Category: Education

Young shooting victims identified

Suspect in Palermo school shooting also named
by Yucheng Tang | Posted December 5, 2024

photo by Yucheng Tang
Sheriff Kory Honea identifies Glenn Litton (shown on screen on left) as the suspect in the Palermo school shooting.

Roman Mendez, aged 6, sustained two gunshot wounds resulting in internal injuries when a gunman entered his school yard Dec. 4 and opened fire. Elias Wolford, 5, was shot one time in the abdomen, also resulting in internal injuries.

The two kindergarten students who attended Feather River Adventist School in Palermo remained in critical condition today. In the pictures shown at a press briefing earlier today, smiling Roman wore a red sweater and Elias cupped his chin in his hands.

“They have a very long road ahead of them in terms of recovery,” said Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea. “It’s very likely that they are going to have to have a number of surgeries going forward.” read more

Chico State Academic Senate calls for TPM policy suspension

by Yucheng Tang | Posted November 12, 2024

photo by Caleb Hearn
Bryce Ingersoll tabled on campus, discussing with students what implementation of the TPM policy would mean.

The Chico State Academic Senate has called on the California State University (CSU) Chancellor’s office to suspend the interim “Time, Place, Manner” (TPM) policy that sets rules for student protests.

The Oct. 31 resolution says the CSU should “initiate a process of good faith negotiation through shared governance to determine what guidance for peaceful activism … may be justified and consensually applied.”

The local Academic Senate took action days after the Academic Senate of the California State University system passed a resolution condemning the CSU-wide interim TPM policy. The California Faculty Association notes the policy restricts use of face coverings and requires “advance written permission for posters, signs, banners, and chalking.” read more

Will CSU’s new policy affect campus free speech?

Some students and faculty worry; university officials say nothing has changed
by Yucheng Tang | Posted September 26, 2024

photo by Yucheng Tang
Professor Lindsay Briggs makes a suggestion at the Sept. 25 campus forum.

This story was updated Sept. 28 as more detail on the policy emerged.

On a list of 174 locations on the Chico State campus, only three are listed as “Public” that are available for sound-amplified assembly, marches, protests, and debate between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. weekdays by reservation, based on the newly-introduced, California State University (CSU) Interim Time Place Manner policy.

However, university spokesman Andrew Staples said Sept. 27 that outside spaces at Chico State, including Trinity Commons, can be used for “demonstrations, protest etc.” during campus operating hours that are 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily if the area hasn’t already been reserved. A document sent to ChicoSol Sept. 28 called “Addendum Specifics” says those areas can be used for “non-amplified speech and expression.” read more

Irked Zingg backed off $300,000 art donation

Former Chico State president wanted name removed from campus Recital Hall
by Dave Waddell | Posted July 31, 2024

photo courtesy of Natasha Doron/The Orion
Inside Chico State’s recital hall when, in 2017, feminist activist Gloria Steinem spoke.

After Chico State’s spanking new recital hall was christened in 2016, it came as a shock to some faculty that it was named for retiring university President Paul Zingg and his wife.

But today, what was once the Paul and Yasuko Zingg Recital Hall goes by the stripped-down name of Recital Hall.

Why did the university quietly remove the name of its former president?

The short of it is that Paul Zingg, in 2021, feeling ignored by the university he long led and disrespected by his successor, came to want it that way. He also wanted back the art collection, appraised at more than $300,000, that he had gifted to Chico State’s Janet Turner Print Museum as part of the naming deal. read more

ChicoSol wins ‘Community Focus’ award

First-place award from CNPA recognizes coverage of gender-identity lawsuit
by ChicoSol staff | Posted July 15, 2024

photo by Leslie Layton
A mom at a 2023 meeting of CUSD’s Board of Education.

posted July 15

ChicoSol has been awarded a first place in the prestigious Community Focus category in the statewide newspaper contest run by California News Publishers Association (CNPA).

The award, announced July 14, recognizes the stories last year by Natalie Hanson and Leslie Layton on the gender identity lawsuit that was filed against Chico Unified School District by a local mom.

ChicoSol competed for the first place with the Bay Area Reporter, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Santa Barbara Independent and the San Francisco Chronicle, all of whom were named as finalists in May. A judge wrote that our coverage of the lawsuit produced a “strong series that shows how a community paper can be fair – and still expose bigotry and transphobia and offer the true facts.” read more

Chico mom appeals gender identity lawsuit

by Natalie Hanson | Posted June 2, 2024

Aurora Regino

A Chico mother has appealed her case against Chico Unified School District (CUSD), accusing it of inappropriate conduct and secrecy in a gender identity case.

Aurora Regino has argued that the district must out students who are trans or exploring their gender identity to their parents and that a federal judge denied her right as a parent to control the upbringing of her child. But a panel of Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judges questioned whether Regino changed her case substantially – enough to send it back to the federal judge for reconsideration.

Center for American Liberty attorney Josh Dixon told the panel in the May 9 hearing that Regino wants parents to have “broad authority,” and claimed that the district’s policy is about “parental secrecy.” read more