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School Bribes Kids to Stop Playing with Toy Guns by Offering Chance at Free Bicycle

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

An elementary school in Hayward, Calif. will sponsor a toy gun trade-in, encouraging kids to swap their harmless toy weapons for a chance to win a new bicycle.

The purpose of the trade-in is to stop children from playing with toy guns, which may make them more likely to commit violence with real guns, said Strobridge Elementary principal Chris Hill.

“Playing with toys guns, saying ‘I’m going to shoot you,’ desensitizes them, so as they get older, it’s easier for them to use a real gun,” Hill said in a statement to Mercury News.

The trade-in will take place on Saturday during the school’s “Safety Day,” which will also feature talks on safety tips from police officers and firefighters. Authorities will offer to take pictures and fingerprints of children to be used to help locate them in case they go missing.

Any child who hands over his toy gun will receive a raffle ticket. The school will raffle off four bicycles, and also hand out books in exchange for the tickets.

Read more from this story HERE.

Liberty High Valedictorian Makes a Stand, Says the Lord’s Prayer at Graduation (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTube

An Upstate high school valedictorian tore up his graduation speech and prayed instead.

Valedictorian Roy Costner spoke at his Liberty High School graduation as people in the crowd cheered when he threw away his pre-approved speech, reciting the Lord’s Prayer instead.

…Costner said he spoke to his pastor and prayed before deciding his speech was the time to make a statement.

“It was an emotional moment,” Costner told FOX Carolina on Tuesday. “It was overwhelming to look out and see the crowd and yelling.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Cowboy-Style Cap Gun Gets 5-year-old Suspended From School in Calvert County

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Photo Credit: colmmcsky

A kindergartner who brought a cowboy-style cap gun onto his Calvert County school bus was suspended for 10 days after showing a friend the orange-tipped toy, which he had tucked inside his backpack on his way to school, according to his family and a lawyer.

The child was questioned for more than two hours before his mother was called, she said, adding that he uncharacteristically wet his pants during the episode. The boy is 5 — “all bugs and frogs and cowboys,” his mother said.

“I have no problem that he had a consequence to his behavior,” said the mother, who asked that her name be withheld to protect her son’s privacy.

“What I have a problem with is the severity,” she said, and the way it was handled.

The family’s attorney appealed the suspension late Thursday, asking that the action be reversed and the child’s record be expunged.

Read more from this story HERE.

Official Cross-Dressing Day for Kids Sparks Outrage

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Photo Credit: Liz HenryIt was part of a week of school spirit festivities in Milwaukee that included theme days such as Crazy Hair Day and events were routine for students and parents until the schedule hit “Gender-Bender” Day.

Then parents reacted.

Negatively.

“I do not want to send my son to school dressed like a girl,” one parent told Fox 6 News, which reported on the dispute.

The fight focused on the idea that school officials should not be telling students of grade school age to dress like the opposite sex.

The report from Fox said the school, when confronted by concerns about a “gender-bender” day, did decide to alter the name to “Switch it up.”

But the focus remained the same, said critics.

Read more from this story HERE.

Albany High School Student Accused of Planning ‘Columbine-Style’ Attack (+video)

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Photo Credit: KPTVA West Albany High School student is accused of planning a “Columbine-style” attack on his classmates.

Benton County District Attorney John Haroldson announced that 17-year-old Grant Acord will be charged as an adult on Saturday. He will face a charge of attempted aggravated murder. Prosecutors said he had a well thought out plan that included at date.

Haroldson said Acord had, “plans checklists, diagrams, inspirations, sources and a focus on recreating the model of Columbine, with adjustments that would make it more successful.”

According to Haroldson, police found at least six homemade bombs and bomb making materials hidden in a secret compartment in Acord’s bedroom at his mother’s house. The home is located on Northwest Raymond Court in Albany.

“The types of bombs include pipe bombs, a napalm bomb, Draino bombs and Molotov cocktails,” said Haroldson.

Read more from this story HERE.

Black Spanish Teacher Claims She was Fired for Using the Word ‘Negro’ in Class

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Photo Credit: Getty images In the annals of political correctness run amok in American schools, this story — if true — is easily an all-timer.

A junior-high school Spanish teacher has filed a lawsuit alleging that she was fired from P.S. 211 in the Bronx in March 2012 because of a misunderstanding over the word “negro.”

The non-tenured teacher, 65-year-old Petrona Smith, maintains that she was instructing her class about how to say the various basic colors in Spanish, reports the New York Post. The word “negro” naturally came up because “negro” is the Spanish word for “black.”

A seventh-grade student in the class took offense at the term, however, believing the word to be a racial slur. It’s not clear if Smith directed the term at the student. Whatever the case, he reported the incident to school officials.

But, wait. It gets better. Smith, a native of the West Indies, is black. And to top it all off, P.S. 211 is bilingual.

Read more from this story HERE.

School Bans Religious Graduation Songs After Complaint They Were “Bullying”

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Photo Credit: schwglrA Georgia school district will no longer allow prayers or songs with religious references at graduation ceremonies after a Wisconsin group threatened to file a lawsuit and suggested that forcing non-Christian students to listen to religious music was a form of bullying.

“If the valedictorians want to thank their parents, grandparents and god, that’s freedom of speech,” Houston County Superintendent Robin Hines told the Macon Telegraph. “We can’t stop that. As long as it’s not lewd, they can say whatever they want.”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent the school district a letter complaining that last year’s graduation ceremony included prayers and a musical performance of a song written by a Christian artist.

“It is wholly inappropriate for Christian worship songs to be performed in a public school setting or at public school events,” wrote FFRF attorney Andrew Seidel. “There are a multitude of secular songs that would be appropriate.”

The FFRF took offense to “Find Your Wings,” a song written by well-known Christian artist Mark Harris, arguing that it was a blatantly religious song that “belongs in a church, not a public school event.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Boy Who Held Pencil Like Gun Suspended (+video)

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Photo Credit: DvortygirlA Suffolk school suspended a second grader for pointing a pencil at another student and making gun noises.

Seven-year-old Christopher Marshall says he was playing with another student in class Friday, when the teacher at Driver Elementary asked them to stop pointing pencils at each other.

“When I asked him about it, he said, ‘Well I was being a Marine and the other guy was being a bad guy,'” said Paul Marshall, the boy’s father. “It’s as simple as that.”

Christopher’s father was a Marine for many years. He thinks school leaders overreacted.

“A pencil is a weapon when it is pointed at someone in a threatening way and gun noises are made,” said Bethanne Bradshaw, a spokesperson for Suffolk Public Schools.

Boy who held pencil like gun suspended

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Jason Collin’s LA High School Has No Tolerance for Religious Views on Homosexuality

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Photo Credit: joshuak8After the first NBA player to “come out of the closet” with respect to his sexuality made the media rounds this week, his old high school near Hollywood weighed in on the controversy.

According to the LA Times, Collin’s former school has zero tolerance for traditional religious views on homosexuality:

One of the school’s most active on-campus groups is its gay-straight alliance, roughly 50 students strong, according to Hudnut. Teachers, administrators and parents regularly speak about gay rights. Religion isn’t discussed much. If anyone were to come to campus expressing the view that homosexuals are sinners, they’d be met by outrage, said the school’s longtime basketball coach, Greg Hilliard.

“We have a lot less tolerance for people who make reactionary statements like Mr. Broussard,” Hilliard said, referring to ESPN television commentator Chris Broussard, who said Monday that, because of his religious beliefs, he did not condone homosexuality.

“If a guy like that came to this campus, that is where I would have to talk to my guys about the importance of tolerance.… They’d have some hard questions for a guy like that,” Hilliard said.

Mayor Bloomberg Launches Vegetarian-Only Public School

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Photo Credit: APBlocked by the courts from banning big sodas in the Big Apple, Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration has zeroed in on another target in a quest for healthier lifestyles: Meat.

Public School 244 in the Flushing section of New York’s Queens borough has gone vegan — the first public school in the nation to serve only vegetarian meals for breakfast and lunch.

Cafeteria workers at Active Learning Elementary School have switched out poultry for black beans, tofu and falafel. And the New York Daily News reported the elementary eaters actually like it.

“This is so good,” said 9-year-old Marian Satti of a black bean and cheddar cheese quesadilla served at Tuesday’s lunch, the Daily News said. “I’m enjoying that it didn’t have a lot of salt in it.”

School heads — led by Chancellor Dennis Walcott, a self-claimed fitness guru — tout the healthier eating as pro-kid. Healthy kids make happy students, administrators said in the Daily News report.

Read more from this story HERE.