Posted 3:08 PM by Susan Darst Williams

SIGNS OF THE TIMES IN NEBRASKA SCHOOLS

-- Home ec class gets with the '00s as a Papillion-LaVista High School student was ticketed earlier this month on suspicion of marijuana possession after he was caught putting marijuana into brownie dough in home economics class. The brownies were confiscated and none were eaten, officials said.

-- A makeshift lab for making methamphetamines was found in the parking lot of Avery Elementary School in Bellevue.

-- Douglas County Sheriff's Office is recruiting volunteer deputies to patrol outside 11 schools in Waterloo, Bennington, Ponca and Millard districts, watching for suspicious people and cars before and after school.

-- The State Board of Education has approved an anti-bullying policy after countless hours of wrangling over staff training, program development, state and federal grant hunting, monitoring and mandate systems design, and so forth.

The question is: when's the last time you read something about how our schools are doing in teaching the 3 R's? Is it time for parents who want their kids to learn the 3 R's to pull them out of public school, if this is all they're concerned about?