School Gun Free Zones - Look At the Data

This is part of a discussion between Dr. Drew and John Lott of the Crime Prevention Resource Center. The enter video is 20 minutes long, but I have it cued up to the 5 minutes, or so, on school shootings, and public mass shootings.

This is Crime Prevention Resource Center video On Ask Dr. Drew: To Discuss the Lie of Decreasing Crime

We have about 14,000 public schools in the United States that allow teachers and staff to carry out of about 100,000. Some of these schools have had it for decades. And you look at the legislative debates, people will say things. They're worried that uh a teacher may lose their temper and shoot a student or a student may get a hold of a gun and and go and harm others. Are those possible? Yeah, sure they're possible.

But we don't need to guess. You can go and look at all those cases. And looking at the data from 2000 through the end of last year, there's not one single case like that that's occurred. In fact, if you look at the data, what you find is that all the shootings at schools where anybody's been wounded or killed in an attack have all occurred in schools where teachers and staff are banned from being able to go and have guns.

The entire interview is worth the time, if you have 20 minutes.

College Students Can't Do Middle School Math

I'm not surprised. The "system" they use to teach math is insane, and needs to be dropped. 1,000 University of Calif Professors Revolt: Students Can't Do Middle School Math, Demand Return of SATs - Geller Report

Over a thousand University of California professors signed an open letter to the Board of Regents demanding they bring back standardized testing after it was removed during covid for equity.

They reveal that many STEM students are below Middle School level in Math. The poison fruit of leftwing policies. Dumb students, an obvious consequence of avoiding reality.

When the Liberals have lost university professors in California, this shows that they are so far around the bend, that they can't see it in the rear-view mirror.

Click thru.

A Student Dared to Have Conservative Opinions in Her Class

So she embarrassed him in front of the entire class. Gainesville Florida teacher to appear in court over 'dictator' award

"A teacher chose to designate a student as the “most likely to become a dictator.” A parent brought this issue to my attention. I immediately took action to investigate the issue," Kamoutsas wrote in an Aug. 21 X post. "I found probable cause and will take every necessary action to ensure this teacher never teaches again."

Because the school system is not about teaching. It is about indoctrination.

Chicago Public School Teacher Charged with Assaulting Student

I miss civilization. Teacher charged with beating, choking 12-year-old is sixth CPS employee accused of assaulting students this school year - CWB Chicago

A Chicago Public Schools teacher is accused of beating and choking a 12-year-old student inside a South Side classroom, making her at least the sixth CPS employee charged this school year with physically or sexually assaulting students.

Alayne Pierce-Collins, 37, faces felony counts of aggravated battery of a child causing great bodily harm and aggravated battery of a child by strangulation causing great bodily harm.

Click thru for details on the other 5 cases.

Poor people in Chicago are trapped into sending their children to public schools, and the public schools in Chicago are terrible, in every way you can imagine.

Linda McMahon on Dismantling the Department of Education

Linda McMahon went on the Planet Tyrus podcast. It is an interesting discussion.

The TL;DR version is the short, 30 second version: Linda McMahon: Skilled Workers Are the New Millionaires

This is the Planet Tyrus video Linda McMahon: Ending the Dept. of Ed. & The WWE Legacy. The full video is just short of one hour.

The full section of the discussion on trade schools starts at 34 minutes and 58 seconds in. That is about 5 or 6 minutes of the full video.

They do spend some time on WWE at the outset, but given that Tyrus is talking to Linda McMahon, it is expected.

Chicago Public Schools Can't Teach

Chicago Contrarian brings us a story of fail. Why Does This Failing Chicago Public School Remain Open?

[The Heritage Foundation's Corey A.] DeAngelis took to his X account to note that Douglass High School was built for 912 students but today has only 28 kids thanks to the number of people moving away each year from Brandon Johnson’s drowning Windy City.

Despite that the school is almost entirely empty and has only a fraction of the number of students it once had, it still doesn't have any kids who can read at grade level. Let that sink in. Not one of its 28 students are proficient at reading.

The staff to student ratio is 1:1 at that school. Now that will include all too many administrators - the bureaucracy is out of control - but the student to teach ratio is low.

So why is the school open? The unions. Why can't anyone read? Because public schools in large cities are not about teaching. They are all about politics and indoctrination.

They Should Never Have Graduated from High School

And they should flunk their classes. Professors Issue Warning Over Surge in College Students Unable to Read - Slay News

But no. The professors will bend over backward to pass them, because anything else - like meritocracy - would be too conservative.

A growing number of college professors are sounding the alarm over a quiet but accelerating crisis on American campuses, as Gen Z students are arriving at universities unable to read at even a basic level.

Why should they be able to read. Their "teachers" haven't been teaching. They have been indoctrinating.

Jessica Hooten Wilson, a professor of great books and humanities at Pepperdine University, told the outlet:

“It’s not even an inability to critically think.

“It’s an inability to read sentences.”

Professors say it is the predictable outcome of a K–12 system that no longer ensures basic competence.

Standards were lowered, accountability eroded, and reading increasingly treated as optional.

Read the whole depressing thing. And then thank a Teachers' Union.

How Chicago Public Schools Are Destroying That City

From George Shay at Chicago Contrarian we get the following. CPS Corruption Exposé Shows Why Chicago Teachers Union’s Reign of Terror Must End — Now

Those who can’t do, teach. And those who can’t teach…govern. This must stop

Chicago did not arrive at this moment by accident. The city did not simply “lose its way.” What we are living through is the predictable outcome of institutional capture, centered on one sprawling bureaucracy that now consumes a staggering share of your property taxes while producing fewer students, worse outcomes, and a governing class increasingly detached from reality: Chicago Public Schools.

Chicago spends $30,000 per student, with little to show in the way of actual education, as measured by test results. They got PPP loans despite being fully funding during the lockdown. They spent money on bus services during the remote-learning fiasco. There were 355 sexual misconduct cases in a single year. Residency rules (teachers are supposed to live in the city) were ignored. And more.

The CTU is now a political machine, one that trains candidates, finances campaigns, writes policy, and enforces ideological discipline.

Its alumni dominate City Hall and exert enormous influence over Cook County and Springfield. Mayor Brandon Johnson is not an outlier; he is the model. His ascent from classroom to union leadership to the fifth floor is the clearest illustration of how CPS culture metastasized into city governance.

Read the whole thing, because it is not only Chicago that is being destroyed.

Thank (or Blame) a Teacher

The NY Post brings us the story of a complete failure. College kids’ math skills worse than ever, California finds — blame our pass-the-buck public schools

High school graduates cannot do basic math.

How basic? In 2023, 13% of students who took a UC San Diego math assessment could not perform at first-grade level, and 25% of kids got the equation 7 + 2 = [ ] + 6 wrong.

This is terrifying — and the worst part is how inevitable the collapse has been.

This is beyond sad.

An 18-year-old can only hide an inability do first-grade math through 11 further years of schooling if no mandatory testing is in place to catch and correct the problem.

That is all thanks to teachers, and the teachers unions. Hat tip to Pirate's Cove - Surprise: The Kiddies Cannot Do Basic Math, Per Report

Are These Teachers So Out of Touch?

The Abode of McThag answers that question. $36 A Month!

The teachers in my county are discovering how the rest of us live.

Their new health plan will result in them paying up to $36 a month to pay for their health insurance!

AND They will have co-pays for emergency room visits.

AND They will have more limited choices about whom they go to see and under what circumstances.

Oh?  You mean just like the rest of us since Obamacare?

So, the answer is, "Yes, they are completely out of touch."

And they blame everyone but themselves. (How did they behave during COVID?)

This is all from Pasco County, Florida, which is about 15 miles north of downtown Tampa.

If an Electric Bus Catches Fire Is It Still a Zero Emission Vehicle?

Asking for a friend. School bus catches fire in Montreal, 5 children inside unharmed | CBC News

In Montreal, five children and their bus driver are unharmed after their electric school bus caught fire on Tuesday morning.

And yes, it was a Lion Electric bus from the now bankrupt company in Canada. Though it may now be out of bankruptcy since they told their US customers to pound sand, in that they won't honor warranties, and haven't been providing repair services.

Click thru for a photo of the bus on fire and a photo of the aftermath.

Hat tip to MGUY Australia and his video 🔥 Yet ANOTHER electric SCHOOL BUS fire 🔥

Chicago Teachers Union Dismantles Merit Programs

They are not interested in teaching. From Chicago Contrarian: The Threat the Chicago Teachers Union Poses to Students’ Health and Safety

The Chicago Teachers Union leadership is working overtime to restore their shrinking public support by escalating fears that the coming federal intervention is akin to a foreign invasion, presenting the CTU as the great protector of Chicago’s public-school children. The CTU CORE leaders and the CORE Caucus are anything but defenders of students. The fact remains that the CTU has never prioritized either the public safety or the educational well-being of Chicago’s students. Instead, the union has by their policies and actions put students at increased risk while inflicting long-term generational damage. Let’s look at the ways.

I'm shocked that a teachers union - especially in large Blue City - would be worried more about politics and equity that teaching kids. OK, not shocked at all.

This is no accident. It is part of a broader CTU-driven campaign to shield underperforming schools from scrutiny by eliminating clear accountability measures.

Heaven forbid you would reward good people and get rid of the bad. That sounds a bit too much like.... MERIT. We can't have that.

ADD and ADHD - Another Big Pharma Goldmine

Science? What science? ADHD - the Truth Goes Down the Memory Hole - Mail Online - Peter Hitchens blog

This has been going on a long time.

In the article I state that ‘I should here quote from the final statement of the panel, from the USA's National Institutes of Health Consensus Conference on 'ADHD', held on November 18th 1998.

‘They concluded : ‘We do not have an independent, valid test for ADHD, and there are no data to indicate that ADHD is due to a brain malfunction’ (my emphasis).

Read the whole thing, before it is memory-holed. Again.

Most people above a certain age don't realize that schools have pretty much gotten rid of recess. You 10 year old can't sit still for 6 or 8 hours per day, with no chance to run around, so we are going to drug him. (Usually him)

Gun-Free Zone or Defenseless Victim Zone?

You can't make a "gun free zone" by putting up signs or passing a resolution. Minneapolis School Shooter Chose Target For Being A Gun-Free Zone | Concealed Nation

We know how to make locations safe. Putting up signs isn't the way to do that.

A devastating mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis has revealed a chilling truth: the attacker specifically chose the school because it was a gun-free zone.

The Left, whenever someone mentions this, will say, "We don't want schools to be prisons."

The universe of choices is not limited to two:

1. Do nothing
2. Turn schools into prisons

But you will have to take some actions that liberals will complain about. When they complain, accuse them of wanting to see dead children in the news, or of not caring about the safety of students.

Here is a 2022 article from Newsweek about a school in Florida. Signs Warn About 'Deadly Force' at Florida Schools: 'Teachers Are Armed'

The image below is from the article. The author called the signs controversial because a bunch of people on F*c*book got their nickers in a twist.

New York Needs Common Sense Stanley Mug Control

Or something. From the New York Post we get a story that had me losing more faith in humanity. Exclusive | Long Island teen attacked with metal 'Stanley' mug speaks out

Does anyone need a stainless steel mug? No. Limit people (in New York) to paper cups. That will fix things!

A Long Island teen who needed 17 stitches when another girl’s mom allegedly bashed her with a metal “Stanley” water mug says she’s too traumatized to return to school — much less ever use the brand of cup again.

This one is not mother of the year.

The girls, including a 15-year-old, have issues with her [the victim's] cousin, which made her a target by extension, Madison said.

Then the "adult" gets involved.

At one point, [35-year-old] Monroe can be heard saying, “Give me your Stanley” to her daughter, who obliges.

She then takes that Stanley mug and uses it to beat a 17-year-old

The other adults are not too adult in reacting to the situation.

“If you’re going to let the kids fight, then let the kids fight — kids will be kids, we’ve all done it growing up — but you don’t jump in and fight kids,” Forney said.

Seriously? Violence between students is the answer?

Monroe was arrested, but released without bail, because anything else would be unfair. She was charged with assault.

Chicago Teachers Union, Mayor Brandon Johnson, Allegations, and Disregarding the Rules

I'm shocked to discover that a Chicago politician is being accused of something underhanded. Leaked video shows Brandon Johnson faced allegations of 'hiding' $8M in Chicago Teachers Union funds

The main story, as described in that headline/title.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson faced allegations that he hid millions of dollars from members of the Chicago Teachers Union while working for the union, video footage obtained by The Last Ward shows.

Then there is following the rules. Or not, if you're a union boss.

Union rules clearly state CTU must produce an audit for members every year. Specifically, the CTU financial secretary is required by union bylaws to “furnish an audited report of the Union which shall be printed in the Union’s publication.”

But Gates and Potter have refused to do that since 2020, so members filed a lawsuit. The union then filed a motion to dismiss that lawsuit, and a Cook County judge denied the motion.

Audited financial records? Don't you trust the union bosses? (The answer is apparently, "Hell No!")

Other news includes Chicago pension sweetener. Parking mandates for new construction. Governor Pritzker running for President.

Armed Teachers in Texas

Texas is one of the states that allow teachers to carry concealed firearms. Concho Valley schools that allow teachers to carry firearms

I'm not a lawyer, and I don't even live in Texas, but I believe that Texas has one program to arm teachers. It is known as Guardian. It dates to 2009 according to what I have seen.

These are the benefits of a Guardian program, according to the Tom Green County Sheriff Nick Hanna:

“It establishes for somebody wanting to attack that they are going to meet resistance,” Hanna said. “The fact that these schools are in the county, even if officers are nearby, our response time is going to be several minutes away. When we have Guardians, you are going to buy yourself a little bit of time, and that’s when the minutes really matter.”

There is a great image of a sign you meet on the way into one of the schools, that basically says if you come here expecting to do harm, armed teachers will do harm right back at you. You should click thru for that alone.

And while they provide a list of Guardian schools near San Angelo, Texas, they also provide a list on non-guardian schools. I suppose the the Professional Journalists™ think that second list is of superior schools, though they do note those schools have a school resource officer.

Liberal Policy Doesn't Work. Liberals Want More of It

Their own study says it's a failure. So they're going to keep it. NYC public schools boss admits ‘restorative justice’ discipline policy needs work — but is here to stay — as police incidents spike

Still, Schools Chancellor Melissa Aviles-Ramos insisted the $100 million push toward the softer discipline style — which favors “meditation rooms” and phone calls to parents over suspensions — was here to stay.

But what does the data say?

The comments came as the new study, released by the Manhattan Institute think tank Thursday, found the new disciplinary policy has largely been a bust — with police incidents in schools doubling to 4,200 reports this year and “chronic absenteeism” spiking to a whopping 35%.

Shocking incidents and data cited in the report pointed to increased disruptive behaviors and questions over classroom safety and academic progress since the reforms began in 2015 under then-Mayor Bill de Blasio, and continuing under Mayor Eric Adams.

Somehow I am not surprised that Liberals don't give a damn about classroom safety or academic progress. They are liberals, and the way the feel about a policy is more important than if that policy actually works or not.

Schools and Active Shooters

Can we have a rational discussion? Probably not. Should Teachers Carry Guns in Schools? | USCCA

What happens if there is an active school shooter. People, for whatever reason, don't want to protect schools. That would mean we would harden them, and provide security. Why? Because that isn't what it was like in their idyllic childhood. So what do you do, if a bad guy, or a crazy person, shows up with a gun?

It takes law enforcement anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes to respond to an emergency. The FBI reported that 69 percent of active threat events end in five minutes or less, and 67 percent are over before officers arrive. For rural schools, response times can stretch up to 20 minutes or longer — minutes that schools can’t afford to lose.

The last couple of events that come to mind were at churches, and the person was stopped by someone, not a cop, and a school shooting that was stopped by a cop.

So what should happen in that 10 or 20 minutes? Assuming of course that you don't live in a place like Uvalde, Texas, where the cops will show up and do nothing.

People in an active shooter incident have 3 choices. They can run, they can hide, or they can fight.

According to the research, [from The Purdue Homeland Security Institute,] when all the victims hide, the survival rate was 1.8 percent. When all the victims fought back, the survival probability was 98 percent. Their findings showed that the introduction of an SRO, armed staff member or both into a school shooting event resulted in significantly higher survival rates.

Click thru and read the article. Pros. Cons. The feelings of teachers. There is a lot about "feelings" when there isn't data. This is followed up with a spinkling of "might" and "could." But the article does look at both sides of the question.

State laws vary significantly. Some states, like Ohio, have robust programs like FASTER, while others allow individual districts to make decisions. Kansas permits arming teachers but faces insurance challenges. Policies frequently change, so it is crucial for teachers and parents to check with their state’s most recent legislation.

As I said, read the whole thing.

And here is my favorite photo of what I consider the most useless SWAT team in America. They sure look spiffy in their uniforms with their tactical gear and their diversity.

A Failed Generation

Or a generation setup for failure. This is sad, and I don't know that you can blame this on the lockdowns, or not only on the lockdowns. San Francisco employers are hiring etiquette coaches for Gen Z

Didn't any of them have parents? They have no basic skills, and some of them don't even understand personal hygiene.

One supervisor told [Rosalinda Randall, a Marin-based etiquette coach] a new hire repeatedly left food wrappers scattered on the communal lunch table, assuming janitors would clean it up. ‘Their manager didn't know how to handle it, as they didn't want to sound like a parent,' said Randall.

Companies have been reduced to spending money to teach Zoomers how to act like grown ups.

• how to make eye contact
• where to stick your name tag (always on the right)
• how to ask for — not demand — things from your boss.
• personal hygiene (because two new hires did not shower or change their shirts for weeks)
• why being an "office siren" is inappropriate

Hat tip to Not the Bee with Companies are hiring etiquette coaches to help Zoomers acclimate to the workplace, and MaddMedic.