British school bans hoodies as they 'intimidate' younger pupils

A secondary school has banned all of its pupils from wearing hoodies as they claim that younger students are intimidated by them.

Teachers at Brune Park Community School in Gosport, Hampshire, noticed that older pupils were using the clothes to hide their identities in the playground during break times.

Mike Jones, the deputy headteacher, was worried that the younger, smaller students were daunted by these groups of teenagers who roamed the school premises with hoodies on.

Pupils wearing hoodies emblazoned with inappropriate images- such as of cannabis plants- were of particular concern as they were thought to be lowering the image of the school.

Mr Jones said that the new policy, launched this term, would help to reduce the “negative impression” the garments left on some members of the local community.

He explained: “When you have large 15 and 16-year-olds wandering around in hoodies it can be quite intimidating, particularly for younger pupils. Some of these hoodies also have inappropriate images such as cannabis plants which creates the wrong impression.

“When hoods are up it can become difficult to identify students which can be an issue if an incident has occurred,” he added.

However, the new rules have been criticised by students who claim that staff have created a “dictatorship” at the school.

Ruben Sekules, a Year 9 pupil, said: “I do not see a problem with pupils wearing hoodies and it wouldn't affect how I work. One teacher said it was because a number of former pupils had come into school wearing hoodies and they make it difficult to identify people on site. However, most coats have hoods which can also hide faces.”

Another student, who wished to remain anonymous, added: “This school is slowly becoming a dictatorship”.

The school continues to defend the policy, saying it will help “prepare young people for later life”.

Mr Jones said: “A student wearing a hoodie in their English lesson is not going to affect their academic performance, but the simple fact is it is a leisure garment, with no weather protection, and most careers will have some form of uniform code. I often speak about this in assembly and stress that in years to come you wouldn't choose to meet clients while dressed in a hoodie.”

Students who choose to defy the ban will have their hoodies confiscated.

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DeVos’s Useful Reform in Federal Student Financial Aid

By RICHARD K. VEDDER

The single most destructive thing that has happened to higher education in America is the federal student aid (FSA) programs of the past 50 years. Because of FSA, student higher education costs have soared, learning has declined, and higher educational attainment among lower income Americans, those who FSA was designed to help, has deteriorated in a relative sense. If America’s worst enemies wanted to weaken future generations of Americans, they could hardly do more damage than has been done by FSA.

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, along with Bill Bennett, the best of our Secretaries of Education, is abundantly aware of this and wants changes. In a speech to student financial aid administrators today, she has proposed some useful reforms designed to simplify FSA for student applicants as well as improve the abysmal administration of the program.

Specifically, DeVos wants to turn the FSA bureaucracy into an independent government corporation probably somewhat similar to the Federal Reserve, ultimately accountable to the public (unlikely the fiendishly designed Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) but free from daily control by politicians controlling the managers of the Department of Education. DeVos is that rare leader who actually wants to reduce her own power and the number of minions reporting to her at her redoubt in the heart of the Washington swamp.

Something needs to be done. Let me quote from DeVos’s speech today talking about the complexity of our FSA offerings: “Eight different repayment plans...each with different eligibility requirements. More than 30 variations of deferment and forbearance options. Fourteen forgiveness options. And 11 different servicers, all with totally separate websites....”

Think that is bad: it gets much worse. As DeVos puts it, “Is it any surprise...that both principal and interest are currently being paid down for only one in four loans? Nearly 11 million borrowers have loans that are delinquent or in default? And 43% of all loans are considered ‘in distress’?”

Almost everyone thinks the system needs major reform. Government has failed in its task, so DeVos wants to reduce its role, making FSA less governmental, more like lending in the vibrant private financial service sector. Why can’t FSA be more like, say, JP Morgan Chase or the Bank of America? Why can’t a bureaucracy that for at least a dozen years hasn’t been able to do something as modest as simplifying the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) form just go away and let someone else try to institute some sanity into FSA?

Is the DeVos proposal perfect? Absolutely not – indeed, far from it. However, perfection is not possible in the governance environment of today’s America. In a perfect world, we would support more (or only) private financing of student aid. We would make schools have skin in the game. We would impose minimal academic standards on borrowers. We would support non-degree certificated program participation. We would offer alternatives to borrowing, such as income share agreements.

The devil is in the details, and the DeVos speech does not give all of them. Merely turning federal student aid administration away from one federal bureaucracy (the Department of Education) to another (an independent corporation) will not wipe out all the problems endemic to rent-seeking public employment in a non-competitive environment with little or no market discipline. That said, however, adoption of this proposal (unfortunately unlikely in a bitterly partisan Congress to a considerable extent obsessed mainly with impeaching DeVos’s boss) could lead to some useful reforms: simplification of the FSA process, introduction of some modest commercial type banking standards, etc.

I once had a dream where I decreed a four step plan for the Department of Education. First, declare it out of business and order all employees and others to move safely away from its Maryland Avenue headquarters. Second, have the Air Force bomb the building out of existence. Third, have the Army Corps of Engineers clear away the debris. Fourth, build something genuinely promoting learning and wisdom, perhaps an extension of the Smithsonian Institution’s nearby Air and Space Museum. I think Betsy DeVos would join me in celebrating the department’s demise. In the short run, however, taking a baby step in that direction would be useful.

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Semester of violence: physical attacks on conservative college students keep piling up

It’s not safe to be openly conservative on campus.  When a conservative activist with MAGA gear was hit in the face with a brutal haymaker at UC Berkeley earlier this year, it was caught on camera and became fodder for national headlines.

It was also no outlier.

Throughout this fall semester, conservative activists at campuses across the nation have continued to be physically attacked — and had their displays destroyed — by aggressive student peers inflamed by right-of-center messaging.

Just during the last month at least two College Republicans have been hit in the face and a third incident saw campus conservatives surrounded by an aggressive mob that trashed their display and got right in their faces, spewing vulgarity. And these were just the ones caught on camera.

“Over the last semester myself and the members of the Chico State Republicans have been spat on, battered, assaulted, followed around campus, sexually harassed, and even mobbed by 300 students at once. This is the kind of environment that has been created by the modern day college campus,” Chico State College Republicans President Michael Curry told The College Fix.

Attack at Sacramento State

Most recently, the former president of the Sacramento State College Republicans was physically attacked. Floyd Johnson, who served as president of the Sac State campus Republican group for a year and a half, was assaulted last week by fellow student Keaton Hill. That confrontation was caught on video and viral.

The two students had verbally sparred over politics on Facebook the night before the altercation, The Sacramento Bee reports. The following morning, Hill reportedly cursed at Johnson as the former was leaving a class the two attended together. Johnson and a friend confronted Hill near the exit of the building while filming the exchange, after which Hill appeared to assault Johnson several times.

The video shows Hill taking multiple swings at Johnson, claiming the former College Republicans president was harassing him.

Speaking to the campus newspaper The State Hornet, Hill said: “I apologize for lunging at Floyd’s phone, although I strongly emphasize that it was not without provocation.” University police told the Bee that charges against Hill are pending “while the department’s investigation continues.”

Attempts to reach the two students involved in the altercation were unsuccessful. Sacramento State spokeswoman Anita Fitzhugh told The College Fix via email that the school is “a space where the free exchange of ideas is encouraged and protected.”

“We are committed to providing a safe and caring environment where everyone feels secure expressing their opinions and beliefs. Violence on our campus is not tolerated. In today’s increasingly tense political climate, we must care for each other and treat one another with respect,” she wrote.

On Facebook, university President Robert Nelsen also said that “no one should ever be physically attacked” on his college’s campus.

Yet a recent video posted on Twitter last weekend shows tensions — and apparently open-palmed slapping — have not yet ceased on campus.

Responses from university officials on these issues have ranged from denouncing the activity — to punishing the conservative students.

In mid-November at Binghamton University in New York, the school’s College Republicans chapter held a table event promoting an upcoming speaking engagement with famed economist Art Laffer, the father of supply-side economics. Video emerged showing a large crowd of angry students screaming at members of the club and ripping their materials from the table.

At one point in the footage a young woman gets very close to a student videotaping the incident and asks her, angrily and repeatedly: “Why are you shaking? Steady yourself! Steady yourself!…Smile more! Smile more! With teeth! Teeth!”

“The fact that ya’ll are even comfortable to do this means that we’re not doing enough,” one student says. Another tells the conservative students: “You’re never gonna be able to table again. You’re never gonna be able to do this again.”

In the aftermath of the incident, Binghamton, which did not respond to queries from The College Fix, announced that the College Republicans had not followed the proper procedures for holding a tabling event and would face discipline.

The same statement acknowledged that the students in the crowd had violated the school’s code of student conduct, but declined to identify and discipline those students, citing the divisive nature of the table’s content.

Also, Laffer’s lecture was shut down by unruly protestors.

Physical destruction

At the University of Michigan in October, meanwhile, a student largely destroyed an information table set up by the conservative student group Turning Point USA. After accusing the club of engaging in “hate speech” and ripping up the club’s materials and throwing them in the trash, the student took a marker and threatened to write on one of the members of the club. After police were called, the vandal quickly left.

A university spokesman told The College Fix last month that officials are aware of the incident and that it was under investigation. Subsequent requests for an update have not been returned.

In October, the University of California, Riverside chapter of Turning Point USA held an event promoting gun rights. Calling the club “criminally negligent” for its advocacy, a student took a sign from the display and crushed it in half. The sign, which had featured images of several firearms, displayed the slogan: “I’m Pro-Choice. Pick Your Gun.”

A university spokesperson did not respond to queries from The College Fix about the incident.

A Turning Point USA spokesman told The College Fix in an email that the organization is “incredibly proud of how our students and staff have performed in the face of some very challenging circumstances.”

“Our organization works to facilitate peaceful debate and robust discussion on campus and we will continue to train our chapters with best practices on how to avoid any physical conflict. No student should ever feel in danger of being physically attacked, especially when participating in a university sanctioned event like tabling,” spokesman Andrew Kolvet said.

“These most recent incidents are just the latest in a long line of campus bullying and intimidation targeting conservatives and they should serve as a wake up call to all universities that they must take these threats extremely seriously just as they would for any other targeted campus community,” he added.

‘All Lives Matter’ causes activist to assault student

As for Curry at Chico State University, his story is an example in which vandalism crosses the line into physical assault.

That November incident involved the College Republicans as they promoted an event with Brandon Straka, the founder of #WalkAway, a group critical of the modern Democratic party. One video of the tabling effort shows a female student trashing the table and swearing at the club members.

In another video, a female protestor stands across from the club’s information table holding a sign that says “black trans lives matter.” At one point in the video, Curry walks over to her and stands next to her with a sign that reads “all lives matter.” Upon reading his sign, she rips it from his hands, slaps him in the face with it and said “get the fuck out of my fucking space.”

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