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      Overlooked No More: Mabel Addis, Who Pioneered Storytelling in Video Gaming

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      She was a teacher when she participated in an educational experiment with IBM. As a result, she became the first female video game designer.This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.In the 1960s, Mabel Addis was an elementary-school teacher in a small town in New York State when she was offered a unique opportunity that would make history: Create an educational game with IBM.What resulted was the Sumerian Game, an early video game that taught the basics of economic theory to sixth graders. In it, a student would act as the ruler of the Mesopotamian city-state of Lagash, in Sumer, in 3500 B.C. In Level One, the primary focus was on growing crops and developing tools; Level Two oversaw a more diversified economy; and in Level Three, Lagash interacted with other city-states. In each round, students responded to prompts issued by Urbaba, the royal steward.The video game was text-based, but it is believed to be the first to introduce storytelling and characters, and the first in a genre now known as edutainment. It also made Addis the first known female video game designer, according to several game historians.The Sumerian Game “is pretty rudimentary by today’s standards, but the thing about being ‘first’ is that just existing at all becomes innovative,” Kate Willaert, the author of the blog “A Critical Hit!,” who has studied the game extensively, said in an email. Addis, she maintained, was the first video game writer ever.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      5 Things School Nurses Say Parents Are Doing Wrong

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      The stalwarts of children’s health shared their tips and gripes.Carren Teitelbaum, a school nurse in Ramapo, N.Y., once had a student stumble into her office with a 102 degree fever. Mrs. Teitelbaum called his mother, who said she’d given her son Tylenol that had likely worn off and that she could come give him more.“That kind of thing is extremely frustrating,” Mrs. Teitelbaum said. “And it’s not an isolated incident.”Most parents are aware that fevers are a symptom of communicable viruses, and it’s best to keep their children home when they have one. But on short notice, many parents can’t stay home from work, leaving school nurses to care for sick and contagious children.Sending feverish kids to school is just one miscalculation school nurses say parents make. The New York Times spoke with 14 school nurses across the United States who shared other common mistakes. “Some of these things are common sense,” said Mrs. Teitelbaum, “but I find that what makes sense for me may not make sense for somebody else.”They leave the school nurse in the dark.Parents might inform a new teacher about their child’s health but many forget to tell the school nurse, Mrs. Teitelbaum said.Last year, a student with a bad headache visited Anna Etlinger, a school nurse in Cook County, Ill. After calling the boy’s mother, Mrs. Etlinger learned he experiences migraines that cause vomiting without medicine. But public school nurses generally can’t administer most medications without parental consent and permission from a licensed health care provider.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Supreme Court, for Now, Blocks Protections for Transgender Students in Some States

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      The order maintained halts by lower courts on federal rules prohibiting discrimination against transgender people in schools.The Supreme Court on Friday temporarily continued to block Education Department rules intended to protect transgender students from discrimination based on their gender identity in several Republican states that had mounted challenges.The emergency order allowed rulings by lower courts in Louisiana and Kentucky to remain in effect in about 10 states as litigation moves forward, maintaining a pause on new federal guidelines expanding protections for transgender students that had been enacted in nearly half the country on Aug. 1.The order came in response to a challenge by the Biden administration, which asked the Supreme Court to intervene after a number of Republican-led states sought to overturn the new rules.The decision was unsigned, as is typical in such emergency petitions. But all nine members of the court said that parts of the new rules — including the protections for transgender students — should not go into effect until the legal challenges are resolved.“Importantly,” the unsigned order said, “all members of the court today accept that the plaintiffs were entitled to preliminary injunctive relief as to three provisions of the rule, including the central provision that newly defines sex discrimination to include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.”The decision handed a victory to the Republican-led states that had challenged the rules. A patchwork of lower court decisions means that the rules are temporarily paused in about 26 states.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Saving Conservatism From Trumpism

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      More from our inbox:The Candidates’ Foreign ExperienceA Loss of Diversity in Network NewsProtecting School LibrariesIndependent Voters Thalassa Raasch for The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “How to Save Conservatism From Itself,” by David French (column, Aug. 12):I commend Mr. French for declaring his intention to vote for Kamala Harris despite his pro-life convictions. And although I do not share his anti-abortion stance, I respect his beliefs.However, in my view Mr. French is mistaken to think that if Donald Trump is defeated in November, there is hope for a conservatism that demonstrates real compassion.Mr. Trump has not become the standard-bearer of the Republican Party against its will; on the contrary, he has articulated (in his most inarticulate way) the fanaticism of today’s conservative movement in America.Absolutism in regard to abortion, gun ownership, immigration, tax cuts for the wealthy, the slashing of benefits for the impoverished — these are the bedrock beliefs of today’s conservative movement, with or without Donald Trump. Who are the compassionate, compromise-seeking Republican leaders waiting in the wings to command a majority of voters once Mr. Trump somehow exits the stage?Donald Trump is a symptom, not the cause, of where the Republican Party finds itself today. Until honorable, conservative-minded people like Mr. French recognize this, it seems impossible to me that the Republican Party can rise from its ashes.Barth LandorChicagoTo the Editor:I don’t think one man’s vote will “save conservatism from itself,” but every vote counts, so I’m sure Kamala Harris will appreciate David French’s.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Texas Parents Fed Smoothies to Sick Daughter Who Later Died, Police Say

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      Miranda Sipps, 12, suffered for four days before dying while her mother and stepfather failed to seek medical treatment for her, the authorities said. Both are charged with a felony.A Texas mother and stepfather failed to seek medical assistance for their sick daughter and instead fed her smoothies as she battled life-threatening injuries for four days before she died on Monday, according to the Atascosa County Sheriff’s Office.The parents, Denise Balbaneda, 36, and Gerald Gonzales, 40, of Christine, Texas, “basically confessed” by telling the authorities how their daughter, Miranda Sipps, 12, was injured and that they had failed to act, Sheriff David Soward said at a news conference Wednesday. They were both arrested and charged with causing serious injury to a child by omission, a first-degree felony, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.“They thought they could nurse her back to health,” Sheriff Soward said Wednesday. “We do not think they wanted the attention that this would draw to them if the little girl was injured — which is strangely ironic.”For four days, the injuries that Miranda suffered left her unconscious and she was able only to “flutter her eyes and move her hands a little bit,” Sheriff Soward said. Instead of seeking medical attention, Ms. Balbaneda and Mr. Gonzales had her lie “on a pallet” and tried to feed her smoothies which she could not swallow, Sheriff Soward added.Miranda did not have any broken bones but authorities would not provide details about how the girl was injured or the nature of her injuries. Sheriff Soward said that the charges could change as more information is revealed.Efforts to reach Ms. Balbaneda and Mr. Gonzales for comment on Thursday were unsuccessful and it was unclear if they had legal representation.At around 8 p.m. Monday, Ms. Balbaneda, who was in a vehicle with her daughter, called 9-1-1 and was met by dispatchers on the side of a highway in Atascosa County near their family’s home in Christine, about 45 miles south of San Antonio, according to the sheriff’s office. The child was alive but unconscious and died in the hospital two hours later, it said.Sheriff Soward, who confirmed there had been “calls for service” to the couple’s home in the past, said that he felt that the couple did not want the police coming to their home. He described the home as “untidy, unkept, sort of dirty.”Monday was the first day of school for the Jourdanton Independent School District, where Miranda attended junior high school and was a cheerleader.“The Jourdanton ISD is currently dealing with the tragic loss of one of our Jr. High students,” the district said in a statement. “In our Junior High library, we made counselors available for anyone who may need or want help or assistance.”A GoFundMe post apparently from Miranda’s aunt, Pricilla Chapa, has raised about $2,000 for her funeral.“She was taken from us far too soon in an unexpected way,” the post read, “leaving behind a legacy of love, laughter, and memories that we will cherish forever.” More

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      Bennington to Revive Dance Program of Philadelphia Arts School

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      Bennington College raised nearly $1.3 million to absorb the dance program of the University of the Arts, which shuttered suddenly in June.Two months after the University of the Arts in Philadelphia closed, the school’s dance program will be revived at Bennington College in Vermont, which will absorb the dance school, three staff members and nearly 50 students, the college announced on Thursday.“What they are doing is the future of dance,” said Laura Walker, the president of Bennington College, who helped raise nearly $1.3 million from philanthropists to make it happen. The money included a donation of $1 million from Barbara and Sebastian Scripps, who run a nonprofit focused on arts education.“It’s a tough time, and we hope this will be a model for others,” Walker said.Nearly 1,150 students and 700 employees were left adrift after the University of the Arts president, Kerry Walk, abruptly closed the school in June, citing financial woes, and then resigned. Soon after, Pennsylvania officials opened an inquiry into the unexpected collapse. Some faculty and students have joined class-action lawsuits accusing the school of fraud and breach of contract; a union representing workers also filed an unfair labor practices complaint against the university in July.Several universities have offered spots to incoming freshmen who had committed to the University of the Arts. Temple University in Philadelphia has also welcomed returning fine arts and drama students, some of whom were near graduation.But the agreement with Bennington College goes further: All incoming and returning students were invited to attend. Donna Faye Burchfield, the former dean of the University of the Arts School of Dance, will oversee the bachelor and masters of fine arts programs, with about 50 students. The program will also include a number of visiting dance artists who previously taught in Philadelphia.“On a Friday evening, we learned about the school closing,” Burchfield said. “On Saturday morning, I started making calls.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      California School Official Who Embezzled $16.7 Million Gets Nearly 6 Years in Prison

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      Jorge Armando Contreras used his position at a school district in Orange County to fund a luxurious lifestyle, prosecutors said.A former California public school official who embezzled more than $16 million from a school district and used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle was sentenced to nearly six years in prison this week, according to the Justice Department.A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Jorge Armando Contreras, 53, who worked for the Magnolia School District in Orange County, to 70 months and ordered him to pay $16,694,942 in restitution. Mr. Contreras, of Yorba Linda, Calif., had pleaded guilty in March to one count of embezzlement, theft and intentional misapplication of funds from an organization receiving federal funds, the U.S. attorney’s office said. Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said in a statement that “instead of using his job at a public school district to help socioeconomically disadvantaged children,” Mr. Contreras had embezzled millions of dollars in a scheme that fraudulently created for him a life of opulence.He used the money to buy a range of luxurious products like Louis Vuitton bags and $2,000 tequila bottles, according to the Justice Department. About $7.7 million in personal and real property traced to the scheme have been seized, officials said.Mr. Contreras’s lawyer, Ronald D. Hedding, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on Saturday.Court documents show that Mr. Contreras’s embezzling scheme appeared to have begun in 2016 and lasted until July 2023. During that period, he worked as the director and senior director of fiscal services at the school district, which serves students from preschool through sixth grade in Anaheim and Stanton, cities about 25 miles southeast of Los Angeles. About 81 percent of those students classify as socioeconomically disadvantaged, prosecutors said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Saint Ann’s Teacher Charged With Sharing Sexual Images of Students

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      Prosecutors said the teacher, who worked for Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn, lured students from four different schools to share explicit images with him via social media.A former teacher at an elite private high school in Brooklyn was charged on Thursday with soliciting sexually explicit images of children, prosecutors said.The teacher, Winston Nguyen, who was arrested in front of students last month, taught math at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn Heights. Between October 2022 and May 2024, Mr. Nguyen pretended at least 11 times to be a teenager and “fellow student” on social media, during which he enticed or tried to entice teenage students to send him “images of nudity and sexual performances,” according to prosecutors at the Brooklyn district attorney’s office.Mr. Nguyen, 37, who lives in Harlem, used two different Snapchat accounts to exchange messages with the children — five girls and one boy, all between the ages of 13 and 15 — prosecutors said. The teenagers attended four private schools in Brooklyn: Saint Ann’s, Poly Prep Country Day School, Berkeley Carroll School and Packer Collegiate Institute.Mr. Nguyen was charged with use of a child in a sexual performance, promoting a sexual performance by a child and disseminating indecent material to a minor, among other charges.Frank Rothman, Mr. Nguyen’s lawyer, said his client turned himself in to prosecutors in Brooklyn on Thursday morning.“We arranged for his surrender with the prosecutors and detectives,” Mr. Rothman said. “He showed up and will be processed like any other defendant.”Eric Gonzalez, the Brooklyn district attorney, said the investigation into Mr. Nguyen had “revealed extremely disturbing conduct,” adding, “the fact that he was a teacher and a trusted figure among students make these allegations even more troubling.”On one occasion, Mr. Nguyen paid a child to send a sexually explicit video to him, according to prosecutors. He also shared explicit photos he had received with other children, prosecutors said.Before he was hired at Saint Ann’s, Mr. Nguyen was charged with grand larceny after he was accused of stealing more than $300,000 from an older couple he was hired to care for, according to news reports.Mr. Nguyen spent about five months in jail before being sentenced to time served, according to news reports.Saint Ann’s did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Mr. Nguyen is expected to be arraigned Thursday afternoon. More