Tag Archives: School

Colorado school cancels classes over threat after Trump piñata incident

By Keith Coffman

DENVER (Reuters) – A Colorado high school canceled classes on Monday following an unspecified online threat, authorities said, days after a Spanish teacher there was suspended over allegations he allowed students to strike a piñata depicting President Donald Trump.

Activities at Roosevelt High School in the town of Johnstown, about 40 miles north of Denver, were put on hold out of an abundance of caution, Martin Foster, superintendent of the Johnstown-Milliken school district, said in a statement.

“Recent tragedies around the country and in our own state have heightened everyone’s concern for the safety of students,” Foster said. He did not say if the threat was related to the piñata incident.

Colorado has been the scene of several school shootings and threats, most notably the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, where two students fatally shot a teacher and 12 students before committing suicide.

Foster said he became aware last Friday of social media posts of a Cinco De Mayo event at the school where a photograph of Trump was affixed to a piñata. Cinco De Mayo is an annual celebration commemorating the Mexican army’s defeat of French forces at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.

“This was an incredibly disrespectful act that does not reflect the values of Roosevelt High School or the school district,” Foster said.

The teacher, whom the district has not publicly identified, has been placed on paid administrative leave while the incident is investigated, Foster said.

Classes and other activities will resume on Tuesday with an increased police presence at the school, Assistant Superintendent Jason Seybert said by telephone.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Ben Klayman and Peter Cooney)

Victims of Turkey purges fear heavier crackdown after referendum

Mehtap Yoruk, a former Turkish nursery school teacher who was dismissed as part of a massive purge after last July’s failed coup, cleans her chicken and rice stall in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, Turkey, April 7, 2017. Picture taken April 7, 2017. REUTERS/Sertac Kayar

By Umit Ozdal and Humeyra Pamuk

DIYARBAKIR/ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Mehtap Yoruk used to teach in a nursery school in southeast Turkey, until she was sacked last year in a purge of tens of thousands of state employees. Now, she ekes out a living selling chicken and rice from a food cart on a side street, dreaming of being reunited with her classroom full of children.

That day may never come if Sunday’s referendum grants President Tayyip Erdogan sweeping new powers, she said, scooping rice in a paper plate for a customer.

“If there is a ‘Yes’ in the referendum, it will be much harder for us to be reinstated in our jobs. And these removals will probably expand.”

After an abortive coup in July, Turkish authorities arrested 40,000 people and sacked or suspended 120,000 others from a wide range of professions including soldiers, police, teachers and public servants, over alleged links with terrorist groups.

The vast majority of those people, like Yoruk, say they have nothing to do with the armed attempt to overthrow the government, and are victims of a purge designed to solidify the power of an increasingly authoritarian leader.

The referendum has bitterly divided Turkey. Erdogan argues that strengthening the presidency would avert instability associated with coalition governments, at a time when Turkey faces security threats from Islamist and Kurdish militants.

But his critics fear further drift into authoritarianism, with a leader they see as bent on eroding modern Turkey’s democracy and secular foundations.

Mass detentions immediately after the attempted coup were supported by many Turks, who agreed with Erdogan when he blamed U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen for orchestrating the putsch which killed 240 people, mostly civilians.

But criticism mounted as the arrests widened to include people from all walks of life such as midwives and prison guards in remote parts of Turkey, and to pro-Kurdish opposition lawmakers, effectively leaving the nation’s third-biggest party leaderless.

“These purges are not individual cases at all. This is a systemic phenomenon empowered by an environment of lawlessness. And in the case of a ‘Yes’ win that will only get worse,” said Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu, a doctor and rights activist dismissed earlier this year.

FROM “WAR VETERAN TO TERRORIST”

A report by opposition parliamentarian Zeynep Altiok said that the purge of public employees since the coup had deprived 1.5 million students of their teachers. More than 600 companies were seized by the state, 140,000 passports were revoked and 65 elected mayors ousted, it said last month.

In addition, more than 2,000 journalists were sacked and scores of TV and radio stations, news agencies and newspapers were shut down.

United Nations rights experts said on Thursday those closures had undermined the chance for informed debate on the referendum, and a state of emergency imposed after the failed coup had been used to justify repressive measures which may be just the beginning if Erdogan wins greater powers on Sunday.

“Given the arbitrary and sweeping nature of the emergency decrees issued since July 2016, there is serious concern that such powers might be used in ways that exacerbate the existing major violations of economic, social and cultural rights,” the U.N. experts on education, poverty and free speech said.

After a decade as prime minister, Erdogan assumed the presidency in 2014. He has already transformed what had been a largely ceremonial role into a platform for action, and the referendum would formally grant him executive powers once reserved for the cabinet that answers to parliament.

He has also promised to reinstate the death penalty if the ‘Yes’ vote wins, almost certainly ending Turkey’s decades-long bid to join the European Union, which bars executions. Turkey’s EU candidate status has been one of the brakes on Ankara, requiring steps to improve human rights and transparency.

Aysegul Karaosmanoglu, a headscarved teacher suspended two days after the coup and sacked in September, said the coup was used as an excuse by the government to purge dissidents. A “Yes” win would probably broaden and deepen that crackdown, she said.

“It could create an environment for all dissidents to be hanged, or denied any chance of life,” Karaosmanoglu, 45, said. “I hear they are opening lots of new prisons. I guess they’ll put people like us there”.

She was speaking at a rare gathering in Istanbul this week of purged civil servants and families of those jailed, who came together to publicize their plight. They rejected any link with the failed coup, and some said they were sacked for causes as remote from any real wrongdoing as simply being members of a union which was deemed a Gulenist institution.

Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, denies involvement in the coup. He is a former Erdogan ally whose network was declared a terrorist group by Turkey’s national security council two months before the failed coup.

Ahmet Erkaslan, a gendarmerie officer who was shot by Kurdish militants during a security operation in Diyarbakir’s Sur district last year, says he was sacked from his job without being given a reason. That has transformed him from a war veteran to a so-called terrorist, overnight.

“I still remember the whistle of the bullets as I lay on the ground,” Erkaslan said.

He said he expects it will be difficult to get his job back, regardless of how the country votes in the plebiscite.

“Even if the removals stop, they would no longer employ people who are critical of them,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Dominic Evans and Peter Graff)

Colorado school district votes to allow employees to carry guns

A selection of Glock pistols are seen for sale at the Pony Express Firearms shop in Parker, Colorado

By Dan Whitcomb

(Reuters) – A tiny school district in central Colorado has voted to allow teachers or other employees at its two schools to carry concealed handguns on the job if they volunteer to serve double duty as security officers in case of an emergency.

The Board of Education for Hanover School District #28 voted 3-2 to approve the resolution on Wednesday night, said Mark McPherson, board president.

McPherson, who voted against the plan, said it was inspired less by the fear of a shooting rampage on campus than by the district’s remote location, some 30 miles from the nearest sheriff’s station.

“We had a board member who introduced the idea back in June who indicated he felt the need for this because of the distance and response time (from law enforcement) as well as all the (potential) trouble from marijuana grows,” McPherson said.

The written resolution, however, says in part that it was drafted “in light of recent events nationally,” apparently in reference to a string of shootings on school campuses.

McPherson said it was a coincidence that the measure was approved on the third anniversary of a Dec. 14, 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 20 students and six staff members were slain.

Hanover School District #28 is comprised of one elementary school and one combined junior and senior high school, serving a total of about 245 students. Each school has about 10 teachers.

According to the resolution, any teacher or staff member with a permit to carry a concealed weapon can volunteer for extra duty as a security officer.

The employee must then complete training before being allowed to bring the gun to campus.

McPherson said that it was not yet clear how many of the 20 or so teachers in the district would sign up to be volunteer security officers but that the resolution did not set a limit on how many could carry weapons.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Dan Grebler)

Six Utah high school students stabbed, including teen suspect

Orem, Utah

(Reuters) – Five students were stabbed inside a Utah high school boys’ locker room on Tuesday before the 16-year-old male suspect turned the weapon on himself, school officials said.

The incident at Mountain View High School in Orem, Utah, occurred just before 8 a.m. MT (1500 GMT), and prompted a brief lockdown of the school, the Alpine School District said in a statement.

The stabbing suspect was apprehended by a school resource officer before he and the victims were transported to local hospitals, the school district said.

Their injuries range from minor to critical, it added.

Police did not release additional details about the circumstances surrounding the attack or what might have motivated it.

Students will be released to their parents later in the morning, police said.

(Reporting by Laila Kearney; Editing by Alan Crosby)

Six-year-old boy shot at South Carolina school dies from wound

n Anderson County sheriff's deputy stands outside of Townville Elementary School after a shooting in Townville, South Carolina,

(Reuters) – A 6-year-old South Carolina boy wounded in a schoolyard shooting died on Saturday, a coroner said, a day after a teenage suspect was charged with murdering his own father and wounding the boy, a teacher and another student.

The boy, Jacob Hall, was shot on Wednesday at Townville Elementary School in Townville, South Carolina after the 14-year-old suspect is alleged to have crashed his pickup truck into a fence around the school and opened fire.

“Unfortunately he’s lost the battle, at 12:56 p.m. today” at a Greenville hospital, Anderson County Coroner Greg Shore said by telephone. He said he would be transported for an autopsy on Sunday.

Jacob had been on life support after a bullet ripped his femoral artery, causing blood loss that led to major brain injury, his family has said.

The suspect was charged in 10th Judicial Circuit court on Friday with one count of murder and three counts of attempted murder. The hearing was behind closed doors because the teenager is a juvenile.

Authorities say the suspect shot and killed his father, Jeffrey Osborne, 47, as the man watched television at their home about 2 miles (3 km) from the school.

The teenager then drove to the school where he shot Jacob, another 6-year-old boy and a teacher, police have said.

Authorities said they did not know of any link between the shooter, who was home-schooled, and the victims.

Teacher in violence-torn Indian Kashmir starts makeshift classrooms

A protester prepares to throw a stone towards an Indian policeman during a protest in Srinagar against the recent killings in Kashmir

By Fayaz Bukhari

SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) – Wedding halls and prayer rooms have been turned into classrooms in Indian-administered Kashmir as families struggle to provide children with a normal life after more than 50 days of the Muslim-majority region’s worst violence in years.

At least 68 civilians and two security officials have been killed and more than 9,000 people injured, according to official tallies, in clashes between protesters chaffing at Indian rule and security forces.

Authorities trying to stifle protests that erupted after a young militant leader was gunned down by the security forces on July 8 ordered schools and colleges to close two days later.

There’s no sign of them re-opening.

Teacher Ghulam Rasool Kambay, seeing children becoming increasingly restless cooped up at home, decided to do something.

He opened a tutorial center in a village on Aug. 3 and now has more than a dozen of them in villages in a district south of the region’s main city of Srinagar.

“The response is good. We have about 800 students in these centers. Parents are eager to send their children as they have no option right now,” Kambay told Reuters.

Students find their way to the makeshift schools in small groups through back lanes, careful not to attract the attention of police.

They often sit on the floor as there are not enough desks and share books.

“It’s more like a self-learning exercise, just a way to keep in touch with books,” said Muneer Wani, 16, at his temporary school at a mosque where classes begin after morning prayers.

Muneer said it was the only place to meet friends and study.

“We can’t even go outdoors.”

Disputed Kashmir is claimed by both India and Pakistan and has been a flashpoint for more than 60 years, sparking two wars between them.

Militant groups have taken up arms to fight for independence from Indian rule or to merge with Pakistan. India has blamed Pakistan for supporting the violence. Pakistan denies that.

Thousands of teenage boys defy a curfew every day and gather in groups to throw stones at police. Almost all of the deaths have been caused by security forces shooting at protesters.

On the streets of Srinagar, people have scrawled “Go India, go back”.

Zubair Ahmad said he was too worried about the safety of his two children to send them to classes at a nearby mosque.

His wife has been teaching them at home instead, but the children were getting restless, he said.

“It is very difficult for children … they’ve become aggressive.”

(Writing by Rupam Jain; Editing by Tom Lasseter, Robert Birsel)

‘I study in a cave’: Going to school in Syria

Internally displaced children attend a class inside a cave in the rebel-controlled village of Tramla, in Idlib province, Syria

By Khalil Ashawi and Bassam Khabieh

TRAMLA/DOUMA, Syria (Reuters) – Syrian student Ali Khaled Stouf has to walk down several steps into a hole in the ground to get inside his school — a cave.

There for four hours each morning, he studies subjects like Arabic, English, maths and religion, sitting on a rug with dozens of children in the underground space in Tramla, an opposition-held village in Syria’s northwestern Idlib province.

“I study in a cave. The conditions are not very good but the professor and his wife treat us very well,” the 14-year-old, originally from neighboring Hama province, said. “We sit on the ground and often we don’t see clearly because it is dark.”

His teacher Mohamed and his wife, also from Hama, have opened up their underground home to teach some 100 children, whose families have been displaced by the Syrian conflict.

More than five years of war, which began as a peaceful protest against President Bashar al-Assad and has since drawn in foreign military involvement and allowed for the growth of Islamic State, has displaced millions of Syrian children and limited their access to education.

With schools themselves at times attacked, teachers make do with the basics to provide education.

Mohamed said the primitive, six-month-old school floods when it rains, forcing him to teach outside or in a tent, although he prefers the security underground. “We believe the cave is the safest place from shelling and air strikes and all the students are in one place,” he said.

For a Reuters Wider Image photo presentation, please click on: http://reut.rs/28RYM88

Idlib province is a stronghold of insurgent groups including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and has been regularly targeted in air strikes by the Syrian government, whose war effort has been boosted by the Russian air force.

At the Souriya al-Ammal (Syria the hope) school, in the town of Maarat al-Numan, corridors and classrooms are bullet-ridden and sometimes crumbling. In one less damaged area, walls have been repainted and the school now has some 250 pupils.

“War has affected education massively; most schools, if not destroyed completely, are damaged,” school supervisor Abdullatif al-Rahoum said, adding those who missed out on education are now playing catch up with younger students.

“The biggest challenges we face are the warplanes, which never leave the skies. This always worries students.”

In the nearby town of Saraqib, a mobile caravan serves as a classroom, run by a group aiming to reach children who have no access to schooling in the area.

Lack of books is problematic. Teachers in Idlib said they relied on charities or used books printed in neighboring Turkey by the opposition run Directorate of Education.

In the rebel-held town of Douma, outside Damascus, Mounir Abdelaziz, a member of the opposition-run education body, said local schools were using old textbooks, but with changes.

“We follow the same curriculum as the education ministry but with some modifications and articles related to the (Assad) regime deleted,” he said.

(Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Dominic Evans)

School Choir Surprises Cancer Stricken Teacher

The children’s chorus from P.S. 22 in Staten Island, New York has made sure a teacher stricken with cancer knows she is not alone in her fight.

The 5th grade students sang the Martina McBride song “I’m Gonna Love You Through It” to Adriana Lopez, who recently was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“For a dear friend and teacher at PS22 whose bravery and dedication to her students amidst a difficult fight with breast cancer has inspired us all… We love you, Mrs. Lopez!!” chorus director Gregg Breinberg said on Facebook.

The song is about standing beside a woman who has just received a breast cancer diagnosis.  The choir changed the lyrics to include Lopez’ age and number of children to personalize the performance.

The peformance, shown in a YouTube video, ends with the kids giving Lopez pink roses.

The choir has been around since 2000 and has performed with superstars like Jennifer Hudson and even performed for President Obama at the White House.

Acid Thrown In Afghani Girls’ Faces For Going To School

Three Afghani girls, aged between 16 and 18, are recovering after Islamists threw acid into their faces because they were attending school.

Two of the girls remain in critical condition at Harat’s Noor hospital according to an official who spoke with CNN.

Two men approached the girls on motorcycles while they were walking to school.  They told the girls as they threw the acid that it was their punishment for going to school.  The attackers are still at large and a provincial police chief told reporters they were working hard to find them.

The girls attended one of the biggest girl’s schools in the provincial capital.

Islamic terror groups like the Taliban are against women receiving education.  The United Nations reported that only 12 percent of Afghani women are literate.

In the past, militants have reported being paid large sums of money by the Taliban for carrying out acid attacks on young girls.  In a 2008 attack, the captured attackers told police they were paid $1,265 by Taliban officials in Pakistan for crossing into Afghanistan to make the attack.

The Taliban forbid women from gaining any education during their rule of Afghanistan.

Anti-Christianists Seek To Remove Creationism From Scottish Schools

An anti-Christian organization is attempting to remove the teaching of creation from schools in Scotland.

The Scottish Secular Society claims their goal is to “support and further the cause of secularism” and was founded by Garry Otton, who has openly said he has a deep hatred for Christianity.

The group has filed a petition with the Scottish Parliament to prohibit any teaching of anything that conflicts with evolution.

“Evolution, meaning the common descent of living things and their change over time, is, and has been for generations, the unifying concept of the life sciences,” the petition claims. “The deep time necessary for this evolution had been recognized by Scottish geologists over a century earlier.”

David Robertson of the St. Peter’s Free Church, says that SSS is desiring to “undermine and attack Christianity in pursuit of their sectarian and bigoted anti-religious beliefs.”