Today's news

GAY STUDENTS GAIN ACCEPTANCE: Six years ago, just four Pinellas high schools had student-run clubs that preach tolerance for gay kids. Today, 16 have the clubs, as more and more teens say sexual orientation doesn't matter. (Times staff photo)

A SHOW OF UNITY: Pasco teachers plan to wear black and then leave school together at the end of the day Wednesday to protest a proposal to freeze their wages and cancel their annual step increases.

CELEBRATING THREE PRINCIPALS: The leaders of Forest Lakes, Brooker Creek and Tarpon Springs elementary schools call it a career.

TOP OF THE CLASS: Seminole High senior ready for Juilliard School

A FEW WORDS ON THE FALL REFERENDUMS: Times columnist Howard Troxler suggests that Amendment 7 (religious freedom) and Amendment 9 (state's duty for children's education) have misleading titles. Manatee superintendent Roger Dearing, meanwhile, warns that Amendment 5, a tax swap proposal, could put school funding in a "pretty perilous position," the Bradenton Herald reports.

KIDS DID IT: Two East Lee County High freshmen have been suspended for spraying a chemical irritant, likely pepper spray or Mace, into air vents, causing the school to be evacuated twice in a week, the Fort Myers News-Press reports.

SOMETHING MUST GO: Florida State University wants to build a wellness center on campus. To make it fit, though, it has to knock down some other building, the Tallahassee Democrat reports.

EDUCATION, FREE. GRADUATION, COSTLY: The cost of graduating from high school, from cap and gown to yearbook, can be pretty expensive for Florida's senior class, the Fort Myers News-Press reports.

ANOTHER TEACHER ARREST: A military instructor at Sarasota High has been arrested, accused of inappropriate sexual conduct with a student, the Herald-Tribune reports.

AROUND THE NATION: An Indiana teen wins the national spelling bee with the word 'guerdon,' the AP reports (via LA Times). A court overturns a Colorado law intended to funnel more tax money to education, the Rocky Mountain News reports.

Visit the Gradebook at noon for an interview with children's author Jon Scieszka, who talks about getting kids reading over the summer.