Another School Year, Another School Shooting
There鈥檚 an innate tension between school safety and students鈥� civil rights. 社区黑料鈥檚 Mark Keierleber keeps you up to date on the news you need to know
;)
Education news and commentary, delivered right to your inbox.
Sign up for 社区黑料 newsletter.
School (in)Security is our biweekly briefing on the latest school safety news, vetted by Mark Keierleber.听Subscribe here.
As students across the country return to school, a mass school shooting in Minneapolis has again reignited debates about听听in the U.S.,听 鈥� and youth embrace of听
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz this week announced plans to convene a in the wake of the Annunciation Catholic School shooting that took place while students attended an annual Mass to kick off the new academic year. Two children were killed and 21 people, 18 of them students, were injured.
Vice President JD听Vance and his wife went to the church Wednesday,听听and visited one of the hospitalized young survivors. The injured girl鈥檚 father,听Harry Kaiser, questioned Vance on whether he would 鈥渆arnestly support the study of what is wrong with our culture, that we are the country that has the worst mass shooter problem?鈥澨�
As has happened in shooting after shooting, attention quickly turned to the assailant鈥檚 online presence as people sought to understand what could motivate such a heinous act. On social media, 鈥� from anti-Christian hate to the radicalization of transgender people 鈥� reached millions of eyeballs.
The 23-year-old perpetrator died by suicide after the rampage. Like other shooters, the Minneapolis attacker indicating mental health struggles, suicidal ideation and, perhaps most importantly, a .
The attacker 鈥渁ppeared to hate all of us,鈥� Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said during a briefing. “More than anything, .”
In the news
A 鈥榗atastrophic鈥� hack:听Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit Wednesday against education technology giant PowerSchool, which fell victim to a massive cyberattack last year that compromised the sensitive data of some 60 million students and 10 million educators globally. The state alleges the breach, which affected some 880,000 Texas听teachers and students, occurred because PowerSchool 鈥渇ailed to implement even the most basic security features.鈥� |听
- The move is the latest in a slew of lawsuits from parents, students and school districts adversely affected by the massive hack. |听社区黑料
- Matthew Lane, a 19-year-old from Massachusetts, is scheduled to be sentenced in federal court next week after pleading guilty to the extortion scheme over the summer. |听
As Texas and other Republican-controlled states seek to erode the separation of church and state by endorsing Protestant Christianity over other faiths, Paxton has urged students to use a new law allowing prayer time in public schools to practice the Lord鈥檚 Prayer 鈥渁s taught by Jesus Christ.鈥� |
Victims speak out: Haley Robson, who was 16 when she was first sexually abused by financier Jeffrey Epstein, recounted on Wednesday how she was forced to recruit young victims from her high school. |
Florida鈥檚 surgeon general announced plans to end state vaccine mandates for children attending public schools, while officials in California, Oregon and Washington joined forces to preserve access to the life-saving shots. |
The Los Angeles school district has settled a lawsuit filed by parents who allege the pandemic-era remote learning policies of the country鈥檚 second-largest K-12 public education system discriminated against students of color, English learners and those with disabilities. |
Sign-up for the School (in)Security newsletter.
Get the most critical news and information about students' rights, safety and well-being delivered straight to your inbox.
The Walt Disney Company has agreed to pay $10 million to settle a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit over alleged children鈥檚 privacy violations after the entertainment behemoth improperly uploaded kid-focused videos to YouTube and enabled targeted advertising. |
- Meanwhile, the FTC announced a settlement with a Chinese robot toy manufacturer accused of illegally collecting U.S. children鈥檚 location data. |听
Stainless steel water bottles made by Stanley and Yeti are all the rage. But this New York district says they鈥檙e a no-go on campus 鈥� claiming they pose safety risks. |
Trump vs. trans kids: As the administration seeks to clamp down on districts that don鈥檛 inform parents when their children identify as transgender at school, the Education Department revived an obscure 12-year-old privacy case to access district emails. | 社区黑料
- Two Northern Virginia school districts have sued the Trump administration challenging the federal government鈥檚 assertion that policies allowing transgender students to use restrooms and locker facilities violate anti-discrimination laws. |听
- The legal dispute has been fodder in the state鈥檚 gubernatorial race, in which Republican candidate Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears has placed anti-trans bathroom policies among her top campaign issues. |听社区黑料
- In South Carolina, state officials filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court after an appeals court blocked enforcement of a new law denying trans youth access to facilities that align with their gender identity. |听
- The Trump administration warned officials in 40 states they could lose federal funding unless they scrap lessons from sexual education materials that focus on LGBTQ+ issues. |听听
An online group that calls itself Purgatory has claimed responsibility for a string of swatting calls that drew massive law enforcement responses to college campuses at the start of the new academic year. |
In a middle-of-the-night operation, the Trump administration scooped up 76 unaccompanied minors as they slept at federal shelters, in a deportation bid that was then temporarily blocked by a federal judge. |
A new Florida law will require educators to get parents鈥� permission before spanking students as a form of school discipline. |
- Student activists lobbied for the law after an investigation by 社区黑料 revealed that Florida educators most often used corporal punishment to address minor infractions like 鈥渆xcessive talking,鈥� 鈥渋nsubordination鈥� and 鈥渉orseplay.鈥� |听社区黑料听
ICYMI @The74
Confusion as Kids Head Back to School and RFK Jr. Calls the Shots on Vaccines
Kids Shouldn鈥檛 Access Social Media Until They鈥檙e Old Enough to Drive, Book Says
Emotional Support
Sinead ponders summer鈥檚 end while boating over Labor Day weekend.听馃摲: Kathy Moore
Did you use this article in your work?
We鈥檇 love to hear how 社区黑料鈥檚 reporting is helping educators, researchers, and policymakers.
