Results tagged “students”

Three Queens students were brought to the hospital yesterday after complaining of sickness right after they received the H1N1 vaccine. Within twenty minutes of getting vaccinated, one student of PS 124 in South Ozone Park "complained of a headache" says NY1, and overall 16 students said they felt ill. However, of the three girls brought to the hospital, one wasn't even given the vaccine in the first place! Maybe the dog ate her homework?

NYU students: When they're not doing porn to pay tuition or collecting food stamps, they're occupying administration buildings and issuing manifestos. But it's almost the end of October and there hasn't been a single sit-in from the Take Back NYU rebels, who made the big time in February with a 40-hour occupation and a hilarious hit video. So where are they now?

A new report [pdf] from the NYC Health Department and Department of Education finds that physically fit students tend to outscore their less-fit peers on academic tests. During the 2007-2008 school year, students who scored in the top 5% on their fitness tests outscored the bottom 5% by an average of 36 percentile points on standardized academic tests. But it's also possible overweight kids score poorly on those tests because bullies are constantly kicking the backs of their chairs. The new report further examines childhood obesity in NYC and finds that 21% of kindergarten through eighth grade students are obese, and nearly 40% of all students are overweight or obese. In a statement, NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said, "When four out of 10 school kids are overweight or obese, the city has a problem." Part of that problem is that 14% of middle- and high-school students hadn't even been offered a physical-education class this school year, according to a recent survey cited by the Post.

     

The Guggenheim has just unveiled a playful exhibit, titled A Year with Children 2009: Selected Works from Learning Through Art—an exhibition organized by the Sackler Center for Arts Education that will be on view through August 9th. The exhibit shows the works of 2nd through 6th grade students hailing from 16 different NYC public schools. We're told, "These schools have participated in Learning Through Art (LTA), a 39-year-old pioneering arts education program of the Guggenheim Museum, during the 2008-09 school year. Approximately 200 colorful and imaginative works will be on display, including prints, paintings, sculptures, mobiles, and more."

Administrators at Stuyvesant High School have been using handheld metal detectors on students—not to detect weapons but to disarm cheaters who might use their mobile devices during a test. Teens at the elite public school in lower Manhattan were outraged when the wands were introduced recently during two weeks of AP testing. One student tells the Post, "To wand students is absurd. If they can't tell kids are using a cellphone to cheat, it's their own fault. Next thing, we're going to have to take our shoes off like we're going through the airport." And then they'll be forced to take tests naked like they're cutting coke for some paranoid drug lord! Another student also argues that "wanding is pointless. You can cheat in so many other ways." Principal Stanley Teitel declined to comment, but Dr. Teddi Fishman, director of the Center for Academic Integrity, says the tactic is counterproductive, because it creates "an adversarial relationship where students try to get away with [cheating] and we try to stop them... Anything that can be cheated on easily is usually too simplistic a test."

Hi, is this Jimmy McIndigent? This is the NYU Admissions Office calling! Listen, we know you've worked so hard in high school all these years to get into the college of your dreams, but looking over your family's financial profile, it's gonna take a lot more than your summer job at Mi-T-Mart to make this nut. Now, we're not encouraging you to back out or anything—though if you did there's probably still time for us to find one more rich kid to take your place. It's just that not everyone is the right "financial fit" for NYU, which currently costs over $50,000 a year. Yeah, that's a lot, but have you seen that new Kimmel Center? We just had Ra Ra Riot play there; it was sick! Anyhoo, we've just been calling 1,800 of the 7,300 accepted students who qualified for financial aid with this little "heads up" to make sure they're seriously going through with "mortgaging their future" with all these loans! Just food for thought, k? TTYL!

       

Two New School students and one academically unaffiliated protester were arrested last night for blocking traffic on Fifth Avenue during a demonstration against police handling of last week's occupation of a university building. According to the New School Free Press, about 150 students, faculty, and supporters gathered outside the site of the occupation around 6 p.m. to condemn the NYPD and, once again, demand the resignation of president Bob Kerrey, who protesters blame for encouraging what they're calling a "brutal" and "violent" end to Friday's sit-in.

We may have mentioned that the occupation of NYU's student center ended with a whimper, but after watching this 9:22 minute video of NYU security daring to enter the barricaded cafeteria occupied by student protesters last week, we're worried our faces are now permanently frozen in deep cringe. According to NYU Local, the footage was recorded not by an NYU student but by a strident young man from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA., who seems truly appalled that officials have violated their inner sanctum, "making everyone very upset," while also deliberately ignoring his orders: "You may not detain us, you are on camera!"

          

It's been over 24 hours since New School students occupied the Graduate Faculty building in protest of school president Bob Kerrey's and other administration figures' action, and it hasn't been without incident. The students, who promised to "inaugurate a wave of occupations in New York City and the United States, a coming wave of occupations, blockades, and strikes in this time of crisis," scuffled with the police when they tried to take over more parts of the building (they were initially just in the dining hall).

It's been an eventful day for New School students occupying a dining hall at the university's Graduate Faculty building at 65 Fifth Avenue. The group, estimated to be between 75-150, has been hurriedly posting blog "communiques" about the situation as it develops. This morning they reported that "a couple of our comrades have been roughed up and a couple arrested." Then, around noon, New School President Bob Kerrey arrived and tried to dialogue with the students, but according to one communique, "we responded by refusing to negotiate with him and repeating our demand that he immediately resign. He left and took his police with him." Now Kerrey's blog is down due to "technical difficulties." Comrades have occupied the Internet! Now the New School Free Press tells us that students are debating about continuing the occupation through Christmas break, which is a month long. One potential snag is that the building will be undergoing asbestos removal next week in preparation for its eventual demolition.

     

A group of New School students, perhaps numbering 75 or more, are continuing their occupation of a dining hall at the university's Graduate Faculty building at 65 Fifth Avenue. Taking over the room last night, the group announced, "We liberate this space for ourselves, and all those who want to join us, for our general autonomous use. We take the university in explicit solidarity with those occupying the universities and streets in Greece, Italy, France and Spain."

Some New School students have gathered to "occupy" the Graduate Faculty building at 65 Fifth Avenue, in protest of New School President Bob Kerrey and Vice President James Murtha and students' lack of voice in the university's direction. According to the New School In Exile website, "The original idea of the University in Exile, and the New School in general, was to be a safe-haven for academic freedom and scholarship free of oppressive political regimes. It was known for its deep thinkers, its innovative academics, and its commitment to social and political justice as a bedrock of all other scholarship. The New School, under its current administration, is no longer able to fulfill that role of critical engagement and dissent." You can get some more info at the Facebook Group "New School Students with NO CONFIDENCE in Kerrey." Additionally, the students occupying 65 Fifth declare it "an open student study space and intent to keep the building open indefinitely" and invite other students to join in.

The NYCLU has fired off a sternly worded letter to NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly demanding that police stop arresting children in public schools under the age of 16. The state's Family Court Act prohibits police from arresting kids younger than 16 without a warrant unless they've committed a crime. But according to NYPD data obtained in a Freedom of Information Law request, 309 kids under age 16 were arrested between 2005 and 2007 for offenses like disorderly conduct, loitering, or possession of marijuana or fireworks. (In one case, an 11-year-old was arrested for trespassing at his school.) The NYCLU maintains that most of these are non-criminal offenses.

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]

Artist Kylin O'Brien is painting giant monsters around town for the NYC public school kids in a collaborative effort titled The Monster Project. "Still in its early stages, the monster project is launching its first huge public creatures at the 12th Annual Art Under the Bridge Festival" this weekend. Two of the monsters in the DUMBO area are pictured above, and before you start grading--keep in mind that the creatures are, at heart, creations of kids.

These creatures are elements of children's imaginations and reflections of what they find both powerful and frightening. As neighborhood murals, they are transformed into local guardians. Kylin's work is to refine the children's drawings while being true to their vision and energy. The kids' work is already fine and poignant.

REACH (Rewarding Achievement program), a philanthropic group, is giving cash to students for doing well on AP tests. For a 5 score (which is the highest), students get $1,000; for each 4 score, they get $750 and $500 for each 3. and over 1,000 students from select high schools (ones with high percentages of black and Hispanic students as well as AP class takers) participated, with about $1 million handed out. The Post notes this year's passing rate of 32% is lower than last year's 35% rate. REACH says it will "try and figure out what worked at these schools and how we can apply what happened at these schools to some of the other schools." Still, students are enthusiastic, with one saying, "It got to the point that we were sitting at breakfast and prepping each other on AP US history trivia."

More on that student prank gone horribly wrong: The Daily News has it that seniors at the Brooklyn School for Global Studies who served their teachers cake laced with laxatives got the idea from watching MTV’s prank-reenactment show High School Stories. Two teachers ended up in the emergency room last week after eating the tainted cake, which was prepared by a straight-A student and her two friends, and ultimately sickened a grand total of two crossing guards, a social worker and three teachers.

Teachers at the Brooklyn School for Global Studies in Boerum Hill were on the receiving end of a student prank that resulted in arrests and hospitalizations last week. When three seniors at the high school offered their teachers some slices of homemade cake, nobody suspected the students, which included a straight-A student, of filling the baked goods with laxatives as a zany end-of-the-year gag.

The total annual cost (including room and board) of NYU has gone up 65% in the past decade and next year it will reach an all-time high of $50,182 – a 5.9% increase from last year. The Washington Square News notes that the university is cash poor, drawing 60 percent of its resources from tuition. In an attempt to soften the blow, NYU plans to increase need-based aid to "more than $150 million" total.

In upholding the city's controversial ban on cell phones in public school, a Manhattan appeals court suggested adults are partially to blame. The opinion included, "If adults cannot be fully trusted to practice proper cell phone etiquette, then neither can children."

The fight over the right for school children to bear cell phones in schools moved to the Appellate Court, where lawyers for NYC and public school students' parents appeared before a five-judge panel. This comes after the City Council passed a bill allowing cell phones in schools, which the Mayor vetoed.

The Columbia University students' hunger strike to protest Columbia's non-inclusive attitudes about redevelopment and curriculum continues with one less striker. Just after midnight on Sunday, a post went on up on the Columbia Hunger Strike website saying, "This evening, one hunger striker was admitted to St. Luke's hospital. She will not continue the strike for personal medical reasons." The student, Aretha Choi, who attends Barnard, later wrote:...my disappointment increases as I remember the bitter...