Extra Credit

Southlake Carroll football fan pays $1,075 for photo of good luck fox

Billed as the "ultimate Christmas gift for your Dragon," a picture of a fox dashing across the field during Southlake Carroll's winning state semifinal sold for $1,075 in an Ebay auction Wednesday. (Shipping was free).

Proceeds from the picture, donated by Southlake sports photographer Bob Beauvais and autographed by quarterback Kenny Hill and head coach Hal Wasson, will go to charity.

This morning, the folks at www.carrolldragons.com told fans to watch for another auction starting today, this time of a full-sized Dragon football helmet covered in Swarovski crystals.

UPDATE: the Dragon logo helmet auction has begun, with a starting bid figure of $1,500. Bidding ends Saturday at 8 p.m., and if the buyer pays immediately, it can be picked up Christmas Eve.

UPDATE 2: The auction drew a single bidder, who won the helmet after placing a bid for the asking price of $1,500 just two minutes before the auction closed on Christmas Eve, records show. 

Here's a pic from the listing:

Dragon fans are tapping into social media and online sites to continue celebrating their eighth state football title while school is on winter break.

Shortly after the championship game last week, Southlake Carroll ISD Athletics posted Facebook pictures of the trophies at the base of a Christmas tree. The caption: "Merry Christmas, Dragons."

A pic uploaded Tuesday shows team captains designing their Texas football championship rings. Another post says the Dragon Den spirit shop sold out of state champion t-shirts and athletic boosters made a rush order for more, due in on Friday afternoon. The black shirt lists the years Carroll took state titles with the slogan: "History Repeats Itself."

Jessamy Brown

$760 and counting: Southlake Carroll football fans bid on photo of lucky fox

Southlake Carroll schools' mascot is a fire-breathing dragon, but right now, they're crazy about a fox.

It all started when a small fox darted onto the field just as Carroll's quarterback Kenny Hill was making the winning touchdown in the last moments of the Texas Class 5A Division I state semifinals on Dec. 10.

Fans took the appearance of the fox at SMU's Ford Stadium as a lucky sign. Fans brought fox replicas to the state championship at Cowboys Stadium the next week. And a photo of the moment, showing Hill crossing paths with the fox, was put up for auction on Ebay. The framed print is autographed by Hill, a junior, and coach Hal Wasson, who is nicknamed the Silver Fox.

It's a hot ticket. By late Wednesday afternoon, with about five hours left, bidders had driven the price from $100 to $760. The week-long auction ends Wednesday evening. The money will go to Christ's Haven for Children, a Keller-based charity.

The Dragons went on to win the state championship on Dec. 17, prevailing over Fort Bend Hightower 36 to 29. It is the eighth state titles for Carroll Senior High School.

Jessamy Brown

 

Note: the picture to the right isn't the one being auctioned. It shows one Southlake fan's enthusiam for the good-luck fox.                                                                         

TCC is investigating Nov. 8 lecture and events that stirred recent controversy

Allegations of threats and discrimination – that have characterized a controversy surrounding a Nov.8 lecture on Islam – will be part of a Tarrant County College investigation that is expected to include interviews of students in the class.

Professor Paul Derengowski’s Great Religions of the World class on TCC’s Southeast Campus grabbed headlines after a Nov. 8 lecture on Islam ended with two Muslim students questioning his source material. Other students in the class have reported feeling threatened by the events that unfolded. One of the Muslim students, Randa Bedair, apparently sent an email to students stating she felt Derengowski’s teachings were bias.

The controversy resulted in Derengowski’s Nov. 15 resignation.

Now, TCC is under community scrutiny to find out exactly what happened.

“It’s regrettable and we are doing the best we can to gather all the facts,” said Bill Greenhill, president of TCC’s Board of Trustees.

Greenhill said the administration is looking at various issues that have surfaced, including what type of threats or disturbance took place in the class, was there any discrimination involved, and was the professor’s syllabus appropriate for the class.

Greenhill said the investigation will include questioning all the students about the Nov. 8 incident – a process that will take place when finals are out of the way.

“We are not going to pounce on anybody’s rights,” Greenhill said. “We have to figure out what the facts are.”

-Diane Smith

 

Fort Worth high school student recalls holiday trip to China

Climbing the Great Wall of China, seeing pandas at the Beijing zoo and sharing a meal with a Kung Fu
Master were just some of the highlights of a recent trip for 36 Trimble Tech High School students.

During the Thanksgiving break last month, the group traveled to China for an educational field trip, the fourth abroad for the school, said geography teacher Dustin Alexander. Student Fernanda Ramon recently shared her experiences on the trip. Here's her recap:

Our first day shocked our systems, both mental and physical. None of us had ever been that cold in our lives. Tiananmen Square had three huge buildings and seas of people walking about, being tourists like us. Our favorite part of the first day was indeed the Forbidden City. The wind was beating down on us and the cold freezing our faces, but being in another country made us immune to everything.

The Summer Palace was beautiful, but a summer palace indeed since during the fall the wind was cold and water freezing. We were the center of attention for a while as the local people got to watch 48 awkward Americans try to practice Tai Chi. The Long Corridor was full of vendors who tried to sell us panda hats for two dollars while we tried to bargain for one.

Everybody’s favorite spot was the Great Wall of China. Halfway to the Wall, we stopped at the Pearl Store and the jewelry was crazy expensive, but we all thought our mothers were worth it. Our first view of the wall was a sight to see for we didn’t care that it was small, because we were about to climb one of the Seven Wonders of the World.We had two hours to climb and could go either direction on the wall. Before climbing, some of the girls and I decided to have a photo op, all of a sudden we became the tourist attraction for many others as they came up to take pictures with us, too. We found it hilarious and rather flattering.

My friends and I picked the side that had less people and later decided it really was the wrong decision. This was because the climb was steep. We climbed, taking lots of pictures on the way. As we climbed, there were parts where we did not climb, but crawled as our hands and feet were at the same distance from the ground. Getting to the top was the best feeling in the world, because honestly, we felt on top of the world.  Being there was like being in a place where technology and problems didn’t exist, where the world only spun to change the day into a night of stars, and where the sky went on forever only making you see beauty and feel peace. 

Former councilman continues to express frustration over Fort Worth schools redistricting

Fort Worth schools trustees wanted to honor a nine-member committee for its work on redistricting. But chair Bert Williams, a former city councilman, used it as another opportunity to express how upset he was over the whole process.

Only one other committee member -- former Fort Worth school board president Mollie Lasater -- attended tonight's meeting for the recognition. Williams said others did not want to attend.

"They were very disappointed in the process," Williams said. "They felt they had wasted their time."

The committee spent months working on options to redraw voting boundaries from eight to nine single-member districts. A plan had been brought forward by the committee and taken to the public for input. After that, the committee made its final recommendation to the board.

However, trustees narrowly voted 5-4 to adopt a plan brought forward by an attorney how represented Hispanic groups in the last redistricting lawsuit against the Fort Worth school district. Trustees in favor of that plan had said it was basically the same as the committee's recommendation but gave Hispanics a more fair chance at representation.

Critics of the plan that was adopted had said trustees played politics and did not listen to resident concerns about wanting to be represented by a board member who also represented their neighborhood schools.

Earlier in the process, former board president William Koehler resigned from the committee after Bert Williams had brought forward a plan that the entire committee had not yet voted on as a whole. Williams had said at the time that last-minute changes had to be made when it was discovered that two trustees -- Christene Moss and Tobi Jackson -- would have been in the same district. Williams said then that all committee members had been notified of the changes before bringing that plan forward to trustees.

--Eva-Marie Ayala

-Eva-Marie Ayala

Dogs run down children on Arlington school playground

Second-graders at Bryant Elementary School in Arlington were chased down by neighborhood dogs who came to play on Friday afternoon, according to school officials.

Five of the children suffered skinned knees, elbows and a possible bite when they fled once the dogs became too aggressive. The children were treated onsite at the school for their injuries. A note was sent home to parents.

The dogs, who were already known by Arlington Animal Control officers who have picked them up before, are being held in 10-day quarantine, said district spokesperson Amy Casas.

Campus officials at Bryant are in the process of filing a Dangerous Dog affidavit.

_Shirley Jinkins

Texas specialty license plate approved for Keller High School

Texas officials have approved a specialty license plate for Keller High School, one of five designs that got the nod Thursday from the state's department of motor vehicles board.

Officials from MyPlates, the plate's vendor, said in a Thursday news release that plans are to have the Keller plates available for sale online by February. The plates cost $55 per year and personalization costs extra.

The Keller High plates project was spearheaded by a campus booster club, a Keller school district spokesman said.

Other plates approved: The Glory Gang, a non-profit organization that raises money for underprivileged children, Keller High School, Michigan State University, University of Louisiana and University of South Carolina.

The Southlake-based Carroll school district was the first Texas school district to get a specialty license plate in 2010, which features its trademarked Dragon logo.

Jessamy Brown

 

Fort Worth school board president resigns

Fort Worth school board president Raymond G. Dickerson announced he is resigning effective on Thursday, citing health reasons, a Wednesday news release said.

Dickerson, a retired bank executive, was elected to the school board in June 2008.

Under school board policy, trustees can decide whether to choose a president among current board members, appoint a person from the outside or hold a special election. The next regular board meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 13. However, special meeting is already planned for Monday, Dec. 12, to meet with a superintendent search firm, a school district spokesman said.

Read more in the Star-Telegram.

Jessamy Brown

UTA to match Moritz family $500,000 gift

The University of Texas at Arlington announced Tuesday the creation of a $1 million endowment to support a new chair of geriatric nursing research. The endowment is possible through a commitment from the Moritz family of $500,000. That gift will be matched through UTA's Maverick Match program, which uses natural gas royalties to boost donations.

The gift establishes the first endowed faculty chair in the College of Nursing, which has more than tripled its enrollment over the last three years.

"This is a phenomenal commitment," said Elizabeth Poster, dean of the College of Nursing, in a press release. "This gift will help us attract the kind of prominent scholar who can help move our research agenda forward and help inspire our students to see themselves as scientists and scholars for the future."

Earlier this year, the Moritz family, of Moritz Dealerships, gave UTA a $750,000 gift for College Park Center, a new multi-purpose facility in the final phase of construction. That contribution will be recognized with the naming of "Moritz Plaza," an open area on the north side of the new arena.

-Diane Smith

Fort Worth schools clarify rules banning Santa, gifts in class

The Fort Worth school district "loves Santa."

Officials posted a note on the district's website this morning seeking to clarify its position on Santa Claus after the Star-Telegram reported on updated guidelines that say Santa is not allowed to visit classes.

Interim Superintendent Walter Dansby said that Santa is welcome on campus: "He can be in the lobby. He can be in the cafeteria. He can be in the auditorium. He can be in the school, outside the school, around the school. But he cannot visit the classroom while the teacher is teaching."

Principals were told by the district's chief of schools on Tuesday that, "No instructional time may be devoted to classroom visits by characters associated with holidays (Santa Claus, Easter bunnies, Cupids, etc.). PTAs or parent groups may choose to sponsor such activities, but they shall not occur during the instructional day." 

The district today also said that students can exchange presents and holiday cards before and after class, in the hallway and in the lunchroom, but not during classroom instruction.

A spokesman on Thursday had said that students were allowed to hand out presents and cards for celebrations such as Christmas and Valentine's Day before school, after school or during lunch.

The issue has drawn criticism from parents.

But the school district said Friday: "Fort Worth ISD loves Santa Claus and continues to support his universal message of generosity and kindness."

-- Jessamy Brown