dropout prevention

Camden, New Jersey, is not an easy place for a kid to grow up in.Just ask 15-year-old Destinee Williams."Camden has this reputation of being dangerous because you can walk outside at 3 in the afternoon and hear gunshots," Destinee said. "Gangs and drugs are a huge deal. Kids get into gangs to feel safe so they won't get killed."

The school-to-prison pipeline -- or, the system of extreme disciplinary practices that push young people out of school and into the criminal justice system -- is often discussed from the angle of isolated incidents. In April, for example, a six-year-old Georgia girl named Salecia Johnson was, handcuffed and carted away from school in a squad car after throwing a temper tantrum in her kindergarten class.

The Douglass High School senior class could be riddled with dropouts if students become too overwhelmed by the wreckage left by years of academic mismanagement, the state superintendent of schools said Monday night.

The principal of a Massachusetts high school is reviewing a school-sanctioned sexual education course after a parent complained that a flier about the class advocated condom use. According to the Berkshire Eagle, Pittsfield High School Principal Tracey Benson received the complaint from parent Bruce Radke, who saw a list of 32 phrases -- described as "Condom Sayings" -- that was passed out to about 15 students, including Radke's daughter Aleisha, a junior at the school.