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California Elementary School Removes Boys’ and Girls’ Bathrooms and Makes Them Gender Neutral

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2BF49F9A00000578-0-image-m-108_1441330653610One elementary school had decided to do away with boys’ and girls’ bathrooms. There will now just be bathrooms.

Miraloma Elementary in San Francisco, California is busy doing away with its gender assigned bathrooms and making them gender neutral for their young students.

Principal Sam Bass said the change was in part due to eight students who do not fit into traditional gender norms – and range from tomboys to transgender.

The school began removing the circles, triangles and stick-figure signs from restrooms at the start of this school year, according to SF Gate.

The bathrooms in kindergarten and first-grade classrooms at Miraloma, as well as a centralized bathroom, are gender-neutral. (Read more from “California Elementary School Removes Boys’ and Girls’ Bathrooms and Makes Them Gender Neutral” HERE)

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Parents Confront School Board, Demand ‘Opt-Out’ for Controversial Lessons – See Why the Room Erupted at End of Meeting [+video]

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Angry over a controversial curriculum that teaches young students about same-sex marriage and “gender identity,” several parents in Fairfax County, Virginia, confronted school board members during a regular meeting on June 25. The parents in question argued they should have the choice to “opt-out” of the controversial lessons.

“Parents, do you want your children in Kindergarten to hear about same-sex marriage under the guise of families?” Andrea Lafferty, a Fairfax County parent and president of the Traditional Values Coalition, asked parents at the meeting.

“No!” parents in attendance shouted.

“Parents, do you want your children in fifth grade to hear about Gonorrhea and Syphilis? No! We want opt outs and we want to keep them safe,” she continued. “Do you want gender identity to be introduced to seventh grade? No! We want opt outs to remain.”

Lafferty went on to accuse officials on the “recommendation committee” of going on record as saying they wanted to remove the opt outs for parents. (Read more from “Parents Confront School Board, Demand ‘Opt-Out’ for Controversial Lessons — See Why the Room Erupted at End of Meeting” HERE)

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6th Graders Can’t Get a Coke at School, but Can Get IUD’s, Other Birth Control Devices Thanks to Medicaid

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Middle and high school students can’t get a Coca-Cola or a candy bar at 13 Seattle public schools, but they can get a taxpayer-funded intrauterine device (IUD) implanted without their parents’ consent.

School-based health clinics in at least 13 Seattle-area public high schools and middle schools offer long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs), including IUDs and hormonal implants, to students in sixth-grade and above at no cost, according to Washington State officials . . .

The state and federally funded contraceptive services are made possible by Take Charge, a Washington State Medicaid program which provides free birth control to adults who are uninsured, lack contraceptive coverage, have an income at or below 260 percent of the Federal Poverty Level — or, in this case, to teens who don’t want their parents to know they’re on birth control.

In an email exchange with the Washington State Health Care Authority and CNSNews.com, a Take Charge spokesperson acknowledged that underage students are eligible for a “full array of covered family planning services” at school-based clinics if their parents meet the program’s requirements.

Take Charge added that “a student who does not want their parents to know they are seeking reproductive health services is allowed to apply for Take Charge using their own income, and if they are insured under their parents’ plan, the insurance would not be billed.” (Read more from “6th Graders Can’t Get a Coke at School, but Can Get IUD’s, Other Birth Control” HERE)

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Here’s Michelle Obama’s Response to a Letter From an Unhappy Second Grader About Her Ruining ‘Taco Tuesday’

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After a second grader complained to First Lady Michelle Obama that she “ruined” Taco Tuesday with her healthy lunch rules, Trip Klibert has accepted the White House’s consolation: Bo and Sunny trading cards and a note from Mrs. Obama that said you’ll get used to it.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports that Richard “Trip” Klibert, 7, wrote a letter to Mrs. Obama last November:

Dear Mrs. Obama,

Thank you for trying to make my school lunch better, but you have ruined Taco Tuesday. Please bring back the old taco shell. I miss them. Also, the pizza is terrible. If you would like to try the new tacos, I will buy you lunch.

Thank you,

Trip Klibert

Mrs. Obama replied to Klibert’s letter, along with “an autographed Obama family picture and trading cards of the family’s dogs.” She said that change is hard.

“In Obama’s letter, she explained that new child nutrition regulations were implemented as part of her “Let’s Move!” initiative started in 2010 to reduce childhood obesity,” the Times-Picayune reported. “The new regulations took effect in 2012 with the goal of including more whole grains, vegetables and fruits in school meals while reducing fat and sodium.” (Read more about the letter from the unhappy second grader HERE)

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Teacher Sentenced to 90 Days in Jail After Showing Graphic Movie to Students

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A Franklin County judge criticized Columbus City Schools on Wednesday for putting Spanish-language classes at East High School in the hands of a long-term substitute who didn’t know Spanish and showed students a graphic movie containing sex and violence.

“This is what happens when you put a teacher in a class that she cannot teach,” Common Pleas Judge Charles A. Schneider said before sentencing the former substitute to 90 days in jail.

“They put a permanent substitute in a high-school Spanish class who can’t speak Spanish at all. Here we are, with the Columbus public schools telling us what wonderful things (they) are doing.”

Sheila Kearns, 58, was convicted in January of four counts of disseminating matter harmful to juveniles, all low-level felony offenses. Schneider placed her on probation for three years but made the jail time a condition of her probation.

He ordered her to report to the county jail on April 10 but said he will delay the sentence if she appeals her conviction, which her attorney said she plans to do. (Read more about the teacher showing the graphic movie to students HERE)

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Teacher Passes Out Pornographic Fifty Shades of Grey Puzzle to Middle School Students

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Photo Credit: WTAEBy Bob Hazen. At least five students at a Westmoreland County middle school were given word puzzles based on the erotic novel and movie “Fifty Shades of Grey” this week, and school district officials said they are investigating how it happened.

James Carter said the word search, filled with explicit sexual terms, was passed out Monday to his son and other students in his eighth-grade class at Monessen Middle School.

“I asked my son who passed it out, and he said the teacher passed it out,” Carter told said. “I don’t think this is what they should be doing in the eighth-grade level” . . .

At a school board meeting Tuesday night, Monessen City School District officials said they could not comment on who gave the puzzles to students, citing personnel issues. (Read more about the Fifty Shades of Grey puzzle given to Monessen middle school students HERE)

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Fifty Shades Of Grey Premiere: Domestic Abuse Campaigners Protest on Film’s Opening Night

By Danny Walker and Nina Massey. Domestic abuse campaigners have turned out to protest at the London premiere of Fifty Shades of Grey.

Stars of the film, which is based on books by E.L James, are walking the red carpet ahead of its release on Valentine’s Day.

But protesters have also turned out to call on the public to consider whether they should endorse the movie.

One campaigner held up a sign which read: “Some Ana’s don’t survive their Christians” . . .

“50 Shades is domestic abuse,” another sign said. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Middle Class Decline Looms Over Final Years of Obama Presidency

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By Howard Schneider. Barack Obama enters the final two years of his presidency with a blemish on his legacy that looks impossible to erase: the decline of the middle class he has promised to rescue.

The revival of middle-class jobs has been one of Obama’s mantras since he took office in 2009 fighting the worst economic crisis in generations. It was a major theme of his last State of the Union address and is expected to feature in the one scheduled for Tuesday.

Administration officials said on Saturday the president would propose higher capital gains taxes, new fees on large financial firms, and other measures to raise $320 billion for programs and tax breaks aimed at the middle class . . .

But for the middle class the scars of the recession still run deep. Federal Reserve survey data show families in the middle fifth of the income scale now earn less and their net worth is lower than when Obama took office. (Read more about the middle class decline HERE)

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Majority of U.S. Schools Poor Enough for Lunch Help

By Reuters. The share of public school students who qualify for free or reduced lunch in the United States has grown to 51 percent, in an indication of growing poverty, according to a report released on Friday.

The problem is most acute in Mississippi where 71 percent of students were in that category, according to the report from the Southern Education Foundation.

The group identified the share of students from low-income families by analyzing 2013 federal data on children who qualify for free or reduced lunch at school, which is offered to those from families at or below 185 percent of the federal poverty level. For a family of four, the poverty level is less than $24,000 a year and 185 percent of that figure is about $44,000. (Read more from this story HERE)

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Public School is Forcing Girls to Cover Ankles and Wear Head Wraps on Field Trip

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By Kyle Olson. A world religions class is taking a field trip to a Denver mosque and the school is requiring girls to dress in what is described as a Sharia-complaint manner.

KNUS radio host Peter Boyles reports the Douglas County school system issued these rules to students in a notification to parents.

The world religions field trip is next Tuesday, January 13. We will be visiting the Denver Mosque, the Assumption Greek Orthodox Cathedral, and the Rodef-Shalom Synagogue. We will then eat lunch at Park Meadows Food Court. Students must either bring a sack lunch or money to purchase lunch at the food court.

THERE IS A DRESS CODE FOR THIS TRIP: All students must wear appropriate long pants. Ankles must be covered. Girls must bring wide scarves or hooded sweatshirts for the mosque.

“Public schools are forbidden from holding girls to different standards than boys,” Boyles notes. “They’re holding these girls to a different standard – it’s a religious reason. (Read more about the Colorado school forcing girls to cover during mosque visit HERE)

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Liberal Arab Complains Because Congress is too ‘White’

By Brian Anderson. Two universal truths in the liberal universe are: #1 lefties hate democracy when it works against their wacko agenda and #2 white men are to blame for everything. Proving these truths brilliantly, Arab American comic Dean Obeidallah wrote an extended bitch-fest for The Daily Beast complaining how the democratic process has cursed us with too many white people (and men) in Congress.

The Unbearable Whiteness Of Congress starts with the fact that the newly sworn in Congress is the most diverse in history, but that’s not good enough for Obeidallah because in liberal land the will of the people doesn’t matter: all representation has to equally match racial, religious, and gender demographics.

The breakdown of the 114th Congress is 80 percent white, 80 percent male, and 92 percent Christian.

And because being white means being racist, we get this clever comparison:

That’s really diverse if, say, you are comparing our new Congress to the white supremacist group House Majority Whip Steve Scalise once addressed.

(Read more from this story HERE)

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Mayor: New High School Won't be Named After President Obama

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Mayor Rahm Emanuel backed off Thursday from naming a new elite high school after President Barack Obama amid ongoing criticism from African-Americans who felt the honor inappropriate for a school slated for a wealthy, predominantly white part of the Near North Side.

Instead of naming the new school after his former boss, the mayor indicated he would consider other names for the selective enrollment high school set to be built near the site of the former Cabrini-Green public housing project just northwest of downtown.

“Over the last few months, my team has listened to questions and concerns from the community, ranging from location of the building to the naming of the school. We take that community input seriously, which is why – as we CONTINUE to look for a thoughtful way to honor President Obama – we will look for other possible names for this future school,” Emanuel said in a statement.

Read more from this story HERE.

Public School Kids Rebel Against Michelle Obama’s Healthy School Lunches As First Daughters Get Meatball Subs, Ice Cream

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Photo Credit: TownHallI know, the last thing you’d expect from the Obamas is hypocrisy. Alas, I bring you yet another example, this time regarding school lunches. First Lady Michelle Obama has been widely criticized among hungry students across the U.S., a result of school meal nutrition standards that she successfully lobbied for in 2010. Twitchy has done a great job capturing the reactions and photos to some of these lunches and it’s not pretty (click here, here, and here for examples). But CNS News decided to dig a little deeper. What exactly are Michelle O’s daughters eating at lunch? Is it in any way comparable to the lunches in our nation’s public schools? Obviously, the answer is no:

With public school students using #ThanksMichelleto tweet photos of their skimpy, stomach-turning school lunches, I decided to look at what Michelle Obama’s daughters are served at Sidwell Friends school, and it turns out the girls dine on lunches from menus designed by chefs.

Read more from this story HERE.