Saturday, January 14, 2006

OFFICIAL BRITISH COVERUP OF PERVERT TEACHER COMES UNGLUED

The man who led the police inquiry into Paul Reeve, the sex offender allowed to work as a teacher, yesterday challenged claims by Education Department officials that the PE teacher had not meant to access child pornography. Detective Inspector Paul Cunningham, of Norfolk police, told colleagues that Mr Reeve admitted in 2003 paying to access pornographic images of children and did so with his own credit card. The disclosure contradicts the main reason given by officials at the Education Department for allowing Mr Reeve to return to work.

A police source close to Mr Cunningham said: "He [Mr Reeve] was cautioned for inciting the downloading of child porn using his credit card. The fact that the Department of Education (DfES) didn't seem able to find this out or check with Norfolk police is a matter of record, and very surprising."

A letter was sent to Mr Reeve in May last year on behalf of Ruth Kelly, the Education Secretary. Now known to have been signed by Kim Howells, then a Minister of State at the DfES, the letter stated that he was "not unsuitable for working with children".

The letter, which made specific reference to Mr Reeve being on the sex offenders register, gave reasons for the decision, including that Mr Reeve denied "intentionally accessing child pornography".

More here




Pope Center/FIRE report — and UNC's audacity

Posted lifted from The Locker Room

Famous WWII Gen. George S. Patton's motto, which he took from Frederick the Great, was "L'audace, l'audace, toujours l'audace" (audacity, audacity, always audacity). It served his generalship and the Allied cause well in war. I think that motto's spirit serves the Academic Left in their cultural war against American principles, including the First Amendment's protections of religion and speech. They audaciously restrict liberty on many fronts and dare the students to sue them — knowing that in most cases, the students won't, because they're either ignorant of their rights or cowed by the prospect of fighting the university and all the hateful labels that the higher minds of the university culture will rain down on them.

Consider the culture at UNC-Chapel Hill over just the past few years:

* A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against UNC-CH’s attempt to prevent a Christian outreach fraternity from choosing its members based on agreement with the group's faith

* The Office of Civil Rights ruled that a UNC-CH lecturer racially and sexually harassed a student in her class

* The Carolina Women's Center excluded a student group from participating in its "Women's Week" events on the ideological grounds that the group was pro-life.

Those we know about because the affected students were audacious enough to cry foul. What of the ones who don't? Remember, only one of the many religious student groups that UNC-CH threatened with derecognition for not allowing nonbelievers to lead the groups actually complained. The rest ceded their liberty in the face of UNC-CH's aggression.




Australian students waking up to what a poor investment many university course are

Australia's volatile higher education sector has fallen victim to the strong job market, with increased competition for students already starting to hurt smaller universities. One regional university, Central Queensland, has lost $5million in funding after being forced to return 490 student places to the federal Government for redistribution, having failed to attract enough students.

University applications continue to fall - down 3per cent, or 6607, this year, on top of a 5per cent fall last year - and the increased competition for students is driving a wedge into the higher education sector. Western Australia, with its low unemployment rate, has suffered the biggest drop in applications - down 8per cent on top of a 10per cent fall last year. According to figures compiled by the Australian Vice-Chancellors Committee, and released yesterday, Victoria is down 5per cent, Tasmania 3per cent and NSW and the ACT down 1per cent. Strong population growth has enabled Queensland to defy the trend with an increase of 3per cent, albeit after a 7per cent drop last year.

Australian National University vice-chancellor Ian Chubb yesterday warned that the dramatic student shift could have unintended political consequences for the Howard Government as it pursues major reforms in the sector. "The whole equilibrium is very fragile as we see a decrease in the number of fee-paying places, a substantial shift in student preferences, some universities handing back places and apparently other institutions offering low entry," Professor Chubb said. "So there is a whole different dynamic than there was a few years ago."

The strong job market, a push towards trades and higher university fees have meant students are responding in ways that were not predicted in the Government's education blueprint. Softer demand has brought lower entry scores and seen many students opt for the big brand institutions at the expense of smaller regional campuses. Acting vice-chancellor of the University of Queensland, Michael Keniger, said students could now get into metropolitan universities with lower scores than in the past so they were moving to the city. "We find it harder to fill places on our regional campuses," he said....

Professor Keniger said students were being more selective about what they wanted to study and where, rather than using the first-year as a bedding-down period. "I think we're certainly starting to see a separation of institutions," he said. "And that's a risk or an advantage."

Last year the Government injected an extra 10,665 new places into universities, rising to 39,000 by 2009. But with fewer students applying to university, the increased supply has driven entry scores down, prompting Education Minister Brendan Nelson to warn last month that standards were "unacceptably low".

More here

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For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"


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