Monday, March 10, 2014


Idaho Legislature Overwhelmingly Passes Campus Carry

Despite the emotional outcry from faculty and college administrators, the Idaho House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a law enabling citizens with an enhanced concealed carry permit to carry handguns on college campuses

    Idaho lawmakers on Thursday approved a measure allowing concealed guns to be carried onto university and college campuses.

    The legislation, which cleared the state House of Representatives by a 50-19 vote and was overwhelmingly approved by the state Senate last month, now heads to Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter for his signature.

    If the Republican governor signs the bill into law as expected, Idaho will be the seventh U.S. state that allows guns on college campuses, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

    The passage of the Idaho bill comes amid a tense debate on the extent of gun ownership restrictions in the United States, which has seen a string of recent shootings at schools, movie theaters and other public places.

    Under the legislation, those who gain a so-called enhanced concealed-carry permit in Idaho can carry firearms on campus except in such places as residence halls and public entertainment facilities like football stadiums.

The law is expected to be signed by Governor Otter and should be in effect for the next academic year.

SOURCE





College Sends Police to Arrest Its Employee After She corrected a map

When Ginger Anderson, a Utah Valley University employee and student, made a small change to an incorrect wall map inside of one the school’s buildings, she had no idea it would result in her being manhandled and arrested by police officers.

The 48-year-old, who works in the information center at the university, says she marked on the map with a marker because students were having trouble getting to classes. In fact, it was literally depicted upside down. She claims she corrected the map’s compass, and wrote in marker that the map was upside down.

That was in January.

Two days later, two officers with the UVU police department confronted Anderson and informed her that she would be issued a citation for “criminal mischief.” What happened next was caught on one of the officer’s lapel cameras.

When Anderson refused to immediately comply with the officers’ demands to come to the police station, one of the cops grabbed her, pushed her against the wall and took her to the ground.

Police say Anderson resisted while the UVU student and employee claims the officers used excessive force. Anderson also claims officers tried to handcuff her hands behind her back while she was wearing a large backpack, making that task difficult.

“Let me take my backpack off!” the woman can be heard shouting in the video.

An independent review found that Anderson did indeed resist — both passively and actively — and therefore officers did not break any laws or act inappropriately, KUTV reports.

Anderson says she’s more shocked that the police department decided to take such extreme action over a marking on a map that was intended to help students.

SOURCE







UK: GCSE shame of 'flagship' academies as it is revealed six of the Coalition's schools are among the country's worst

Six of the Government’s flagship Academies [charters] can today be revealed as the worst  schools in England for GCSE results.

The academies performed  so poorly last year that at least half their pupils did not gain any passes at C grade or above, a Mail on Sunday investigation has found.

Some of the schools have been warned by Ministers to improve their standards or face intervention by the Department for Education, while others say they have not been academies for long enough to turn around results.

Christopher McGovern, chairman of the Campaign For Real Education, said: ‘These results represent  a massive betrayal of the young people concerned.’

The controversial academies programme has been backed by Education Secretary Michael Gove as a way  of boosting standards.

The new figures, obtained from the Department for Education under Freedom of Information laws, differ from official exam tables because they show only the schools’ GCSE results and exclude  so-called ‘equivalent’ national vocational qualifications.

But they will renew criticism that academies, which operate independently of town halls, often having business-backed sponsors, lack accountability.

Worst performing was the Barnfield Business and Enterprise Studio Academy in Luton, where 71 per cent of pupils failed to get a pass.

The school defended its record saying it provides ‘a unique, skills-focused education for students  who would otherwise be disengaged’, adding results based solely on GCSE passes did not reflect its students’ real improvement.

SOURCE

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