Education

Hoax bomb threats lead to lockdowns and evacuations in dozens of elementary and high schools across both the US and UK on Monday. In the UK thousands of children in at least 21 schools were evacuated after bomb threats were phoned in to police. One anonymous caller said that the resulting shrapnel would “take children’s heads off.” Classes resumed only after police failed to find any explosives or other dangerous items. Today, nine more UK schools in Devon, North Wales, Northern Ireland, South Lanarkshire and across central Scotland were evacuated following malicious phone threats.

School children in Paris will be subject to mandatory drug testing in the classroom after the Île-de-France regional council approves measures to detect marijuana consumption among students.  The new rules will allow authorities to conduct swab tests to detect cannabis and breathalyzer tests to detect whether students have consumed alcohol.

Ears pressed against texts the rhythms of which they have memorized over decades, some professors can similarly syncopate their pupils’ minds and hearts. Students with the sense and luck to find them discover quickly that the status quo in most courses doesn’t apply in this one; regurgitation is anathema. These teachers forge thinkers, showing their pupils how to analyze and assess for themselves.

A Colorado school has branded a cheap bubble gun as a “safety concern” and suspended the 5-year old girl who brought it to school under its “zero tolerance” policy. The girls mother apologised but added that the move showed a lack of “common sense.” RT reports: “I apologized right away and said that I am so sorry she did that,” the mother identified only as Emma said, according to ABC-affiliate KMGH. “I appreciate that they’re trying to keep our kids safe, I really do. But there needs to be some common sense.

Over the weekend, I ran into an old friend who used to live here, and who happened to be in town visiting. Hadn’t seen her in 20 years or more. I asked her if she was still teaching. Yes, she said; she’s now in a poor, rural public school district in another Southern state. She said that she spends a lot of her own money just buying books and supplies for her students.

“There’s no money?” I asked, stunned.

“There’s no money,” she said.