Playing It Safe: New York City Schools Chancellor Joseph Fernandez has proposed that condoms be distributed on request to students in all of the city’s high schools to stem the spread of AIDS among adolescents. If the plan is approved, the district would likely be the first in the nation to distribute condoms to students on an unrestricted basis.
No Choice: An appellate court in Wisconsin has struck down a controversial parental choice program that allows Milwaukee public school students from low-income families to use state money to attend nonreligious private schools. The ruling hinges on the method the legislature used to pass the voucherprogram, not the actual merits of the policy.
So Much For Stereotypes: Although they are often viewed as selfish and materialistic, more than half of U.S. teenagers performed volunteer work last year, and nearly half contributed money to charities, according to a new Gallup Poll commissioned by the Independent Sector, a nonprofit coalition of organizations interested in philanthropy.
Ma Bell To The Rescue: The Southwestern Bell Telephone Co. last fall photocopied 140,000 pages of math, science, and Spanish textbooks for the Dallas Independent School District to remedy what has become an annual textbook shortage. Slow delivery of new books and unreported student losses of old ones are among the explanations district officials have offered for their textbook woes.
Black (And Blue) Marks: Report cards sent home with Baltimore public school students last fall included more than grades; they also contained an insert designed to prevent dissatisfied parents from physically abusing their children. City officials developed the insert after noting a rise in child abuse at report card time.
Getting Organized: Teachers at a Roman Catholic high school in St. Paul, Minn., have voted to establish a union, the first at a Catholic school in the state. But the local archdiocese has gone to court to block the union, arguing that the First Amendment shields the Catholic school from state labor laws.
