Going Into the Winter Break
A very nice holiday message from Superintendent Fred Podesta.
Franklin High School is starting its girls flag football team. The WIAA (Washington Interscholastic Activities Association) now recognizes that sport under their banner as a winter sport. From SPS Communications:
To kick off the festivities, the Blue Thunder gave a special drumline performance, and students played fun competitions. Mario Bailey, vice president of the Seahawks’ Community Engagement and Legends, presented the team with giant check. The event ended with a raffle for Seahawks gear and prizes.
The check was for $4,000.
Really great to see that SPS is supporting Native students education on their heritage.
The SPS Native American Education program was honored to join the Suquamish Tribal Council for their annual Ocean to Table program—a unique, hands-on learning experience at Chief Kitsap Academy. This initiative takes students on the journey salmon make from the ocean to their dinner tables, blending science with cultural traditions.
Looking ahead to 2026, SPS Native American students from šǝqačib classes at Nathan Hale High School, Chief Sealth International High School, Jane Addams Middle School, and Denny International Middle School will join the program, deepening their connection to culture and science.
In advance of the holiday season and gift giving, here's a thought:
It seems that parents fretting about a surly or withdrawn or plain obnoxious teenager could do worse than keep a dog around the house.
That’s because doing so “has beneficial effects, especially for adolescents, and these effects may be mediated through symbiosis with microorganisms,” said Takefumi Kikusui of Azabu University in Japan.
Teens who spend time with dogs tend to be more sociable and have better mental health than others — and the reason is in part down to apparent changes to the range of microbes in and on the adolescents brought about by having a hound around.
On using AI in schools for security from the Washington Post:
Police responded to the Florida middle school minutes after the alert arrived last week: Security cameras had detected a man in the building, dressed in camouflage with a “suspected weapon pointed down the hallway, being held in the position of a shouldered rifle.”
The Oviedo school went into lockdown. An officer searched classrooms but couldn’t find the person or hear any commotion, according to a police report.
Then dispatchers added another detail. Upon closer review of the image flagged to police, they told the officer, the suspected rifle might have been a band instrument.
The officer went to where students were hiding in the band room. He found the culprit — a student wearing a military costume for a themed dress-up day — and the “suspected weapon”: a clarinet.
The gaffe occurred because an artificial-intelligence-powered surveillance system used by Lawton Chiles Middle School mistakenly flagged the clarinet as a weapon, according to ZeroEyes, the security company that runs the system and contracts with Lawton Chiles’s school district.
Seminole County Public Schools declined to comment on Tuesday’s incident,but it provided a copy of the letter it sent to parents of Lawton Chiles students after the incident.
“While there was no threat to campus, I’d like to ask you to speak with your student about the dangers of pretending to have a weapon on a school campus,” principal Melissa Laudani wrote.
I see the article using the word "culprit" for the student. And the principal said the student was "pretending to have a weapon."
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