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☆ Swallowed eels escape via predator fish’s gills
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-13 | by ( Mindy Weisberger | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Dark sleeper fish (Odontobutis obscura) can gulp down young Japanese eels (Anguilla japonica) whole, but the swallowed eels can wriggle back up through the digestive tract and out of the stomach, swimming to freedom through the bigger fish’s gills, scientists recently discovered. “Witnessing the eels’ desperate escape from the predator’s stomach to the gills was truly astonishing for us.”A Japanese eel exhibits circling behavior along a predator's stomach wall in this X-ray video footage. But while they observed swallowed eels wriggling tailfirst from dark sleepers’ gills, “we had no understanding of their escape routes and behavioral patterns during the escape because it occurred inside the predator’s body,” Hasegawa said via email. Once a predator swallowed an eel, the sated fish was quickly moved to a special tank where the X-ray video camera was ready to roll. On average, it took about 3 ½ minutes for a swallowed eel to reappear and swim away.

Persons: ”, Yuha Hasegawa, Yuuki Kawabata, ichthyologist Kory Evans, “, ” Evans, ’ Hasegawa, Kazuki Yokouchi, Nagasaki University —, ” Hasegawa, Prosanta, Mindy Weisberger Organizations: CNN, Graduate School of Fisheries, Environmental Sciences, Japan’s Nagasaki University, “, biosciences, Rice University, Japan Fisheries Research, Education Agency, Nagasaki University, Louisiana State University, LSU Museum of Natural Science, Scientific Locations: Anguilla, Houston

☆ Opinion: Public schools are not Sunday schools
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-03 | by ( Opinion Amanda Tyler | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

CNN —It has been an especially active few weeks for news about religion in public schools. Public schools are not Sunday schools, and families should feel free to send their children to school without worrying about state officials interfering in their choices about religious instruction. These politically conservative state officials are seemingly making a show of testing the limits of government-sponsored religious instruction and exercise in public schools, emboldened by the US Supreme Court’s recent decisions. Like religious instruction in public schools, the public funding of religion undermines fundamental principles of religious freedom for all. By merging religious and political authority, taxpayer funding of religious schools threatens the rights of people of all faiths — and those of no faith.

Persons: Amanda Tyler, Jeff Landry, Ryan Walters, ” Amanda Tyler, Kennedy, Walters, beholden, ” Walters Organizations: Baptist, Religious Liberty, Christian Nationalism, CNN, Texas Education Agency, Louisiana Gov, US, Twitter, Oklahoma Supreme Court Locations: Louisiana, Oklahoma’s, Kennedy v, Bremerton, Kentucky, Texas , Louisiana, Oklahoma

☆ What happens when history is erased? An artist edits Civil Rights images to eerie effect
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-08 | by ( Jacqui Palumbo | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

That’s the version of history Houston-based artist Phillip Pyle II poses in the photographic series “Forgotten Struggle,” in which he presents provocatively edited pictures of Civil Rights protestors during the 1960s carrying blank white signs. Phillip Pyle IIPyle initially began the work in response to textbook changes made by the Texas State Board of Education in 2010. Phillip Pyle IIBut Pyle’s images don’t just infer commentary on contested curriculum. “(I want) to talk about history in a way that’s not beating you over the head with history,” he added. But Pyle also thinks about how his images will live online, and how they might be viewed decades from now.

Persons: Eric Garner, “, ”, Phillip Pyle, provocatively, ” Pyle, Pyle, Steven Evans, ” Evans, it’s Organizations: CNN, Civil, Civil Rights, Texas State, of Education, FotoFest Locations: Houston, Florida, “, FotoFest, vitrines

Advocates for comprehensive sex education say the restrictions in early education may prevent kids from getting age-appropriate foundational knowledge that they build on each year, said Alison Macklin, director of policy and advocacy at the progressive sex education organization SIECUS. To comply with the new law in Kentucky, for example, the state’s education agency advised schools eliminate fifth-grade lessons on puberty and reproductive body parts. Twenty-eight states require sex education, and 35 require HIV education, according to tracking by the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights. Massachusetts, for example, recently announced new sexual health education guidelines, which were last updated in 1999. She remembers just one optional day of sex education in middle school.

Persons: Anne, Marie Amies Oelschlager, Alison Macklin, “, Macklin, aren't, ”, David Walls, Kathleen Ethier, Ethier, don’t, ” Ethier, Hope Crenshaw, aren’t, ” Crenshaw, Kayla Smith, ” Smith, Holly Ramer, Rebecca Boone Organizations: DES, Republican, Seattle Children's Hospital, The, Foundation, Guttmacher Institute, U.S . Centers for Disease Control, U.S . Department of Health, Human Services, Public Health, HHS, New, PREP, CDC’s, Adolescent, School Health, CDC, Teen Health Mississippi, University of Mississippi, Associated Press Locations: DES MOINES, Iowa, Seattle, Indiana, Arkansas, In Kentucky, Florida, Kentucky, ”, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Alabama, Colorado , Florida , Idaho , Iowa, South Carolina, Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Miami, agency’s, Mississippi, U.S, Concord , New Hampshire, Boise , Idaho

☆ Publishers, booksellers sue Texas over public school book ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-26 | by ( Joseph Ax | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

July 26 (Reuters) - A coalition of booksellers, authors and publishers has sued Texas seeking to block a new state law that bans "sexually explicit" books from public schools. Vendors that do not participate will be barred from selling any books to Texas schools. Any books rated explicit cannot be sold to public schools and must be recalled from libraries. Republican Governor Greg Abbott has said the Texas law protects children, declaring that it "gets that trash out of our schools" when he signed it in June. In May, the writers' group PEN America and others sued a Florida school district for banning books dealing with LGBTQ and race issues.

Persons: Greg Abbott, Joseph Ax, Colleen Jenkins, Bill Berkrot Organizations: Republican, Texas Education Agency, PEN America, American Library Association, Thomson Locations: Texas, Austin, Florida, Arkansas

☆ A new Texas law forces vendors to rate sexual content in schoolbooks. They’re not happy about it
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-04 | by ( Nadia Bidarian | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

But a new Texas law might require her to. The law’s primary author, Republican Texas State Rep. Jared Patterson, said its aim is simple: Get sexually explicit content out of schools. Republican Texas State Rep. Jared Patterson debates HB 900, which would ban sexually explicit materials from library books in schools. Mikala Compton/Austin American-Statesman/APBut the burden of rating these books falls on book vendors. The law also applies retroactively to books sold to schools in the past, meaning that vendors must issue recalls for “sexually explicit” books still in circulation.

Persons: Charley Rejsek, they’d, “ We’re, ” Rejsek, Jared Patterson, Mikala Compton, “ We’ve, “, ” Patterson, ”, Shirley Robinson, ” Robinson, Ben Conn, Conn, Noble, ” Conn, wasn’t, Patterson, Valerie Koehler, Mary Cate Stevenson, Noah Nofz Koehler, doesn’t, she’s, ” Koehler, Noah Nofz Richard Bailey, Greg Abbott, Bailey, ” Bailey, Lewis Parry, ” Elizabeth Jordan, ’ Patterson, ” Jordan, can’t, Jordan Organizations: CNN, Republican Texas State, Austin American, Statesman, Resources, ”, Texas Library Association, Media Association, Barnes, Penguin, Library Company, Education, Willow, Interabang, Dallas County, Lewis Parry Interabang, Nowhere, Texas Education Agency Locations: Texas, Austin, ”, Houston, Houston , Texas, Dallas, Dallas , Texas, San Antonio

☆ The world's biggest publisher is suing a Florida school district for banning books by writers including Toni Morrison and Khaled Hosseini
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Ryan Hogg | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Penguin Random House is suing a Florida school district and board after it banned certain books. Penguin Random House has joined forces with an authors' group to sue a Florida school district after it banned a number of books. Books removed or restricted by Escambia include "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison, "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut, and "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. All have had books removed from libraries or had student access restricted by the district, PEN America said in a press release. "The book removals and restrictions enacted by the School District and School Board are denying students access to books they would like to read, or chilling such access."

☆ The College Board claps back at DeSantis, calling Florida's reasoning for banning AP African American studies 'slander'
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Taiyler Simone Mitchell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The College Board clapped back on Saturday, defending the course. Instead, the College Board said the administration has leaned into spreading misinformation: "We need to clear the air and set the record straight." The College Board maintained that the course framework was just an outline for the pilot course. The organization also slammed the administration for taking credit for changes that the College Board made to the course and said that there have not been any negotiations between the College Board and the FDOE. "The College Board condemns this uninformed caricature of African American Studies and the harm it does to scholars and students," the statement continues.

☆ Meet Matt Krause, the man who critics say helped make Texas a national leader in book bans
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-18 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

Texas now has the highest number of book bans in the US. Texas is now a leader in book bans, and one influential politician — along with pressure from the GOP — may have been the driving force, a Houston Chronicle investigation found. By April 2022, a PEN America analysis found that Texas had 713 bans, nearly half of all book bans in the US. Some politicians and parent groups disagreed with the inquiryKrause denies any political motivations behind the book list, but critics disagree. For Foote, the book bans represent GOP political motivations, citing school board officials and lawmakers who have begun their own book challenges.

☆ I'm a working mom who's had no choice but to homeschool my kid. The government should offer more aid for families like mine.
▼ + stars: | 2022-03-02 | by ( Melissa Petro | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

She's homeschooling her son as their district can't find a public school to meet his special needs. As a child with a disability, he's entitled to services that will support and help him succeed in school. The good news: I found a private school for kids with special needs and they have an immediate opening. Do I put it on a credit card, hire a lawyer, and sue my public school district for reimbursement? I don't have a full-time "job," but I'm literally doing the job of a hundred different people.

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