Community

Parents get heated during community meeting on bullying
Dozens of parents shouted down Waterford School District officials at a town hall meeting in March to discuss rampant bullying in the district’s schools.

Sixth grader launches nonprofit to serve up compassion for the homeless
Marlon Miller Jr. is a Georgia sixth-grader on a mission, and he recently launched a nonprofit to take it to the next level.

PA lawmaker wants to fine parents of school bullies
Pennsylvania state Rep. Frank Burns thinks parents should be held responsible for how their children behave in school, and he’s introducing legislation to impose a framework of increasing penalties for parents of students who bully their classmates.

Teenager replaces a neighbor’s flag
Moses Lake, Washington resident Junior Villarreal’s home security camera recently caught a young man on his front porch, and he took to Facebook to identify the culprit.

Waffle House waitress earns $16,000 scholarship after her kind act goes viral
Waffle House waitress Evoni Williams said she was just doing her job, but local leaders contend her act of kindness for an elderly patron displayed the type of character that deserves recognition.

A community-wide effort to ingrain shared values into local culture, curricula
New Providence Character Award presented: “Our character education is based on integrity, fairness, respect and responsibility.”

Small Town forms citizens . . . and Olympians
Karen Crouse set out to research Norwich, VT, for a book about athletic development. She ended up writing about an extraordinary town, where the residents have deep and meaningful practices for forming their children.

Sent to the principal’s office . . . for good behavior
“I’m very, very proud of you,” said the mother on the phone. “And thank you for being a good student. I love you,” she added. These words must have been music to the ears of Machen Elementary School principals Jennifer Humble and Daryl Crosby.

Expeditionary Learning School builds character first
It’s a brave kindergarten student who will step up to a microphone and address their school’s 250 community members. This is a weekly occurrence at Sierra Expeditionary Learning School (SELS), where kindergarteners share this duty with fellow students, who range all the way up to 8th grade.