A foot of snow, icy cold forecast for northeastern U.S.

woman walks through snow in New York City

By Scott Malone and Joseph Ax

BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The heaviest storm the northeastern United States has seen this year was bearing down on the region on Thursday, forcing schools in major cities to cancel classes and airlines to ground thousands of flights.

Forecasters predicted the storm could bring more than a foot (30 cm) of snow and wind gusts up to 50 miles per hour (80 kph) from Pennsylvania through Maine.

New York City schools, the largest public school system in the United States, with more than 1 million students, canceled classes on Thursday. So did districts in Boston and Philadelphia.

More than 2,700 flights in and out of the region were also canceled, according to Flightaware.com, as airlines told passengers to check the status of their flights before heading to the airport.

Blizzard warnings were in effect for the eastern end of New York’s Long Island, Cape Cod, Massachusetts and the island of Nantucket.

“Early start. Getting Ready to go out and battle the snow storm so that I can do what I need to do,” tweeted IT professional Andy Quayle in New York City.

With the storm expected to dump as much as to three inches (8 cm) per hour and start before the morning rush hour and last into the evening, mayors of major cities, including New York and Boston, warned residents to stay off the roads.

“Visibilities will become poor with whiteout conditions at times. Those venturing outdoors may become lost or disoriented. So persons in the warning area are strongly advised to stay indoors,” the National Weather Service said in an advisory.

Temperatures were expected to fall to single-digit Fahrenheit levels (below -12.8°C) overnight in the Boston area.

The forecast comes a day after much of the northeast saw spring-like weather, with temperatures of 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 16°C).

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life, you know, what feels like a summer day, almost, now, and then tomorrow a blizzard,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio told WCBS-AM radio. “But it’s going to be a blizzard and New Yorkers should get ready.”

While temperatures had been mild for much of the region on Wednesday, New England highways were clogged with scores of car crashes that morning after an early rain storm coated roads in ice. At least one person was killed in Massachusetts when he was struck by a car as he tried to help another motorist..

“We want people to stay indoors as much as possible,” Boston Mayor Marty Walsh told reporters on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Scott Malone, editing by Larry King)

Mother sues Pennsylvania school district over lead-tainted water

water fountain representing lead story

By Jonathan Allen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – A mother has sued a Pennsylvania school district for a delay in telling parents that the water at her daughter’s school was contaminated with toxic levels of lead, according to a complaint filed in U.S. federal court on Wednesday.

The Butler Area School District told parents in a letter on Jan. 20 that test results, which they acknowledged receiving five months earlier, had found leads levels at Summit Elementary School “exceeding acceptable water standards.”

Jennifer Tait, whose daughter attends the school, says officials should have said something as soon as the test results came through last August, according to her lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh.

Despite lead abatement efforts beginning in the 20th century, when lead was once commonly used in pipes and paint, communities across the United States continue to be exposed to dangerous levels of the metal. Lead poisoning can permanently stunt a child’s intelligence and development.

The issue came to the fore again in 2015 after state officials in Michigan acknowledged that the water supply in the city of Flint had been contaminated by lead.

In her lawsuit, Tait accuses school district officials in Butler of a “gross delay” in notifying parents, saying her daughter and other students routinely drank water tainted with toxic levels of lead for the five months between when the school district’s received the test results and when it sent out the letter.

The district officials’ actions in effect created “a school full of poisonous drinking water,” the lawsuit said. Tait is seeking damages for negligence, among other charges, and is asking the court to allow others at the school to join in the lawsuit.

William Pettigrew, the school district’s acting superintendent, referred questions about the lawsuit to the district’s lawyer, who did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Pettigrew said he took over after Dale Lumley, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, resigned and retired on Sunday. Lumley could not immediately be reached for comment.

In an earlier statement, Lumley said a school maintenance official failed to share the worrying test results with him or the district’s board until Jan. 19, the day before he sent out the letter to parents and sought out a supply of bottled water for students.

The district’s director of maintenance also resigned this week, Pettigrew said.

“The school is closed under my recommendation,” Pettigrew said. The children are now being taught in a vacant school building nearby, he said.

The school’s water was found to contain lead at levels nearly four times higher than federal limits, with one sample measured at 55 parts per billion, according to the Jan. 20 letter, which is posted on the district’s website.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Bill Rigby and Leslie Adler)

Texas judge allows ‘Charlie Brown Christmas’ poster to go back up

Attorney General Ken Paxton during Christmas

By Jon Herskovitz

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) – A Texas judge ordered a school district to allow for the display of a poster inspired by the animated holiday television cartoon “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” that the district had banned because it had a Christian message, state officials said on Thursday.

The poster put up this month at a middle school in the central Texas city of Killeen had became a flashpoint in the state’s culture wars.

Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, a conservative Christian, said the school district had unlawfully stamped out religious expression when it banned the poster, and his office filed legal papers against the district to put it back up.

The poster from nurse’s aide Dedra Shannon included a hand-drawn cartoon figure of “Peanuts” character Linus and a quote from the half century-old animated TV show that has been a staple of the holiday season.

“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. … That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown,” the text read.

On Wednesday, the school board voted to ban the poster’s display on the grounds that it could offend students who do not have the same religious views as Christians.

“Religious discrimination towards Christians has become a holiday tradition of sorts among certain groups,” Paxton said, adding, “I am glad to see that the court broke through the left’s rhetorical fog.”

The district said the ruling from the Bell County 146th District Court required that text must be added to the poster saying it is “Ms. Shannon’s Christmas Message.”

“We believe that directing the individual to include the additional text better complies with state and federal law,” the district said in a statement. “We support this decision.”

Matt Angle, director of the left-leaning Lone Star Project that is often critical of Paxton, saw the attack against the school district as being a “cynical smokescreen.”

“Ken Paxton is exploiting people of faith in order to distract from his own criminal indictment,” Angle said.

Paxton is facing securities fraud charges that can bring up to 99 years in prison if he is convicted. He is expected to go on trial next year.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Sandra Maler)

Investigators search for clues in South Carolina school shooting

Police officers investigate the scene of the shooting in the South Carolina Elementary school

By Harriet McLeod

CHARLESTON, S.C. (Reuters) – Investigators were searching on Thursday for the motive behind a shooting spree by a South Carolina teenager who killed his father and wounded two school students and a teacher before being pinned down by a volunteer fireman.

The incident was the latest in a series of shootings at U.S. schools that has fueled debate about access to guns in America.

The 14-year-old boy, whose name has not been released, shot and killed his father, Jeffrey DeWitt Osborne, 47, on Wednesday afternoon.

Then he drove to Townville Elementary School, where he shot two boys and a woman teacher with a handgun, before being subdued by the volunteer firefighter, police said.

Authorities said they were checking if there was a connection between the gunman and the school victims, but had ruled out terrorism and ethnicity as motivating factors.

The suspect was in custody and interviewed by investigators on Wednesday night, Anderson County Sheriff John Skipper told a news conference.

“We are in the process of taking him through the legal process,” he added.

Authorities said the suspect was home-schooled and called his grandmother, who went to his home and found his father.

“She could not make out what he was saying because he was crying and upset, and so they went to the house, and that’s when she discovered her son and called 911,” coroner Greg Shore told the news conference.

Next, the boy drove a pickup truck about 2 miles (3.2 km) to the school, and crashed into a fence around the playground before shooting the other three victims, police said.

One boy, Jacob Hall, 6, was shot in the leg, police said. He is in critical condition, Greenville Health System spokeswoman Sandy Dees said.

The other boy, also 6, according to media reports, was shot in the foot and the teacher was shot in the shoulder, authorities said.

Both were treated and released from hospital, said Ross Norton, a spokesman for AnMed Health Medical Center.

Volunteer firefighter Jamie Brock pinned down the teenager after he began shooting, as staff led children to safety, Taylor Jones, the emergency services director for Anderson County, told a news conference.

Brock, a 30-year veteran of the Townville Volunteer Fire Department, was hailed on social media as a hero and credited with preventing another school massacre.

Police arrived within minutes of a 911 call to take the suspect into custody. He never entered the school building, said Chief Deputy Keith Smith.

About 280 students attend the school in Anderson County, near the Georgia state line about 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Atlanta. It will stay shut on Thursday and Friday as authorities investigate.

U.S. schools have beefed up security precautions since 2012, when a gunman shot and killed 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Immediately after the shooting, armed officers guarded the students as they traveled by bus from the school to a nearby church, media said. Television images showed police swarming the school, with some officers on the roof.

Wednesday’s events follow a Texas incident this month in which a 14-year-old girl shot and wounded a fellow student before dying of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

(Additional reporting Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

7th Grade Texas Student Told to Deny God as Part of Classroom Assignment

A junior high school in Katy, Texas is under scrutiny after a teacher gave an assignment to her class where they had to deny the existence of God.

Student Jordan Wooley, 12, told ABC News that her reading class was given an assignment to identify statements as fact or opinion. When Jordan marked the statement “There is a God” as both a fact and an opinion, her teacher marked the answer as wrong. According to USA Today Jordan tried to explain to the teacher that it could be either answer, based on a person’s beliefs, but the teacher stated the answer was still wrong and that Jordan had to say God wasn’t real. The assignment was graded so if she did not deny God, she couldn’t pass the assignment.

Jordan then told her mom when she got home.

“In this day in age, I would have never guessed that something like this would happen in a classroom in America,” Chantel Wooley told ABC News.

The Wooleys then visited the school district’s Board of Education meeting to inform them of the situation.

“Today I was given an assignment in school that questioned my faith,” Jordan said at the meeting.

The Katy Independent School District has apologized since the incident and released a statement saying that the exercise was intended to encourage critical thinking, not question any religious beliefs of the students.

“Still this does not excuse the fact that this ungraded activity was ill-conceived and because of that, its intent had been misconstrued,” the district said in its statement.

The teacher in question has not responded to any requests for comments regarding the situation.

TruNews: Bremerton High School Coach Placed on Leave for Praying

TRUNEWS – Coach Joe Kennedy has been placed on paid administrative leave.

The Bremerton High School football coach in the state of Washington has come under fire for praying after games. The school district plans to pay him through the remainder of his contract but he will not be allowed to participate in the football program.

For the past few years, he would go to the 50-yard line of the field after the crowds left the stands, to give thanks to God. A few students started joining him, of their own free will, and that’s when the school board stepped in.

Washington Football Coach May Be Fired over Prayer

Photo Courtesy of the Liberty Institute

Joe Kennedy, a high school football coach in Bremerton, Washington, was told that he could be fired if he continued to lead prayer in front of students on public school property.

The school district told Kennedy in a letter that while the former Marine is allowed to pray at work, he cannot do so in front of students. This includes even bowing his head, taking a knee, or any other action that would indicate that he could be praying.

The issue stems from Kennedy’s tradition of praying in the middle of the football field after every game. While other people can join voluntarily, the district believes it could alienate the students and staff that participate in different religious practices.

“Your talks with students may not include religious expression, including prayer,” Superintendent Aaron Leavall wrote. “They must remain entirely secular in nature, so as to avoid alienation of any team member.”

State Superintendent Randy Dorn backed the district’s decision.

“School staff exercising their right to silently pray in private on their own is fine. But leading a prayer isn’t,” he said. “School officials are role models; leading a prayer might put a student in an awkward position, even if the prayer is voluntary. For students who don’t share the official’s faith, players, the official’s public expression of faith can seem exclusionary or even distressing.”

The school district also state that Kennedy’s religious practices violate federal law that separates church and state, and possibly leaving the school and district open to lawsuits.

The irony of this is that they are already being sued by the Liberty Institute who is representing Kennedy. They state that the district is violating his religious freedom.

“The ball is in their court, the school district’s court,” said Mike Berry, senior counsel with Liberty Institute. “They have the opportunity to make this right, to do the right thing and to follow the law.”

Attorney Hiram Sasser added this: “What they are saying is he cannot pray by himself, he cannot simply take a knee at the 50-yard-line,” Sasser said. “That’s like telling a coach he can’t wear a yarmulke if he’s Jewish, he can’t wear a turban if he’s a Sikh, he can’t pray to Mecca if he’s a Muslim, he can’t wear a cross necklace if he’s a Christian.”

While the suit will be filed by the end of the week, Coach Kennedy will still lead the football team on Friday night, and plans to continue his tradition of praying at the 50-yard-line.

Man with Sword Attacks Swedish School; 2 People Killed

Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Bjorn Larsson Rosvall/TT News Agency

On Thursday, a masked man with a sword attacked a Swedish school in Trollhattan, killing one teacher and one student.

USA Today reported that the student died from his injuries at the hospital, and the teacher died at the scene of the crime after being stabbed. Another teacher and student were injured in the attack and reportedly are in serious condition at the local hospital in Trollhattan, according to CNN. The attacker was fatally shot by police and later died in the hospital.

“This is a dark day for Sweden,” Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said. “My thoughts go out to the victims and their families, pupils and staff, and the entire community that has been affected. There are no words to describe what they are going through right now.”

The incident started in a cafe section of the school that serves around 500 students ranging between the ages of six and fifteen. According to NBC News, students thought the masked man was part of a Halloween-related prank or event; students even took pictures with the man before the attack. Afterward, the man began knocking on doors in the hallway and stabbing whoever answered.

At this time police are investigating a possible motive, and they are not ruling out the possibility of this being an act of terrorism.

Legionnaires’ Disease Closes Three Chicago-Area Schools

Students were sent home and three schools were closed when higher than normal amounts of Legionella, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease, were found in cooling towers.

The schools were located in the U-46 school district, located 45 miles northeast of Chicago. Officials found the high level of bacteria during an annual air quality check.

The district stated in an alert on their website: “While risk of exposure to the bacteria was low, we decided, in consultation with the Kane County Health Department, to evacuate staff and students to safe locations as a precaution.”

Reuters reported that the district was properly cleaning and sanitizing all 19 water cooling towers. So far, there have been no reports of anyone within the schools contracting Legionnaires’ disease.

Illinois has been concerned with the disease after 12 residents of a western Illinois veteran home died of Legionnaires’ last month. USA Today reports that dozens of home residents have contracted the disease. Legionnaires’ also infected 119 people and killed 12 in the New York City Outbreak earlier this year.

Legionnaires’ disease is a pneumonia-like disease that is caused by inhaling bacteria infected vapor. The vapor can come from air conditioners, showers, or hot tubs. The disease can lead to kidney failure, respiratory failure, and septic shock. Most people recover, but the CDC reports that 5% to 30% who contract the disease will die. It cannot be transmitted between people.

Federal Judge Dismisses Ten Commandments Lawsuit

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) to remove a Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of a Pennsylvania high school.

U.S. District Judge Terrence McVerry wrote the plaintiffs had “failed to establish that they were forced into ‘direct, regular, and unwelcome contact’ with the Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of Valley High School.”

The judge also said that the female plaintiffs in the case, Marie Schaub and her unidentified daughter, had developed their sense of “offense” to the monument “only after FFRF became involved in this dispute.”

The FFRF demanded the monument’s removal in March 2012 and sued that September when the school did not bow to their demand.

The court noted that the daughter in the case never actually attended that high school and that she testified in court when she saw the monument she didn’t pay much attention to it.  The court also noted that while the mother claimed she pulled her daughter from the district to avoid the monument, the change happened after the lawsuit was filed.

“We’re pleased with the decision by the court,” New Kensington-Arnold School District Superintendent John Pallone said. “We’re glad to see this issue is hopefully behind us, and we can move on with our mission of educating children.”