CDC Recommends COVID-19 Vaccines for Children and Teens

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that everyone 12 years old or older should get a COVID-19 vaccination to help protect against COVID-19. Children 12 years and older are able to get the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.The CDC recommends parents get a COVID-19 vaccine for their child as soon as they can. Here is some other useful information from the CDC: COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. COVID-19 vaccines have been used under the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history, which includes studies in adolescents. Your child will need a second shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine … Continue reading →

Seattle Schools Later Start Time Benefits Teens

Seattle made a change that helped teenagers to get a healthy amount of sleep. Starting with the 2016-2017 school year, the Seattle school district moved the start times for middle and high schools to nearly an hour later. A study found that this change was beneficial to teens. The study was published in the Science Advances Journal. The Abstract reads: Most teenagers are chronologically sleep deprived. One strategy proposed to lengthen adolescent sleep is to delay secondary school start times. This would allow students to wake up later without shifting their bedtime, which is biologically determined by the circadian clock, resulting … Continue reading →

Smoking In the Girls Room

If you got caught smoking anywhere at my former high school (including the girls restroom), you would be automatically expelled. Not placed on detention or suspended for a few days; rather, you’d be kicked off campus for good. No questions asked. No second chances. Given my history with no-nonsense school administrators, and their severe opposition to smoking, you can imagine how floored I was to learn that a school located near Cardiff, Wales, is actually considering a move to create an area on campus that kids could go in case they needed a smoke break during school hours. If that … Continue reading →

Why Schools Are Banning Hoodies

It’s not what you think. Schools are not banning the popular hooded sweatshirts because they are sloppy-looking or they promote gang violence. Rather, school administrators in Kansas have put the kibosh on hoodies with large pockets because an inordinate amount of students have been using the sweatshirt’s “kangaroo pocket” to text others during class. According to reports, cell phone and other PDA abuse by students has forced administrators to revamp the school dress code. Students attending Kansas’ Andale Elementary and St. Mark’s Charter School can still wear sweatshirts, but the fleece tops cannot feature hoods or front pockets. The change … Continue reading →

More Controversial School Dress Codes

In a previous blog I addressed Richmond, Indiana’s new school dress code. Public school students in the district can no longer wear clothing that features words, stripes, plaids, floral prints, or illustrations to class. In addition, students are not allowed to wear collars cut any lower than a standard crew neck T-shirt. Richmond’s new dress code has led to the suspension of more than 200 students during the first two weeks of school. However, Richmond schools are not the only institutions of learning where students and their parents are up in arms about what can be worn on school property. … Continue reading →

Look Who’s Headed Back to School

Your little Johnny is not the only one headed back to class this fall. Imagine being a student at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles and bumping into actor Jerry O’Connell. Your first thought might be that he’s at the school’s orientation because he’s researching a future film role. Wrong. The 35-year-old Hollywood hottie has gone back to school… for real. According to reports, O’Connell is enrolled as a part-time student and started night classes earlier this week. O’Connell, who has been playing Mr. Mom to 8-month-old twin daughters while his actress wife Rebecca Romijn works, revealed that while he … Continue reading →

Does Your Teen Drive to School?

My parents allowed my brothers and I to share a single vehicle while we were in high school. Three teens (and one tween, who insisted on tagging along) sharing one car–definitely not a pretty situation. Still, that one car provided my parents with freedom some moms and dads only dream of. Not only did we use the car to get to and from school (thus, giving my parents a break from taxi duty), but it also transported us to all of our extra-curricular activities. Unfortunately, the car did not escape our teen years without sustaining serious damage (all my older … Continue reading →

Female Student Fights for Her Right to Wear Pants to Graduation

This is so not my daughter. However, I do give Chelsea Sarvis credit for standing up for what she believes in, as petty as it may seem to others. The South Carolina high school senior made headlines recently when she fought to wear pants to her graduation instead of a dress… and won. The popular Chapin High School student argued that she wouldn’t be comfortable wearing a dress on graduation day and simply wanted to don the same attire as the senior boys—-dress slacks and a collared shirt. “If I had to walk across the stage in a dress, I’d … Continue reading →

California School Finally Approves Controversial Musical Production

Yes, no, maybe so… It’s been a tumultuous couple of weeks for high school students in California, who planned to showcase their talents in the musical, “Rent: School Edition.” But, now, it appears that the show will go on. The drama started when Corona del Mar High School theater teacher Ron Martin chose “Rent: School Edition,” as the spring musical. The production is a slightly toned-down version of Jonathan Larson’s Tony Award-winning show, which appeared on Broadway for more than a decade. It won rave reviews around the world, but that meant nothing to Corona del Mar High School’s principal, … Continue reading →

Do You Punish Your Kids for Bad Grades?

If you are the Generals from Chesapeake, Virginia, your kid not only gets punished for coming home with a bad report card, but his punishment makes front-page news. It’s hard not to end up in the paper when you have your 15-year-old standing near a busy intersection wearing a chest-to-trunk poster board displaying his bad grades for hours on end. According to reports, Trenton O’Neal’s parents were fed up with their teen’s lack of effort in school and decided to publicly humiliate him. “He hadn’t been trying at all,” the boy’s dad, Rev. Donald General Jr., pastor of Perfecting Saints … Continue reading →