Have you peeked inside your kid's backpack lately? A Philadelphia mom got the shock of her life when she took a look-see inside her son's bag. Turns out the 14-year-old is reading the erotic novel Fifty Shades of Grey, and you'll never guess who bought it for him.

His ninth grade teacher.

Think the educator crossed the line? Maybe not.

For the first time ever, the students at North Carolina's Wheatmore High were allowed to use a prop in their senior yearbook pictures. The only rule: it had to represent an achievement or something they liked. For most students, that meant a basketball, award, violin, or family pet. However, one student wanted to use a photo of herself holding her baby. For Caitlin Tiller, posing with her son Leelin represented taking responsibility and unconditional love. It's an admirable gesture, to be sure, but the school banned the image and they were right to do so.

They say there's an exception to every rule, and that's what Kansas high school junior Courtney Widener's special prom date request should have been considered by school officials. But it wasn't -- at least, not at first. Courtney wanted to bring her 22-year-old brother, Senior Airman Casey Widener, to the prom, and I don't blame her: She'd only seen Casey once since he got back from his deployment in Afghanistan. Of course she wanted a night on the town with her big bro! But she was told that bringing her brother was against the school district's rule prohibiting anyone over the age of 21 from participating in prom activities. Courtney was devastated ... until Casey came up with a way to escort his sister without getting her in trouble.

Sending kids off to school or dance class or camp when they're small can be scary because they're so vulnerable -- what if, God forbid, they should cross paths with an abusive teacher or coach? But I've found that sending tweens off to class can be just as nerve-wracking, and this video of a female dance instructor in China both verbally and physically assaulting her 13- and 14-year-old students explains why.

The worst part of the whole thing, in my opinion, is that even though the students are almost the same size as their horrible teacher and could conceivably fight back or at least leave the class, they don't -- they just take the abuse. Why? Because the teacher is an "authority figure." And while this is an extreme example of a very, very dysfunctional dynamic, a less hateful version of the same harassment could be happening to your kid right now.

A Michigan mom has filed a complaint with her school district, saying that a book that contains "pornographic" material should be removed from the schools. Golly gee whiz, did Fifty Shades make it into a school library somewhere?! Uhh, not quite. The "pornographic" book that got this mom's knickers in a twist? The Diary of Anne Frank. Yep, there is actually a mom somewhere who thinks that a diary by a 15-year-old girl detailing the horrors of the Holocaust is too dirty for her daughter to read -- but not because of the mass killings of the Jews, but because Anne mentioned her private parts!

Here's a story that will leave a smile on your face all day. Seventeen-year-old Mariah Herron desperately wanted a camo dress to wear to prom, but she couldn't find one the family could afford in stores. So her doting dad made her a prom dress.

Go ahead and just let it out ... awww! The story comes out of Wisconsin, but it could have happened anywhere.

Oh good grief. A teenage girl described as a good student with a clean record just got expelled and arrested for what even her principal says was a "science experiment" gone wrong. If you've got a budding scientist at home, you might want to warn them that common sense has officially been kicked out of the education system. 

Why else would a school call in the cops for something they're supposed to be teaching kids to do?

As parents, we tend to live in fear of being "that mom," the one who complains about something her kid's school is doing and ends up being labeled as the pain in the butt. But this may change your mind. A family has been awarded $90 million in a lawsuit against their daughter's school this week because the Maryland school failed to keep their 13-year-old safe.

Ashley Davis was crossing the street to get on her bus when a motorist hit her. She died as a result of her injuries. Her devastated parents decided to sue the Prince George's County Board of Education rather than the motorist for one simple reason.