Philippe Petit walks on a tightrope between the Twin Towers

High above the early-morning traffic in Lower Manhattan, a French street performer steps off the roof of the south tower of the World Trade Center on August 7, 1974. Clad in black and carrying a long pole for balance, Philippe Petit begins the most famous high-wire walk in history, calmly traversing the space between the Twin Towers at a height of 1,350 feet.

Petit enjoyed tightrope walking from a young age, and began his career as a juggler on the streets of Paris. Amazingly, he first imagined himself walking between the Twin Towers before they had even been built. As he later recounted, the idea came to him because of a dental emergency: “Here I am, young, 17-years-old, with a bad tooth in one of those un-colorful waiting room of a French dentist … suddenly, I freeze because I have opened a newspaper at a page and I see something magnificent, something that inspires me. I see two towers and the article says one day those towers will be built.”

The towers would be not open until 1973, but Petit was determined he would one day walk between them. He began his high-wire career with walks between the towers of Notre Dame in 1971 and the pylons of the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1973. Although he trained with a circus performer and thought of himself as a “poet, conquering beautiful stages,” his preparations to walk between the Twin Towers most closely resembled scenes from a heist film. He disguised himself as everything from a construction worker to a journalist to an architect in order to gain access and study the site, even casing it from above via helicopter and identifying Barry Greenhouse, a man who worked on the 82nd floor of the south tower, as his inside man.

On the night of August 6, 1974, with Greenhouse’s help, Petit and some accomplices made their way into the towers, split into two teams. One of them shot an arrow across the gap between the buildings, spanning it with a length of fishing line that was then used to string stronger support wires. Around 7 a.m. the next morning, Petit stepped out onto the wire. Over the next 50 minutes, he completed eight trips across the divide, bowing to the onlookers below and even stopping to sit and lie down on the inch-thick wire. Finally, he dismounted and surrendered to the police, who arrested him and took him in for psychological evaluation.

Petit was charged with criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct, but the charges were dropped on the condition that he perform for the public in Central Park, which he happily did. Petit went on to perform a similar walk at the Lincoln Center and become the artist-in-residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on the Upper West Side. He insisted that his famous walk, which was documented in the film Man on Wire and dramatized in another film, The Walk, was not an artistic statement so much as a natural outgrowth of his attitude toward life: “I see three oranges, and I have to juggle. I see two towers, and I have to walk.”

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State Releases Results for 2021 Florida Standards Assessments and End of Course Exams

On Thursday, July 29, 2021, the Florida Department of Education released results for the Spring 2021 Florida Standards Assessments (FSA) for English Language Arts (ELA) (grades 4 –10), Mathematics (grades 3 – 8) and Science (grades 5 and 8). In addition, the state released results for End of Course (EOC) exams in Algebra I, Geometry, Biology, U.S. History and Civics.

The results show Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) performance significantly decreased overall as compared to 2018/19, the most recent results to make comparisons due to the cancellation of statewide testing in 2019/20. 

  • The most dramatic decreases were in mathematics. For grades 3 – 8, FSA Math and EOC Algebra I and Geometry decreased by 18 percentage points compared to 2018/19.
  • While overall ELA performance for grades 3 – 10 decreased by six percentage points compared to 2018/19, BCPS scores met or exceeded the statewide average in seven out of eight of these tested grade levels.

Given that many students were attending school remotely last school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and some parents were reluctant to send their children in person to test, participation in the FSA and EOC were lower overall, with 88% of BCPS students being tested in 2020/21, compared to approximately 98% in 2018/19. Additionally, BCPS had significantly higher rates of students remain at home for instruction in comparison to other districts in Florida.   

“We’re concerned about the achievement results released today,” said BCPS Superintendent Robert W. Runcie. “The decrease in performance on the assessments correlates with the very low rate of return by students for in-school, face-to-face instruction last school year. The return of students for brick-and-mortar instruction this coming school year is imperative to ensure students can work with teachers and receive supplemental supports.”

These results provide a baseline for addressing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student achievement. During the spring of 2021, in preparation for supporting students in the coming years, the District developed plans and identified instructional materials to provide extensive resources and interventions to students upon the start of the new school year on Wednesday, August 18. These initiatives will focus on reading development in the primary grades of K – 3, strengthening student writing skills and providing high-intensity tutoring. The District’s summer experience for all students in pre-K – 12 concluded on July 29. It provided academic support and enrichment to help students get back on track academically and get ready for the new school year.

Moving forward, District staff, principals and teachers will examine each student’s performance and prepare personalized support for his or her learning.  A School Board workshop is scheduled for August 24, 2021, to review the FSA and EOC results, the District’s analysis and any subsequent reports from the Florida Department of Education.

For more information on the 2020/21 FSA and EOC results, visit fldoe.org/accountability/assessments/k-12-student-assessment/results/2021.stml.

 

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ABOUT BROWARD COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

“Committed to educating all students to reach their highest potential.”  

Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) is the sixth largest school district in the nation and the second largest in the state of Florida. BCPS is Florida’s first fully accredited school system since 1962. BCPS has nearly 261,500 students and approximately 110,000 adult students in 241 schools, centers and technical colleges, and 93 charter schools. BCPS serves a diverse student population, with students representing 170 different countries and 147 different languages. To connect with BCPS, visit browardschools.com, follow us on Twitter @browardschools, on Facebook at facebook.com/browardschools.com and download the free BCPS mobile app.

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Broward County School Board Approves Back to School Plans for the 2021/22 School Year

July 28, 2021 

During a Special School Board meeting on Wednesday, July 28, The School Board of Broward County, Florida discussed back to school plans and protocols for the upcoming 2021/22 school year. In light of the recent release of updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the School Board voted to continue its mandatory masks requirement to begin the school year.  

Below are highlights from the school reopening plan discussion: 

  • Face coverings will be mandatory for students, staff and visitors at all schools and District facilities. 
  • No masks will be required when outdoors.
     
  • Schools should maintain at least three feet of physical distancing between students within classrooms.
      
  • Standard seating capacity will resume on school buses.
     
  • School cafeterias will open for meal service through the traditional food service line.
     
  • All sports and athletic facilities are now open.  
  • Laptops will continue to be issued to students who need them. 
  • The District will continue to provide two nurses per school and offer voluntary COVID-19 tests at all schools.a
     
  • Cleaning and disinfection of schools and District facilities will be continued and everyone will be encouraged to do their part in preventing the spread of COVID-19 through frequent hand washing and staying home when sick.

The first day of school is Wednesday, August 18, with 100% face to face learning on all campuses. District staff remain in communication with health experts to ensure the safety of our students, staff and school communities.  

 

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ABOUT BROWARD COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS  

“Committed to educating all students to reach their highest potential.”   

Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) is the sixth largest school district in the nation and the second largest in the state of Florida. BCPS is Florida’s first fully accredited school system since 1962. BCPS has nearly 261,500 students and approximately 110,000 adult students in 241 schools, centers and technical colleges, and 93 charter schools. BCPS serves a diverse student population, with students representing 170 different countries and 147 different languages. To connect with BCPS, visit browardschools.com, follow us on Twitter @browardschools, on Facebook at facebook.com/browardschools.com and download the free BCPS mobile app. 

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Broward County School Board Unanimously Approves Contract for Interim Superintendent Dr. Vickie L. Cartwright

July 28, 2021

Interim Superintendent Dr. Vickie L. CartwrightToday, Wednesday, July 28, the School Board of Broward County unanimously approved the contract for Dr. Vickie L. Cartwright to serve as Broward County Public Schools Interim Superintendent.

Dr. Cartwright has 26 years of experience in education, most recently serving as Superintendent for the Oshkosh Area School District in Wisconsin. She also has extensive experience in Florida through leadership roles for Orange County Public Schools in Orlando.

“The School Board looks forward to working with Dr. Cartwright as we focus on the success of our students and schools,” said Dr. Rosalind Osgood, School Board Chair (District 5). “We welcome Dr. Cartwright and look forward to her providing leadership and continuity for our District until a permanent Superintendent is selected.”

“I am thankful for the opportunity to serve Broward County Public Schools as its Interim Superintendent,” said Dr. Cartwright. “I’m excited about working side by side with District staff, teachers, students and School Board members on the District’s mission of educating today’s students for tomorrow’s world.”  

Per the approved contract, Dr. Cartwright’s first day will be Monday, August 2, 2021, at an annual salary of $275,000. 

Watch today’s School Board discussion and approval of Dr. Cartwright’s employment agreement.

 

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ABOUT BROWARD COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS 

“Committed to educating all students to reach their highest potential.”  

Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) is the sixth largest school district in the nation and the second largest in the state of Florida. BCPS is Florida’s first fully accredited school system since 1962. BCPS has nearly 261,500 students and approximately 110,000 adult students in 241 schools, centers and technical colleges, and 93 charter schools. BCPS serves a diverse student population, with students representing 170 different countries and 147 different languages. To connect with BCPS, visit browardschools.com, follow us on Twitter @browardschools, on Facebook at facebook.com/browardschools.com and download the free BCPS mobile app.

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The Harlem Riot of 1943 begins

Simmering racial tensions and economic frustrations boil over in New York City on the night of August 1, 1943, culminating in what is now known as the Harlem Riot of 1943. During an altercation in the lobby of the Braddock Hotel, a white police officer shoots a Black soldier, Robert Bandy, triggering a massive uprising.

Overwhelmingly white before the Great Migration, Harlem was 89 percent Black by the time the United States entered World War II. Despite the cultural innovations that accompanied these changes, known as the Harlem Renaissance, the neighborhood’s businesses remained mostly white-owned, and landlords and business owners continued to discriminate against Black residents. World War II brought not only conscription but also a higher cost of living, putting even more strain on a Black community whose economy was still controlled almost entirely by whites.

On the evening of August 1, a Black woman named Marjorie Polite checked into the Braddock, a historic hotel that had fallen into disrepair. Unsatisfied with her room, she asked for a refund at the front desk. The ensuing altercation led a white policeman, James Collins, to arrest her for disorderly conduct, during which time Bandy, a military policeman based in New Jersey, arrived to meet his visiting mother for dinner. The New York Police Department’s official report recorded that Bandy attacked Collins, but Bandy and his mother claimed that they merely tried to stop him from pushing Polite and prevented him from hitting her with his nightstick. Collins shot Bandy, who was taken to a hospital and treated for superficial wounds.

As a rumor spread that Collins had killed Bandy, crowds assembled near the Braddock and soon began to riot. They turned their rage on local white-owned businesses, leading Black business owners to hurriedly post signs announcing that their stores were Black-owned. Six Black residents were killed and nearly 500 were injured as the NYPD and, at the behest of Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, the Army moved into the streets of Harlem. La Guardia did his best to downplay the riot, but the unrest did draw the attention of the federal Office of Price Administration and of La Guardia’s government, which pressured local landlords to comply with price restrictions and stop gouging residents. The riot also affected Harlem residents like James Baldwin, Malcolm X (then Malcolm Little) and the poet Langston Hughes, whose poem “Beaumont to Detroit: 1943” ends with a reference to the sad irony of African Americans fighting for a country that did not see them as equals: “I ask you this question/ Cause I want to know/ How long I got to fight/ BOTH HITLER–AND JIM CROW.”

READ MORE: How the Police Shooting of a Black Soldier Triggered the 1943 Harlem Riots

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The 1917 Bath Riots

On the morning of January 28, 1917, a Mexican maid named Carmelita Torres refuses to put up with the indignity she has been made to suffer every morning since she started working across the border in the United States. Torres’ objection to the noxious chemical delousing visited upon Mexicans upon crossing the Northern border sparked what became known as the Bath Riots, an oft-overlooked moment in Chicano history.

Scared that a recent outbreak of typhus in Mexico could find its way to the United States, the Public Health Service instituted mandatory disinfecting for all Mexicans entering the country. The process was both humiliating and dangerous—men and women were directed to separate facilities, where they were made to strip off their clothes, which would be steamed. Officials examined the nude border-crossers and frequently doused them in harmful chemicals such as kerosene, a method which had resulted in the deaths of 27 prisoners in an El Paso prison in 1916.

Having heard that workers at the facility would regularly photograph women in the nude as they underwent this process, 17-year-old Torres refused to leave the trolley as it stopped at the Santa Fe Bridge border facility. Torres and her fellow passengers, most of whom were also young, female domestic workers, quickly seized four trolleys, hurling whatever they could find at the American authorities. A number of other Juárez residents joined them, and the ensuing riots lasted through the next day, although no one seems to have been seriously injured and there were only a few arrests.

Despite the riot, American officials continued with chemical disinfecting into the 1950s. In addition to these decades of indignity, another effect of their actions was to inadvertently inspire the gas chambers—a term Americans applied to the El Paso facilities at the time—used by the Nazis during the Holocaust. In 1938, a German scientific journal studied and praised the methods employed at El Paso, including the use of Zyklon B. The same chemical, as well as similar chambers, would become key components of the Nazi’s death camps.

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School Board Approves Interim Superintendent

July 22, 2021

During a Special School Board Meeting on Thursday, July 22, the School Board of Broward County, Florida voted to approve one of two candidates to become Interim Superintendent. By a unanimous vote of support, School Board members approved Dr. Vickie L. Cartwright to serve as Interim Superintendent for Broward County Public Schools.  

The next step in the process includes contract negotiations by School Board Chair Dr. Rosalind Osgood, beginning at 10 a.m. on Monday, July 26. A Special School Board Meeting is scheduled for noon on Wednesday, July 28, when the terms of the negotiated contract will be presented to School Board members for approval.  Dr. Cartwright’s starting date will be determined during contract negotiation. 

The School Board also selected the consulting firm, Ray and Associates, LLC, a firm specializing on school executive leadership searches, to conduct the search for the next Superintendent.  

Below is a link to today’s School Board meeting with the selection of the Interim Superintendent. The School Board vote is taken at timecode 3:46:00.

https://www.eduvision.tv/l?eAeteOy

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ABOUT BROWARD COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS  

“Committed to educating all students to reach their highest potential.”   

Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) is the sixth largest school district in the nation and the second largest in the state of Florida. BCPS is Florida’s first fully accredited school system since 1962. BCPS has nearly 261,500 students and approximately 110,000 adult students in 241 schools, centers and technical colleges, and 93 charter schools. BCPS serves a diverse student population, with students representing 170 different countries and 147 different languages. To connect with BCPS, visit browardschools.com, follow us on Twitter @browardschools, on Facebook at facebook.com/browardschools.com and download the free BCPS mobile app. 

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Hillary Clinton accepts Democratic nomination for president, becoming first woman to lead a major U.S. political party

95 years after women were first granted the right to vote, on July 28, 2016, former Secretary of State, Senator and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton makes history by accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, becoming the first woman to lead a major U.S. political party. 

The Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia formally nominated Clinton two days earlier, with South Dakota casting 15 votes to put Clinton over the threshold of 2,382 required delegates.

In her acceptance speech on the night of July 28, Clinton acknowledged the historic nature of her nomination. 

“Tonight, we’ve reached a milestone in our nation’s march toward a more perfect union: the first time that a major party has nominated a woman for president,” she said. “Standing here as my mother’s daughter, and my daughter’s mother, I’m so happy this day has come. Happy for grandmothers and little girls and everyone in between. Happy for boys and men, too—because when any barrier falls in America, for anyone, it clears the way for everyone. When there are no ceilings, the sky’s the limit.”

Clinton, who ran in the general against Donald J. Trump, won the popular vote but lost the election in the electoral college. Trump served one term and made history himself, becoming the first U.S. president to be impeached twice. 

READ MORE: Women’s History Milestones: A Timeline

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Benjamin Banneker writes to Thomas Jefferson, urging justice for African Americans

On August 19, 1791, the accomplished American mathematician and astronomer Benjamin Banneker pens a letter to then-Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson corresponds prolifically with luminaries from around the world, but Banneker is unique among them: the son of a free Black American woman and a formerly enslaved African man from Guinea, Banneker criticizes Jefferson’s hypocritical stance on slavery in respectful but unambiguous terms, using Jefferson’s own words to make his case for the abolition of slavery.

Banneker himself was born free in what is now Ellicott City, Maryland, and was encouraged in his studies of astronomy and mathematics by the Ellicotts, a Quaker family who owned a mill and much of the land in the area. Predicting a solar eclipse and constructing a functioning clock that struck on the hour were among his early achievements. His prowess caught the eye of Jefferson after Major Andrew Ellicott chose Banneker to assist him in surveying the original boundaries of what would become the District of Columbia. Banneker also compiled several ephemerides (a type of astronomical chart) and almanacs.

In August of 1791, Banneker sent Jefferson, who was known both as a Founding Father and a devoted scientist, a draft of an almanac he was readying for publication. He felt compelled to include a personal note. In this letter, Banneker quoted the famous preamble to the Declaration of Independence (“We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal…”) and said plainly that he was disappointed in the hypocrisy of Jefferson, a slaveowner:

“…but Sir how pitiable is it to reflect, that altho you were so fully convinced of the benevolence of the Father of mankind, and of his equal and impartial distribution of those rights and privileges which he had conferred upon them, that you should at the Same time counteract his mercies, in detaining by fraud and violence so numerous a part of my brethren under groaning captivity and cruel oppression, that you should at the Same time be found guilty of that most criminal act, which you professedly detested in others, with respect to yourselves.”

Jefferson’s response, eleven days later, was cordial and complimentary but also condescending and racist. Jefferson praised the almanac and informed Banneker that he was sending it along to the Marquis de Condorcet, a French philosopher, mathematician, and abolitionist. The future president praised Banneker as a credit to the Black race, essentially telling him that he considered the almanac evidence that African American’s inferiority was owed “merely to the degraded condition of their existence both in Africa and America” and not to their innate inferiority, a paternalistic sentiment that was a frequent topic of debate among whites.

After Banneker’s death, Jefferson expressed doubt that a Black man could have written the almanac. He continued to own enslaved workers, despite decrying slavery in some of his writings, until his own death in 1826. Shortly after they were written, a Philadelphia publisher circulated a pamphlet containing Banneker’s eloquent argument for abolition and Jefferson’s non-committal response, which made the rounds among the nascent abolitionist movement. Contrary to the myth that slavery was universally accepted among educated and elite circles in the early United States, Banneker’s letter stands as proof that one of the nation’s founders received first-hand criticism of his hypocritical and contradictory stance on slavery in his lifetime.

READ MORE: Why Thomas Jefferson’s Anti-Slavery Passage Was Removed from the Declaration of Independence

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HIV-positive Ray brothers’ home burned down

On August 29, 1987, the home of the Ray brothers—three HIV-positive Florida boys—burns down in what was almost certainly a case of arson. The three brothers, who are not in the house at the time, have already faced intense discrimination due to their HIV status, and today their story serves as a reminder of the brutal reality of America’s reaction to the HIV/AIDS crisis.

Richard, Robert and Randy Ray, who were 10, 9 and 8 at the time, were all born with hemophilia, a condition that required them to receive blood transfusions. As was all too common in the 1980s, before the government and medical establishment had fully grappled with the scope of HIV/AIDS and how best to manage the epidemic, the brothers contracted HIV from HIV-positive blood donors. Although it was widely known by the late 80s that this was a common way of contracting HIV, and that HIV affected people of all sexual orientations, many Americans still considered the virus a “gay disease,” compounding the stigma of the illness with homophobia.

This was the case in the Rays’ hometown of Arcadia, Florida. When the boys’ HIV status became public knowledge, they were shunned from their church and their friends and barred from attending school due to widespread misconceptions around how the virus could be spread (attending the same school as someone with HIV poses virtually zero risk of becoming infected). The Rays’ parents took DeSoto County to federal court, demanding that their sons be allowed to attend, and eventually won the case. Locals responded with a partial boycott of the boys’ school and with threatening phone calls to the Rays, which prompted the family to stay over elsewhere. Although they avoided the fire, which reportedly started in the boys’ bedroom, they were forced to leave their hometown forever. “Arcadia is no longer our home,” their father, Clifford Ray, told the press the day after the fire. “That much was made clear to us last night.”

Ricky Ray died of an AIDS-related illness in 1992, at age 15. In 1998, Congress passed the Ricky Ray Relief Act, establishing a fund to help cover expenses for hemophiliacs who contracted HIV/AIDS. Robert Ray died in 2000 at age 22. 

READ MORE: AIDS Crisis Timeline

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