In order to provide a safe haven for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning high school students, the Chicago public school system is considering opening a high school specifically for LQBTQ students. Attendance at the new school would be voluntary and open to everyone, not just LGBTQ students.

More than a third of Illinois students surveyed in 2006 said that sexual orientation is the most common reason for bullying and harassment in schools; the same number listed gender identity. Three out of four students said they had heard anti-gay remarks from other students and more than four out of five heard students say things like "that's so gay" or "you're gay."

It seems like there is a definite need for change here, but I have to say that this school sounds an awful lot like "separate but equal" to me. I'm not saying they don't need the school or shouldn't move ahead with the plan; it just saddens me to no end that it is needed.

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For many kids, the day they receive a jersey or uniform with their name printed boldly on the back is proud one. They are on the team and everyone who goes to the games will know exactly who they are!

Which is precisely what worried one parent enough to lobby for the removal of children's first names from the jerseys of the Carmel Dads Club. "She raised the concern about someone coming up to a kid and saying, 'Hi, Mary' or 'Hi, Jimmy,' and that might lead the youngster to believe that they knew them," said Mike McKinley, president of the organization that involves 12,000 kids in nearly a dozen different sports.

While some support the change, others feel it's catering to a culture of paranoia. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children cautions parents that kids wearing clothing or carrying personalized items could put strangers "on a first name basis with the kids", but also acknowledges that in the majority of cases, children are abducted or exploited by someone the child or the child's parents knows not by a stranger.

We've never been on a team where first names were used on uniforms, only last names. Maybe I'm just naive, but my biggest worry was that someone with "Felton" across their back would do something embarrassing like scratch their butt or pick their nose in front of everyone. For me, having names on the players helps me figure out who is who on the field better than just a number. However, plain jerseys have the economical advantage of being reusable and reducing the cost of sports for parents.

Also, removing names from uniforms may make parents feel safer, but it doesn't completely remove the danger. There are enough people yelling out kids' names during sporting events to make it pretty easy for a profiler to figure out who is who if this ism information they really want to know.

What do you think is this a prudent preventative measure or just parental paranoia?

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Money is not the only thing that makes a good school, but it certainly helps. There is "no denying the fact that funding allows us to have smaller classes, a deep and rich curriculum and many extracurricular activities," said Superintendent Linda Yonke of the New Trier school district near Chicago, Illinois. New Trier High School spent $17,500 per student last year, more than half again as much as Chicago Public Schools.

The disparity comes largely from the fact that seventy percent of school funding comes from property taxes, so schools in more affluent, more expensive areas have a larger source of revenue. Kids in lower income areas end up with schools that can't afford to offer extra-curricular activities, smaller classes, and better materials.

Last Tuesday, more than a thousand Chicago students skipped the first day of school in order to protest the difference in school funding. The students rode buses to the New Trier school district to fill out applications for enrollment in the better-funded district. "If we say we're a world-class city, then we shouldn't be content with having second-class schools," said state Senator James Meeks, who led the boycott. "I do not believe that a child's education should be based on where they live."

In California, schools are funded equally, regardless of where they are located or local property values. This seems to me to be a much better idea over all because, in the big picture, we're all in this together and everyone should have an equal shot at a good education.

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One of the fast food restaurants had a commercial wherein a young man was in a grocery store holding two packages of meat, his gaze swinging back and forth between the two. Finally, he just drops the meat and hightails it out of the store like the devil himself were chasing him. The tag line then came on saying, "Without us, some guys would starve." Sure, you can dismiss it as simply clever marketing, but I actually know a guy who was just like that before he got married.

Author Sharon E. McKay knows someone like that too -- her son. He actually got scurvy because he thought he could live on chicken wings and beer alone. She and Kim Zarzour, a journalist, decided they had to do something to help all those newly liberated "grown-ups" stay alive in the wild world of momlessness. So they wrote a book: Good To Go: A Practical Guide to Adulthood. It's packed with all the things a young adult needs to know in the big world outside mom's reach. Like cooking. "And of course," says Zarzour of her son's attempt at heating chicken nuggets, "he's yelling out: 'What's a cookie sheet?' I mean, how did I not remember to teach him what a cookie sheet was?"

These days, it seems like kids have a lot more to learn before they leave the nest -- computers, higher math, more politics and world history -- than did my parents. My dad joked that he only learned to add and subtract; he had no need for multiplication and division. These days, kids need a lot more than that to get into a good college. It seems the practical skills have gotten left behind. I'd say this book sounds pretty necessary, these days.

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It's a good thing seventeen-year-old Bristol Palin has her family's support during her pregnancy because it turns out that one of the things her mother did as governor of Alaska was to use her line-item veto to cut funding for a program that includes housing for teenage mothers. In fact, Governor Palin cut the funding for Covenant House, of which Passage House is a part, by more than twenty percent.

Passage House is there to offer "young mothers a place to live with their babies for up to eighteen months while they gain the necessary skills and resources to change their lives" as well as helping them "become productive, successful, independent adults who create and provide a stable environment for themselves and their families." At least, that's what they'd like to do. Perhaps they will still be able to accomplish their mission despite the cuts; it's possible that the program was spending more than necessary and can operate just fine with the reduced revenue. It's possible.

It seems to me that this, combined with her dedication to abstinence-only sex education, does not bode well for teenage girls in the coming years if Palin and McCain make it to the White House.

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Suicide rates among the nation's youth continue to climb. Many experts fear the reason for this is due to fewer antidepressants being prescribed. After a fifteen-year decline the rates are climbing--what was seen as a possibly random increase in 2004 was repeated in 2005. The outcome of the study of 2004 and 2005 tracked outcomes based on actual instances from 1996 through 2003. After more than a decade of decline, suicide rates among those from 10-19 years of age skyrocketed by 18% in 2004, the largest increase in a one-year time period over fifteen years. Researcher Jeff Bridge feels, based on this study, that we could be on the verge of a public health crisis.

Bridges sites possible reasons for the increase, including online and social networking as well as returning from deployment overseas in Iraq along with the controversy over giving youth antidepressants. In a 2003 a public health advisory was issued noting children who were prescribed SSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, were more likely to attempt suicide or engage in suicidal behavior. The result was the black box information on such medicines as well as doctors being less confident in prescribing them. In another study, however, Bridge noted that such treatment could be beneficial for children in the short-term.

According to Diana Zuckerman, National Research Center for Women & Families, children may be more likely to attempt suicide now due to the lagging economy, the stress of not having enough money for college and because those with depression go undiagnosed. She also noted a factor could be that families aren't spending enough time together.

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If students are expected to treat school as their work, it stands to reason that they then be compensated for a job well done. In academics, good work is reflected by good grades or test scores and in New York, kids are getting paid up to a thousand dollars for doing well on Advanced Placement tests.

While it hasn't yet been proven that reimbursing for grades can actual increases test scores, one of the results of the program being funded by private donations, corporations, and foundations is that more kids are taking the tests. In fact, the number students taking the AP test in New York rose slightly this past year, but the number who passed fell but still, it's a start.

Kati Haycock, director of the Education Trust, a Washington research group that works on closing the racial achievement explains why the program is worth a try. "There's some part of all of us that gets a little queasy at this sort of buying stuff," she said. "That said, the problem of under-performance, especially among poor and minority kids, is so serious and has been with us for so long that I'm not begrudging anybody who has good will here from trying something so we can hopefully learn something from it. Frankly, rich kids get paid for high grades all the time and for high test scores by their parents, so this isn't so different."

If cash motivates students to study and do better, I'm all for it. I offered my sons iPods for being on the honor roll for the entire year last school year and having to buy one in June was a great day for him and for me!

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You know that old nighttime saying, "Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite"? Well it turns out bedbugs aren't an imaginary creature designed to keep kids from wandering out of their beds at night.

Bedbugs are tiny, real insects that suck blood from people in their beds as they sleep. Our sister blog That's Fit just shared the educational-yet-horrifying information that some colleges are suffering from bedbug infestations. You know, because between the booze, boys, and bills, college parents didn't have ENOUGH to worry about.

If your college student suspects they have bedbugs as roomies, here are the steps to take:

• Pretend you don't know about the problem and transfer to a different university (Just kidding, although that would probably be my first response.)
• Reduce clutter to eliminate hiding places for the bugs.
• Thoroughly clean house using a high-powered vacuum cleaner and a stiff brush to remove bugs from cracks in the floor.
• Dismantle beds to find hiding places.
• Wash the bedding. Seal up mattresses and box springs by taping any holes or other places where bugs could exit. Wrap the mattresses and box springs in heavy plastic covers and seal them. Dumping mattresses on the street could result in making the problem worse by spreading it to others.
• To keep bugs from traveling from the floor to the bed and anyone attempting to sleep, set the bed frame legs in containers of mineral oil and do not let the blankets touch the floor.
• Caulk and seal all holes and cracks around pipes, electrical outlets, and around baseboards and cove moldings.
• If you are a tenant, work with your landlord to solve the problem. If you are a homeowner, you might consider calling a licensed pest control operator.
• There are a number of products and kits you can purchase to treat the problem. Some involve chemical pesticides, others depend upon organic means of control, such as insecticidal dusts that tear away the bug's protective coating, causing it to die. These products can be found on the internet.
• If you suspect you have had a bedbug encounter during a trip out of the country, it's possible you have transported the little fellows or their eggs in your luggage. Leaving your luggage in a closed car for several hours in a hot summer sun should kill them. Meanwhile, it's a good idea to have clothing professionally laundered in a commercial bug-killing solution immediately upon your return, preferably before you bring the clothing home. Inspect, vacuum, and scrub your empty suitcase with a stiff brush to remove any eggs.

Of course the easiest way to deal with bedbugs is to not get them in the first place. That's why the best idea is to keep your kids little and at home with you. When someone figures out how to do, this please let me know ASAP.

Keep trivia cards handy to challenge older kids when they're stuck doing adult errands with you.

As Roger pointed out in a recent post, school should be a safe place for kids. But what happens when it isn't? Bullying is a big issue in schools, and today's technology has allowed it to reach far past the school yard. Bullies can now torment their targets by text, IM, or through the Internet. Victims of bullying are at risk for social, emotional, and academic problems in the long-term.

So what should you do if you're child is being targeted by a bully? CNN has several suggestions, some of which include:

• Tune into your child's behavior and look for signs that something is out of the ordinary. Take note, too, if they radically change their routine for no apparent reason.
• Before jumping in and calling a bully's parents, get your tween or teen to open up and talk about it, letting them have some control over the solution.
• Younger children will need parents to intervene more quickly.
• Inform school authorities immediately.
• Help your child come up with tactics that will put a stop to the bullying, but don't encourage violence or retaliation.
• Encourage social relationships through extra-curricular activities, clubs, and sports, and teach your child how to reach out to others socially.

Finally, realize that bullying isn't something that kids "grow out of." Adults who were bullied can have traumatic memories of childhood, and bullying isn't limited to children. The sooner that both victim and bully get adult guidance to resolve the situation, the better.

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Wired Magazine is offering up a list of ten films that will help you raise your kids as geeks. First on the list is Star Wars, one of the most significant space movies in history. What geek in the seventies didn't dream of being Luke Skywalker and saving the universe from the evil Darth Vader? Of course, Star Wars is more romantic fantasy than hard science fiction.

If you want your kids grounded a little more in the science part of SF, skip down a few entries to War Games where Matthew Broderick uses his IMSAI computer to hack into a military supercomputer and very nearly starts World War III. Or, last on the list, the Back to the Future series where Michael J. Fox travels through time in a DeLorean.

There are a couple of essential (in my opinion) films that were left off the list but mentioned in the comments -- The Princess Bride and Labyrinth (sure, they're both fantasies, but they offer adventure and positive lessons that will serve any geek well.) Are there any others you'd add to the list as being essential viewing?

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It's tradition in many high schools for athletes and cheerleaders to wear their jerseys or uniforms on the Friday before a game. But a Monroe, Ohio high school is taking issue with the cheerleaders' short skirts. Since the school dress code says skirts must fall no higher than three inches above the knee, cheerleaders are no longer allowed to wear the skirt portion of their uniform to school.

Not everyone agrees with the rule. "My daughter is in her senior year," says mom Becky Daniel. "We paid for uniforms and they should be able to wear them on game day." But Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli is clear: "The skirts that cheerleaders wear are very short, and they're very tight and they're slit so they can do the gymnastics that are required of a cheerleader."

Are short cheerleading skirts even necessary? (Don't answer that, guys.) They seem like a relic from an era gone by. If cheerleading is a serious sport, why not put them into some serious, modern workout gear? Then again, I was never a cheerleader. But it seems like a compromised could be reached in Monroe by letting the girls wear their uniforms, skirts and all, with warm-ups underneath. What do you think?

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There are few things as frightening for a parent as watching their child drive off behind the wheel of a car alone for the first time. In my experience, the only thing that even comes close to that feeling is actually sitting next to your teen as she takes the wheel for the first time.

Hopefully by the time a kid is ready to solo, you've taught them well. They know the rules of the road and the importance of always wearing a seat belt. Unfortunately, a new study shows that many teens are forgetting that seat belt lesson when mom and dad aren't around to remind them, especially when they are in the passenger seat.

The study, conducted by Meharry Medical College in Nashville using data collected by national Youth Risk Behavior surveys, finds that just 59% of drivers aged 16 and older say they always wear a seat belt. That percentage sounds frighteningly low to me, but not as bad as this one: only 42% of teen passengers say they always buckle up.

The numbers regarding teen drivers are scary, indeed. 5,000 teens over the age of sixteen die each year in car accidents in the United States. Of those deaths, 40% are passengers in the car. Teaching your child to buckle up when driving is an important lesson, but clearly not the only one. If you have a kid of driving age, maybe you want to share these statistics with him or her. It sure can't hurt.

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Be careful what sort of jokes you tell your kids - one joke can change their life completely.

I use online chat services pretty regularly, both personally and professionally. I chat with my wife fairly frequently; it's less disruptive than a phone call and quicker too. I've also enjoyed the occasional chat with my six-year-old son. I chat with co-workers all the time, both individually and in groups.

I am a grown-up, however, with nearly three decades of experience in online communications (anyone remember Fidonet?), so I'm not worried about safety. When it comes to kids, however, it's another story. Kids haven't been around the block and they don't always realize that nearly every other fourteen-year-old on the internet is actually a forty-something guy.

If you're not overly familiar with the whole idea of chatting online, the SafetyClicks website has a nice introduction and some great advice on making sure your kids stay safe while chatting with friends. Most importantly, know who they're chatting with. I would even go so far as to say that kids shouldn't be participating in group chats until at least high school.

If your kids are starting to read and write, chatting with you once in a while can be a fun way to encourage that. But once they are old enough to use the computer on their own, parents need to make sure they stay safe. Check out the SafetyClicks guide for info on how to do that.

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