Education Issues - Actions / Reactions

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

Looking To Tamp Down Controversy, Yale Law School Restricts Access to Free Speech Panel



In March 2022, hundreds of students at Yale Law School disrupted a panel with Kristen Waggoner, a conservative lawyer who has argued religious liberty cases before the Supreme Court, arguing that her presence was a "slap in the face" to "queer students." Yale's response to the incident left the school with egg on its face: Though the protest clearly violated Yale's free speech policies, which do not allow protesters to disrupt speakers, not a single student was disciplined.

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The restrictions suggest that administrators are looking to avoid a repeat of the blowup last year, which created a public relations nightmare for the law school after it was captured on video and audio and was reported by the Free Beacon. They also come as Yale Law School dean Heather Gerken has been reaching out to federal judges who have announced that, given what they view as the school's hostility to conservative views, they will no longer hire clerks from the school.

Yale's activist students are likewise looking to avoid a repeat of what one of them, Henry Robinson, called "last year's doxxing disaster," in which the Free Beacon posted footage of law students disrupting Waggoner's panel.

Robinson emailed members of the law school's LGBT group on January 17 to outline the "precautions" that had been put in place. "No press" signs will be "prominently displayed," and administrators will be on hand "to enforce this," Robinson said in the email, recounting what Debra Kroszner, the associate dean of the law school, told him and other students at a meeting. To be admitted to the talk, students will need to present administrators with a valid student ID.

The law school does have a formal media policy predating this event, which only allows press with "prior permission" from the school. It is not clear how often that policy is enforced—and while the law school does have signs that warn against unauthorized recordings, a high-ranking member of the Federalist Society said he didn't recall signs saying "no press." Nor is it normal for administrators to check every student's ID before an event, two students said.

The zealous enforcement of these rules appears to be the result of activist pressure.

Robinson's email also indicates that students pressed Kroszner to impose "additional safeguards"—including a "phones at the door" policy that would require attendees to surrender their devices before entering the event—though she declined to do so.
She also declined to commit to making a statement in support of any students "doxxed" at the event, arguing it would draw "more media attention."




Activist Students want to be able to disrupt the proceedings without being outed by the press ... or as they claim ' doxing ' to hide from the consequesces of their blocking of Speech or commentary the students disagree with
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

Florida Teachers Should Not Have the Right to Circumvent State Law Regarding the Content of Children's Reading Material



I’m pretty much a free-speech absolutist. But I draw a line when it comes to choosing reading material for children that deals with non-age-appropriate subject matter like sex, gender questions, sex preferences, and other obvious adult topics.

When HB 1467 was being debated, a drama was playing out in Duval County that demonstrated why teachers can’t be trusted.

Florida’s Voice:

After multiple records requests asking the district to provide the names of these “essential” books, the district provided the information some eight months later. The district relented after two attorneys got involved and after legislation from Tallahassee shined a spotlight on a community’s basic right to know what materials our public schools are making available to students.
When Moms for Liberty Duval finally received the records dump, mining through the information proved to be an exercise in discovery that validated the concerns of many. We learned that the district chose to purchase pre-packaged book collections for every K-5 ELA classroom before reviewing any of them.

First, the district stonewalled a totally valid request for information. And then the “pre-packaged book collections’ purchased for every elementary classroom in the district proved to be questionable.

DCPS purchased a book called Stonewall Riots for elementary classroom libraries. A district employee who reviewed this book wrote, “There are hundreds of men having orgies in a used meat locker that smelled of dead remains and they were all in there at once having sex.” Further on, the reviewer states the book, “rationalized prostitution and drugs,” and referred to police as “pigs.” Additionally, the book includes “bar scenes, throwing shot glasses, drugs and alcohol throughout.” As her final statement in the book review, the reviewer wrote, “These were sent to elementary schools. I can’t imagine them being in school at all. [This book] has no place in school.”
DCPS purchased a book called Gracefully Grayson for elementary classroom libraries. A district employee who reviewed this book indicated it “graphically depicted person on person violent acts,” “includes some sexual acts or dirty jokes,” “allusions to sexual acts,” “many instances of racial, religious, gendered slurs.” The reviewer comments, “I would not recommend this for a regular classroom independent reading in elementary school. This type of book deals highly with death and dying…from the perspective of someone whose fixation is on the focus of the person they lost and is dealing with psychological issues as a result of feeling alone.”

Almost 48% of the reviews by the district “deemed material inappropriate for the intended audience, as assessed by instructional materials specialists — not radical, right-wing “book banners,” say Moms for Liberty. In Florida, all reading material, whether in a library or classroom, must be vetted “by a school district employee who holds a valid educational media specialist certificate, regardless of whether the book is purchased, donated, or otherwise made available to students,” according to the text of the law. And 48% of those school district employees found the materials placed in classrooms to be “inappropriate.”
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
DEI Has Already Killed Public Education



During the last few years, most conservatives have become at least dimly aware that leftist ideology, in the guise of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), has infected public education. It’s unlikely, however, that many Americans realize just how far the disease has advanced. It has long since spread beyond a few courses embedded into the social studies curricula of secondary schools and elite colleges. Public school students as young as 9 and 10 years of age effortlessly recite leftist shibboleths even as they descend into functional illiteracy in reading, writing, math, and science.

If this sounds like “right-wing extremism,” consider this: Last fall, hundreds of Philadelphia-area fourth- and fifth-grade students participated in an essay contest, sponsored by the Rendell Center for Civics and Civic Engagement, in which they were asked to outline proposals for a hypothetical new amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Their amendment proposals included abolishing the Electoral College, providing everyone with free health care, limiting gun possession to individuals who need them for military and hunting uses, guaranteeing a living wage to everyone, and imposing term limits on U.S. Supreme Court justices.

Sound familiar?


The winners of the contest were announced on the website of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, in a recent post titled, “What Should Be the 28th Amendment to the Constitution? These Students Have Some Ideas.” But the ideas are obviously not those of the students. These kids simply regurgitated items from a leftist wish list that “educators” fed them instead of teaching critical skills that students need to know and parents want them to learn. But the public-education establishment doesn’t see its mission in such terms, as the following Facebook meme posted by a school board member from Iowa’s Linn-Mar district illustrates:

meme-300x201.jpg
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

State Dumps Degree Requirement for 65,000 Jobs, Promotes 'Practical Experience' Over College




Pennsylvania is making major moves in the area of government employment.

On January 18th, Gov. Josh Shapiro signed his first executive order; it was effective immediately.

Per the press release:

[The governor] announced that…92 percent of state government jobs — about 65,000 positions — do not require a four-year college degree.

Executive Order 2023-03 instructs “the Office of Administration to emphasize skills and experience in Commonwealth job postings.” Additionally, the order directs a review “of the remaining eight percent of state government jobs that currently require a four-year degree.”

A new emphasis is prescribed:

[The governor]…ordered all state agencies under his jurisdiction to take steps to emphasize work experience in their hiring.

For residents hoping to fill the revamped positions, a website was launched. Employment.pa.gov now takes aspiring employee to the thousands of open positions not requiring a degree.
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

University Removes Slave-Owning Benefactor's Name, His Family Demands Their $51 Million Back



At the time, President Kevin Hallock and the board issued a letter:

We recognize that some may be disappointed or disagree with this decision. We also recognize the role the Williams family has played here and respect the full and complete history of the institution.
He may have played an important part, but according to tax records, T.C.’s successful tobacco business owned 25 to 40 slaves.

Six months before T.C.’s booting, half a dozen campus buildings were re-labeled. Gone were references to those who’d possessed slaves — including Robert Ryland, the school’s first president in 1840.

On March 26th, a new policy was instated:

No building, program, professorship, or other entity at the University should be named for a person who directly engaged in the trafficking and/or enslavement of others or openly advocated for the enslavement of people.

Out with the old, in with the new. But T.C.’s family wants their man’s old money back: If he’s unworthy of recognition for his efforts, they figure, his cash should be no good as well.

T.C.’s great-great-grandson explained in a letter to the president.

If suddenly his name is not good enough for the University, then isn’t the proper ethical and, indeed, virtuous action to return the benefactor’s money with interest? … s it not a form of fraud to induce money from a benefactor, and then discredit the benefactor after he is long dead? Surely the Williams family would not have given a penny to the University knowing that the University would later dishonor the family.


It was a might more than a penny; Rob has done the math:

At a six-percent compounded interest over 132 years, [T.C.’s] gift to the law school alone is now valued at over $51 million, and this does not include many other substantial gifts from my family to the University.
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

Whistleblower Teacher Ramona Bessinger Targeted For Viewpoint Discrimination At Providence High School Even Before Arrived, Records Reveal


Records obtained by Legal Insurrection Foundation reveal that when Bessinger was involuntarily transferred to Classical High in late August 2022, after her middle school whistleblowing retaliation, an influential teacher already was organizing against her based on Bessinger’s viewpoints.



The Providence Public School District has been in the news recently due to its racially discriminatory conduct against white teachers, which has been challenged by Legal Insurrection Foundation:

Before that, we spotlighted Providence (RI) teacher Ramona Bessinger. Our most recent post on October 8, 2022, gives the history of Bessinger’s struggles ever since she blew the whistle in a post at Legal Insurrection about the corrupting influences of a new radicalized and racialized curriculum at her middle school, Providence (RI) Schools Bow To Radical Mob, Remove Whistleblower Ramona Bessinger From Teaching Position.

Here’s a brief excerpt for those of you who are not familiar with Bessinger:


…We have covered Bessinger’s story from inception. In July 2021, then a middle school teacher, Bessinger blew the whistle at Legal Insurrection on a new radicalized and racialized curriculum that was creating racial tension in school, including turning students and staff against her because she is white….
Bessinger received national and international media attention:


 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

Are Whiteboards Racist?




Campus Reform notes that last month, Physical Review Physics Education Research published “Observing Whiteness in Introductory Physics: A Case Study.” The study observed three students working on a physics problem. The aim was to determine how “whiteness” is present in the academic world. See what I mean about running out of targets?

The study’s co-author, W. Tali Hairston, who is the director of community organizing, advocacy, and development at Seattle Presbytery, told Campus Reform that whiteboards are not “inherently racist.” But “Whiteboards can be racist like how housing, employment, and the judicial systems were found to contain racist practices. Our findings support other studies that have found the study of physics to include racism and sexism.”

Apparently, the problem lies not so much in the fact that the boards are white, but that they are the focal point of a classroom. In other words, people are forced to stare at or use something in order to successfully complete their studies. This reinforces whiteness. The study says in part:


Whiteboards display written information for public consumption; they draw attention to themselves and in this case support the centering of an abstract representation and the person standing next to it, presenting. They collaborate with white organizational culture, where ideas and experiences gain value (become more central) when written down.


Allegedly, when students use whiteboards, they are forced to draw attention to themselves which may “portray the characteristics of whiteness.” And the fact that the boards really are white probably doesn’t help. The authors should be careful. If they keep reaching this far, they are going to pull some muscles.
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

South Florida student arrested after video of brutal beating on school bus goes viral


HOMESTEAD — Disturbing video of a young girl's assault on a school bus has gone viral, angering parents and inundating a South Florida school district with demands that someone be held accountable.

In the cellphone video, a student from Coconut Palm K-8 Academy in Homestead is seen pummeling a 9-year-old girl's head with his fists repeatedly as she tries to fend him off. He stops for a moment, and another boy quickly jumps in to take his place amid the shouts of onlooking classmates.
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
In an education system set up by former School Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, a totally separate law enforcement system was put into place for the schools. Any student engaged in criminal conduct was diverted away from the criminal justice system and into a system where MDSPD would handle all criminal activity by students.

The MDSPD turned the intent of the ‘Promise Program’ into a gladiator academy. The program was so poorly thought out, and the unintended consequences so brutally ignored, this was always going to be the outcome.


They are now more than ten years into this system, and there is no possibility of reforming it. Students entering into Miami-Dade and Broward County Schools are cannon fodder for a culturally Marxist, politically correct, social justice, education/political system.

By keeping students out of the criminal justice system, the MDSPD are now essentially groomers with badges assisting and coordinating with violent street gangs and organized crime. Add in the systemic elements of Black -vs- Latino racism, and what you end up with is an entire school system structured like a prison ward with internal gangs and factions of criminal activity inside the schools.



 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

Some Diversity Staffers Are Quitting Higher Education Citing Lack Of Support


“employees interviewed for this article said that more often, university leaders show a lack of appreciation and support for their work, leading them and many of their colleagues to leave higher ed burned out and disillusioned”



Back in December, we covered a story at Princeton University about diversity, equity, and inclusion administrators who were leaving the school for what they claimed was a lack of support from the administration.

We cited this report from the Daily Princetonian:

3 Princeton DEI staff members resign, alleging lack of support

In May, the University’s Director of Athletics was “incredibly excited” to announce a new hire for the department: Jordan “JT” Turner, who would be joining the University as the inaugural Associate Director of Athletics for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). Turner’s role was intended to “create and maintain a culture of mutual respect and unity” and oversee “all aspects of DEI education and training for student-athletes, coaches and staff with Princeton Athletics,” according to a University announcement.
Within four months, Turner resigned from the role.
Turner is not the only University DEI official to recently resign. Since September 2021, two other Princeton staff members who were hired to conduct DEI-related work across the University have resigned. All three independently alleged a systemic lack of support from the University administration.
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

California Considers Bill Banning Schools From Suspending Students, and the Reason Why Is so Predictable



If passed, the bill would permanently ban willful defiance suspensions from elementary through middle school by the fall of 2024. It would also prohibit suspensions for tardiness or truancy.

“The punishment for missing school should not be to miss more school,” Skinner asserted. “Students, especially those with behavioral issues, need to be in school where teachers and counselors can help them succeed.”

The idea is being met with criticism from people pointing out that this move would make it harder for other students to learn. Davina Keiser, a retired teacher who worked with the Long Beach Unified School District, told the Epoch Times that allowing disruptive behavior is “detrimental to the learning of everybody else in the classroom.”


“It’s almost like a license for the rest of the kids to go ahead and misbehave,” she said.

Keiser continued, explaining that “as teachers, I wanted students to know that there are boundaries, and they have to stay within those.”

The proposal is in line with the progressive push to inject a concept known as “restorative justice” in the school system. This approach focuses on mediation rather than punishment.
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

Another Minnesota college censors art to prevent 'non-consensual viewing' by Muslim students



Macalester College temporarily shut down and then added curtains to an art exhibit depicting partially exposed figures in hijabs and niqabs "to prevent unintentional or non-consensual viewing" after Muslim students complained, the administration said in an email Feb. 6 excerpted by Minnesota immigrant news nonprofit Sahan Journal.

Hamline University reversed its pledge to renew adjunct art history professor Erika Lopez Prater's contract after she showed students Muslim-commissioned depictions of the Prophet Muhammad, saying "respect for the observant Muslim students in that classroom should have superseded academic freedom."

Prater spoke at the Jan. 27 opening of Macalester's "Woman Life Freedom" art exhibit by Portland State University art professor Taravat Talepasand, saying it "responsibly" demonstrates how to deal with supposedly blasphemous subject matter.
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
uburn’s Black Student Union recently circulated a list of racial slurs for white people. Campus Reform reports that some of the popular ones include:


  • “palm people”
  • “failed abortions”
  • “deformed dna”
  • “mockery of humanity”
  • “bleach demons”
  • “albino pigs”
  • “not meant to exist”
  • “white ‘people’ was just god experimenting.”

If you wish, you can read the full list here. It stretches for seven pages.

Charming. But it does not stop there. One student commented, “Milk Monkies gone (sic) always make me laugh,” while another said, “My favorite is the vanilla villager.” Another wrote (and I quote), “why do palm colored folks think somebody is supporting to step out of their way on the concourse/sidewalk? i’ve just had three men slam into my and I JUST got on campus. finna start body checking.” The document was apparently sent in a GroupMe chat to Auburn’s Black Student Union.

Set aside for a moment the fact that these college students have no grasp of the English language. Or that someone had the time to compile seven pages of racial slurs, as opposed to going to class. It is noteworthy that, had a white student or group compiled such a list, names would have been taken, people would have been expelled, and the “scramble” light at the DOJ would now be flashing. Just noting that such a list is offensive would be considered an act of aggression or racism. Someone will probably accuse me of racism merely for bringing the list to your attention.

Two things are at work here. One is the assertion of power. If one declares oneself to be a victim, then one may do whatever one wants in the name of self-defense or even revenge. And these “victims” are enjoying the more sinister side of power—the ability to abuse and oppress. Second, the Left is constantly itching for a fight. Any reaction to this will be met with swift and severe retribution. People who are embracing the worst side of human nature are essentially saying, “Go ahead. Do something, say something. I dare you.” They are turning into the very thing that they claim to abhor. The entire scenario is designed to bring out the absolute lowest in human behavior on both sides.




 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
The University of Richmond has removed the name of donor T.C. Williams from its law school, citing student complaints that he allegedly owned slaves more than 175 years ago.

The Williams family now wants the Virginia-based university to give back donations they’ve made throughout the years, with interest, in the amount of $3.6 billion.

Robert Smith, who graduated from the University of Richmond’s (UR) law school that formerly bore his great-great grandfather’s name, told The Epoch Times that if the family name is no longer good enough for the university, neither are their financial contributions.

Smith said in a Jan. 30 letter to university president Kevin Hallock that he arrived at the $3.6 billion figure by adding together the contributions from Williams, his sons, and other relatives, then calculating 150-plus years of compounded returns.



 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

Christian Teacher Fired For Refusing To Hide Students’ Gender Transitions From Parents



Jessica Tapia, a former physical education teacher, told the DCNF that she refused to allow biological males in the girl’s locker rooms and would not agree to the Jurupa Unified School District’s privacy policy that required teachers to hide requests made by students regarding their pronouns or gender identity. Tapia said several students found her social media where she regularly shares her faith and values and reported her, which resulted in her being put on leave and eventually fired.

“[The district] called me back to work but presented me with various directives, to which I responded I would not be able to comply with some of them based on my beliefs, such as having to call students by their preferred gender/pronoun and withhold that information from their parents,” Tapia said. “I believe God is love and the most loving thing we can do is affirm one another in who God made us to be.”

Despite Tapia explaining her religious objections, Jurupa Unified School District Superintendent Trenton Hansen informed Tapia that the school district would not accommodate her Christian beliefs and informed her that she would be terminated on Jan. 31, according to a notice obtained by the DCNF.

“In sum, District cannot accommodate your religious beliefs that: (1) prohibit you from referring to students who are transgender by their names and pronouns consistent with their gender identity; (2) prohibit you from maintaining a student’s gender identity in confidence and refraining from disclosing a student’s gender identity from his/her/their parent(s)/guardian (s) and require you to exclude students who are transgender from the locker room because student’s elect to use the facility consistent with his/her/their gender identity,” the notice read.
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member

Educating for Freedom



So I often start my class by asking them a simple question: “Out of the world’s twenty largest countries, in which country would you rather live?”

I pick the world’s twenty largest countries because size matters. The larger a society’s size, the more complex will be its social, economic, and political problems. There is also the difficulty of maintaining freedom and representative government in the midst of sharp political differences and quarrelling factions and interest groups.

Each country’s character as a free society must be judged not by reference to some abstract ideal standard but by reference to societies that actually exist in today’s world. This is not a trivial point. The most horrible atrocities committed in the last century, numbering in the hundreds of millions of victims, were carried out by people enamored of some beautiful future vision of perfection.

Once most students ask themselves where they would rather live, they begin to understand that the United States may not be as oppressive or unjust as they were led to believe.
 
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