Tag Archives: students

Education, Politics, Technology, US

New Illinois Law Allows Schools to Discipline Students for Cyberbullying that Occurs Outside of School

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As of January 1, 2015, a new law will go into effect in Illinois that allows schools to punish students for offenses that occur outside of the classroom, with an emphasis on combatting cyberbullying.

The News-Gazette reported that the law “allows schools to discipline students for any type of electronic bullying that causes a disruption to the school day,” even if that bullying occurred outside of school.

According to NBC Chicago, the new law “expands on a previous legislation banning cyberbullying in schools,” and “applies to devices that aren’t owned or used by a school.”

Once the law goes into effect, Tuscola High School plans to launch an online “Issue Awareness Report,” which is a forum for concerned individuals to notify the principal, social workers, and guidance counselors of instances in which they have been bullied or harassed on the Internet.

Katie Hatfield, a social worker in Tuscola, told the News-Gazette that although when posting in the forum, users must include specific details about the incident of offense, the post is ultimately anonymous, and the user is not required to provide his or her name.

“The forum is a good way for people to share information and let us know what is going on without us having to get it second-hand,” said Hatfield. “If we know about what is happening, we can more easily address it.”

NBC Chicago reported that the new legislation, which was approved by the Illinois Legislature earlier this year, and signed by Governor Pat Quinn in August, would require districts to “update their disciplinary policies to reflect the new law.”

Darren Loschen, the Principal of Armstrong High School, expressed concern about the liability the new law will put on school districts.

“It’s really a situation where you would hope schools would deal with bullying, no matter when the harm happens, but if it’s happening off school grounds and it’s not tied to the school, then there’s always the question: Should it be handled by someone else?” Loshchen said.

Economy, Education, Politics, US

Congress Cuts Aid for Student Grants…Gives the Money to Student Loan Contractors

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As the United States government prepares its budget for the next year, and attempts to avoid another shut-down, Congress has agreed on a bill that would cut $303 million from the nation’s largest source of student grants, and would give it to student loan contractors.

The Washington Post reported that the measure was “championed by Senate Democrats,” and intends to cut funding to the $33.7 billion Pell Grant program, which aided nearly nine million students in the 2013-2014 school year.

According to the Huffington Post, the money that is taken from the Pell Grant program will be given to the Department of Education’s loan contractors, who will “get up to $721.7 million,” which is a “nearly $44 million increase” from the 2013 fiscal year.

Budget documents from the Department of Education show that during the 2012-2013 school year, three out of every four students who received funding from the Pell Grant program came from households with less than $30,000 in annual income, and were given an average $3,826 from the program.

The Huffington Post reported that this change “comes at a time when the Education Department’s loan servicers are under intense scrutiny,” from Federal officials who have “accused them of mistreating borrowers and hurting taxpayers.”

The proposal to decrease funding to the Pell Grant program, giving it to student loan contractors instead, was first introduced over the summer by Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa and the outgoing chairman of the sub-committee on education.

Harkin released a statement saying, “This bill takes a thoughtful approach to funding these critical programs because it funds America’s priorities and it is how we invest in our future.”

According to the Washington Post, Harkin’s “history of advocating for college affordability,” has made student advocates “disappointed that he would jeopardize such a critical source of education funding.”

Jennifer Wang, the policy director for Young Invincibles, an advocacy group that encourages young adults to become more educated and involved in politics, said that whenever a new spending bill is introduced, the group is constantly worried about what implication it might have on the Pell Grant program.

“We have seen funding shortfalls in the past and Congress always ends up having to find additional dollars elsewhere to fund the program,” said Wang. “Why put students in that position again?”

 

Politics, US

Law school students can ask for final exams to be postponed

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Columbia Law School is allowing students to ask for their final exams to be postponed if the student says they felt traumatized or disturbed by the decisions not to indict police officers in Missouri and New York for the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

Robert E. Scott, the interim dean for Columbia Law School, sent an email on Saturday saying, according to Buzzfeed, “Students who feel that their performance on examinations will be sufficiently impaired due to the effect of these recent events may petition Dean Alice Rigas to have an examinations reschedule.”

The email also says, “For some law students, particularly, though not only, students of color, this chain of events is all the more profound as it threatens to undermine a sense that the law is a fundamental pillar of society designed to protect fairness, due process and equality.”

Yahoo News is also reporting a trauma specialist and several faculty members are holding special office hours for any student who wants to discuss the decisions or needs support.

The decision to allow students to postpone their exams comes after a student organization called for the exams to be put on hold.  According to FOX News, an email sent to the school board says many of the same legal principles the students had learned about were being used to “deny justice to so many black and brown bodies.”

The letter the group wrote was posted online and part of it reads, “We sit to study with the knowledge that our brothers and sisters are regularly killed with impunity on borders and streets; we sit to study with the understanding that our brothers and sisters are marching to have our humanity recognized and valued by a system that has continually failed us.”

While many students disagree with the postponement of their fellow student’s exams for these reasons, a spokeswoman told the NY Post, students have been allowed to postpone their exams over “extenuating conditions, including illness, religious observance, bereavement and other exceptional and documented circumstances.”

Politics, US

Lone shooter in Washington school shooting is reportedly dead

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A shooting at a high school near Seattle early Friday morning has resulted in the death of the shooter, according to Washington state police.

The shooting happened at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, which is in Marysville, a residential area to the north of Seattle.

Marysville Police Commander Rob Lamourex said the shooter was a student who attended Marysville-Pilchuck.

According to the Seattle Times, the shooter turned them gun on himself, resulting in his death.  One other student was reportedly killed during the shooting.

At least five others were injured, including two other students, and one of those injured reportedly is suffering from a head wound.  How serious these injuries are, and whether any of them are life-threatening, has not been disclosed as of yet.

One student, whose name has been withheld, told CNN when the shooting started, students initially thought the noise signaled a fire drill.  This student said when they realized the sounds were gun shoots, they hid in a nearby classroom with other students, all of whom were unharmed.

After police arrived on the scene, they began to evacuate the students and staff safely out of the school and transport them to a nearby church.  Parents were at the church to meet with their children and others.

Heather Parker, who is a mother of a Marysville-Pilchuck senior, said, “I never thought I would be standing here after a school shooting.”

Jery Holston is the father of two students at the school, told reporters, “As a father, this has been my fear since my kids have been in school, that something like this would happen.”

Education, Featured, Politics, US

Students Reprimanded for Handing Out U.S. Constitutions Outside “Free Speech Zone”

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Last week, four students at Southern Oregon University were told by administrators that they must stop handing out copies of the United States Constitution on campus, or else the Police would be called, and disciplinary action would taken against them.

The administrators confronted the students, who were affiliated with Students for Concealed Carry, and reprimanded them, due to the fact that they were handing out literature, in an area that was outside of the university’s designated “Free Speech Zone.”

Students for Concealed Carry (SCC) is a nonpartisan student organization that promotes students’ rights to carry concealed weapons on campus. One member of the group, Stephanie Keaveney, told Campus Reform that administrators alleged that the four representatives from SCC had caused an “immediate panic for the safety of students in the face of gun violence, or the promotion of such.”

“We encountered wild accusations that because the event was affiliated with SCC, there was legitimate fear for the imminent danger of students on campus,” Keaveney said.

The university’s family housing coordinator, Allyson Beck, was the first one to confront the students, who were handing out copies of the U.S. Constitution near an on-campus residence hall.

“We have our free speech zone,” said Beck. “I understand that you may not like it, but that’s where it is.”

The director of university housing, Tim Robitz, also approached the students. “I would very much like you to leave,” said Robitz. “If you would, please, because the students have the right to be able to come by here without you guys, you know, invading their space and asking them to do something.”

“Thank you for coming down here and explaining to us the unconstitutional policies here on campus, but we’re not going to move,” said one of the students from SCC.

Campus Reform reported that even though, as one student claimed, some of the administrators resorted to “personal attacks” and threatened disciplinary action, the students refused to leave, and the administrators eventually left them alone.

Although campus police claimed they had received a complaint from a student who said he felt “uncomfortable,” they did not ultimately confront the students. The members of SCC insisted that they had not heard any complaints.

“Students on this campus were in no way framing themselves to be a legitimate threat to safety or inciting unlawful behavior,” said Keaveney. “This action was only related to SCC in that its members on this campus believe in order to fight for our second amendment rights; we must first be free to exercise our first amendment rights.”

Watch the full video here: