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Source: boston.com
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An 18-year-old Mississippi lesbian student whose school district canceled her senior prom rather than allow her to escort her girlfriend and wear a tuxedo said she got some unfriendly looks from classmates when she reluctantly returned to campus Thursday.

The district announced Wednesday it wouldn’t host the April 2 prom. The decision came after the American Civil Liberties Union told officials a policy banning same-sex prom dates violated students’ rights. The ACLU said the district not letting McMillen wear a tuxedo violated her free expression rights.

Ridiculous to cancel an entire prom because of an issue with two homosexual students that wanted to be each other’s dates. Besides the obvious violation of civil liberties, it sets a terrible example for the students. It also encourages students and parents to point blame at this one family, when it is in face the school district’s fault that the prom was cancelled. People need to be accepting of these kind of things.

Yeah, there was a memo sent out saying that dates had to be of the opposite sex, but Daryl Presgraves, a spokesperson for GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) says that this kind of rule “sends a message that these students shouldn’t be treated the same.” I agree with him, and I feel like most people I know do as well.

Source: boston.com
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A bill that would ban the sale of sugary drinks and junk food in school vending machines and school stores is gaining momentum in the Legislature, as Massachusetts combats a troubling rise in childhood obesity rates.

The House passed it in January, after nearly a decade of debate on similar bills that went nowhere. Now, Senate President Therese Murray has thrown her support behind the effort and is optimistic that members will embrace it in a scheduled Senate vote today.

Removing junk food offered in schools will not completely solve the problem. The bigger problem is that some schools spent so much time cutting physical education classes because of budget deficits. What we need to do, some way, somehow, is bring those classes back. If we get students moving for 45-60 minutes a day, childhood obesity rates will go down because they’re burning off all that food they’re eating while simultaneously having fun. I remember physical education being cut at my high school past 8th grade because of budget deficits – this left the high schoolers at Latin Academy with no movement of any sort – just six straight hours of either sitting in chairs, moving toward the next class, or eating lunch.

We need to encourage parents to engage their students in healthy exercise and also provide classes for students to exercise as well. Exercise should especially be stressed at the elementary school level (of course, the necessary accommodations and modifications will be made for children on IEPs) and classes containing such should be offered throughout grade school. Exercise is how we get students in shape.

Source: boston.com
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A looming budget deficit could lead to the closing of a significant number of Boston schools over the next two years and further reductions in staff, Superintendent Carol R. Johnson said yesterday.

Johnson, who is still working through the numbers with her staff, said she is making every effort to avoid closing schools for this fall, but was unsure if she could prevent it.

Budget deficits…why is that such a common trend these days? It’s unfortunate. Hopefully they can balance the budget without school closings of any sort. I trust that Superintendent Johnson will make the best decision for Boston Public Schools.

Source: boston.com
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CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. – Inside the front door to Central Falls High School, across the street from a boarded-up building, an archway is adorned with an unambiguous boast: “Through these halls pass the world’s best faculty and students.’’

It is a motto that rings false for the local school board, which recently voted to fire all of the school’s staff in a stunning move that made Central Falls a lightning rod in the polarizing debate over improving the country’s education system.

Painful consequences for a school that failed to perform well. Is it really everyone’s fault, though? Whose fault is it, really, when a school underperforms? Is it wholly that of the teachers? Is it wholly that of the administration? I feel like people usually point at the administration when schools perform badly, but bad teaching exists and is prevalent as well. I feel like firing an entire staff is a little drastic, though I don’t completely know the situation here. Perhaps it is necessary, though: replacing the entire staff starts the school over. It allows the superintendent to look for people who all share a similar mission and have similar goals and expectations in place for their students. A school with staff that share a common goal goes a long way toward helping students.

Read Article | High School Sports Graphic
Both links from Boston.com

They are players who share uniforms because there are too few to go around, players who yearn for more qualified coaches on the sidelines and a few fans in the empty stands, players who never make it to the field because of academic woes and the scourge of deadly street violence.

In a golden age of professional sports in Boston, they are portraits of a bleak reality for student-athletes in the city’s public schools.

A truly moving article about the lack of sporting programs in Boston high schools. One interesting point that really got me was that the exam schools, namely Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy, and the John D. O’Bryant, are the schools that have the widest selection of sports. The students who are gifted but not gifted enough to make it to an exam school get fewer choices. After reading it, I wrote something out on my iPod:

Sometimes I wish that celebrities and athletes helped out the schools more. The state and local governments tend not to always give enough to best help students succeed in school, sometimes leading them with shoddy classrooms, shared uniforms, or poorly conditoned books. The wealthier people make millions of dollars, all of which they definitely do not need. Their money alone could bring the school system to a surplus; their money alone could keep the system afloat. They are sometimes outside of the politics, the beauracracy, the counterproduction that these kind of machines bring with them. Sometimes I wish I had the money just so I could put a smile on the children’s faces when they hear they can take a field trip to a new place and explore, when they have the materials to feel like they can succeed, when they actually feel that other people care about what they’re doing. Life isn’t all about money, but when you’re trying to fund programs, it becomes important to have it. It buys the best equipment, and more importantly, the time of the most inspirational people. In the end, the money is the instrumental value that allows the children to be instilled with the intrinsic power of good teaching, coaching, and role modeling.

I really do hope that Boston can regain some prestige in their athletic department. This is the first part of a seven part article on the Globe, and I look forward to the new updates.

UPDATE: Here are all the updates from the Globe’s report.

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