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A 17-year-old Idaho student reportedly hired someone to overwhelm his school districts computer system with a Distributed Denial of Service attack. A spokesperson for the school district told KTVB that the DDoS attack restricted many schools access to the internet but did not go after any student's data. The general havoc caused by the interruption of service at schools caused many students to lose their work while taking the Idaho Standard Achievement tests. You might think that getting to take a break from standardized testing would be cause to celebrate but that is not the case. Some kids have had to re-take the test more than once during the week and a half that the DDoS attacks took place. The student responsible has been suspended and recommended for expulsion. The teen will most likely serve up to 180 days in a juvenile detention center for the state felony charge that this offense carries and may be facing federal felony charges as well.

NASA's Orion spacecraft, which could one day send astronauts to Mars, is stuck on terra firma for at least another day after the space agency's mission control was unable to satisfactorily resolve a number of issues before a 9:45 a.m. ET launch window closed.

The unmanned vehicle is awaiting its first test in Earth orbit. But after multiple delays for high winds and a stuck liquid-oxygen drain valve on one or more of the Delta IV Heavy rocket's booster engines, NASA didn't have time to get the rocket off the pad. It will try again Friday morning.

Boston Marathon runner, Mike Rossi, took his two third-graders out of school to go with him and his wife on a family vacation. The girls missed three days of school during a trip that included watching their father run the Boston Marathon and touring historical sites in Boston. In return they received a form letter from their school saying that the days they missed would be counted as unexcused absences. Rossi's written response to the school supporting his children's educational experience on the trip has gotten a lot of media attention.  

Rossi does not deny that this is the policy of the school. Concerning his response to the schools letter, Rossi said this to Philadelphia Magazine:

"These rules should be in place for parents who aren't involved and who, in some cases, don't even know their kids are absent. This is not for responsible parents trying to teach their kids the right things and teach them about the world outside the classroom." 

As long as the kids are away, teachers can play, a panel of judges said Thursday, ruling that educators shouldn't be fired for having sex with one another — even in their classrooms.

The Manhattan appellate judges said foreign-language teachers Alini Brito, 34, and Cindy Mauro, 38, were treated too harshly when they were dismissed for engaging in a topless classroom tryst inside Brooklyn's James Madison HS in 2009.

A Canadian teen wrote an open letter to her principal after she was given detention for wearing a halter dress that she says school officials told her was "inappropriate and a sexual distraction". The full transcript of her response is below:

 

“Dear [Vice Principal] Sturgeon,

I have a concern I would like to bring to your attention. In today’s society, a woman’s body is constantly discriminated against and hypersexualized to the point where we can no longer wear the clothing that we feel comfortable in without the accusation and/or assumption that we are being provocative. This unjust mindset towards women is absolutely absurd. The fact that authority figures, especially males, can tell young women they must cover up their shoulders and their backs because it’s “inappropriate” and “a distraction” is very uncomforting. Schools are the social building blocks in an adolescent’s life meant to teach them how to communicate and develop relationships with others and also learning about themselves and who they want to be. It’s preached upon us to be individual, to be ourselves. The double standard here is that when we try, we are then told we’re wrong. We may not truly dress, act or speak how we want because authority figures, and I use that term very loosely such as yourself, tell us we can’t. Yes, I understand there are restrictions to how much and how little of your body that shows, but that applies when people show up in their bikinis or bra and panties. Though I do believe women should legally be allowed to publicly be shirtless considering males are, it’s mindsets like yours that keep that as something that is shamed upon. So no, Mr. Sturgeon, I will not search for something to cover up my back and shoulders because I am not showing them off with the intention to gain positive sexual feedback from the teenage boys in my school. I am especially not showing them to receive any comments, positive or negative, from anybody else besides myself because the only person who can make any sort of judgment on my body and the fabrics I place on it is me.

If you are truly so concerned that a boy in this school will get distracted by my upper back and shoulders then he needs to be sent home and practice self control.

Thank you, have a nice day.” (Via Buzzfeed)

One of the world's great radio telescopes isn't hearing voices – for the first time another giant dish has picked up one of the mysterious "fast radio bursts" (FRBs) that have been puzzling astronomers at the Parkes Radio Telescope. The find confirms these bursts indeed come from outer space, but beyond that their source is still wide open.

Last year the astronomers reported four bursts picked up by the celebrated Australian telescope. As each FRB lasted around a millisecond there was no time to have other telescopes check the same location, and the fact that no other telescope had picked up anything similar raised the possibility that something local was interfering with the Parkes telescope.

Now, however The Astrophysical Journal reports that the 305m Arecibo Telescope has picked up a similar burst while searching for pulsars. The burst occurred in 2012, but not noticed at the time. "FRB 121102's brightness, duration, and the inferred event rate are all consistent with the properties of the previously detected Parkes bursts," the authors report.

Overland High math teacher Carly McKinney, who became an instant star after her now-deleted CarlyCrunkBear Twitter account featuring flirty pics and dope-joke tweets was discovered by a local TV station. She's now been suspended much to the chagrin of many students and an online community united under the hashtag #FreeCrunkBear.

Mayte Lara graduated at the top of her class, as you can tell by her Tweet, but letting the world know that she was in the US illegally was probably not the smartest idea. Some people have voiced their support for Mayte, and say that she is a good example of a hardworking person who is working to better themselves, unlike the stereotypes of undocumented immigrants that people like Donald Trump have been spouting in the current election season. That didn't stop the fact that she got so much backlash on Twitter that she had to close her account. Some of the Tweets looked like this terrible Donald Trump meme:


via MikeRotondo86/

Some people even reported her to the government.


via cuervo_jones

In a super-touching image, a British Mom posted a back-to-school picture of her daughter Emily after losing her to childhood cancer in a super-effective effort to raise awareness of the disease.





She is encouraging everyone on Facebook to "Go Gold for Cancer Awareness" on your profile pic, like this:




Get all the links to show your support on Facebook and Twitter, and to learn more about the "Go Gold Project" here.

Louisiana teacher Camille Brennan allegedly gave two female students brownies laced with marijuana on May 1st. One of their parents reported it the same day. Brennan has admitted to giving students the brownies and has resigned from her job as a teacher. She has been arrested on two counts of distribution of marijuana and two counts of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile but other charges may also be filed as the investigation continues.