Education

News Updates

April 10, 1991 2 min read
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The former principal of a Dade County (Fla.) high school that was stripped of its National School of Excellence award has been charged with falsifying the attendance and enrollment records that helped the school win the award.

The Dade County State Attorney’s office has charged Michael Kesselman with two first-degree misdemeanor counts of falsifying public records during the 1989-90 school year. If convicted, Mr. Kesselman could face a $2,000 fine and up to two years in jail.

The former principal, who is now teaching social studies at another school, has denied any wrongdoing.

Last September, the school board released the findings of its investigation, which confirmed local press accounts that someone at the school had falsified records in order to win the award. (See Education Week, Jan. 9, 1991.)

A federal judge has agreed to delay for a year the opening of a new Montessori school in Dallas.

U.S. District Judge Barefoot Sanders agreed late last month that the Dallas school district could not open the school by the 1991-92 school year as he had ordered under the district’s desegregation plan. (See Education Week, Jan. 30, 1990.) He allowed an extension until the 1992-93 school year, but also ordered that the Harry Stone Middle School, which will house the new program, be vacated at the end of this school year so renovation can begin.

The American Medical Association entered the debate over dissection in precollegiate science classes last week by charging that animal-rights groups have misled people into contributing money to publish “anti-science” materials that they then distribute free to “impressionable children.”

Dr. Daniel H. Johnson, vice speaker of the ama’s House of Delegates, said last week in Atlanta that the press conference marked the beginning of the association’s efforts “to fight back” against a “tremendous anti-intellectual threat from animal extremists.”

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a Washington-based animal\nights organization that espouses total abstinence from the use of animals and animal products, began campaigning this spring to have dissection banned from K-12 schools. (See Education Week, Feb. 20, 1991.)

“We’re going to start [fighting back] by calling [the peta campaign] what it is ... a frontal attack on science in the schools,” Mr. Johnson said.

The American Medical Association entered the debate over dissection in precollegiate science classes last week by charging that animal-rights groups have misled people into contributing money to publish “anti-science” materials that they then distribute free to “impressionable children.”

Dr. Daniel H. Johnson, vice speaker of the ama’s House of Delegates, said last week in Atlanta that the press conference marked the beginning of the association’s efforts “to fight back” against a “tremendous anti-intellectual threat from animal extremists.”

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a Washington-based animal\nights organization that espouses total abstinence from the use of animals and animal products, began campaigning this spring to have dissection banned from K-12 schools. (See Education Week, Feb. 20, 1991.)

“We’re going to start [fighting back] by calling [the peta campaign] what it is ... a frontal attack on science in the schools,” Mr. Johnson said.

A version of this article appeared in the April 10, 1991 edition of Education Week as News Updates

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