CINCINNATI —

The Christ College of Nursing has trained thousands of health care leaders who have practiced near and far in its 120 years.

"So many have gone on, not only in this region but across the country, providing care for thousands upon thousands of patients," said VP of Strategy & Business Affairs Brad Jackson.

Saturday at the 120th commencement ceremony, 161 new graduates will be sent out into the field once again to help change the world.

"I'm definitely excited, but very nervous being as I am a new nurse and it's critical care unit, but I am very open to learning and I can't wait to learn all the new ropes," said RN, BSN graduate Brooke Kunstman.

Kunstman and at least two of her classmates will head straight into the action as intensive care unit nurses in the medical and surgical units at Christ Hospital.

Kylie Montgomery says COVID-19 wasn't a deterrent but preparation to head into the field with confidence.

"I believe health care workers are like firefighters or those people that run into the fight and COVID is our fire and this is our fight," Montgomery said.

A fight that has taken many out of the game, but nursing students like Joe Stinger, who believes he adds a valuable component to the field, say the pandemic mixed with the already rigorous coursework taught him to be resilient.

Stinger's part of the 7% of male nurse graduates in this year's class. He says more men should consider the field.

"Men are really viewed sometimes as being more , I guess more stern. We're just looked at as a little bit more intimidating. I want to make sure that our patients know that we care just as much as everybody else," Stinger said.

This is the first year since 2019 when many of the ceremonial traditions will be back to normal. Next year, the college will welcome a degree in diagnostic medical sonography.

There is new evidence of how significantly the COVID-19 pandemic impacted learning loss in the classroom for students.

Those impacts — declines in reading and math scores in a majority of states — were noted in the release of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, or The Nation's Report Card.

The report compared math and reading test scores in the fourth and eighth grades pre-pandemic in 2019 and post-pandemic this year.

In eighth grade, every state except Utah showed math test score declines. More than three dozen saw similar declines in the fourth grade.

In the fourth grade, a majority of states saw declines in reading test scores.

"I don't make this statement lightly because these aren't the kind of data that I would normally attribute cause and effect to," said Peggy Carr, commissioner at the National Center for Education Statistics. "But, it is very clear what we're looking at now is unprecedented disruption in the lives of everyone, including students, their academic careers, ya know, really pushed off-kilter, really knocked off rack. It is because of the pandemic."

Moving forward, Carr said school systems need to use this data to do a "reset" and refocus on learning and tutoring programs, as well as social and emotional mental health services for students.

Watch the video above for the full story.

CNN —

A coalition of media organizations and the father of a murder victim are set to come to an Idaho court on Friday with the same goal in mind: challenging a gag order.

Two separate hearings are scheduled in the criminal case against Bryan Kohberger, the criminology graduate student at Washington State University accused of fatally stabbing four University of Idaho students in their off-campus home. A not guilty plea has been entered on his behalf, and the trial is set for October.

The brutality of the killings and the lack of clarity on his connections to the group of friends have made it one of the highest-profile cases in U.S. news.

Yet due to a wide-ranging gag order, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and attorneys for victims' families and witnesses are prohibited from saying anything publicly, aside from what is already in the public record.

Gag orders are a common occurrence in high-profile cases, such as the man accused of carrying out January's mass shooting in Half Moon Bay, California, or the involuntary manslaughter trial of the parents of Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley.

In Idaho on Friday, an attorney for the family of Kaylee Goncalves, one of the four victims, will argue to amend the order at a hearing at 10:30 a.m. local time, saying it has restricted their free speech rights. Afterward, a coalition of media organizations also will argue to vacate the order, calling it "vague, overbroad, unduly restrictive, and not narrowly drawn," according to court documents.

The dual hearings have put a renewed focus on the gag order, the colorful term for what's technically known as a "nondissemination order."

At its most basic level, the gag order sets restrictions on what information can be released to the public and what certain people involved in the case can say.

The idea is to balance the First Amendment right to free speech with the Sixth Amendment right for a defendant to receive a fair trial, said University of Idaho assistant professor of law Samuel Newton. The concern is that too much commentary and publicity about a case can create jurors who have already made up their minds.

"What you're worried about is tainting the whole (jury) pool," Newton said.

The gag order is just one of a number of strategies judges can take to eliminate jury bias. They can also move the trial to another venue, create a jury questionnaire or sequester the jury during the trial.

But when does restricting speech in a case with such high public interest go too far? What are the limits?

What the gag order says

The arrest warrant and criminal affidavit for Kohberger were issued on December 29, 2022, and within a week the prosecution and defense jointly agreed to a gag order.

The Jan. 3 order states that "investigators, law enforcement personnel, attorneys, and agents of the prosecuting attorney or defense attorney, are prohibited from making extrajudicial statements, written or oral, concerning this case, other than quotation from or reference to, without comment, the public records of the case," Magistrate Judge Megan Marshall wrote.

The order specifically forbade commentary on evidence of occurrences or transactions, the character or criminal record of a party, opinions about the merits of the case and "the existence or contents of any confession, admission, or statement given by the defendant."

An amended nondissemination order issued on January 18 then expanded the gag order. The amended order stated the restrictions applied not just to the prosecution and defense but to "any attorney representing a witness, victim, or victim's family." Further, the order prohibited any statements on the character or criminal record of "a party, victim, or witness, or the identity of a witness, or the expected testimony of a party, victim, or witness."

"There is a balance between protecting the right to a fair trial for all parties involved and the right to free expression as afforded under both the United States and Idaho Constitution," the amended order explained. "To preserve the right to a fair trial some curtailment of the dissemination of information in this case is necessary and authorized under the law."

For the Goncalves family, that amended order went too far. The family's attorney Shanon Gray filed a motion challenging it, saying there should not be any restrictions on what he can say on behalf of the Goncalves family.

"He's not voicing his own opinion, he's voicing the family's opinion," Steve Goncalves, Kaylee's father, told CNN on May 23. "What's the point of having a lawyer if a judge can just say your lawyer can't speak?"

Separately, a coalition of media organizations petitioned the district court to vacate the gag order for other reasons. In a May 1 filing, the coalition, referred to as "Associated Press, et al," said the gag order was too expansive and argued the court did not provide any evidence that media coverage presents a risk to Kohberger's right to a fair trial.

"The Gag Order, which is based on the Parties' stipulation, rests merely on an assumption that press coverage is bad. The U.S. Constitution and the Idaho Constitution demand more."

The filing specifically noted several instances of the gag order's impact on journalists. For example, officials have cited the gag order in declining to release tapes of 911 calls and public records requests, the filing states.

The media coalition had initially asked the Idaho Supreme Court to overturn the gag order. While the court agreed the order restricted freedom of the press, it declined to vacate the order, saying the state supreme court was not the proper venue.

Kohberger's defense attorneys pushed back in motions arguing that courts have broader powers to limit the speech of lawyers and that the media attention, specifically noting a recent "Dateline NBC" special, threatens his right to a fair trial.

"The upshot of this and similar media stories is a constant feedback loop of people crying out for Mr. Kohberger's blood," defense attorneys wrote.

Similarly, state prosecutors have argued against amending the nondissemination order, stating that the restrictions on attorney statements is "not vague, overbroad or unduly restrictive."

Gag orders used in other cases

Gag orders have similarly been used in other high-profile mass killings that garnered significant public attention.

One such case is the trial of Jennifer and James Crumbley, the parents of Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley. His parents have pleaded not guilty to four counts of involuntary manslaughter for what prosecutors say was their "gross negligence" in purchasing the gun and ignoring their son's warning signs.

Prosecutors have publicly criticized the couple repeatedly, and the couple's arrest after a manhunt was captured on CNN video.

Last year, the defense filed a motion to restrict pretrial publicity, but Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald pushed back, saying their request was "consistent with the conduct that brings them before this Court – they are concerned only about themselves."

After a series of back-and-forth filings, the court issued an order and an amended order restricting publicity about the case.

"It is hereby ordered that, to protect the rights of the accused as well as the People to a fair trial, none of the parties, directly or through their agents, will engage in pretrial publicity by making public statements about the case to the media," Judge Cheryl Matthews wrote on July 14, 2022, in the amended order.

Similarly, the suspect in the January mass shooting in Half Moon Bay, which left seven people dead, asked for and was granted a gag order in his case, according to CNN affiliate KGO. That ruling prohibits any of the parties from talking about the case outside of court.

Chunli Zhao, the shooting suspect, has pleaded not guilty.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Every Thursday afternoon, come rain or shine, college students start lining up. Homemade baked goods are set out on tables and hugs are ready.

Meet the group known as the Free Moms.

"Here you'll find free mamas, papas, grandmas, and dogs,” said Nancy Nelson, who founded the group several years ago at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. "I just say, ‘Welcome back home. Do you feel a little home?’ And every kid goes, 'Yeah,' and I say, 'Good. I hope it's more every week!'"

All of her kids are grown, but Nelson felt a need to help students here feel less alone.

"We do feel like their mamas," she said.

What started with one mom now numbers more than 80 moms and dads, including Kate Theriot and her husband, Tom.

"Nancy started sharing what she was doing over here and to be honest, I was like, 'Not my wheelhouse. Not that, no. That's not what I do,'” Kate Theriot recalled, “but Tom always says I make best friends in the grocery store in line."

With that, they both began volunteering.

"I went to school here. I graduated in 1982,” Tom Theriot said, “and I remember how stressful it was to be here and it seems like stress has been built up so much more. "

So, along with 80 other parents, they all lend an ear, share a kind word or offer a hug. It quickly gained a fan following among the students.

"I just felt like it was a really awesome opportunity to get a piece of home and connect with people," said student Alaina Kelly.

Anna Thomasson accompanied Kelly out to the “Free Moms” gathering.

"I thought, 'Hey, that's so cool,' and you get a great homemade snack,” Thomasson said. “So, I love it! I think it's really great."

Student Sydnie Parks makes sure she stops by each week to say hello to Kate Theriot.

"I'm always like, 'Let me get to the Free Moms because it's not really about the deserts. I will take free food. I am a college student. But what the moms do is just really nice and just gives extra support that the students really need," Parks said.

A 2021 Healthy Minds study collected data from more than 370 college campuses around the country and found that 60% of students met the criteria of facing at least one mental health issue.

In addition, 12% of college students across the country reported contemplating suicide. At NC State, four students died by suicide last semester, driving home the mission for these free moms and dads.

"There's been a lot of suicides on campus, and there's a real need for people to be brought out of the shells and just be in a positive place," said Tom Theriot.

Kate Theriot says she sees how the students react to their presence.

"They're so moved because they just don't expect anyone to be thinking about them and to not only think about them but to do something about it,” she said. “And that's what we want to do; we want to do something that lets the students know they're not alone."

It's an isolation some students say can be easy to feel when you're away from home.

"I'm actually a transfer student here. I transferred from App [Appalachian State University], which is about three hours away from here,” said student Aniston Boswell, “and this would have helped me a lot up there because I didn't have my parents up there and just knowing that this is here helps a lot of students here."

Nancy Nelson said she would like to see Free Moms start popping up on college campuses nationwide.

"When anyone gets out of their comfort zone and gives unconditional love, it changes them again,” she said. “It changes the person. It changes the atmosphere and that's what this world needs.'"

It’s also what these students are getting.

An Idaho judge entered not guilty pleas on behalf of Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of killing four University of Idaho students last fall, during an arraignment in a Latah County Court on Monday.

Judge John Judge read aloud Kohberger’s rights and each of the murder and burglary charges outlined in the indictment. When asked if he understood the charges, Kohberger replied to each, “Yes.”

When asked for his plea to the counts, Kohberger remained silent. His attorney rose and said, “Your honor, we are standing silent,” and the judge then entered not guilty pleas for him.

Kohberger, 28, was indicted last week on four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary for the November 13 killings of Kaylee Goncalves, 21; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20; and Ethan Chapin, 20, at a home just outside the university’s main campus in Moscow, Idaho.

The trial was set for Oct. 2 and is expected to last about six weeks. Prosecutors have 60 days from Monday to announce, in writing, whether they plan to seek the death penalty in this case.

Wearing an orange prison outfit, Kohberger smiled and nodded at his attorney upon entering court but otherwise stared straight ahead during the arraignment. Family members of Goncalves also attended the hearing and remained focused on Kohberger as he was arraigned, according to Jordan Smith, a reporter for CNN affiliate KXLY who had a vantage point of the family in court.

The hearing offered few details on a grisly case that remains shrouded in mystery. Authorities say Kohberger, a graduate student in the Department of Criminology at nearby Washington State University, broke into the students’ home and repeatedly stabbed the victims before fleeing the scene. Police have not released a potential motive in the case, and due to a wide-ranging gag order, few details have trickled out so far.

The killings and lengthy investigation rattled the community of Moscow, a city of 25,000 people that hadn’t recorded a murder since 2015. After weeks with little information and heightened anxieties, Kohberger was arrested at his parents’ home in Pennsylvania in late December and identified as the alleged killer.

He has been in police custody since then and is being held without bail.

Also on Monday, the court scheduled two hearings for June 9 to address motions, filed by an attorney representing the family of Goncalves and a media coalition, regarding concerns over the wide-ranging gag order in the case.

As it stands, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and attorneys for victims’ families and witnesses are prohibited from saying anything publicly, aside from what is already in the public record.

How police narrowed in on Kohberger

In the days after the discovery of the grisly crime scene, investigators narrowed in on Kohberger after focusing on a white Hyundai Elantra seen in surveillance footage near the crime scene, according to a probable cause affidavit released in January.

By Nov. 25, area law enforcement officers were notified to look out for the vehicle, the affidavit read. Within days, police at Washington State University in nearby Pullman, Washington, identified a vehicle and found it registered to Kohberger.

His driver’s license information was consistent with the description of a man given to police by the victims’ surviving roommate, the affidavit says, specifically noting his height, weight and bushy eyebrows.

The roommate told investigators she saw a man with a similar description clad in black the morning of the attack. Hours before the killings, Chapin and Kernodle had attended a party on campus, police have said, while Mogen and Goncalves went to a downtown bar before ordering food at a food truck.

Video below: Police body camera video shows officers executing search warrant at Bryan Kohberger's home

Investigators connected Kohberger to the crime scene after DNA on a tan leather knife sheath found lying next to one of the victims was linked to DNA on trash recovered from Kohberger’s family home in Pennsylvania, according to the affidavit.

There, investigators seized a white 2015 Hyundai Elantra an attorney for the suspect previously said he’d used to drive, accompanied by his father, to his parents’ home for the holidays. Court documents show investigators dismantled the vehicle, collecting parts, fiber and swabs for further examination.

Investigators also seized knives, a cell phone, black gloves, black masks, laptops, dark-colored clothes and dark shoes, an evidence log shows.

Following his arrest, Kohberger waived extradition and was sent back to Idaho. He was booked into the Latah County Jail on the same counts for which he was indicted.

Many details about the case remain unknown, in part due to a wide-ranging nondissemination order that prevents attorneys for any interested party in the case from commenting beyond the public record, leaving in place a veil of secrecy.

A preliminary hearing had been scheduled for the end of June, with the parties expected to detail evidence collected by the state. But the hearing was canceled after Kohberger’s indictment, Latah County Deputy Court Clerk Tamzen Reeves said, and court records indicate the names of the witnesses who testified before the grand jury are under seal.

At least three California high school students have been hospitalized after participating in a social media trend called the "One Chip Challenge," according to district spokeswoman Chelsea Vongehr.

The challenge encourages people to eat a chip covered in pepper and hot sauce.

Lodi High School Principal Adam Auerbach sent a phone message to parents Friday afternoon about the challenge, the Lodi News-Sentinal first reported. Auerbach told the News-Sentinal a number of students were referred to the emergency room because of their reactions to the substance.

The One Chip Challenge was started by chip company, Paqui, and is now trending on social media including TikTok. The challenge dares people to record themselves eating an entire Paqui chip, which is Carolina Reaper and scorpion pepper flavored. Participants then must wait as long as they can before eating or drinking anything.

"We do not have an official Scoville rating for the chip itself, however the seasoning used in the chip contains two of the hottest peppers currently available. Carolina Reaper Peppers, which are around 1.7 million Scoville Units and Scorpion Pepper which around 1.2 million Scoville Units," Paqui's website says.

It has been nine years since the lives of 26 innocent children and adults were brutally taken away in Newtown, Connecticut.These are the victims whose lives were cut short far too soon.Charlotte Bacon, 6Daniel Barden, 7Olivia Engel, 6Josephine Gay, 7Dylan Hockley, 6Madeleine Hsu, 6Catherine Hubbard, 6Chase Kowalski, 7Jesse Lewis, 6Ana Márquez-Greene, 6James Mattioli, 6Grace McDonnell, 7Emilie Parker, 6Jack Pinto, 6Noah Pozner, 6Caroline Previdi, 6Jessica Rekos, 6Avielle Richman, 6Benjamin Wheeler, 6Allison Wyatt, 6Rachel D'Avino, 29, behavior therapistDawn Hochsprung, 47, principalAnne Marie Murphy, 52, special education teacherLauren Rousseau, 30, teacherMary Sherlach, 56, school psychologistVictoria Leigh Soto, 27, teacher

OXFORD, Ohio —

Jacob Maten is a college student who is happy to show off a new gift from his father, a carbon monoxide detector for his dorm room.

"I stopped at Home Depot on my way down here," said Jacob's father, Mike Maten.

Mike Maten made the four-hour trip from Michigan to Oxford, Ohio, to visit his son at McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital. Jacob, a Miami University student, was hospitalized Thursday for suspected CO poisoning.

"I'm feeling a lot better than yesterday. I'm still just filtering out everything," Jacob Maten said.

Jacob lives at Hillcrest Hall on the Miami campus.

He wasn't feeling well Thursday and was sleeping when firefighters began banging on his door.

"I just started freaking out as soon as I woke up. There were alarms blaring, firefighters telling me to get up and get out right now. It's like, 'Oh my God what is happening?'" Jacob Maten said.

"I'm not sure how they knew he was in his room, but thank God they did," said Mike Maten.

More than 250 students were forced from their rooms overnight due to CO levels in the building. They were given the all-clear Friday morning.

Miami University officials declined an interview but released the following written statement:

"We are updating you on an incident that occurred yesterday in Hillcrest Hall on Western campus. The Miami University Police Department was notified by a resident that his personal carbon monoxide detector was sounding an alert. We called the Oxford Department, they detected carbon monoxide, evacuated the building, and began investigating the source. By early evening, it was clear that we would not find and repair the source of the carbon monoxide in time for students to return to the hall to sleep. More than 250 students were assigned a temporary room on campus and they have just been notified that they can return to the building at their convenience.

Because Hillcrest Hall is heated by geothermal energy, we knew there was no combustion source related to heating and cooling in the building that could have caused the elevated levels. Miami University has been and continues to be in full compliance with the requirements of the state fire code for the facility. Our physical facilities department staff partnered with the Oxford Fire Department to investigate throughout the night. The source of the carbon monoxide was ultimately identified as exhaust from a hot water heater that is used to heat the water for showers and faucets. Under some conditions, the exhaust was pulled back into the building from outside through small openings in the structure of the building, which have been repaired. Both Miami's physical facilities staff and the Oxford Fire Department have tested the building multiple times and have found no remaining carbon monoxide. We are in the process of inspecting all other residence halls on campus; thus far, no other issues have been discovered.

We have installed temporary carbon monoxide detectors in Hillcrest Hall and in an abundance of caution are determining how best to install them in all halls as a permanent system. We will provide additional information and an update on our corrective actions in future communications.

We are grateful to, and proud of, the Hillcrest students who alerted the MUPD to this situation."

On Friday, students said they are happy to sleep in their own beds again but not without concern.

"The only reason it got caught is because there was a carbon monoxide detector in some kid's room," said student Will McKay.

Student Sophie Kwiatikowski said, "If that one person didn't have a personal detector, it wouldn't have been detected."

Many students said their parents already bought them their own CO detectors.

YADKIN COUNTY, N.C. —

Forty-five middle school students from North Carolina got sick Monday afternoon for an unknown reason.

Sixth graders at Starmount Middle School in Yadkin County began complaining about feeling nauseous with headaches. Some students had thrown up.

Only sixth graders were affected, neither seventh nor eighth-graders reported becoming sick, according to the Yadkin County Schools superintendent.

In response to the mysterious epidemic, the school did a shelter in place to keep unaffected students away from the others that were ill.

"I understand parents were nervous and upset. No messaging went out [from the school] because I can tell you, I saw first hand, administration and front office staff were focused on helping students. That's first priority," Yadkin County Schools Superintendent Todd Martin said.

First responders came to the school to help and check the students out.

Yadkin County Schools and the Yadkin County Health Department are investigating the strange illness that affected the 45 students.

Most of the affected students returned to school the following Tuesday.

There were rumors of a CO2 leak, but Martin said that was ruled out.

Officials are investigating possible food poisoning, but this has not been confirmed as the cause of the sickness.

Parents should hear from the school Monday evening.

This is a developing story, check back for more updates.

From empty store shelves to people visiting their elderly family members through glass windows, we are living history. Now, librarians are looking to document it.

“I think the pandemic affects all of us, but how people are experiencing that really varies so much from region to region, town to town, state to state," said Anna Neatrour, Digital Initiatives Librarian with the University of Utah.

Neatrour’s colleague, Jeremy Myntti, Head of Digital Library Services, says this an unprecedented time for most of us, but some have lived through similar experiences.

“If you think back to World War II or even during the 1918 flu pandemic, what people were going through is pretty similar to what we're going through now."

Over the last two months, the University of Utah has collected mostly photographs but also letters and oral history videos, documenting how the coronavirus pandemic affected us all in 2020. Many of the early submissions included photos of empty grocery store shelves and people social distancing in each other's front yards.

"People try to visit their elderly family members and in adult care facilities and not being able to do that and having to visit them through windows," said Rachel Wittmann, Digital Curation Librarian.

History students at the University of Utah are also helping the librarians document this time. More than 600 items have already been collected.

"So, once we have items submitted to us, they’re processed, they’re put into an online digital collection where anyone in the world can access to them," said Myntti.

University of Utah isn't the only one working to preserve this historical perspective. Boone County Public Library in Kentucky is also working with the public to collect items and they got the idea from another neighboring library.

In Canada, mother Natalie Long created a

free downloadable time capsule

to help children document their time in quarantine during the coronavirus. The PDF has been shared and download thousands of times, hoping to help children understand and get through this unprecedented time.

As for how long University of Utah will keep documenting, they say it could be years.

"As we move from being more locked down to opened up, things are going to shift and change. So, I think as long as everyone’s lives are disrupted, we want to still keep collecting materials and then we can document each phase of what’s happening to everyone," said Neatrour.

They’ll give future generations a digital look into what life was like in 2020.

Video above: AG Garland defends school board memo amid GOP critics

Clutching a page of notes, Bob Russo sat in the middle of the boisterous audience in the school gymnasium, reviewing what he wanted to tell the Douglas County School District board members. When it was his turn to speak, Russo stood and approached the microphone.

"I don't know about you, but I don't want Marxist blood in this country," he said, generating widespread applause.

This was Russo's third school board meeting in eight days. Officials were holding town halls across the rural northwest Nevada county to address concerns roiling the community, such as whether students were learning critical race theory (CRT) in classrooms, or whether children should wear masks or get vaccines to protect them from COVID-19.

"I'm concerned about kids being taught theories, ideologies that are going to divide them and set them apart from each other," Russo said to CNN in an interview. "I'm concerned about our freedom."

Russo, a 68-year-old retiree, has no children in the school district.

"I love the kids, even though I don't know them," said Russo. "I just want to see them have happy lives, being able to pursue happiness the same way I was able to. It's more of a national issue, that's my concern. And I'm just doing a little bit that I can do."

Russo was not alone. Mladen Chargin also has no children in the school system but says he's interested as a taxpayer about what's going on.

"The only purpose," Chargin says of CRT, "is the division and destruction of the United States. That is the purpose."

For months now, school board meetings across the nation have been targeted with angry protests over masks and vaccines, joined more recently by concern about racial equity. Elections have become vitriolic and divisive and the National School Boards Association has asked for help from the federal government to investigate threats.

Douglas School District Superintendent Keith Lewis told the crowd that CRT was not a part of the public-school curriculum.

That mattered little to a non-resident of Douglas County, Adam Laxalt. A former attorney general of Nevada who now wants to represent the state in the U.S. Senate, Laxalt has seized on the national GOP strategy of clashing with Democrats on cultural issues. This appearance before this small town's school board would not be any different.

"I call on this board to permanently ban critical race theory and all of its appendages," Laxalt said at the board meeting to loud applause from the crowd.

Children try to school the adults

The behavior of the adults on this night -- and for many months in the majority White community of 50,000 on the shores of Lake Tahoe -- has been astonishing to watch, say Jacob Lewis, 16, who is not related to the superintendent, and 17-year-olds Sydney Hastings and Kimora Whitacre. All of them are students at Douglas High School.

"I think that sometimes people misinterpret discussion of racial issues to be critical race theory," said Hastings, a senior.

"I feel they don't understand that our school doesn't even have CRT," said Lewis, a junior. "They're arguing for something that we don't even have."

Whitacre, a senior, listened in on one of the school meetings via the public Zoom link. She didn't recognize any of the speakers who complained to the school board as parents. But she knows what the rancor was doing to her teachers.

"You can see the wear it takes on our administrators," Whitacre said. "They're just trying to educate us. That's where I get disappointed. We're just trying to learn."

Whitacre says she felt the impact too, particularly when anti-mask protesters were on the sidewalk outside her school. "There have been times where I've driven through this town and been scared because of protests going on," she said.

"This is a good community," Hastings said. "That's why it's disappointing when you hear about people who are threatening violence, who are getting aggressive at these meetings, because I think that really is a minority."

The three students say anger at the school board meetings over masks, vaccines and CRT overshadows the more substantive problems facing the district -- a lack of substitute teachers, emotional struggles with returning to school and the ongoing fear of a shutdown of schools.

"I'm trying to balance everything that's on my plate," Lewis said in explaining how he is juggling the stress of athletics, homework and advanced placement exams. "I feel like I'm running a 5K when I had barely walked last year because of COVID. It was a very different time."

Hastings agreed. "It has been a really hard few years because of the pandemic and just the amount of social strife and political division going on in our country right now," she said.

National politics usurping local issues

Superintendent Lewis helped to organize the town halls so the board could hear directly from people about their concerns. But he wishes there was less talk about CRT and more passion for helping students directly.

"It's taken the eye off of what we're really trying hard to do and that's educate our students and provide a great learning environment for them," he said. We're spending a lot of time and energy on issues that don't help that."

Douglas County schools rank their test scores in the top 20% of public schools in Nevada and have a graduation rate in the top 5% of the state.

But it's been hard to find substitute teachers and deal with the social and emotional learning of students after the disruption of the pandemic and virtual schooling, teachers said.

"The thing that is the most important that we're dealing with now is social, emotional learning and getting students equipped to handle what they have in front of them and all the expectations that society has thrust on them," Douglas High School English teacher Jim Tucker said. "It's never been harder to be a teenager."

Few people at the town hall raised those concerns.

"There's a lot of misinformation out there from people who have never been in any of our schools, who have never talked to any of our teachers, who have never asked any questions of the district. They hear things and they make assumptions," Superintendent Lewis said.

The fear and anger at the Douglas County school board meetings are echoed around the country.

In central Florida, a woman wearing a Stars and Stripes T-shirt with the words "Free America" told a Brevard County school board meeting that children were being brainwashed by a CRT-driven public education system. "We need to come together to pull our children out of these government camps and not let them socially condition them anymore, because our children have a voice."

In West Bend, Wisconsin, a woman who spoke before the school board called CRT "divisive, biased, radically left Marxism designed to further alienate our American children from each other."

These school board debates are being amplified in early campaigns from the Rust Belt to the Sun Belt, as national Republicans focus on cultural issues to rally conservative voters.

In Virginia's gubernatorial race, GOP candidate Glenn Youngkin has made what he calls parental rights key to his campaign, focusing earlier this month on CRT at a rally in Culpeper, Virginia.

"We've seen parents saying, 'Tell us what material is being used in the classroom and the library, just tell us so that we can choose if we want it in our kids' lives or not.' Because guess what? Parents have a fundamental right to be engaged in their kids' education," Youngkin said. "We're going to stand up for parents. We're going to stand up for students. And we're going to stand up for so many teachers that have just been asking for help."

Rage reaches Congress, and is likely to persist

Laxalt, who wants voters to make him the Republican candidate to oppose Democratic incumbent Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, struck a similar tone back in Douglas County.

"It's important to rise for our children today and in the coming days ahead," Laxalt said to the school board and the crowd. Saying the country faced a "legitimate, existential threat for the future of our country," Laxalt called CRT "inherently racist and oppressive."

He said, "We will not let these people take our children. We will not let them indoctrinate them. We will not let them poison our children with this rhetoric. We will stand up for them and I'll be right there with you!"

Hostility at school board meetings across the country has even been discussed in Congress.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland was before the Senate Judiciary Committee when he addressed a memo asking federal agents to consult with local law enforcement to assess threats. At that meeting, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas defended a parent who made a Nazi salute to school board officials.

That once-mundane school board meetings are now discussed at the Senate Judiciary level shows the national reach of this cultural issue. And it's one reason the fury is unlikely to wane until after the 2022 midterms.

The Douglas High School students find that both demoralizing and poor modeling for the children in the public schools.

"We should be listening to each other instead of fighting and understanding how the other person thinks," said Jacob Lewis. "And more importantly why they think that way and listening to their argument. Those adults are supposed to be our role models."

MADEIRA, Ohio — Madeira High School quarantined eight students and one staff member after contact tracing showed that they had been in close contact with a student who tested positive for COVID-19, superintendent Kenji Matsudo said in an email sent out Wednesday afternoon.

In this situation, close contact constitutes being within six feet of another person for more than 15 minutes, according to the email.

The school immediately began cleaning and sanitization procedures

Matsudo said that all families should do daily health checks of students before leaving for the bus or going into the school building.

A teacher in Alabama presented photographs of the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol without commentary and asked students to write poems in reflection. A Minnesota instructor fielded comparisons to the aftermath of George Floyd’s killing. And a civics educator in Connecticut urged her rattled students to work toward making the country better.

Social studies teachers nationwide set aside lesson plans this week to help young people make sense of the scenes of the violent siege in Washington by supporters of President Donald Trump.

Approaches varied, with some teachers deliberately holding off on historical comparisons with the events so fresh. Many trod cautiously in light of varied political viewpoints in their classrooms and communities.

But educators universally described efforts to hear out students’ fears and concerns and instill a sense of history and even hopefulness in a school year shaped by the nation’s reckoning over racial injustice, the coronavirus pandemic and the constraints of distance learning.

“In almost every single one of my classes, the students brought it up before I even could,” said Karley Reising, a social studies teacher at Robert E. Fitch High School in Groton, Connecticut. “And especially my seniors were really struggling with what this meant about the future of our country in a way that was pretty heartbreaking.”

She and others said they tried to focus on the importance of engagement and to push back against the creeping sense that violence is the inevitable end to political division.

“This was one of the most important days as a teacher, not even just a history teacher,” Michael Neagle said after wrapping up with his students at Lowell High School in Massachusetts the day after the siege. “We don’t want kids to tune out and just say, ‘Well, this is how it is. Nobody gets along. Politics.’ That voter apathy is so dangerous.”

After watching events unfold on television, the world history and civics teacher stayed up most of the night exchanging emails with his department chair, planning out lessons around what was unfolding.

“I don’t have many nights where I’m up til 3 o’clock in the morning with curriculum,” Neagle said, “but we have to take advantage of it.”

South St. Paul, Minnesota, teacher Mark Westpfahl set aside his planned lesson on state treaties and instead grabbed the morning newspapers with their “Insurrection” headlines to use as visual aides to teach his sixth grade students, who are learning remotely. Just miles from the fiery clashes ignited by Floyd’s death, there were questions from his students about the police response that will carry into lessons next week.

“That’s the connection that we’re going to bring in on Monday, is how do these two events correlate with each other? What was the response like? What was the media presence like?” he said.

As he taught his 10- and 11-year-old students over video, three or four parents made their way into view on his screen but didn’t interrupt.

In such a fraught political climate, Westpfahl said, “you are wondering, are you listening because you’re finding this fascinating and interesting, or are you listening because you want to question everything that I’m saying or doing?”

In deeply conservative Alabama, 10th-grade teacher Blake Busbin said he, too, considered how his presentation and language could be perceived by students and the community and said he is “very purposeful with the language I use, choosing what words to utilize.”

Busbin, a teacher at Auburn High School, made a point to let students watch the chaos unfold on TV. He was a high school senior on 9/11 and the school principal ordered a media blackout, which he felt cost him an opportunity to watch history in the making.

The day after the Capitol siege, he rose before dawn and gathered 25 photographs that he showed for 10 to 15 seconds each without saying anything, then asked students to write poems. He wanted it to be day a of reflection.

“My strategy, as I told my students, I like to consider myself kind of like a grill master," he said. "Before you put the meat on the grill, it needs to marinate for a while.”

The students submitted the poems anonymously, and they weren’t read in class. Busbin said they helped him understand students’ frame of mind and will help guide future instruction.

The poems, he said, show a desire for a more harmonious government, a more bipartisan approach and a belief that things can get better.

“It’s been a year of hurt. Certainly having student family members who have passed away, having students who were ill," he said. “My fear is that there is that we’ve almost become numb to the hurt that we felt throughout this year.”

The poems, Busbin said, show a desire for a more harmonious government, a bipartisan approach and a belief that things can get better.

In David McMullen's classroom at Great Path Academy in Manchester, Connecticut, politics emerged when a student addressed unfounded claims that it was a false flag operation. Another student stepped in and said even if that were the case, the president and supporters had encouraged the mob nonetheless.

“Today was just to kind of soak in the events and talk about them and write some stuff down, because, as I tell my students, they are the future’s primary sources,” he said.

McMullen and other teachers also heard out students who were deeply affected by the photographs of Confederate flags carried through the halls of Capitol and who saw a double standard in the heavier response by police to Black Lives Matter protests.

Reising said the conversation among her students was strained by their hybrid learning model, and because some have not even met face to face. But she tried to end the discussion on a hopeful note.

“I just turn it into, ‘Hopefully for you and maybe for others in our country, this will be the thing that lights the fire on what it means to be an active, engaged citizen. And if you didn’t like what you saw, then what steps can you take to make sure this doesn’t happen again?’”

New York teacher Conor Murphy thought back to 9/11, when he was in an American history class and watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center.

“One of the challenges is to appropriately signify the gravity,” Murphy said, recalling a similar challenge a year ago while teaching participation in government at West Genesee High School in Camillus during Trump’s impeachment trial.

“But,” he said, “I’ve never really had to teach anything quite so, in my opinion, profound.”

CINCINNATI —

Destructive TikTok challenges are causing trouble in school districts across Greater Cincinnati.

We first told you about them last week.

Now, in Harrison, the Southwest Local School District said restrooms have been vandalized and students have been caught.

A spokeswoman for Cincinnati Public Schools said the TikTok troubles haven't been raised to their attention at this point, but on social media, people have said it is happening within the schools as well.

It is a bad trend in many districts, according to school leaders.

"Just a general disruption to the school setting as a result of the influence of the videos that they're viewing online," Lockland City Schools Superintendent Bob Longworth said.

Schools report water fountains damaged, soap dispensers trashed and stuff stolen.

In Boone County, eight students have been cited, and it is happening elsewhere, all for the sake of likes, comments, follows and shares.

"Basically young people all over our region and state and country are being influenced to make really poor choices, resulting in the destruction of property," Longworth said.

Longworth said the "Devious Licks" TikTok challenge is an alarming trend.

In Middletown, there are more police officers in the schools because of the viral vandalism.

"So many children right now are starting to get frustrated with this challenge in school, and they want their classmates to stop because they enjoy coming to school every day, focusing in the classroom and being able to learn," Middletown City Schools Superintendent Marlon Styles, Jr. said.

The Southwest Local School District said Harrison High School restrooms have been vandalized; students have been caught in three different incidents and two more are under investigation.

They warn that students could face charges and families could get repair bills.

Mason City Schools Superintendent Jonathan Cooper said a small group is responsible in his district.

"We have great custodians and maintenance staff that, they work hard, and so to have to come back around and continue to fix those things can be a bit frustrating," he said.

They all said it is time parents talk with their kids to buck this trend.

"It should be a challenge for all of us as parents to lean in and look at what's going on on social media with our kids," Cooper said.

In Boone County, sheriff's officials said eight students face charges including theft and criminal mischief.

Juvenile courts in Butler, Warren and Hamilton counties said no children have been charged in these kind of incidents at this time.

TikTok has confirmed it has banned all content around this trend.

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>> The Reporter: YOU KNOW, AS YOU SAY, OUR SCHOOL DISICTRTS ACROSS THE COURYNT DEALING WITH THIS TIK TOK BATHRMOO CHALLENGE, AND LIKE OTHER SCHOOL DISTRICTS, OFFICIALS HERE IN MARTIN COUY,NT WELL, THEY'RE WARNING STUDENTS HERE WHO PARTICIPATE. >> JUST SOMETHING ON THE BACK, LIKE A HOLDER, AND THEY'LL RIP IT OFF THE HOLDER AND THEN PUT IT IN THE TOILET. >> Theep Rorter: THIS IS A PHOTO OF WHERE ONE OF THOSE SOAP DISPENNERS ENDED UP. FRANK IS THE DIRECTOR OF SAFETY AND SECURITY HERE AT THE MARTIN COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRT.IC >> IT'S ON TIK TOK AND WHAT THEY'RE DOINGS I THEY'RE DOING DAGEMA TO BATHROOMS, SUCH AS RIPPING OFF SPOA DISPENSERS, THROWING IT IN TOILETS, STOPPING UP TOILETS, THEN POSTING IT ON SOCIAL MEDIA. >> The Reporter: HE SAYS, IT'S CALLEDHE T BATHROOM, OR DEVIOUS LICKS CHALLENGE, WHERE STUDENTS THROUGHOUT THE COURYNT WHO PARTICIPATE RECORD THEMSELVES TRASHING BATHROOMS IN SCHOOLS FOR LIKES AND FOLLOWS. >> WHAT'S HAPPENING IS, EVERYTHING IS IN THE NOW, HOW MANY LIKES CAN WE GET, AND THEY REALLY DON'T UNDERSTAND THE CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR ACTIONS. >> The Reporter: AND HE SAYS, THERE'S MORE. >> THERE'S TWO PARTS TO THE ACTUAL CHALLENGE, ONE IS WHAT I JUST MENTION,ED AND THE SECOND ONE IS TRYING TO TAKE PROPERTY FROM A TEACHER AND THEN POSTING THAT ONOCIA SL MEDIA AS WELL. >> The Reporter: THE INCIDENTS HAVE TAKEN PLACE AT EACHID MDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL HERE IN THE DISTRICT. ONE PRINCIPAL SENT THIS RECORDED MESSAGE TO PENARTS. >> IT IS MY HOPE THAT YOU WILL SPEAK WITH YOUR CHILD THIS EVINENG, TONS EURE THEY UNDERSTAND THE IMPORTANCE OF RESPECTING THEMSELVES, OTHERS, AND OUR SCHOOL PROPERTY. >>> OFFICIALS ATTIC TOBAGO SAY THEY'RE REMOVING THE CONNTTE AND REDIRECTING HASHTAGS AND ALSO RELEASED A STATEMENT, WHICH IN PART READS, WE EXPECT OUR COMMUNITY TO STAY SAFE,ND A CREATE RESPONSIBLY. AND WE DO NOT ALLOW CONTENT THAT PROMOTES OR ENABLES CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES. >> DEPENDENT ON HOW MUCH DAMAGE IS CAUSED OR IF YOU'RE ACTUAYLL TAKING SOMETHING PERNASOL PROPERTY FROM A TEACHER, THAT'S A CRIME. WE'RE GNGOI TO PUNISH U,YO TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW, TO WHATCH SOOL DISCIPLINE AS WELL. >> The Reporter: AND HE ALSO SAYS, HE'S ASKING ANYONE WHO SAW SOMETHING TO SAY SOMETHING, AND HE SAYS, THERE AREEV SERAL VENU,ES PLATFORMS, STUDENTS CAN USE TO REMAIN ANONYMOUS. REPORTING LIVE IN MARTIN COU

'Everything is how many likes we can get': School official frustrated over new trend on social media

New trend on social media is causing concerns with officials at the Martin County School District

Updated: 10:49 AM EDT Sep 18, 2021

A new trend that's going viral on TikTok across the country has school officials concerned.Many districts are worried about a trend known as the "bathroom" or "devious lick" challenge, where students record themselves trashing bathrooms in schools for likes and follows."It's on TikTok,” said Frank Frangella, the director of safety and security at Martin County School District in Florida. "What they're doing is they're doing damage to bathrooms, such as ripping off soap dispensers, throwing them in toilets, stopping up toilets then posting it on social media."Frangella said the challenge has two parts."The second one is trying to take property from a teacher and then posting that on social media as well," Frangella said.He said incidents have happened at all of the middle and high schools in the district."What's happening is everything is now how many likes can we get," Frangella said. "They really don't understand the consequences of their actions."Officials with the social media platform said the videos are being removed."We expect our community to stay safe and create responsibility, and we do not allow content that promotes or enables criminal activities. We are removing this content and redirecting hashtags and search results to our Community Guidelines to discourage such behavior," a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement sent to sister station WPBF.School district officials said they are asking parents to please speak with their children about the seriousness of these types of offenses, as in-school disciplinary consequences and the potential for legal action are severe.

A new trend that's going viral on TikTok across the country has school officials concerned.

Many districts are worried about a trend known as the "bathroom" or "devious lick" challenge, where students record themselves trashing bathrooms in schools for likes and follows.

"It's on TikTok,” said Frank Frangella, the director of safety and security at Martin County School District in Florida. "What they're doing is they're doing damage to bathrooms, such as ripping off soap dispensers, throwing them in toilets, stopping up toilets then posting it on social media."

Frangella said the challenge has two parts.

"The second one is trying to take property from a teacher and then posting that on social media as well," Frangella said.

He said incidents have happened at all of the middle and high schools in the district.

"What's happening is everything is now how many likes can we get," Frangella said. "They really don't understand the consequences of their actions."

Officials with the social media platform said the videos are being removed.

"We expect our community to stay safe and create responsibility, and we do not allow content that promotes or enables criminal activities. We are removing this content and redirecting hashtags and search results to our Community Guidelines to discourage such behavior," a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement sent to sister station WPBF.

School district officials said they are asking parents to please speak with their children about the seriousness of these types of offenses, as in-school disciplinary consequences and the potential for legal action are severe.