Category: Educational Equality

Ex-student sues Cambridge University over harassment complaint – BBC News

~ mcequality

A former student says she’s suing the University of Cambridge over the way it dealt with her harassment complaint.
Dani Bradford, 21, says she’s taken the action because she “wants things to change for other students”.
The university upheld a complaint she made about being sent “sexualised” text messages – but Dani isn’t happy with the way it handled her case.
Cambridge University says it “takes the personal safety of its students very seriously”.

via Ex-student sues Cambridge University over harassment complaint – BBC News

How to Talk to Your Kids About LGBTQ+ Issues

~ mcequality

As a recently out gay woman, I was a little unsure at first about how to talk with my kids about LGBTQ+ topics. But, even before I accepted my identity and told my family I was gay, having these conversations was something that was important to me. I wanted my kids to be allies, not just for me, but for the queer community at large. I also wanted to make it clear to them that if they fall anywhere within the beautiful LGBTQ+ rainbow, I will accept and love them for who they are.

Still, I understand that if you’re not surrounded by queer folks, it can feel arbitrary or forced to suddenly start talking to your kids about “gay” topics. It helps to keep in mind, though, that you are talking about diversity of love and gender expression. We can all relate to being true to ourselves, right? But what if you don’t really know what to say? What if you yourself feel under-informed? And how the heck does one even begin to explain all of this to a kid?

via How to Talk to Your Kids About LGBTQ+ Issues

University of Alabama Set to Return $26.5 Million to Pro-Choice Donor

~ mcequality

The University of Alabama’s board of trustees, which includes Gov. Kay Ivey, is probably going to refund the money of a major donor who’s been outspoken in his criticism of Alabama’s cruel and potentially deadly abortion ban.

Last week, Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr, a person wealthy enough to give tens of millions of dollars to a university he didn’t even attend, called for a boycott of the law school the university renamed in his honor after his September 2018 donation, according to the AP:

via University of Alabama Set to Return $26.5 Million to Pro-Choice Donor

Political Controversies Can Inspire Bullying in Schools, Public Health Researchers Say

~ mcequality

Political controversies that receive heavy media coverage trickle down into classrooms and spark bullying, suggests a new study out this week. It found that children in California reported being bullied more over their sexual orientation during 2008 and 2009—when the contentious Proposition 8, which temporarily prevented same sex marriage in the state, was passed—than before or after those years.

The researchers behind the study, which is published in JAMA Pediatrics, looked at 14 years worth of data from the California Healthy Kids Survey, a statewide survey of K-12 students intended to identify factors that promote (or discourage) flourishing and well-educated kids. In total, they looked at responses from nearly 5 million middle and high school students across more than 5,000 schools in the state.

via Political Controversies Can Inspire Bullying in Schools, Public Health Researchers Say

These Bronx Middle Schoolers Made the Best Podcast About Periods

~ mcequality

Sssh! Periods is a brief look at the miserable experience of getting your period as a middle-schooler. “I’m literally the queen of bleeding out,” a girl named Caroline told NPR. One girl on the podcast said a teacher didn’t let her go to the bathroom when she got her period in the middle of class, and another remarked that her teachers’ reactions change quickly once they realize they’re dealing with a menstruating teenager. “Cause when you tell a teacher, their whole mood changes!” one said. “Facial expression and everything,” another added.

via These Bronx Middle Schoolers Made the Best Podcast About Periods

Birmingham LGBT lessons: Head teacher threatened – BBC News

~ mcequality

A head teacher at a primary school giving lessons on LGBT equality has received threatening emails and phone calls.
Police are investigating messages sent to Sarah Hewitt-Clarkson at Anderton Park Primary School in Birmingham.
There have been seven weeks of protests outside the site from which “hundreds” of pupils were kept away on Monday.
Birmingham MP Jess Phillips has called for an exclusion zone at the school to limit where people can demonstrate.
Ms Hewitt-Clarkson has branded the protests aggressive.
The city council is looking into Ms Phillips’ request, with the authority’s leader saying some outside the school are “peddling hatred”.

via Birmingham LGBT lessons: Head teacher threatened – BBC News

Teacher Fired After Topless Photo Leaked to Students

~ mcequality

This year, Lauren Miranda, a 25-year-old middle-school teacher from Long Island, became eligible for tenure at her job. “I loved my job, I never woke up in the morning and didn’t want to go,” she recently told the press, adding “I really thought this is where I was going to spend the next thirty years of my life.” But last week, she was fired, after the South County School District in Bellport, Long Island caught wind that that an old topless photo of Miranda’s had been leaked to students.

The photo was taken three years ago, and according to local reports, Miranda says she sent it to her then-boyfriend, who taught in the same school district. Miranda says she does not know how the photo got into the hands of the students, and that the district discriminated against her because of her gender.

via Teacher Fired After Topless Photo Leaked to Students

Use of isolation booths in schools criticised as ‘barbaric’ punishment | Education | The Guardian

~ mcequality

Parents have criticised the use of isolation booths at secondary schools across the country, after concerns were raised about the “zero-tolerance” behaviour policies run by some academy trusts.

Guardian analysis found this week that 45 schools in England excluded at least 20% of their pupils in the last academic year. The Outwood Grange Academies Trust – which runs 30 schools across Yorkshire, the Humber and the east Midlands – ran nine out of the 45.

Outwood Academy Ormesby in Middlesbrough topped the list, with 41% of its pupils receiving at least one suspension in the last academic year.

Parents with children at schools in the trust raised concerns that, as well as the high levels of exclusions, many schools were also using “consequences rooms” – small booths in which a child sits alone and in silence for hours on end as punishment for breaking school rules.

via Use of isolation booths in schools criticised as ‘barbaric’ punishment | Education | The Guardian

Mother sues over daughter’s suicide attempt in school isolation booth | Education | The Guardian

~ mcequality

A woman whose daughter tried to kill herself while in an isolation booth at an academy school is to take legal action against the government.

The child, who cannot be named, has autistic spectrum disorder and mental health problems, but was put in an isolation booth by her school in Kent for more than a month.

Prior to the intervention of lawyers in mid-March, she had spent every day since mid-January in isolation, meaning she had to remain silent throughout the day and had no directed teaching.

via Mother sues over daughter’s suicide attempt in school isolation booth | Education | The Guardian