Image: Channel 5 News (KPHO-TV)

The boys' punishment was captured by onlookers' cameras; this picture was obtained by Channel 5 News.

Politically incorrect, yes. But there's nothing worse for some teenage boys than to be called "gay" by their peers.

Tim Richards, the principal of Westwood High School must have known that when he had a couple of students who were caught fighting to join hands publicly on campus this week while their classmates jeered.

"Kids were laughing at them and calling them names asking, 'Are you gay?'" student Brittney Smyers told ABC 15 (KNXV-TV).

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choosehelp.com

According to the federal government, Arizona's high school kids are above average -- in drug and alcohol use.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its annual report yesterday on "risk behavior" in high school students, and there's not a single category related to drugs or alcohol that Arizona kiddos are doing at a rate less than the national average.

In fact, in eight of the 20 categories, the Arizona kids come out on top.

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This is a copy of the "death plan" a few Chandler junior high students had for their teacher.

​The Chandler Unified School District decided yesterday to uphold a semester-long suspension for five eighth grade students who threatened to kill their teacher by -- among other methods -- setting her on fire, cutting out her tongue, drowning her, or running her over with a truck.

See our post on the students' death threats here.

The students, four girls and one boy, ages 12 and 13, aren't allowed to go back to Santan Junior High School until next semester, and some -- their parents, especially -- are concerned the punishment is too harsh.

"I, as many others, sincerely believe the long-term suspension extending through the end of the semester is beyond unjust and severe," Kim Thomas, the mother of one of the girls, wrote in a letter to district administrators last month. "In no way is this punishment fitting of the actions demonstrated by the students."
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Tempe P.D.

Kimmie Dwayne Baker

​Kimmie Dwayne Baker apparently is a religious man. Well, at the very least, he owns a Bible -- in which he allegedly stashed evidence from a burglary he'd committed at Tempe High School where he works.

According to the Tempe Police Department, Baker was arrested yesterday for allegedly stealing more than $1,000 from the administration building at Tempe High at 1730 South Mill Avenue.

Baker, it just so happens, has been a security guard at the school for the past 19 years.

The money was supposed to be used for an upcoming high school football game, and was being stored in a locked closet that only a few school employees had a key to. Baker, police say, denied having a key -- which apparently was a lie.

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yumamom.com

​Arizona public schools receive unsatisfactory marks when it comes to standardized test scores, as evidenced by the recently released results of this spring's Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS) test, the state's barometer for success on the education front

There has been slight progress -- reading scores rose to a 76 percent passing rate, 3 percent higher than last year. Math scores also went up, rising 2 percent to an unimpressive 59 percent.

Writing scores however, remain in the crapper -- scores this year dropped 15 percent to a failing grade of 56 percent.

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Glendale Elementary School District officials have changed their minds and decided to discuss the content of essays by the eighth-grade students dissed by substitute teacher Tony Hill.

The upshot? Well, it sounds like Hill's nothing but a student-hating liar.

As mentioned in a previous blog post, we're intrigued by the existence of hard evidence in this controversy. Hill's bigoted letter to state Senator Russell Pearce, which was read at the State Capitol to gullible right-wing lawmakers (and incredulous left-wing ones), makes specific statements about the content of essays written by his students:

The students' final drafts that I read were basically the same. Most of them stated they were in the country illegally, White Americans are racist, and that they came here for a better life.

We've been bugging the Glendale district to release the essays (without naming the students), so everyone could see whether Hill was right or wrong. The way we see it, no one will be able to prove what happened in the March 8 class at Harold W. Smith Elementary School because it wasn't recorded on video or audio. However, the essays constitute empirical evidence: They either say what Hill says they did, or not.

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Glendale Elementary School District officials won't say whether the student essays referenced in a controversial substitute teacher's letter contain inflammatory remarks.

But the district did release a lesson plan to New Times that not only names students, but gives detailed information about the behavior of some of them.

As part of our inquiries into Glendale substitute teacher Tony Hill, we requested the exit reports he'd written up after filling in in other classes.

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​The lesson plan for the class taught by Glendale substitute teacher Tony Hill urges eighth-grade students to "thank" a Democratic lawmaker, as Hill claimed.

 

And the kids really were reading Mark Twain.

"The letters to (state Senator Steve Gallardo) are to thank him or ask him to change his views on the recent immigration laws," the plan for the March 8 class at Harold W. Smith Elementary School states. (See the plan below.)

Hold on, now -- it's not that we want to defend Hill, whose now-infamous, bigoted letter to state Senator Russell Pearce has caused another racially charged dust-up that Arizona didn't need, and whose troubled family life was exposed yesterday by our own Paul Rubin. Hill refers to his "Hispanic" wife and children in his letter to Pearce: Court records say he choked his wife "at one point" and "physically abused the family pet in front of the children."

The question remains, though: Did Hill lie about his classroom experience?

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Glendale eighth-graders who were the subjects of a controversial letter written by a substitute teacher were not "perfectly behaved" in the sub's class, a school district official admits.

But after interviewing the students, district officials don't believe the class expressed any sort of anti-American sentiment, says Jim Cummings, spokesman for the Glendale Elementary School District.

The flap over what really happened in the March 8 class subbed by Valley resident Tony Hill continued Thursday with statements by district officials that Hill's letter -- read to the State Senate last week -- contained inaccuracies. A letter by Harold W. Smith Elementary School's principal, Rick Alvarez, essentially calls Hill a liar. Cummings is quoted in an Arizona Republic article today saying, "We don't believe that he represented this campus accurately at all."

Yet Cummings tells New Times today that, "There are possibly nuggets of truth of what he might have said. Some kids misbehaved -- that's probably true."

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Image: www.gofrontrow.com

In some Phoenix school districts, Cronkite News Service reports, kids who speak perfect English are placed in crowded classrooms.

Your south Phoenix kindergartener speaks perfect English?

That's her classroom over there -- the one with the tired-looking teacher and so many kids that you can't see the carpet.

According to an article by the Cronkite News Service's Jolie McCullough, published today in the East Valley Tribune, English speakers are being screwed out of a decent experience because of class sizes of up to 35 students. An optimally sized class contains 25 students per teacher.

Spanish speakers enjoy a more reasonable teacher-student ratio because of state law and the quirks of budget cuts, McCullough reports.

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