No teacher in there:
"Philadelphia schools cancel teachers’ contract" Associated Press October 07, 2014
PHILADELPHIA — The troubled Philadelphia school district abruptly canceled its teachers’ contract Monday, a surprise move designed to force them to make health care contributions after two years of stalled labor talks.
The announcement came at a hastily called meeting of the state-run School Reform Commission.
District officials said they have no plans to cut wages of the 15,000 teachers, nurses, and other members of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers. Its members would pay $55 to $140 per month for health care premiums, and face other benefit cuts, starting in December, unless the move is challenged in court.
The American Federation of Teachers called the vote Monday ‘‘a well-planned Hail Mary ambush’’ by Governor Tom Corbett, a Republican, who faces a tough reelection fight. ‘‘Corbett’s School Reform Commission has amped up a war on teachers and support staff,’’ federation president Randi Weingarten said in a statement.
Related: Pennsylvania Porn Scandal
Maybe the kids be be taught about that.
The district, one of the nation’s largest, has 135,000 students. Officials have eliminated 5,000 jobs and closed more than 30 schools as they cut nearly $1 billion in expenses in the past few years. The district perennially struggles with a deficit caused by rising pension and health care costs and payments to charter schools.
And because Wall Street filled their pension funds with bad mortgage-backed securities.
Officials said the benefit concessions were on a par with those made by administrators and other workers. ‘‘Requiring teachers and other employees to contribute to their health care costs is a change and a sacrifice, but contributing to health care benefits is the reality of today’s workplace,’’ Superintendent William Hite said in a letter to parents. ‘‘Limited resources require difficult decisions.’’
I'm so sick of hearing state and local governments argue poverty when corporations and the 1% are having wealth lavished on them by the same interests.
City schools have been under state control since 2001. Under the takeover law, teachers do not have the right to strike.
Just learned something?
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Looks like the teachers deserve to be fired:
"Trial ordered in Philly school cheating probe" The Philadelphia Inquirer September 04, 2014
PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia principal and three teachers have been ordered to stand trial on charges that they helped young children cheat on standardized tests by reviewing questions beforehand and changing answers.
State authorities last spring filed charges of forgery, conspiracy, tampering with public records, and other counts against Cayuga Elementary School principal Evelyn Cortez and teachers Jennifer Hughes, Lorraine Vicente, and Ary Sloane.
Several teachers testified during Tuesday’s lengthy preliminary hearing that they saw incorrect answers changed and teachers berated for not taking illegal steps to boost scores, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Daniela DePaola, a special-education teacher at the school from 2009 to 2013, testified that she once walked into Hughes’s classroom to find Cortez working with students on their state exams. She said Cortez told one student an answer was wrong, and after the student changed it said the new answer was also incorrect.
‘‘She said it was still wrong,’’ DePaola said. ‘‘She said, ‘Fix it.’ ”
On another occasion, she said, Cortez reprimanded her in her classroom for not assisting her pupils on the test.
‘‘She yelled at me in front of the students that I wasn’t helping the students,’’ DePaola said.
Defense attorneys have said that their clients are innocent and will be vindicated.
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Stay away from windows:
"Pennsylvania infant hit by bullet will be blind" AP October 02, 2014
CLUNE, Pa. — The family of a 6-day-old Pennsylvania boy who was wounded by a hunter’s stray bullet said the infant is expected to survive, but will be blind.
Stefanie Iverson, 30, said her son Shayne’s life was spared when the bullet exited through the eye socket of his skull rather than hitting his brain.
‘‘He’s lost his vision, but that’s probably what saved his life,’’ Iverson told the Indiana Gazette.
The boy’s father, Jeremie, 42, was holding him on Sept. 25 when the bullet came through a window of the family’s Young Township home and struck the baby’s skull.
Indiana County District Attorney Pat Dougherty said the hunter had an agricultural deer control permit.
The shooting was likely accidental, but questions remain about whether the hunter followed state regulations, and Dougherty said he could make a decision about whether to file criminal charges by the end of the week.
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He got lucky in more ways than one:
"Parents charged in death of son found in home" Associated Press October 01, 2014
HARRISBURG, Pa. — A central Pennsylvania married couple have been charged with homicide in the starvation death of their 9-year-old son, whose decomposing body was found when police were called to their Harrisburg house about two months ago.
In documents charging Kimberly and Jarrod Tutko Sr. on Monday in the death of their son, Jarrod Tutko Jr., police said that the 17-pound child had been living in a bare room smeared with a thick layer of feces and had suffered from several painful conditions.
An autopsy concluded that the child, who had a genetic disorder with autism-like symptoms, died of malnutrition and neglect.
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A "most horrible feces-covered crime scene."
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
"Autistic teen says he was duct-taped to goalpost" | Associated Press October 09, 2014
NATRONA HEIGHTS, Pa. — A high school soccer coach and two players have been suspended for at least five days after an autistic teammate told police the two teens duct-taped him to a goalpost.
Austin Babinsack, 16, told Harrison Township police he was left taped to the goal for 15 to 20 minutes Sunday evening before passersby heard his screams and freed him.
The Highlands School District, about 20 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, issued a statement saying that coach Jim Turner, who was not present at the time, and two 17-year-old players identified by Babinsack have been suspended.
Misty Chybrzynski, a district spokeswoman, said the coach was suspended because of an ongoing investigation. The district declined further comment, saying it was a personnel matter.
‘‘We officially cannot discuss the status of any special needs students,’’ she said. Police may also file juvenile court charges against the two teammates, although Chief Mike Klein did not immediately return a call Wednesday seeking additional comment.
Kristy Babinsack, the victim’s mother, said she hopes the coach will be fired and the other players expelled, though she has praised the district’s response.
‘‘He was bawling,” she said of her son. “He was terrified.”
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Related(?): Autism Links to Vaccines: Whistleblower Reveals Evidence of Criminal Coverup by the Centers for Disease Control
But they are telling the truth about Ebola, yessireee!
"Stabbing suspect to be treated in detention center" Associated Press October 09, 2014
PITTSBURGH — A judge has reversed his own ruling and ordered a teenage boy awaiting trial in a Pennsylvania high school stabbing rampage to remain in a juvenile detention center and receive mental health treatment there.
Westmoreland County Judge Christopher Feliciani changed his ruling Tuesday because he and the attorney for Alex Hribal could not find a secure mental hospital willing to treat the boy, either because he is a minor or because of the security risks involved.
Hribal, of Murrysville, who turned 17 last week, is charged with attempted homicide, aggravated assault, and a school weapons violation for stabbing 20 students and a security guard at Franklin Regional High School on April 9. All the stabbing victims survived, although four were critically injured at the time. The school is about 15 miles east of Pittsburgh, and the court where Feliciani is based is about 30 miles east of the city.
Thomassey acknowledged the boy committed the crimes using two 8-inch kitchen knives he took from home, but he said Hribal has mental issues that need to be addressed at a hospital. Instead, two doctors will treat the boy while he remains at the county’s detention center.
Feliciani had ordered Hribal moved to a mental hospital after a four-hour hearing Sept. 26. At the hearing, two psychological experts hired by the defense testified the boy may be developing schizophrenia and needs intensive, ongoing, inpatient mental health treatment.
I want to know what pre$cription pharma$euticals he was or is now on, and in any event they are going to dope this kid up so much he won't be able to talk.
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You can go back to your cup of bloody coffee now.
