A Kentucky couple is working to help students forced into distance learning by to the COVID-19 pandemic. Jim and Gloria Hollifield started “Marshall County Desks,” a program that gives students free desks. They assemble desks for virtual learners in order to create a productive space for children at home. Every school in Marshall County has received desks. His wife Gloria makes “goodie” baskets that go along with them.

The mother of a Hogg Middle School student said Monday that her son has been sexually harassed and cyberbullied on a chat app sanctioned by Houston Independent School District. “This is their verbal chat room, where the teachers are discussing their assignments,” the woman said. “Threatening to kill him, sending him porn images of rape and sodomy, homosexual and heterosexual, and this all happened on the HISD teams app,” she said. The chat app is still available to students. The Houston Independent School District released a statement regarding the incident:Acts of sexual harassment and bullying, whether in-person or online, are a serious violation of the Houston Independent School District’s Code of Student Conduct, as well as, Title IX of the Civil Rights Act.

Even before the pandemic shuttered most brick-and-mortar schools, Fusco, with the help of her parents, enrolled in an online school called Western Christian Academy. There, she's able to learn at her own pace, with no bullying kids to distract or upset her. But after millions of schoolchildren suddenly transferred to cyber school, some are finding a surprising upside: Complicated social dynamics can simplify, sometimes evaporate, as they learn online. It's not cyber bullying, in which a child is targeted for a sustained period of time, but it's behavior that causes a child to feel excluded, bruised, sad and confused. "Moreover, children who did not want to go to school because they were bullied are now flourishing with the online learning.

Hard-working parents like Samantha Miller are desperately trying to get laptop computers for the children. Thanks to Comp-U-Dopt, Miller’s children are getting a free laptop to use at home. How to get a free laptop? If you would like to register to get a free laptop computer for your children, you must log onto the Comp-U-Dopt website at noon daily to register. If you have a used laptop you can donate, you can visit the website for more information.