Today's news

TAKE ME OUT TO COMMENCEMENT: Tropicana Field is an increasingly popular graduation spot for Pinellas County high schools. But what to do when eight want the Trop on the same week, during a Rays homestand?

BAD KIDS (LOCAL EDITION): Two eighth graders lace their teacher's Pepsi with Febreze at Giunta Middle School. They're in trouble. She's taking leave to sort things out in her head.

THEY NEED A DEGREE: Gov. Charlie Crist joins several of his predecessors in saying that the state's prekindergarten teachers should have four-year degrees. Whether the Legislature will join the call remains to be seen.

BAD BUS DRIVER: One school bus driver didn't like how the other was driving during a student field trip to Georgia. So he shot him dead. No students were present at the time, the Sun-Sentinel reports.

DO YOU HAVE TO SAY YES, SIR? The Troops to Teachers initiative takes hold in Florida schools, as more and more retired soldiers enter the classroom, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

STUDENTS HAVE SPECIAL NEEDS: Parents demand better treatment of children in Sarasota County's exceptional student education program, where substitutes have taken the place of permanent teacher aides, the Herald-Tribune reports.

STUDENTS HAVE RIGHTS: This time, it's a New York state fourth grader, whose school stopped her from distributing a personal religious message to classmates. A judge slaps down the district, saying it violated the girl's First Amendment rights, the Associated Press reports. The Florida-based Liberty Counsel, which pops up in these cases all over the place, is in this one, too.

CLASS-SIZE DISPUTE GROWS: The California school district that lied about its efforts to shrink its classes to meet state mandates faces another round of allegations, as more teachers step up to say they were asked to sign that they had fewer students than they did, the LA Times reports. Are you watching this, Florida? Class size counts go to the classroom level next year.

Comments

[John]

The application of the "Class Size Amendment" will be very easy for me. When the 26th student shows up in any ONE of my SIX classes next year, I walk out the door, hand in my keys and leave.