Author: Reporter

Classic plays by Shakespeare among banned reading under Florida’s draconian “Don’t Say Gay” law

Students in a Florida school district will be reading only excerpts from William Shakespeare’s plays for class rather than the full texts under redesigned curriculum guides developed, in part, to take into consideration the state’s new law that restricts classroom materials whose content can be deemed sexual. The changes to the Hillsborough County Public Schools’ curriculum guides were made with Florida’s new legislation limiting classroom materials that “contain pornography or obscene depictions of sexual conduct” in mind. Other reasons included revised state standards and an effort to get students to read a wide variety of books for new state...

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When the arcane process of paperwork combines with poverty to prevent kids from attending school

It is unclear to Tameka how, or even when, her children became unenrolled from Atlanta Public Schools. But it was traumatic when, in fall 2021, they figured out it had happened. After more than a year of some form of pandemic online learning, students were all required to come back to school in person. Tameka was deeply afraid of COVID-19 and skeptical the schools could keep her kids safe from what she called “the corona.” One morning, in a test run, she sent two kids to school. Her oldest daughter, then in seventh grade, and her second youngest, a...

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Class of 2024: Students reflect on college years eclipsed by COVID-19, protests, and lost milestones

On a recent afternoon, Grant Oh zigzagged across the University of Southern California campus as if he was conquering an obstacle course, coming up against police blockade after police blockade on his way to his apartment while officers arrested demonstrators protesting the Israel-Hamas war. In many ways, the chaotic moment was the culmination of a college life that started amid the coronavirus pandemic and has been marked by continual upheaval in what has become a constant battle for normalcy. Oh already missed his prom and his high school graduation as COVID-19 surged in 2020. He started college with online...

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Protests on campuses: Why U.S. college students are demonstrating against Netanyahu’s war in Gaza

Student protests over the Israel-Hamas war have popped up on an increasing number of college campuses following the arrest of more than 100 demonstrators at Columbia University. The students are calling for universities to separate themselves from any companies that are advancing Israel’s military efforts in Gaza — and in some cases from Israel itself. Protests on many campuses have been orchestrated by coalitions of student groups. The groups largely act independently, though students say they are inspired by peers at other universities. Here is a look at the protests on campuses in recent days: COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY Pro-Palestinian student...

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College endowments: Student protests of Israel-Hamas War exposes political grip of University donors

“NYU arresting all of their own faculty tonight rather than divest from Zionism basically proves the point that they are a private equity firm and not a university …” – Kareem Estefan “Divest from death” read the bubble letters written in chalk on the sidewalk on April 23 outside of The New School in New York City. The slogan articulates one of the demands of the antiwar protests on campuses which call on colleges or universities to divest their endowments from companies profiting from the Israel-Hamas war. Campaigns to pressure universities to divest for political or ethical reasons go...

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Trump downplays violent Charlottesville rally in 2017 by comparing it to campus protests over Gaza war

Donald Trump on April 25 claimed the fatal 2017 White Nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, was “nothing” compared to ongoing pro-Palestinian campus protests. It was his latest burst of rhetoric designed to minimize a bloody and racist incident that was one of the most criticized moments of his corrupt presidency. Speaking in a Manhattan courtroom hallway at the end of his criminal conspiracy and a cover-up trial involving “hush money” payments, Trump spouted accusations against federal authorities. He criticized the Biden Administration – at his criminal trial – for allowing student protesters to set up encampments as they call...

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