Article here. Excerpt:

'In last week's blog, I discussed my predominantly male class--a group of kids whose behavior I'd had tremendous difficulty managing last semester while team-teaching with a female special-education teacher. Now, with a male special-education teacher, the students' behavior was suddenly much improved. I considered that something Christina Hoff Sommers had suggested in her article--that boys needed more male teachers--might deserve some credence, despite the fact that I don't inherently like the idea: I believe that boys should be able to be educated by teachers of either gender, as long as that teacher is attuned to their learning needs.
...
... Thus, at the end of the day, the gender of the teacher cannot be the only factor that predicts the success of the students--although, sometimes, it really does help.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'Britain's farcical benefits system was exposed yesterday after a cheating mother was told she can now claim twice as much rather than go to jail.

Joanne Gibbons, 23, fiddled £3,140 in income support while holding down two jobs, a court was told.

But after she was caught it was revealed the shop assistant mother-of-one was entitled to claim £130 a week – £64 a week more than the amount she was swindling the taxpayer.

During her court appearance even her lawyer admitted: “This case is extraordinary and perhaps an indictment of the benefits system.”
...

Article here. Excerpt:

'Falsely accused by his ex-wife, after a bitter divorce, of being behind in his child-support obligations by more than $3,500, Tony Schehtman was prosecuted for months and had his passport confiscated, restricting his business travel.

But last month he won a measure of vindication when a South Florida judge issued a scathing sanctions order. In addition to ordering Schehtman's ex-wife to pay him $7,645 in legal fees, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Pedro Echarte also required prosecutors to do the same, calling the "pointless litigation," which proceeded for months after the defendant proved that he was not delinquent, "reprehensible" and "irresponsible," reports the Miami Herald.
...
"The state attorney deprived a law-abiding citizen of a fundamental liberty: his freedom of movement,” said Heller. “We will do what it takes to make sure this never happens again.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A graduate of Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. has sued the school for $1.3 million because she is unhappy that she got a C+ in a class in 2009.

Megan Thode, 27, says the grade ruined her dream of becoming a licensed professional counselor, reports The Morning Call, an Allentown-based newspaper. Her civil suit alleges breach of contract and sexual discrimination. It contends that the grade was part of a broader attempt to force her to abandon the graduate degree she was pursuing.
...
Thode’s lawyer, Richard J. Orloski, maintains that she deserved a higher grade. However, her professor, Amanda Carr, awarded her a big, fat zero for classroom participation. That zero brought her grade down.

Orloski has also alleged that Carr and Nicholas Ladany (who was the director of the degree program) conspired against Thode because she and three other students were critical when they were had to search for supplemental internships midway through a semester.

Link here. Excerpt:

'Video footage has been obtained by Nine News showing scenes of shocking violence at Sydney train stations.

CCTV cameras at Kings Cross, Cabramatta and Blacktown railway stations captured violent attacks which left victims seriously injured and security staff outnumbered.

At Blacktown station in Western Sydney a group of teenage girls were recorded attacking a couple, leaving the man unconscious and his partner with blood streaming down her face.'

Letter here. Excerpt:

'The way to deal with boys’ underachievement in school is not through “boy friendly” policies like more recess, single-sex classrooms and male teachers but through strong academic climates and clear, consistent information about occupations and the educational pathways that lead to them.

After years of research for our forthcoming book, “The Rise of Women: The Growing Gender Gap in Education and What It Means for American Schools,” Thomas A. DiPrete and I found that in schools where academic effort is expected and valued, boys compete for high grades and more often achieve them. Such schools reduce gender gaps and promote healthy, multifaceted gender identities for both boys and girls.
...
Rather than remaking schools in ways that reinforce gender stereotypes, we need schools that set high expectations for student achievement and treat students as individuals.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Although I suffer the cultural drawbacks of being born and raised as an Australian male (i.e. to be ‘masculine’), I empathise with Kali Goldstone’s frustrations at the disadvantageous treatment of women in many organisations, to the detriment of both (On Line Opinion February 11, 2013). It is unfortunate, however, that she often relies on and quotes poor science. Here are some more research-based findings.

How ironic: the Education Minister busted for cheating! You can't make this stuff up! So at the risk of being accused of schadenfreude, here it is. It's like the old joke about the atheist who became a priest. Anyway, there is this notion that females are less likely to cheat or be academically or generally dishonest than males. It's reports such as these that show such ideas for what they are: hogwash. Excerpt:

'BERLIN — For 32 years, the German education minister’s 351-page dissertation sat on a shelf at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf gathering dust while its author pursued a successful political career that carried her to the highest circles of the German government.

The academic work was a time bomb, however, and it exploded last year when an anonymous blogger published a catalog of passages suspected of having been lifted from other publications without proper attribution.

SAVE has just issued a report showing many of the programs funded under S. 47, the Violence Against Women Act, place victims at risk of continued abuse and even death. Restraining orders, mandatory arrest, and aggressive prosecution policies are all found to be increasing partner violence, according to the research summary.
 
The report can be viewed here: http://www.saveservices.org/2013/02/the-violence-against-women-act-is-a-deadly-proposition
 
For example, VAWA funds the enforcement of restraining orders, but they are widely believed to be ineffective in curbing abuse. A review of homicide-suicides in North Carolina revealed the issuance of a restraining order was the most common trigger for such tragedies, present in 41% of such incidents.

Petition here. Excerpt:

'I am writing to you today to stand in the gap and make a plea for male victims of domestic violence. There has been legislation in place for many years to protect and help female victims of domestic violence, but there are no true resources for male victims.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'A 35-year-old paraeducator is accused of repeatedly raping a 14-year-old boy during a 10-month period who was friends with her son.

Katheryn L. Carmean, 35, was arrested in Seaford, Del. on Wednesday and charged with ten counts of third-degree rape, continuous sexual abuse of a child and endangering the welfare of a child, according to a press release from the Delaware State Police.

Delaware Online reports that Carmean was arrested at Seaford Middle School where she works as a paraeducator who assists children with disabilities. She has been suspended from her position.'

Article here. Excerpt:

Story here. Excerpt:

'When it comes to high school robotics teams, all-girl groups like Needham High School’s HackHers are a rare sight.

That’s because female representation is lacking not only in robotics but also across all STEM—science, technology, engineering and math—subjects, said NHS math and computer science teacher Hans Batra, the robotics team’s advisor and founder.

“The stigma of girls doing science is very huge,” said Batra.

But the newly formed team, which has qualified for the state robotics championship tournament at Bridgewater on March 16, is helping pave the way for more female participation in computer science and engineering.

In addition to the state championship in March, the team also competes in the Mass FTC Qualifying Tournament on Feb. 9 from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Lexington High School.

“This team proves that even in a male-dominated field everyone has the same potential,” said NHS junior and HackHers member Liz Barrett.'

Article here. Excerpt:

'Leading up to the Senate vote on the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization, a version of the bill that stripped protections for LGBT women, undocumented immigrants and Native American women was defeated.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced the scaled-back version of the bill, which failed by a vote of 34-65. Among the 34 Republicans to vote for the bill were Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., the only female senator who is not a co-sponsoring the version of the VAWA that will likely be voted on on Monday.

The new protections for LGBT, immigrant and Native American women were a big reason why Republicans opposed the reauthorization bill in the last session of Congress. VAWA had been allowed to expire in September, 2011, and stalled several times over the course of 2012.'

Story here. Excerpt:

'MARIANNA, Fla. — Nobody is quite sure how many boys’ bodies lie beneath the grounds of the notorious Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys, or which one is Thomas or Owen or Robert.

Nobody is quite sure how most of them died — the cause is often listed as “unknown” or “accident” — or why a great number were buried with such haste.

The scattered graves bear no markings: no names, no loving sentiment. The only hint of a cemetery are the white crosses that the state planted in the 1990s, belatedly and haphazardly.

From the time it opened in 1900, as the state’s first home for wayward children, until it closed in 2011, as a residential center for high-risk youths, Dozier became synonymous with beatings, abuse, forced labor, neglect and, in some cases, death. It survived Congressional hearings, state hearings and state investigations. Each one turned the spotlight on horrific conditions, and little changed.'