One Missouri legislator has introduced a bill that would ban transgender high schoolers from competing on teams that don’t match their biological sex. Speaking at a state education hearing on Tuesday, GOP State Sen. Cindy O’Laughlin stated, “It is a known biological fact that males are born with categorically superior strength, speed and endurance. It has nothing to do with any other issue than trying to create a fair playing field,” as <a href="https://www.ky3.com/content/news/Missouri-bill-would-restrict-transgender-athletes-to-play-on-sports-teams-matching-gender-assigned-at-birth-568187561.html">KY3 reported</a>.
<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/missouri-law-transgender-high-school-athletes">Fox News</a> noted, “Under current Missouri law, transgender athletes who want to play on teams that don’t match their assigned birth must apply to the Missouri State High School Activities Association (MSHSAA), submitting medical records and other relevant documentation. Transgender women must prove they’ve been on testosterone blockers for a year and stick with them.”
A similar bill has been presented in Missouri’s House of Representatives. If the state’s general Assembly approves either of the bills, they will be listed on the state ballot and put to a vote.
One girl who identifies as a boy protested, &#8220;Putting me on the girls activities won&#8217;t make me a girl. This bill will force me on the girls teams where I end up beating every single girl on my high school cross country team in every race, and I&#8217;d have placed 28th in the state as a freshman.&#8221;
The increasing number of cases in which transgender high school athletes have competed on teams opposite from their biological sex has triggered at least one recent lawsuit in which three female high school athletes in Connecticut sued the state’s Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC), which has permitted boys to compete in events and win awards that would otherwise have gone to girls.
Chelsea Mitchell, a senior at Canton High School, Selina Soule, a senior at Glastonbury High School, and Alanna Smith, a sophomore at Danbury High School, filed a federal lawsuit with their families after CIAC’s policy allowed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-two-transgenders-blow-out-girls-state-meet-hank-berrien">two males to compete in girls’ athletic competitions </a>beginning in the 2017 track season. Those biological males, Miller and Andraya Yearwood, had taken 15 women’s state championship titles (titles held in 2016 by nine different Connecticut girls) and had taken more than 85 opportunities to participate in higher level competitions from female track athletes in the 2017, 2018, and 2019 seasons alone.
On February 14, Mitchell defeated one of the biological males who has won numerous titles in girls’ events, winning the Class S 55-meter dash title with her time of 7.18 seconds. She beat Bloomfield High School student Terry Miller, who is a biological boy and ran the event in 7.20 seconds.
Mitchell, who is currently ranked the fastest biological girl in Connecticut in the 55m, lost four girls’ state championships and two all-New England awards. She recalled, “I knew that I was the fastest girl here, one of the fastest in the state. I remembered all my training and everything I had been taught on how to maximize my performance &#8230; I thought of all the times that other girls have lost. I could feel the adrenaline in my blood and hope that wafted from me. That just possibly, I could win this. Then, the gun went off. And I lost.”
The <a href="http://www.adfmedia.org/files/SouleComplaint.pdf">complaint</a> filed in Soule v. Connecticut Association of Schools states that policies that permit boys to compete in girls sports threaten Title IX gains because “inescapable biological facts of the human species [are] not stereotypes, ‘social constructs,’ or relics of past discrimination. As a result of these many inherent physiological differences between men and women after puberty, male athletes consistently achieve records 10-20% higher than comparably fit and trained women across almost all athletic events, with even wider consistent disparities in long-term endurance events and contests of sheer strength such as weight-lifting.”

Gender Symbols

Missouri Legislator Introduces Bill Banning Trans Athletes From Competing Against Athletes Of Opposite Biological Sex

High School

Missouri

Sports

Transgender

On Monday, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorneys representing teen track star Selina Soule and two other minor female track athletes submitted a <a href="http://www.adfmedia.org/files/SouleComplaintOCR.pdf">complaint</a> to the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights seeking an investigation into sex discrimination. The complaint specifically challenges the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) policy allowing biological males who identify as female to compete in girls&#8217; athletics, ADF announced in a press release sent to The Daily Wire on Monday.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
BREAKING NEWS: Female athletes challenge Connecticut policy that abolishes girls-only sports. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FairPlay?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FairPlay</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RunLikeAGirl?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#RunLikeAGirl</a>
Read more here: <a href="https://t.co/JY6irEn3lh">https://t.co/JY6irEn3lh</a> <a href="https://t.co/F0zjfpW8lm">pic.twitter.com/F0zjfpW8lm</a>
&#8212; AllianceDefends (@AllianceDefends) <a href="https://twitter.com/AllianceDefends/status/1141026554409095168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 18, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
Per the CIAC policy, Soule was forced to compete against female-identifying biological males in a high-stakes track competition where two transgender sprinters beat the field, taking first and second place by significant margins; Soule landed in 8th place, missing an opportunity to compete in front of college coaches by two places.
&#8220;I am very happy for these athletes and I fully support them for being true to themselves and having the courage to do what they believe in,&#8221; Soule <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/44063/watch-female-high-schooler-speaks-out-after-losing-amanda-prestigiacomo">told</a> host Fox News host Laura Ingraham in February. &#8220;But, in athletics, it&#8217;s an entirely different situation. It&#8217;s scientifically proven that males are built to be physically stronger than females. It&#8217;s unfair to put someone who is biologically a male, who has not undergone anything in terms of hormone therapy, against cis-gender girls.&#8221;
&#8220;Throughout the 2018-19 track season, males consistently deprived the female athletes who are part of the complaint of dozens of medals, opportunities to compete at a higher level, and the public recognition critical to college recruiting and scholarship opportunities,&#8221; an ADF news release said. &#8220;The complaint notes that CIAC&#8217;s policy and its results directly violated the requirements of Title IX, a federal regulation designed to protect equal athletic opportunities for women and girls.&#8221;
&#8220;Girls deserve to compete on a level playing field,&#8221; ADF Legal Counsel Christiana Holcomb said.
&#8220;Forcing female athletes to compete against boys is grossly unfair and destroys their athletic opportunities,&#8221; Holcomb argued. &#8220;Title IX was designed to eliminate discrimination against women in education and athletics, and women fought long and hard to earn the equal athletic opportunities that Title IX provides. Allowing boys to compete in girls&#8217; sports reverses nearly 50 years of advances for women under this law. We shouldn&#8217;t force these young women to be spectators in their own sports.&#8221;
&#8220;Selina and her fellow female athletes train countless hours to shave mere fractions of seconds off their race times. They put in that effort in hope of the personal satisfaction of victory, an opportunity to participate in state and regional meets, or a chance at a college scholarship,&#8221; she added. &#8220;But girls competing against boys know the outcome before the race even starts: They can&#8217;t win. Boys will always have physical advantages over girls; that&#8217;s the reason we have women&#8217;s sports.&#8221;
Along with an investigation into sex discrimination, the complaint asks the Office for Civil Rights &#8220;to require the conference to acknowledge every girl who would have been identified as a champion or who would have qualified for participation in a higher level competition but for the participation of a male in her event,&#8221; <a href="http://www.adfmedia.org/files/SouleComplaintOCR.pdf">noted</a> the organization.

Teen Athletes Challenge CT Policy Allowing Transgenders To Compete Against Girls

Connecticut

Gender

High school teenagers are facing disciplinary action handed down from district administration after singing along to a popular rap song on their way to prom.
<a href="https://www.whec.com/news/webster-csd-students-heading-to-prom-sing-along-to-racially-offensive-song/5377334/">According</a> to WHEC news, a viral Snapchat video showed the students singing to rapper Lil Uzi Vert&#8217;s hit &#8220;You Was Right&#8221; in a limo headed to junior prom. The song includes sexual language and the N-word.
&#8220;The video showed the students in a limo singing along to a &#8216;song that included racially offensive language.&#8217; The district met with concerned students and students who produced the video on Tuesday,&#8221; the report said.
In a statement from Webster Central School District sent to WHEC, administration said that involved students&#8217; parents were contacted so they &#8220;could discuss the hurtful and offensive language that was heard in the video.&#8221;
&#8220;Webster CSD was recently made aware of a video that was made on Saturday, June 1, during a limo ride as Webster Schroeder High School students were attending the junior prom. The video showed students singing along to a song that included racially offensive language,&#8221; the statement read. &#8220;Webster CSD takes these matters very seriously and the building administration has been in contact with the students in the video. Parents were also contacted so that they, too, could discuss the hurtful and offensive language that was heard in the video.&#8221;
&#8220;Today, very productive restorative sessions took place involving Webster Schroeder&#8217;s administrators, students who expressed their dismay and concern with this particular video, and students who produced the video,&#8221; the statement continued.
The school district noted that it &#8220;cannot legally share any student disciplinary action as that would be a violation of both student and family privacy.&#8221;
Last month, two California high school students faced disciplinary action for a prom-related photo that included the spelling of the N-word. The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/47294/high-school-students-punished-after-idiotic-racist-ashe-schow">reported</a>:
<blockquote>
&#8220;One of the students (neither of whom are being named) asked the other out with a sign that read: &#8216;[Name] you are racist but I would give anything for you to go with me to prom.&#8217; Certain letters in the person&#8217;s name and on the rest of the sign were capitalized and written boldly to spell out the N-word. The image shows the two students smiling and laughing as they hold the sign.&#8221;
</blockquote>
For context, the song <a href="https://genius.com/Lil-uzi-vert-you-was-right-lyrics">lyrics</a> to &#8220;You Was Right&#8221; are posted below:
Hit it from the back watch a n**** bless you 
(If Young Metro don&#8217;t trust you I&#8217;m gon&#8217; shoot you) 
Crying in my arms like a n**** wrecked you 
(Metro Boomin&#8217; want some more, n****) 
Ya alright, alright, alright 
You was right I was wrong 
Ya I should&#8217;ve never ever took her home 
Ya I should&#8217;ve just boned 
Ya fantasy on my phone 
Ya hit it from the back watch a n**** bless you 
Ya crying in my arms like a n**** wrecked you 
Talking about a broken heart running to the restroom 
Looked at my momma just like we rich 
Looked at my b**** like we rich 
Said we ain&#8217;t got no minor setbacks 
Counting all that money told that n**** just to bet that 
I, I know that you ain&#8217;t got it boy why you ain&#8217;t just say that 
They see I got that money, now his b**** like I said that 
I don&#8217;t pay that hoe no mind I been had that 
When I saw my girl ya you know I had to bag that 
And before me f*** n**** s ya they had that 
Five n****s including me I had to back back 
Try to diss me I take it to your family 
I f*** your sister then make sure that she vanish
<div class="embed video fluid-video"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen frameborder="0" height="495" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/55iN4H6kRN4" width="800"></iframe></div>

Prom-Bound Teens Disciplined By School For Singing Along To ‘Racially Offensive’ Rap Song

New York

Race

Teenagers

In March, Bonnie Kimball gave a New Hampshire high school student a free meal after learning he had no money to pay that day. She was soon fired for this, she says.
Several days after she was fired, on April 9, the former Café Services employee received a letter from Fresh Picks Café, a division of her employer, which confirmed she had been fired for not charging the student.
&#8220;On March 28, a District Manager was on-site and witnessed a student coming through the line with multiple food items that you did not charge him for,&#8221; wrote Director of Human Resources Jaime Matheson in <a href="https://www.unionleader.com/news/education/food-services-company-denies-firing-nh-lunch-lady-over-feeding/article_dc2a8928-9910-56d9-98c9-953b3c317608.html">the letter</a>, obtained by The New Hampshire Union Leader.
&#8220;This is in strict violation of our Cash Handling Procedures, the School Charge Policy and Federal Regulation governing free meals,&#8221; Matheson continued.
Soon after, a spokesperson for the vendor claimed the company &#8220;would never authorize an employee to not feed a student or staff member a meal&#8221; and that no employee would &#8220;be let go because they provided this lunch to a student.&#8221;
Yet the letter Kimball received says otherwise. 
For what it&#8217;s worth, Kimball said the student paid for his meal the following day.
&#8220;His family is very well known in this town and I can guarantee that if I called his mother, she would have come right in and paid the bill. But I didn&#8217;t want to get her out of work,&#8221; she told The Associated Press. &#8220;I know they would have brought the money the next day. The bill was going to get paid.&#8221;
Now, more than a month after she was fired, Kimball has been offered her job back, as well as back pay. Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-hampshire-cafeteria-student-free-meal-job-offer.amp">reported</a> that the company offered to rehire Kimball and &#8220;work with the school district to revise policies and procedures regarding transactions.&#8221;
Kimball has declined the offer, according to Fox.
&#8220;But Kimball said she&#8217;s not interested in the politics of it all and has no intention of returning. She believes she was only offered her job back so that the company &#8216;could keep its contract&#8217; with the school district,&#8221; the outlet reported.
The school district also told Fox in a statement that it would review its policies to keep something like this from happening in the future. The district added that it had requested to cut short its contract with Café Services in order to accept new bidders next year.

She Was Fired For Giving A Free Lunch To A Student With No Money. Now She’s Refusing Her Job Back.

Education

New Hampshire

As The Daily Wire&#8217;s Frank Camp previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46718/florida-legislature-passes-bill-allowing-teachers-frank-camp">reported</a>, the Florida state legislature recently passed high-profile legislation prescribing a process by which more teachers will be able to lawfully carry firearms in school, if they so choose:
<blockquote>
The Florida legislation lays out a set of rules by which public school boards, teachers, charter schools, and law enforcement authorities must abide before any such program can take shape.
The following are some of the requirements stated in the legislation:
<ul>
<li>A school board must vote &#8220;by a majority to implement a guardian program,&#8221; giving them ultimate authority in the matter.</li>
<li>Once a school board has voted in the affirmative, the county sheriff must set up its own guardian program, or allow the school board to &#8220;contract with another sheriff&#8217;s office that has established a guardian program.&#8221; &#8230;</li>
<li>Guardians have no law enforcement authority aside from stopping or hindering a school shooting.</li>
<li>Guardians must have a valid concealed carry license, and complete 144 hours of training, including a psychological evaluation and diversity training.</li>
<li>Guardians &#8220;must submit to and pass an initial drug test and subsequent random drug tests,&#8221; and &#8220;successfully complete ongoing training, weapon inspection, and firearm qualification on at least an annual basis.&#8221;</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
Now, as Fox News <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/florida-gov-desantis-signs-bill-letting-more-teachers-carry-guns-in-school">reports</a>, <a href="https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/04/15/in-florida-ron-desantis-accelerates-conservative-agenda/">conservative rising star</a> Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the bill into law yesterday:
<blockquote>
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Wednesday that&#8217;ll let more Florida teachers carry guns in school, the latest response to last year&#8217;s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
DeSantis signed the bill in private and issued no statement. The Republican-led Florida House of Representatives voted to send the bill to the governor last week, while the GOP-controlled state Senate passed the measure the week before.
The new law expands an existing school &#8220;guardian&#8221; program and allows any teacher to volunteer to carry a weapon if his or her school district approves. Would-be volunteers must undergo at least 144 hours of police-style training, psychiatric evaluation and drug screening. Under a previous law, passed immediately after the February 2018 Parkland shooting, only teachers who had another role at school, such as sports coach, were eligible to carry weapons on campus.
</blockquote>
The bill faced stiff opposition from Democrats and teacher unions, as Fox News notes. But as NBC News <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/wake-parkland-shooting-safety-commission-backs-recommendation-arm-teachers-florida-n954281">reported</a> in January, a safety commission established in the aftermath of the Parkland school shooting affirmatively recommended arming teachers as one policy prescription to deter future school shootings:
<blockquote>
The commission investigating a shooting massacre at a Florida high school unanimously approved its initial findings and recommendations Wednesday, including a controversial proposal that teachers who volunteer and undergo training be allowed to carry guns.
The 15-member Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission&#8217;s 446-page report details what members believe happened before, during and after the Feb. 14 shooting attack that left 14 students and three staff members dead and 17 wounded.
</blockquote>
Many teachers in Florida seem willing and eager to arm themselves. Last week, Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-guns-florida/florida-teachers-can-arm-themselves-under-new-gun-bill-idUSKCN1S74GZ">reported</a> that, &#8220;in anticipation of passage, school employees in 40 of Florida&#8217;s 67 counties already enrolled in or planned to take the 144-hour course.&#8221;
As The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/46912/shooting-reported-colorado-stem-school-ryan-saavedra">reported</a>, the most recent tragic school shooting in America occurred this past Tuesday in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

Florida Governor Signs Law Allowing More Teachers To Carry Weapons In School

Florida

Gun Laws

Gun-Free Zones

Guns

Parkland Shooting

Ron DeSantis

Second Amendment

The editors of the Associated Press consider it newsworthy to <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/tourist-mecca-notre-dame-revered-063134725.html">report</a> that the &#8220;tourist mecca Notre Dame&#8221; is &#8220;also revered as [a] place of worship.&#8221; Imagine their surprise when they learn the <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/mecca">origins</a> of the word &#8220;mecca.&#8221;
At least the Associated Press reported a religious reality, albeit an obvious one. The New York Times was forced to issue a correction yesterday when it bungled a report on a basic elements of Christian doctrine. Fr. Jean-Marc Fournier ran inside the burning Cathedral of Notre Dame to save the &#8220;body of Christ&#8221; from the flames, which reporter Elian Peltier imagined entailed the hero priest&#8217;s hauling out &#8220;a statue of Jesus&#8221; rather than the Blessed Sacrament. In today&#8217;s New York Post, Mark Hemingway <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/04/19/new-york-times-hits-new-low-with-mortifying-notre-dame-correction/?utm_source=twitter_sitebuttons&amp;utm_medium=site%20buttons&amp;utm_campaign=site%20buttons">recounts</a> several other embarrassing occasions of religious ignorance on the part of the Times.
In 2013, the Gray Lady reported that Easter commemorates Jesus&#8217; &#8220;resurrection into heaven&#8221; rather than his resurrection from the dead. The following year, it <a href="https://www.getreligion.org/getreligion/2014/9/22/revenge-of-getreligion-mz-concerning-the-nytimes-effort-to-bury-jesus">described</a> the Church of the Holy Sepulcher as &#8220;marking the site where many Christians believe Jesus is buried.&#8221; That reporter holds a masters degree from Cambridge University, which he appears to have earned despite never having read the New Testament. If he peruse the Gospel, he missed the point of the story.
This embarrassingly ignorant reporting reveals a crisis of religious education throughout the West. Such widespread ignorance imperils not merely the future of the faith but the very civilization that Christianity crafted. How can we expect students to appreciate Hamlet if they do not first understand the story of <a href="http://shakespeare.mit.edu/hamlet/hamlet.3.3.html">Cain and Abel</a>, <a href="http://shakespeare.mit.edu/hamlet/hamlet.1.5.html">Purgatory</a>, or the theological debates at the heart of the <a href="http://shakespeare-navigators.com/hamlet/H12.html">Protestant Revolution</a>? How much meaning can the Gettysburg Address convey, with its peculiar diction and repeated references to &#8216;dedication,&#8217; &#8216;consecration,&#8217; and &#8220;devotion,&#8221; without the context of the King James Bible? Why did John Adams warn the Massachusetts militia that &#8220;our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people&#8221; and that &#8220;it is wholly inadequate to the government of any other&#8221;?
Three months ago, President Trump endorsed elective Bible literacy classes for public schools. At least six states have proposed laws that would permit such classes. &#8220;The Bible is an integral part of our society and deserves a place in the classroom,&#8221; explained North Dakota State Representative Aaron McWilliams. He&#8217;s right, though he downplays the Good Book&#8217;s significance. Not only is the Bible integral to our society, it constitutes our society&#8217;s literary bedrock.
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Numerous states introducing Bible Literacy classes, giving students the option of studying the Bible. Starting to make a turn back? Great!
&#8212; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1089876055224184833?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 28, 2019</a></blockquote>
</div>
In 1962, the Supreme Court&#8217;s decision in Engel v. Vitale outlawed prayer in public schools. The following year, the Court decided in Abington School District v. Schempp also to ban Bible study, which had formed the basis of American education since the Puritan era, from public schools. The ensuing decades have witnessed the dumbing down of several generations, each more ignorant than the next. Now the highly &#8220;educated&#8221; writers at the New York Times can&#8217;t tell a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/04/world/europe/a-public-end-for-an-extraordinary-papacy.html">crow&#8217;s ear</a> from a crosier.
We laugh at the religiously illiterate journalists, but far more foolish were their forebears in the 1960s who imagined they could educate students without teaching them the most important book in the history of the world.

KNOWLES: The MSM Proves It’s Time To Teach The Bible In Schools

Bible

Notre Dame Cathedral

Prayer

Religion

Supreme Court

An Ohio high school girl was suspended for posting verses from the Bible around her school, reacting to gay pride flags hung up by students from an LGBTQ group.
Gabby Helsinger says she was taken out of class and issued ISS (in-school suspension) for her actions. According to a document from the administration, Helsinger was accused of &#8220;targeting&#8221; the school&#8217;s Gay-Straight Alliance and exhibiting &#8220;abuse of others, disrespect, [and] rudeness&#8221; for merely posting the Bible versus.
After the incident, the teenager took to Facebook to explain why she felt the need to post the verses in the first place and why the school&#8217;s punishment of her is unjust. The video, which was posted to Tina Helsinger&#8217;s (Gabby&#8217;s mother) Facebook page, has racked up nearly 80,000 views since it was posted last week.
&#8220;So, on Thursday when I got to school, I see that there were pride flags, posters around my school,&#8221; said Gabby. &#8220;And I felt the need to write down some Bible verses so I could put them around my school. And I wrote them down and I put them around [the] lockers, the walls. And I was coming back from lunch, because I got sent back to lunch, and I [saw] the teachers taking them down.&#8221;
&#8220;The next day, I got called to the office and there is a letter that says that I have an ISS, which is an in-school suspension, and the reason why I have it is because &#8216;abuse of others, disrespect, rudeness&#8217; because I put Bible verses up &#8216;targeting the &#8216;GSA&#8217; (Gay-Straight Alliance] organization,&#8221; she continued.
Gabby said she felt compelled to post the versus because &#8220;God is the only way&#8221; and those struggling with identity or sexuality &#8220;can be healed.&#8221;
&#8220;Seeing that there [were] people in my school that needed help &#8230; they don&#8217;t need to be living in the confusion of wondering if they should be gay, bi, lesbian, trans, anything like that. And I know that God is the only way that they can be healed by that, and that&#8217;s why I did it,&#8221; she said, emphasizing that she was in no way maliciously &#8220;targeting&#8221; the LGBTQ group.
Gabby said she told her principal that she wanted to &#8220;spread the word of God&#8221; when pressed about posting the messages and noted that others post things around the school all the time without permission.
&#8220;I said, &#8216;Because I wanted to spread the word of God,'&#8221; she explained. &#8220;And then he goes, &#8216;Well, did you have permission?&#8217; And I said, &#8216;No.&#8217; I didn&#8217;t know you had to have permission because people do it a lot &#8212; putting Post-It notes on people&#8217;s lockers, so I just did it.&#8221;
&#8220;I asked him why every time Jesus or God or anything like that gets brought up in school, it gets taken down straight away,&#8221; she added. &#8220;But we can put gay and pride stuff all over the school, and not have to take it down, and people can talk about it. But when you talk about God or Jesus, you just get put down and you&#8217;re not allowed to talk about it.&#8221;
A caption to the Facebook video says that Lebanon High School &#8220;celebrates evil and punishes righteousness!!&#8221;
&#8220;Parents &#8211; if this was happening to your child &#8211; what would you do?&#8221; the caption on Tina&#8217;s post continues.
The girl&#8217;s mother added that she has appealed the punishment: &#8220;I appealed the punishment stating &#8216;Posting a Bible verse is not abuse of others, disrespect/insolence/rudeness and in no way was it targeting GSA&#8217; but the school principal, Scott Butler, says &#8216;Gabby was targeting the GSA organization&#8217; and therefore must report to ISS Wednesday 3/13/19.&#8221;
The post, which is signed by &#8220;Tina and Gabby,&#8221; adds a Bible verse from the book of Mark: &#8220;And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.&#8221;
Faithwire <a href="https://www.faithwire.com/2019/03/12/i-wanted-to-spread-the-word-of-god-high-school-student-suspended-after-posting-bible-verses-in-response-to-rainbow-flags/">reported</a> that Lebanon City School Superintendent Todd Yohey said that though he was not permitted to discuss specifics, &#8220;Yohey confirmed that the school&#8217;s Student Code of Conduct does not prohibit the sharing or posting of religious text or imagery on school grounds. He also confirmed that like the GSA, religious clubs are allowed to meet and advertise during school hours.&#8221;
&#8220;The question that remains, then, is why Gabby received the suspension to begin with,&#8221; asked Faithwire&#8217;s Carly Hoilman. &#8220;If the student&#8217;s testimony stands, and she was not &#8216;targeting the GSA organization&#8217; as Principal Scott Butler allegedly claimed, then it appears her only offense was not receiving prior approval to post the verses, which is a far cry from the accusations of &#8216;abuse&#8217; toward other students.&#8221;
WATCH:
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WATCH: Teen Girl Suspended For Posting Bible Verses In Response To Pride Flags Explains Herself In Viral Video

Christianity

LGBT

Connecticut high schooler Selina Soule appeared on Fox News&#8217; &#8220;The Ingraham Angle&#8221; on Tuesday night to discuss transgender athletes in women&#8217;s sports. Soule recently competed in a high-stakes competition where two biologically male transgender sprinters beat the field, taking first and second place by significant margins. Soule finished in 8th place, missing an opportunity to compete in front of college coaches by two places.
&#8220;I am very happy for these athletes and I fully support them for being true to themselves and having the courage to do what they believe in,&#8221; Soule told host Laura Ingraham. &#8220;But, in athletics, it&#8217;s an entirely different situation. It&#8217;s scientifically proven that males are built to be physically stronger than females. It&#8217;s unfair to put someone who is biologically a male, who has not undergone anything in terms of hormone therapy, against cis-gender girls.&#8221;
Ingraham, a former athlete at the same high school, jumped in to rhetorically ask what happens when transgender athletes start infiltrating other sports, too. What happens to girl&#8217;s sports, she wondered aloud.
The Fox host mentioned recent <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43717/lgbt-group-breaks-tennis-legend-after-she-says-ashe-schow">comments</a> made by gay advocate and tennis star Martina Navratilova, who warned that women&#8217;s sports are headed down a dangerous path if biological males, who have a clear advantage over women physically, are allowed to compete in women and girl&#8217;s sports. Ingraham noted that Navratilova has been &#8220;trashed&#8221; for making such an obvious, data-proven point.
&#8220;What are other members of your team saying about this?&#8221; asked Ingraham.
&#8220;My teammates and my fellow competitors &#8212; we are happy for these athletes, of course &#8212; but we do think it&#8217;s unfair, and for us it is upsetting when we work hard all season and put in a lot of effort, only to turn up at the state meets and get beat by someone who is biologically a male and lose state championships over this,&#8221; said the high schooler.
Soule said student-athletes applying for colleges are already running into &#8220;major issues&#8221; because there is no specified way in Connecticut to differentiate between transgender girls and biological girls. So when college coaches review stats, they are looking at major discrepancies in times without any explanation, she explained.
The student-athlete has previously made similar comments about the issue. &#8220;We all know the outcome of the race before it even starts; it&#8217;s demoralizing,&#8221; she said, <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/sports/transgender-high-school-athletes-spark-controversy-debate-in-connecticut">according</a> to Fox News. &#8220;I fully support and am happy for these athletes for being true to themselves. They should have the right to express themselves in school, but athletics have always had extra rules to keep the competition fair.&#8221;
Andraya Yearwood, one of the transgender athletes who bested Soule, will likely attempt to qualify for this year&#8217;s National Scholastic Athletics Foundation (NSAF) national championships held in March, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/43890/high-school-transgender-athlete-has-plans-qualify-hank-berrien">reported</a> The Daily Wire.
&#8220;The group recently adopted new rules allowing pre-pubescent girls to participate with their affirmed gender, though no ages are specified. Post-pubescent transgender girls must have completed sex-reassignment surgery and &#8216;a sufficient amount of time must have passed&#8217; after the operation or hormone therapy &#8216;to minimize gender-related competitive advantages,'&#8221; The Washington Times <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/feb/24/terry-miller-andraya-yearwood-transgender-sprinter/">noted</a>.
According to the NSAF <a href="https://www.nationalscholastic.org/nbon/guidelines">website</a>: &#8220;Freshman and Junior High School miles are limited to first 30 entries per gender that both meet the entry standard and pay for the entry &#8230; Junior High Mile is limited to the first 30 entries per gender that both meet the entry standard and pay for the entry.&#8221;
WATCH:
<div class="embed video fluid-video">Watch the latest video at &lt;a href=&#8221;https://www.foxnews.com&#8221;&gt;foxnews.com&lt;/a&gt;</div>

WATCH: Female High Schooler Speaks Out After Losing Championship To Two Transgender Sprinters

Andraya Yearwood, a transgender high school competitor who just finished second in the girls&#8217; 55-meter dash at Connecticut&#8217;s state open indoor track championships, has plans to attempt to qualify for this year&#8217;s National Scholastic Athletics Foundation national championships, which are being held March 8-10, according to <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/feb/24/terry-miller-andraya-yearwood-transgender-sprinter/">The Washington Times</a>. The Washington Times added, &#8220;The group recently adopted new rules allowing pre-pubescent girls to participate with their affirmed gender, though no ages are specified. Post-pubescent transgender girls must have completed sex-reassignment surgery and &#8216;a sufficient amount of time must have passed&#8217; after the operation or hormone therapy &#8216;to minimize gender-related competitive advantages.&#8217;&#8221;
The NSAF <a href="https://www.nationalscholastic.org/nbon/guidelines">website</a>, in its instructions for the outdoor championships in June, has this kind of verbiage: &#8220;Freshman and Junior High School miles are limited to first 30 entries per gender that both meet the entry standard and pay for the entry &#8230; Junior High Mile is limited to the first 30 entries per gender that both meet the entry standard and pay for the entry.&#8221;
Yearwood is a 17-year-old junior at Cromwell High School; he recently placed second behind another transgender, Terry Miller of Bloomfield High, at the state indoor open championships. Miller ran the race in 6.95 seconds; Yearwood ran it 7.01 seconds. The biological girl who finished third ran the race in 7.23 seconds.
This season, Miller also won the 300-meter race.
As <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/31605/watch-two-transgenders-blow-out-girls-state-meet-hank-berrien">The Daily Wire</a> reported, last June when Connecticut had its State Open track and field championships at Willow Brook Park, Miller broke the State Open records for girls in both the 100 and 200-meter dashes. Yearwood finished second in the 100-meter dash.
Hillhouse coach Gary Moore told Hearst Connecticut Media at the time that Miller should be able to compete, but the situation &#8220;wasn&#8217;t fair to the girls,&#8221; adding something should be done to &#8220;level the playing field.&#8221; He stated, &#8220;I&#8217;ve been stopped by at least five coaches, all of them saying they really liked what I said in the paper. How come other coaches aren&#8217;t talking? This is a big issue a lot of coaches have, that we&#8217;ve got to do something, but how come you&#8217;re not saying anything? I&#8217;ve said what I needed to say. I&#8217;m getting a little annoyed with the coaches that we haven&#8217;t been able to get together and do what&#8217;s best for everybody.&#8221;
Selina Soule of Glastonbury High, who finished sixth in the 100 last June and had studied the literature about Title IX and competitive sports, said of the rule allowing transgender athletes to compete against persons of the opposite biological sex, &#8220;Of course, it should be that way for math and science and chorus. Sports are set up for fairness. Biologically male and female are different. The great majority is being sacrificed for the minority.&#8221;
Connecticut permits transgender high school athletes to compete without restrictions; sixteen other states have the same policy, according to Transathlete.com. Seven states have some restrictions.
Yearwood admitted he was stronger than some of the other competitors, but added there were other considerations: &#8220;One high jumper could be taller and have longer legs than another, but the other could have perfect form, and then do better. One sprinter could have parents who spend so much money on personal training for their child, which in turn, would cause that child to run faster.&#8221; The Washington Times reported that Miller said that if he felt another competitor had an unfair advantage, he would simply try harder.
Soule, who finished eighth in the 55-meter dash, thus missing out on qualifying for the New England regionals because Miller and Yearwood finished ahead of her, noted that now she wouldn&#8217;t have the opportunity to compete in front of additional college coaches. She added, &#8220;We all know the outcome of the race before it even starts; it&#8217;s demoralizing. I fully support and am happy for these athletes for being true to themselves. They should have the right to express themselves in school, but athletics have always had extra rules to keep the competition fair.&#8221;
Glenn Lungarini, executive director of the Connecticut Association of Schools-Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, claimed, &#8220;This is about someone&#8217;s right to compete. I don&#8217;t think this is that different from other classes of people, who, in the not too distant past, were not allowed to compete. I think it&#8217;s going to take education and understanding to get to that point on this issue.&#8221;
Jon Forrest, whose daughter is on the same team as Soule, favors letting transgender competitors run with biological girls but putting their results in a separate category. He added, &#8220;The facts show Glastonbury would be the state champion based on cisgender girls competing against cisgender girls. You don&#8217;t realize it until you see it in person, the disparity in the ability to perform.&#8221;

High School Transgender Athlete Has Plans To Qualify For National Championships For Girls

Falsehood flew on Friday as pundits, politicians, priests, and the press joined together to smear a group of boys from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky. They seized upon a brief video clip filmed at the National Mall, which showed a Native American activist banging a drum in the face of a teenage student, who endured the confrontation in stillness with an alternately perplexed and bemused smile on his face. The defamers framed the narrative: These teenage boys, many of whom wore hats that read, &#8220;Make America Great Again,&#8221; had surrounded the peaceful Native American elder Nathan Phillips to taunt and threaten and smirk at him.
A great many adults owe the Covington boys an apology. Few have proffered one, and most have doubled down on their calumny. Anne Helen Petersen, the senior culture writer for Buzzfeed, excused her libel by calling on readers to &#8220;recognize why the sight of that face caused a visceral reaction in so many.&#8221; The teenager is odious, she implies, because he is a white boy. The unrepentant Fr. Martin calls the scandal a &#8220;teachable moment.&#8221; If the incident offers any lesson at all, it is that our culture has become inverted: journalists peddle lies; officeholders vilify their constituents; clerics abandon their flocks to wolves.
Read the rest <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/covington-kids-can-teach-a-lot-to-rash-adults-in-media-politics-who-condemned-first-got-facts-later">here</a>.

Knowles At ‘Fox’: Covington Kids Can Teach A Lot To ‘Adults’ In Media

Conservatism

Donald Trump

March For Life

Native Americans

On Monday, two Republican legislators in South Dakota introduced a bill that would throw out the South Dakota High School Activities Association&#8217;s 2015 policy allowing transgender students to join sports teams of the gender they choose, instead of their biological sex.
The bill was introduced by Sen. Jim Bolin (R-Canton) and Rep. Brunner (R-Nisland). Bolin served as mayor of Canton, South Dakota, from 2007 to 2008; before that, he <a href="https://votesmart.org/candidate/biography/103990/jim-bolin#.XD7G2a2ZMcg">served as the athletic director</a> of the Canton Public Schools from 1996-2007. He said he brought forth the legislation in order to ensure fair competition, adding that he wanted to emulate Texas. As <a href="https://www.argusleader.com/story/news/2019/01/14/bill-gut-high-school-transgender-athletics-policy/2570931002/">The Argus Leader</a> notes, &#8220;Texas&#8217; University Interscholastic League requires that students participate on sports teams that correspond with the sex listed on their birth certificate.&#8221;
&#8203;Bolin stated:
<blockquote>
I believe the activities association is a very good group, but I think they made a bad decision when they implemented this policy four, five years ago. We have sports that are set up &#8212; boys go over 39-inch hurdles in 110 meters and girls have to clear 33-inch hurdles in 100-meter hurdles. We have a smaller ball for girls basketball than we do for boys basketball. If we&#8217;re going to have these modifications, then my point is that the birth certificate should be the determining factor in which team you play on. It&#8217;s all about fair competition.
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<a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/south-dakota/articles/2019-01-14/bill-would-void-south-dakota-transgender-athletes-policy">US News &amp; World Report</a> said Bolin stated, &#8220;I just firmly believe that those who are males should play in sports designated for males and those who are females &#8230; should play in sports designated for females, according to your birth certificate. It&#8217;s about fair competition, and we&#8217;re not breaking any new ground.&#8221; He added, &#8220;This has nothing to do with bathrooms, locker rooms or shower rooms. This has only to do with the eligibility for athletic competition.&#8221;
SDHSAA Executive Director Dan Swartos informed the Argus Leader that the association intended to protect its current policy. He said a &#8220;small number&#8221; of students are currently competing as transgender athletes. The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota opposes the bill offered by Bolin and Brunner. Libby Skarin, policy director of the ACLU of South Dakota, stated:
<blockquote>
Barring transgender students from the benefits of athletics holds them back from living authentic and fulfilling lives. Participation in athletic activities has a widespread impact on the social, physical and emotional well-being of students and provides kids with lessons about self-discipline, teamwork, perseverance, success and failure. They bring excitement, joy and a sense of belonging &#8212; a sense that is important for all kids, but particularly for kids who may already feel like outcasts.
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The 2015 policy required the student and their parent to inform the school of the student&#8217;s intent to play on a team matching their chosen gender; the school would then submit an application and documentation to the South Dakota High School Activities Association. A licensed attorney then would examine the request.
A spokeswoman for Republican Gov. Kristi Noem said Noem is studying the newly-introduced bill, but has not made a decision whether to support it or not.
The issue of whether transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in high school sports of the opposite biological sex has triggered much debate; last June in Connecticut, a biological boy broke the State Open records for girls in both the 100 and 200-meter runs, while the runner-up in the 100 meter dash for girls was also a biological boy, as seen below.
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Terry Miller of Bulkeley wins the 100m girls dash i. 11.72 (meet record). Andraya Yearwood of Cromwell 2nd, RHAM&#8217;s Bridget Lalonde 3rd <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cttrack?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#cttrack</a> <a href="https://t.co/4GmLRyicDI">pic.twitter.com/4GmLRyicDI</a>
&#8212; GameTimeCT (@GameTimeCT) <a href="https://twitter.com/GameTimeCT/status/1003739370736816129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 4, 2018</a></blockquote>
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Terry Miller of Bulkeley sets another meet record in winning the girls 200m, 24.17 <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/cttrack?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#cttrack</a> <a href="https://t.co/6hAaFApIwk">pic.twitter.com/6hAaFApIwk</a>
&#8212; GameTimeCT (@GameTimeCT) <a href="https://twitter.com/GameTimeCT/status/1003750542294822913?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 4, 2018</a></blockquote>
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South Dakota Considering Bill Barring Transgender Students From Competing Against Opposite Biological Sex

South Dakota

A police department in Wisconsin is assisting a school district in an investigation over a prom photo wherein dozens of male high schoolers are giving the Nazi salute.
In the photo obtained by journalist Jules Suzdaltsev, scores of male students from Baraboo High School dressed in their prom best are seen smiling and giving the salute.
According to Suzdaltsev, the students in the photo are from the Class of 2019 and it was taken during junior prom. The photo was &#8220;apparently taken by one of the parents, and is on the parent&#8217;s website as part of their collective prom photos,&#8221; he noted.
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Correction: The photo of students doing salutes is the Class of 2019, not 2018, and was taken during their junior prom.
Here is a higher resolution photo (which was apparently taken by one of the parents, and is on the parent&#8217;s website as part of their collective prom photos.) <a href="https://t.co/lkrFln9pyz">pic.twitter.com/lkrFln9pyz</a>
&#8212; Jules Suzdaltsev (@jules_su) <a href="https://twitter.com/jules_su/status/1061882117058191360?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2018</a></blockquote>
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On Monday, Baraboo School District Superintendent Dr. Lori Mueller released a statement condemning all &#8220;hate&#8221; and acknowledging the photo while making it clear that it was not taken on school property.
&#8220;Early this morning, a photo that was taken last spring of some Baraboo School District students who appear to be making extremely inappropriate gestures began circulating on social media,&#8221; said Mueller in the statement. &#8220;The district has confirmed at this time that the photo was not taken on school property or at a school-sponsored event.&#8221;
&#8220;With that, we want to be very clear: the Baraboo School District is a hate-free environment where all people, regardless of race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin or ancestry, are respected and celebrated,&#8221; the statement continued.
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The Baraboo School District sent the following letter to parents this morning in response to a photo circulating on social media. We are launching an investigation, and as such, are unable to provide additional details at this time. <a href="https://t.co/oRxcl82lJT">pic.twitter.com/oRxcl82lJT</a>
&#8212; Baraboo Schools (@barabooSD) <a href="https://twitter.com/barabooSD/status/1062017178843668480?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2018</a></blockquote>
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The Baraboo Police Department announced that they are &#8220;aware&#8221; of the photo and will be helping the district with an &#8220;investigation&#8221; into the matter.
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The Baraboo Police Department is aware of a controversial photo of a group of high school students that has been posted to social media. Officers are assisting the Baraboo School District with their investigation into this matter.
&#8212; Baraboo PD (@BarabooPD) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarabooPD/status/1061990616060608514?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2018</a></blockquote>
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As you can imagine, the photo went viral and the backlash from people of all party affiliations came swiftly.
Democratic Senator Jon Erpenbach <a href="https://www.wbay.com/content/news/Wisconsin-district-investigates-boys-apparent-Nazi-salute-500290341.html">told</a> the Associated Press that President Donald Trump was to blame for enabling the photo. &#8220;There&#8217;s no room in the world for anything like that at all,&#8221; he said. &#8220;From what they&#8217;re seeing out of the White House, that it&#8217;s OK to be intolerant and racist. Never is. Never was. Never will be.&#8221;
Jordan Blue, one of the students in the photo who is abstaining from giving the anti-Semitic salute, spoke to Suzdaltsev concerning the photo.
&#8220;My name is Jordan Blue, I am the boy captured in the photo to the far right,&#8221; wrote the student. &#8220;The photo was taken during out Junior Prom Photos. I clearly am uncomfortable, with what was happening. I couldn&#8217;t leave the photo as it was taken within 5 seconds. The photographer took the photos telling us to make the sign, I knew what my morals were and it was not to salute something I firmly didn&#8217;t believe in.&#8221;
&#8220;I attend BHS, these classmates have bullied me since entering middle school,&#8221; Blue continued, &#8220;I have struggled with it my entire life and nothing has changed. &#8230; nothing has been done and my question is.. [will] anything ever be done. I truly &amp; firmly believe we need to make a change to this horrible act, it needs to stop. Bullying. Immaturity. [A]nd just taking things as a &#8216;joke.'&#8221;
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I spoke with the only student who is visibly not comfortable with the &#8220;salute&#8221;, he provided this statement. <a href="https://t.co/HbNBc8xLOK">pic.twitter.com/HbNBc8xLOK</a>
&#8212; Jules Suzdaltsev (@jules_su) <a href="https://twitter.com/jules_su/status/1062008915184050178?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2018</a></blockquote>
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<a href="https://www.wbay.com/content/news/Wisconsin-district-investigates-boys-apparent-Nazi-salute-500290341.html">H/t</a> Salon

Police Investigating High School Students Giving Nazi Salute In Prom Photo

Wisconsin

President Barack Obama&#8217;s first education secretary, Arne Duncan, gave a speech on the 45th anniversary of &#8220;Bloody Sunday&#8221; at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where, in 1965, state troopers beat and tear-gassed hundreds of peaceful civil rights marchers who were demanding voting rights. Later that year, as a result of widespread support across the nation, the U.S. Congress passed the Voting Rights Act. Secretary Duncan titled his speech &#8220;Crossing the Next Bridge.&#8221; Duncan told the crowd that black students &#8220;are more than three times as likely to be expelled as their white peers,&#8221; adding that Martin Luther King would be &#8220;dismayed.&#8221;
Gail Heriot, a law professor at the University of San Diego and a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and her special assistant and counselor, Alison Somin, have written an important article in the Texas Review of Law &amp; Politics, titled &#8220;The Department of Education&#8217;s Obama-Era Initiative on Racial Disparities in School Discipline&#8221; (Spring 2018). The article is about the departments of Education and Justice&#8217;s &#8220;disparate impact&#8221; vision, wherein they see racial discrimination as the factor that explains why black male students face suspension and expulsion more often than other students.
Faced with threats from the Department of Education&#8217;s Office for Civil Rights, schools have instituted new disciplinary policies. For example, after the public school district in Oklahoma City was investigated by the OCR, there was a 42.5 percent decrease in the number of suspensions. According to an article in The Oklahoman, one teacher said, &#8220;Students are yelling, cursing, hitting and screaming at teachers and nothing is being done but teachers are being told to teach and ignore the behaviors.&#8221; According to Chalkbeat, new high school teachers left one school because they didn&#8217;t feel safe. There have been cases in which students have assaulted teachers and returned to school the next day.
Many of the complaints about black student behavior are coming from black teachers. I doubt whether they could be accused of racial discrimination against black students. The first vice president of the St. Paul, Minnesota, chapter of the NAACP said it&#8217;s &#8220;very disturbing&#8221; that the school district would retaliate against a black teacher &#8220;for simply voicing the concern&#8221; that when black students are not held accountable for misbehaving, they are set up for failure in life.
An article in Education Week earlier this year, titled &#8220;<a href="http://tinyurl.com/y7ndtyom">When Students Assault Teachers, Effects Can Be Lasting</a>,&#8221; discusses the widespread assaults of teachers across the country: &#8220;In the 2015-16 school year, 5.8 percent of the nation&#8217;s 3.8 million teachers were physically attacked by a student. Almost 10 percent were threatened with injury, according to federal education data.&#8221;
Measures that propose harsh punishment for students who assault teachers have not been successful. In North Carolina, a bill was introduced that proposed that students 16 or older could be charged with a felony if they assaulted a teacher. It was opposed by children&#8217;s advocacy and disability rights groups. In Minnesota, a 2016 bill would have required school boards to automatically expel a student who threatened or inflicted bodily harm on a teacher for up to a year. It, too, was opposed, even in light of the fact that teachers have suffered serious bodily harm, such as the case in which a high school student slammed a teacher into a concrete wall and then squeezed his throat. That teacher ended up with a traumatic brain injury.
There are plenty of visuals of assaults on teachers. Here&#8217;s a tiny sample: Florida&#8217;s <a href="http://tinyurl.com/yc2tmchd">Seminole Middle School</a>, Pennsylvania&#8217;s <a href="http://tinyurl.com/ydf8rajf">Cheltenham High School</a>, Illinois&#8217; <a href="http://tinyurl.com/yah3bjey">Rich Central High School</a>. Byongook Moon, a professor in the criminal justice department at the University of Texas at San Antonio, says that according to his study of 1,600 teachers, about 44 percent of teachers who had been victims of physical assault said that being attacked had a negative impact on their job performance. Nearly 30 percent said they could no longer trust the student who had attacked them, and 27 percent said they thought of quitting their teaching career afterward.
My question is: Is there any reason whatsoever for adults to tolerate this kind of behavior from our young people?
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University. To find out more about Walter E. Williams and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

WILLIAMS: Racial Disparities In School Discipline

A movement is burgeoning among anxiety-ridden high schoolers to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/09/teens-think-they-shouldnt-have-to-speak-in-front-of-the-class/570061/?utm_medium=social&amp;utm_content=edit-promo&amp;utm_campaign=the-atlantic&amp;utm_term=2018-09-12T19%3A07%3A35&amp;utm_source=twitter">eliminate in-class presentations</a>.
According to The Atlantic:
<blockquote>
&#8230; in the past few years, students have started calling out in-class presentations as discriminatory to those with anxiety, demanding that teachers offer alternative options. This week, a tweet posted by a <a href="https://twitter.com/softedhearts/status/1038376186894790658">15-year-old high-school student</a> declaring &#8220;Stop forcing students to present in front of the class and give them a choice not to&#8221; garnered more than 130,000 retweets and nearly half a million likes. A similar sentiment <a href="https://twitter.com/DAMNBlEBERS/status/826106798344126464">tweeted in January</a> also racked up thousands of likes and retweets.
</blockquote>
The Atlantic cited <a href="https://journals.lww.com/jrnldbp/Citation/2018/06000/Epidemiology_and_Impact_of_Health_Care.6.aspx">a recent study</a> in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics that posited anxiety is accelerating at a faster rate than depression among teenagers.
According to the The National Institute of Mental Health, public speaking anxiety, or glossophobia, <a href="https://nationalsocialanxietycenter.com/2017/02/20/public-speaking-and-fear-of-brain-freezes/">affects roughly 73%</a> of the population. The Chapman University Survey on American Fears, studying phobias, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/10/30/clowns-are-twice-as-scary-to-democrats-as-they-are-to-republicans/?utm_term=.6dd4ea8c11ef">reported</a> that Americans feared public speaking more than heights, bugs, snakes, drowning, needles, claustrophobia, flying, or strangers.
Yet if a child learns to be comfortable speaking publicly, a big payoff could be in their future. The current <a href="https://work.chron.com/salaries-motivational-speakers-26243.html">median annual salary</a> for motivational speakers is $107,173.

Nervous High Schoolers Want To Abolish In-Class Presentations

A high school teacher in the Bronx who admitted performing oral sex on a 14-year-old student was only sentenced to 10 years&#8217; probation and allowed to <a href="v">keep her teaching certificate.</a> The teacher reportedly <a href="http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/ny-dori-myers-bronx-teacher-sentenced-probation-20180912-story.html">performed the act multiple times</a>.
In August, Dori Myers, 30, who was arrested in January 2018, pleaded guilty to a criminal sex act for performing oral sex on the student in November 2017 at the New School for Leadership and the Arts in Kingsbridge where she taught social studies.
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NY social studies teacher Dori Myers, 29, arrested and charged with criminal sexual act in the second degree and endangering the welfare of a child. She allegedly gave oral sex to 14-year-old student, another teacher saw her massaging a boy. Her husband is a sheriff&#8217;s deputy. <a href="https://t.co/lTewQdNJxo">pic.twitter.com/lTewQdNJxo</a>
&#8212; Paul Sacca (@Paul_Sacca) <a href="https://twitter.com/Paul_Sacca/status/955105875265572864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2018</a></blockquote>
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The school then <a href="https://www.lohud.com/story/news/crime/2018/01/22/nyc-teacher-rockland-reassigned-after-sex-charge/1054316001/">fired her</a>.
On Wednesday, the court labeled her a Level 1 sex offender, but the plea agreement that was struck jettisoned prosecutors&#8217; request for a minimum of two years in prison.
As part of her plea agreement, Myers also got to keep her teaching certificate. Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the state Office of Court Administration, <a href="https://www.lohud.com/story/news/crime/2018/09/13/dori-myers-garnerville-teacher-sentenced/1288580002/">stated</a>, &#8220;Each case is decided on its own merits. Whatever the negotiated plea entailed, all parties agreed to it.&#8221;
According to <a href="https://nypost.com/2018/09/12/ex-teacher-sentenced-for-sexual-relationship-with-teen/">The New York Post</a>, &#8220;The victim had also posted at least one pic on Snapchat cuddling with Myers under the heading &#8216;Me and my sexy asssss wife,&#8217; according to sources.&#8221; The teen had told a classmate about his actions with Myers; the classmate informed a school administrator.
The Post reported that Myers&#8217; husband, a Rockland County sheriff&#8217;s officer, was not in court on Wednesday, although he had accompanied her at other times.

NY Teacher Performs Oral Sex On 14-Year-Old. Her Sentence Is Outrageous.

New York City

A video of a California high school cheerleader beating up a much larger female bully after being sucker-punched has gone viral.
The teen, the younger sister of YouTube personality Sierra Sprague, tells a girl in a yellow t-shirt multiple times that she does not want their confrontation to turn physical. &#8220;Nobody wants to fight, no one wants to fight with you guys,&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6148587/Cheerleader-destroys-bully-fist-fight-getting-sucker-punched-saying-didnt-want-to.html">says</a> the cheerleader, uniform on and bows in her hair.
&#8220;Get your finger out of my face. &#8230; Don&#8217;t f***ing touch me,&#8221; says the cheerleader, right before the girl confronting her punches her in the face.
The cheerleader immediately attacks the girl, throwing punches and slamming her much larger attacker to the ground, all with her phone in-hand.
The cheerleader&#8217;s older sister shared the video, which has now been viewed well-over 8 million times, on her Twitter account. &#8220;So my little sister got in a fight tonight and i don&#8217;t think i&#8217;ve ever been more proud, with her phone in her hand &amp; everything,&#8221; Sprague captioned the post. &#8220;THATS MY MF SISTER LETS GOOOOOOO.&#8221;
Replying to commenters online, Sprague said her sister was not punished by the school.
Video below (warning: language):
<div class="embed tweet">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
so my little sister got in a fight tonight and i don&#8217;t think i&#8217;ve ever been more proud with her phone in her hand &amp; everything lmao THATS MY MF SISTER LETS GOOOOOOO <a href="https://t.co/8Bpxc30d0Z">pic.twitter.com/8Bpxc30d0Z</a>
&#8212; sierra sprague (@sierrasprague) <a href="https://twitter.com/sierrasprague/status/1038326223888297984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 8, 2018</a></blockquote>
</div>

VIRAL VIDEO: High School Cheerleader Beats Up Bully After Being Sucker-Punched — With Phone In-Hand

A school district in Massachusetts thinks it has found one solution to the problem of school shootings: equip every schoolroom with <a href="http://www.enterprisenews.com/news/20180829/whats-dropped-in-these-buckets-could-save-brockton-student-lives">a 5-gallon blue bucket</a> containing a wooden doorstop, a 1-pound hammer, a 50-foot length of rope and a roll of duct tape.
The Brockton, Massachusetts mayor&#8217;s office worked over the summer with the Lowe&#8217;s location at the Westgate Mall to assemble over 1,080 buckets this summer that will equip district classrooms this fall, according to Deputy Superintendent Mike Thomas. Thomas stated, &#8220;If something bad happens, you have to think quickly on your feet. Teachers can&#8217;t be running around the room looking for cords, or looking for something to smash a window. Now they know exactly where everything is.&#8221;
Mayor Bill Carpenter echoed, &#8220;It is without a doubt that these coordinated efforts will assist in the efforts to strengthen existing safety initiatives and ensure Brockton Public Schools continues to be a safe learning environment.&#8221;
Lowe&#8217;s store manager Chad Gaucher added, &#8220;There&#8217;s no better way to give back than to the kids of the future.&#8221; Lowe&#8217;s offered the buckets at a wholesale price, roughly $11 each.
Thomas told <a href="https://www.wcvb.com/article/classroom-emergency-buckets-being-placed-in-brockton-schools/22868628">WCVB 5</a>, &#8220;You can actually put the wedge under the door, bang it underneath &#8230; it just provides for an extra barrier for the door, and it&#8217;s harder to open the door. &#8230; The way we train our teachers, if there is an intruder in the building it is either hide, run, or fight. You could actually break the window if you are on the first floor, get all the kids out that way.&#8221; He added that the rope could be used to help secure the door.
The tape could be used to prevent smoke from seeping into the classroom.
Thomas concluded, &#8220;When I started in education 26 years ago, it was the last thing you thought about; now, it is the first thing you have to think about.&#8221;
Teachers will be trained in the various uses of the items; following that, students will be drilled on how and when to use the items.
Brockton superintendent Kathy Smith stated, &#8220;When you study what has happened in places like Parkland, one of the things teachers talked about was having a wedge. As gunmen came down the hallway, she was able to secure her door.&#8221;
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MA School District Offers New Way To Confront School Shooters

Massachusetts

Shooting

Participation in high school football has declined 7% since 2009, <a href="https://www.nfhs.org/articles/high-school-sports-participation-increases-for-29th-consecutive-year/">according to data collated</a> by the National Federation of State High School Associations.
Despite the fact that 11-player football, which 1,035,942 high-schoolers played last year, remains the No. 1 participatory sport for boys, participation dropped for the second consecutive year. Out of 14,099 schools with 11-player football, 20 dropped the sport. The decline in participants amounts to roughly 1.5 players per school. The total number of schools with 11, 9, 8, or 6-player football programs increased by 29 schools.
2,401 girls played high school football in 2017.
According to 51 NFHS member state high school associations, 7,979,986 high-schoolers participated in high school sports in 2017: 3,415,306 girls and 4,564,680 boys.
Soccer gained the most male participants, followed by cross country, volleyball, and golf. For girls, &#8220;competitive spirit&#8221; led the way, followed by swimming and diving, lacrosse and golf.
NFHS executive director Karissa Niehoff stated:
<blockquote>
There are many positives about the numbers in this year&#8217;s sports participation survey. First, the upward trek of interest in high school sports continued for the 29th consecutive year. The model of sports within the education-based school system continues to thrive in the United States. Second, we are encouraged that the decline in high school football has slowed due, in part, to our efforts in reducing the risk of injury in the sport. While there may be other reasons that students elect not to play football, we have attempted to assure student-athletes and their parents that thanks to the concussion protocols and rules in place in every state in the country, the sport of football is as safe as it ever has been.
</blockquote>
NFHS reported, &#8220;Two recent studies have revealed that the rate of concussions has decreased the past couple of years due to more stringent rules related to protecting the head.&#8221;
In Ohio, high school football participation has dropped 23% since 2009; North Carolina and Illinois have plunged 19%. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/kids-health/friday-night-lights-start-dim-high-school-football-n902886">NBC News reported</a> that in Texas, the number of high school football players has dropped 2% since its peak in 2010-2011.
One reason for the decline in football participation may be parents&#8217; fear of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease triggered by repeated hits to the head.
One youth sports organizer said, &#8220;Moms and dads are scared. The concussions are not coming at four, five, six, eight years old. They are coming at junior high. They are coming at the senior high level.&#8221;
The Daily Mail <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6095149/High-school-football-participation-dropped-7-percent-2009-amidst-CTE-concerns.html">reported</a>:
<blockquote>
In April, researchers at VA Boston Healthcare System and Boston University School of Medicine found that among 211 players who were posthumously diagnosed with CTE, those who began playing tackle football before the age of 12 suffered an earlier onset of symptoms (typically cognitive, behavior, and mood issues) by an average of 13 years. Unsurprisingly, participation in youth tackle football (ages 6 to 17) dropped 19 percent between 2011 and 2016, according to Aspen Institute data from the Sports &amp; Fitness Industry Association.
</blockquote>

Participation In High School Football Is Dropping

On Monday, students from the pro-gun control March for Our Lives protest are expected to announce plans to go on a 20-state summer bus tour. Vocal Parkland High School survivors and anti-gun activists, such as group leaders David Hogg and Emma González, will be headlining the 75-stop tour.
The bus tour, called &#8220;March for Our Lives: Road to Change,&#8221; will include meetings with victims and survivors of shootings and focus on the promotion of more gun control legislation and registering fellow youths to vote, <a href="https://www.axios.com/march-for-our-lives-parkland-students-msd-summer-tour-e6223292-7d96-4fc8-ad8d-217c43719abb.html">reports</a> Axios.
Hogg, 18, promoted the bus tour during an interview with the outlet on Saturday. &#8220;I&#8217;m glad I&#8217;m getting my diploma and not my death certificate,&#8221; he said. The recent Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School grad will take a year off before entering college.
Fellow prominent Parkland anti-gun activist Emma González will also be a key bus tour leader. &#8220;If you don&#8217;t support this &#8230; it&#8217;ll look like you&#8217;re going against kids,&#8221; said González, unintentionally giving away the Left&#8217;s motive for their shameless exploitation of the teens. The 18-year-old is off to New College of Florida in Sarasota next semester
The tour is set to launch on Friday, June 15 in Chicago, at a Peace March led by St. Sabina Academy students, reports Axios. The students will then make 50 more stops across the country, including to Texas and South Carolina, and a have a &#8220;simultaneous&#8221; Florida tour that will make over 25 stops within the state, &#8220;visiting every congressional district.&#8221;
In a news release from March for Our Lives, the organization said students are calling for &#8220;universal, comprehensive background checks; creating a searchable database for gun owners; funding the Centers for Disease Control to research gun violence;&#8221; and &#8220;banning high-capacity magazines and semi-automatic assault rifles.&#8221;

Parkland Activists Announce 20-State Tour: ‘If You Don’t Support This … It’ll Look Like You’re Going Against Kids’

Gun Control

Any video game that allows people to role-play as a mass shooter, including the &#8220;Grand Theft Auto&#8221; series, is morally bankrupt. Any game that allows people to role-play as a mass shooter in a high school is reprehensible.
It&#8217;s hard to believe that the video game company Valve (&#8220;Counter-Strike&#8221;) actually has plans to release a game called &#8220;Active Shooter,&#8221; in which people can take on the role of an active shooter in a high school with the option of choosing a SWAT officer on a mission to stop the carnage.
According to <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/5/29/17405716/active-shooter-steam-valve-corp-video-game">Vox</a>, the game has drawn sharp criticism from &#8220;outlets like <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/tasneemnashrulla/active-shooter-video-game-school-shooting-outrage?utm_term=.wuw2D3oV23#.wv1VzDMdVD">BuzzFeed</a> and <a href="https://steamed.kotaku.com/school-shooting-game-angers-steam-users-developer-like-1826336524">Kotaku</a>, as well as the <a href="https://twitter.com/Emma4Change/status/1001500459851448320">survivors</a> of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida.&#8221;
Parkland activist Emma Gonzalez <a href="https://twitter.com/Emma4Change/status/1001500459851448320">tweeted</a>: &#8220;Valve Corp shut down this shovelware immediately please.&#8221;
&#8220;The ill-advised game, based on a video <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/866890/Active_Shooter/">posted on Steam</a>, lets you play either as a SWAT team member focused on stopping the school shooting or as the actual shooter,&#8221; reports Vox. &#8220;The game, it seems, sees this as a selling point &#8212; with the developer pointing out on Steam that &#8216;[o]nly in &#8216;Active Shooter&#8217;, you will be able to pick the role of an Elite S.W.A.T member or the actual.&#8221;
The avatar shooter essentially roams the school hallways looking for classmates and teachers to kill with firearms and grenades. As the kill count mounts, a side menu tracks &#8220;civs killed&#8221; and &#8220;cops killed.&#8221;
The outrage over the video game has culminated in a <a href="https://www.change.org/p/valve-corporation-do-not-launch-active-shooter-a-school-shooter-video-game">Change.org petition</a> which prompted Valve to respond, saying it &#8220;will more likely remove the shooters [sic] role in this game by the release, unless if [sic] it can be kept as it is right now.&#8221;
Valve, however, defends the game, arguing that it &#8220;does not promote any sort of violence, especially any soft [sic] of a mass shooting.&#8221;
In this case, Valve did not create the game, which was developed by Revived Games and publisher ACID. The criticism towards Valve stems from their decision to release the game on their massive gaming platform <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/866890/Active_Shooter/">Steam</a>.
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