Where Your Children Are texas

19 dead in shooting at Texas elementary school

Shooting suspect Salvador Ramos (Instagram)

Eighteen students and two teachers are dead, and many others are injured, after a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

The named suspect, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, opened fire on students at Robb Elementary School today after reportedly shooting and killing his grandmother. Sources say Ramos was a former student at the school. He is also reported to be dead after a standoff with border patrol agents. Texas Governor Greg Abbott confirmed that Ramos was a United States citizen.

Students were evacuated a few hours later to Sgt. Willie Deleon Civic Center, a mile and a half away from the school, while parents were alerted to where to pick up their children.

Robb Elementary School, in Uvalde, Texas, is 80 miles from San Antonio, and 60 miles from the Mexican border. It serves students from second to fourth grade. The student body reflects the demographics of Uvalde, with over 90% of students listed as Hispanic or Latino. Nearly 90% of students qualify as low-income. The school falls well below the state average for standardized test scores.

Edit: It was previously reported that the death toll included only 14 students and 1 teacher; the number of deaths has, sadly, risen since the original publication of this post.

Death toll in Texas elementary school shooting rises; 19 children, 3 adults killed by shooter

Salvador Ramos: Suspect in Uvalde Elementary School Shooting

Texas gunman, 18, shoots dead 14 elementary schoolkids, one teacher, and seriously injures 13 after barricading himself inside building… – DailyMail

Robb Elementary School – GreatSchools

Where Your Children Are louisiana

Student assaulted in bathroom, winds up in hospital – attacker suspended for 3 days

In a stunning example of how schools are so far removed from the “real world,” a high schooler’s jaw is wired shut and his assailant is already back in class. If you were assaulted and wound up with multiple broken bones, missing teeth, and profuse bleeding, you’d likely expect the attacker to be off the street for a heck of a lot more than 3 days.

Not so in a Louisiana high school, where 17-year-old Mauricio Brown is still recovering from his extensive injuries after being attacked in a Westgate High School bathroom, while the 18-year-old that committed the act served a mere 3 days’ suspension. No word, of course, on if any of the many witnesses (who of course, did nothing other than watch – and maybe capture some of it on video, as the news outlets have obtained) have received any sort of punishment for their inaction.

We’re told time and time again that schools are more than just centers of learning; they are places to build character, places to raise future leaders, a “zero tolerance” atmosphere were bullying is never allowed and students learn to treat each other with respect and dignity. Yet here’s a case of at least one school essentially saying, “Oh, well, too bad.”

Brown’s family is now taking legal action against Iberia Parish School District, who they say didn’t do enough to punish the offending student. The school district insists that the investigation is still pending, but as is the case when teachers are caught doing something wrong, it’s likely they’re just hoping this will all go away quietly.

Westgate High School in New Iberia, Louisiana, serves over one thousand adolescents in grades 9-12, and most of their inmates students perform below state averages. About three quarters of the student body qualify as low income. Not surprisingly, the graduation rate is uncommonly high (if they’re refusing to properly suspend or expel violent students, this could be part of the reason why).

Teenager’s family upset with school’s disciplinary actions following an alleged attack in bathroom

Westgate-High-School (GreatSchools)

Where Your Children Are louisiana

Cafeteria worker arrested after inappropriate behavior with students

image courtesy Terrebonne Parish Police Department

Most every student or former student can look back and remember fondly their time in the lunch room, where (usually – silent lunch periods do exist, after all) they can talk with friends, eat borderline-inedible reheated food on styrofoam trays, and con the sweet lunch lady for an extra cookie or chocolate milk carton. “We love our lunch ladies!” school PTA organizations often gush. Well, this lunch lady loved her students, too – a little too much, in fact.

Dawn Marie Baye, 38, a cafeteria worker at Lacache Middle School in Chauvin, LA, is accused of grooming and “behaving inappropriately” around a group of boys ages 13 to 16. Ms. Baye plied the boys with alcohol and pornography at her home before engaging in some sort of sexual encounter with at least one of them. She is charged with eight counts of indecent behavior with a juvenile and 10 counts of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile, stemming from an April 21 complaint first filed by a parent of one of the boys. Information found on social media (because, gosh darn it, boys love to brag, don’t they?) corroborated the story and led police to take Baye into custody on April 30, and for her to lose her job (because unlike teachers, lunch ladies don’t have tenure).

Prior to her arrest it is alleged that Baye also worked at other schools in the area, possibly having contact with children as young as 8 years old.

Lacache Middle School in Chauvin, Louisiana serves approximately 365 students in grades 5 through 8 and boasts decent tests scores. Whites make up about 75% of the student body, and 40% of the students qualify as low income. Students and parents don’t have much to report as far as positive comments, instead insisting that the school cares more about test scores than anything else, and also citing poor communication on the part of school officials.

The school has been suspiciously quiet about the whole incident, preferring that parents and students learn about it through news outlets rather than their school webpages. Their Facebook page describes itself as “a family-oriented school with a staff who loves to work with, learn with, and teach children.” There are certainly a few boys at the school who received an education they’re likely to never forget.

Terrebonne Parish school cafeteria worker arrested for sexual contact with minors, sheriff says

Sheriff: Cafeteria worker hosted sleepover with teens with sex, porn & alcohol

Chauvin middle school cafeteria worker accused of indecent behavior with teens

Lacache-Middle-School (GreatSchools)

LacacheMiddleSchool (Facebook)

Lacache Middle School (Official Website)

Where Your Children Are texas

Texas high school chivalry assignment an exercise in misogyny

In an age of cancel culture, where anything can be deemed offensive and virtually erased from the public consciousness, one wonders how this assignment ever made it past the initial idea phase of one high school English teacher in Texas.

Even if this assignment (seen below, originally posted by @BrandiDAddison via Twitter) had any actual aim other than to shock and entertain, one would expect to see it in a History classroom, and not an English one. Perhaps even more surprising, the tone-deaf teacher apparently had used this assignment in at least one year previous, allowing students the option to refuse participation, if they objected to the content.

More than a class project at Shallowater High School, the “rules” contained in this assignment were to be strictly followed all day, throughout school, and even at home. Members of the opposite sex could essentially grade them on their success. Oddly enough, this assignment was designed by a female English teacher.

While male students are expected to open doors, pull out chairs, and compose themselves cleanly and respectfully, with no foul language, female students are told to “obey any reasonable request of a male” and also to dress enticingly, clean up after the boys, and bring them treats. The disparity is apparent if these students are following these rules throughout the school day: while the boys may just be seen as nice and well-behaved, the girls would undoubtedly be judged in a very different light.

After Addison posted the offending documents on Twitter the assignment was removed from the school due to public outcry, though some critics still insist, “How else will we learn about how life was like for women in the 1300’s?” I guess we should remember that next time a History class begins a unit on slavery, then?

Shallowater High School in Shallowater, Texas, serves approximately 450 students in grades 9-12. Sixty-six percent of students are white, with the remainder mostly Hispanic. It boasts a 100% 4-year graduation rate and excellent college readiness scores.

Brandi D Addison (Twitter)

Texas school scraps chivalry assignment that had girls ‘obey any reasonable request of a male’ (NBC News)

Shallowater High School (GreatSchools)