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Children of Nebraska employees can attend community college free

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Children of Nebraska employees can attend community college free

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By Don Walton, April 25, 2022

A program announces in April reported that dependent children of Nebraska state employees are able to attend state community colleges for free. Governor Pete Rickets explains that the plan is to provide a 100% tuition reimbursement to children of state employees. The goal of this is to teach students that workforce skills can eventually lead to employment in the state of Nebraska. Additionally, this would help the state's workforce, youth retention, and economic development. Personally, I absolutely agree with this assistance. Most students do not have the funds to pay for college. Parents do not always have the money for college. However, parents being state employees creates a less stressful situation. Not only that, but this creates more job opportunities for everyone.

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Children of state of Nebraska employees can attend community colleges for free

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As many as a thousand children may be eligible for the assistance with costs to the state estimated at $500,000 in the first year and $1 million in the second

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By Zach Hammack, April 26, 2022

As a result of growing inflation, rising gas prices and even the war in Ukraine all play a role in the rising food prices in your local grocery store, school kitchens, and restaurants. At Lincoln Public Schools, the food items are very pricey. An example provided is their cost of ketchup, which is up 40%. Cereal is up 20% and even yogurt is up 18%. The food service department is already preparing for a 10%-15% increase in food costs. Just alone, in 2020-21 school year, the department spent $6.7 million on food. The real shocker is how much Lincoln Public Schools will pay, which is $8 million. Although food increases each year regardless, it is still bigger than normal. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index, the past year, the price of food has rised to 7.9%. This would be the largest 12-month increase since the early 80s.

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Growing inflation, stubborn supply-chain snags, rising gas prices and the war in Ukraine are all a part of the recipe for skyrocketing food prices in grocery stores, restaurants and even school kitchens.

At Lincoln Public Schools, the sticker shock is real. Consider this snapshot of food items in LPS kitchens, for example: The cost of ketchup? Up 40%. Cereal, 20%. Yogurt, 18%. Chicken thighs, 13%.

"Everything is going up," said Andrew Ashelford, director of LPS' nutrition services department.

Ashelford's department is currently preparing to absorb additional food costs in its budget for the 2022-23 school year, which is being compiled as part of the district's yearly budget-building process.

The food service department is planning for a 10%-15% increase in food costs across the board, although it typically overbudgets for food supplies to cushion against unexpected costs, Ashelford said. In 2020-21, the department spent $6.7 million on food, down from a $8.3 million projection. And this year, LPS will pay roughly $8 million, down from a $10.2 million projection.

On Tuesday, the Lincoln Board of Education approved more than $5.4 million in bids for shelf-stable and refrigerated and frozen food as part of a one-year contract with a number of suppliers that can be renewed for two more years.

Ashelford, who is in his first year as director of nutrition services, said that figure is higher than the last time the board approved a similar contract a few years ago, both because of natural inflationary increases but also because of the current economic climate.

"Food naturally increases each year anyway. That's just kind of the nature of the game. But I think, right now, we're just kind of seeing a bigger jump than normal," he said.

The price of food has risen 7.9% over the past year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index, the largest 12-month increase since the inflation-roiled early '80s.

Supply-chain and transportation bottlenecks, labor shortages and massive injections of federal COVID-19 aid into the economy are all fueling an "inflationary fire" that, in turn, is leading to higher food prices, said Ansley Fellers, executive director of the Nebraska Grocery Industry Association.

"It's a very hot fire," she said. "Getting into a problem like this is painful. Getting out if it is often much more painful."

Food suppliers are also concerned the war in Ukraine - a breadbasket of Eastern Europe - and the avian flu could worsen prices, Fellers said.

The federal government does reimburse schools through the National School Lunch Program's free- and reduced-lunch program and also provides commodity food items to districts, Ashelford said.

LPS saw higher reimbursements this year because meals were free for all students, a COVID-era practice that is set to expire June 30. That means districts could see less revenue from the federal government if Congress does not extend the waivers, since schools would return to the three-tier framework of the federal lunch program under which families pay full price, a reduced cost or nothing at all.

"That's kind of making the planning kind of hard right now because we don't really know what's going to happen," Ashelford said.

Ashelford said one way his department is looking at absorbing the additional costs is to increase the price for meals, which the federal government calculates. Another revenue stream is the district's a la carte menu -items sold separately - which has brought in more than $1 million so far this year.

LPS, however, has simply served more meals in the past two years because of the waivers, Ashelford said. If allowed to expire that would mean less food that would need to be purchased, which could help offset costs.

Tuesday's bid package covers a wide variety of dry goods the district will purchase over time, store in bulk and refill as needed, such as condiments, seasonings and cereal, as well as cold-storage foods such as milk and poultry. The total amount paid will likely be lower than the $5.4 million the district set aside depending on schools' needs, Ashelford said.

Schools also order food such as fresh produce and meat for entrees regularly throughout the year.

Counties with the highest rate of food insecurity in Nebraska

Contact the writer at zhammack@journalstar.com or 402-473-7225. On Twitter @HammackLJS

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'Everything is going up' - Lincoln school kitchens feeling pinch of rising food prices

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Growing inflation, stubborn supply-chain snags, rising gas prices and the war in Ukraine are all a part of the recipe for skyrocketing food prices in grocery stores, restaurants and even school kitchens. At Lincoln Public Schools, the sticker shock is real. Consider this snapshot of food items in LPS kitchens, for example: The cost of ketchup?

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By Zach Hammack, April 22, 2022

For those of you who are unaware of what Good Friday is, it is the Friday Before Easter. Additionally, this has also been a day off for students and teachers located in Lincoln Nebraska Public Schools. Although on the Lincoln Public Schools calendar it is not called Good Friday, instead it is spring break. Lincoln Public Schools' vacation days consist of Labor Day, Presidents Day, and Martin Luther King Jr. Board member, Annie Mumgaard raised a serious question about if these vacation days seem like they are being favored more than the others because of their religious affiliation. To brainstorm solutions, they came up with substituting Good Friday with Arbor Day. However, any changes will not be made until around 2025 and 2026.

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For as long as officials can remember, the Friday before Easter - better known to Christians as Good Friday - has been a day off for students and teachers at Lincoln Public Schools.

But it's not called Good Friday on the LPS student calendar. That day is technically spring break, and the week that many consider spring break is actually defined as quarter break by school officials.

Well, the district's calendar committee, which consists of teachers, administrators and community members, is beginning to raise questions about the longstanding practice.

LPS vacation days generally follow national holidays, including Labor Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Presidents Day. Good Friday, on which Christians commemorate the death of Jesus Christ, is inherently a religious holiday, however. Some on the committee, including board member Annie Mumgaard, questioned whether that sends a message to families that one religious group is being favored over another.

"It's a cultural thing we've always done," Mumgaard said.

John Neal, associate superintendent for governmental affairs and general administration, said there are two major parameters the board looks at in determining vacation days: What constitutes a major holiday and instructional efficiency - essentially, would it make sense to take the day off if teachers and students are going to take it off anyway?

The longstanding assumption has been that Good Friday would be a low-attendance day, but the district doesn't have any data to prove that, Neal said. It's been a vacation day going back as far as available records go.

Some years ago, the calendar committee looked at the major holidays of religions represented at LPS, such as the Jewish feast Yom Kippur, Mumgaard said. What it found was that the absentee rate wasn't higher than usual on those days.

Committee members discussed possibly substituting Good Friday with another holiday, such as Arbor Day, which falls on the last Friday in April and has Nebraska ties.

Because Easter moves on the calendar each year, the date for Good Friday can vary widely. That can cause instructional issues by falling too close to other scheduled vacation days, such as quarter break, according to Lincoln Education Association President Deb Rasmussen, who is on the calendar committee.

The committee met with the LPS Scholar Equity Cadre, which brought the Good Friday question forward. Teachers and parents were also surveyed but the results were split, Mumgaard said.

She would like the committee to rethink the survey and involve a broader swath of teachers and parents. Mumgaard said the fact that the committee is having the discussion doesn't mean the Good Friday practice shouldn't continue but said the question should be asked from an instructional and equity point of view.

"When you start looking at equity, you have to make hard decisions," she said. "If we didn't have that Friday off, it would be a cultural change."

Any change, however, would likely have to wait until at least the 2025-26 school year. The next two school calendars are already set. And under the proposal for the 2024-25 school year, which would run from Aug. 12 to May 22, April 18 - Good Friday - is designated as spring break.

Custodian named finalist

Laurie Yard, a custodian at Weeping Water Public Schools, was named one of 12 national finalists in the Custodians are Key Campaign.

Finalists receive $500, with a chance to win $15,000 - $10,000 of which goes to the winner's school. The winner of the contest will be announced in May. Tennant Co., which manufactures cleaning equipment, narrowed finalists from nearly 1,000 nominations from across the U.S. and Canada.

Yard was noted for creating relationships with students, who often keep in contact with her long after they graduate and affectionately call her "Grandma." She also created a program that rewards second graders for being good citizens.

Breaking down Lincoln's public schools: Enrollment, test scores and more

Contact the writer at zhammack@journalstar.com or 402-473-7225. On Twitter @HammackLJS

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From the classroom: Could Arbor Day replace Good Friday as LPS vacation day?

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For as long as officials can remember, the Friday before Easter - better known to Christians as Good Friday - has been a day off for students and teachers at Lincoln Public Schools. But it's not called Good Friday on the LPS student calendar.

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By Amber Phillips, April 22, 2022

In April, Florida Republican Governor Ron Desantis signed the Parental Rights in Education bill. This has also been famously called the "Don't Say Gay" law. The goal of this bill is to restrict the discussion of LGBTQ+ in schools. Not only that, it is also a battle on how much parents can say and should have in their kid's education. Moving foward, this law will ban classroom instruction and discussion about LGBTQ+ issues for children in kindergarten to third grade. In regards for older children, they must be at the right age to discuss about transgender and gay issues. This can impact students because they are still young and figuring out who they are. Additionally, it can encourage parents to sue any school district over teachings they do not agree with.

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signs into law restrictions on what Florida schools can teach or talk about with regard to LGBTQ issues. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

This month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law a measure, the Parental Rights in Education bill, that critics have successfully labeled the "Don't Say Gay" law.

It certainly aims to limit LGBTQ discussion in schools. But it's also on the front lines of the battle over how much say parents should have in their children's education - and it raises questions of how much schools should act as a support system for students, period.

Here are three big things the law does, why they're controversial and the effect it could have on students.

What does Florida's law do?

1. It bans instruction or classroom discussion about LGBTQ issues for kindergarten through third grade. For older students, discussion about gay and transgender issues has to be "age appropriate or developmentally appropriate."

The law is effectively a statement that classroom education about sexual orientation and gender shouldn't start at an early age, and that parents should have final say about what their children learn and when. It aims to "reinforce the fundamental right of parents to make decisions regarding the upbringing and control of their children," according to the text of the legislation.
What impact that could have on students:
For one, sex education has already been banned in Florida (as in many states) until the fifth grade. So critics say the law tries to solve a problem that doesn't exist for the state's youngest students. Because it limits even discussions about LGBTQ issues, it could stifle conversations for children who need to work through their own gender or sexual-identity questions, they say.

"It begs the question of whether a teacher having a picture of a partner on their desk, or being asked to be referred to as Mr. or Mrs., if that counts as classroom instruction on gender identity," said Brandon Wolf, with the LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Florida.

2. It empowers parents to sue the school district over teachings they don't like. And the district will have to pay for it.
What impact that could have on students:
That could prompt schools to preemptively shut out teachings or conversations about LGBTQ issues. Some librarians across the country are accusing their schools of quietly removing race- and LGBTQ-related books from their shelves before it starts a fight, The Washington Post recently reported.

"Cash-strapped school districts can't afford to test the bounds of a law like this," Wolf said, citing reports that some schools in the state have started to peel off rainbow safe-space stickers from windows. "It's the chilling effect that is a natural implication of this legislation."
3. It requires schools to tell parents when their child receives mental health services. What impact that could have on students:
It could take away a school's ability to serve as a haven for students who might not feel comfortable talking to their parents about their gender orientation or sexuality.

But proponents say it would ensure parents are informed if their child is experiencing confusion over their identity. One of the advocates for the bill is a Florida mother who says her child's school recognized her child's gender identity as different from the one they recognized at home.

Why this bill has drawn so much controversy

LGBTQ advocates say this legislation furthers efforts to paint LGBTQ people as "other," or even dangerous. This law comes at a time when the culture wars led by the right are catching fire with the base, but also as more young Americans than ever identify as LGBTQ.

DeSantis in particular has used language that seems to villainize people who oppose - and in his view, misrepresent - the law: "They have to lie because if they admitted what they were really for, sexualizing kindergartners," he said in an interview with Fox News's Tucker Carlson. " ...[T]hey know that would not fly with the public."

His press secretary accused opponents of "grooming" young kids.

If you're against the Anti-Grooming Bill, you are probably a groomer or at least you don't denounce the grooming of 4-8 year old children. Silence is complicity. This is how it works, Democrats, and I didn't make the rules.
- Christina Pushaw 🐊 🇺🇸 (@ChristinaPushaw) March 4, 2022

That language fits into a broader Republican narrative of accusing opponents of supporting pedophilia. It was a main Republican line of questioning against President Biden's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, though her sentences in child pornography cases fell within the judicial mainstream.

"If you want to go after somebody and make them the worst person possible - make them look like they are evil incarnate - then 'you're soft on child molesting' is a great way to go," said Joseph Uscinski, a researcher of extreme ideologies at the University of Miami.

Gay rights groups sued Florida over the law, arguing that it violates the constitutionally protected rights of free speech, equal protection and due process of students and families.

After pressure from employees, Disney opposed the law - and on April 21, Florida Republicans responded by passing a law stripping the special tax status the company enjoyed in the state for the past 50 years.

Timeline: Disney's road from governing itself to the GOP stripping its special district status

How this bill pushes the lines on the parental-rights debate

Proponents argue that parents, above all else, should be in charge of what subjects their children are exposed to and when.

This argument falls neatly in line with the right's opposition to mask and vaccine mandates in schools. The right also pushed back against certain school discussions about race after the protests in the wake of George Floyd's killing.

Florida has been at the forefront of all this: It banned conversations in schools that make someone feel "guilt" about their race, as well as teachings on critical race theory (an academic construct that conservatives have used as a catchall term to describe conversations about race they find offensive).

When framed through the lens of that broader parental-rights debate, this bill to restrict discussion of LGBTQ issues isn't that unpopular.

A February poll from the University of North Florida found that 40 percent of Floridians approved of the legislation when they were told that the bill reads like this: "Another bill before the Florida Senate would prohibit school districts from encouraging discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in grades K-5, or in a way that is age or developmentally inappropriate." That's a significantly high percentage in support of a law that its opponents deride as extreme. (Forty-nine percent disapproved.)

What effect is this having on the rest of the country?

About half a dozen conservative-led states seem poised to pass their own version of Florida's law.

This week, Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed Alabama's version into law, as an amendment attached to restrictions on what bathrooms transgender people can use.

Ohio Republicans recently introduced a bill that, like Florida's law, would ban instruction or class materials about sexual orientation and gender identity until the third grade.

A bill working its way through the Tennessee legislature would prevent schools from using textbooks or materials that "promote, normalize, support, or address lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, or transgender issues or lifestyles."

A Louisiana bill, introduced in March, would prevent any instruction about sexual orientation or gender identity through eighth grade, and prohibit all public school teachers from talking about their own sexual orientation or gender identity.

And in Texas, which has tried to authorize abuse investigations into parents whose children receive gender transition therapy, the state's lieutenant governor said passing a version of Florida's law is now a top priority.
This has been updated with the latest news.

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Analysis | Florida's law limiting LGBTQ discussion in schools, explained

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed into law a measure, the Parental Rights in Education bill, that critics have successfully labeled the "Don't Say Gay" law. Here are three big things the law does, why they're controversial and the effect it could have on students.

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By Theresa Poach, May 3, 2022

In forty states, public schools are required to perform active shooter drills. yet these drills give little direction on what it should look like. For Poach, this article is a personal story that she decided to make public. Poach remembered going to a meeting several years ago and reading the presentation titled "Surviving an Active Shooter Event". The presentation directed them to traumatizing scenarios. To add, details of mass shootings from the past ten years were discussed. Terrifying details were even going down to the rounds (bullets) emptied. Poach believes that the active shooter drills are heavily flawed. One of the reasons is that active shooter drills are a big industry (meaning profit). The second reason is active shooter drills have asked teachers and students to be aggressive. The third reason is that the drills are traumatizing. The fourth reason is that these incidents are extremely unlikely. The final reason is that the active shooter drills do not work.

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Have you signed up for The Educator's Room Daily Newsletter? Click and support independent journalism!
As we head into warmer afternoons and the end-of-year traditions, it's natural to reflect on the year that's been. This year felt far from normal as we navigated the rollercoaster of schooling during the pandemic.

But some things did return to normal, including mandated active shooter drills. Forty states require public schools to conduct these drills but give little to no guidance on what that should look like or entail for our students. It's time to reconsider how we address school safety.

Several years ago, I arrived for a fall professional development day. I found fatigue-clad former Navy Seals crowded before a Powerpoint presentation entitled "Surviving an Active Shooter Event."

This for-profit company walked us through terrifying scenarios for the next several hours. Mass shootings from the past ten years were dissected in detail, down to the number of rounds discharged. At one point, a gentleman with biceps as thick as tree trunks attempted to bring levity to a serious topic. "You know who you need to treat well, right? The gal at the front desk. I mean, she's the gatekeeper. She'll send them right to your room if you're not careful."

After that tasteless "joke," I knew I was in for a traumatizing day. Sure enough, I would be "shot" several times after cowering in a corner, and our school principal would be "assassinated" at her desk. Afterward, we sat together as the consultant walked us through what we should not say to media outlets after a potential tragedy. I cried angry tears driving home.

Extreme unannounced simulation drills should be criminal, and schools should seriously reconsider all active shooter drills. Here are five reasons these drills are flawed:

1. Active Shooter Drills are Big Business

Responding to the potential threat of a school shooting has become a $2.7 billion industry. From bulletproof backpacks to a $4,000 armored classroom door, products have flooded the market, preying on our greatest fear, the loss of our children. This fear has convinced school administrations to purchase security technologies and training programs. Every administrator feels enormous pressure to answer the question, "What are you doing to protect my kid from a school shooting?" These companies provide answers. They provide a school with talking points and products to install. There is little to no evidence that any of these things work.

A quick search of the internet will deliver an endless number of companies willing to train your staff for the next lockdown/lockout drill. They'll insist you have 6-10 of them a school year and utilize their services to dissect the drill's effectiveness. Until recently, they'd even shoot your unsuspecting teachers with plastic pellets (for an extra fee).

Now that most schools are equipped with security technologies, consultants upsell the "new and improved" technologies. It's not a one-and-done shopping experience. If you really care about your students, you've got to upgrade and upgrade often. Their motives might not be sinister, but they are certainly opportunistic. Schools need to view these companies with appropriate skepticism instead of blind allegiance.

"How can students and teachers feel safe when the school's message is: 'At any moment, a gunman could enter this room, so we better be ready.'?" 5 Reasons to End Active Shooter Drills in Schools Click To Tweet

2. Active Shooter Drills Ask Teachers and Students to be Rambo

During a debriefing session, consultants repeatedly asked teachers, "So what do you think you did wrong there?" Teachers nervously laugh as they realize they've failed to administer the correct technique for an unpredictable attack. The responsibility of preventing deaths and injury is placed squarely on the shoulders of teachers and children. A standard plan in these drills is "Run, Hide, Fight." For some schools, that means asking students to practice grabbing scissors, large projectiles, and anything they can get their hands on to disrupt an armed intruder. It's emphasized that this should be an absolute last resort, but it's practiced nonetheless.

One elementary school has even stocked classrooms with buckets of river rocks to use against an attacker wielding an automatic weapon. The enormous pressure on teachers and students to "get it right" and defend their classroom is wrong. We've heard it said again and again, "We want children to feel safe in school." How can students and teachers feel safe when the school's message is: "At any moment, a gunman could enter this room, so we better be ready."?

Children are saddled with the enormous burden of being prepared to enact a complex protocol during drills. The ALICE program uses Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate as the elements of its acronym. It's a complicated approach and requires young children to analyze complex situations, applying varying responses. It's simply not developmentally appropriate.

3. Active Shooter Drills are Traumatizing

Teachers and students are not okay after active shooter drills. According to recent research, there is a 39% uptick in depression and a 42% increase in stress and anxiety among students in the months following an active shooter drill. Once time has passed and this uptick decreases, it's time for the next drill.

According to Lily Eskelsen Garcia, president of the NEA, "Everywhere I travel, I hear from parents and educators about active shooter drills terrifying students, leaving them unable to concentrate in the classroom and unable to sleep at night. That is why, if schools are going to do drills, they need to take steps to ensure the drills do more good than harm."

The Atlanticexplored this problem in detail and made a significant case for ending drills. "Preparing our children for profoundly unlikely events would be one thing if that preparation had no downside. But in this case, our efforts may exact a high price." The article revisits the "duck and cover" campaign of the 1950s in response to fears of nuclear holocaust. At that time, some children in New York were even issued dog tags to be worn every day so their parents could quickly identify their bodies later.

That seems absurd now, but we are navigating a similar road with our most extreme active shooter drills. For many teachers, we know in our gut these drills are causing more harm than good. In one school, a first-grader implored her teacher to reconsider having baby chicks in their classroom. She was worried that the birds would chirp and the bad guy would find them. The baby chicks should stay.

4. Active Shooter Incidents Are Still Extremely Unlikely

The reality is that 999,999 out of 1,000,000 students will complete their education without ever facing an armed shooter. However, more than 95% of all children will practice responding to this attack multiple times each school year. Many students will participate in over 70 active shooter drills before they graduate. Fortunately, for the vast majority, that will be the only gun-related trauma in their childhood. It's an unnecessary trauma.

5. Active Shooter Drills Don't Work

On November 30, 2021, the deadliest school shooting since May 2018 took place at Oxford High School in Michigan. The school regularly completed active shooter drills. So did the shooter. He was able to time his attack during a busy transition period in the halls. He knew it would be the ideal time based on the drills he'd practiced with his classmates.

Even though students quickly hid in classrooms and barricaded doors, four students were killed, and seven others were injured. These drills are not the solution to school shootings. The variables of how, when, and where make it impossible to respond to a shooter in a way that prevents death. Some would argue that the students' training saved lives that day.

However, the 15-year-old armed student completed enough damage in the hallways. No active shooter has shot everyone on campus, so technically, you can always say these drills "save lives." What would have saved everyone's lives and prevented extreme trauma was a search of Crumbley's backpack when he was in the office that morning.

He'd been removed from the classroom over red flags displayed days and hours before the shooting. The teachers did the right thing. They saw something and said something. Unfortunately, vital preventative steps never took place, leading to "Run," "Hide," and "Fight" being the only answer left.

Schools Need Meaningful Change
Editor's Note: If you enjoyed this article, please become a Patreon supporter by clicking .
Schools should implement safety measures to keep their campuses secure and have a dynamic system to ensure red flags aren't missed and are addressed appropriately. Awareness of the school environment and students' mental health is a more effective way to create a safe school than these drills. It also has an added benefit. Children feel seen and know they matter to teachers and administrators. They'll also know their teachers are doing more to protect them than stocking up on scissors.

We can build environments that interrupt the molding of potential school shooters by assessing potential threats and using our knowledge of adolescent development. We are better at detecting concerning behavior than we were 20 years ago. No one saw Columbine coming. Multiple adults at Oxford High School saw issues with Crumbley.

In recent years, multiple shooter plans have been thwarted with incredible success. Zero lives lost. They weren't successful because of a lockdown. Nothing ever reached that point. Instead, concerned classmates and teachers pointed authorities in the right direction, and stockpiles of guns and ammunition never left these boys' bedrooms. The media rarely gives these heroic interceptions any attention. They should. It would make it easier to understand that there indeed are solutions that are better than arming teachers and running active shooter drills once a month. In 2022 we can do better. We can think logically and develop school safety plans that work. We can save lives and protect the innocence of childhood.

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5 Reasons to End Active Shooter Drills in Schools - The Educators Room

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Have you signed up for The Educator's Room Daily Newsletter? Click and support independent journalism! As we head into warmer afternoons and the end-of-year traditions, it's natural to reflect on the year that's been. This year felt far from normal as we navigated the rollercoaster of schooling during the pandemic.

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By Arianna Prothero, April 19, 2022

Since the pandemic, the number of time kids have spent learning online has sky-rocketed. However, this has also steered an interest in social-emotional learning in schools. Unfortunately, these criteria and curricula are not always adapted to teach students how to apply these social-emotional skills to their digital lives. Moving forward, the critical explains what skills are needed to help students navigate the "new" world. One of the five skills is self-awareness, the second is social perspective-taking, the third is empathy, the fourth is self-regulation, and the last is responsible decision making. Self-awareness recognizes that too much technology can negatively affect them. Social perspective-taking: the messages they send may be interpreted differently by the receiver. Empathy can help regulate healthy relationships online. Self-regulation can understand that you should not comment on certain things. Finally, responsible decision-making is to make careful choices about their interactions online.

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By Arianna Prothero - April 19, 2022 2 min read

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The pandemic supercharged the amount of time kids spent learning and having fun online and on digital devices. It has also led to a surge of interest and investment in social-emotional learning in schools.

But social-emotional learning curricula and programs aren't always adapted to teach students how to apply the social-emotional skills they are learning in school to their digital lives. Educators, experts say, should not assume that students are automatically applying the social-emotional skills they are learning in school to their tech use.

So, as social media, virtual learning, and our ever-present devices are here to stay, what skills do students need to navigate their tech-driven worlds?

Here are five key social-emotional skills students need for the digital age, according to experts who spoke with Education Week:

Social perspective-taking helps students consider how someone they're interacting with online or through text messages will interpret something differently based on their unique perspective, background, information, or context. Because it's harder, and often impossible, to read someone else's body language through screens or text, perspective-taking conditions students to think through how their behavior will be received by someone else even if they can't see their reaction.

Arianna Prothero is a reporter at Education Week who covers students and their well-being.

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5 Social-Emotional Skills Kids Need to Lead Healthy Digital Lives

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By Arianna Prothero - April 19, 2022 2 min read Remove Save to favorites Save to favorites Print The pandemic supercharged the amount of time kids spent learning and having fun online and on digital devices. It has also led to a surge of interest and investment in social-emotional learning in schools.

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Racist Bomb Threats and Post Civil War School Burnings

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Racist Bomb Threats and Post Civil War School Burnings

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By Mark Lieberman, March 9, 2022

In Washington, D.C., multiple public K-12 schools and even the first public school in the nation to enroll Black students, had received numerous bomb threats during Black History Month. In addition to that, the FBI was reportedly investigating the connection between those threats and bomb threats against Black colleges and universities. Unfortunately, threats of destruction and vandalism against the Black institution of education are all too familiar with these kinds of threats. During the Reconstruction period, hundreds of Black communities in the South built schools just to watch them burn after a short time after slavery ended. Campbell Scribner, an assistant principal of education at the University of Maryland was interviewed in the article. One of the questions asked was, "Why were people burning down these schools?" he responded by saying that the obvious answer was and is racism. To add to his answer, he explained that schools were not only for educating people, but it was also a site for political meeting and even gatherings.

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A handful of public K-12 schools in Washington, D.C.-including the first public high school in the nation to enroll Black students- received multiple bomb threats in February, during Black History Month. The FBI said it was investigating a connection between those threats and bomb threats against historically Black colleges and universities, which it is also investigating.

But threats of vandalism and the destruction of Black institutions of education are hardly a new or isolated phenomenon. During the post-Civil War period known as Reconstruction, Black people in hundreds of communities across the South watched as the schools they built just a short time after slavery ended up burned to the ground. Many of those burnings, and the context around them, are lost to history.

"There's no bottom to it," Scribner said. "The very act of counting in the past and present was always politicized, which leads to some degree of obscuring the evidence."

Scribner's research focused in large part on the more than 2,600 schools for Black children throughout the South funded in part by the Freedmen's Bureau, established after the Civil War to help Black people transition into a post-slavery America. The schools represent a crucial link in the foundation of the modern American public school system, but they attracted angry opposition from Southern white individuals and white supremacist groups alike.

Scribner's research will make up one chapter of his upcoming book exploring the complexities of vandalism in and around schools. He spoke last month with Education Week. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
What were you aiming to add to the historical record in conducting this research?
Part of my goal was simply to count, given that even people who are interested in this issue had approached it very anecdotally, in smaller geographical or numerical quantities. I just wanted to get a broad overview: How many schools were attacked? What scope of violence were we talking about?

I was talking to an economist friend who said, "You can disaggregate the data and make all these claims!" I was like, "I can't even pretend that this data is conclusive or complete." Part of the paper is an accounting, a reckoning with violence against Black schools.
Where did you have to look to find details on these burnings?
Republicans in Congress launched an investigation into the [Ku Klux Klan] in the early 1870s. They solicited testimony from Southerners about school burnings. I just combed through newspaper articles as well. Most of [my] article is about the Freedmen's Bureau, which was the arm of the War Department trying to advance civil rights and helping to build hundreds of schools in the South. Even they couldn't really get a handle on the violence. They didn't have enough men, couldn't get enough reports. Even when they got them, it wasn't clear what they were supposed to do with them.

Why were people burning down these schools?
We can't be totally sure, but the obvious answer is racism. Schools are not only a means of educating people to get better voters or better jobs. Schools would also be sites for political meetings, for community gatherings. People attacking them were pretty explicit that they're doing this to keep the Black man down, to restore white supremacy, as a means of asserting what they saw as the white public will.

As far as who was doing it, that actually is interesting. For a long time in the 19th century, the notion was always that racists were marginal-uneducated, poor white people who saw the most to lose from Black economic competition or status anxiety. That might have been true sometimes. But there was always an element of the white upper class in the South either doing this themselves or actively supporting it. You would have white plantation owners building schools for African Americans living on their land and then testifying that their rich neighbors would come over in the middle of the night and burn them down. It's never been the case that you can chalk this up to a few misfits.
Was it a coordinated regional campaign or a series of unrelated incidents with common threads among them?
More the second. That doesn't make it less important. During Reconstruction, a lot of Northerners made an explicit argument that this is an organized campaign. Southerners can roll their eyes and say, "Doesn't that sound ridiculous?" It probably wasn't all that organized, but it also didn't have to be because it was pervasive. It played out community by community, but it sure played out a lot. The virulence and the consistency with which it played out over decades tells us what we need to know about how power relations and citizenship were being defined in the postwar South.
Were school buildings burned down just after they were constructed, or did some last for years or decades before they were burned down?
It varies. There are times when the school has just been built and the next night it's burned down. There are other times they do last a while. The Freedmen's Bureau is supporting these communities and putting up half the money. It makes the accounting part even harder. [The Freedmen's Bureau] can't even count all the buildings in operation.
How are the effects of these burnings, and the students who lost their school buildings in the process, playing out in the generations that followed?
When you lose a school, kids end up not going anywhere, at least during the 1800s. In a lot of places, it didn't even come to school burning. Local whites could basically intimidate anyone who would rent out a building. Eventually, there's a deal brokered in most Southern communities where there will be a Black school, it'll just be underfunded and underresourced.

It's never like there's a Golden Age where this stops entirely. Once you get federal authorities who are committed to integration, that at least raises the specter that someone's going to get caught and held accountable-even those investigations are not conclusive.
How does the absence of this context from the historical record, let alone the public school curriculum today, distort our collective understanding of our nation's past?

How has your investigation of Black schools informed your understanding of the bomb threats against HBCUs that have been in the headlines recently?
We shouldn't be surprised. I remember, just after Trump was elected, reading a story on racist graffiti in schools in Virginia and Maryland being up by 18 percent or 20 percent. I remember thinking, yes, that's terrible-but what about the baseline? It was pretty bad to begin with. I would say something similar here. It's very much part and parcel with a long history of intimidation and petty cruelty.
What is the value of deepening our knowledge of the legacy of Black schools that perished or were vandalized?
It is up to school boards what they decide to teach. ... But schools were burned. There was rampant racism, rampant violence. We need to think about that honestly and with mutual recognition. My hope is that by teaching kids how to wrestle with these things, it would impart a great humility and questioning.
What would justice look like for the descendants of the victims of school burnings and for the broader swath of people whose lives are materially affected by America's legacy of racism?
If you're thinking about Reconstruction, at least half of the cost of these buildings is put up by people who are a year or two removed from slavery. They're pooling very meager resources from people who have to get a thousand dollars to build the buildings. They have no insurance, the building burns down. That's a significant hardship. There's lasting psychological and moral hardships, where people have to deal with the indignity and the inconvenience of having their kid denied an education. Proportionally, it's a huge burden for Black communities to bear. When you compound it with the [continued] lack of funding, lack of textbooks, I think, it should just really resonate with people that this is part of an ongoing injustice. This is a big emotional weight to carry even though it happened a long time ago.

It's not to say that you can look at some kid today and exactly calculate what they're owed for something that happened in the 1870s. But I also don't think that this is just dealing with the 1870s. The discussion of reparations needs to be focused on ongoing misappropriations of resources. It needs to be seen in much more of a continuous context. I do think we need to be sure we're talking about it in the present tense.

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Racist Bomb Threats and Post-Civil War School Burnings: A Scholar Connects the Dots

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A handful of public K-12 schools in Washington, D.C.-including the first public high school in the nation to enroll Black students- received multiple bomb threats in February, during Black History Month. The FBI said it was investigating a connection between those threats and bomb threats against historically Black colleges and universities, which it is also investigating.

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Teen Mental Health Declines, Schools Can Help

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Teen Mental Health Declines, Schools Can Help

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By Christine Vestal, April 21, 2022

As we know, many people have experienced mental distress. However, since the pandemic, it has only worsened, especially among students. This is because of the isolation, death of a family member or friend, and even loss of an income. According to the National Academy for State Health Policy, last year, thirty-eight states went forward with one-hundred laws to help support mental well-being in K-12 schools. Not only that, but school mental health bills also became law in twenty-two states this year. The goal is to have the new state laws direct to upgrade mental health resources in schools. Additionally, this would also help create plans to prevent teen suicides. Moving forward, in sixteen states, K-12 staff are required to take courses to help recognize mental distress among students. Last year, pediatricians, children's hospitals, and child psychiatrists also reports a state emergency for children's mental health. The federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration conducted a national survey in 2019. The national survey showed that young people aged twelve to seventeen claimed to experience major depressive episodes this past year had doubled over the decade.

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If you or anyone you know is struggling with thoughts of self-harm or suicide, you can get help by calling the confidential National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK.
Teen mental health already was deteriorating before the coronavirus pandemic. In the two years since, the isolation, grief and anxiety created by school closures, deaths and loss of family income have led to even steeper declines in children's mental health, experts say.

Awash in federal pandemic relief money - roughly $190 billion in education and health grants over the next four years - states are responding.

Last year, 38 states enacted nearly 100 laws providing additional resources to support mental well-being in K-12 schools, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy, a Portland, Maine-based policy research group. Dozens of additional school mental health bills became law this year in at least 22 states, according to the group.

"That's a huge increase in legislative activity over anything we've seen in recent years," said Tramaine EL-Amin, client experience officer at the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, a nonprofit that represents mental health providers.

"The pandemic shined a spotlight on our children's mental health," she said. "There's no question that it's something we need to pay attention to and that we need to act pretty quickly so that things don't get worse."

Broadly, the new state laws aim to upgrade school mental health resources and create comprehensive plans to prevent teen suicides and promote child mental well-being.

A central theme in many of the pandemic-inspired new laws is mental health training.

At least 16 states, from Alaska to Massachusetts, plus the District of Columbia, now require K-12 teachers and other school staff to take training courses on how to recognize mental distress in students and what to do when they see it.

California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Rhode Island, Utah and Washington enacted new laws recommending high school students take mental health training courses so they can help their friends, family and classmates.

"Teachers are critical to identifying students who need mental health supports," said Nancy Lever, co-director of the National Center for School Mental Health at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

"But we also need to make sure that parents and other school staff who interact with students are trained to recognize mental health crises and understand how trauma affects children's mental health and learning," she said.

In addition to laws aimed at training teachers, bus drivers, and security and lunchroom staff, states also are providing money to help schools meet recommended ratios of students to mental health professionals, including counselors, psychologists and social workers.

In some states, new laws provide money for mental health screening and data collection tools that schools can use to develop long-range mental health strategies and measure their progress. Other laws require school boards to develop evidence-based plans for protecting the mental health of K-12 students.

"This is not new territory," Lever said, "but it's important territory that schools need to plan for so they can promote the mental well-being of all students and staff, and at the same time, identify and care for those in crisis."

A key to schools' success will be building in sustainability so the programs can go on when the funding ends, she added.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated an already growing crisis in adolescent mental health. Last year, a group of pediatricians, child psychiatrists and children's hospitals declared a state of emergency for children's mental health.

In 2019, a national survey conducted by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration showed that the percentage of young people ages 12 to 17 who reported experiencing a major depressive episode in the past year had nearly doubled over the past decade, increasing from 9% or 2.2 million children in 2004 to 16% or 3.8 million children in 2019.

By 2021, more than a quarter of U.S. parents reported their adolescent had seen a mental health specialist, with 59% doing so in the past year, according to a survey published last month by the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan.

Suicide is now the second leading cause of death among children 10 to 14, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2020, emergency room visits for suspected suicide attempts by girls 12 to 17 jumped 51% compared with 2019, according to CDC data.

This month, the federal health agency reported that in the first half of 2021, more than 4 in 10 high school students surveyed said they had "persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness" in the prior year, which was one of isolation and school closures for most teens.

"These data echo a cry for help," CDC acting Principal Deputy Director Dr. Debra Houry said in a news release. "The COVID-19 pandemic has created traumatic stressors that have the potential to further erode students' mental wellbeing. Our research shows that surrounding youth with the proper support can reverse these trends and help our youth now and in the future."

But mental health experts say schools, which are often the only place troubled youth can look to for help, are not prepared to address the growing adolescent mental health crisis.

Historically, most states have failed to meet national minimum standards for the number of students served by mental health professionals, including school psychologists, counselors and social workers.

Only Idaho and the District of Columbia meet the recommended ratio of one school psychologist for every 500 students. At the bottom of the list, Georgia schools employ only one psychologist for every 6,390 students, according to America's School Mental Health Report Card, published in February by a coalition of mental health organizations.

No state meets the nationally recommended ratio of one social worker for every 250 students. Farthest behind, West Virginia employs one social worker for 15,433 students. And only New Hampshire and Vermont meet the standard of one counselor for every 250 students.

The number of K-12 schools signing up for one of the most commonly used mental health training programs, called Mental Health First Aid, jumped 17.5% since the end of last year, according to the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, which administers the course.

"Every state in this country has adopted youth mental health first aid in some schools in some way," the council's EL-Amin said. "This year's surge in legislative activity is helping get the word out."

Developed and tested in Australia, the roughly 32-hour training program was adopted in the U.S. in 2008 by the council in collaboration with the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Missouri Department of Mental Health.

With 25,000 instructors, the evidence-based curriculum has been used to train 2.7 million Americans in a variety of professions. Offered online and in person, the course teaches people to recognize the signs of a mental health or substance use problem, respond to someone in crisis rather than turn away and urge the person to talk to a mental health professional.

In the U.S., about 1 million people have completed a specialized version of the course designed for teachers, parents and others who interact with adolescents. More than half work in K-12 schools.

The course also has been adapted so teens can help each other, and more than 125,000 students in 700 schools and youth groups have completed it since 2020.

Graduates of the course say they're able to use what they learned to help someone within an average of three months, EL-Amin said.

Emma Bap, who took the first aid course last year at Bellows Free Academy High School in St. Albans, Vermont, told the council that the program gave her "more confidence to reach out to someone who seems to be struggling - and quite possibly save a life."

Mental health training courses typically offer scripts for what to say and what not to say to teens who may be thinking about ending their life. The training also emphasizes that teens should report to a teacher or another adult any potential suicide concerns they may have about a friend or classmate.

Separate training programs for adults and youths spell out ways to intervene in a potential suicide, underscoring that suicide is preventable.

But training alone is not enough to prevent suicides and ensure that kids experiencing mental illness get the care they need, said Julie Goldstein Grumet, an expert in suicide prevention.

"Schools need to create a safe and open culture where kids know it's OK to talk about suicide and mental illness," said Grumet, vice president of the Boston-based Education Development Center, a policy research group.

They also need to develop and sustain strong mental health community partners they can rely on to help their at-risk students, she added.

"Training is great and important, but it has to be embedded in a comprehensive approach where it's not 'one and done,'" Grumet said. "Schools shouldn't be saying 'we did the training,' but rather 'we transformed the entire culture around suicide prevention and mental health.'"

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As Teen Mental Health Worsens, Schools Learn How to Help

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If you or anyone you know is struggling with thoughts of self-harm or suicide, you can get help by calling the confidential National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK. Teen mental health already was deteriorating before the coronavirus pandemic.

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By Ariel Gans, May 02, 2022

Sports in high schools all over the world have always played a vital role in students' lives. Whether that be physical health or even mental health. However, fewer than 2 in 5 high schools have fewer students participating. According to Aspen Insitute, the customary representation absolutely needs to be updated. However, a proposal was made by The Sport for All, Play for Life high school sports proposed eight strategies to help the school system. This would help develop their students' emotional skills and even social skills through sports. They conducted this proposal by doing 2-year research and input from sixty experts. By being active in school by doing sports, they are likely to still be active as adults. All most all games are only based on how many wins and if you can obtain scholarships. Although this is important too, there are still students who are getting left out. There were a few steps the article listed to make sports more accessible. One, align school sports with students' interests. Two, give a variety of options for play. Three, prioritize education or wins.

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Should School Sports Prioritize Participation Over Competition? What a New Report Says

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The Aspen Institute’s report proposes eight strategies for making school sports more fun and less selective.

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Boys Are In Trouble, But Schools Can Help

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Boys Are In Trouble, But Schools Can Help

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An article was written by Max Jacobs, on May 2nd, 2022.

In the beginning, the article explains how boys who are Latino, Black, and Native need our awareness. This is because in 2018-2019, around 45,000 fewer high school boys graduated than girls. Not only that but out of every 100 females, 74 males obtained a bachelor's degree. In addition, men's mental health most of the time goes unnoticed. Statistics show that men have a higher suicide rate (3.7 times higher). Moving forward Michael Thompson tested the nature of boys fifteen years ago, in Raising Cain: Exploring the Inner Lives of America's Boys. To complete his documentary, he studied an all-boys middle school, George Jackson Academy. To summarize, he explains that if the school system and society continue this path, there would be no hope of helping the boys of America. A teacher who worked at the academy has also agreed with the statement in the documentary. The author of the article, Max Jacobs, explains that he is wishing for a more caring environment for boys. The purpose of this article was to teach the education system how to create a better environment for these boys. A few lessons he wishes to teach them are that thinking is cool, reading is cool, and hiring male staff to give them role models.

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The ongoing opportunity crisis for Black, Latino, and Native boys deserves our attention. But an even broader, existential crisis lurks below.

According to the Brookings Institution, in 2020, men made up only 41 percent of postsecondary student enroll men t. Throughout American high schools, in the 2018-19 academic year, 45,000 fewer boys than girls graduated. For every 100 women, only 74 men earned a bachelor's degree. Men have a suicide rate 3.7 times higher than women. Last year, suicide was the fourth leading cause of death for adolescents.
A gender gap is now clearly emerging and widening on top of already existing racial opportunity gaps.

Fifteen years ago, in Raising Cain: Exploring the Inner Lives of America's Boys, Michael Thompson challenged the tough, violent, and impulsive archetypal nature of boys. In the accompanying documentary, Thompson profiled an independent, all-boys school, George Jackson Academy, as an ideal, diverse environment for the healthy emotional development of middle school boys.

I teach there. And I agree with the prophecy that Thompson presented in both the book and documentary when he warned: "If society and the school system stay on their current path, the boys of America are headed for trouble."

Some educators are taking note. After visiting the public Young Women's Academy in Harlem and the Bronx this school year, the superintendent in Jersey City, N.J., committed to creating the district's first public school just for girls and gender-expansive students. Following in Jersey City's footsteps, more cities and towns should come to New York City and visit George Jackson Academy. Then, I hope, more nurturing educational environments will be created for boys.

Here are the lessons that I would hope to teach them:

1. Make thinking cool. Intellectuals from Michel Montaigne to Sor Juana De La Cruz to Cornell West told us death's antidote: philosophy. Given the billions of hours viewers around the world streamed of the violent Netflix show "Squid Gam e," rest assured middle and high school boys are not only capable but comfortable contemplating death.

But how? One promising avenue is Philosophy for Children, an American invention that can solve an American problem. Developed in the 1970s, the now international movement includes both curricular resources and a pedagogical approach to ponder existential questions. A recent study conducted during the pandemic showed promising gains in intellectual autonomy and mental well-being for elementary-age practicing philosophers. Let's shut the computers, sit in a circle, think, and talk about life and death.

Every Friday during Philosophy Club at my school, I bear witness to the deep power of communal inquiry. With space to freely construct who they want to be and actively engage in thinking and reading, the young men connect metaphysics, aesthetics, and ethics to their lived experience.

2. Make reading cool, too. Stories soothe the soul; streaming and gaming heighten anxiety. A Scholastic reading survey reports that as the current generation of students has grown up, their frequency, sense of importance, and enjoyment of reading has declined with age. This trend is especially troubling for boys, who the survey confirmed are less likely than girls to become both frequent and positive lifelong readers.

School administrators, guidance counselors, and teachers should look to the restorative possibility of books for mental health, particularly for their male students. When I saw one of my advisees walk into homeroom stressed, I tried bibliotherapy. I handed him my personal pocket-sized copy of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. Although books are not magic, my advisee told me that the philosophical tradition of Stoicism helped manage his present worries and future anxieties.

3. Hire more male staff to model how and why thinking and reading are cool. In 2020, only 23.5 percent of teachers were male. And men of color make up an even smaller fraction of that number. As increases in automation continue to disproportionately threaten traditionally male jobs, now is the time to recruit and train more men for the teaching profession. An increase in the number of male teachers will challenge gender stereotypes, promote positive relationships between men and young children, increase diversity in the workforce, and champion gender-equitable versions of masculinity. More than role models, male teachers drive engagement and a sense of belonging for all genders.

To be sure, the existential crisis in masculinity affects both boys and gender-nonconforming children. This crisis requires inclusive solutions that addresses the kinds of challenges students face based on differences in race, sexuality, and gender. Teaching boys to value thinking, reading, and caring for others promises a constructive vision of what masculinity can mean.

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America's Boys Are in Serious Trouble. Schools Can Help (Opinion)

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The ongoing opportunity crisis for Black, Latino, and Native boys deserves our attention. But an even broader, existential crisis lurks below. According to the Brookings Institution, in 2020, men made up only 41 percent of postsecondary student enroll men t. Throughout American high schools, in the 2018-19 academic year, 45,000 fewer boys than girls graduated.