(Photo Source: WFTX Channel 4)

A high school student in Ft. Myers, Florida, and two other classmates tackles another student brandishing a gun on school bus. What did they get for their efforts? Suspension for being involved in a “weapon related incident”. Another student in Killeen, Texas has been suspended for coming to the aid of a classmate in a medical crisis.

We have some good news on the public school front. Parents in Omaha, Nebraska are fighting to keep the left wing “gender identity” agenda from being forced down their kids’ throats. Schools belong to the parents, it is beyond the time for them to take them back.

Also, during our Silencer Shop Quiet Time segment Professor Paul will discuss the value of take a moment for reflection.

From truefeed.us:

A Florida high school student wrestled a loaded gun away from another teen on the bus ride home this week and was slapped with a suspension in return.

The 16-year-old Cypress Lake High student in Fort Myers, Fla. said there was “no doubt” he saved a life after grappling for the loaded .22 caliber revolver being aimed point-blank at another student on Tuesday.

“I think he was really going to shoot him right then and there,” said the suspended student, not identified by WFTX because of safety concerns. “Not taking no pity.”

The student said the suspect, a football player, threatened to shoot a teammate because he had been arguing with his friend.
Authorities confirmed the weapon was indeed loaded, and the arrest report stated the suspect, identified as Quadryle Davis, was “pointing the gun directly” at the other student and “threatening to shoot him.”

That’s when, the teen told the station, he and two others tackled the suspect and wrestled the gun away. The next day, all three were suspended.

“How they going to suspend me for doing the right thing?” he asked.

The school’s referral slip said he was given an “emergency suspension” for being involved in an “incident” with a weapon. Lee County School District spokesman Alberto Rodriguez said in a statement that “If there is a potentially dangerous situation, Florida law allows the principal to suspend a student immediately pending a hearing.”

From www.ksdk.com:

A Killeen mother is defending her son who was suspended after helping a fellow student having an asthma attack.

Anthony Ruelas, 15, said his eighth grade classmate was wheezing and gagging for three minutes Tuesday morning while no one did anything. But when Ruelas did do something, he apparently broke the rules.

“He may not follow instructions all the time, but he does have a great heart,” said Mandy Cortes, Ruelas’ mother.

Ruelas goes to Gateway Middle School, an alternative school in the Killeen Independent School District. Ruelas has been suspended before, but Tuesday was different.

“I wasn’t trying to hear it,” said Cortez. When she picked her son up from school for the suspension she told him,”No, they already told me what happened you walked out of class, and he was like ‘ok forget it’, but I can tell, ya know you know your kids, I could tell he was upset.”

The reason Ruelas walked out of class? He was carrying a friend to the nurse’s office.

“I was like what? I’m suspended for this? Like, I was trying to help her,” said Ruelas.

According to Ruelas, the teacher was waiting on an email from the nurse and told the class to remain calm and stay in their seats. Fearing for the girl’s health, Ruelas didn’t listen and after several minutes of inaction, went against the teacher’s wishes to help his friend.

Ruelas’ referral form from his teacher reads in her handwriting:

“During 5th period another student complained that she couldn’t breathe and was having an asthma attack. As I waited for a response from the nurse the student fell out of her chair to the floor. Anthony proceeded to go over and pick her up, saying ‘f—k that we ain’t got time to wait for no email from the nurse.’ He walks out of class and carries the other student to the nurse.”

“I broke rules but, she need help, like she needed help,” said Ruelas.

“I don’t, ya know think, he should have used that language, but as far as getting suspended for walking out of class, he could have saved her life,” said Cortes.

Killeen ISD released this statement Wednesday in response to the incident:

“The District is unable to provide details related to the matter as it pertains to information involving student discipline and/or health records. In an effort to protect students’ rights to confidentiality granted under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the details of the investigation and/or disciplinary actions may not be provided by the district at this time. The Killeen ISD maintains the safety of our students, staff and campuses as a priority and applauds the efforts of students who act in good faith to assist others in times of need.”

-John Craft, Superintendent, Killeen Independent School District

However, Cortes said instead of “applause” her son got punished for doing the right thing.

“Especially with it being an alternative school I feel like the kids hear enough of ‘they’re bad’ or their behavior, or you know, and for them to not be rewarded for really something that is brave, ya know, he is a hero to me,” said Cortes.

Ruelas said he wasn’t concerned about the two-day suspension, only the girl’s health, and even with the outcome would help her again if given the chance.

“Most definitely,” said Ruelas.

Adding insult to injury, Cortes said the school called her Wednesday morning wanting to know why her son was absent. She had to remind them they suspended him.

As for the classmate Ruelas helped, he said he got a text from her Wednesday evening thanking him and letting him know she was ‘ok.’

Ruelas can return to school Thursday, but Cortes is now considering home-schooling him.

From www.yahoo.com:

Rival factions yelling at one another amid angry pushing. Tirades about condoms, and claims of misinformation. A parent declaring that children are being force-fed course material “straight from the pits of hell.”

Such has been the tenor of recent school board meetings in Omaha as board members contemplate the first update in three decades of the school district’s sex education curriculum.

A public meeting in October ended in chaos after shouting and shoving broke out between supporters and opponents of the update who had packed by the hundreds into an auditorium. This month, as board members sat in stoic silence, activists from both sides vented their feelings during three hours of public comment – reflecting divisions that have bedeviled school boards nationwide, as well as state legislatures and even Congress.

Kathryn Russell, a grandmother who formerly worked for the Omaha school district, said the proposed curriculum “rapes children of their innocence.” It was another critic in Omaha, Jesse Martinez, who used the “pits of hell” reference, calling elements of the course material “garbage. ”

Supporters of the update – ranging from the president of the city council to students who spoke – exhorted the school board to equip students with reliable information that would help the Omaha region lower rates of teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases that are above the national average.

“I have a right to this information,” said Ryleigh Welsh, a sophomore at Omaha’s Central High School. “Sexual health is more than just sex. It’s about understanding and taking care of your body and being prepared for a healthy future.”

In Omaha, as in many U.S. communities, some parents and conservative activists insist that any school-based sex education emphasize sexual abstinence as the wisest course. Yet as more young people turn to social media and online resources – including pornography- for sex-related information, there’s pressure on schools from other quarters to offer accurate, candid information that can compete with and correct what’s available beyond the classroom.

“The notion that sex education is limited to what happens in school is an antiquated one,” said Bill Albert, chief program officer of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. It is one of several organizations that’s developing online sex education to supplement school-based programs.

Quality online programming “is not buffeted by political fights over what teens can and should learn,” Albert said. “It allows for real-time modifications and updates, it offers anonymity, and it meets teens where they are, which increasingly is in front of screens.”

In Omaha, school board president Lou Ann Goding said one of the motivations for updating the sex-ed curriculum is to counter misinformation that students might encounter outside of school.

“There’s so much social media and other sources that they can go to that are not always reliable,” Goding said.

Several of the update supporters who spoke at the Jan. 4 public meeting echoed this concern. Among them were fourth graders Samantha Bourne and Hadley Forsen, who said they already were getting “nonfactual” information from their friends on sex-related topics.

“We need help to learn this curriculum at this age,” said the girls, reading their statement in unison. “This will be way too embarrassing for us to ask our parents when we’re older.”

Decades of controversy

Sex education in America has a long and checkered history, winning the backing of the U.S. Public Health Service in 1940, gaining traction in the 1980s during the early years of the AIDS epidemic, but generating steady opposition from social conservatives.

Omaha Public Schools, which serves about 52,000 students in its district, has taught sex education since 1986 as part of a course called Human Growth and Development. The process that’s been underway since early last year marks the first comprehensive review of the course.

Abstinence is encouraged in the curriculum, which also covers such topics as reproductive anatomy, pregnancy prevention and sexually transmitted diseases.