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Electric Car Owner Charged With Stealing Nickel of Electricity from Public School (+video)

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One Saturday in November, Kaveh Kamooneh drove his Nissan Leaf to Chamblee Middle School, where his 11-year-old son was playing tennis.

Kamooneh had taken the liberty of charging the electric car with an exterior outlet at the school. Within minutes of plugging in the car, he says a Chamblee police officer appeared.

“He said that he was going to charge me with theft by taking because I was taking power, electricity from the school,” Kamooneh said.

Kamooneh says he had charged his car for 20 minutes, drawing about a nickel’s worth of juice. Don Francis of Clean Cities Atlanta, an electric vehicle advocacy group, says the estimate of 5 cents is accurate.

“I’m not sure how much electricity he stole,” said Chamblee police Sergeant Ernesto Ford, but he added: It doesn’t matter. “He broke the law. He stole something that wasn’t his.”

Read more about this electric car owner HERE.

Report: Kansas City Middle School Prohibited Students from Posting ‘See You at the Pole’ Fliers

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Photo Credit: Tim Pearce, Los Gatos/flickrAn Arizona group has filed a federal lawsuit accusing a suburban Kansas City middle school of violating a student’s First Amendment rights by prohibiting the student from handing out fliers promoting a prayer event.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian group based in Scottsdale, Arizona, that advocates for religious rights, contends a counselor at Robert E. Clark Middle School in Bonner Springs violated the student’s rights to free speech and equal protection by refusing to allow the student to post fliers promoting the Sept. 25 “See You at the Pole” event, a national event in which teens pray around their school flagpoles.

The group contends in the lawsuit filed Nov. 26 in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas, that the counselor told the student the fliers, which contained Bible verses, could not be posted or distributed at school because of their religious content. The ADF, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of the student identified only as “K.R.,” also said the district has a policy banning distribution of religious materials on school grounds but allows other types of materials to be posted and distributed.

“This denial of K.R.’s religious materials, while permitting secular posters, flyers, and materials from other students, constitutes viewpoint discrimination, which is unconstitutional in any type of form,” the lawsuit said.

Read more from this story HERE.

Grand Jury Indicts Four School Employees in Steubenville Rape Case (+video)

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Photo Credit: Joe Raedle/GettyA grand jury investigating the 2012 rape of a 16-year-old girl in Steubenville, Ohio, has indicted four school employees, including the school superintendent, who faces felony charges, Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced Monday.

Steubenville City Schools Superintendent Michael McVey faces three felony counts: one charge of tampering with evidence and two counts of obstructing justice. He also is charged with making a false statement and obstructing official business, both misdemeanors, DeWine said.

Also indicted was elementary school principal Lynnett Gorman and wrestling coach Seth Fluharty, both of whom are charged with misdemeanor failure to report child abuse. Volunteer assistant Steubenville football coach Matt Belardine was charged with four misdemeanors: allowing underage drinking, obstructing official business, making a false statement and contributing to the unruliness or delinquency of a child.

This brings to six the number of people the grand jury has indicted after two students were convicted of rape, DeWine said. A school technology director and his daughter were indicted in October.

Read more from this story HERE.

Fifth-Grade Football Team Stands Up For Bullied Waterboy (+video)

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Photo Credit: danxoneilIt’s Band of Brothers meets the Rat Pack, and it’s the most inspiring story you’ll see this week. When members of the Bridgewater (CT) Badgers fifth-grade football team learned that their waterboy, kindergartner Danny Keefe, was being bullied, they did what you’d expect: dress up in suits, ties and fedoras and rally to his defense. Wait, what?

Boston News, Weather, Sports | FOX 25 | MyFoxBoston

Read more from this story HERE.

Army Veteran Banned from Daughter’s School after Posting Picture of Weapons Permit

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Photo Credit: WRDW.COMAn Army veteran living in Georgia says she wants an apology from her daughter’s former school after being banned from the building for posting a photo of her concealed weapons permit to her Facebook page, WRDW.com reports.

Tanya Mount says she was approached by a police officer from the Richmond County Board of Education at McBean Elementary School and was warned that she was about to get a criminal trespass warning.

The officer told her that the principal at the school was “scared” of her and did not want her on the school property, she told the station.

“He asks: ‘Were you in the Army?,”‘ she said. “I said, yes. He’s like, ‘Do you have a concealed weapons permit?’ I said yes,” she told the station.

A phone call from FoxNews.com to Richmond County Board of Education was not immediately returned. WJBF.com asked Janina Dallas, the school’s principal, if the “no trespass order” was issued over the post, and Dallas responded: “Yes, it was.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Silent Holidays – NJ School District Bans All Religious Christmas Music

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Photo Credit: Reuters The angels will not be allowed to hark their herald nor will the little Lord Jesus sleep on the hay after a New Jersey school district announced a ban on all religious Christmas music.

Constance Bauer, the superintendent of the Bordentown Regional School District, posted a message online stating someone had been questioning recent musical selections for the elementary school Christmas concerts.

Pardon me, the school district calls them “winter” concerts.

My guess is that a perpetually offended left-winger became unglued when they heard that little boys and girls might be pa rum pum pum pum.

“Religious music should not be part of the elementary program(s),” Supt. Scrooge wrote in her anti-Christmas screed.

Read more from this story HERE.

Boston School Broadcasts Muslim Poem & Skips Pledge of Allegiance on 9-11

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Photo Credit: libertynews

Photo Credit: libertynews

Yesterday, on 9-11-13, Boston’s Concord Carlisle High School skipped the morning pledge of allegiance and broadcast a Muslim poem in its place.

Principal Peter Badalament says the whole incident was the result of a collision of 9-11 and the absence of student who normally recites the daily pledge, reports The Boston Globe.

Badalament explains the situation saying, “We were unaware that our student Pledge reader had an internship commitment” and therefore, wasn’t in school on 9-11.

Read more from this story HERE.

FL School District Scans Students’ Eyes; Parents Outraged (+video)

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Photo Credit: wfla

Should a school district be allowed to scan students’ eyes for an added layer of security? It’s a question that’s fueling debate in Polk County. But it’s how the district implemented a pilot program that has sparked outrage.

“I believe our privacy has been invaded,” said a parent Connie Turlington. “I don’t think it was right and it was done unlawfully.”

Rob Davis, senior director of support services for Polk County Schools, says the district was going to try a pilot program that used iris scanners on 17 buses at three schools: Bethune Academy, Daniel Jenkins Academy, and the Davenport School of the Arts.

“It was for an extra-layer of safety for the students and the parents and guardians of students riding the bus,” Davis said.

The program would notify parents via text message or e-mail that their student made it to the destination.

WFLA-TV News Channel 8

Read more from this story HERE.

Despite Objections, Prayer Goes on at High School Graduation (+video)

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Photo Credit: Nancy LeedyDespite the opposition of at least six students, Lincoln County High School kept to its tradition of student-led prayer during its graduation ceremony Friday.

Class of 2013 President Jonathan Hardwick received a standing ovation after he prayed for about one minute during Friday’s commencement ceremony at the school. Many audience members echoed his closing of “Amen.”

A video of Hardwick’s prayer quickly hit social media websites such as YouTube and Topix, with most online comments supporting Hardwick’s decision.

Part of the class president’s prayer was the following, “Thank you for helping us get here safely today, Lord, and thank you for the many blessings you have given us.”

In an interview with The Advocate-Messenger earlier this month, Principal Tim Godbey acknowledged that six students — including at least one atheist — had pleaded with him not to allow student-led prayer to be a part of the school’s graduation ceremony. Godbey, a self-professed Christian who says he prays for each of his students daily, said under separation of church and state laws, faculty members have never been able to pray publicly on school grounds or during school-sponsored functions. However, he noted that the U.S. Constitution does not prohibit students from doing so as long as they are not otherwise disruptive.

Read more from this story HERE.

Student Tweets that School Should Enact Budget Cuts, Starting With Principal’s Job, Gets Suspended

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Photo Credit: WNDA high-school student in upstate New York has been suspended and accused of trying to incite “a social media riot” after he suggested budget cuts for his public school – beginning with elimination of his principal’s job.

The Supreme Court ruled in 1969 that students have a right to self-expression, as long as that expression doesn’t disrupt classwork or school activities or invade the rights of others.

And that’s where the conflict about the student’s action lies, because the Syracuse Post-Standard reports the superintendent of Cicero-North Syracuse High School accused senior Patrick Brown of using Twitter to incite “a social media riot.”

Whether the purported “social media riot” was disruptive to classwork or school activities remains unclear.

Brown was suspended for three days Thursday after starting a Twitter hashtag, #s–tCNSshouldcut, that solicited ideas for district budget cuts for next year after voters rejected a $144.7 million budget plan. The hashtag quickly became popular, and students posted ideas during the school day.

Read more from this story HERE.