It's far too early to render judgment on Superintendent Mike Miles' school-choice initiative. Eventually, he wants to open nearly three dozen specialized campuses that offer an alternative to neighborhood schools but aren't as selective as magnets. Thus far, he's opened just one: Mata Montessori, just south of White Rock Lake.
Joe Mabel Dallas ISD police have not seized any weapons so far this year. But how much of that is due to increasingly angelic students, and how much to kids failing to report when they see a peer with a weapon?
When it comes to reporting weapons in schools, kids are often each others' best watchdogs. In light of the recent Washington high school shooting, and the school shootings in recent years at Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech and Columbine, police departments across the country are constantly brainstorming new ways to decrease the likelihood of violent events occurring on school grounds.
Researchers at UT-Dallas compiled specific data concerning how, when and why students report seeing weapons in school. According to the study, 34 percent of students anonymously report seeing a weapon of some sort on campus sometime in the last three months.
"That number was higher than we expected," concedes Dr. Nadine Connell, one of the authors of the study. "But the flip side was on average over 90 percent reported being willing to tell someone about that. They're not ignoring it; they're not taking it on as their own responsibility."
In Dallas ISD, Police Chief Craig Miller says campus security depends on students coming forward when they see a potentially dangerous situation. "What would happen, and it's not unusual, is if social media or a friend told us someone had a weapon, we would discreetly confront or try to ascertain whether that was correct," he says.
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Flinga Are you male? Female? Both? Neither? Somewhere in between? Use this restroom.
On Friday, UNT officially began making its students' daily bodily activities a little less uncomfortable, with the opening of several gender-neutral restrooms on campus. The move comes as part of the yearlong push by the university to combat campus discrimination. The school has committed $100,000 toward building gender-neutral restrooms. Restrooms already exist in dormitories, but will now expand to public buildings.
"UNT being a state school, this is all an initiative driven by the student body in the last five years," says Oliver Blumer, who is on the board of directors for the Transgender Education Network of Texas.
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Well before Wilmer-Hutchins High School basketball standout Troy Causey was beaten to death by a friend and on-court rival after being improperly recruited from Richardson ISD, it was clear to anyone paying attention that Dallas ISD's athletic department was rotten. Superintendent Mike Miles' subsequent house-cleaning was greeted as a righteous, if belated, step toward reform.
Troy Causey
Among the 15 people who were fired, former athletic compliance director Anita Connally is the outlier, as DISD itself has admitted.
"Certainly she wasn't part of the problem. No one is suggesting that. Her job is compliance," Carlos Lopez, an attorney representing DISD during Connally's recent appeals hearing, told The Dallas Morning News. "The question is did she do that properly. Did she do that with the fervor that the administration thinks you need for that [position]? No."
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As a rule, high school sucks. Now imagine going to high school thinking you could get infected with one of the most deadly viruses known to man. 
Emily Mathis One student at Conrad High School has been possibly exposed to the ebola virus. Many parents kept their kids home from Conrad, and other DISD schools yesterday.
There are a few caveats to that, of course. One, ebola is not nearly as deadly as we like to think -- far more people are killed by, say, the common flu every year than by ebola. Two, the chances of anyone at these schools becoming exposed to the virus is almost absurdly miniscule.
See also: Dallas ISD Puts Parents on High Alert for Ebola Symptoms as CDC Monitors Five Students
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Early this morning, Dallas ISD received word from the Centers for Disease Control that five district students have been exposed to the Ebola virus. The students attend Emmett Conrad High School, Sam Tasby Middle School, Dan Rogers Elementary, and Hotchkiss Elementary. Jack Lowe Elementary, which is located close to Tasby and Conrad High, is also being closely monitored. 
Google Maps At least one student at Emmett Conrad High School has been exposed to Ebola.
See also: Ebola Has Landed in Dallas
The five students have been identified as within the patient's immediate family circle. They are being kept at home for the 21-day incubation cycle of the virus, but are not being quarantined. While CDC and local health officials are in close interaction with the families, they will be allowed to leave their homes until or if they exhibit symptoms.
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Lochoaymca Kids who receive pre-K education are less likely to end up in jail or on welfare, and more likely to graduate high school and get into college.
"Universal pre-K" is the universal mantra of every school board member and education official in the city. It's the elusive idea that all future, predominantly poor, kids in Dallas ISD will have gone through an aggressive early childhood education program, and that earlier exposure to vocabulary and learning will put DISD kids on a more even playing field with more privileged children.
A new reportfrom the Houston-based non-profit Children At Risk points to the importance of early childhood education in preventing later academic struggles. The study focused on several districts, foremost among them Dallas ISD, and drew attention to the district's financial prioritization of pre-K. Representatives of Children At Risk, along with Mayor Mike Rawlings, will be speaking in Dallas today to release the report and discuss continued efforts to expand pre-K education in Dallas.
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Joe Crawford Should parents have a say in what classroom books their kids read? Actually, probably not.
Highland Park ISD announced at the end of last week that it would be suspending seven books from the high school reading list: Herman Hesse's Siddhartha, Garth Stein's The Art of Racing in the Rain, John Green's An Abundance of Katherines, Toni Morrison's Song of Solomon, Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, David K. Shipler's The Working Poor: Invisible in America and Jeannette Walls' The Glass Castle.
See also: Highland Park ISD Bans Books Because Sex
The books were removed after parents decried the books over the last several months. Many object to the books on the grounds that they are not age-appropriate for high school kids. In a letter sent out to parents in May, HPHS Principal Walter Kelly defended the selections, saying the school works to "meet the developmentally appropriate balance of challenging our students' thinking while upholding community values and standards." Now, it seems the district is more anxious to brush the controversial selections under the rug, rather than defend them to angry parents.
Still, the books' inclusion in school curriculum raises the question: How do teachers, parents, publishers, writers, and students determine whether or not a book is "developmentally appropriate?"
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Joe Mabel At North Dallas HS, homeless students can get school supplies, clothing, food and counseling services at Drop-In centers.
In Dallas, the estimated number of homeless kids has been dismal recently. The Metro Dallas Homeless Alliance reports that the population of unaccompanied homeless kids is up 108 percent in just the last few years, and the number of homeless families is up 60 percent. And a recent Department of Education report now indicates that the number of homeless students across the country has also increased over the past year.
See also: Dallas Homeless Population Sees a Jump in Kids and Families, but Fewer Chronic Homeless
In Texas, the number of homeless students is up about 7 percent in the last year. In Dallas ISD, the number of homeless students is estimated to be over 3,000 -- there were around 3,400 homeless students at the end of the last school year, and that number can only go up with the increased student population.
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American Library Association We're not sure all Highland Park parents understand exactly what celebrating banned books week means.
Highland Park High School announced it would be suspending seven books from the high school reading list, just in time for Banned Books Week. So what's wrong with the books? Each of the seven, award-winning texts feature themes about sexuality or include passages that some parents find too racy.
See also: Park Cities Parents Want Their Kids to Read the Classics, Not These Newfangled Porn Novels
Highland Park parents first raised their objections to the "Recommended Outside Reading" list last spring. The list contains more than 250 titles, and is a supplement to classroom required reading. The Approved List includes ROR titles, summer reading, and classroom curriculum. Each book must go through a review process through a selection committee, which is composed of parents and teachers. The seven books that have been suspended from the list will undergo another review process that, The Dallas Morning News reports, could take several months.
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