Category: Reflections

By Tierney Sneed, Kristin Chapman and Shania Shelton, CNN

Our Classroom is a Rainbow…
Quote• Posted on December 18, 2013

Our Classroom is a Rainbow…

DEI stands for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. It’s a framework that promotes fair treatment and full participation for all people, particularly those who have been historically underrepresented or discriminated against.

DEI initiatives aim to create workplaces and communities that are more inclusive, equitable, and representative of the diverse world around us. They often involve policies, training, and programs designed to address biases, promote understanding, and ensure that everyone has a voice and a chance to succeed…

President Donald Trump’s efforts to crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion programs suffered a major legal blow Thursday as three separate judges – two of them appointed by the president – ruled against a Department of Education policy that threatened to withhold federal funding for schools engaging in DEI or incorporating race in certain ways in many other aspects of student life.

The policy was first laid out in a so-called Dear Colleague letter sent to schools in February. Starting this month, schools receiving federal funding would be subject to certain certification mandates requiring that they turn over information regarding their compliance with the Trump administration’s prohibitions.

US District Judge Landya McCafferty said in a scathing opinion that the administration’s policy, was “textbook viewpoint discrimination,” likely violating the First Amendment’s free speech protections. She and another judge, US District Judge Dabney Friedrich, a Trump appointee, also concluded that the policy was likely unconstitutionally vague.

She also concluded that the National Education Association, the administration’s opponent in the case, was likely to succeed in its arguments that the policy was unconstitutionally vague and that the agency ran afoul of procedural steps required by law in how it implemented the policy.

“The ban on DEI embodied in the 2025 Letter leaves teachers with a Hobson’s Choice,” McCafferty, a Barack Obama appointee who sits in New Hampshire, wrote, noting that the educators must choose between teaching curricula that invites penalty from the federal government or risking their professional credentials by aiding the Trump policy.

“The Constitution requires more,” she wrote.

Friedrich, a Trump appointee who announced her ruling after a hearing Thursday in Washington DC, said that the letter failed to “delineate between a lawful DEI practice and an unlawful one,” making the task of reviewing compliance too difficult.

The third ruling against the policy came from Judge Stephanie Gallagher, a Trump appointee who sits in Baltimore. She found that the Dear Colleague letter ran afoul of procedural requirements required by law for implementing new agency policy.

“This Court takes no view as to whether the policies at issue here are good or bad, prudent or foolish, fair or unfair,” Gallagher said in her ruling. “But this Court is constitutionally required to closely scrutinize whether the government went about creating and implementing them in the manner the law requires. The government did not.”

The rulings come after the Trump administration reached a short-term agreement with the challengers in the New Hampshire case to pause enforcement of the policy while the judge considered whether to issue a preliminary injunction. That agreement was set to expire on Thursday.

Trump has waged war on DEI efforts since the start of his second term and has taken action against several elite universities, demanding changes to their DEI programs. The administration has already rolled back DEI programs, arrested international students and revoked their visas, and frozen federal funding for schools that have refused to submit to its demands.

The administration froze over $2 billion in multi-year grants and contracts at Harvard University after its leaders refused to make key policy changes, including eliminating DEI programs, resulting in a clash over academic freedom, federal funding and campus oversight as Harvard sued the federal government.

Policy changes were also demanded of Columbia University, though the school later announced several changes to address the Trump administration’s demands, an apparent concession to the federal government.

The NAACP, which filed the case in DC’s federal court, said Friedrich’s ruling “is a victory for Black and Brown students across the country, whose right to an equal education has been directly threatened by this Administration’s corrosive actions and misinterpretations of civil rights law.”

The group representing the teachers’ associations and public school district that sued over the policy in Baltimore also celebrated the ruling there.

“This ruling is a win for educators, students and communities across the nation,” Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman said. “The nationwide injunction will pause at least part of the chaos the Trump administration is unleashing in classrooms and learning communities throughout the country.”

This story has been updated with additional developments.

CNN’s Sunlen Serfaty and Emily R. Condon contributed to this report.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/24/politics/education-dei-policy-blocked/index.html

#FloridaTeacher ♥️🍎            #ProtectOurKids 🙏🏼♥️🍎📚🇺🇲  

Trump’s pick for our precious Children’s  Secretary of Education is an absolute disgrace…  He is making a mockery of quality of their future’s success …

Linda McMahon as the Secretary of Education makes Betsy DeVos almost capable…

Secretary of Education Linda McMahon may have had a juicy steak in mind while speaking at a panel earlier this week because she confused artificial intelligence, also known as AI, with A1, the same name as the popular sauce brand.

McMahon, 76, made the mix-up on April 8 while speaking at the ASU+GSV Summit, an event focusing on educational innovation. The former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) initially referred to the acronym for artificial intelligence correctly, saying, “You know, AI development – I mean, how can we educate at the speed of light if we don’t have the best technology around to do that?”

Things got sticky as McMahon’s speech continued: “A school system that’s going to start making sure that first graders, or even pre-Ks, have A1 teaching in every year. That’s a wonderful thing!”

“Kids are sponges. They just absorb everything,” she added. “It wasn’t all that long ago that it was, ‘We’re going to have internet in our schools!’ Now let’s see A1 and how can that be helpful.”

‘Every school should have access to A.1.’
A.1. Sauce capitalized on McMahon’s blunder by posting an Instagram post on their verified account saying, “You heard her. Every school should have access to A.1.”

Agree, best to start them early,” the picture attached to the post reads.

Other Instagram users loved the response from the Kraft Heinz-owned brand. One user even commented, “I will be buying a bottle or two because of this post.”

People online have even joined in on poking fun at McMahon, with one X user saying, “Education Secretary Linda McMahon keeps referring to AI as A1 and talking about how it will help ‘students at all levels.’ But how can we get those kids to drink it? Linda added, ‘The smarter kids can move up to Thousand Island Dressing'”

USA TODAY contacted Kraft Heinz and the U.S. Department of Education on Saturday but has not received a response…

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/04/12/linda-mcmahon-a1-instead-of-ai/83059797007/

Never did I believe…In my thirty-eight teaching career; which began April 1, 1972, retiring ten years ago  June 5, 2015…

This latest Presidental Election 2025,   Donald Trump would be reelected!!

Had we not been warned!!??   Definitely  manifesting a critically detrimental impact on our Precious Children’s future for  a Strong Public School Education…

Many of my worst fears are being realized…And this is just the beginning…

We now have a federal government that is  promoting; enacting divisive, authoritarian programs…

School choice being one; promoting the privatization of public schools…Taking monies away from public schools, thus giving it to private and charter schools…

We, here in Florida, already have realized book bans and restrictive curriculum. that provide such authoritarian control over our public schools…

We no longer have that Constitutional protection of the separation between Church and State…💔🤍💙🇺🇲

#FloridaTeacher ♥️🍎
May G-d Bless our Precious children’s right to a Strong Public Schools Education…

It takes that caring team Parents and Educators with the aid of a Strong Federal Government to provide that fundamental right

All of our precious children protected and included…
#childrensfuture
#SeparationChurchState
🙏🏻♥️🤍💙🇺🇲

#ForidaTeacher ♥️🍎
Let Love and Hope for Our Children’s Future…
Lead Us Forward…
That’s  I will continue advocating through social media…

Most of my life… Teacher Advocate …
My Hope when leaving this World…
May America be in a better Place…🙏🪄🫶🏼♥️🍎📚🇺🇲

FloridaTeacher❤️🍎

I am so deeply disappointed in how this critical election has turned out…
We really do not know our Democratic Future…🙏🫶🏼🇺🇲

All I can do is pray,  and hold onto hope….
We can, and  ‘will’ unite for our precious children’s future…
May our institutions hold..
May Love and Goodness hold strong…
#USAElection2024 🙏🫶🏼🇺🇲🍎📚

I will hold onto Hope…Our Precious Children…

WHEN THE POWER OF LOVE OVERCOMES THE LOVE OF POWER…
THE World WILL KNOW PEACE
Jimi  Hendrix…

Our time has finally come!  This is a moment, a pivotal moment that I have been praying for many years since the new millennium…🙏🏼❤️🍎📚

We, all together, can vote Tuesday, November 5, 2024⁩
⁦Election Day …

 

For the Freedoms we most deeply need …

A Country for the People, by the People…

Our precious children must have that opportunity to be a priority…Loved, protected, and educated…not just by words…

But by actions…

Until you walk in a public school teacher’s shoes…

Timothy James Walz is an American politician, former schoolteacher, and retired U.S. Army non-commissioned officer who has served as the 41st governor of Minnesota since 2019. He is the Democratic Party’s nominee for vice president in the 2024 United States presidential election…

What representation will our precious children have….A teacher’s voice will be heard…

I am truly holding onto Hope for our precious children’s right to a strong public school education..

We were blessed having our First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden … being that of  a college professor… advocating for our precious children….

But, now a vice president being a former highschool public school teacher/ coach…

We must regard our teachers and all school personnel with dignity and respect they so deserve…

#FloridaTeacher❤️🍎
Our precious children are ready!!
May G-d Bless …🙏🏽💙

https://x.com/KnowaWasTaken/status/1825317220395716868?t=SaxtcZ4WGAIrqcW9Rz54Sg&s=19

I can so remember the day… I heard the news …I was then teaching and nothing was ever going to be the same…We have had more emergency drills… Locking doors, lights out …

And a resistance in gun reform…

Let’s arm Teachers…

Members of Newtown High School’s class of 2024 will leave with the same mix of bittersweet feelings and excitement as many of their peers do when graduating high school in the US.

However, 60 of the 300-plus cohort of kids in Newtown, Connecticut, who graduated on Wednesday will also carry the burden from surviving one of the deadliest school shootings in US history.

They walked across the stage, knowing 20 of their classmates would not be able to join them.

On 14 December 2012, Adam Lanza shot his mum, took her guns and drove to the nearby school with them.

There he murdered 20 children, all in the first grade – aged six or seven, and six adults, including four teachers and the principal.

As police arrived at the school, Lanza then killed himself.

Prominent conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was ordered to pay almost a billion dollars to victims of the shooting and their families after he claimed the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax that had been staged by gun control activists using actors.

More than a decade on from the massacre, the survivors of the attack celebrated their graduation, with victims honoured during the ceremony with a moment of silence.

The school’s principal Kimberly Longobucco read out the names of the young kids who were killed as the class of 2024 looked on, wearing green-and-white ribbons in remembrance of the victims.

She said: “We remember your 20 classmates who were tragically lost on December 14, 2012, who will not walk across the stage tonight.

“We remember them for their bravery, their kindness and their spirit.

“Let us strive to honour them today and every day.”

Five of the survivors discussed their feelings about graduating before they walked across the stage.

They had all been active in Junior Newtown Action Alliance and its anti-gun violence efforts – with the national conversation around gun control reignited following the attack.

Emma Ehrens was one of 11 children from Classroom 10 to survive the attack.

She and other students were able to flee when the gunman paused to reload and another student, Jesse Lewis, yelled for everyone to run.

Jesse was one of five kids killed in the room, along with two teachers.

Ms Ehrens said: “I am definitely going be feeling a lot of mixed emotions. I’m super excited to be, like, done with high school and moving on to the next chapter of my life.

“But I’m also so… mournful, I guess, to have to be walking across that stage alone … I like to think that they’ll be there with us and walking across that stage with us.”

But she added she was looking forward to the opportunities that came with moving on, and no longer being “the Sandy Hook kid”.

Grace Fisher was in a classroom down the hall from the killings and said that despite efforts to have a normal childhood following the massacre, “it wasn’t totally normal”.

She added they were missing “such a big chunk of our class” for their graduation.

Many of the survivors of the shooting have said they continue to live with the trauma of the day…

Matt Holden, 17, said: “In Sandy Hook, what happened is always kind of looming over us.”

A number of the survivors said that their experience with the attack has informed their plans going forward, and into college.

Ella Seaver said she is going to study psychology and become a therapist as a way of giving back.

Ms Seaver said: “It’s a way to feel like you’re doing something. Because we are. We’re fighting for change and we’re really not going to stop until we get it.”

Others, like Ms Ehrens and Mr Holden, want to work in politics to effect policy and laws….

https://news.sky.com/story/sandy-hook-massacre-survivors-graduate-high-school-without-20-of-their-classmates-13152282