Public high school students in the nation’s capital may soon be able to graduate without taking a single U.S. government course.

The D.C. State Board of Education proposed changes to the graduation requirements in December that would require students to take more physical education, art and music courses instead.  

The proposal, put forward to combat declining graduation rates in the District, where fewer than two-thirds of high school students earn a diploma, would also require students to write a thesis and raise the total number of required credits in D.C. public schools from 24 to 26 -- more than students need to earn diplomas in many other states, according to the National Center for Graduation Statistics. 

---

Some of the new requirements -- specifically nixing the need for a government course -- have drawn the ire of advocates for civics education.

Patrick Mara, who represents Ward 1 on the school board, believes a majority of the nine-member board won't back the proposal. 

"This is one of those things that looks great on paper, and it's very well-intentioned, but it goes without saying that U.S. government should be a requirement in the District of Columbia," Mara said. 

Mara said he would "certainly vote against" the proposal if it came to a vote anytime soon.

Other key changes to students' current graduation requirements in the proposal include making students take an additional unit of physical education, which can include organized extracurricular sports. Students would also have to do an additional 67.5 hours of physical activity each semester for all four years of high school.

In a letter to the board, an eight-person group representing several public schools in D.C. said it objected to the proposal for several reasons, including the physical activity requirement, saying it would be susceptible to fraudulent submissions for credit.

"We agree that students should be engaged in physical activity at all points of education, but the benefits of making it a graduation requirement do not outweigh the costs," the letter said. "Administering a tracking program for that level of detail of activity, especially if independent of an organization like a sports team, would be extremely burdensome."

Board members have said these specific changes were suggested in an effort to address health problems among D.C. children, including high rates of obesity and diabetes. 

"I think this is an opportunity for the State Board of Education to think through what it is we're doing with these graduation requirements," Mara said. "Some of these things, while they may seem sound, are at the end of the day impacting the lives of young adults, and we need to we've brought in enough stakeholders into this discussion to have a positive impact." 

The nation's high school graduation rate is the highest since 1976, but more than a fifth of students are still failing to get their diploma in four years, the Education Department said in a study released Tuesday.

Officials said the steady rise of students completing their education is a reflection of the struggling economy and a greater competition for new jobs. 

"If you drop out of high school, how many good jobs are there out there for you? None. That wasn't true 10 or 15 years ago," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in an interview with The Associated Press. 

The national dropout rate was about 3 percent overall, down from the year before. Many students who don't receive their diplomas in four years stay in school, taking five years or more to finish their coursework. 

---

Some 3.1 million students nationwide earned their high school diplomas in the spring of 2010, with 78 percent of students finishing on time. That's the best since a 75 percent on-time graduation rate during the 1975-76 academic year. 

The only better rate was 79 percent in 1969-70, a figure the department wouldn't vouch for. 

There were tremendous differences among the states in 2010. Fifty-eight percent of students in Nevada and 60 percent in Washington, D.C., completed their high school education in four years. By comparison, 91 percent of students in Wisconsin and Vermont did, according to the report. 

Latino graduation rates climb 10 points since 2006

Graduation rates increased by more than a percentage point in 38 states between 2009 and 2010, the study found. Only the District of Columbia saw its graduation rates decline between by greater than a percentage point during those years. 

Among the most significant factors of the increase was the dire U.S. economy after the 2008 Wall Street meltdown. During the 2009-10 academic year, unemployment ranged from 9.4 percent to 10 percent. 

"When I grew up on the South Side of Chicago it wasn't great, but I had lots of friends who dropped out and they could go work in the stockyards or steel mills and they could buy a home, support a family, do OK," Duncan said. 

But those jobs are gone and won't come back, he said. 

California, the nation's largest public school system by enrollment, led the nation in new graduates in 2010, turning out almost 405,000. It also produced the most dropouts: almost 93,000. That translated to a rate of about 5 percent, above the national average. 

During the 2009-10 academic year, some 514,000 students dropped out of high school nationwide. Still, the rate declined from 4 percent during the seven previous academic years, when data was sometimes incomplete or represented averages of states that reported figures. 

Nationally, students were most likely to drop out of high school during their senior year, with roughly one in 20 quitting before graduation day. In every state, males were more likely to drop out. 

Arizona had the highest dropout rate, at 8 percent, followed by Mississippi at 7 percent. Washington, D.C., schools also posted a 7 percent dropout rate, the Education Department projected based on previous years' reporting. 

Mississippi, New Mexico and Wyoming had dropout rates rise more than one percentage point, while Delaware, Illinois and Louisiana saw noticeable decreases. Delaware dropped from about 5 percent to 4 percent. Illinois dropped from roughly 12 percent to 3 percent. And Louisiana dropped from 7 percent to 5 percent. 

"The trends are hopeful but our high school dropout rate is still unsustainably high and it's untenable in many of our African-American and Latino communities. We have a long way to go here," Duncan said. 

Nationally, white and Asian and Pacific Islander students were among the least likely to leave school without a degree, with only 2 percent dropout rates. Hispanic students posted a 5 percent dropout rate, followed by blacks at 6 percent and American Indians and Alaska Natives at 7 percent. 

"There's no young person who aspires to be a high school dropout," Duncan said. "When someone drops out, it's a symptom of a problem. It's not the problem itself. Something has gone radically wrong."

Updated at 6:47 p.m. ET: A handcuffed Houston-area high school student shot himself in the head Wednesday while in the back of a police car, officials said.

The 17-year-old student was rushed to Ben Taub Hospital. He was in the intensive care unit after undergoing surgery, school officials said.

No one else was hurt.

---

The incident began when police were called to North Shore Senior High School in unincorporated Harris County to investigate a report of a student with a firearm, said Capt. Jon Moore with the Harris County Constable Precinct 3.

The student was searched, handcuffed behind his back and placed in the back of a patrol car but apparently still had a gun, Moore said.

The student then shot himself, Galena Park Independent School District officials said.

District spokesman Jonathan Frey gave the following account:

This morning at North Shore Senior High School, a student was arrested. He was searched, handcuffed, and placed in the back of a police car. While in the car, the student retrieved a hidden gun and shot himself. Paramedics were called and quickly arrived on scene. He was transported to the hospital still conscious when he left. His family accompanied him to the hospital.

Students at North Shore Senior High School remain safe. Counselors are available for students as needed.

In a follow-up email to NBC News, Frey said the gun was apparently hidden well enough to evade detection when the student was frisked prior to being placed in the patrol car.

The Harris County Sheriff's Office will investigate the shooting, Moore said.

Watch the Top Videos on NBCNews.com

In July, an Arkansas man fatally shot himself while handcuffed in the back of a police car. Officials say Chavis Carter, 21, committed suicide even though he was handcuffed from behind and had been searched twice for weapons. He had been picked up by authorities during a traffic stop in Jonesboro, Ark.

More content from NBCNews.com:

• In 911 call, Belcher's mom begs girlfriend not to die
• Bob Costas: We need to talk about America's gun culture
• Conversion therapists: 'You can't say gay once, gay always'
• West Point cadet quits, cites 'criminal' behavior of officers
• Video: Photographer: ‘No way’ I could have saved subway victim

Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

A judge ruled Thursday that a group of cheerleaders fighting for the right to display biblical-themed banners during high school football games in their small Texas community could continue to do so, at least until the battle goes to court next June.

The cheerleaders in Kountze prompted a complaint to the school district in September when they rolled out banners with scriptural references, such as "I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me," and "But thanks be to God which gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

A letter of complaint from the nonprofit Freedom from Religion Foundation prompted Kountze Independent School District Superintendent Keven Weldon to bar the religious banners.

---

The foundation argued that when the religious sentiments are displayed by cheerleaders in school uniforms before large groups of students at official school functions, the banners violate the constitutional separation of church and state.

"It is not a personal opinion of mine," Weldon told the Houston Chronicle after making his initial decision. "My personal convictions are that I am a Christian as well. But I'm also a state employee and Kountze (school district) representative. And I was advised that that such a practice (religious signs) would be in direct violation of United States Supreme Court decisions."

But parents and attorneys for the girls, supported by the nonprofit law firm, the Liberty Institute, filed a lawsuit arguing that the scriptural banners should be allowed as constitutionally guaranteed free speech. The judge granted a temporary injunction on enforcement of the ban.

On Thursday, District Judge Steve Thomas extended that injunction until a trial scheduled for June 24.

The cheerleaders gained heavyweight support Wednesday when Texas Governor Rick Perry and State Attorney General Greg Abbot made high-profile endorsements of the religious messages.

"We will not allow atheist groups from outside of the state of Texas to come into the state, to use menacing and misleading intimidation tactics, to try to bully schools to bow down at the altar of secular beliefs," Abbot said in a statement Wednesday.

The Freedom from Religion Foundation, which is a national group based in Madison, Wis., said that it did not expect a favorable ruling on the case in Texas courts, and that it hoped to take the case to federal court.

"If the school district drops this, what we would like to do is sue the school district, but we have to have a plaintiff," said Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of the Madison, Wis.-based organization.

But she said that finding someone to be named in the lawsuit in Kountze, a predominantly conservative Christian community with a population of about 2,100, is a challenge.

"People who are in the community are afraid to come out of the closet," said Gaylor. "Our complainant is not able to be the plaintiff for that reason."

A Facebook page supporting the cheerleaders had more than 48,300 members on Thursday.

"Our little town is sticking together and standing behind our kids!!!" the introduction to the page states. "Someone has tried to prevent our cheerleaders from ...using religious scriptures on their run-through signs at the football games. This was all led by our children, and they made the decision to give the glory to God this year. We, as a community, will stand up for our kids and make sure they do not lose their voice and their rights in this."

More content from NBCNews.com:

• U.S. nonprofit 'names and shames' businesses to put bite into Iran sanctions
• Same-sex marriage supporters rack up large war chests in state battles
• Snakes in an SUV: Thief steals vehicle full of reptiles
• Video: How dangerous was NYC bomb plot suspect?
• Ocelots, pro baseball pitcher and pipeline builder tangled up in lawsuit

Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Follow Kari Huus on Facebook

Officials at a high school in Minnesota are drawing the ire of more than a hundred of its students and parents for refusing to memorialize in its yearbook a student who committed suicide. 

Kyle Kenyan would have been a senior this year at Menagha Public School in Menagha, Minn., but he committed suicide on Jan. 8. When word got out that school staff wouldn’t memorialize the teen in this year’s yearbook due out in May 2013, classmates started a petition to appeal their decision.

Even though this year’s senior class has less than 50 students, about 100 students throughout the rest of his school have signed the petition to get a memorial page in their yearbook, something his mother, Peggy Havnes, would also like to see.

---

“When I heard about it last week, I sort of fumed underneath because it’s not my fight to fight,” Kyle’s mother, Peggy Havnes, told NBC News. “My main concern is the kids, and I want to stand up for the injustice that goes to Kyle’s classmates, the class of 2013.”

 

But Menahga Public Schools Superintendent Mary Klamm said the school district’s policy on the issue is clear and firm. 

“Long before Kyle’s death, we made the decision not to include memorials in our K-12 yearbook while we were updating our crisis manual,” Klamm told NBC News. “During that process, we took a lot of time to decide how to properly respond to the death of a student or faculty member, and we were recommended not to memorialize suicide because of the possibility of copycats. That’s our biggest fear.”   

Stay informed with the latest headlines; sign up for our newsletter

Klamm said a decision against a memorial page for Kyle in the yearbook, which will go to the school's 876 students, does not mean he'll be excluded from the yearbook entirely.

But students who have persisted in their quest to get a memorial page, Havnes said, have been told by school staff they could lose their walking privileges at graduation if they don't end their campaign. And the clash between students and administrators over her son, she said, has only served as a reminder of her of his death months ago. 

“We were so saddened by this tragedy, and it’s very hard because all of our personal feelings that we had as a family when Kyle died have resurfaced,” Havnes said. “He was battling with some depression and we were trying to get him some help and it just didn’t come in time. We have a lot of family and community support and the least amount of support is coming from the school.”

Klamm said the movement to get a memorial page for Kyle was started by only “a couple of really loud” seniors who “completely circumvented school officials” and instead made public their pleas for the memorial.

Regardless, Havnes said there would be a clear lesson in the decision to include her son in the yearbook.

“I think we need to use this as a teaching tool because this can happen in anybody’s family and we need to take into consideration that this is not just my child but the community’s child,” Havnes said. “And if we can prevent any other family from going through this then we’ve accomplished something.”

Klamm said she has been in contact with other school administrators and they have made the same decision on yearbook memorials. “This is something schools have to deal with.”

In a similar incident, officials at the Winnisquam Regional School District in Tilton, N.H., were wrestling this month with a campaign waged by high school students who wanted to pay tribute in this year’s yearbook to a classmate, Alexandria “Ali” Nixon, who committed suicide in May 2010.

Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com 

After students were allegedly told no mention would be made of Nixon in the yearbook, they started a petition on the website Change.org, which garnered some 1,500 signatures from people in several states and foreign countries. One student’s father even offered to purchase an entire page of the yearbook to dedicate to Nixon’s life but was refused by school administrators.

School officials denied ever mentioning that no mention would be made of Nixon. Members of the yearbook staff said the student responsible for drafting, circulating and submitting the petition ended up shredding it -- something the student subsequently confirmed.

School officials stressed that they followed school district protocol and affirmed that they would acknowledge Nixon in the yearbook, but they “did not want to glorify a death by suicide,” said Tammy Davis, the Winnisquam Regional School District superintendent.

Though the deadline for the Menagha High School yearbook is Nov. 1, Klamm said the issue is not closed because modern technology makes changes possible.

“Best practices tells us that that’s not the best thing to do,” Klamm said. “Are we going to have a memorial page? No. But we are going to continue to have a discussion to see what other options are available to memorialize Kyle.”

“The kids want this memorial and this memory page for Kyle,” Havnes  said, “and I think the kids should have a say-so in what they want in their yearbook. It’s not to remember a suicide, it’s to remember Kyle.”

More content from NBCNews.com:

• Report: Ariz. military recruiters shot paintballs at homeless
• Prank gone wrong? Alabama teen shot in head
• Undocumented hit GED barrier in quest for legal status
• Police: Two held after tot's drive-by shooting
• Musician in Jerry Lee Lewis' band killed in Memphis shooting
• Video: Skydiver’s edge-of-space dive breaks sound barrier

Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Updated at 5:54 p.m. ET: A Baltimore County, Md., high school student opened fire Monday in the school cafeteria on the first day of classes, critically injuring a classmate before he was rushed and subdued by teachers, authorities said.

The 15-year-old suspect was taken into custody. Police said the teen was cooperating with investigators.

Police said they didn’t believe the victim, a 17-year-old male, was targeted by the shooter, who is also a student at Perry Hall High School in Perry Hall, Md. Police recovered the firearm, but would not say what type of weapon it was.

---

Baltimore County Police Chief James Johnson said the suspect acted alone. During a press conference in Perry Hall, Johnson did not answer numerous questions from reporters about a possible motive.

Johnson said at about 10:45 a.m., a student walked into the cafeteria and pulled out a gun. He fired one shot before being rushed by teachers, and another shot went off as teachers grabbed him, Johnson said.

Miranda Wienecke, a junior at the high school, said she saw the suspect with a "huge black thing." "I saw people getting under the table," Wienecke told The Baltimore Sun. "Then I saw people running. We heard this huge boom, then there was another one, everything happened very fast."

Kelsey Long, another junior at Perry Hall, said she was in the cafeteria when she heard gunshots. "I heard a loud popping noise and we thought it was someone popping a bag, but then we heard it again and everyone started screaming and ran out to the front of the school," Long told The Associated Press in a Twitter message.

Another student who didn't want to be identified said everyone then started running. "There was no thinking. I just ran. There was nothing I could do," the student told WBAL-TV. "As soon as I hit the front door, I saw people going out the side door. This one girl was on the ground getting stepped on."

Police said several other students suffered minor, non-shooting injuries during the incident.

"We have some heroic and brave faculty members," Schools Superintendent Dallas Dance told the AP. "They responded very quickly to minimize damage."

The school was evacuated, and students were escorted to a nearby shopping center and middle school.

WJZ-TV showed video of a shirtless male with his hands behind his back being put into a police cruiser.

Perry Hall is a middle-class community along the Interstate 95 corridor, northeast of Baltimore city. The school is the largest in the county, with 2,200 students.

County Councilman David Marks, who lives next door to the school, told The Associated Press he had received dozens of phone calls and text messages from worried parents and residents. "This is a very comfortable, very safe community, and it's an excellent high school," said Marks, who graduated from Perry Hall. "I think this is an aberration, but clearly one that is horrifying, particularly on the first day of school."

Television coverage showed scores of police cars surrounding the school and parked on neighborhood streets. A group of officers with weapons drawn staked out a corner of the building, one of them lying prone on the ground and appearing to cover a particular area of the campus. Hundreds of students streamed away from the school toward a nearby shopping center where they met their parents.

Cathy Le, 15, said students were panicking as they tried to find out what was happening, texting and calling each other frantically as they waited in lockdown.

Le said she and other students were locked in their classrooms for more than an hour.

At the scene, buses, emergency vehicles and parents in cars filled the roadway between the high school and the shopping center. There were obvious signs of relief displayed as parents found their children.

Kristin Kraus, whose son James attends the school, described hearing about the shooting as "absolute terror." However, Kraus said, "within a couple of minutes he texted my husband that he was OK."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More content from NBCNews.com:

• High wind, rains lash Florida Keys as Isaac strengthens
• Family of Reagan shooter John Hinckley can't afford legal bills
• Astronaut Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on moon, dies at age 82
• Grizzly mauls hiker to death at Denali National Park
• Video: GOP hurdles heading into convention

Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

 

A high school cheerleading coach is under police investigation over squad members' allegation that they played a stripping game at her suburban Atlanta home in July.

According to a police report obtained by the Smoking Gun, the game, called “judge and jury,” involved the coach acting as the judge, older team members acting as the jury; the younger team members were supposedly those put on trial.  

The younger team members would have to answer questions beginning with the word “Honestly.” If they did not answer correctly, they were told to remove an article of clothing or run laps. Cheerleaders could reduce the number of laps to run by taking off an article of clothing, according to the police report.

---

The game came to light when a cheerleader told a school official, who then questioned the coach about the sleepover.

Watch the most-viewed videos on NBCNews.com

The coach told the school official that she closed her eyes and did not see if anyone removed all their clothing, according to the police report.

The coach said she saw “only the students (who) removed clothing to reveal their undergarments.”

The coach resigned shortly afterward from her position at Lovejoy High School in Clayton County, according to the Clayton News Daily.

WSB-TV in Atlanta spoke with the mother of a cheerleader who attended the July 18 sleepover. The mother said her ninth-grade daughter had been too ashamed to tell her about the night until recently. According to media reports, the game was intended to be a bonding experience.

"What child ain't going to try to fit in? They telling her this is what we do every year,” the mother told WSB-TV. “Y'all do this every year? Really?"

Police are also investigating whether the alleged game was captured on video.

This isn't the first time the cheer squad's adult leaders have been in the spotlight. In May 2011, the treasurer of the cheer squad booster club was arrested for stealing $4,000. Two mothers were also accused of being a part of the theft, according a report by WSBTV. 

More content from NBCNews.com:

• Penn State ex-president Graham Spanier: Freeh report on sex scandal is wrong
• Monument to Civil War general, Ku Klux Klan leader triggers controversy
• Scalia: Judges should interpret words, not intent
• Nearly two-thirds of Americans can't name a single Supreme Court justice
• Air Force rules limit size of tattoos, role of gospel
• Mystery Michigan Powerball winner contacts lottery officials

Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook