Weird news - 60 deadly snakes found in school kitchen

People are absolutely petrified when it comes to poisonous snakes, given the high number of people who die of snake bite, and also because there is a general feeling of revulsion when it comes to snakes. And with poisonous snakes, even a small young snake is highly dangerous since the venom is developed and present in the snake.
This can get more problematic when there are young children involved, as happened in a school in the state of Maharashtra in India. A cook spotted two Russell vipers in the kitchen and on further investigation, a total of 60 of these deadly snakes were found. However, it ended well when the temptation to kill these snakes were controlled and they were caught and handed over to the forest department (link to article):

The spotting of so many snakes at one place created panic among students and staffers of the Zilla Parishad-run school located in Pangra Bokhare village of Hingoli district, about 225km from Aurangabad in the Marathwada region. A cook spotted two Russells vipers near the place where wood used for fuel was stored on Friday afternoon. When she started lifting more pieces of wood, she found another 58 snakes in the kitchen, he said. The school’s headmaster, Triyambak Bhosle, said, “All of us panicked after seeing so many snakes. Several villagers rushed to the spot with sticks and stones but we stopped them from killing the snakes.”

Weird news - Boys wearing skirts to school in Britain

Seems a bit strange to call this out - school going boys wearing skirts to school (somebody might even call this statement out to be sexist and not politically correct - after all, why can't boys wear skirts and girls wear trousers). However, there is a definite reason for them wearing skirts - a matter of protest. It is getting hot and the uniform of mandatory trousers (and jackets for senior students) would be making them hot and sweaty. When they asked in the school for being able to wear shorts, the administration refused, but said in jest that they could wear skirts.
So next day a small group of boys came wearing skirts (and even had razors after complaints that their legs were too hairy), and this spread to more students (once they were reconciled with wearing skirts, it was cool and breezy for them as opposed to wearing trousers) (link to article):

Another said it was “quite refreshing”, pointing out that if even Royal Ascot had allowed racegoers in the royal enclosure to remove their jackets then the school ought to relax its dress code. One mother said: “My 14-year-old son wanted to wear shorts. The headteacher told them: ‘Well, you can wear a skirt if you like’ – but I think she was being sarcastic. “However, children tend to take you literally, and because she told them it was OK, there was nothing she could do as long as they are school skirts.” Another mother said: “Children also don’t like injustice. The boys see the women teachers in sandals and nice cool skirts and tops while they are wearing long trousers and shoes and the older boys have to wear blazers. They just think it’s unfair that they can’t wear shorts in this heat.”

Weird News - Lizard in greens makes it way to school

There are a number of law suits where people have found strange objects in their food - these could include lizards, bugs, different forms of insects, and so on. In many cases, there are also inanimate objects found in food, and some of these can be dangerous. Having dead animals in their food can be dangerous because of the possibility of different forms of bacteria or virus in these animals, which can then afflict the person eating the food. And unless one is clearly focusing on what one is eating, it is possible to consume these items without even noticing what one is consuming.
However, children can turn these kind of concepts around. In this case, a child found a lizard in a bundle of chilled salad greens and instead of getting shocked, the girl (who studies in kindergarten) along with her mom managed to revive the lizard and took it to school where it actually has got many fans now (and also is of a breed that is somewhat unique) (link to article):

The three-inch (7.5cm) critter went unnoticed for a few days in the refrigerator in Princeton, New Jersey, before Sally Mabon and her daughter Faye found its limp body while unwrapping a bunch of tatsoi, an Asian leaf, science teacher Mark Eastburn of Riverside Elementary School in Princeton said on Tuesday. Warmth restored its energy and soon the anole lizard was on its way to Riverside Elementary School, where it caught "oohs" and "aahs" like flies, and quickly became the class pet. Less Godzilla and more Geico Gecko, the juvenile lizard has been named "Green Fruit Loop" by the children.

Weird news: Come naked to class to pass the exam

Seems very weird, right ? The background to a lawsuit for emotional damages, but this is apparently something that has been happening for some time. But this is part of a visual arts class, an elective that is not mandatory for graduating (as specified by the University when there was an uproar after this information became public and became viral). The course itself makes things somewhat clear in its description, referencing to an erotic self assignment. And the professor talked about the exam where the exam-takers are supposed to be naked, as conducted in candle-light (and hence low light) and with the professor also being without classes.
However, even though the students may know what is happening and what the course is about, the parents of students would certainly not be so familiar, and being parents, it would be expected that some of them would get very agitated about a school course expecting their children to get naked in order to pass, and the mother of one of the students made an uproar about this. However, the professor is standing his ground and seems unfazed by the uproar (and maybe the uproar would die down quickly) (link to article):

Professor Ricardo Dominguez of UC San Diego has taking an elective course on "performing the self" for 11 years now with the same drill and he says no one had ever complained - until this week when the mother of a student flipped when she heard about it and went public. She accused the professor of "perversity" and said the final test was "just wrong." "To blanketly say, 'You must be naked in order to pass my class' - it makes me sick to my stomach," she told a local television station while declining to reveal her identity or that of her daughter. But Prof Dominguez was least fazed by the resulting uproar on social media as the story went viral. He said the class would be dimly lit with candles and he too would be in the buff with the students as part of the assignment. "It's a standard canvas for performance art and body art," Dominguez said. "If they are uncomfortable with this gesture, they should not take the course."

Weird news - Girl suspended from school for smelling bad

Sometimes things happen that seem so weird. Imagine a girl being sent home from school on a regular basis because she has a foul smell coming from her, and the smell is so bad that she would be sent home. In such a case, it would seem simple that there were problems of personal hygiene and most people would argue that a simple solution would be for her parents to ensure that she was bathing regularly. The funny thing is that her parents claimed that she was bathing regularly, and this was not the reason for the foul smell.
In such cases when there is reason to believe that parents were not taking care of their children, then child services normally get involved and in extreme situations, they can even take the child or put some kind of monitoring. However, child services closed the case without reporting any problem; net result is that the girl was regularly sent back from school because of this smell and would be missing school (link to article):

So why is this little girl so stinky? Apparently, it's a big mystery, because the girl's mother, Krystal Hensley, claims she bathes daily. But when school administrators questioned the girl about why in the fresh hell she smells so foul, she claimed to not remember when she last took a bath. Hensley says, "She's been to the doctor and it's not a medical problem. They send her home at least once a month." The first suspension notice served to the girl's mother stated, "We have made repeated attempts to address a foul odor that [redacted] has been [emitting]. This is not being resolved."

Teacher brands students hand with a cross

The difference between state policy and religion is a matter of deep controversy in the United States, and also a policy that is enshrined in the US constitution, reinforced by many court rulings in the past. Hence, for a teacher to try and enforce his Christian beliefs (however fundamental these beliefs would be) on impressionable students is something that a number of people would disagree with. The teacher used to keep a copy of the Bible in class, carried the Ten Commandments, and also preached that evolution was flawed (against the education board policy):

The school board of a small central Ohio community voted Friday to fire a teacher accused of preaching his Christian beliefs despite staff complaints and burning the image of a cross on students' arms, according to the Associated Press.
Freshwater also displayed the Ten Commandments in his classroom and taught creationism, according to an independent investigation launched after the parents of the student who was allegedly branded filed a lawsuit. The suit alleges that he regularly discussed Christianity in his science class, even "teaching the meaning of Easter and Good Friday," and kept at least one and sometimes several Bibles in the room.

If teachers started teaching as per their own personal beliefs, then the entire education system would get flawed.

Pact to have underage pregnancies

Teenage pregnancies are something that are frowned upon by parents groups, by health officials, and by politicians of all stripes. In addition, the concept of a teenager getting pregnant stems from an unlawful act whereby having sex with a teenager is actually illegal. So, it was all the more worrisome for officials in the state of Massachusetts in the US when 17 teenage girls (all of them younger than 16 years) became pregnant. Now teenage pregnancies have happened before, but this figure was 4 times the previous year's figure for the school, and let officials to worry that this was all part of a pact:

There are reports that some of the girls - none of whom is older than 16 - entered into a pact to have their babies together. The girls and their families have so far made no comment. Officials are also investigating the ages of the fathers. Some are believed to be in their twenties and could face the possibility of being charged with having sex with minors.
"Some girls seemed more upset when they weren't pregnant than when they were," Gloucester High School principal Joseph Sullivan told Time magazine. Local officials say that nearly half of the girls had entered into a bizarre pact to have their babies together. Dr Elizabeth Guthrie, a paediatric psychiatrist at New York's Columbia University, told the BBC that some girls might be viewing pregnancy as a fast-track to adulthood and independence. "It may give you an opportunity for unconditional love and attention from the baby," she said.

Such a happening will really cause a lot of worries for health officials. How do you deal with such a situation; the girls are obviously not ready to have babies when they are so young.