Seattle Schools Community Forum

"PDF" is a new phrase out there - playtime, downtime and family time - that references the non-structured hours of a student's day. What some researchers are finding is that today's student has far less of that free time than we did.  From the NY Times:

I had to post this from Washington's Paramount Duty Facebook page:

One parent's plea to the Legislature via Senator Reuven Carlyle: Dear Senator Carlyle, A couple of Fridays ago, we went to my daughter Isabella's school auction. I didn't really want to go.

From KUOW : Young people who are detained by law enforcement in King County can no longer waive their right to an attorney on their own. On Monday, the King County Council unanimously approved a motion meant to ensure that young people in custody are fully informed when deciding whether to talk to law enforcement.  The new ordinance requires kids detained at the Juvenile Detention Center in Seattle to get advice from an attorney first. Another story of interest from KUOW, this on the use of police in schools: Police are handling routine discipline issues in many Washington schools – sometimes even arresting children — finds a new study from the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington.  The ACLU-WA found that 84 percent of the state’s largest school districts have police officers patrolling the halls, even at the elementary level in more than a quarter of districts studied. The ACLU-WA also found that police are more likely to be stationed in schools wit...

From the Seattle Times : One of Seattle’s flagship high schools is under investigation for possible football recruiting violations tied to a youth from Texas, who says he was flown north to Garfield High with promises of athletic opportunity. Will Sanders, 19, spent last fall’s football season as a running back for the Bulldogs, where he was the third-leading rusher — even though poor grades would have made him ineligible to play the entire time. While here, he bounced between the residences of a track coach and team parents.  Meanwhile, the team racked up its best season in years. Well, echoes of Hale because they,too, had their best basketball season ever with imported players. Who's involved?

From SPS: On Saturday, telephone and network access to two schools Olympic Hills Elementary and Hazel Wolf K-8 were disrupted. A car accident on I-5 knocked a telephone pole across the highway and in order to move the pole, telephone and network cables were cut.