The government and its main opposition have agreed to new rules governing performance requirements and profits at publicly managed, privately-managed free schools. … Read More
Schools devastated by Oklahoma tornado had no safe rooms
Two elementary schools were destroyed in the EF-5 twister that killed at least 24 people on Monday and injured hundreds of others. Seven children were found dead in the debris of the Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Okla.Authorities believe that everyone who was at Briarwood Elementary School survived the deadly tornado, which ravaged the building with 200 mph winds.“You could just feel the pressure just building like you were in an airplane, just the pressurization of the cabin and your ears popping and the debris starts flying and the roof falling in,” Briarwood’s first-grade teacher Sheri Bittle told ABC. “And everything in your classroom falling in on you.”Both of the destroyed schools lacked tornado shelters, which would have potentially prevented many of the casualties and fatalities that occurred on May 20. More than 100 Oklahoma schools currently have metal safe rooms, which can be built above ground or underground and sustain winds up to 250 mph.These rooms may be the difference between life and death in states where the tornado risk is high, but lack of funding to build them has prevented elementary schools like Plaza Towers and Briarwood from constructing shelters of their own.Retrofitting a school with a safe room shelter costs an estimated $600,000 to $1 million per building, Bloomberg News reports. Albert Ashwood, director of the Oklahoma Department of Emergency, told the news agency that his department can’t afford to provide every school with a shelter, but that he is looking into whether the two schools had ever even applied for federal funding to build safe rooms.“You have a limited amount of funds,” he said. “You set priorities. It’s not a matter of they were being left out.”But Oklahoma residents refer to Moore as “Tornado Alley”, since the area has been struck by devastating twisters more than any other region in the US. In May 1999, a tornado took a similar path, ravaging Moore, killing 41 people, and costing the US $1 billion in damages.Some residents believe that safe rooms should be a priority in Oklahoma – particularly in Moore, since it has a history of falling victim to tornadoes.“If they can afford a $5 million football stadium, they can afford a safe room,” 67-year-old John Lemmon, a Moore resident who lives near Plaza Towers Elementary School, told Bloomberg. “They should have done it right after they had the last big one.”While both elementary schools were reduced to rubble, students at Plaza Towers Elementary School were worse off. This traditional school building was constructed with a long line of classrooms that were all under a single roof. When the tornado caused the building to crumble, students were trapped in the wreckage of the structure, and at least seven of them died. Briarwood Elementary School was divided into four sections, with several classrooms in each pod. Between these pods were openings that led students outside, which allowed students to escape the collapsing walls and ceilings.No children died at Briarwood as they escaped the falling debris with backpacks over their heads. But both schools could have ensured the safety of their students if they had metal safe rooms to retreat into during natural disasters.Now that children have died in the May 20 twister that ravaged Moore, Okla., the Federal Emergency Management Agency may reconsider providing the funding for safe rooms. The city of Moore has long been trying to acquire funds to buy them, and the city in February wrote on its website that FEMA requirements have held them back.“If you don’t have disasters, you don’t have additional money for mitigation for safe rooms, but without disasters there’s not a set funding source just for safe rooms,” FEMA director Craig Fugate told ABC, indicating that changes may only occur when it’s too late to reverse the damage. … Read More
Slander charges for Instagram ‘slut-shaming’
Two Swedish teenage girls were officially charged with slander on Tuesday for their involvement in the “slut-shaming” Instagram account that saw enraged teens in Gothenburg lay siege to two high schools last year. … Read More
Spanish teachers, students mobilize in national anti-austerity protests (PHOTOS)
Organizers for Thursday’s demonstrations, which led to mass actions in the capital Madrid as well as Barcelona, Seville, Valencia and Zaragoza, reported up to a 70 per cent turnout by Spain’s teachers, though the country’s education ministry put the figure at 20 per cent. Protesters, many wearing the green T-shirts that have come to be identified with the education-advocacy movement, marched towards the Education Ministry, calling on head minister Jose Ignacio Wert to resign. Thursday’s action was said to affect all levels of education, and union pickets were visible across schools and universities throughout Spain. The trigger for the latest demonstrations was a set of changes to the country’s education system, set to be approved on Friday, that would enact new grading systems, enact further funding cuts and place more emphasis on Catholic religion courses.According to Almudena Cabezas, politics professor at Madrid’s Complutense University who spoke with the Associated Press, the new round of defunding would render an already strained education system inoperable.”Teachers are working in very limited conditions with less time and fewer teachers than before,” said Cabezas.”Pupils are being harassed with tax increases and are having to cancel enrollments. Also, administrative staff are having their salaries reduced and are being fired… so I think we have every reason to be here today,” she added.Having been in recession for the last four years, the cuts are only the latest austerity measure brought forward by the country’s ministry, which is still struggling to lower deficit levels to within European Union limits through a program of combined funding cuts to public programs and tax raises. The Education Ministry’s budget has already been cut by 14 per cent between 2012 and 2013, and the Platform for the Defence of Public Schools, which brings together students, teachers and administrators, has further been incensed in various regions by claims that new reforms would boost Spanish-language instruction at the expense of regional dialects.Historically, the country’s various regions have been prickly in their defense of regional languages, such as Catalan and Gallego, which were historically banned during its long dictatorship under Francisco Franco. Critics point to a conservative government educational agenda, which seem to be embedded within a larger aim to reduce the education system’s costs. … Read More
Moscow Red Square parade: Russia celebrates WWII Victory Day
The Red Square Parade – which honors veterans of the bloodiest war in history and showcases Russia’s modern military might – is annually held in Moscow on May 9.First to march on the bricks of the country’s main square came the future Russian officers – cadets of military schools and young Cossacks – followed by regiments of the Ground Forces, the Navy and other forces. To share the honor of taking part in the Victory Day parade, servicemen – all wearing new ceremonial dress – spent months drilling. About 100 armored vehicles rolled into the square to be followed by the most spectacular and noisy part of the show – the flight of combat aircraft.Attack choppers Mi-28, Ka-52, strategic bombers Tu-160, Tu-22 as well Su-27 and MiG-29 fighters from the Russian Knights and the Swifts aerobatics teams – a total of 68 machines have rocked the Moscow sky to symbolize the 68th anniversary since the end of the WWII in 1945.Some 1,800 WWII veterans were invited to watch the parade on Red Square along with the country’s top officials. Unfortunately, ordinary spectators couldn’t get onto the site without an invitation, but the event was broadcast live on Russian state channels.Throughout the country, the day is packed with various events and festivities – from marches of veterans and church services to open-airs, bike rides, retro-car races, and drama shows.In the capital alone, 1,500 events are planned as part of Victory Day celebrations. The city’s parks are organizing dance floors and exhibitions of military hardware of the 1940ties.At noon, a march called “Moscow remembers” will be held on the city’s central Tverskoy Boulevard. Anyone who brings photos, letters or medals of their relatives who died in the WWII will be able to participate.Similar marches have also taken place in dozens of towns and cities across the former USSR. The biggest “Immortal Regiment” march was in Tomsk in Siberia – where the very idea of the event was born. Some 10,000 people came to participate. “This column is not a funeral procession at all. We want to create an atmosphere of a holiday,” the project coordinator Sergey Kotlovkin told RIA Novosti.Meanwhile, St Pete, Ulyanovsk and Samara WWII veterans take part in a race on retro automobiles.The celebrations will culminate with fireworks in the evening. In Moscow, some 9,000 salute shots will light the sky to the joy of thousands of people who traditionally – together with their friends and families – flock to open spaces at 2200 (1800 GMT) on May 9 to watch the show.Victory Day remains one of the most important holidays for Russians, a poll by Levada opinion research center revealed. Between 70 and 75 per cent of Russians celebrate May 9 in one or another way. The first parade to commemorate the WWII victory was staged on Red Square on June 24, 1945 – over a month after the defeat of Nazi Germany – under the order of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. The Soviet Union paid the highest price for this victory and lost over 26 million lives in the conflict, known as the Great Patriotic War in the former USSR. Military parades were regularly held on Red Square on May 9 since 1965 – the 20th anniversary of the Nazi Defeat. The tradition was dropped for a while after the collapse of the USSR, in the beginning of turbulent 90ties. However, it was revived again in 1995 and has been followed ever since.Apart from Moscow, military parades on May 9 are held in over 20 Russian cities. … Read More
Crisis Averted! Second Grader Suspended After Holding a Pencil Like a Gun
Categories: Controlling the Herd, Crime/Police State, Editor’s Choice, News(Suffolk, Va) Driver Elementary administrators suspended a 7 year old second grade student for pointing a pencil at another student while making gun noises. The student, Christopher Marshall, said he was playing with another student in class on Friday when the teacher asked them to stop pointing pencils at each other.(Read more…) … Read More
Saudi Arabia to allow girls to take sport classes, but only in private schools
The ministry decree published in Saudi newspapers says that private schools for girls have been told to “put into effect a number of rules to regulate sports,” Agence France-Presse. Although the reforms are being hailed as a progressive move in the predominantly-Muslim country, the measure appears to exclude the majority of students at state-run schools. At private schools, where the initiatives are being encouraged, the government has requested that school officials ensure girls wear “a covering and decent outfit” for sport activities in “suitable areas.” The ministry directive also advised that female Saudi instructors receive top priority for employment positions at the educational facilities. The ministry pointed out that some private schools were already offering physical education, but without any regulations to follow. The issue of Saudi women participating in sporting competition entered the spotlight during the 2012 London Olympic Games. Saudi officials threatened to withdraw from the Games when the International Olympic Committee ruled that its female judo participant, Wojdan Shaherkani, could not wear a headscarf during competition. Eventually the two sides came to agreement over the dispute, and the Olympic Committee allowed Shaherkani to “wear something that would not compromise her safety.” Today, many details in the lives of Saudi women are closely regulated by Sharia law derived from the Koran. Every adult woman is required to have a close male relative as her ‘guardian’, who is authorized to make a number of decisions on a woman’s behalf, including the right to travel, to start a business, and study at university. Saudi women are prohibited from driving, and are required to cover themselves in public, among other restrictions. … Read More
