Numerous honors, AP classes cut over equity concerns at San Diego's largest high school. Angry parents say woke move isn't helping anybody.



The largest high school in San Diego has cut a number of its honors and advanced placement classes in the name of equity and ridding the stigma students endure if they're in regular classes, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

But parents angry over the woke move say it's not helping any of the students at Patrick Henry High School.

What are the details?

Among the axed courses are advanced English, advanced history, and advanced biology, the paper said, citing the school's course listings.

What's more, principal Michelle Irwin has been giving some AP and honors classes the boot without parents' knowledge or input, the Union-Tribune added.

Irwin made the cuts for equity reasons, the paper said, citing an email she wrote to parents, adding that she also wanted to remove the stigma from non-honors courses and eliminate racial disparities in honors enrollment.

However, a number of parents aren't having it — particularly because such course cuts may hurt their kids' chances of getting into preferred colleges, as honors courses boost grade point averages with weighted credits and colleges consider how many advanced courses students have taken, the Union-Tribune added.

Pamela Broudy told the paper she'd enroll her daughter at a private school if the advanced classes aren't restored, noting her child is "going to be bored to tears" without them.

Lauren Hotz, a parent of two sophomores, added to the Union-Tribune that "unilateral decisions to eliminate these classes unfairly disadvantage the students at Patrick Henry because their competition around the nation, not just in California, is having these classes."

Not all the advanced classes are gone

The paper said honors and advanced math and science classes are still being offered at Patrick Henry, as well as more than 20 AP classes and several dual-enrollment community college classes, all of which offer weighted GPA credit.

But the Union-Tribune said parents argue it's still crucial to offer a range of honors courses as they provide less-overwhelming alternatives to AP classes while still giving weighted GPA credit. The paper added that honors courses also provide stepping stones that prepare students for the rigors of AP and college classes.

What did the school district have to say?

San Diego Unified School Board Trustee Richard Barrera told the Union-Tribune that the district isn't taking anything away from students: "We believe in expanding access to opportunities for all of our students, and when we expand access ... that doesn't mean that we’re taking anything away from students who have already had access to those opportunities. I understand parents are worried about that, and when they hear we’re making a change from ... decades of existing stratification, and if your students are part of the higher stratification ... of course you're gonna be concerned about that. But that's not what we’re doing."

Racial disparities

Irwin recently said white and Vietnamese students have accounted for a disproportionately higher percentage of enrollment in Honors American Literature and Honors U.S. History classes while a lower number of Latino students were in them, the paper said.

“A lot of times it happens ... because of the implicit or explicit biases of the adults who are making decisions about either who to enroll in these courses or who to encourage to enroll in these courses,” Allison Socol — assistant director of P-12 policy at Education Trust, a nonprofit that focuses on education equity — told the Union-Tribune.

District officials added to the paper that they're avoiding labels such as "honors" and "advanced" that could exclude students of color.

To that end, the district has been attempting to fit more students into the same classes rather than separating them, the Union-Tribune said. While the district said it expects all teachers educators to differentiate their methods to serve all students' needs within the same class, some parents told the paper that's unrealistic.

"If you put everybody in the same class, your distribution of needs of the students is going to be wider, and one teacher is going to have to address those needs — which they can't," Hotz noted to the paper.

Instead parents are suggesting expanding access to tools that help students accelerate learning, the Union-Tribune said, adding that Education Trust recommends expanding eligibility for advanced courses.

Angry parent reads sexually charged passage from HS library book to school board. Board member cuts her off, says children could be listening.



An angry parent read a sexually charged passage from a high school library book to a Georgia public school board Thursday, making the point that the book's content is inappropriate for students.

But upon hearing the parent read the steamy words from "Homegoing," a Cherokee County School Board member cut off the angry parent.

Why?

Well, PJ Media reported that board member Patsy Jordan said it was "inappropriate" for the the parent to read the passage since the meeting was being streamed online — and children could be watching or listening.

“Don’t you find the irony in that?" the parent shot back at Jordan. "You’re saying exactly what I’m telling you! You’re giving it to our children! I would never give this to my children!"

'All this happened under your watch'

"All this happened under your watch," the parent added to the board. "Maybe if you spent more time reading these books instead of calculating the statistical demographics of those submitting the books, you wouldn't [be] grooming our children. You're saying that we're embarrassing you? Well, you're embarrassing us and our kids. It's not OK! You are supposed to be giving them a safe space in school. These books? If can't email them to you, if I can't say them, they shouldn't be in the school!"

What's more, the outlet said board Chairwoman Kyla Cromer later in the meeting defended keeping such books available. Cromer emphasized that such books aren't forced on students, and to read them, they have to check them out at the library. Cromer also said that parents who object to such books being available don't have the right to take them out of the hands of other students who may want to read them.

In a video showing Cromer's rebuttal, an audience member yelled that board members "should be arrested," but Cromer shot back saying the unhappy individual "could be removed" from the meeting.

PJ Media, citing the mother who read the sexually charged book passage to the board, said police officers approached the individual who yelled the reference to board members getting arrested and escorted her out of the meeting room.

'Cicada tacos' are on the menu for young environmentalists. Why? Eating the invading bugs are part of 'living sustainably.'



Amid the current cicada invasion underway, some students at Princeton High School are getting creative — they're eating them.

Say what?

Yes, there's an Insect-Eating Club at the school — and teacher Mark Eastburn joined club members at a recent cicada catching and tasting party in Princeton, New Jersey, NJ.com reported.

"We are going to have to get more used to eating insects," Eastburn told the outlet. "As the population of the Earth continues to grow, protein sources are going to be harder and harder to raise, so really insects are the solution to a lot of the world's problems and that's what we're hoping to inspire the next generation to pursue."

Eastburn also told the outlet that the gathering was "an opportunity to really highlight the importance of living sustainably."

More from NJ.com:

There were plenty of options on the menu. Some featured the insect bodies in recognizable form, like the Salted Roast Cicadas, Cicada Stir-Fry, Deep Fried Soft Shell Cicadas.

Other dishes didn't scream "There are bugs in my food" at first glance, such as Cicada banana bread with nuts or Chocolate Chip Cicada Cookies.

At one point during the afternoon, club founder Matthew Livingston came out onto the deck from the kitchen and yelled something not often heard at dinner parties, "Cicada smoothies! Anyone want to help me make them?"

Of course they did. This is, after all, the Insect-Eating Club. Freshman Nicolas Maya had the first sip and announced, "It's good!"

Check out the culinary experiment below, if you dare: