Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe New Polish Cabinet to drop school uniform WARSAW, Poland, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- Poland’s liberal pro-EU Civic Platform, the winner of parliamentary elections, announced its plan to abolish government-mandated school uniforms for pupils. Advertisement Krystyna Szumilas, Civic Platform’s head of the former parliamentary commission for education, said the issue of primary and secondary school uniforms will be discussed soon by a new parliament, Polish Radio reported. Szumilas said children in schools across Poland should stop wearing uniforms this year or in summer 2008 at the latest. The outgoing conservative government of Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski had decided school uniforms should be obligatory this school term but many schools have ignored the mandate. Teachers reject apology for e-mail CATSKILL, N.Y., Oct. 26 (UPI) -- About 100 teachers and school staff walked out of a Catskill, N.Y., Board of Education meeting while the superintendent read an apology. Advertisement The school employees left the meeting as Superintendent Kathleen Farrell began reading a prepared statement regarding her accidental mass-mailing of a private e-mail that included the phrase: "Please go KILL these people," referring to teachers, the Kingston (N.Y.) Daily Freeman reported. Farrell said she tried immediately to retract the message when some teachers were accidentally named as recipients, but it was opened by one recipient before she could recall it. "I apologized to that individual, copied the CTA (Catskill Teachers' Association) president on this apology and am taking this opportunity to again apologize for this action," Farrell said. "I am a human being who made a very human mistake in correspondence that clearly identified the intended recipient and the sender of the message. I regret my action and the attention that has been drawn to our district because of my action and the angry conversation it has generated." Union President Patty Hulihan said the teachers walked out because they did not consider Farrell's statement to be an adequate apology. Teacher's computer showed porn to students CHANDLER, Ariz., Oct. 26 (UPI) -- A Chandler, Ariz., high school teacher is under investigation after students said they saw pornographic images on his computer. Advertisement Hendrix Junior High School students said the teacher had left the classroom with his computer hooked up to an overhead projector and pornographic images began appearing on the screen shortly after his exit, KPHO-TV, Phoenix, reported. "One kid started laughing, showed another, and then the whole class started laughing," said ninth-grader Brandon Meyer. The teacher has been assigned to a non-classroom position while Chandler police and school officials investigate the incident. The school informed parents of the situation in a letter sent home with students. "As a parent, I'm concerned, but I'm not going to jump to conclusions. I'm not sure if this was a shared computer, that kind of thing," said parent Michael Zoemisch. "If they find him guilty, he should be fired. No doubt about it," parent Steve Taylor said. Book ban draws author's ire CHARLESTON, W.Va., Oct. 26 (UPI) -- A West Virginia school board's decision to remove two books by Pat Conroy from high school reading lists drew the author's anger in a letter to the editor. In his letter printed during the weekend in The Charleston Gazette, Conroy mostly praised English teachers and area students. But he berated the Kanawha County school board, saying members disgraced themselves by removing "Beach Music" and "The Prince of Tides" from a high school English class. Advertisement At least two parents protested the books, asking that they not be considered proper material for upper-level English literature classes at Nitro High School, the newspaper reported. Conroy said he learned of the board's action "as I was completing my latest filthy, vomit-inducing work." He said the school board has "entered the ranks of censors, book-banners, and teacher-haters, and the word will spread." But there is some good in the action, he wrote: "Because you banned my books, every kid in that county will read them, every single one of them."
