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High School Math Teacher in Trouble for Tweeting Nude Photos, Calling Students ‘Jailbait’

Semi-nude selfies and jokes about on-campus drug use are just some of the things found on one Colorado math teacher’s Twitter page.

23-year-old Carly McKinney, a first-year teacher at Overland High School in Aurora, also raised eyebrows among district officials with tweets like, “Just got called Ms. McCutie. Points for being clever, however you are still jailbait.”

McKinney was busted by a viewer tip to local NBC affiliate 9News, and subsequently deleted her account, CarlyCrunkBear.

"The evidence shows that these four men also knew about a 1998 criminal investigation of Sandusky relating to suspected sexual misconduct with a young boy in a Penn State football locker room shower. Again, they showed no concern about that victim. The evidence shows that Mr. Paterno was made aware of the 1998 investigation of Sandusky, followed it closely, but failed to take any action, even though Sandusky had been a key member of his coaching staff for almost 30 years, and had an office just steps away from Mr. Paterno’s. At the very least, Mr. Paterno could have alerted the entire football staff, in order to prevent Sandusky from bringing another child into the Lasch Building. Messrs. Spanier, Schultz, Paterno and Curley also failed to alert the Board of Trustees about the 1998 investigation or take any further action against Mr. Sandusky. None of them even spoke to Sandusky about his conduct. In short, nothing was done and Sandusky was allowed to continue with impunity."

— Freeh Report: Penn State Administration, Joe Paterno Covered-up Jerry Sandusky’s Child Abuse (UPDATED)

Blackboard Buys 2 Leading Supporters of Open-Source Competitor Moodle →

infoneer-pulse:

For years, colleges looking for course-management software considered a choice between Blackboard’s dominant commercial product or an open-source alternative such as Moodle or Sakai. Now Blackboard essentially owns the open-source alternatives as well.

On Monday, Blackboard officials announced that the company has purchased two leading supporters of Moodle, Moodlerooms and NetSpot. Both deals are complete, though officials would not disclose the sale prices. The company also hired one of the founders of the Sakai project to lead its efforts to support colleges using that open-source software. The moves are part of the company’s newly announced Blackboard Education Open Source Services group.

» via The Chronicle of Higher Education (Subscription may be required for some content)

Because who needs competition? Blackboard ruined innovation in the LMS market the year they were effectively handed a patent for a generic LMS on a platter. Since then they’ve continued to monopolize the industry by purchasing all their competitors. This is ridiculous, and it shouldn’t be allowed.

Southern Miss band chants ‘where’s your green card?’ to Puerto Rican Kansas State player →

Members of the University of Southern Mississippi band chanted racist taunts at a hispanic Kansas State player during the schools’ NCAA tournament game on Thursday.

After point guard Angel Rodriguez was fouled late in the first half of the second-round game, a few band members showered the freshman with cries of “where’s your green card?”

Oh, and to top it all off:

“We deeply regret the remarks made by a few students at today’s game,” she wrote in a statement issued two hours after the game. ”The words of these individuals do not represent the sentiments of our pep band, athletic department or university. We apologize to Mr. Rodriquez (sic) and will take quick and appropriate disciplinary action against the students involved in this isolated incident.”

Rodriguez was spelled incorrectly in the original draft.

Apparently the Southern Miss band members don’t know that Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the United States. He’d be an American citizen even if he hadn’t grown up in the continental U.S.

EDIT/NINJA UPDATE: Some folks are missing why I also pointed out Mr. Rodriguez was from Puerto Rico, and is therefore already a U.S. citizen.

It’s because these Southern Miss students were ignorant enough to chant “Where’s your green card” to someone who looked Hispanic to them. Then it turns out they’re too ignorant to know Puerto Rico is an American commonwealth. It’s ignorance on top of ignorance. It’s like Ignoranception.

And I thought it was worth highlighting.

Catholic school fires gay teacher planning wedding →

A popular music teacher at St. Ann Catholic School in north St. Louis County recently was fired after church officials learned that he planned to marry his male partner of 20 years in New York, one of a handful of states where same-sex marriage is legal.

The teacher, Al Fischer, confirmed to the Post-Dispatch that he was fired Feb. 17 from his job of four years at the school. When asked to comment on his firing, Fischer declined and referred to a letter emailed to his students’ parents shortly after his termination.

And here’s the kicker:

"Google CEO Larry Page trotted out an impressive statistic during last week’s quarterly earnings call: Google now has 90 million users, double what it had three months ago. Even better, 60 percent of those users are engaged daily, and 80 percent weekly. But those users aren’t necessarily engaging with Google . Any action taken during a logged-in Google session—whether it be searching the Internet, checking Gmail or using Google Docs—counts as engagement under the statistic Page used. Google has refused requests from journalists and interested bystanders to reveal exactly what percentage of those 90 million signed-up Google users actually view Plus content each day, week or month. Instead, Google is arguing that it doesn’t matter: Google is so integrated into the overall experience that what matters is the number of users interacting with any Google site. Combined with other steps Google has taken to integrate Plus into search results and other Google properties, the message is clear: Eventually, Google Plus will just be there whether you want it or not."

—

Google doubles Plus membership with brute-force signup process

I guess it’s easy to brag about numbers when you force people to use your service, and lie about “engagement” by counting “checking your email.”

Congress Pushes Back On Healthier School Lunches →

Why? Because they’re serving industries that bribed  them with money instead of the children of the people who actually live in their districts and states.

Who needs leafy greens and carrots when pizza and french fries will do?

In an effort many 9-year-olds will cheer, Congress wants pizza and french fries to stay on school lunch lines and is fighting the Obama administration’s efforts to take unhealthy foods out of schools.

The final version of a spending bill released late Monday would unravel school lunch standards the Agriculture Department proposed earlier this year. These include limiting the use of potatoes on the lunch line, putting new restrictions on sodium and boosting the use of whole grains. The legislation would block or delay all of those efforts.

The bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now. USDA had wanted to only count a half-cup of tomato paste or more as a vegetable, and a serving of pizza has less than that.

Nutritionists say the whole effort is reminiscent of the Reagan administration’s much-ridiculed attempt 30 years ago to classify ketchup as a vegetable to cut costs. This time around, food companies that produce frozen pizzas for schools, the salt industry and potato growers requested the changes and lobbied Congress.

School meals that are subsidized by the federal government must include a certain amount of vegetables, and USDA’s proposal could have pushed pizza-makers and potato growers out of the school lunch business.

Public slams school board for approving raises →

Many parents attending a school board meeting last Tuesday were critical of the board’s approval of pay hikes for 12 administrators in the Oregon City Schools District. [World-Shaker’s Note: They gave themselves pay raises. Must be nice.]

The board had approved raises for 12 administrators at an August 16 meeting. Superintendent Mike Zalar received the biggest raise, from $116,965 to $130,221.

Many in the packed audience pointed out that the school board had eliminated busing for Clay High School students and had closed Wynn Elementary School this year to cut costs as the result of a shrinking budget that is expected to get smaller in the coming years.

“I am here to ask the administrators to please give back those raises,” said P.J. Kapfhammer, who is running for a seat on the board. “I understand the logistics of it. I understand the numbers. I’m asking the leaders of the school to give back the raises and put it toward busing, or programming, or something that got stripped in the last couple of years. Lead this district. Turn this negative into a positive. I’m asking that they think before they take these raises.”

Paula Giovanoli, of Corduroy Road, was concerned about the elimination of busing for high school students.

“I’m questioning the board’s plans on reinstating busing. Kids wait for hours for parents to pick them up. I’m a little disappointed that raises were given to administrators before we reinstate busing for children,” said Giovanoli, to a burst of applause from the audience.

Shameful.

Rutgers Boosting Athletics at Expense of Academics Fails to Emulate Texas →

infoneer-pulse:

Rutgers University forgave $100,000 of the football coach’s interest-free home loan last year. The women’s basketball coach got monthly golf and car allowances. Both collected bonuses without winning a championship.

Meanwhile, the history department took away professors’ desk phones to save money and shrank its doctoral program by 25 percent. After funding cuts by the deficit-strapped Legislature, New Jersey’s state university froze professors’ salaries, cut the use of photocopies for exams and jacked up student tuition, housing and other fees.

Rutgers also increased funding for sports. The 245-year-old school spent more money on athletics than any other public institution in the six biggest football conferences during the 2009-2010 fiscal year, based on data compiled by Bloomberg. More than 40 percent of sports revenue came from student fees and the university’s general fund.

» via Bloomberg

That’s because Rutgers is a sports company that also happens to run a college.

Budget Cuts Are Taking Their Toll on Public Universities

theyuniversity:

AT&T Acquiring T-Mobile; Only two major cell companies (and Sprint) left for Americans to choose from →

Because who needs competition?

Oh, and did you know that AT&T makes copies of all of its customers emails, web browsing, and other Internet traffic to and from AT&T customers, and provides those copies to the NSA?

Oh, and that T-Mobile was the only U.S. cellular company to not participate in illegally wiretapping its customers and providing all their information to the NSA?

You can read more about that at the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s website.

Unfair.

girlwithalessonplan:

Popular boy puts in his girlfriend’s blonde hair extensions, wears them all day to the enjoyment of all.  Seen as a jokester, gains positive reinforcement.

Shy boy wears Lady Gaga shirt to school.  Gets called a fag.  

"FarmVille" Interruption Cited in Baby's Murder →

A 22-year-old mother from Jacksonville, Florida, has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for shaking her 3-month-old son to death after his crying interrupted her FarmVille game.

HOW TO: Disable Facebook’s “Instant Personalization” [PRIVACY] →

Or, “How to Kill Another Evil Facebook Feature.”