Virginia governor issues executive order that will limit or ban cell phone use in schools
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin issued a new executive order Tuesday that will limit or ban cell phone use in public schools – the latest in a string of efforts by officials to crack down on what many see as a classroom distraction and a threat to students’ mental health.
Youngkin orders Virginia schools to go cellphone-free
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) on Tuesday ordered schools in his state to go cellphone-free, as similar bans on technology take hold in schools across the country.
Youngkin issued the executive order directing the Virginia Department of Education to draft guidance for public schools to adopt cellphone-free policies. The department will also work with teachers, parents, students and other leaders to create procedures “that establish the age-appropriate restriction or elimination of cell phone use during instructional time.”
Virginia Gov. Youngkin restricts cell phone use in public schools
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin has signed an executive order calling for the establishment of "cellphone-free education" in public schools in an effort to fight back against what he describes as an "alarming mental health crisis and chronic health conditions affecting adolescents."
The measure, which was signed by the Republican on Tuesday, orders state agencies and its Department of Education to come up with new guidelines that will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.
Central Texas Food Bank brings pantry to elementary school in Bastrop
BASTROP, Texas (KXAN) — The Central Texas Food Bank on Tuesday celebrated the opening of a new food pantry at an elementary school in Bastrop. The nonprofit launched a new Feeding Futures School Pantry at Cedar Creek Elementary School. CTFB said the partnership between itself and Bastrop ISD is a “crucial aspect to the success of this program in nourishing the children and their families of the Bastrop community.” According to the food bank, Bastrop County has a significant rate of food insecurity affecting one in six children. This program...
Missouri among GOP states fighting federal rules protecting transgender students
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Seven more Republican-led states sued Tuesday to challenge a new federal regulation that seeks to protect the rights of transgender students in the nation’s schools. Republican plaintiffs call the effort to fold protection for transgender students under the 1972 Title IX law unconstitutional. The lawsuits filed in federal courts in Missouri and Oklahoma are the latest GOP attempts to halt the new regulation seeking to clarify Title IX, a landmark 1972 sex discrimination law originally passed to address women’s rights and applied to schools and colleges...
Here's Portsmouth school shooting threat suspect's argument for less prison time
Prosecutors are seeking a four-year prison sentence and three years of supervised release for Portsmouth High School shooting threat suspect Kyle Hendrickson, while his defense maintains he never intended to carry out a shooting. The 26-year-old from Berwick, Maine is set to be sentenced in federal court in Concord Tuesday, May 14 on two charges handed down by the U.S. attorney’s office for the District of New Hampshire. Hendrickson pleaded guilty to charges of interstate threatening communications and possessing a firearm in a school zone in November. The...
2024 Kentucky Collegiate All Commonwealth Team honors 79 football players around the state
Seventy-nine football players from 17 state universities were named Tuesday to the 2024 Kentucky Collegiate All Commonwealth Team selected annually by the Kentucky Pro Football Hall of Fame. The All Commonwealth Team serves as preseason recognition for Kentucky’s top college football performers on the field and in the classroom and values leadership ability and dedication to team in addition to gridiron glory. Players were nominated by their universities to be recognized.
Arkansas’ Shrinking City: A Charter Network Transforms Schools in Pine Bluff
Passersby can be forgiven for mistaking Friendship Aspire Academy for a place of worship: One of the elementary school’s main buildings is actually a repurposed church, a towering, ‘60s-era cast concrete sanctuary complete with a pipe organ tucked into an old choir loft. The architecture suits the tiny elementary school on South Hazel Street, which has taken on a kind of spiritual significance for families since it opened six years ago. The first of seven charter schools here either taken over or built from the ground up by the Washington,...
Ballot Proposal Wants Schools to Notify Parents of Signs Their Kid is Transgender
Days after a new state law began allowing Colorado students to choose their names at school, an effort to require parental notification for such behavior started petitioning for the November ballot Initiative 142 would make public school staff inform parents if they obtain any information that a student is experiencing "gender incongruence," defined as a difference between the student's biological sex and gender identity. If a child uses a different name or pronouns at school — or even if an employee overhears students talking about their gender identity — their...
Day care worker arrested for shoving boy, 2, headfirst into table at Bronx pre-school
A day care worker was arrested for shoving a 2-year-boy multiple times head first into a table at a Bronx pre-school, police said. City Department of Education worker Savitree Nerine, 49, was charged Monday with endangering the welfare of a child and harassment, police said. Nevine, an assistant at the day care at Little Stars Preschool on Edson Ave. near Edenwald Ave., got angry at the boy Monday morning and allegedly shoved him into a table multiple times, according to cops. Someone later in the morning reported the assault to...