Teacher World

Brain research is providing educators with important information as to how children’s brains grow and develop. Having attended a class with Dr. Kathie Nunley regarding brain research, I am very interested in how we, as educators, integrate what brain research is telling us to more effectively teach our students. So I was excited to read a recent article from the January issue of OhioSchools magazine entitled “Bringing brain research into the classroom” by Eric Jensen. Over the next few blogs, I would like to convey to those of you who haven’t had the opportunity to read this article some of its salient points.

Eric Jensen is an internationally known educator who has written over 20 books, including Teaching with the Brain in Mind, and who leads workshops which emphasize the connection of brain research to student achievement. His simple premise is: “The brain is intimately involved in, and connected with, everything educators and students do at school. Any disconnect is a recipe for frustration and potentially disaster. Brain-based education is best understood in three words: engagement, strategies, and principles. You must engage your learners and do it with strategies that are based on real science.” In this article, Jensen breaks down brain-based education into ten strategies. I will deal with the first three in this blog.

“Strategy #1: Physical education, recess and movement are critical to learning.” The growing of neurons, which can occur throughout our lifetime, can be regulated by everyday behaviors, one of which is exercise. These neurons correlate with memory, mood, and learning. Research shows that the best activities to grow neurons are voluntary gross motor activities such as running, dance, team sports, power walks, games, etc. New research shows that during early childhood, “movement wires up the brain to make more efficient connections.”

So how do schools apply this research? “Support more, not less physical activity, recess and classroom movement. It raises the good chemicals for thinking, focus, learning and memory.” Jensen recommends 30-60 minutes per day of voluntary physical activity. He claims it will lower stress response and boost neurogenesis, the formation and development of nerve cells, and learning. He recommends starting out the school year offering a variety of physical activities and eventually allowing students to choose the type of physical activity they enjoy because forced activity can cause an overproduction of cortisol, a steroid hormone which is released in response to stress.

“Strategy #2: Social conditions influence our brain in multiple ways we never knew before.” Jensen points out that school behaviors become encoded through our sense of pleasure, coherence, stress, reward, acceptance, and affinity because they are highly social experiences. While educators are aware that poor social conditions have an adverse affect upon students in the classroom, research now shows that a sense of isolation or social defeat are correlated with fewer brain cells.

How does this apply to the classroom? Jensen says, “Do not allow random social groupings for more than 10-20 percent of the school day.” He suggests the use of diverse groupings that are targeted and well-planned allowing for mentoring, teams, and buddies. He also recommends creating and strengthening positive social conditions between students and between the teacher and students.

“Strategy #3: The brain changes!” Here’s an incredible fact: the brain changes every day, which means our students’ brains are changing daily right before our eyes. This process can be influenced through reading, the arts, skill-building, meditation, career building, and improved thinking skills. The better our skill-building approach, the faster the brain can change. Jensen explains: “We used to think about the paradigm as either genes or experience. We now know it can be a hybrid of both. We now know that environments can trigger genes to express themselves in ways we never would have predicted-if you know what to do. You can upgrade a student’s capacity for memory, processing, sequencing, attention and impulsivity regulation.”

Jensen recommends that teachers take 30-90 minutes a day, 3-5 times a week to improve student skill sets. He suggests teaching attention, memory, and processing skills at least 30 minutes a day to ensure student progress.

I will refrain from discussing how or if Jensen’s strategies can be integrated into current teaching strategies which are, by necessity, based around state testing, until I have reported on each strategy. Until then, this is to be continued…

Changes in Teaching, Teacher-World's Blog, teaching strategies brain research, Eric Jensen, Kathie Nunley, OhioSchools magazine, teaching strategies

News reports on January 21st, from both MSNBC News and CBS News leave me livid as both a parent and a teacher! I am referring to the incident at Oakland, California’s Markham Elementary School, which is, by far, the most shocking school report I have heard to-date!

It has been reported that a male teacher of a second-grade classroom sat by as his students engaged in inappropriate sexual activities on, not one, but two separate occasions! In one case, it is reported, by children from that classroom, that several students took off their clothes and were naked in the classroom. In a second incident, and even more disturbing, students allege that a boy and a girl from this class engaged in oral sex with each other! And here is the indefensible element of this entire fiasco: the teacher was present in the classroom on both occasions!

The spokesman for the Oakland Unified School District told reporters, “I think everyone is taken aback over this shocking incident. It’s hard to understand how that could have occurred.” Gee, ya think?

Luckily, on January 19, a student told a teacher’s assistant what had happened in the classroom, and since then, school leaders have been busy interviewing the students from that classroom in order to get a true picture of what transpired. Of course, this is challenging when talking to 7 and 8-year olds.

Once notified of the situation, Marham’s principal, Pam Booker, sent home a letter to the parents apologizing for the incidents which “represent an unacceptable lack of supervision. I understand there is great anger over this news. I apologize for this and assure you that we are collaborating with counselors and parents to provide support to those involved, address any concerns and take whatever actions are necessary to ensure that a similar act does not occur again.”

District officials were emphasizing that students were not being accused of any wrongdoing. And Flint said, “It’s an incident of kids expressing their natural curiosity that went too far because an adult didn’t step in.”

Now, I’m going to vent here because I have never heard, in all of my years of teaching, of students in a school environment being so curious about their sexuality that they would strip down in front of their teacher and peers or engage in oral sex! In one interview, Flint tried to deflect this situation as being a “reality of our times”. I can predict where that deflection will take us; that our society is so consumed with sex and it is so much a part of what kids see on television, that this was simply kids acting out what they hear and see. While it is true that kids are exposed to a plethora of messages through media which are mature in nature, I do not believe for a minute that the media is the culprit here. Let’s not even try to go in that direction, Mr. Flint!

This is the reality as I see it: young children, on their own, would never think to engage in these kinds of activities in school. It is inconceivable to me to even suggest that this class decided, on their own one day to take off their clothes and hang out in the classroom. And you can’t tell me that 7 or 8-year olds would suddenly get the urge to have oral sex at school in front of their peers! No way! And even if, by some remote chance, it was kid-inspired and kid-directed, wouldn’t the teacher have stopped it immediately?

I can draw only one conclusion from this incident; this teacher had to have instigated both of these situations for his own sick pleasure! There is no other explanation! What, you’re going to keep teaching while naked students are sitting or running around your classroom? You didn’t notice when they started taking their clothes off? And you didn’t see two children engaging in oral sex, or notice that you had lost your students’ attention as they watched this occurring?

This whole thing makes me sick, and it astounds me that this teacher, who has been suspended pending the outcome of the investigation and is not allowed back on campus, is not being handled more firmly and expeditiously by this school system. If I was a parent of a child in that classroom, I would be clamoring for charges to be filed against this man, who, at the very least, is guilty of gross negligence, and at the worst, is guilty of so much worse.

One parent who was interviewed said, “It kind of scares me to know that the teachers aren’t really watching them.” My response to that comment is two-fold: First, this incident is about one teacher, so don’t lump the rest of the teachers in that school with him. I’m sure they don’t want to be lumped in with him at all right now. Second, I don’t think it was a matter of this misguided teacher not watching them but rather of watching them in a way that no adult, let alone a teacher, should be watching children!

This one has me outraged, and I will definitely keep you updated as the investigation continues.

Teacher-World's Blog Markham Elementary School, Oakland

Disturbing news out of Memphis, Tennessee, hit the airways early January. Ninety students from Memphis’s Frayser High School have either recently given birth or are pregnant! Ninety teenage girls, from just one high school alone! Let’s look at some statistics and facts that will blow you away.

First, there are 978 students at Frayser, and of those, 508 are girls. So, when we are talking 90 girls, that means 18 percent of the female class have either recently given birth or are currently pregnant. Deborah Hester Harrison, a spokesperson for Girls, Inc, an organization which teaches girls about pregnancy prevention among many other things, says that the city of Memphis has a very high teen pregnancy rate; between 15 and 20 percent, which is double the national average. Are you ready for this? Frayser’s pregnancy rate is 26 percent!

Frayser is a Title One school, which means it receives money from the federal government based on the number of students who are from low income families and qualify for free or reduced lunch. At this school, those numbers are extremely high, with almost 100 percent of the student population qualifying for free or reduced lunches.

So what is being done about this growing epidemic? Community leaders in Memphis are organizing a major initiative to combat this disturbing dilemma. As reported from WMC-TV, this initiative will include:

* After-school and in-school programs funded with grant money, operated by a local non-profit that already does some work for city schools.
* A $250,000 advertising campaign targeted at the Frayser community that is based on research done in focus groups at the school.
* A federally funded component that emphasizes the responsibility of young men, operated through a Memphis hospital

Additionally, Girls Inc offers classes for teenage girls called Real Care Baby. Through these classes, girls take care of computerized babies that give them some sense of what it will be like to take care of a crying baby whose needs must be met at any hour of the day or night. It is a great way to give them a taste of the work and responsibility involved in caring for a baby. Because the dolls are computerized, they are able to record how effectively they were cared for by the teenage “mother”. (These were actually used in my children’s school, and they are quite effective and quite annoying. They must be taken everywhere by their “parent” and their needs must be met in a timely manner. Any rough handling or neglect is noted by the computer. And there is no leaving the doll with a babysitter, like their mom or dad.)

Also, a new campaign has been launched called “No Baby!” The goal of this campaign is to teach teenagers how to prevent pregnancies and is designed to give girls confidence to say no to sex. In the event that a pregnancy does occur, it also helps teens deal with unplanned pregnancies.

Jennifer Warren, an educator for Planned Parenthood, agrees that teaching abstinence is very important, but she also addresses the necessity for parents to make the time for frank conversations with their children about sex before they reach their middle school years. These conversations, according to Warren, are not intended to leave children with a sense that they have the freedom to have sex, but to give them the opportunity to ask questions and become comfortable about coming to their parents with sexual concerns.

What’s good for Memphis is good for cities everywhere. Let’s face it, teen pregnancy is a problem in your city and in mine. I commend this school and the city of Memphis for its willingness to actively address this extremely sensitive issue. Good luck to you, and may your efforts prove successful.

Teacher-World's Blog Frayser High School, Girls Inc, Memphis, Planned Parenthood, Real Care Baby, teen pregnancies, Title One school

This is a two-for blog; two blogs in one because each is pretty short and sweet, and I couldn’t resist telling you about both of them. Both are pretty strange, so here goes…

Strange blog #1: A CBS/AP news report from Jan. 22nd, told of a first grade teacher in San Antonio, Texas,who, for so-far undisclosed reasons, taped her little Serenah Kelly’s mouth shut with transparent tape. Serenah, a student in this teacher’s classroom, says that she was very scared because she was having difficulty breathing. The teacher did eventually (the report does not tell how long “eventually” is) remove the tape and warn Serenah to be quiet.

Now this incident occurred the day before winter break, but Danny Kelly, the little girl’s father only found out about the situation recently because some of Serenah’s classmates told their parents about it, and they called the principal. His daughter admitted she was afraid to tell him what had happened in her Schertz Elementary classroom.

An investigation is obviously going on and in the meantime, the teacher has been placed on administrative leave. If the allegations are true, one can’t help but wonder what planet this teacher is from that she would think this was an acceptable or appropriate form of discipline, especially in this day and age. Humiliation and fear are never the correct approach to maintaining order in a classroom, especially with such young students.

This was poor judgment, pure and simple, and pretty indefensible.

Strange Blog #2: An article dated January 20, from Associated Press tells of a Hartford, Connecticut mother, Sylvia Mojica, who was accused of sending her son to school with a knife and a BB gun! She told the police that her 12-year old son had been the target of bullying, so she had given him the weapons in October to protect himself from further attack. She claimed that she didn’t know he had taken the weapons to school with him, but because she didn’t want him taking the blame himself, she accepted the blame.

As a result of her actions, she was facing a charge of risk of injury to a minor, but her charges were dropped. If her son had been arrested, he would have faced juvenile charges, but these were dropped as well. In the meantime, the school denies that her son was being bullied. (Frankly, I am always a little suspicious of these denials by schools, as I can’t help but wonder if it is the comment they are told to make to protect themselves, but that’s beside the point.)

Here’s the point: What parent would give their child weapons to protect themselves against bullies? Does this seem logical or prudent? Wouldn’t this parent stop to think that adding weapons to an already volatile situation, if her son truly was being bullied, only increased the risk of injury to him or to others? Did she stop to consider the ramifications for both her son and for her if he had used these weapons or even threatened to? And how does she condone providing her son with the very tools which would make him as guilty of bullying as those who were bullying him?

I think this is pure idiocy, and I am frankly amazed that the charges against this mother were dropped. Again, here is another situation which shows poor judgment and is completely indefensible.

Bullying, Teacher-World's Blog Hartford, San Antonio, school discipline, Sylvia Mojica, weapons in school

I am probably going to make some parents angry with this blog, but I feel the need to spew, so here goes!

Today was a challenging day, and it began with a parent’s phone message regarding her child and the mean things other students are doing to him. In the message, she announced that, yet again, she went directly to our principal by emailing her about the current complaint. Now, let me give you a little background information which will make it clear to you why this sets me off.

This is a parent who we receive regular phone calls, letters, or emails from regarding her son and these vague accusations regarding how mean our students are to him. Upon occasion, we have followed up on minor disagreements he has had with other students, but they have been minor, and he is often guilty of the same behavior he is quick to fault others for.

There are three adults in our co-teaching classroom most of the day. We have never witnessed any of the more horrendous actions described by her son to his mother. In fact, we have discovered through our investigations of these reported incidents that most of the time, the events that have been described to her have been flat out untrue, and her son has admitted as much to us. When she has been told that he is not being honest about what is going on, she continues to believe him and complain about our unwillingness to deal with the students she claims are involved. Usually, her disbelief is followed with a threat to “take it higher”.

What her son has learned is that he can get drama going if he goes home and tells his mother things that have happened in school, real or otherwise, and he has learned to love that drama. He rarely tells us about his issues with other students before he goes home, which would give us the opportunity to deal with them if they are true. He would rather run home and get his mother postal so that she goes off on his teachers and his principal.

I have given you this background information regarding my day to explain why I feel the need to spew tonight. In fact, I was going to blog about something else tonight, but I felt compelled to write this blog specifically to parents. So, I’m sorry if I make you mad, but here goes!

Listen to your children when they come home with their school stories with love but with a bit of skepticism, because kids have a way of telling these stories from their own perspective, often leaving valuable pieces of the story out, especially if those pieces might incriminate themselves. Question them carefully and rationally refraining from judging the situation until you are able to gather more information, and let them know that you will be in touch with their teacher but in a POSITIVE way to try to find out all of the facts. When you contact the teacher, do it in a way that is open to the whole story, understanding that your child is human and maybe left out some of the best parts. Give the teacher the benefit of the doubt and handle the situation with respect. Finally, NEVER go to the principal before trying to work out the problem directly with the teacher. Only resort to that option if your concerns are not met.

Thank you for letting me unload. It was good therapy for me, and I needed that!

Teacher-World's Blog communication, parents, teachers

I admit up front that this next story caught my eye as both a teacher and a parent of two boys. It has me wondering if we are getting a little paranoid, especially in light of current events which have involved shootings.

This is the story of a little boy, Patrick Riley, who is adorable by the way, who attends Parkview Elementary School in the Midwest City-Del City district in Oklahoma. According to his mom, Lydia Fox, he is a typical 7-year old boy who loves action figures like GI Joes, pretending to be a soldier, and getting the “bad guys”.

Patrick got in trouble for pointing his finger in the shape of a gun at another student. In school spokeswoman, Stacey Boyer’s, written statement, she claims that this was not the first time that Patrick had been spoken to about making a gun with his hand and pointing it at other students. She further stated that the parent had been notified “on multiple occasions and has met with the principal to further discuss the ongoing behavior.”

Lydia Fox says this was only the second time she had been contacted by the school’s principal. She claims she talked to Patrick about following the school’s rules after the first phone call from the principal, but stresses that “it’s easy for 7-year olds to forget.” She also says that in her first conversation with the principal, she was not told that Patrick faced possible suspension if this behavior was repeated.

Yet, that is exactly what happened the second time. The principal called and told her that Patrick could be suspended for up to three days. In actuality, he was given an in-school suspension for a day, but his mother took him to school with her rather than make him serve the suspension in school. She stated that, “He doesn’t really see why he got in trouble. I don’t feel like he did anything to intentionally threaten or harass another student. It was just a 7-year-old boy being a 7-year-old boy.”

So, does the punishment fit the crime? Stacey Boyer’s statement on behalf of the school district argues the necessity for such severe action by saying: “It is the policy of Mid-Del Schools to address the disruption of the learning environment. Students have a right to pursue learning without the disruptions which may occur when another student chooses to be inattentive, overtly disruptive, or otherwise hinder the learning process. Any student who impedes the learning of others and/or exhibits a continued disregard for his/her personal learning opportunities will be subject to the following actions: being removed from class, parental contact, detention, in school restriction, suspension, other appropriate action.”

Lydia Fox maintains that her son, whom she says is a sweet and caring child and a good student, has been unfairly labeled, and she is fearful that the punishment he was given may have negative effects on him in the future. In an e-mail, she wrote, “As parents, we have the responsibility to ensure that our schools are providing quality education for our children without discouraging them from being children and exploring their own imaginations and interests.”

I wear two hats as I read this article. First, as a teacher, I understand the need to teach children at a young age to modify behaviors which might be distracting or problematic for other children. And I certainly would never condone or allow behavior which caused students in my classroom to feel threatened or fearful. If the children who were “aimed at” felt threatened, I would certainly sit down with the “hand gun shooter” and begin to work out a positive plan to change that behavior, understanding that he is most likely to slip up until the more positive behavior becomes habitual, which takes time. Was there any attempt by his classroom teacher to change the behavior over a period of time, or was it simply reported to the principal each time?

Second, I read this as a parent of two boys. I know that boys are naturally inclined to make guns out of anything and everything, and they have a natural instinct to shot at anyone or anything that stands still long enough to be a target with these fake guns. If one of my boys had been suspended for pointing a “hand gun” at a fellow student, I would have been pretty annoyed myself. Even if it was the second time they had been warned to stop, I would strongly argue that the punishment, an in-school suspension, does not fit the crime. Wasn’t there a more appropriate way to teach this young boy how to be socially appropriate? What about missing recess? What about writing an apology letter to the threatened student? Wouldn’t a behavior plan spelling out the positive as well as the negative consequences, clearly expressed to both the student and the parent, have achieved more lasting and productive results?

I have to believe that there was an alternative to the heavy-handed response chosen by this school system. What do you think?

Teacher-World's Blog hand gun, in-school suspension, Midwest City-Del City district, Parkview Elementary School, Patrick Riley

In March of last year, I blogged about the Central Falls School District located in Rhode Island. You will remember that this is the school district which fired all of its high school teachers as a result of their poor performance record. In case you’ve forgotten, let me refresh your memory.

On February 24th, the Central Falls School Board of Trustees voted 5-2 to fire every teacher on their high school staff. All 93 names were read aloud including 74 classroom teachers, along with reading specialists, guidance counselors, PE teachers, the school psychologist, assistant principals, and the principal. Teachers from schools all over came to support these devastated staff members. It was a heart-wrenching scene, one which could not help but fill teachers everywhere with a true sense of fear. That fear was deepened when both Arne Duncan and President Barack Obama supported the firings. Obama expressed his strong opinion that when schools were not showing improvement, drastic action would need to be taken.

So, almost a year later, what’s the news in Central Falls, Rhode Island? The fired teachers made a deal that allowed them to get their jobs back, but it has not been smooth sailing. Apparently many of them have been either calling in sick or quitting. I imagine morale is exceptionally low. Wouldn’t yours be if you had been publicly accused of not doing your job and publicly fired as well?

In the meantime, the U.S. Department of Education has awarded the high school $1.3 million to continue its reform process. The money comes from a fund set up to transform 5,000 low-performing schools around the U.S.

According to reports, the money is to be used to purchase computers, pay professional staff, and develop a performance management system. It will be interesting to see if the money makes a difference. If it helps turn around this low-performing school then one would have to ask was the lack of progress  a result of teacher incompetence or was it poor funding? Or, at this point, has morale been so battered that the money is only a Band-Aid, when the school system is in need of a tourniquet? We will have to wait and see…

Educational Reform, Funding Education, low-performing schools, Teacher-World's Blog Arne Duncan, Barack Obama, Central Falls School District, poor-performing schools, school funding, U.S. Department of Education

At a time when schools everywhere are facing financial difficulty, the city of Detroit has raised the possibility of closing down almost half of their public schools in the next two years, according to their newspaper, The Blade. Unreal, right? The paper also revealed the necessity of increasing class size at the high school level jumping the average class size to 62 students by next year.

Detroit Public Schools considered filing for bankruptcy two years ago but changed their minds. In the past year, the district’s debt increased by more than $100 million, leaving them with a total debt of $327 million! What has lead to such a huge deficit?  A “mix of revenue declines in property taxes, reduced state aid, declining enrollment and an unplanned staffing surge this past fall.”

Now, here is the ridiculous irony in all of this. As class sizes increase, hurting those students who must compete for attention from their teachers, the teachers actually benefit from the larger numbers. According to the district’s contract, the Detroit Federation of Teachers requires that the school systems pay teachers additional money when their class sizes exceed the maximum limit. So the very measure which is supposed to save money is estimated to cost the district an additional $10 million to cover teachers’ pay for oversized classrooms over the next four years!

I don’t think I would be alone in suggesting that Detroit schools need to go back to their accountants and find a way to drive down the budget that really makes sense, or should I say “cents”?

Funding Education, Teacher's Unions, Teacher-World's Blog class size, Detroit Federation of Teachers, Detroit schools, state budget cuts

We hear it all the time now; public schools are hurting financially. Teachers are losing their jobs. Our nation’s schools are facing tough times, and there is no end in sight. We hear it, we know it, but it hits home when we hear the words echoing down our own hallways.

In a recent staff meeting, we heard the depressing news for ourselves. Our superintendent bravely came to tell us the news himself; unless we pass a levy this spring, we are facing a financial nightmare. And here is why:

* Due to the loss of stimulus money and the economy, Ohio is facing an $8,000,000,000 deficit.
* Due to this deficit, it is projected that our school system’s funding will be cut by at least 10 percent and maybe as much as 20 or 30 percent.
* Additionally, it is predicted that we will lose almost $800,000 in State Fiscal Stabilization Funds (Federal Stimulus) and Ed Jobs Grant.
* It is estimated that if our new levy fails in the spring, our deficit will be over $2,000,000 next year and huge cuts will have to be made to balance our budget.

In response to the need to make cuts this year, when teachers retired, those positions were not filled, which has affected class size. Now we face the prospect of losing more. Paraprofessionals will likely be cut, programs will be cut, teachers will probably be cut, and class sizes will continue to increase. And we are not alone.

Yet, in spite of all the issues we are facing in public education, we will still be expected to pass the state achievement tests, to get our IEP students to pass these tests, to show yearly progress, and to be schools of excellence. We will be expected to feed them better lunches due to the Healthy, Hungry-Free Kids Act. All of this with significantly reduced resources, severely reduced programs, and severely reduced staff. Is this reasonable or fair? How can the very government which has contributed to the problems we face in this economy have the same expectations of crippled schools it had when times were better?

The cuts which will have to be made in our school system will be those which most radically save our district money, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that that means reducing staff. It’s happening all around us, and this will do nothing to strengthen our public schools and will most definitely impact our test scores negatively as well. Maybe it’s time to take a moratorium on state achievement tests until our government can find a way to turn this economy around and to make schools financially stable again.

For God’s sake, don’t strip us to the bones and still expect us to perform for you!

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Funding Education, state achievement tests, Teacher-World's Blog class size, Ohio's budget deficit, state achievement tests, State Fiscal Stabilization Funds, stimulus money

Here is the latest update regarding the shooting at Gardena High School.

First of all, initial reports indicated that the gun taken to school on Tuesday by a 17-year old student in his backpack discharged accidently when he dropped his backpack on his desk. According to more recent reports from Associated Press, the gun discharged when he reached into his backpack for something to eat, striking two students with a single bullet.

The 15-year old boy who was hit first in the neck with the bullet was released from the hospital Wednesday because luckily the bullet missed major nerves, arteries, and his spine. He is recovering at home.

The bullet then hit a 15-year old girl in the head, fracturing her skull. She is still in critical condition after surgery to remove a blood clot and is using a breathing tube. There appears to be some improvement, and according to the chief medical officer at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, Dr. Gail Anderson Jr., she “seems to be moving her extremities more. She’s much more awake.” She cautions that it is still too early to tell whether she will have any permanent damage. “Children respond better, many times, than adults so we’re hopeful,” Anderson said. “But we really can’t tell, probably, until she gets the breathing tube taken out. … We’re keeping our fingers crossed.”

The 17-year old shooter is facing two felony charges of bringing a firearm to a school zone and discharging it, and the Los Angeles County prosecutors are also asking the court to try him as an adult. If he is convicted as a juvenile, he could face up to nine months in a detention camp, and if tried and found guilty as an adult, he could face up to seven years in state prison.

As far as the two students who allegedly helped the shooter try to escape by taking his backpack, giving him different clothes, and giving him bus fare, prosecutors are reviewing the evidence against them to decide whether to file criminal charges.

Teacher-World's Blog Gardena High School, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, school shooting