School District of Lancasterâs superintendent has canceled the spring high school musical after a group of students who auditioned expressed concern over the playâs derogatory language in describing Black and Hispanic people and people with disabilities.
Superintendent Damaris Rau said she made the decision to cancel McCaskey Campusâ rendition of âHairspray,â based on the 1988 film and subsequent hit musical of the same name. While the overall theme is about inclusion, Rau said, the musical uses inappropriate language that isnât fit for students, especially now.
âThis is not the appropriate time to put on a musical like this,â Rau said, referring to the racial strife over the summer as well as the mental health impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on children.
Theyâre even less so during a pandemic.
Local school officials this week expressed frustration over the news that theyâll have to administer federally mandated, high-stakes tests during a year beset by sickness, quarantines, intermittent shifts to remote learning and potentially great learning loss.
âSimply put, these narrowly-focused, standardized assessments are just not that important right now after everything our students and staff have already endured,â Ephrata Area School District Superintendent Brian Troop said.
The U.S. Department of Education on Monday announced it would not be waiving the federal standardized test requirement as it did last year, despite social distancing, remote learning and student and staff quarantines still wreaking havoc on the nationâs schools due to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, the department issued guidance to states, allowing them to either extend the testing window to the summer or fall, shorten the tests or admi
Fourteen-year-old Claire Miller is charged with homicide after police say she stabbed her older sister, Helen, in the early morning hours of Monday, Feb. 22.Â
Miller, who has been charged as an adult, is one of the youngest accused killers in Lancaster County since 1976.Â
Hereâs everything we know - and donât know - about what happened so far.Â
This story will be updated as details become available.
What happened after Claire Miller called police?
Officers with Manheim Township Police Department responded to the home in the 1500 block of Clayton Road just after 1 a.m. for a reported stabbing. Responding officers were told that a girl, later identified as Claire Miller, was âhystericalâ on the phone and said she âkilled her sister,â according to the criminal complaint.Â
I stabbed my sister : 14-year-old Manheim Twp girl charged with homicide: DA s office [update] lancasteronline.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lancasteronline.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
If you thought being a public school superintendent is tough, try being a superintendent during a pandemic. In your first year. In a poor, underfunded school district with high administrative turnover.
Thatâs the situation Ashley Rizzo, who took over as Columbia Borough School District superintendent in January, finds herself in.
Columbia, Lancaster Countyâs smallest school district, has the second-highest percentage of low-income students in the county. School funding advocates say itâs chronically underfunded. And Rizzo, 36, the former principal at Wickersham Elementary School in the School District of Lancaster, represents Columbiaâs eighth superintendent change in 15 years.
Despite the challenges in front of her at Columbia, Rizzo, in an interview with LNP | LancasterOnline Friday, said sheâs already come to appreciate the small, urban school district and its community.