In Towoomba, ABC News reports that a student has been diagnosed with measles. QLD Health has ordered that any student who is unvaccinated must be excluded from school for a period of at least 18 days. Health authorities are pointing to an outbreak of the disease in the Philippines and Bali as the source of the illness.
Principals in Victoria are imploring parents to not send their children to school if they are feeling ill. This comes after concerns that parents are treating school sick bays as 'hospital wards', and sending their children to school so that they don't need to take time off work. The Australian Medical Association President told the Herald Sun that 'it’s going to make more children miserable, put staff members at risk, and risk a wider spread of an epidemic - especially with a much more serious bug like influenza'.
The WA Education Minister has proposed a wave of reforms that will allow public school boards to appoint their own principals. Perth Now reports that these changes are part of the Independent Public Schools program in WA which aims to give public schools more autonomy by giving them the flexibility to do things like select staff and manage their financial affairs. One third of public schools in WA are now operating independently as a result of the program.
The Federal Department of Education has provided to Parliament figures which show that complaints under the National School Chaplaincy Program are declining. In 2013, there were 34 complaints, compared with 93 in 2011. The Guardian reports that although the new government has removed the option to appoint a secular welfare officer, Chaplains are prohibited from 'preaching, proselytising and converting'.
The previous governors (board members) of a school in the UK have been banned from the premises of the school after an interim executive board discovered a £900,000 deficit in the school's accounts. According to the Birmingham Mail, the school was placed into the administration of the Education Department after a lengthy process that attempted to rectify issues at the school. The school was reportedly inspected by the Education Department five times in one year.
In Texas, a school has banned children from bringing sunscreen to school. A spokeswoman for the school told Fox News that 'typically, sunscreen is a toxic substance, and we can’t allow toxic things in to be in our schools'. She also stated that sunscreen is considered 'medication', and that a doctor's note would be required by the child. Childhood exposure to UV radiation leads to increased risks of cancer in later life.
A school in the UK has moved to ban parents from attending sporting events, citing student safety concerns. The Nottingham Post has written that the school expressed concerns about 'major road and tram works [and] a lot of strangers' around the school. Parents have expressed outrage, and are taking their concerns to the school.
An 18 year old American student on exchange to a school in China has been punished after writing pro-democracy messages in a fellow student's books. The Boston Globe reports that the student breached semester abroad rules, and his US school has accused him of embarrassing the host school's principal, harming the relationship between the schools, and disrespecting the host school. The student reacted by blaming the US School, stating that he was only practicing what the US school system taught him.