The fight to whitewash US history: ‘A drop of poison is all you need’

At least 15 states are trying to ban schools from teaching critical race theory and the 1619 Project. The reactionary movement stretches back to the 1920s and the KKK

On 25 May 2020, a man died after a “medical incident during police interaction” in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The man was suspected of forgery and “believed to be in his 40s”. He “physically resisted officers” and, after being handcuffed, “appeared to be suffering medical distress”. He was taken to the hospital “where he died a short time later”.

It is not difficult to imagine a version of reality where this, the first police account of George Floyd’s brutal death beneath the knee of an implacable police officer, remained the official narrative of what took place in Minneapolis one year ago. That version of reality unfolds every day. Police lies are accepted and endorsed by the press; press accounts are accepted and believed by the public.

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George Floyd: New Jersey teacher suspended over rant to pupils

  • Profanity-laced comments to pupils aired by local TV
  • Howard Zlotkin refers to Floyd as a ‘criminal’

A New Jersey high school teacher was suspended with pay for making profanity-laced comments to students about George Floyd.

Related: Teargas, flash-bangs: the devastating toll of police tactics on Minnesota children

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‘Children are dying’: George Floyd’s killing fuels calls for ban on restraints in schools

Educators use physical restraint thousands of time a year and critics say the practice is used as a routine discipline tool, especially against Black children

America is waiting on a verdict in the closely watched murder trial of Derek Chauvin in Minnesota, which has focused on the former Minneapolis police officer’s use of “prone restraint” that prosecutors say contributed to the death of George Floyd.

The manner of Floyd’s death led to a national reckoning on police brutality and racism, but it has also highlighted how the practice of restraining children remains commonplace in Minnesota schools, and in other districts across the country.

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Maryland police video shows officers threatening, screaming at crying child

The 5-year-old boy was found a block from a Montgomery county school by officers who berated him and said, ‘I’d beat him so bad’

A police department in Maryland has released body camera video that captured two of its officers berating a 5-year-old boy who had walked away from his elementary school, calling him a “little beast” and threatening him with a beating.

The video released by the Montgomery county police department shows one of the officers repeatedly screaming at the crying child, with her face inches from his.

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Three Alabama professors on leave over racially insensitive Halloween pictures

  • Students demand terminations over photos from 2014
  • USA president announces independent investigation

Three professors at the University of South Alabama have been placed on leave over racially insensitive Halloween photos, the university said.

Related: Rochester police officer off streets after pepper-spraying woman with toddler

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Jill Biden encourages teachers in opening address as first lady – video

In her first solo address as first lady, Jill Biden hosted her first solo event by praising the work of teachers and promising them support during the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden hailed their 'heroic commitment' and explained that she was teaching a class on the morning of the inauguration of her husband, Joe Biden

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New York City public schools to close again as coronavirus cases rise

  • Closure plan after city reaches 3% Covid test positivity rate
  • Mayor Bill de Blasio: ‘We must fight the second wave’

Public schools in New York City will close again on Thursday, officials announced, after the city reached a 3% Covid test positivity rate.

Related: Covid deaths near 250,000 as US urged to act to stop 'unrelenting' spread

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Paris Hilton leads protest calling for closure of Utah school

Socialite and reality TV star organized demonstration near Provo Canyon school after saying she suffered abuse at boarding school

Socialite and reality TV star Paris Hilton has been speaking out about abuse she said she suffered at a boarding school in Utah, and on Friday took her push nearly to the school’s front doors.

Hilton organized a protest in a park near Provo Canyon school, along with several hundreds of others who shared stories of abuse they said they suffered there or at similar schools for troubled youth. She is calling for the closure of the school.

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Critics condemn Trump’s rewrite of America’s legacy of racism in DC speech

The president announced the 1776 Commission, which would teach students ‘about the miracle of American history’

Donald Trump on Thursday launched an extraordinary attack on American education at a history conference in Washington DC, downplaying America’s historic legacy of slavery and claiming children have been subjected to “decades of leftwing indoctrination”.

Speaking at what was dubbed the White House Conference on American History, the president intensified efforts to appeal to his core base of white voters with a historically revisionist speech, while blasting efforts to address systemic racism as divisive.

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Teacher, 28, dies of Covid-19 as US schools prepare for return to classrooms

  • Demetria Bannister taught elementary school in South Carolina
  • New York City to resume in-person classes in 11 days

A 28-year-old elementary school teacher in Columbia, South Carolina, died this week from complications due to Covid-19, authorities have said.

Demetria “Demi” Bannister, who taught third grade at Windsor elementary school, died on Monday.

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Joe Biden tells Trump to ‘get off Twitter’ and focus on reopening schools – video

Joe Biden has described school closures as a ‘national emergency’ as he sought to put the coronavirus pandemic back at the heart of the US election campaign, after two weeks of Trump seeking to capitalise on sporadic scenes of violence in cities to push a ‘law and order’ theme

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Calls for nationwide sickout as Arizona school district cancels reopening

Arizona public school district forced to abandon plans after more than 100 teachers and staff members called in sick

An Arizona public school district was forced to cancel its plans to reopen on Monday after more than 100 teachers and other staff members called in sick.

“We have received an overwhelming response from staff indicating that they do not feel safe returning to classrooms with students,” Gregory Wyman, district superintendent, said in a statement on Friday.

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US coronavirus death toll set to reach 200,000 by Labor Day, CDC forecast says

Rate of new deaths could rise in California and Colorado over the coming four weeks and decline in Arizona, CDC says

The US death toll from the coronavirus pandemic is set to reach 200,000 by Labor Day as children across the country prepare to return to school, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) forecast.

The rate of new deaths could rise in California and Colorado over the coming four weeks and decline in Arizona, the CDC said. More than 160,000 people have died from Covid-19 in America, although scientists have pointed out the number of excess deaths so far this year exceeds even this toll.

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Tom Cotton calls slavery ‘necessary evil’ in attack on New York Times’ 1619 Project

  • Republican gives interview to Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
  • Senator wants to ‘save’ US history from New York Times

The Arkansas Republican senator Tom Cotton has called the enslavement of millions of African people “the necessary evil upon which the union was built”.

Related: Trump aims barb at Reagan Foundation in fundraising coin kerfuffle

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‘Reckless, callous, cruel’: teachers’ chief denounces Trump plan to reopen schools

‘Angry’ AFT president Randi Weingarten tells Guardian proposal from Trump and Betsy DeVos could result in teaching exodus

Plans put forward by Donald Trump and his education secretary to reopen America’s schools in the fall are “reckless” and could result in many teachers leaving the profession, the president of one of the country’s biggest teaching unions has warned.

Related: Betsy DeVos insists all US children should be in school this fall

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Rowling, Rushdie and Atwood warn against ‘intolerance’ in open letter

Harper’s letter asserts way to ‘defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion’, but critics accuse authors of censorious mentality

JK Rowling, Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood are among the signatories to a controversial open letter warning that the spread of “censoriousness” is leading to “an intolerance of opposing views” and “a vogue for public shaming and ostracism”.

Rowling, whose beliefs on transgender rights have recently seen scores of Harry Potter fans distance themselves from her, said she was “proud to sign this letter in defence of a foundational principle of a liberal society: open debate and freedom of thought and speech”.

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Oakland moves to bar police from schools as bigger cities reject change

Movement to get officers out of schools sees progress even as Chicago and Los Angeles school boards vote to keep them in place

A growing movement to get police officers out of US schools saw a major victory this week when Oakland’s school board voted to eliminate the school district’s dedicated police department.

But in Chicago and Los Angeles, despite protests by youth activists, support from teachers’ unions, and an outpouring of public support, school boards voted to keep police in public schools, at least for now.

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Surgisphere: mass audit of papers linked to firm behind hydroxychloroquine Lancet study scandal

Questions continue for Surgisphere and CEO Sapan Desai as universities deny knowledge of links to firm behind Lancet’s now-disputed blockbuster study

Dozens of scientific papers co-authored by the chief executive of the US tech company behind the Lancet hydroxychloroquine study scandal are now being audited, including one that a scientific integrity expert claims contains images that appear to have been digitally manipulated.

The audit follows a Guardian investigation that found the company, Surgisphere, used suspect data in major scientific studies that were published and then retracted by world-leading medical journals, including the Lancet and the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Americans with lower incomes more worried about coronavirus, study finds

People who made less than $50,000 per year were 10 percentage points more concerned about threat posed by infectious disease

Americans with lower incomes and less education were more like to say the spread of infectious disease was a major threat to the US, according to a Pew Research Center survey released Monday.

Nearly all US adults said the spread of infectious disease is a threat to the country, but people who made less than $50,000 per year were 10 percentage points more concerned about the threat posed by infectious disease than those with higher incomes in a survey conducted in March.

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US bans shock ‘treatment’ on children with special needs at Boston-area school

FDA ban brings an end to decades-long battle against use of ‘aversive therapy’ at the Judge Rotenberg Center in Massachusetts

The US government has banned an electric shock machine that is used to zap children and young adults with special needs in a school outside Boston – the only institution in the world known to practice the controversial punishment “treatment”.

Related: Elizabeth Warren drops out of Democratic presidential race – live

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