14 public universities routinely provide students with documents that make it possible for them to register to vote at school. But in the state House, Republicans are pushing a budget amendment requiring schools that issue those documents to charge the student only in-state tuition, even if the student otherwise would pay the higher out-of-state rate. Under Ohio’s scheme, the student votes and the school gets punished."

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Fear of the youth vote, now in Ohio

It’s cool. The Supreme Court’s only had a standing ruling for almost 35 years that says students have a constitutional right to vote where they go to school, even if they’re considered an out-of-state student.

"We need to create a world where people from Fox News and MSNBC get married."

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The Right Rev. Michael Bruce Curry

From Elon University’s Spring Convocation, hosted by Lara Logan (live right now)

"A former Forest Hills Central High student says school officials failed to properly investigate allegations she was sexually assaulted at school by a prominent athlete, and ignored her claims of cyberbullying that forced her to leave school. The student said the apparent lack of discipline led students to believe she was lying."

— Former Forest Hills Central student subject of sexual assault, cyberbullying, lawsuit says

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Watterson Teacher Wants Job Back: “That’s All I’m Hoping For”

When Carla Hale, 57, received her termination letter from Bishop Watterson Principal Marian Hutson, Hale said she was in, “total shock. Like your legs had just been cut out from under you.”

The letter was from the Columbus Diocese and signed by Hutson.

“I turned to the principal and I said, ‘Are we talking like immediately? Am I supposed to leave the building?’ And she just, she said, ‘Yes.’”

That was March 28, and Hale hasn’t been back since.

Hale is gay. And she said that is the reason the Columbus Diocese fired her, for what it said was a violation of moral law.

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American Politics in One Photo.

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Ohio Sex Education Bill Threatens Teachers With $5K Fine

A two-year budget bill advanced by Ohio’s state House of Representatives on Tuesday would defund Planned Parenthood, redirect that state money to Christian-run “crisis pregnancy centers,” and impose a fine of up to $5,000 on teachers who provide certain kinds of sex education instruction to their students.

The sex education amendment to the budget bill, introduced by Rep. Lynn Wachtmann (R), encourages schools to teach abstinence-only education and bans sexual education that condones “any gateway sexual activity or health message that encourages students to experiment with sexual activity.” The amendment also prohibits teachers from distributing contraceptive materials and bans public schools from using the services of any individual or organization who “endorses student nonabstinence from sexual activity as an appropriate or acceptable behavior, or if that individual or organization promotes, endorses, advocates, or condones gateway sexual activity.”

Instructors who violate the law could be sued in court for up to $5,000.

I just…where are the rational Republicans?

High Schooler Protests 'Slut-Shaming' Abstinence Assembly →

A West Virginia high school student is filing an injunction against her principal, who she claims is threatening to punish her for speaking out against a factually inaccurate abstinence assembly at her school. Katelyn Campbell, who is the student body vice president at George Washington High School, alleges her principal threatened to call the college where she’s been accepted to report that she has “bad character.”

George Washington High School recently hosted a conservative speaker, Pam Stenzel, who travels around the country to advocate an abstinence-only approach to teen sexuality. Stenzel has a long history of using inflammatory rhetoric to convince young people that they will face dire consequences for becoming sexually active. At GW’s assembly, Stenzel allegedly told students that “if you take birth control, your mother probably hates you” and “I could look at any one of you in the eyes right now and tell if you’re going to be promiscuous.” She also asserted that condoms aren’t safe, and every instance of sexual contact will lead to a sexually transmitted infection.

"Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said Tuesday that most opponents to his controversial cybersecurity bill are teenagers in their basements as the Obama administration threatened to veto the measure for its potential to violate civil liberties."

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Mike Rogers: CISPA Cybersecurity Bill Opponents Are Teens In Their Basements (VIDEO)

Not just teenagers in their basements—People who aren’t idiots. People who are idiots spend their time writing cybersecurity bills about things they don’t understand.

"Why does Gleevec, a leukemia drug that costs $70,000 per year in the United States, cost just $2,500 in India? It’s seemingly simple. Gleevec is under patent in the U.S., but not in India. Accordingly, Novartis, its Swiss-based manufacturer, may prevent competitors from making and selling lower-cost versions of the drug in the U.S., but not in India."

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Why Chemotherapy That Costs $70,000 in the U.S. Costs $2,500 in India

BOOM.

N. Korea warns Japan against hostile stance →

This is how crazypants North Korea is:

They’ve told Japan they’ll attack Tokyo if Japan maintains its “hostile posture.” 

North Korea defines Japan’s “hostile posture” as Japan saying they’ll shoot down any missle North Korea fires at them.

So to summarize: North Korea threatens to nuke Japan because Japan said it will shoot down a nuke if North Korea fires a nuke at them.