Results tagged “school”

A popular high school English teacher has been suspended after assigning his 11th-grade students a short story about masturbation by "Fight Club" author Chuck Palahniuk. Greg Van Voorhis, 30, issued copies of "Guts" — which details three increasingly catastrophic masturbation attempts by teenagers with props including a carrot, a candle, and the water intake at the bottom of a swimming pool — to about about 100 students gearing up for the English Regents exam. That didn't go over so well with school administrators at the Bronx School of Law and Finance in Marble Hill, where the seven-year veteran was quickly reassigned from his classroom duties while the Department of Education investigates.

The NYC Health department is starting its swine flu vaccine program at 128 elementary schools today. According to WCBS 2, 40,000 doses were set aside for the students: "School nurses at those sites will administer the nasal spray vaccine starting Wednesday to students whose parents have signed consent forms. Nurses expect to vaccinate 15 to 25 kids per day, per school."

Yesterday suspiciously perky cooking celebrity Rachael Ray, Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, City Council speaker Christine C. Quinn and other government officials held a press event at P.S. 89/I.S. 289 in Tribeca to preview a new menu that Ray created for NYC public schools. On Thursday, 600,000 students, from kindergartners to 12th graders, will have the option to sample the menu Ray developed: whole-wheat flatbread with roasted chicken, a ratatouille-style stew with beans, and corn salad on top. (Plus a side of broccoli.) But yesterday there was also a side of cockroach!

Yesterday afternoon, a 16-year-old boy was fatally shot outside Metropolitan Diploma Plus High in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. Malachi Cotton was standing at a city bus stop by when, the Daily News reports, "Three men approached him around 3:15 p.m., police said. The armed trio, who were targeting Cotton, fired several shots at him and then fled."

Ten years ago Demetrius Edwards pleaded guilty to raping a 13-year-old Brooklyn girl at gunpoint. According to the justice system, his debt to society has been repaid, so he was recently released from prison and moved into his parents' apartment, about 100 feet from the St. Raphael Elementary School on 37th Street in Queens. It's no surprise parents are panicking, but although Edwards is a sex offender with a record and a "Level Three" status—which means he's at "high risk to commit another sex crime"—nothing in the law prohibits him from living by the school.

The mother of a 6-year-old Queens boy is outraged at police for what she's calling a slow response time to her son's disappearance yesterday. Shortly before 3 p.m., the boy was in the courtyard at P.S. 80 at dismissal time and managed to walk through the gate without anyone stopping him. He wandered Jamaica, traveling four miles from the school before finally being located at his father's Rockaway Boulevard office—two hours after he was found missing. And that's also when police finally showed up!

The long, drawn-out, Brooklyn Bridge blocking battle over the Dock Street Development continues. Now the Daily News reports that "a top Education Department architect concluded the controversial Dock Street project in DUMBO was a bad site for a public school." He said the proposal would bring an "extremely small school... with premium costs." Opponent of the project, Councilman David Yassky, says the new documents "are further evidence the city bent over backward to accommodate the developer instead of giving fair consideration to other spots for a school."

Volunteers for the New York Civil Liberties Union are present in some 20 public high schools this week to educate students on their rights when interacting with school safety agents and police officers. Students at select schools with metal detectors, high suspension rates and a heavy police presence are being handed cards [pdf] telling them when and how to object to searches. According to the cards, if a student feels "disrespected," that's enough of a basis to lodge a formal complaint against school safety officers. The NYCLU has been arguing that schools are relying too heavily on the NYPD to enforce school discipline, but according to the Post, critics think the group is "creating a confrontational tone" at the start of the school year. And City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., chairman of the public-safety committee, growls, "It's ridiculous to give children the impression that police are the enemy. Kids only need to know one word when it comes to the police and that's 'cooperate.' " But familiarity with words like "bend" and "over" might also come in handy.

Following criticism of President Obama's plan to speak about education to schoolchildren, the White House released the text of the speech yesterday. Last week, one parent in Texas, apparently concerned that his school district hadn't approved the speech, told the NY Times, "I don’t want our schools turned over to some socialist movement." Fortunately, the "socialist movement" seems limited to "If you quit on school - you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country" and "I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter."

The NYCLU, the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University, and Make the Road New York have released a report arguing that schools can create a safer environment without metal detectors and harsh discipline. The study, called "Safety with Dignity: Alternatives to Over-Policing Schools," is based on a year-long examination of six NYC schools with "at-risk" student populations that do not use metal detectors. According to the report, these schools have improved attendance, better student retention and graduation rates, and "dramatically fewer" criminal and non-criminal incidents and school suspensions than schools equipped with permanent metal detectors.

Almost a dozen school nurses say they're not being paid for the days the city closed their schools due to the swine flu outbreak. Most of the nurses in question got sick themselves or have children who became ill, but not one of those troupers called in sick during the crisis when the schools were open. One Queens school nurse tells the Daily News, "You couldn't leave people when they were that scared. It was chaos. I had a thermometer in each pocket—you had to be like an octopus."

A 27-year-old female social studies teacher at M.S. 8 in Jamaica, Queens was arrested for allegedly conducting a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old male student—in her second floor classroom. Melissa Weber was charged with statutory rape, sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of a child; prosecutors claim she told the boy, a student in one of her classes, "Don’t tell anyone. I could get arrested and I could lose my teaching license."

The Dock Street drama continues, and this time it's not about the view. Last night at a 5-hour City Council hearing "politicians focused on charges that the School Construction Authority improperly colluded with the project’s developer," the Brooklyn Paper reports. Apparently there were some questionable internal emails leading some to believe the city's school building agency didn't consider other sites. The paper says the SCA Vice President Ross Holden sent out an email that indicated he was only humoring Dock Street opponent David Yassky, leading the Councilman to believe he was would look at other potential sites for the middle school. The email read, “Now I know that if we don’t do the Walentas project that we don’t really want to do anything else over there, but I think we have to follow up on this just so we can say that the Walentas project is such a good deal." Meanwhile, the agency was unable to answer questions about how much money they would actually save by moving in to the Dock Street development. Despite having many local and celebrity opponents, like Helen Hunt, Gary Sinise, and Ken Burns, Jed Walentas told the paper he still believes his project will pass a full Council vote. To be continued...

Tomorrow afternoon Council Member Letitia James and schools within the JHS 117 /Francis Scott Key Building will hold a press conference on Student Safety Issues following incidents of harassment/violence that have become a common occurrence for students attending school at 300 Willoughby Avenue. Over the years students have become "victims of consistent harassment, jumping, and robberies, as they travel to and from the school building towards the G-train subway stop at Classon and Lafayette Avenues, as well as when taking surrounding buses," according to the press release. On April 30th, one student was jumped and when two fellow students defended him they were all attacked by nearly a dozen neighborhood residents. The assailants then followed the students into the school, resulting in school staff and school safety injuries, as well as broken glass doors. Hopefully the meeting can lead towards creating what they call a "safe corridor" for the students to travel to and from school.

This Tuesday ground was officially broken on what is allegedly New York City Public Schools' first green roof (though there's been plenty of planning for similar roofs in the past). The Daily News reports that Eric Dutt, a beloved science teacher at P.S. 6 on the Upper East Side, died in 2007, leaving his dream of the rooftop garden and greenhouse unfulfilled. The roof, called the Eric Dutt Eco Center, will be built throughout the summer and will contain "planting soil for vegetables and flowers, solar panels, a weather station, a turtle pond and a greenhouse for classes during the winter." The school raised funds through selling t-shirts, environmentally-friendly lightbulbs, and even lemonade—though there was also $1 million secured by city politicians.

Earlier this morning, a teacher made a bomb threat at JHS 145 in the Bronx, prompting the school to be evacuated. The Post reports the threat was "called in to police by the teacher, who locked himself into a second floor computer room. Cops are communicating with the teacher, whose identity has not yet been released... The man told police he is protesting the mistreatment of teachers."

Two preliminary studies suggest that the Bloomberg administration's controversial report cards for schools may be useful in getting those struggling schools to succeed. The Post reports that students in previously failing schools are now doing better on their state tests (which is a big component of the school report cards). Columbia professor Jonah Rockoff, who worked on one study, explained, "One of the big benefits of this accountability system is that it lights a fire under the schools that are lagging behind." Another former Department of Education official credited mayoral control of the schools, "The old Board of Education was unwilling to hold schools accountable for performance. They were more interested in making excuses." However, there are still critics: NYU professor Diane Ravitch, who recently disputed Bloomberg's claims to school success in a Times Op-Ed, says city "look[s] at closing schools joyfully" so charter schools can be put in. Last fall, when school report cards were released, critics also pointed out how school grades focus too much on year-to-year improvements versus proficiency.

New York City schoolchildren had better develop a taste for apple juice; the Department of Education has just set strict guidelines for drinks and snacks sold in schools. Starting next fall, beverages sold in elementary and middle schools will be limited to a maximum of 10 calories per ounce in 8-ounce beverages, while high school students will be permitted 25 calories per ounce. As Snapple's controversial $40 million vending contract comes to an end, the DOE plans to ban juices and other beverages with artificial colors or flavors, the Post reports. It's all part of a crusade to combat what many deem a childhood "obesity epidemic," and the city is now seeking proposals from new vendors who must limit their snack selection to items under 200 calories, with less than 200 mg. of sodium and less than 10 percent saturated fat. And since the Snapple deal came with a $28 million sweetener for the city's fitness and sports programs, the DOE is also hoping the new vendor will be willing to make a similar donation for vending rights to the city's 865 schools, which contain some 2,235 vending machines.

Has PETA gone too far? Word is that last week the animal rights activists showed up unannounced and uninvited at a Hempstead elementary school, chosen for its proximity to the Nassau Coliseum, where Ringling Bros. Circus sets up shop starting tomorrow. Their plan was to school the children in circus cruelty, handing out stickers and coloring books that declared, "Circuses are no fun for animals." While this may be true, many are criticizing the organization for their tactics, saying their method is inappropriate—a psychologist noted that the children "might go home and be very anxious" because they "are less mature in their cognitive process."

A 14-year-old honor student tells the NY Post her direct pleas to Schools Chancellor Joel Klein about her safety at her school were ignored—until she was injured. Kimselle Castanos, whose family also repeatedly asked for a transfer, gave Klein a letter detailing how she was "terrorized by a band of teens at the Foreign Language Academy of Global Studies," back in December. He asked her to e-mail him, which the 14-year-old did, sending a total of 25 e-mails (from 12/22: "I am scared about what they are going to do to me") but without reply. Last month, the bullies, who attend a special education school in the same building, found her in the cafeteria: "A girl yanked Kimselle's ponytail so hard she heard a crack in her neck." Kimselle was transferred to the Bronx Leadership Academy; the Department of Education says her family never provided documentation of the threat and that it had been in contact with them. But, Kimselle, who wears a neck brace and whose parents plan to sue, wonders, "I don't understand why it took me getting hurt."

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Our very own Jake Dobkin braved some disintegrating buildings in Harlem this past weekend. Both the ballroom (in the first photo) and the school (shown in all other photos) are located in Central Harlem about 10 blocks apart from each other, and are clearly abandoned now. He notes of the former: "This building looked like it had been empty for twenty years. Trees were growing out of the floors and poking out of dozens of holes in the roof. All the windows were gone, and the floors that weren't covered with snow were thick with dust and the skeletons of dead pigeons. There wasn't any evidence of human habitation-- no footprints, homeless encampments, or graffiti."

Earlier this year, 211 dead bodies were removed from the grounds of the Bay Ridge United Methodist Church (aka the "Green Church") in order to make room for demolition of the site, which at the time was to become new luxury (unhaunted) condos. Now the Brooklyn Paper has it that the city is looking to buy the land for a new school. "The School Construction Authority is planning to purchase the former site of the emerald-hued Church to construct a kindergarten- through eighth-grade school that could seat between 600 and 700 students, according to Dena Libner, a spokeswoman for Councilman Vince Gentile (D–Bay Ridge)." Developer Abe Betesh had purchased the land for $9.75 million and made way for a 72-unit apartment building on the site, "but the city rejected his construction permit — and Betesh put up his 'For Sale' sign." The general consensus is to bring in something that would benefit the community, but when the project begins with digging up dead bodies can this really end well?

A study from NYU says that children in public housing are "more likely to drop out of high school and less likely to graduate in four years than those who do not live in public housing," the NY Times reports. You can read the policy brief (PDF) from the Furman Center. One hypothesis suggests the lack of resources and role models students from public housing have might be to blame, but the study its data "do not allow us to isolate the reason for the disparity" and "we do not claim that living in NYCHA housing causes students to perform differently from students living in other housing." And the NYC Housing Authority tells the Times the agency has "serious concerns and reservations" about the study, adding its data is "limited, dated and incomplete."

No Messiah for West Brook Middle School: Alex Woinski was sent home for dressing as Jesus Christ for Halloween.

Ella Taliercio moved into her Park Slope two-bedroom in 1958, raised three kids there (burying two of them in Green-Wood Cemetery), and still works in the neighborhood. But now she and her husband have got to go because the fancy Berkeley Carroll School, which owns her building, wants to turn it into classrooms. The apartment is rent-stabilized—Taliercio paid $33 a month in '58 and $147.08 today—but Berkeley Carroll has non-profit status, enabling the school to evict the couple. Taliercio tells the Daily News through tears, "It's my home. How do you just shut the door on something where you've been for so many years?" Don't worry, Ella, Berkeley administrators will have the eviction marshal help you with that.

Parents paying $20,000 or more a year to send their kids to St. Ann's School in Brooklyn Heights aren't too thrilled about the Federal probation office that's opened up 100 feet down the street. Earlier this week, just ten minutes before school let out, a parolee who had served 12 years in jail on drug-related charges bolted from the building as officers tried to arrest him for assault. Karen Fischer was about to pick up her son Sebastian when she saw officers chasing the man; she tells Channel 9 one of the officers reached for his gun but thought better of it. St. Ann's dean Larry Weiss says, "This is exactly what we were told was not going to happen." Weiss was also promised there wouldn't be sex offenders coming into the office; turns out 53 sex offenders—including 6 convicted pedophiles—have swung by since they opened. At least the good news for Sebastian is that his mom will definitely picking him up on time this year. [Brownstoner]

The death of 8-year-old Alexander Toulouse, who was cycling with his father in Downtown Brooklyn on September 6th when a mail truck struck him while turning on Livingston Street, didn't come as a surprise to those familiar with the area, the Daily News reports. Michelle Dougherty, a Brooklyn Heights mother of three, calls the intersection "extremely dangerous. Last year I saw a boy who was hit by two cars." Transportation Alternatives spokesman Wiley Norvell agrees that it's "a bad corridor - it's a recipe for crashes and injuries unless something is done to reengineer the street." A DOT rep promises that engineers will now reevaluate the safety conditions there. And more details have emerged on the 50-year-old man who was killed by a school bus while riding his bike in Park Slope days after Toulouse's death: Jonathan Millstein was a lifelong New Yorker and father of two who ran a silkscreen shop with his wife in the East Village.

50-year-old Jonathan Milstein was struck and killed by a school bus in Park Slope yesterday morning, the second cyclist fatality in Brooklyn in less than a week. (On Saturday, 8-year-old Alexander Toulouse was fatally struck by a mail truck downtown.) The Brooklyn Paper reports that Milstein was riding west on President Street and was trying to make the light at Eighth Avenue, a block from Prospect Park, when the collision occurred. No passengers were on the bus, and no charges filed against the driver, who is reportedly "extremely shaken." Milstein was pronounced DOA at nearby New York Methodist Hospital. A spokesman for Transportation Alternatives told the Brooklyn Eagle that Eighth Avenue is “problematic” because of its proximity to the park and because its one-way traffic and infrequent stop lights seem to encourage speeding.

After a two year absence, 47-year-old Yeshiva University literature professor Jay Ladin returned to school last week as Joy Ladin, putting the oy in Joy by arriving at the midtown campus wearing a black skirt and pink lipstick. According to the head of the National Center for Transgender Equality, Ladin is the only transgender employee of a religiously conservative university in America.