On Tuesday, in a ruling that has gotten little attention but that could have lasting impact, the California Court of Appeal ruled that California public schools have to provide enough physical education to comply with state law.
This means, for elementary school, students must have at least 200 minutes of PE every ten days, or an average of 20 minutes per day (not including lunch or recess) at least 40 minutes on average per day in middle and high school.
The ruling opens the way for either a lot of lawsuits if schools fail to comply.
According to public records obtained from the Department of Education by The City Project, a non-profit legal and policy advocacy organization working to enforce physical education laws throughout the state, a sample audit of schools from 2004-2009 showed that, of the nearly 1,000 school districts in California, half were not enforcing physical education minutes requirements.
“Thankfully, the California Court of Appeal recognizes that law means law and that public schools must provide adequate physical education, ” Robert García, Executive Director and Counsel of The City Project. “The ruling will help students move more, stay healthy, and do their best in school and life as part of a quality education. The health of California’s next generation is at stake here. What could be more important?”
NY TIMES REPORTER EXPLAINS WHY THE PAPER PUBLISHED WIKILEAKS
On Thursday’s Fresh Air, David Sanger, the chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times, responds to the idiotic remarks by critics like Joe Lieberman (who said the US Justice Department should consider a criminal investigation into the Times regarding WikiLeaks) and explains why the newspaper decided to publish the cables.
THE DREAM ACT PASSES IN THE HOUSE, CHANCES OF SENATE PASSAGE MUCH SLIMMER
For the first time since it was first introduced ten years ago, The Dream Act has passed through the US house of Representatives. The vote was 216 to 198.
But Republicans have said they will stop it in the Senate with a filibuster.
The AP has the details.
TEENAGE MURDERER AND MODEL PRISONER A REMINDER WHY LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE IS WRONG FOR KIDS
The LA Times has an editorial about why juveniles explaining why should not be given life sentences without the possibility of parole.
Here’s how it opens:
Sara Kruzan was 16 when she lured her former pimp into a motel room, shot and killed him and took his money. The terrible crime was committed in Riverside County by a girl who had been sexually molested and physically abused since her earliest days, raised by an addicted mother, gang-raped at 13 and at the same age sent into the streets to make a living as a prostitute by the man she would eventually kill.
But teenagers change. Today, at 32, Kruzan is a model prisoner in the honor dorm at Valley State Prison for Women in Chowchilla. In January, she will receive her associate’s degree from the nearby community college. She has volunteered for dozens of rehabilitation programs and won awards for her participation and attitude.
Not all juvenile criminals should receive parole, the Times writes.
… but if they turn themselves around as Kruzan did, they should be given the opportunity to put their cases before a court or parole board. That’s why the Legislature should pass a bill that was reintroduced this week by state Sen. Leland Yee (D- San Francisco) after being rejected in August. The modest legislation would allow courts to review the cases of juveniles who were sentenced to life without parole after 10 years, possibly reducing their sentences to 25 years to life.
Meanwhile, the governor has an opportunity to leave office next month with a message of hope for California. Kruzan can become a contributing member of society — and a prime example of the value of rehabilitative programs in prison — or she can be a lifelong liability to taxpayers. People, especially teenagers, have the power to change. They can become better people. And sometimes, they do.
Let’s hope the state legislature has the good sense to take the example of Kruzen to heart.
It is of course absurd that even as Michelle Obama is trying to raise awareness about childhood obesity (like many others, both from civic altruism and those, including Jamie Oliver and his “food revolution” program at schools, for profit) and the city has just (foolishly) banned fast food restaurants in South L A, the most cost-effective way to reduce it, via PE in schools, is being cut. Physical health and activity contributes to mental and social health as well – as long as it’s not all about competitive sports, the only things LEFT in the schools. Cutting this out does NOT make them do better academically, to the contrary. There is a too myopically obsessive compulsion with test scores.
In a sort of related matter, injustice and our CA schools anyway, outrage from an unlikely source: RonKayela.com reports tonight (and apparently the LA Weekly did earlier) that in his words, it looks like DA Steve Cooley has let a high school student “languish” in a detention center, i.e. prison, for 7 months despite what he knows is a lack of evidence, in order to protect some LAUSD “rogue cops” from a multi-million dollar law suit. The student, who happens to be black in the probably mostly white Verdugo Hills H. S., has “working-class parents” who can’t afford the $150,000 bail.
He’s been charged with attempting lynching/assault with attempt to murder (pls. double-check the facts, I’m quoting from memory here late at night!) while in fact, he was just using his cellphone to video an incident where he felt the school cops were unfairly treating some students involved in some altercation, and when they tried to take his phone, he resisted, and things escalated to this charge.
This “circle the wagons”/protect your friends and supporters at all costs, attitude does not surprise those of us/ you following Cooley’s behavior to various degrees, but coming from no less than former stalwart Cooley-Trutanich supporting suburban Republican, former Daily News (voice of the conservative Valley) editor, makes it look like we’re especially lucky he didn’t get elected to higher office. Apparently some activists have tried to make noise but what’s being done about the situation?