Students in New Haven, Conn., will be suspended or expelled if they commit a violent crime anywhere in the community, under a new policy set by Superintendent John Dow Jr.
Mr. Dow has ordered school principals to monitor police reports and suspend for 10 days any student accused of engaging in violent crime.
During the suspension period, school officials will investigate the incident to determine whether the student should be permanently expelled, according to Rosa Quezada, deputy superintendent.
Under the policy, officials will have the authority to suspend or expel students regardless of whether they are formally arrested, indicted, or convicted of a crime.
Ms. Quezada said the policy was issued in response to a shooting incident last month, in which a student was wounded by a bullet apparently aimed at an alleged student drug dealer.
The purported drug dealer was the first person suspended under the new directive. His assailant remains at large.
The superintendent said the new measure was necessary to “make sure schools were not a sanctuary” for violent criminals.
The policy could be challenged in court, however. Connecticut Civil Liberties Union officials have argued that it violates students’ constitutional right of due process.
Foundation Aids Philadelphia
In High-School Restructuring
The Pew Charitable Trusts has awarded $447,000 to the School District of Philadelphia to help the district restructure its 21 comprehensive high schools.
Under the grant, the district will create an independent organization to begin planning the proposed restructuring. The new group, which is expected to consult with nationally known educators, will be headed by Janis Somerville, formerly the district’s planning director.
Superintendent of Schools Constance E. Clayton announced last January that improvements in the high schools, which have been plagued with high dropout rates and low achievement levels, would be her top priority. At the time, she appointed task forces to consider such changes as smaller classes and instructional techniques that would help students and teachers work more closely together.
While the initial five-month grant will enable the district to plan its changes, Pew officials intend to continue their “long-term support” of the Philadelphia schools, according to a spokesman for the foundation.
Three AIDS Carriers Win
$1.1-Million School Settlement
Three brothers who were denied access to their Florida school because of their exposure to the aids virus will receive nearly $100,000 each over 10 years, as part of a $1.1-million settlement with the school district.
Ricky, Robert, and Randy Ray, who were exposed to the virus during treatment for hemophilia, were refused admission to the Memorial Elementary School in Arcadia, Fla., in 1986 and 1987. In August 1987, the boys attended school under a federal court order, but the family fled to Sarasota after parents of other students staged a boycott and their house was burned by an unknown arsonist.
Under the terms of their agreement with the DeSoto County school district, the boys will each receive $820 a month for 10 years. The boys’ parents each will receive at least $300 monthly for 30 years, and an immediate $50,000 cash payment. The settlement also includes attorneys’ fees and court costs.
A lawyer for the Ray brothers described the settlement as the largest ever made for an aids civil-rights case.
DeKalb Teachers Reassigned
To Balance Per-Pupil Spending
School officials in DeKalb County, Ga., have reassigned 42 teachers to predominantly black schools in an effort to clear theor the school system’s dismissal from federal-court jurisdiction.
A federal judge in June ruled that the district had largely met the terms of its 1969 court-ordered desegregation plan, but that it must take action to balance the assignment of teachers by race and experience across the district, as well as to remedy the lower average per-pupil spending in mostly black schools.
The per-pupil spending disparity occurred largely because the black schools were expanding more rapidly, and thus had teaching staffs that were on average less experienced and less well-paid than the district’s average, school officials said.
The reassignments have lowered student-teacher ratios and increased per-pupil spending in the mostly black schools, the officals said.
The local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has criticized the teacher reassignments, saying that the district should have evaluated the specific needs of each school and developed new programs with the additional resources.
Teacher strikes in a handful of school districts continued to delay classes for an estimated XX,000 students last week, according to officials of the national teachers’ unions.
Spokesmen for both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers said that, as of Oct. 7, teachers in eight school districts were on strike in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
All of the striking local unions are nea affiliates.
Much of the activity is in Pennsylvania, where teachers from four districts are on strike, affecting an estimated 6,860 students.
The Mesa (Ariz.) Public Schools can charge middle-school students for early-morning classes they take to allow time for electives or religious programs later in the day, the state attorney general has ruled.
The district is the only one in the state to charge for the early-morning classes. The state department of education sought the ruling from Attorney General Bob Corbin after it received complaints about the fees.
A Nashville, Tenn., student who says he switched high schools in order to attend special-education classes should be allowed to play interscholastic football, a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Court Judge John T. Nixon said that Michael Crocker could remain on the McGavock High School team until the school district determined why he transferred.
A statewide athletic association earlier had barred Mr. Crocker from the team, under a regulation that excludes first-year transfer students from sports.
Arguing that he had had to transfer in order to receive special-education services, Mr. Crocker sought an exemption from the rule. When his request was turned down, he sued the athletic association and the school district, claiming that his rights under the federal handicapped-education law had been violated.
District of Columbia schools should do more to inculcate such values as self-respect and love of family, a study committee has recommended.
In its report, the Commission on Values-Centered Goals urged the school board to require junior-high and high-school students to perform community service, to segregate elementary-school classes by sex, and to hire more male teachers to serve as positive role models for young boys.
The Tucson (Ariz.) Unified School District violates federal civil-rights laws by providing students in two middle schools with an educational environment inferior to that of other district schools, parents have charged in a class action against the district filed in federal court.
The two predominantly minority schools, as well as a third school that is the subject of a similar pending lawsuit, have lower staffing and educational standards, fewer resources, and substandard facilities compared with schools in the district that serve whites, charged Armand Salese, a lawyer for the parents.
“What we see as the principal problem is staffing,” Mr. Salese said, arguing that the teachers and principals in the three schools have low expectations for their students.
way for the school system’s dismissal from federal-court jurisdiction.
A federal judge in June ruled that the district had largely met the terms of its 1969 court-ordered desegregation plan, but that it must take action to balance the assignment of teachers by race and experience across the district, as well as to remedy the lower average per-pupil spending in mostly black schools.
The per-pupil spending disparity occurred largely because the black schools were expanding more rapidly, and thus had teaching staffs that were on average less experienced and less well-paid than the district’s average, school officials said.
The reassignments have lowered student-teacher ratios and increased per-pupil spending in the mostly black schools, the officals said.
The local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has criticized the teacher reassignments, saying that the district should have evaluated the specific needs of each school and developed new programs with the additional resources.
Teacher strikes in a handful of school districts continued to delay classes for an estimated XX,000 students last week, according to officials of the national teachers’ unions.
Spokesmen for both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers said that, as of Oct. 7, teachers in 10 school districts were on strike in Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
Seven of the striking local unions are nea affiliates, and three are aft affiliates.
Much of the activity is in Pennsylvania, where teachers from four districts are on strike, affecting an estimated 6,860 students.
The Mesa (Ariz.) Public Schools can charge middle-school students for early-morning classes they take to allow time for electives or religious programs later in the day, the state attorney general has ruled.
The district is the only one in the state to charge for the early-morning classes. The state department of education sought the ruling from Attorney General Bob Corbin after it received complaints about the fees.
A Nashville, Tenn., student who says he switched high schools in order to attend special-education classes should be allowed to play interscholastic football, a federal judge has ruled.
U.S. District Court Judge John T. Nixon said that Michael Crocker could remain on the McGavock High School team until the school district determined why he transferred.
A statewide athletic association earlier had barred Mr. Crocker from the team, under a regulation that excludes first-year transfer students from sports.
Arguing that he had had to transfer in order to receive special-education services, Mr. Crocker sought an exemption from the rule. When his request was turned down, he sued the athletic association and the school district, claiming that his rights under the federal handicapped-education law had been violated.
District of Columbia schools should do more to inculcate such values as self-respect and love of family, a study committee has recommended.
In its report, the Commission on Values-Centered Goals urged the school board to require junior-high and high-school students to perform community service, to segregate elementary-school classes by sex, and to hire more male teachers to serve as positive role models for young boys.
The Tucson (Ariz.) Unified School District violates federal civil-rights laws by providing students in two middle schools with an educational environment inferior to that of other district schools, parents have charged in a class action against the district filed in federal court.
The two predominantly minority schools, as well as a third school that is the subject of a similar pending lawsuit, have lower staffing and educational standards, fewer resources, and substandard facilities compared with schools in the district that serve whites, charged Armand Salese, a lawyer for the parents.
“What we see as the principal problem is staffing,” Mr. Salese said, arguing that the teachers and principals in the three schools have low expectations for their students.
