Seattle Schools Community Forum

New Drug Alert The drug Ketamine has been in the news a lot lately but have you heard of Kratom? The story from CNN (all bold mine): The drug products found near two University of Mississippi students who died on September 21 contained three kratom-related compounds, according to court documents reviewed by CNN and law enforcement.   The substances aren’t natural kratom — as was suspected due to earlier law enforcement reports — which is an herb from the leaves of the tropical tree Mitragyna speciosa native to Southeast Asia. Having both stimulant and sedative effects, the herb carries a risk for addiction due to how it interacts with the brain, researchers told CNN in a previous story . What’s in the packaged tablets that law enforcement discovered when investigating those deaths are mitragynine pseudoindoxyl, MGM-15 and 7-OH, which are semisynthetic, concentrated and potent derivatives of certain components of kratom. In states that haven’t banned the substance, it’s sold at ...

And here we are again.  I've written on the subject of sexual assault several times, both in K-12 and higher education. Here's a recent video asking young men and women "if you were guaranteed safety after dark, what would you do?" The women all say, "walk around, stay out late at a club or bar, walk in the park, etc."  Most of the men are puzzled because they say they feel safe already. Of course they do.    Yes, I am talking about the event at Cornell University.  I'll start out by saying what I tell young women going off to college/university.  1) Do not go to frat parties. Parties at frats are a brutal combination of alcohol and group think.  2) If you must go, take a friend. Stay together, even to go to the bathroom. Leave together.  3) Do NOT accept any drink that you did not open yourself. Get your own bottle of beer or can of soda and never leave it unattended. And NEVER drink that "magic punch" concoction.  Know what I would add t...

Why is the best known national public education leader (Randi Weingarten) and the new superintendent of the largest public school district in Washington State on a panel for selective regional private schools?  I am also hearing that members of the Board have been invited.  Is this a paid gig for Shuldiner?  Things that make you go, hmmmmmm  

 Readers, sorry about the cutoff from the last post. I'm having issues with Blogger. 

  What have we got on the good side? From his weekly Superintendent's Newsletter, dated September 27th: - Yesterday, more than 60 high school students came to the John Stanford Center for Educational Excellence (JSCEE) to spend their Saturday with me and other district leaders as part of this year's Student and Superintendent Advisory Board. I t was awesome. For an hour we discussed topics that were meaningful to our students. We talked about safety and security and the use and misuse of artificial intelligence, specifically large language models (LLMs) and generative AI. I heard students discuss their desire for more rigorous instruction, and I listened intently around the availability or lack of availability of programs and classes, as well as many other important topics. - I also want to talk about the "October Shuffle. " As many of you know and have experienced, the district has a history of moving teachers from one class to another in October to make up for enrol...

I am planning yet another post on technology, both for K-12 AND higher education. Here's a teaser headline: Columbia College Enforces First-Of-Its-Kind Technology Ban — Here's What We Know. I note this is Columbia College , not Columbia University. But wait, here's the other headline: Columbia bans devices in core classes as New York school moves to curb AI Yeah, that's  Columbia University . As laptops, phones, and artificial intelligence tools take up residence in classrooms, Columbia University is requiring students in its Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization courses to put devices away for the 2026-27 academic year. And yes, I am also going to write a separate post about the Nikole Hannah-Jones essay on how she let her daughter down by sending her to a nearly all-white school. This has ignited a firestorm of opinions about schooling and Black children.  National News Via The Guardian : As reading and math scores fall to their lowest point in the pas...