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    Oregon School Leaders on Leave After 2 Teachers Charged With Sex Abuse

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    The police said the St. Helens School District was informed of the abuse allegations as early as 2019 but officials failed to alert the authorities.Two Oregon high school teachers charged on Tuesday with sexually abusing students had been reported as early as 2019 to district officials, who failed to notify the authorities, according to the police.The revelations have prompted online petitions seeking the resignations of school leaders as well as demonstrations at St. Helens School District by parents, students and community members.On Thursday, the principal at St. Helens High School, Katy Wagner, was placed on administrative leave and the school board chairman, Ryan Scholl, resigned, according to the district’s Facebook page. A day later, the district superintendent, Scot Stockwell, was placed on leave, the district said.The teachers, Eric Stearns, 46, a teacher at the high school, and Mark Collins, 64, who recently retired from the school, were each charged with several counts of sexual abuse, the St. Helens Police Department said.Joseph Hogue, the acting police chief, said that investigators had identified nine female victims between Mr. Stearns and Mr. Collins from 2019-23. The investigation is continuing and detectives are still fielding calls, he said.A lawyer for Mr. Stearns, Jennifer L. Myrick, on Sunday night disputed the charges.She said the grand jurors investigating the charges conflated the investigations of Mr. Collins and Mr. Stearns.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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      Elite School Will Offer a Day Off for Students Distressed by Election

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      Attendance on Wednesday, or whatever day the results are announced, is optional for high school students at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City, families were told.One of New York City’s elite private schools told families on Thursday that “students who feel too emotionally distressed” the day after Election Day will be excused from classes, and that psychologists will be available during the week to provide counseling.In a section of an email to members of the school’s community headed “Election Day support,” Stacey Bobo, principal of the upper school at the institution, the Ethical Culture Fieldston School, said that it “acknowledges that this may be a high-stakes and emotional time for our community.”“No matter the election outcome,” she wrote, the school “will create space to provide students with the support they may need.”No homework will be assigned on Election Day, the email said, and no student assessments will take place on Wednesday. Excused absences will be allowed on Wednesday or whatever day the election results are announced for students who feel unable to “fully engage in classes.” Gwen Rocco, a spokeswoman for the school, declined to comment on the email.Fieldston’s upper school, in Riverdale, a leafy section of the Bronx, includes grades nine through 12. The school also has two elementary schools, one of which is in Manhattan, and a middle school on the Riverdale campus. About 1,700 students attend the schools, and tuition for all grades is $65,540 a year.The school, which was founded in the late 19th century on principles of social justice, was divided by infighting over pro-Palestinian student activism in the spring, leading to Joe Algrant’s resignation as head of the school in August. 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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      After Georgia Shooting, a Grief-Stricken City Seeks Solace, and Answers

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      At candlelight vigils and in Sunday church services, at fund-raisers for funerals and in quiet moments at home, another city began wrestling with a grief that has been inflicted on numerous American communities before it, a profound sorrow swirled with anger and confusion caused by a deadly mass shooting.And now, those emotions in Winder, Ga., were streaked with budding doubts there had been missed opportunities to intervene before a gunman killed two students and two teachers last week at Apalachee High School.Some in the community — including family members of victims, and students and parents at the school — expressed increased skepticism on Sunday about whether indications that the 14-year-old suspect was a threat had been adequately heeded by the teenager’s family, school officials and law enforcement officials.The concern grew after reports emerged of the suspect’s mother calling the school roughly a half-hour before the authorities responded to the shooting, apparently to warn them.“We believe it was preventable — 100 percent,” Lisette Angulo, the older sister of Christian Angulo, a 14-year-old boy who was killed, said of her and her family’s perspective in a message sent to The New York Times. “They knew of the situation beforehand,” she said, “and didn’t take proper action to prevent this tragedy from happening.”Ms. Angulo praised the officers and emergency workers who responded to the shooting on Wednesday morning, namely the school resource officers to whom the suspect surrendered. They had acted “efficiently and appropriately,” she 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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      Gwen Walz, la esposa calmada y ultracompetente de Tim Walz

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      [Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]En 2006, durante su primera campaña para el Congreso, Tim Walz tenía previsto hablar en una cena de recaudación de fondos en Mankato, su ciudad natal en Minnesota. En ese momento, era un político desconocido que participaba en una campaña muy reñida contra un candidato titular que había ocupado el cargo durante seis mandatos. La cena le brindaba la oportunidad de hacer campaña en su distrito local del Partido Demócrata-Agrario-Laborista de Minnesota y aumentar los fondos de su campaña.Solo había un problema: Walz tenía laringitis.Mientras los invitados se servían la comida, se sorprendieron al ver que otra persona subía al escenario: Gwen Walz, la esposa de Walz.Estaba acostumbrada a hablar ante grandes grupos: al igual que su marido, Gwen Walz había sido profesora de una escuela pública durante más de una década. Los asistentes quedaron impresionados por su seguridad y claridad.“Hubo otros candidatos que hablaron, y ella fue la más elocuente del grupo”, dijo John Klaber, un residente de North Mankato que asistió a la recaudación de fondos hace casi dos décadas. “Todos miramos a nuestro alrededor y dijimos: ‘¿Por qué ella no se postula?”.La mayor parte del público estadounidense pudo ver por primera vez al gobernador Tim Walz la semana pasada en un mitin en Filadelfia junto a la vicepresidenta Kamala Harris, quien ese mismo día había anunciado que era su compañero de fórmula. Al final de su discurso, el país también pudo ver por primera vez a la mujer con la que ha estado casado durante 30 años.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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      Regulators to Review Death of Nex Benedict, a Nonbinary Student, in Oklahoma

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      The U.S. Department of Education said it had opened an investigation into whether a high school “failed to appropriately respond” to reports of harassment of Nex Benedict, who died a day after a fight in a school bathroom.The U.S. Department of Education said on Friday that it had opened an investigation into the Oklahoma school district where a 16-year-old student, Nex Benedict, died a day after an altercation inside a high school bathroom.The department said in a letter on Friday that it was investigating whether Owasso Public Schools, outside Tulsa, had “failed to appropriately respond to alleged harassment of students” in violation of federal law, including Title IX. It said the investigation was in response to a complaint brought by the Human Rights Campaign, an L.G.B.T.Q. advocacy group.The death of Nex, an Owasso High School sophomore who was nonbinary, drew national attention after gay and transgender rights groups said Nex had been bullied at school because of their gender identity. Nex used they and them pronouns as well as he and him pronouns, friends said.After the altercation, Nex spoke to a police officer at a local hospital and, according to a video of the interview released by the Owasso Police Department, described pouring water on three girls who had been picking on Nex and Nex’s friends for the way they dressed. The girls then attacked and fought with Nex, who told the police officer that they fell to the ground and “blacked out” at one point.The next day, Nex’s grandmother and guardian called for an ambulance to rush Nex back to the hospital, where they were pronounced dead.The cause of Nex’s death remains under investigation by the state medical examiner. The Police Department said in a statement last month that the death was not the result of trauma, but has not elaborated.Nex’s death brought scrutiny to Oklahoma’s restrictive laws and policies for L.G.B.T.Q. students and to the bullying that family members and friends said Nex had suffered at school.Karen E. Mines, an acting regional director with the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights, said in the letter that the opening of an investigation “in no way implies that O.C.R. has made a determination on the merits of the complaint.”In a statement, the school district said that it was “committed to cooperating with federal officials” and that it “believes the complaint submitted by H.R.C. is not supported by the facts and is without merit.”The Human Rights Campaign’s president, Kelley Robinson, said, “We need them to act urgently so there can be justice for Nex, and so that all students at Owasso High School and every school in Oklahoma can be safe from bullying, harassment and discrimination.”At a vigil for Nex last month, Robin Ingersoll, a 16-year-old sophomore and friend of Nex at Owasso High School, said that Nex identified as transgender and that L.G.B.T.Q. students had struggled to find acceptance in their corner of Oklahoma.“In Owasso, it’s worse than the bullying,” Robin said. “We could all learn more acceptance of others, and be better so something like this doesn’t happen again. We could all grow for Nex.”Ben Fenwick More

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      After Nex Benedict’s Death, Oklahoma Schools Chief Defends Strict Gender Policies

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      The Oklahoma school superintendent, Ryan Walters, said “radical leftists” had created a narrative about the death of 16-year-old Nex Benedict that “hasn’t been true.”In his three years as state superintendent for Oklahoma’s public schools, Ryan Walters, a former high school history teacher, has transformed himself into one of the most strident culture warriors in a state known for sharp-edged conservative politics.Following the death earlier this month of a 16-year-old nonbinary student a day after an altercation in a high school girls’ bathroom, gay and transgender advocates accused Mr. Walters of having fomented an atmosphere of dangerous intolerance within public schools.In his first interview reacting to the death of the student, Nex Benedict, Mr. Walters told The New York Times that the death was a tragedy, but that it did not change his views on how questions of gender should be handled in schools.“There’s not multiple genders. There’s two. That’s how God created us,” Mr. Walters said, saying he did not believe that nonbinary or transgender people exist. He said that Oklahoma schools would not allow students to use preferred names or pronouns that differ from their birth sex.“You always treat individuals with dignity or respect, because they’re made in God’s image,” Mr. Walters said. “But that doesn’t change truth.”Nex BenedictSue Benedict/Sue Benedict, via Associated PressWe 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