A Dallas City Council ordinance passed Wednesday allows cameras to be installed on 1,700 Dallas County school buses to catch the scofflaws.

Officials say child safety is their main concern.

Dallas County Schools proposed the initiative two years ago and installed cameras on six buses during a one-month study. The study found that one to 10 drivers illegally pass a stopped bus during each bus trip.

Dallas County Schools board president Larry Duncan says the study’s findings were a “nightmare” given that 60,000 students ride daily buses.

The Dallas Morning News reports the program’s backers expect the anticipated fines to cover the camera’s installation cost.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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Lon Morris College (Credit: LonMorris.edu)

Lon Morris College, a private junior college based in Jacksonville, laid off all but a ‘minimal core group’ of eleven employees Wednesday morning.

The school, affiliated with the United Methodist Church, has struggled financially of late, and has hired a consulting group to help restructure.  The school has missed payroll three times recently, according to the email sent to all employees.

The email stated the employees had been terminated, and ordered all employees to turn in any and all property belonging to the school.   The email also told employees vacation time had been extinguished and health insurance plans would be cancelled due to lack of premium payments.

The school later called the moves ‘furloughs’ but failed to say when and if how many employees would be rehired.

The email states the consulting group will make an assessment on how to handle the college’s financial situation by the third week of June, and said Lon Morris College planned to be open in time for fall classes ‘in the absence of information to the contrary.’

Amid news of the move, college president Miles McCall submitted his resignation to the Lon Morris board of trustees, saying the restructuring would be easier if he were to step down.

The email does not address what will happen to current students of the 2-year school.  CBSDFW reached out to Dallas’ Southern Methodist University and Fort Worth’s Texas Wesleyan University to see if the similarly-aligned Methodist colleges would be making provisions for students of Lon Morris College.  Both schools have yet to respond.

All three schools are listed as being under the umbrella of The United Methodist Church of North Texas.  The church also has affiliated colleges in Austin, Georgetown, Abilene and Marshall.

Many Lon Morris alumni in North Texas were surprised by the news.  Former student Elliott Sullivan of Rockwall called the news shocking.  “I had no idea the school was even doing poorly financially.”  Sullivan added many alumni are closely connected through social networking, but none had previously addressed the school’s troubles.

According to the school website, Lon Morris College was founded in 1854.  It is currently the oldest junior college in Texas, and lists itself as the oldest chartered two-year college west of the Mississippi River.

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – More than 200 jobs will be eliminated by the Fort Worth Independent School District under a plan aimed at trimming an anticipated $41 million budget shortfall, district officials announced Tuesday.

No teachers will be affected by the 213 layoffs, but 56 teachers assistants, 21 library clerks and seven physical education assistants will be let go.

“We understand there is a lot of anxiety about the state funding crisis and its impact on our district,” Superintendent Walter Dansby said in a prepared news release. “This continues to be a grave concern. However, through careful budgeting and realignment of resources, we believe we have a plan that will best serve our instructional needs of Fort Worth ISD students.”

School officials said as many as 84 employees will be laid off in the next few weeks. The rest — 219 positions — are currently vacant and will be eliminated.

The announcement late Tuesday continues a trend of staff reductions over the past two years for the cash-strapped district, which has cut 133 central office positions and more than 251 campus positions in the past two years — many of those by eliminating vacant positions.

“Over the past week, a group of district administrators representing every division and department has been working together — in the same room over long hours — to review each school’s master schedule to ensure efficiencies and meet student needs,” Dansby said. “As a result of this effort we believe we are going to maximize how we utilize existing faculty and hire from the outside.”

The job cuts will face a final vote of approval by the school board in June.

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(credit: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) – When classes resume in the fall, Texas schools must have policies in place to deal with students who have food allergies.

Senate Bill 27 requires all public schools and open-enrollment charter schools to have polices in place to care for students with food allergies at risk for anaphylaxis or an exaggerated and potential life-threatening allergic reaction.

“Interestingly we’re seeing an increase in all types of allergic disease, so we’re seeing asthma, more allergic rhinitis, [and] more allergies, Dr. Drew Bird, Director of the Food Allergy Center at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, explained. “So, we don’t know what really is the exact cause behind why we’re seeing more now than we used to.”

According to Mary Jane Marchisotto, Executive Director of the Food Allergy Initiative, between 16- and 18-percent of food allergy reactions happen in schools.

“About one in 13 kids in the U.S. may have a food allergy,” Bird said. “So that’s about two kids in every classroom.”

The new statewide guidelines will require training for educators and staff.

“It teaches school personnel how to recognize anaphylaxis, how to develop emergency action plans for specific students, but also how to treat kids who may be undiagnosed,” Bird explained.

According to published research, a food allergy reaction sends someone to the hospital every three minutes.

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DALLAS (CBS 11 NEWS) – New Dallas Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles’ outline for restructuring the school system has central goals, he said today.

“It’s about making sure that we have the structure that will allow us to improve the quality of instruction, and raise student achievement”.

Miles released his official plan of action, known as Destination 2020 to school board trustees last week.

Included in that plan is a division known as School Leadership. Under the plan, all current top-level supervisors, including learning community executive directors, must apply and interview for newly developed positions.

Miles said today some of those employees would indeed be hired. “We’re going to rehire several of them. You’ll find a number of them have been rehired.”

But Miles’ plan for the DISD is anything but a carbon copy of past initiatives.

“I can’t talk about previous superintendents. I don’t know what they were doing and I don’t know how they operated,” Miles said of his direction. “I think you have to look at my past and see that when we say we’re gonna do something in our action plan we follow through.”

One change from previous administrations, Miles may move away from the DISD trend of recruiting bilingual educators.

Former Superintendent Michael Hinojosa expanded bilingual teacher presence, due to the growing limited English-speaking student population.

Miles said he values bilingual teachers, but said there’s an exception.

“If you’re not a good teacher, but you speak Spanish, we don’t want you. Our kids don’t need you”.

For now, Miles is working in a consultant capacity. His first official day on the job is July 1.

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Claiborne had been transporting children to school for six years as bus driver. She had worked for Durham Transport Services for 10 months before she was fired in April.  Now she’s speaking out to clear her name.

On April 20, Claiborne was taking children to David Walker Intermediate School in the Crowley ISD when the bus broke down. The bus was just blocks away from where many of the children live.

“I said, ‘Call your parents to see if they are at home so they can come pick you all up so you won’t be late for school,” said Claiborne.

But students and parents told CBS 11 a different story.

At the time, Chonda Johnson and her son Achiles said Claiborne had ordered more than 30 kids off the bus.

“When I came around the corner, kids were just everywhere, just on the streets doing whatever they wanted to do,” said Johnson.

But Claiborne disputes that saying, ”Why would I want to tell a whole bunch of kids that’s on my bus, ‘Just get off the bus!’”

Claiborne said several parents and family members showed up, some of whom volunteered to drive other students to school.

She later transported the remaining students to school after a mechanic arrived to fix the bus.

While all the kids were accounted for, Durham Transport Services determined she violated policy by allowing students off the bus and she was fired.

“I thought it was unjustified because I didn’t think I did anything wrong,” she said.

Now unemployed, Claiborne said she never intended to put the children in harm’s way and wants to clear her name.

“I’m not this heartless person that they are making me out to be,” she said. “I miss the kids. Yes, I do.”

Family photos captured the normal, happy life of Angie Ng.  “My family loved each other so much.”

The 18-year-old McKinney North High School student has an acceptance letter to Baylor and a prestigious Bill Gates scholarship waiting for her after graduation.

But her journey has been anything but easy.

“I definitely had a lot of moments of being down by it… I have nights where I just grieve about them.”

When she was 15, Angie lost her mother in a car wreck, weeks later she lost her father to cancer.

“I just remember being completely numb by it,” she told CBS 11. “It’s something that I’m getting through, and I think it times it can be a little tough.”

Angie was left without a legal guardian.   Even though she had relatives elsewhere, she wanted to finish school in McKinney.   That’s where a classmate’s family entered the picture.

“We’ve been best friends since 7th grade,” said Mackenzie Schulien, who went from sharing school supplies with Angie to sharing parents.

“She proposed the idea of staying in McKinney by living together and having her parents as my legal guardians,” said Angie.

“It was kind of a no brainer that we were going to offer,” said Mackenzie.  “We love her too much no to.”

That love gave Angie the stability to stay in school and not only earn a diploma but do so with honors.

“None of this was handed to her, she worked hard for it,” said Tammi Saffell, Angie’s advisor at McKinney North. “Anybody would understand for her to go off the deep end or to go the wrong direction with what she’s been through.”

“I actually ended up getting through a lot of the grieving by focusing on other things like school,” said Angie.

With her senior year winding down, Angie Ng has a smile as bright as her future, and will be the pride of two families on graduation day.

“It’s going to sound sort of like heaven to people who are non-horn players. The more horns you have, the better it sounds,” said Dr. Bill Scharnberg, UNT Regent Professor of Music. “So when you get a thousand horn players, it’s going to sound perfect to the outside listener.”

KRLD’s Steven Pickering Reports:

Download: 10J47_3.MP3

Hundreds of French horn players are already on the University of North Texas campus for the “International Horn Symposium”. It’s a chance for them to learn from some of the best players in the world, including some that have a unique approach to the instrument that’s normally found in classical music.

“Probably the furthest person to travel is Arkady Shilkloper from Russia, who is a well-known jazz horn player,” Dr. Scharnberg said. “There are about a half-dozen horn players in the world that call themselves jazz horn players. Arkady’s probably the best known in the horn world. He’s very entertaining. He can play an hour by himself with just horn and foot pedals. He can play two horns at once, Alp horn and horn, it’s just amazing.”

He’s performing with the school’s world-famous One O’clock Lab Band on Friday, May 18.

On Saturday at 5:30pm, the players at the symposium will gather in the middle of campus for an attempt to set the new world record. Dr. Scharnberg hopes to attract some local musicians as well. “I hope to have maybe 500 to 1,000 Texas horn players here in addition to the 400 or 500 guests from around the world,” he said, “so we hope to get into the Guinness Book of World Records.” The current official record for the largest French horn ensemble is 85.

Christopher Gillette also was sentenced to 10 years of probation for making a threat in class while attending Texas Woman’s University. The March 1, 2011, incident led to a lockdown of the Denton campus. Gillette was later arrested at a Veterans Affairs hospital in Dallas.

Prosecutors say Gillette threatened U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess in a previous letter complaining about not getting enough medical help. Authorities say Gillette was injured in military training accidents and had lingering pain.

The Denton Record-Chronicle reported Thursday that Gillette was convicted this month of making a terroristic threat that would impair public or government service. His prison time and probation will be served concurrently.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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Commissioner Raymund Paredes told the Senate Education Committee that while the state is demanding more from children, school teachers don’t have the training they need.

His statement set off a debate among senators on what the state needed to do. Paredes told the committee that national and international studies show recruiting top college students to enter teaching was the important first step. Then offering the best teacher training and paying them well are the next steps.

Last year the Republican-controlled Legislature cut $4 billion in spending for public schools, the first such cut since World War II. That has forced school districts to lay-off teachers across the state.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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The Eagle of Bryan-College Station reports the site accountability.tamu.edu gathers data already public available in one place.

Accountability was the center of a public feud between A&M and the University of Texas at Austin on one side and the Texas Public Policy Foundation on the other. The conservative think tank close to Gov. Rick Perry produced a series of tenets it called “seven breakthrough solutions” that generated a backlash from university alumni and academics. The foundation issued a report that reduced a faculty member’s value to a financial figure, listed in red or black.

Critics called the findings inaccurate. The Eagle reports the website contains no such figures.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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Jail records show 26-year-olds Joshua and Christy Ruiz, plus 21-year-old Moses Ruiz, remained in custody Friday. The parents have been charged with child endangerment. Police say Joshua Ruiz and Moses Ruiz are accused of distribution of a controlled substance.

The arrests came after officers were notified by the charter school that the boy was seen playing with the bag Wednesday.

Bond for Christy Ruiz has been set at $100,000. Her husband is jailed on $600,000 bond. Bond has been set at $100,000 for Moses Ruiz. Online records did not list attorneys for them.

The 4-year-old boy and his 5-year-old sibling have been placed with Child Protective Services.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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GRAND PRAIRIE (CBSDFW.COM) - Students at South Grand Prairie High School have worked for months collecting donations for a classmate who has a passion for hot rods and trucks. Gage Oakley is a cancer survivor, but it has been a tough road. The 15-year-old was first diagnosed with cancer at the age of 2. He recovered from that cancer. But at the age of 14, doctors at Children’s Medical Center Dallas discovered a more aggressive type of cancer in his left leg.

Pediatric oncologist Dr. Victor Aquino treated Oakley when he was diagnosed with cancer as a toddler. Aquino said that Oakley did well “until about a year ago when, unfortunately, he developed the cancer in his leg called osteosarcoma. And the treatment for that was to have his leg amputated, as well as to receive chemotherapy.”

Oakley’s left leg was amputated last year. He wears a prosthetic leg which he was fitted for at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas.

Oakley’s mother, Holli, said that her son first wanted to know if his 1977 Ford pickup truck could be converted from standard to automatic. That is when a group of students at South Grand Prairie High School came up with the idea of making that happen. “This is his one true love” said Jessica Herrera, a student at South Grand Prairie High School. “Like most kids have football as their true love, I think his true love is his truck.”

Many of Oakley’s friends were at the hospital with him during his many stays for treatment and the amputation surgery. Logan Bunyea is Oakley’s best friend. “He’s a kid that never gives up,” said Bunyea. “He’s a kid that, when it comes to the point where he feels like he’s down, he turns to God and it keeps him safe. And hope in his heart.”

In December of last year, Oakley turned his 35-year-old truck over to Grand Prairie Ford, and students collected donations. They raised more than $4,800 and, on Saturday, Oakley will get his truck back. It no longer has a stick shift. The clutch is buried under the floorboard carpet. It is now an automatic, and Oakley will take it for a ride after its presented to him at the school campus.

“I’ve always liked classic cars and trucks and hot rods,” said Oakley.

All of the attention is a little overwhelming, but Oakley said that he is appreciative of what his friends have done. “I’m grateful,” he said.

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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Hundreds of health-conscious kids will take part in a community expo at TCU on Saturday that highlights the benefits of an active lifestyle. It is part of the Kids in the Kitchen program, which was started six years ago by the Junior League of Fort Worth.

This year, two Fort Worth elementary schools are participating — McLean 6th Grade Center and North Hi Mount Elementary. “We, like, learn how to drink a lot of water,” said McLean student Maggie Hurst, “and how to make that choice instead of soda.”

The entire school is taking part in Kids in the Kitchen, a nationwide program that empowers children to be healthy. “We’re teaching them to make healthy lifestyle choices,” said Lisa Ferrand with the Junior League of Fort Worth. “Today, it can be found at about 200 communities in North America, representing one of the largest grassroots efforts to fight childhood obesity.”

As part of the program, the students have two 10-day challenges; one focuses on drinking more water and the other focuses on adding exercise. “If they drink eight glasses of water, we put a sticker by their name,” said McLean student Ricky Escobedo, “and if they walk 10,000 steps, then they get another sticker by Wild Walk.”

There’s also a three-day challenge that takes into account what the kids eat. It’s called ‘Junk the Junk,’ and it challenges kids to give up junk food and soda in exchange for healthy foods like fruits and vegetables.

But a healthier body isn’t the only benefit to the program. “Every time they complete a challenge, their name goes in a drawing for sports equipment that they can take home,” said McLean principal Laura Stegall.

The program’s goal is to reverse the childhood obesity trend in America, one student and one community at a time. “Childhood obesity is one of the largest issues we have today. It is also one of the most costly,” Ferrand said.

“They were also challenged to involve the family in the challenges,” Stegall added, “to make a healthy lifestyle choice for their families as well.”

“It’s kind of healthy for the whole school,” Escobedo said, “and it could affect your whole family.”

Sixth grader Lilli Ingram doesn’t find the challenges too difficult. “It’s pretty easy,” she said of the 10,000-step challenge, “because we rotate a lot in classes and I have basketball and sports.”

The program will conclude this weekend with a health expo at TCU, of which both schools will participate. The event is open to the public.

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – A U.S. Census report out Thursday shows the changing make up of our nation.

For the first time ever, most newborns in the United States are minorities.
 Non-Hispanic whites still hold the lead, over any other individual racial group, with 49.6 percent of all births.

Collectively, though, minority groups have finally tipped the scales. The U.S. Census reports Hispanics and Asians have seen the biggest increases in population.

At the Dallas Independent School District, the report comes as no surprise. Ninety-five percent of its students are minorities. About two-thirds of students are Hispanic.

“It’s been a dramatic shift,” said Hector Flores, the executive director for the Association of Hispanic School Administrators. ”The objective should be for public policy makers to think about how we’re going to educate the children that will be the workforce of the future.”

Flores, has urged the state government to better fund public schools to close the education gap minorities face. Minorities appear more likely to drop out of high school and less likely to make it through college.

Flores, though, believes there are solutions, like providing better programs for students who aren’t proficient in English and creating a more diverse leadership within the district to reflect its student populations.

“We want to make sure these kids get all the education they can,” he said. “It enhances the local quality of life in communities when you have an educated electorate – an educated population. It’s to the benefit of America and everyone.”

DENTON (CBSDFW.COM) - The economy is set to be an important issue in this year’s presidential election. From ups and downs on Wall Street to global money meltdowns, everyone is focused on finances. But even those who are not old enough to vote are learning to manage their cash. “You can tell, by how the economy is going, how the future’s going to be,” explained Denton High School junior Alex Wright. “So, from my perspective, I like knowing about it.”

Juniors and seniors in Wright’s economics class are immersed in the issue. High school students are being taught the basics of economics, but some studies show that the internet generation may be able to better understand the topic by going online — specifically the world of online gaming. New games like “Beat the Market Online,” “World Game of Economics” and even “SimCity” are reaching children on a different level.

Some experts believe that these online games are a much more effective teaching tool. “Just going up and lecturing about these basic concepts is not going to do it,” said Dr. Steven Cobb with the UNT Center for Economic Education.

Cobb explained that this generation of students is more interested in money and the economy than previous ones. And with the internet being such a integral part of their everyday lives, learning about economics through online gaming feels natural. “It gives them a basic exposure to some really important economic concepts in an environment that doesn’t seem like school,” Cobb said.

“More kids, they don’t go home and study,” Wright explained. “They go home and play video games. So, if you made a video game out of it, I can see where more people would play it and learn better from playing it.”

It is a new method of teaching that, experts think, will yield benefits for a future generation of consumers. “We’re visual learners,” said Denton High School senior Carrie Pena. “We like video games and we like doing anything else but being in school.”

But Cobb also warned that a potential drawback to such video game learning is that the games do not provide an adequate debriefing opportunity, a process that allows students to make correct assessments about their economic decisions.

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CEDAR HILL (CBSDFW.COM) – Seniors at Cedar Hill’s Collegiate High School are anxious to begin exploring careers.

And why shouldn’t they be? Fifty-one of the seniors have already received their Associates Degrees from Cedar Valley College –– three weeks before high school graduation.

“I want to wear it on my sleeve,” says a laughing Kevelyn Rose. “Have a name tag that says ‘college graduate;’ but I think that’d be too much.”

These hard working students have already looked at the rising costs of four-year college degrees and are delighted that they’ve cut that expense in half by completing coursework while still living at home.

“I have a big family,” says Ashley McCloud. ”Getting two years free was a big plus for my family.”

Brittany Sherrill is headed to Texas A & M University to study chemical engineering. She says attending the Collegiate High School makes her feel more prepared.

“I feel like I’ve got a head start,” she said.

Sherrill also says that having two years of college coursework already completed will cut down on the amount of student loan debt she’ll incur.

And economists say students are wise to be wary of excessive student loan debt –– advice that comes too late for many. Over the past decade, the amount of outstanding student loan debt has increased a whopping 600 percent, approaching an eye popping $1 trillion.

“That’s second only to mortgage debt in terms of all the money we owe to financial institutions,” says Bernard Weinstein, an economist at SMU’s Cox School of Business. ”In fact, it’s greater than all of the consumer debt outstanding. Are we setting ourselves up for another financial crisis?”

Weinstein says only time will tell. But, in Cedar Hill, dozens of college-educated high school seniors have already learned that time really is money, and they’ve saved a bundle of both.

“So basically, I’m already coming in as a junior,” says graduating senior and future film student Desmond Jackson. ”I can already go into my major classes and I’m just super excited. I cannot wait. The money I’m saving is awesome as well.”

Cedar Hill’s Collegiate High seniors will graduate from high school on June 2.

The accident happened around 7:30 a.m. in a parking lot at Haltom High School.

“The student darted out from behind a dumpster or something back in the teacher parking lot and was struck,” explained Birdville ISD spokesman Mark Thomas.

The student suffered head injuries.

“But there’s no serious injuries. They did transport him,” Thomas said. “The paramedics think that it might be a concussion.”

The teacher driving the vehicle wasn’t hurt.

“We’re thankful,” Thomas said. “Anytime you have a person in a car accident you hate that, so we’re very thankful it wasn’t more serious.”

Police are investigating the incident.

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - A new study by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) found that one in four 12th grade students got drunk in the last month, and Texas leads the nation in drunk driving crashes and fatalities. With prom season now underway, there is a strong push to keep teens from drinking and getting behind the wheel.

Renee Varela lost her son to an underage drunk driver. Anthony Varela was in the midst of looking for a career. He loved music and had just spoken with a military recruiter. It has been two years since Anthony’s death, but Renee said that the pain is still raw. “They had a green light,” she said. “An underage 19-year-old drunk driver, two times over the limit, was going 80 mph. Ran the red light and hit the vehicle my son was in.”

That crash happened at the intersection of Bruton Road and Buckner Boulevard, in the Pleasant Grove area of Dallas. Word quickly spread, and one of Anthony’s closest friends told Renee about the terrible wreck.

Renee stood face-to-face with the drunk driver in court. Aldo Valderrama pleaded guilty to intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault, and Renee remembers how he trembled. “I felt bad for him,” she said, “because he was alone. And they were going to sentence him that day, and he had no family members with him.”

Valderrama received a 12-year and 10-year prison sentence to be served concurrently.

“He’s going to get out and be able to have a girlfriend, wife, kids,” said Renee. “That’s something I’m never going to get from my son.”

But the Dallas mom is now reaching out to make sure that other teens make it home safely. She wants others who drink and drive to know about the tough decisions that her family had to make after Anthony’s death — like whether or not to donate his organs. “Knowing my son the way that I knew him, he loved to help people,” Renee said. “So, I knew that’s what he would have wanted to do.”

Five months after Anthony’s death, Renee got to meet Eric Ford, the man who received her son’s heart and kidney. And Renee listened to that heart beat again. Anthony Varela’s organs, skin, tissue and bones helped keep a total of 114 people alive and well. Now, his mother hopes to save the lives of even more people.

Renee reaches out to anyone who is willing to hear her story, especially at graduation time, when many underage people decide to drink. “I just want them to know that drinking, even though people may tell them that it’s fun and stuff like that, it’s very dangerous,” Renee said. “And I wouldn’t want anybody to have to bury their child like I had to bury mine.”

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The ‘Talk About It’ communications service will allow students to anonymously notify or seek help from school staff members about concerns, campus dangers or threats.

To appeal to students, there are various ways to communicate.

“You can not only call or email, you can also text,” Irving ISD Press Secretary Billy Rudolph explained. “A lot of the kids today like to use text as a method of communication, so they can do that and a counselor or administrator on the other end can get back to them and try to help them with their problem.”

Students can leave or send a one-time message or start a dialogue with a school leader, either way Rudolph says, “We’re gonna try and respond within 24 hours. They will text them back and let them know that we’re here to help and if they want to have further communication they can.”

Administrators hope the electronic communication system will reduce the stigma associated with seeking adult assistance with a problem and ‘no snitching’ mentality with students.

“Whether it’s bullying or they know that someone’s got drugs on the campus, or something that they just want someone to listen to them anonymously, so they don’t feel embarrassed or whatever they might feel if they divulge their name,” Rudolph said.

Administrators hope to have the program up and running by August.

The Irving ISD serves more than 34,000 students in 38 schools and learning centers.

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Students celebrate during their graduation ceremony. (credit: Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (CBS NEWS) - Higher education could help people in more ways besides finding a job. A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found educated Americans are less likely to be obese and suffer from chronic diseases, compared to those with less education.

The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics released its 35th annual report on health in the United States on Wednesday, which compiled data from government and private sector resources on Americans’ health habits.

This year’s edition spotlighted the role socioeconomic status has in determining a person’s health. It found between 2007 and 2010, heads of households with a bachelor’s degree or more were less likely to have obese children, with rates around 11 percent for boys and 7 percent for girls. Meanwhile, in households where the head holds a high school education or less, 24 percent of boys and 22 percent of girls were obese.

Click Here To Read More From CBS News

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Packed cannabis at a growing facility. (Photo by Uriel Sinai/Getty Images)

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Is marijuana addictive? A University of Texas at Dallas professor is preparing to launch a $2 million grant-funded study to get a more conclusive answer to that question.

Dr. Francesca Filbey already has a history of studying addiction. In an informative Q&A on UTD’s Center for Brain Health website, Filbey says her passion is studying brain changes that often lead to addictive behavior.

In past studies, mostly at her former post at the University of New Mexico, Filbey says she’s found proof some pot users are dependent upon the drug and wants to further study its effects upon the brain.

“It isn’t as addictive as alcohol, for instance, but 10 percent of the population –– or, of people who use marijuana –– actually do end up becoming addicted and carrying the diagnosis of dependence,” she said.

Her past studies showed proof that some individuals had a genetic predisposition to marijuana addiction, Filbey said.

A variance in a gene that affects the development of the portion of the brain that THC, the active chemical in marijuana, latches onto is different in some users, the professor said.

Her past studies have found that some people are simply more susceptible to the rewarding effects of marijuana than others. This study, she says, will hope to further research why that is and what factors determine it.

“Initiation is usually in adolescence when the brain is developing rapidly,” Filbey said. “And when changes occur to the brain they could be long-lasting.”

The study needs 100 “chronic, heavy” marijuana users and another 100 nonusers. Filbey said the marijuana users are anonymous and will not be charged with a crime.

“We’ve also received a certificate of confidentiality from the National Institute of Health, which protects each individual from any legal consequences,” Filbey said.

Participants will undergo brain imaging while researchers show them marijuana triggers, such as paraphernalia like pipes. From here, researchers will “examine the neural mechanisms of craving.”

Funding for the research came from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which offers grants for professors wishing to study how drugs affect the brain.

Filbey said anyone wishing to participate in the study should contact the university’s Center for Brain Health at 214.905.3007.

DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - He has not officially taken the reins just yet, but incoming Dallas Independent School District superintendent Mike Miles is making big changes — starting at the top. The DISD has announced that it will be restructuring leadership staff, which means that dozens of positions will be eliminated.

The announcement said that restructuring means “changes in the direction and changes in how the district operates.”

The plan — called Destination 2020 — calls for the restructuring of 80 positions in the district’s school leadership division. Those spots will be scaled down to just 36 new positions. All employees will “have the opportunity to apply for the positions created under the new plan.” Many of the jobs that are being eliminated are currently vacant — positions that were never filled as past administrators left the district.

A notice for DISD employees and the community said that 20 executive director positions will be posted. Those individuals will provide support to principals in the district’s feeder patterns.

The restructuring takes effect on June 30. Miles officially becomes the district’s superintendent in July.

“There is no better time for change to take place,” Miles explained. “As the end of the school year approaches, it makes sense to reorganize now, so that there is as much time as possible to focus on improving the quality of instruction, raising student achievement and supporting the culture and climate of each school in Dallas ISD.”

CBS 11 News also spoke with Miles about his plans just after he was selected as the district’s new superintendent. In an April 27 interview, Miles said that his first order of business would be hiring a first-rate cabinet. “We’re looking for an HR chief. We’re looking for a chief academic officer. We’re looking for a chief talent officer,” Miles said. “We’re looking for people who are very efficient at their jobs and have kids on their mind.”

More information about the restructuring plan can be found on the DISD’s website.

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Aaron Kotamarti loves the guitar and Jimi Hendrix.

His affection for the psychedelic rock era is no testament to his age. Kotamarti is 17 years old.  But age has never been an issue for him.

At 15, Kotamarti began attending college at the University of Texas at Dallas. This week, he will graduate with an electrical engineering degree.

Kotamarti is one of the youngest college grads in North Texas. “It’s just fun”, he says. “I’m sure most think it’s hard. But it’s just fun to me”, he explains.

Kotamarti attended a college-themed high school by the age of 13.  The school sits on the campus of Richland College. Within one year, he had accumulated enough credits to receive an Associates Degree.

His brother was also an early college attendee, so Kotamarti followed his lead.  “It’s not easy. It’s hard work. But I really liked math,” he said.

Kotamarti’s college instructor, Dr. Murat Torlak, said he had no idea Kotamarti was not old enough to vote or drive until the student missed an evening work session.

“I said, what do you mean? He doesn’t drive? They [students] said no, he’s 16,” the instructor recalled.

Kotamarti plans to become a physician and medical researcher.  But medical school is down the road.  He’s already enrolled in Graduate School at UTD, and also plans to complete another Bachelors program.

His secret for such success at a young age:  “Hard work and dedication,” he said. “With those two things, you can accomplish great things.”

Perry said Tuesday that UT regents will decide the performance of Bill Powers, who recently criticized the board for freezing tuition at the state’s flagship campus for most students the next two years.

Asked whether he was satisfied with Powers, Perry said “I got a state to run” and added that he isn’t focused on one campus.

Perry did say the tuition freeze sent a “good message” about not raising college costs. He made the remarks while praising a $10,000 bachelor’s degree offered at Texas A&M University-San Antonio.

The UT system chancellor has denied that regents told him to fire Powers.

(© Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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The United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and Texas Instruments hosted the CEO Volunteer Event.

The ‘STEM in the Schoolyard’ project was meant to encourage volunteerism on all levels and focus on critical education issues.

Chairman, president and chief executive officer of Texas Instruments, Rich Templeton, explained what STEM stands for.

Break up the four letters and it’s science, technology, engineering and math. The idea behind it is pretty simple,” he said. “In a technologically more sophisticated world, on a daily basis, having young people and the leaders of the future with a solid grounding in STEM background is really critical to the competitiveness of society and the country.”

According to the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas, in 2007, some 4,000 state math and science teachers left the classroom and 40-percent of science teachers in the lowest-performing schools were assigned out-of-field.

During the STEM in the Schoolyard event more than 40 top CEOs and other volunteers worked side-by-side with fifth-graders at Gabe P. Allen Charter School.

The idea was, “To put the focus on science and math experiments,” Templeton explained.

With hands-on help from area businesspeople, including Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, students rotated through STEM learning stations.

“We’ve got a bunch of neat things that will be going on today, relative to building catapults or building calculators, different solar ovens. They have teams that have designed some pretty neat things.”

The United Way has put in place a plan that they hope “make meaningful and measurable improvements in the lives of people in our community over the next 10 years.” Part of that plan includes a goal of increasing the number of students ready for success after high school by 50-percent.

With American high school students ranked almost last in mathematics and physics the need for public school instruction is being magnified.

Speaking about the academic performance of students in the United States and the adults teaching them Templeton said, “I think somewhere along the lines you know when we think about the basics, and that is the basics of really math and science, it really comes down to — do you have the right teachers in the right places that are comfortable with those two subjects.”

United Way of Metropolitan Dallas CEO Jennifer Sampson said simply, “When you have fundamental knowledge in math and science, you’re able to solve problems and think critically—two things we definitely want for our community’s youngest minds.”

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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – TCU is trying to light the imaginations of some fourth graders.

Hundreds of students sat in a science building auditorium Monday with lights dimmed. On the stage, a TCU chemistry professor promised the kids that even though there was no visible evidence of chemicals in a long glass tube there were, indeed, chemicals there.

To prove it, she lit the end of the tube.

Whooosh! A large column of flame shot from the tube rolled in the air and dissipated.

“Whoa!” the students all exclaimed in unison before they began cheering loudly.

The students were from Sycamore Elementary in Crowley and they were at TCU to specifically visit the chemistry department. The goal was to reveal the fun of science and encourage and interest in the field. It was also, though, to reveal the possibilities of attending college.

From the auditorium, the students divided into groups and headed to classrooms. Using various polymers, the students were given small flasks and water to mix with powders and crystals.

The goal of this is experiment isn’t just to show the transformational effects of polymers, but to prove no one has to set limits to their learning.

“Keep going!” the college professor encouraged the students as they stirred a green mixture in a flask. “Stir! Stir! Stir!

“We’re a Title 1 school,” said Julie Bair, a teacher at Sycamore Elementary. “70% (qualify for) free and reduced lunch. So, a lot of these kids need that to see, ‘I can go to college. College is still an option for me’.”

“I had teachers who did that with me who sparked that flame in me,” said Sandi Dang, a TCU chemistry and math student who recently was the Chemistry Club president. “So, I wanted to spark that earlier to bring up more interest.”

As the green liquid the students are stirring coagulates and become a green blob of Jello-like substance, its easy to see the science is engaging to the students.

“I think its pretty cool for kids like us to create a science experiment at a younger age,” one of the boys said.

10-year-old Keyauna Rice said she now wants to go to college, “Because I want to learn about things and have fun and get a career and stuff like that.”

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Two 17-year-old McKinney residents, Garrick White and Darius Hunter, along with two juveniles, are charged with Sexual Assault of a Child. The fifth underage suspect faces an Unlawful Restraint of a Child charge.

Prosper police say they began investigating allegations after Sexual Assault reports were filed.

Officials with Prosper police say the investigation is ongoing and they expect more charges to be filed in the case.

Hunter’s mother, Lanika McClinton, was also arrested Monday morning while taking her son to school. She was charged with driving without a valid license, and bonded out after posting a less than $400 bond.

The 17-year-old Hunter didn’t say a word as he walked out of the Collin County Jail Monday. “He’s certainly shaken. He’s a 17-year-old kid, and most important for us was to get him out of jail as quickly as possible,” said his attorney, Todd Shapiro.

Hunter is the son of Los Angeles Angels outfielder Torii Hunter.

Angels manager Mike Scioscia said Hunter left the team, and was placed on the team’s Restricted List, but refused to say how long Hunter will be away from the club.

“It’s a personal matter,” Scioscia said. “We’re going to go day-to-day, and we’ll just see where it is. That’s all I’m going to say.”

Hunter flew back to California with the Angels on Sunday night from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where they faced the Rangers last weekend. But Hunter left Angel Stadium several hours before Monday’s game against the Oakland Athletics.

“This is very tough for a father,” Hunter tweeted after leaving Angel Stadium. “Thanks for ur prayers and support. Be Blessed everyone.”

As for the Hunter family, Shapiro says, “They’re devastated. Everybody’s very upset. He’s got a very bright future — still does. He’s a very good student, a very good athlete.”

Torii Hunter sat out Sunday’s game, but would have been in the Angels’ lineup Monday night, Scioscia said.

Darius Hunter was released Monday evening on a $15,000 bond. White remains in the Colin County Jail. Prosper police say they expect more charges to be filed in this case.

5 Young People Charged In Prosper Sex Assaultview gallery

(The Associated Press contributed to this report)

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DUNCANVILLE (CBSDFW.COM) - Proper dress can by a “knotty” problem for growing boys, but a Duncanville middle school is offering special mentoring in a male rite of passage: tying a necktie.

It’s a program called “Tying for Success,” and these Reed Middle schoolers see a future in cultivating the cravat.

“I kept trying and trying until I got it right,” said 13-year-old Jason McLin. “I know I’m going to have to know if I go on a job interview or something.”

And 12-year-old Jacob Mejia sees the skill as critical to his future, too.

“If I ever wanted to go into business or go into TV that I would look professional with a tie in a suit,” he said.

While open neck shirts may be the current rage, these young men and their counselor are betting that the necktie will once again provide the finishing touch in a proper fashion statement.

“The trick is getting it leveled and dimples in the biggest part,” says 13-year-old Anthony Limbrick. He sort of inherited his interest. “ I first saw a tie being tied by my father; and I was so interested in how to do it, but every time I learned I’d forget.”

And his proud papa looked on as the program finished a project he started years earlier.

“He worked kind of hard at it and Anthony’s always liked to wear suits,” the elder Limbrick told CBS 11 News. “The most important people wear ties.”

There’s extra incentive at the course’s end, as school counselor Terrence Chase told the program participants.

“Your reward is, one, the certificate, and two, you get to pick out any brand new tie that you want. okay? and it’s for yours to keep,” he said.

Chase grew up without a male figure around and says this is something guys need to teach other guys.

“It gives them confidence, one, that they can achieve something and they can do something and that when they do grow up, one day, to get a job–they can look professional and land that position they want,” Chase said.

There’s satisfaction of a task well learned…and more.

“When I go on a date I can have a tie,” announced 13-year-old Nicholas Peterson.

And that’s planning for the future, too.

COLLIN COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) – Nearly half of the students at one North Texas elementary school were out sick today.

An illness started spreading through Carroll Elementary in Frisco on Tuesday, and today 330 of the 700 students were absent.

Health officials say the culprit seems to be a “standard stomach bug.”

“Yesterday we had quite a large number of students out sick. So, we communicated to all the parents that we do have this virus being passed around,” school principal Melissa Longfellow said. “It seems to be a less than 24 hour virus but quite contagious and so a lot parents have chosen to keep their kids home today just as a precaution.”

Symptoms of the virus include nausea and diarrhea, but Sarah McKinney of the Denton County Health Department, said most sufferers are back to normal within two days.

But principal Longfellow admitted two days can seem like forever to the little ones.

“It’s really hard to see our sweet kids feeling so yucky and so we’re looking forward to everyone having the weekend to get over this so that we can all be back together on Monday,” she said.

For days now, the Carroll staff has been busy taking extra steps to prevent the spread of the virus and there will be additional cleaning at the school Saturday and Sunday.

“We’re bringing in extra cleaning crews,” Longfellow said. “We had them out Wednesday night, last night and then they’re going to steam clean and disinfect all carpets and surface areas this weekend.”

Sarah McKinney said if parents are concerned their child has brought the ‘bug’ home they should –

♦  Practice good hand washing skills
♦  Wipe down surfaces with bleach cleaner
♦  Keep kids home when they’re sick
♦  Call a doctor when you have health concerns

After 14 years as superintendent, Dr. Ray Braswell recently told the school board he is retiring. School Board President Mia Price says they discussed hiring an outside search firm like Dallas, but with the budget crunch and their deputy superintendent already in mind for the job that just didn’t make sense.

When asked about the reaction of parents to the decision to name the deputy superintendent as the lone finalist Price said, “I think everybody has been a little bit surprised. I don’t think anyone expected this. Our goal was not to have anybody worried about it, particularly during the STARR testing.”

Jamie Wilson, who gets his PhD from UNT this weekend, has been on what Price calls a 7-year job interview as the district’s No. 2. He most recently helped the school system deal with budget cuts brought on by a lack of state funding.

University of Texas Arlington graduate student Hung Cao kisses his son on the cheek shortly after he was born. He said this is where he got the idea to develop a sensor to help battle Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. (Credit: UTA)

ARLINGTON (CBSDFW.COM) – Gone are the days of audio and video-based baby monitors –– if University of Texas at Arlington researchers have their way.

They’ve secured a patent for a wireless sensor that detects carbon dioxide exhaled by sleeping babies. Parents can buy monitors that detect movement, but this device will directly tell the parent if their child stops breathing.

“If anything happens, for instance the baby stops breathing, the carbon dioxide concentration will vary, then the system will issue an alert through the wireless system to warn the parents,” said J.C. Chiao, an electrical engineering professor at UTA.

The sensors can be attached to a baby’s crib or car seat. Hung Cao, a doctorate student, came up with the idea after his son was born in 2006.

He said he remembers watching his baby shortly after he was born in the hospital.

“I didn’t see any equipment to monitor the baby, I said, ‘Why it’s like this? What happens if something suddenly happens with the baby and no one knows?,’” Cao said.

Christina Lara is a first-time mom. When her daughter Annabelle Grace was born, the family hurriedly invested in a pair of baby monitors.

“We got one that goes under the mattress that senses movement and we also got one that clips to her diaper that sense movement,” Lara said.

The Keller mother still wakes up four times a night to check on her baby girl –– the UTA sensors, she said, would help ease her concern.

“If I don’t hear her, I go and check on her and feel her and maybe poke her,” Lara said. “I think something like (the sensor) would be amazing; just that extra peace of mind to help you get rest would be worth it.”

To create the sensor, Chiao and Cao teamed up. They each said they believe their product can help lower the rate of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, or SIDS.  According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, SIDS happens unexpectedly mostly among children between two and four months old.

“It remains a significant cause of death in infants under one year old,” the government website says.

“If we can save just one baby and that baby can become the next Einstein or President of the United States, then we have done our jobs,” Chiao said.

The two researchers hope to have the device on the market in five years. It would cost about $100.

According to Arlington police, it appeared vandals used some type of club to damage windows, security camera equipment and computers at the school.

“There was significant damage to the windows,” Arlington PD Sgt. Christopher Cook explained. “It appeared that one of the suspect or suspects had a baseball bat, potentially used to knock out several of the windows.”

Arlington Independent School District spokeswoman Amy Casas said damage is significant.

“An individual came and shattered some windows, also did some damage in a portable building behind the school,” she said, “and apparently damaged some computers inside the building — the portable building.”

Given all the damage, there was something everyone noticed.

“It appears that nothing was stolen. Now, they’re [police and administrators] still going through the building and assessing, but at this time it appears that there was only damage,” Casas said.

The school has security surveillance and investigators are hoping to see images of the vandal/vandals.

“The suspect or suspects are at large,” Sgt. Cooks said. “We are reviewing surveillance video. Some of the cameras did capture a suspect on camera.”

Maintenance crews began cleaning up at the school before dawn and classes went on as usual.

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in every five American kids is obese, three times more than just 30 years ago. In a world of fast food restaurants and vending machines, a local company is trying to bring healthy alternatives to the community, starting with area schools.

At the Academy of Dallas Charter School, students love buying snacks from the vending machine. But these ones are a little bit different. “It’s like, good for you,” said student Jamie Lopez. “Helps you have more energy and helps us be healthy in school.”

School officials recently put the new vending machine in the cafeteria as part of a healthy eating initiative. “We have growing concerns about what our students are eating, with childhood obesity, juvenile diabetes,” explained Principal Ross Williams. “So, we wanted to bring something into the school that gets students moving and teaches them appropriate eating habits.”

Wallace Wright II and Lori Wright are the first franchise owners of Fresh Healthy Vending in Dallas County, the company offering these healthier vending machines. “When we installed the machine, we had a kid joke, ‘What’s going in there, apples and oranges?’ And we laughed,” Lori recalled, “because kids don’t realize when you snack, it’s still snacks, but it’s so healthy.”

The options are similar to what one might find in a more traditional vending machine. But unlike the unhealthy options, these alternatives have no artificial preservatives, colors or flavors. And the ingredients are all natural. “All organic, gluten-free products. All the products are just better for you,” said Wallace Wright II. “It’s going in schools, businesses all throughout the City of Dallas.”

“I think this will be huge for Dallas to have these options in our schools, hospitals, gyms,” added Lori Wright. “It’s just really important for our community.”

The new vending machines are already a hit with students, who realize that changing their eating habits now will have lasting benefits when they are older. “It’s actually better,” said Lopez.

“It also tastes really good,” said student Stephanie Fiscal. “My mom said the same thing, because I used to eat a lot of junk food. And she says if you start early, you won’t be able to stop later on.”

If students can drop bad habits now, replacing them with good ones, school officials are hopeful they will see a similar drop in obesity.

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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – Armed with what they say is their strongest weapon on Monday, community leaders turned to prayer. The community came together inside Mount Olive Baptist Church to combat a growing problem: Bullying.

“We are sick and tired of our young people dying,” said Mark Carter who is a church member and founder of Stop the Violence, Walk of Praise. “And not getting a full education in school.”

As a group of community leaders and parents spoke, a ninth grader sat in the back pews of the church and listened.

“I want it all to stop before it gets out of hand and before someone gets hurt,” says the 15-year-old, who didn’t want to be on camera nor use his name.

He did want to share his story –– the teen said he’s been bullied for the past two years.

“Kids being racists, pushing me, putting their hands on me,” he said. “It’s made me feel horrible; it’s made me feel depressed sometimes I don’t want to go to school at all I don’t want to face those kids.”

Carter insists the problem is homegrown, saying, “If the parents can help us at home with the kids, making sure they are on point when they leave home for school or church or even going to community store hopefully we can stop the violence.”

The group says they wanted to start the meetings inside the church because they hoped to get congregations involved. They want to start saying prayers for the families dealing with bullying.

Carter says they are working on a rally before school is out.

They hope to meet more families dealing with bullying and plan to work with those families this summer.

The man is just one of several North Texas teachers dealing with computer hackers and ruined reputations.

Larry Shaw, with the United Educators Association, says he is seeing a growing trend of teachers being impersonated online and students hacking into the Facebook and Twitter accounts of instructors.

Most frequently the ID theft involves students posing as teachers.

Shaw said most school districts act very quickly if accusations are made about inappropriate behavior.

“Right then, it’s administrative leave. Pending investigation, the teacher goes home,” Shaw said. “And you gotta remember most times teachers have never been in trouble and so it’s devastating to them, it’s devastating to their families.”

Personally, Shaw said he wishes teachers would refrain from having a Facebook page at all.

“We gave up telling people not to have them. We just say ‘on your personal account, for God’s sake, don’t friend your students.’”

Regardless of the outcome, the investigation will be on the teachers record.

“It’s very, very hard to get that off your record,” Shaw said. “Once the bell has been rung it is almost impossible to un-ring it.”

Administrators at the United Educators Association also recommend that teachers Google themselves frequently to see what information concerning them is being posted online and through social media.

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Mark Carter, head of Stop The Violence, Walk Of Praise, is gathering residents to combat what he calls a growing problem at 7 p.m. Monday at the Mount Olive Baptist Church on Evans Ave.

“The violence is rising in our schools, and it moves from our schools to our community, from our communities to the rec centers and also to the church,” Carter said.

Carter described the issue as one that begins at home. He said he would ask attendees to put more time and effort into spending time with their children and students.

“Everything starts at home,” he said. “If the discipline’s not at home, if structure’s not at home, guess what happens? They leave home and they take it to school.”

Carter hopes the group can come up with a strategy that will lead to a solution in nixing bullying among children.

“Kids are getting talked about, getting called names,” he said. “We’re trying to figure out why the kid is killing their self behind name-calling.”