Volume 4 Issue 13 December 8, 2017

Hero Teacher Stops Shooter at Mat-
toon, IL High School

At approximately 11:30 am on Wednesday, Sep-
tember 20, 2017, a student pulled out a weapon in
the cafeteria of Mattoon High School, in Mattoon
IL. As the student pointed the gun at others in the
cafeteria, Angela McQueen, a PE Teacher at the
school, physically engaged with the gunman. Ac-
cording to reports, Ms. McQueen kept pushing the
gun towards the ceiling as the shooter fired many
rounds. One student was hit by a bullet while evac-
uating and suffered a chest wound that is reported
to be non-life threatening. Another student was
grazed on the hand. Ms. McQueen was able to
subdue the shooter, and was quickly assisted by
the onsite School Resource Officer, who then dis-
armed the shooter and took him into custody.

In the post-event press conference, Mattoon Chief
of Police, Jeff Branson, stated that he was very im-
pressed at how students and staff at the school
had followed their training by either evacuating or
sheltering in place. He said many of the rooms
were extremely well barricaded. Branson also
stated that many lives were saved by the “… quick
response of the teacher. She has been trained ob-
viously.” He praised her response, “If the teacher
had not responded as quickly as she had, I think
the situation would have been a lot different.”

In a message to the ALICE Training Institute, a
local officer of the Charleston Illinois Police Depart-
ment and ALICE Certified Instructor explained that
he had assisted the school in rolling out ALICE
Training. He praised the actions of the staff and
students; the teacher, SRO, those who evacuated,
and those who barricaded. The instructor noted, “I
couldn’t be happier with the reaction of the teach-
ers and students. When I was in school all we were
taught was to hide under a desk and call the police.
The police response to today’s shooting took
around five minutes. I shudder to think of the car-
nage we would have found inside the school if
[they] had not been armed with the skills taught to
them in ALICE.”

Greg Crane, Founder of the A study published in Violence how to handle issues regarding
ALICE Training Institute, praised and Gender just uncovered an teen dating violence.
the local instructors and the ac- area where 76% of principals ad-
tions of the school. “We are ex- mitted they had absolutely no Clearly, there’s a substantial gap
tremely grateful and appreciative safety protocols in place. between students’ needs and
for the local ALICE Certified In- protocols in place to help schools
structors who work so hard to The cause for concern: teen dat- meet those needs.
provide ALICE training to their ing violence.
communities. We could not be So if you’re weighing the options
prouder of the staff and students Further, 57% of principals who for a worthwhile school safety
at Mattoon High School who participated in the study also re- resolution for 2018, teen dating
used their response options to ported that they’d had to help a violence prevention is a good
participate in their own survival. student who had been the victim choice. And the timing is perfect,
Their actions minimized casual- of dating violence in the last two because February is Teen Dating
ties and that is always the goal of years. Violence Awareness Month.
any emergency response plan.
We pray for a quick recovery for And even though more than half These three steps will help you
those injured in this event and of principals provided assistance prepare now, so you can host a
healing for the community.” to a victim, 68% of responding top-notch safety event for your
principals said they’d never re- students next month.
ceived any formal training on

Study: 76% of principals
admit they aren’t ready

for this risk

Dating violence: 5 types escalate to black eyes or broken propriate information.
bones.
Thinking that “dating violence” Loveisrespect.org has toolkits for
only means physical violence is Some early red flags that may middle and high school educa-
a dangerous mindset. Relation- suggest dating violence are: tors.
ships can be unhealthy even if
physical violence isn’t the * problems with school atten- The curriculum includes:
weapon of choice, according to dance, especially if it’s a new
Loveisrespect.org. The organiza- issue * age-appropriate fictional sce-
tion stresses that dating violence narios along with questions to
can be: * a lack of interest in former ex- open up conversations about
tracurricular activities whether the situation was
1. Physical: hitting, slapping,
choking, kicking, grabbing, * sudden requests for changes in
pulling hair, pushing and shoving. class schedules

2. Emotional/Verbal: putting * unexplained changes in behav- healthy or unhealthy
someone down, embarassing ior, grades or quality of school-
them in public, threatening them, work * examples of conflict resolution
telling them what to wear, accus- in healthy and unhealthy relation-
ing them of cheating. * noticeable change in weight, ships
clothing or demeanor
3. Sexual: pressuring or forcing * lessons on communicating
someone to do anything they * little social contact with anyone when students – or their dating
aren’t comfortable with. other than a dating partner partners – are angry or upset,
and
4. Financial: preventing partners * making excuses or apologizing
from working or demanding their for a dating partner’s inappropri- * what to say or do if a friend
wages. ate behaviors, and might be in an unhealthy relation-
ship.
5. Digital: sending online threats, * isolation from former friends.
demanding social media pass-
words, monitoring email/texts, Most importantly, encourage staff
hacking, constantly calling/tex- to trust their gut instinct. If some-
ting to check on partner’s loca- thing doesn’t look quite right,
tion. there’s no harm in sharing con-
cerns with a guidance counselor
Early red flags: What to look or other designated school ad-
for ministrator.

Successfully preventing/reducing Age-appropriate student info
teen dating violence means fac-
ulty and staff need to be trained The purpose behind an aware-
to recognize the early signs of ness campaign is to educate
abuse that occur before things your students. Having said that,
it’s important to provide age-ap-

Irate mom: Vulgar images
on PlayStation should’ve

been a clue

A Massachusetts federal judge
refused to dismiss a Title IX claim
filed against a private school.

The private day and residential
school provides educational
services for students with autism.

Nearly 40% of teens An 11-year-old boy lived in a
suffer from this the perpetrator of violence school-operated home that was
against their romantic partners staffed by school employees.

Sad but true: Nearly 40% of 29% of boys confirmed they’d In 2014, a 17-year-old fellow stu-
teens say they’ve been abused been the aggressor in violent in- dent who lived in the house had
by their boyfriends or girlfriends. cidents with their partners, and a PlayStation. It had pornogra-
phy stored on it. He showed the
That’s the gist of an American 29% of girls and 24% of boys graphic photos and videos to the
Psychological Association press said the violence went both ways younger boy.
release. — that they’d been both the vic-
tim and the perpetrator of vio- The boy’s mother expressed
The study examined online data lence. concern that her son was living
collected by the Centers for Dis- with older students and was
ease Control (CDC). The results of this study are con- being shown sexually graphic
cerning to school officials, as a material.
More than 1,000 teens between recent study found that school of-
the ages of 14 and 20 partici- ficials said they felt unprepared The school didn’t report the older
pated in the study, which defined to handle teen dating violence. student’s conduct to the state
teen dating violence as “physical, Department of Children and
sexual or emotional psycholgical The Department of Education is- Families. Nor did it remove the
violence within a dating relation- sued a “Dear Colleague” letter, older student from the residential
ship.” outlining school officials’ respon- home. Further, it didn’t take any
sibilities to prevent and respond action to separate the two stu-
The study found: to dating violence at school. dents.

41% of girls have been a victim The CDC website has tools that 6 months later …
of adolescent dating violence can help school officials promote
healthy strategies to help stu- About six months later, the 11-
37% of boys have been on the dents build safe relationships: year-old confided in a school
receiving end of teen dating vio- staffer. The boy confessed that
lence in their relatioships the older team had repeatedly:

35% of girls admitted they’d been

* exposed himself to the younger The boy’s mom filed a Title IX Title IX and private schools
boy suit, alleging her son had suf-
fered physical injuries and se- In 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court
* pulled the younger boy’s pants vere emotional distress that decided “entities that receive fed-
down, and deprived him of educational serv- eral assistance, whether directly
ices – all because the school or through an intermediary, are
* started touching the boy’s gen- failed to protect him after the first recipients within the meaning of
itals. red flag. Title IX.”

When questioned, the older stu- As you know, Title IX prohibits A little background about federal
dent admitted what he’d done. discrimination on the basis of sex funding and Title IX: “Recipients”
The school removed the student in “any education program or ac- of federal funding – whether they
from the residental home, but still tivity receiving federal financial are “initial, intermediary or ulti-
allowed him to attend the day assistance.” mate” – must comply with the
school. It did not report the abuse statute.the money to be a “recip-
to the state. The private school argued it ient” of that grant.
didn’t receive federal funds, so
For three months, the younger the mother couldn’t state a valid The private school said it is a
boy exhibited symptoms of se- Title IX claim. mere beneficiary, while the stu-
vere emotional distress. When dent insisted it is a recipient.
his mother complained again, the It asked the court to toss the
school removed the older stu- case.
dent from the day school.

To draw the line separating this A Florida senior was in an on- I’m on my own. No one cares
sometimes-fuzzy distinction, line chat with classmates. In the about me.
courts look at whether Congress chat room, he posted that he was
intended for the institution to re- going to kill himself the next day. 3. Nothing I do makes a bit of dif-
ceive federal funds. If it did, then No one reported the threat. The ference. It’s beyond my control.
the institution is probably a recip- following day, he fatally shot him- Kentucky
ient. self during a fire drill at Lake Min-
neola High School. The incident Maddie Yates, a 16-year-old who
Court also look at whether the in- caused confusion, as many ini- attended Louisville Male High
stitution can opt out of receiving tially thought it was an active School posted a video entitled
the funds. If it can, that also shooter situation. “Important” on YouTube and
points to a finding that they are shared it on Twitter before she
recipients. In Missouri, a student fatally committed suicide.
shot herself at Lee’s Summit
Here, both factors weighed in North High School. School ad- In the three-minute video, Mad-
favor of a finding that the private ministrators called police after re- die apologized for what she was
school was a recipient, the court ports of a gunshot. After initially about to do, but explained she
said. issuing a soft lockdown, the suffered from depression.
school dismissed students and
The private school was the recip- canceled all after-school activi- She stressed: “I don’t want any-
ient of federal funds, so the court ties for the day. one to feel like it was their fault.
refused to dismiss the claim. Fur- This was my decision, not yours.
ther, the court found a reason- Comments that raise red flags I’m the one who messed up, not
able jury could find the school’s you. There’s nothing, literally
response to the alleged abuse According to SuicideLine, a sui- nothing that you could have
was “unreasonable in light of the cidal student – or faculty member done.”
known circumstances.” A trial – might say things like:
was needed. The video was taken down from
1. What’s the point? Things are YouTube, but that was after it
Doe v. League School of Greater never going to get any better. had been shared by classmates
Boston, No. 16-cv-11940-IT, throughout the school.
2017 3594257 (D. Mass. 2. I can’t take this anymore.
8/21/17). In an effort to protect students,
the district temporarily blocked
Disturbing trend: Teens access to YouTube and Twitter
commit suicide at school on its network. It also brought in
20 grief counselors to help stu-
Two teens fatally shot them- dents process what happened.
selves while they were at school.
And this situation has a heart-
breaking twist: Maddie had
planned to take part in an up-
coming fundraising walk for sui-
cide prevention to honor a friend
who had committed suicide dur-
ing the previous year.

Principal admits he lied George Kenney’s odd behavior School digs deep to
about hypnotizing stu- in 2011, when three North Port settle strip-search lawsuit
High School students died after
dents they were hypnotized. A former New York student will
2011 receive $375,000 to end a law-
Two committed suicide, and the suit that alleged she was sub-
At New Port High School in third was in a fatal car crash after jected to an illegal strip and body
Florida, former principal George “self-hypnotizing” – a technique cavity search.
Kenney hypnotized 75 people – Kenney taught the teenager.
in spite of three district warnings According to court documents,
ordering him to stop, a school in- In 2012, Kenney resigned after student “Jane Doe” was ordered
vestigation found. he was charged with practicing to disrobe and subjected to a
therapeutic hypnosis without a li- body cavity search based on
The practice was common cense. He entered a no-contest suspicion of illegal drug posses-
knowledge, according to reports. plea and served a year of proba- sion.
Kenney advertised on Amazon, tion.
claiming hypnosis would help in- No drugs were found.
crease motivation and reduce In 2013, Kenney surrendered his
test anxiety. teaching license. The student sued the district and
several school defendants in
Questions came up when three Now the Sarasota County School their individual capacities, includ-
students died shortly after being District has agreed to pay ing two principals and a school
hypnotized by Kenney. Two stu- $200,000 to each of the families nurse.
dents committed suicide – and a of the three students who died
third died in a car accident. after Kenney’s unorthodox me- The settlement:
dicinal techniques.
Kenney has been assigned ad- 1. requires the district to imple-
ministrative duties while the po- ment new training programs with
lice investigation continues. procedures on how to conduct
legal searches, and
District settles bizarre
‘hypnotizing’ case 2. absolves the school employ-
Current ees from personal liability.

The Florida principal who was in- The matter was resolved in June
vestigated for hypnotizing stu- with a confidientiality clause, but
dents without a license? after a local paper made re-
quests through the Freedom of
Information Act, the details of the
settlement were recently re-
leased.

The police were notified about

‘But that’s not fair!’
Cheerleader kicked off
squad for Snapchat post

A Pennsylvania federal court
said a school had to let a sus-
pended cheerleader back on the
squad. Here’s why:

The cheerleader posted a photo
of herself and a friend on
Snapchat. The caption read,
“fuck school fuck softball fuck
cheer fuck everything.”

The cheerleading coach kicked
the girl off the squad for the rest
of the year, saying her profanity
violated the athletic code of con-
duct.

Online, but off-campus

The cheerleader sued, alleging The school said it had the author- ker v. Des Moines Independent
the coach violated her speech ity to discipline her for obscene School Dist.
rights by disciplining her for off- speech, pointing to the U.S.
campus speech. She asked the Supreme Court’s Bethel School But the coach testified the girl
court to order the school to rein- Dist. #43 v. Fraser ruling. was disciplined for profanity – not
state her to the squad. causing a distraction.
Not so, the court said. Fraser es-
To obtain the preliminary injunc- tablished that a student could be The girl was likely to win her
tion, the student had to show – suspended for making an ob- claim, so the court ordered the
among other things – that she scene speech during a school school to let her resume her po-
was likely to win her claim. assembly. In Fraser, the Court sition on the cheerleading squad.
specifically said, “If [the student]
The photo was taken and posted had given the same speech out- B.L. v. Mahanoy Area School
over the weekend while she was side of school … he could not Dist., No. 3:17-CV-1734, 2017
not participating in a school- have been penalized.” WL 4418290 (M.D. Pa. 10/5/17).
sponsored event, the girl noted.
She said the school crossed a The speech occurred off-cam-
line by disciplining her for off- pus, so the only way the school
campus speech. could discipline her was to show
the speech caused – or was
The coach testified that the stu- likely to cause – a substantial
dent was suspended from the disruption, as established by the
squad due to her use of profanity. Supreme Court’s decision in Tin-

out-of-school suspensions. Of
that percent, 18 percent were
black boys, 10 percent were
black girls, 5 percent were white
boys and 2 percent were white
girls.

Overall, black K-12 students are
3.8 times more likely to receive
one or more out-of-school sus-
pensions than white students.

Black Preschoolers 3.6 collected during the 2013-2014 Preschoolers Suspended 3x
Times More Likely to Be school year and included 16,758 More than Other School-Aged
Suspended Than White school districts (99.2 percent of
all public school districts), 95,507 Children
Students schools (99.5 percent of all pub-
lic schools) and 50,035,744 total “Expulsion in early childhood ed-
A study from the U.S. Depart- public school students. ucation is not an intervention.
ment of Education found black Over a decade of research and
children represent 19 percent of Privately-run schools and day- data tell us that the policies and
preschool enrollment but make cares are not required to report practices of suspension and ex-
up 47 percent of all suspensions. suspension numbers. pulsion in early childhood, which
disproportionately affect children
A study from the U.S. Depart- The group broke down the num- of color, are causing harm to chil-
ment of Education shows black bers by males and females as dren and families,” the National
preschoolers at public schools well. It found black males repre- Association for the Education of
are 3.6 times more likely to re- sent 19 percent of male pre- Young Children wrote in a state-
ceive one or more out-of-school school enrollment but make up ment regarding CRDC’s findings.
suspensions than white 45 percent of male suspensions.
preschoolers. Black females represent 20 per- In the statement, NAEYC also
cent of female preschool enroll- references a twelve-year-old
The Civil Rights Data Collection ment but make up 54 percent of study from Yale University, which
conducted a survey and found female suspensions. determined preschoolers are
black children represent 19 per- three-times more likely to be ex-
cent of preschool enrollment but The study also found similar pelled than school-aged children,
make up 47 percent of all pre- racial disparities in suspensions reports American Progress.
school suspensions. White stu- for students in grades K-12. Of
dents represent 41 percent of the 2.8 million K-12 students sur- More recent data from the Na-
preschool enrollment but only veyed, 1.1 million were black and tional Survey of Children’s Health
make up 28 percent of all pre- 610,000 were Latino. shows 50,000 preschoolers were
school suspensions. suspended at least once in 2016.
Six percent of total students sur- Another 17,000 preschoolers are
The data used for the study was veyed had received one or more estimated to have been expelled,
equaling out to approximately
250 preschool suspensions or
expulsions each day in 2016.

Yale University Professor Walter not feature any challenging be-
havior, indicating many of the un-
Gilliam, a contributor to the 2005 derlying causes of preschool
discipline are rooted in adult bias
Yale study, says the best three instead of child behavior.

predictors of preschool expulsion

are the three B’s: “big, black or

boy”. An additional study was re-

leased by Yale in 2016 and

looked into implicit racial bias

among early educators, suggest-

ing it is a large reason for the dis-

proportionate punishment

received by black boys.

In the study, teachers watched a
video of preschoolers and were
later asked to point out poten-
tially troublesome behaviors.
Overall, black boys were
watched more closely and were
sometimes flagged for challeng-
ing behaviors.

However, the video actually did