Cell Phone Bans, Restrictions Are on the Rise in School Districts as Mental Health Concerns Arise

Kid on Cell Phone

Mental health has been widely discussed in the public sphere over the past few years, specifically how technology may play a role in it particularly for young people.

Recently, districts in different states have been implementing restrictions and bans on cell phones in schools in order to tackle the mental health crisis rising among teenagers and young adults. 

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Commentary: A Tumultuous School Year Winds Down

Teacher and Classroom

As the school year nears completion, a quick look at recent developments shows an education system in turmoil. The unions are more political than ever, their demands are shameless, lawsuits against the establishment abound, and school choice is rapidly expanding.

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The Country’s Biggest School Districts Are Explicitly Hiding Kids’ Gender Transitions from Parents

The nation’s largest school districts are implementing policies that require educators to keep students’ gender transitions a secret from their parents.

Los Angeles Unified School District, Chicago Public Schools and New York Public Schools are promoting practices and policies that hide a student’s transgender status from their parents. The policies have become a cultural flashpoint amid a battle over the role parents should play in their child’s education, and the extent to which gender ideology has infiltrated K-12 classrooms.

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Nation’s Second-Largest School District Stocks Overdose Reversal Drugs After Student Deaths

The second-largest school district in the country is stocking its schools with naloxone, an opioid overdose reversal drug, following student deaths, according to a Thursday news release.

In the recent weeks, nine students have died from overdoses in the Los Angeles Unified School District, with one student overdosing in the bathroom after obtaining a pill containing fentanyl from a peer, according to the Los Angeles Times. Every school in the district, beginning with elementary schools, will be stocked with the nasal spray version of naloxone, or Narcan, according to news release by the school.

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‘Queer All School Year’: Los Angeles School District Forces Gender Theory into Classroom

The largest public school district in California is teaching a curriculum promoting transgenderism and gender theory to children, according to public documents.

The Human Relations, Diversity and Equity department at Los Angeles Unified School District is using presentations, training programs and clubs to instruct K-12 students on gender identity, according to public documents, first reported by City Journal that include classroom instruction materials and district-sponsored event calendars. The “trans-affirming” curriculum first appeared during the 2020-2021 academic school year.

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Los Angeles Schools Delay Forcing Thousands of Unvaccinated Students Back to Online Learning

Los Angeles Unified School District will hold off enforcement until the start of the Fall 2022 semester for a vaccine mandate that would have moved thousands of students out of the classroom and into remote learning.

The LAUSD’s Board of Education voted Tuesday to suspend enforcement of a vaccine mandate for all students 12 and older until the fall. The original mandate, which passed in September, required students to show proof of full vaccination or obtain an exemption by Jan. 10, 2022, to continue attending in-person classes.

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Consultants Are Raking in Millions Promoting Critical Race Theory in Schools, According to Conservative Advocacy Group

Diversity, equity and inclusion consultants are getting paid millions of dollars by public schools “to push divisive ideologies” to transform American schools “from institutions of education to places of woke indoctrination,” according to a conservative education advocacy group. 

Parents Defending Education (PDE) spent four months compiling data for its “Consultant Report Card” released Thursday, which investigates 543 public school districts and agencies across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

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Commentary: California’s New Ethnic Studies High School Graduation Requirement Is Another Example of Why Parents Should Homeschool Their Kids

California Governor Gavin Newsom has signed Assembly Bill 101, authored by Riverside Democrat Jose Medina and cosponsored by the California Teachers Association (CTA), which mandates one “ethnic studies” course for graduation from high school beginning in 2030. Newsom had previously rejected AB 331, a similar bill by Medina, because it was “insufficiently balanced and inclusive.” For Katy Grimes of the California Globe, the revamped AB 101 “is not any of those things,” and ethnic studies is not an academic discipline.

Those who opposed AB 331 note that “ethnic studies” divides the people into “us and them.” Jewish organizations protested the anti-Semitic content. The authors of the Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum (ESMC) removed their names and founded the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Institute, and their curriculum “is expected to be even more anti-Semitic than the original ESMC.” As Grimes shows, this is hardly the only problem.

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All Three of the Nation’s Largest School District Heads Have Resigned

Empty Classroom

Within a roughly two-month period, the heads of the three largest public school districts in the country have all resigned, as reported by Breitbart.

The most recent resignation comes from Chicago, where the CEO of Chicago Public Schools (CPS), Janice Jackson, announced her resignation on Monday. After serving for nearly three years in the position, Jackson declared that it was time to “pass the torch to new leadership.” Under Jackson’s command, CPS began clashing with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D-Ill.) over the issue of whether or not schools should return to in-person learning, with Lightfoot attributing the constant stalemates and delays to the union’s “aspirations,” which she said are more “akin to a political party” than a union.

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