Pinellas schedules bullying prevention workshops

Parents, if you're concerned about bullying - and how can you not be after reading stories like this and this - then check out one of these upcoming workshops. The Pinellas school district is holding four of them in the next month or so, with the first one Wednesday at the Title I Family Resource Center, 2499 25th St. S in St. Petersburg.

Bully broke Pinellas student's leg, mom alleges in lawsuit

A Pinellas County woman is suing the School Board for negligence after staffers at Sawgrass Lake Elementary allegedly failed to protect her son from a well-known bully. According to the complaint, Jennifer Giroux says the other student "aggressively tackled" her son after recess on Oct. 6, 2006, leading to a broken femur. She's seeking more than $15,000 in damages.

The suit, filed Sept. 28 in Pinellas Circuit Court, says the other student was "particularly known to both students and faculty as overly aggressive" during recess and lunch. It also says Giroux's son told the school about the other kid's "animosity and aggression toward him," including on the day of the incident.

The suit is the third filed against Pinellas in a little more than a month that involve similar claims.

Pinellas schools to offer swine flu vaccines

The Pinellas County Health Department will offer H1N1 flu vaccines in Pinellas public schools beginning the first week of November. Parent information packets containing details about the vaccines, a screening form and a parent consent form, will be distributed through schools the week of Oct. 19. Both the H1N1 flu shot and H1N1 flu nasal spray will be offered free to all children enrolled in public schools. For more information, click here.

Ex-Countryside High wrestler files suit against PInellas school board

A former wrestler at Countryside High has filed suit against the Pinellas school board in the wake of a hallway encounter that left him in intensive care for three days.

The complaint, filed Sept. 18 in Pinellas circuit court, says Richard Serra III was "violently attacked by another student" on Feb. 10 and suffered "bodily injury and resulting pain and suffering." It says the school board "negligently failed to provide and maintain a safe environment for its students." It says Serra is seeking more than $15,000 in damages.

According to a March St. Petersburg Times story, police reports say Serra slammed his head after he and another student "began some horseplay" and was taken by helicopter to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg. A senior and a promising wrestler at the time, Serra was left with a broken left rib, a fractured skull, a reptured ear drum and a broken left collar bone that required surgery. The other student was suspended for 15 days.

National survey: Middle schools hostile to gay students

A new national survey suggests middle schools can be downright hellish for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender kids. Among its findings:

* 91 percent of LGBT middle school students said they often or frequently heard the term "gay" used in a derogatory way.

* 82 percent said they often or frequently heard homophobic epithets from other students.

* 63 percent said they heard the school staff make homophobic remarks.

Sponsored by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, the survey is billed as the "first national research to look specifically at the experiences of LGBT students in middle school."

The New York Times Magazine recently ran this cover story about "coming out" in middle school.

*

"Tunnel vision" may have led to Pinellas bus confusion

The chaos at some Pinellas bus stops a few weeks ago may have been caused in part by district employees who did not know they were collectively clumping scores of students at the same stops, associate superintendent Michael Bessette told the school board this week.

Bessette is still in the process of reviewing what went wrong. But he told board members that bus routers with "tunnel vision" may have been among the problems, along with a huge uptick in the number of students using arterial busing - from 3,500 last year to 12,000 this year among high school students alone. He said the routing system apparently does not include a trip wire that lets everybody know when too many kids are being assigned to the same stop.

Lawmaker aims to keep teens from texting while driving

Pasco high schools have grown so concerned about student safety while driving that they've required teens to attend a Safe Behind the Wheel program before receiving a school parking pass.

Now Pasco lawmaker Rep. John Legg, who heads the House Pre-K-12 Policy Committee, is urging his colleagues to take the idea a step further by banning texting while driving. He's failed to pass such legislation in the past. This time, Legg is using visuals to press the issue.

In an e-mail to all House members, Legg linked to a gruesome, graphic 4-minute video reenactment of a crash caused by a teen who was checking her text messages while driving a car. He then wrote:

" 'The right to swing your fist ends where the other persons nose begins.' ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Supreme Court Justice.

"Currently, 17 states and DC restrict texting and driving.  Please help save lives and let us make Florida number 18 this session!"

(Photo from carenvy.ca)

USF installs emergency warning sirens on Tampa campus

TAMPA -- If the University of South Florida is ever the scene of a Virginia Tech-style rampage, students, faculty and staff will be alerted by eight emergency sirens recently installed around campus.

The sirens, a throwback to the civil defense warning systems of the Cold War, are being installed and will be tested in coming weeks, the university announced today. As soon as next week, people on campus could hear chimes or a few words being spoken over the loudspeakers as the system is hooked up.

Each has a siren, strobe light and loudspeaker and is capable of sending out a loud warning noise, followed by a very short message. The sirens are designed to give students and others a first warning about an emergency. Other information would be available through text messages, the school's Web site or digital signs on campus. The system could be used to send alerts on tornadoes, chemical spills or fires.

Poll: Strip searches at school

Should schools be allowed to strip-search students when looking for drugs and weapons?
Yes. Safety first.
No. That's too intrusive.

Virtual schooling expands

To help Florida school districts meet a new state law, the Florida Virtual School has partnered with a private provider to offer more virtual classes for elementary school students. Announced last week, the partnership between FVS and Connections Academy also expands current virtual offerings for middle schoolers.

Florida was a national leader in virtual schooling even before Gov. Charlie Crist signed HB 7067, which requires all districts to offer virtual school options beginning with the 2009-10 school year. The new law has raised some concerns.

Hernando school cops may be cut

BROOKSVILLE — Crossing guards and half the police officers stationed in Hernando County schools are in danger of being eliminated next fall due to budget cuts, officials said Tuesday.

Sheriff Richard Nugent said he might not be able to afford his department’s nearly 60-percent share of the $979,586 budget for school resource officers, due to last January’s passage of the Amendment 1 property tax initiative and declining property values.

Also endangered: his department’s entire $72,421 crossing guard budget.

“This information is being provided to you in the event that our agency is no longer able to provide funding for these school-related programs,” Nugent said to school superintendent Wayne Alexander in a March 6 letter obtained by the St. Petersburg Times.

Promoting "cybersafety"

Florida education commissioner Eric J. Smith and Attorney General Bill McCollum issued a cybersafety challenge today, trying to make sure that all middle and high school students in the state get exposed to McCollum's presentation on internet safety.

"One of the most important lessons we can teach our young people this year is how to protect themselves from internet child predators," McCollum said in a news release. "By challenging our principals to sign up their students to receive CyberSafety Education presentations before the school year ends, we hope to ensure as many children as possible have the tools they need to stay safe online."

For more information on the program, click here.

Safer school buses

Feel like your children aren't secure enough in their school buses? You're not alone.

US Transportation Secretary Mary Peters unveiled a proposal today to make school bus seat backs four inches taller and to require short buses to begin using shoulder strap seat belts, the AP reports. Peters didn't go so far as to recommend mandated seat belts in all buses, saying local school districts should decide for themselves whether to retrofit their buses.

"Our proposed rule would make children safer, put parents at ease and give communities a clearer picture of how to protect students," Peters said in a news release. "It's never too late to learn, especially when it comes to protecting our children."

The department will take comments on the proposed rule for the next 60 days.

Hillsborough school board suspends three

TAMPA -- Hillsborough County School Board members on Tuesday suspended without pay three of its employees, including two teachers arrested on charges stemming from sexual involvement with teenagers and a custodian accused of murder.

"They're off our campuses or classroom, as the case may be. They're not being paid," said Hillsborough schools spokesman Steve Hegarty. "That's appropriate, that's where we should be. "

From left to right in pictures above:

• Christy Ayala, a secretary at Dickenson Elementary accused of three counts of lewd and lascivious molestation of a 15-year-old boy. Three times between February and September, Hillsborough sheriff's detectives say,  Ayala and the boy met at his home, where she fondled, kissed and hugged the boy and asked him to touch her in inappropriate places.

• Stanley Telfare, a Blake High School custodian arrested on murder charges in the death of school secretary Elalia Walker, who died a week after being hospitalized with severe brain injuries. On Oct. 11, a witness told Temple Terrace police he saw a man hit a woman then throw her into a van within the Orange River Estates subdivision. Police never found the van, but later that evening, Telfare brought a severely-injured Walker to her home. Her family asked what happened. Telfare told them Walker jumped from a van as they were driving, police said. Originally charged with felony battery and kidnapping, charges against Telfare were upgraded to first-degree murder after Walker's death.

• Christina Butler, the Middleton High School special education teacher recently arrested on charges of having sex with a 16-year-old student. A bizarre traffic stop in late October involving a group of teenagers ultimately led to the arrest of Butler. She later admitted to having sex with a 16-year-old boy up to a dozen times. Fifteen-year-old Shatavia Kendricks said she tried repeatedly to report the inappropriate relationship to school officials, but the school suspended her for 'spreading rumors.'  In response, Kendricks' family is suing  the school board.

-- Casey Cora, Times staff writer

Booking photos courtesy of Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office

Fence me in

Some people don't like the idea of fences around schools. The public, they say, should have access to the playgrounds and fields when classes aren't in session.

A story coming out of Seminole County reminds about the importance of fences. And it has nothing to do with child snatching.

The Orlando Sentinel reports that Seminole school officials will be taking a closer look at their elementary school playground fencing after an autistic student walked away from campus during recess . Luckily, the boy wound up at a nearby house, where a passing county fire crew found him.

But the fact that the boy could just slip away has superintendent Bill Vogel concerned, beyond the poor oversight by an aide who faces discipline. He wants to make sure that all the schools have proper fencing that keep kids in, as well as others out.

State: School nurse forged license

BROOKSVILLE -- She gave out Bandaids and cough drops, even inserted catheters and feeding tubes for special-needs students -- just like a real school nurse.

Except she wasn't one, officials said.

Hernando County School Board officials say Jean Sciacovelli, 42, never earned the practical nursing license that got her hired last year at Deltona Elementary School.

Sciacovelli was arrested Wednesday on felony charges of unlicensed practice of a health care profession, after a joint investigation by the Florida Department of Health and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. She is being held in the Hernando County Jail and bail was set at $5,000.

1443 accidents

When a Hillsborough bus driver swerved her bus into the bushes, injuring 11 kids, to avoid an armadillo, we all took note. One story focused on drivers with multiple accidents - apparently something that happens too often.

We also requested data from the state on just how frequently bus accidents happen. The information didn't come soon enough for a story. But here it is.

Between July 2006 and June 2007, the Department of Education logged in 1,443 bus accidents. Among those:

• 1,225 were between a bus and another vehicle
• 174 were single-vehicle crashes
• 1 involved a train
• 8 people were killed
• 297 people were injured
• 1,300 occurred on a clear day
• 83 occurred on a rainy day
• 393 of the drivers had 10 or more years of experience

For the full report, click here. To see the 2005-06 report, click here.