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LAUSD school board members disagree that iPads is a civil right
LA Unified School Superintend John Deasy believes giving iPads to students is a civil right, but school board members do not. “Equity in education is a civil right,” said board member Monica Ratliff. “iPads are not a civil right.” KABC

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What can LAUSD learn from students who ‘jailbreak’ iPads?
Should the LAUSD scrap the iPad program? Did the district rush its implementation of the program? How could the iPad program adjust to the reality that students use the technology in contexts outside of K-12 curricula? KPCC

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Anaheim school apologizes for making girl remove NRA T-shirt
A high school student who grabbed a National Rifle Assn. T-shirt in her hurry to find something to wear to school was later confronted outside class by campus officials who forced the student to remove her shirt or face possible disciplinary action, the girl’s parents said. On Thursday, the school changed course and apologized to the 16-year-old and said campus staff will be trained so that “an incident like this does not occur again.” LA Times

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Districts invest in new measures to boost security
Schools across the United States have invested millions of dollars in heightened security measures for this school year, prompted in part by the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings that took the lives of 20 children and six adults last December. Ed Week

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State law encourages alternatives to school-based police
A new law that encourages alternatives to police involvement in school discipline matters was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown this week, just days after the U.S. Department of Justice awarded $44 million to beef up the number of police officers in schools nationwide, including California. Ed Source

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Contest seeks ideas on how schools could use new flexibility
Commentary: California has embarked on a bold experiment in education. Policy shifts like the new Common Core State Standards and the governor’s Local Control Funding Formula make local school districts dramatically more autonomous. Such changes provide a golden opportunity to transform education’s much derided one-size-fits-all factory model into something, frankly, more human. So how might your local school district take advantage of that flexibility to embody the principles of creativity and adaptability brilliantly articulated by renowned education and creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson? Stag Hunt Enterprises is sponsoring a contest with a $1,000 award for the best action plan to change education paradigms in a local school district. Ed Source