department of education

After Arkansas school board member Clint McCance advocated on Facebook for the suicide of gay people, the Arkansas Department of Education condemned his comments, but said it may be impossible for him to be removed from office. “In Arkansas law, the only way to recall a school board member is over a felony [committed by him or her] or absentee issues,” said Julie Johnson Thompson, the director of communications for the Arkansas Department of Education in Little Rock. McCance wrote on Spirit Day that he would only wear purple if all queers killed themselves. 

Two female high school administrators in Harlem, N.Y., face possible firing for engaging in a relationship. Academy for Social Action principal Crystal Simmons and assistant principal Candy Jones "engaged in intimate conduct in the school during school hours," according to a report conducted by the city's Department of Education and released Friday.

The National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention is creating a new task force to handle suicide prevention efforts among LGBT youths, the group announced Thursday. Leaders of the task force will be Kevin Jennings, who heads the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools, and Charles Robbins, executive director of the Trevor Project.

Advocacy groups have always inhabited a distinct place in society for being a resource when something needed to change for the betterment of a community or communities. It has just been announced that long-standing pro-rights group Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) has partnered with the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) to build a supportive bridge for LGBT students to report harassment, bullying, discrimination, and any other uncomfortable experience having to do with their status as LGBT students to the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Education Department.

Minnesota congresswoman and potential Republican presidential contender Michele Bachmann delivered a fiery, Scripture-infused speech Monday in Iowa, where she said that marriage equality defied “5,000 recorded years of human history.” Politico reports on the speech from the Tea Party favorite to social conservatives at the Iowa Family Leader presidential lecture series. In addition to her comments about marriage, she called for abolishing the tax code, the Department of Education and labeled Planned Parenthood the “LensCrafters of big abortion.”

Both New York City high school teachers fired over allegations that they had a same-sex tryst in a classroom have now filed lawsuits to get their jobs back. Cindy Mauro, who last week was let go from her job teaching French at James Madison High School in Brooklyn, has sued the city’s education department in hopes of being reinstated. Spanish teacher Alini Brito, who was fired earlier this month, sued about two weeks ago.

Arkansas's education department director Tom Kimbrell is losing faith in Facebook gay basher Clint McCance, who was reelected to a four-year term in September and is set to be in office until 2014. But Kimbrell stopped short of calling for his resignation." McCance was first elected to the Midland School Board in 2006 and assumed his position in 2007. He was reelected this year and will start his second term on January 1. Arkansas school board members cannot be recalled from office, and so the only way McCance would leave his position is through his own resignation.

The Arkansas school board member who advocated on Facebook for gays to kill themselves told the editor of the Arkansas Times he has yet to release a statement because he has family to consider. Clint McCance made headlines Tuesday when The Advocate reported on his Facebook message, protesting being asked to wear purple in honor of teens who have taken their lives by saying he’d wear the color “is if they all commit suicide.” He has yet to grant an interview, but spoke he briefly with Arkansas Times editor Max Brantley.

Education officials in South Africa are investigating reports that a girls' boarding school dorm expelled 27 students due to reported lesbian relationships. According to the BBC, two girls who were caught kissing in the dormitory reportedly said that other students were involved in lesbian relationships. The dorm houses 300 students and when confronted by school officials, the girls identified 25 other lesbian students.

A transgender professor was denied tenure and fired from Southeastern Oklahoma State University for her gender identity. Rachel Tudor, who is transgender, was told by the school's human resources department that she could only use the single-use handicapped restroom after she underwent gender reassignment surgery.

A New York woman whose seventh-grade son committed suicide a year ago after being bullied by schoolmates is suing the city, alleging nothing was done to stop the abuse. “No child should be afraid to go to school,” said Bergouhi Elissa, 36, of Queens, whose son, Elijah Mendez, was repeatedly taunted by students at Public School 84 despite more than 10 requests that administrators step in to help. “I believe that the school’s inaction brought about the death of my son.”

President Barack Obama will host a conference about bullying prevention at the White House next Thursday. Last fall, President Obama appeared in an “It Gets Better” video following a highly publicized series of LGBT teen suicides because of bullying.

A New York City fifth-grader who won a class competition with a speech endorsing marriage equality won’t be able to deliver it in the school-wide contest. The principal of P.S. 195 in Queens said Kameron Slade’s topic is inappropriate and this week told him to choose another one, according to Kameron’s mother, who declined to be identified further, online news channel NY1 reports.