Tag Archives: School

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.

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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.”