Archive for September, 2012

Remember the financial fraud scandal that came to light last year in Seattle Public Schools?

Well, overpaying and misspending in the district’s small public works program may have cost the district $3 million. In some cases, program head Silas Potter Jr. approved payments that were 10 times higher than what they were worth.

Read the latest story here.

What are your thoughts on what happened in the district?

The increasingly abbreviated language of texting might be souring kids’ longhand writing skills, according to a recent study. I am not LOLing.

Middle school students who frequently use shortcuts in their texts (eg. CU 2nite) performed worse on a basic test of grammar, the New Media & Society study reported.

Read more about the study here.

Do you feel like your texting habits are infecting your writing or talking habits, or those of your kids? I’ll admit I love my abbreves, but everything has its place.

U.S. News & World Report has ranked Western Washington University as the top public master’s-granting university in the Pacific Northwest in its 2013 college rankings.

The university also was ranked third in public master’s-granting schools in the west, which spans from Texas to the coast.

You can check out U.S. News & World Report’s full college rankings here.

As students throughout the state are back at school, state health officials are concerned that kids in classrooms could be spreading whooping cough.

Here’s more information from the Washington State Department of Health:

Our state’s whooping cough epidemic is still in full swing with more than 4,000 reported cases — school-age kids account for most of them. State health officials are concerned that the combination of kids in school and circulating disease could lead to more whooping cough cases.

“Now that kids are back in school and around each other for longer periods of time, germs can spread more easily,” said State Health Officer Dr. Maxine Hayes, a pediatrician. “It’s important for kids and everyone around them, including teachers and other caregivers, to practice good health habits and make sure their immunizations are up to date.”

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Henri the Existential Cat surely cares not that he’s the subject of an award-winning internet video.

But he is all the same.

Western Washington University graduate Will Braden’s series of black and white videos of Henri doing mundane tasks, accompanied by practically Kierkegaardian captions, won Braden the Golden Kitty award at the first Internet Cat Video Film Festival.

Here is Henri in his winning YouTube performance.

Has the Mount Baker School Board sold you out?

Someone thinks so, according to a large sign that posted out in the county.

County Councilman Sam Crawford posted a picture of the sign on his Facebook page here.

What are your thoughts on the board? Do you think they made the right choice accepting a $500,000 donation when the alternative might have left them with nothing?

What would Freud have to say about this development?

A study from the Centers for Disease Control found that cigarette smoking was down among middle and high school students, but cigar use is rising among some groups of students, according to Education Week.

You can read more details on the study here.

Four local students are semifinalists for the National Merit Scholarship Program, which will announce thousands of dollars in scholarships for high-achieving students next spring.

Sehome High School

-Kara E. Junttila

-Zoe R. Sheinkopf

Squalicum High School

-Anthony C. Goo

-Hannah P. Truong

To become a finalist, the students and their high schools must submit a detailed scholarship application listing their academic record, school and community involvement and any awards they’ve received.

The Whatcom County prosecutor’s office isn’t filing criminal charges in connection with a hazing incident involving Capital High School basketball players from Olympia who were attending a camp in June at Western Washington University.

The incident didn’t involve anyone from WWU, rather the university was the venue for the camp in which the hazing occurred.

Here’s the latest update.

It seems like we’re hearing more about hazings gone wrong throughout the country. Any thoughts?

In case you missed it, here’s a story we ran about a Bellingham High School student who was expelled after assaulting another student in class on the second day of school.

What do you think about the assault and the student’s punishment? Do you think expulsion was the right call?