Opposite a large crowd of Moore supporters, 10 Westboro protesters held signs that said, “God Hates Oklahoma,” “Mourn For Your Sins” and “Destruction Is Imminent.” According to Westboro’s website, the church members believe the tornadoes were “God’s wrath.” The Kansas church protesters had a permit to protest for 30 minutes at 2 p.m., but counter-protesters […]
elementary
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To pledge, or not to pledge
Apparently that’s not good enough for lawmakers who have authored two bills making their way through the state Senate. KFOR reported Senate Bill 1143 and Senate Bill 1500 both passed the Senate Education Committee and are headed to the full Senate. SB 1143 would require elementary students in public schools to recite the Pledge of […]
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Public education is changing
Today, “public education” is coming to mean something different: We want an “educated public” — and it doesn’t matter where that education takes place. Most students still go to the school closest to their house. But did you realize that in Florida, for example, nearly half the students (43 percent) go to a school other […]
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LETTERS
Keep in mind that this is Oklahoma, smack dab in the middle of the Bible Belt, flyover hicksville where we are all inbred and stupid compared to the left coast because we generally don’t accept liberal socialist ideals. So our young folks even here are falling for what has historically failed every time, including this […]
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Hunkered down
Kristi Conatzer said the governor has created an unneeded public debate over keeping children safe based on comments she made opposing an initiative petition. Conatzer’s daughter, Emily, was one of the seven children who died at Plaza Towers Elementary School. “There shouldn’t be an argument over this,” she said. “We lost something on May 20 […]
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Seeking shelters
Their wish is that storm shelters had been in place four months earlier as a powerful EF-5 tornado swept through southwest Oklahoma City and Moore, killing 47 people, including seven students at Plaza Towers Elementary. Among the students who perished were their sons — Nicolas McCabe, 8; Kyle Davis, 8; and Christopher Legg, 9. With […]
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Informed and engaged
Lori Dickinson and Constance Lori Dickinson is entering her fifth year as the foundation’s president. Her passion and enthusiasm is apparent as she talks animatedly about the district and its kids. “So many of our children do not know what the statistics say about their future,” Dickinson said. “They dream, they play, they learn. I […]
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Urban education
“If we’re going to operate as a fully functional 24-hour downtown, we need more than an elementary school. We need a middle school and a high school,” said Russell Claus, city planning director, about John W. Rex Elementary School, under construction at Sheridan and Walker avenues. The $14 million charter school is the result of […]
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Booking it to Moore
So the 175 residents of Buckner Westminster Place in Longview, Texas, did something about it. On July 1, two administrators from the facility donated nearly 2,000 books and $800 to help restore the two schools. “The [retirees] were very interested to do something,” said Wes Wells, director of Buckner Westminster Place, who personally delivered the […]
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Seeking shelter for students
Now a discussion is under way to decide how to handle state assistance for shelter space. Like many Oklahomans, I knew many who were trapped in at least one of the major tornadoes that struck Oklahoma last month. One of my cousins is a student at Briarwood Elementary in Moore, where his mother, a schoolteacher, […]