I'm always troubled by school district policies that seek to ban the Confederate flag. It is a symbol with a multiplicity of meanings, depending upon the wearer and the observer. Is it a racist hate symbol? The iconic image of ancestral heritage? A signe of rebelliousness? Or simply an advertising slogan (we have a "blody-art shop near school, patronized by all ethninc groups, called Southern Boys', that uses the banner as its logo)? What should schools do about the flag> And what CAN they do?

Personally, I think this district stepped over the line in its response to the Confederate flag. They want to ban every flag except the American flag, unless specific advance permission is obtained to celebrate a certain heritage on a particular day.

The proposed ban, which would be unique in the Tampa Bay region, was drafted by a district committee examining changes to the student code of conduct. In addition to barring students from wearing the Confederate flag, the proposal would keep them from wearing the flag of any other country, unless there is "a designated ethnic recognition activity held at the school."

The scope of the flag ban could make it vulnerable to litigation. Becky Steele, director of the West Central Florida region of the American Civil Liberties Union, said it was "overly broad" and would create "serious first amendment problems."

Barbara Renczkowski, president of the Hernando County council of PTAs and a member of the committee that proposed the change, said the ban had come up because officials wanted to head off students who might wear the Confederate flag to school. Members then decided to expand the ban rather than keep it narrow, Renczkowski said.

"It was an observation that it could possibly cause problems," Renczkowski said. "They just felt it would be easier to ban them all (except the American flag) instead of just one."

Now I see a couple of issues. First, there is the issue of Tinker v. DsMoines. Are these flags causing a disruption in school? It seems not, with the possible exception of the Confederate flag. But the article doesn't list any problems in this school. And even if the wearing of the flag makes some uncomfortable, does it rise to the level of a disruption under Tinker? After all, the First Amendment exists to protect speech that makes people uncomfortable.

Second, does this ban constitute the establishment of a political orthodoxy by the school district? In permitting the American flag at all times, but banning all others except when permitted by schools, does it have the effect of endorsing one position and penalizing all others? If so, it would seem to go beyond the limits set in the 1943 Flag Salute case.

Still, I'm interested inthe thoughts of others. What do you think?

Posted by: Greg at 12:03 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 471 words, total size 3 kb.

Good grief -- if this young man has this exceptional talent and range, why deny him the right to compete on a fair and equal basis with the girls?

Singing soprano is for girls only in Texas' All-State Choir, eliminating a 17-year-old boy's chance to audition for a statewide honor and raising questions about gender and vocal performance.

The Texas Music Educators Association denied a petition by Mikhael Rawls of suburban Fort Worth to audition this fall for the elite ensemble as a soprano, a part traditionally sung by girls.

Rawls sings countertenor, a little known male voice part that has surged in popularity in classical and operatic circles in the past decade. He can sing an octave and a half higher than most boys his age, and he feels most comfortable singing in that range. He has even won first place as a soprano in the University Interscholastic League's competition two years in a row.

The association, however, does not allow boys to sing soprano, or alto or girls to sing tenor or bass. Association spokeswoman Amy Lear said the group adopted the rule two years ago because of concerns that girls auditioning for tenor parts were hurting their voices by singing too low.

"If you make a rule one way it has to work both ways,"

Actually, no you don't have to make it both ways. On the one hand, you have individuals being harmed by exceeding their abilities. On the other, you have someone trying to sing in their natural range. No reasonable judge in the world would see it differently.

Oh, that's right, I just used a non-sequiter -- "reasonable judge".

The young man, though, hits the nail right on the head in his letter to the association.

"This is an education association that is supposed to be fostering and developing young singers," said Maguire, who wrote a letter to the Texas group urging them to approve Rawls' petition. "Keeping someone from singing what is essentially natural to them is not fostering them."

Fortuantely, colleges are already looking at this fine young man. He'll get to sing on the college level -- and well beyond, if I do not miss my guess.

Good luck, Mikhael! I long to hear your voice some day.

Posted by: Greg at 01:59 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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We are always told that teenagers have a right to privacy and reproductive choice. So what is the deal here? On what basis is this nurse insisting that a student take a pregnancy test? Especially since the basis of her demand is a rumor that the girl herself denied.

A 15-year-old San Marcos girl and her father have filed a federal lawsuit against her school nurse, who allegedly forced the girl to take a pregnancy test.

The lawsuit claims nurse Dyanna Eastwood called the girl to her office and told her that a student at another school claimed he impregnated her.

Eastwood insisted the girl take the test, according to the lawsuit.

The girl said she did not have sex with the boy and denied that she was pregnant.

The girl's lawyer also said she was not pregnant.

The suit, which was filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Austin, claims the girl's privacy and constitutional rights were violated during the January event.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, claims Eastwood violated the girl's Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure.

There are a couple of fundamental problems here, from my point of view. more...

Posted by: Greg at 03:14 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I’m glad to know that I, as a history teacher, am in good company with one of out top contemporary American historians – David McCullough.

"We're raising a generation of Americans who are historically illiterate," McCullough said during a speech here Monday. "What they don't know about our history is staggering."

We are a society that has come to value immediacy over context. Too often there is a focus on the contemporary issues to the exclusion of the past. Imagine the shock of my students when they find out that slaves in the Greco-Roman world were white. And I won’t get in to the issue of how many of them insist on correcting me when I try to tell them about the Reformation and Martin Luther – they all shout out “King” the first time I mention the man whose 95 Theses are one of the most important documents of the last millenium. The American Revolution, and Great Depression are mysteries to them, and all they know about the Civil War is slavery. World War II is nothing but the Holocaust to them.

I’m only about 40 years old, but I knew this stuff at a significantly younger age. So did my peers, and our parents. How can we stem the tide that may result in the loss of much of our heritage in the space of a generation?

Posted by: Greg at 01:18 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
Post contains 234 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Ya know I've been thinking the same thing, believe it or not. I am a few years older you, and I work with several twenty-sonethings that are utterly clueless about our own hustory let alone the history of the world. I began to notice this when I heard about the "new emphasis" that our actions @ Hiroshima & Nagasaki were "immoral", and there was no corrosponding discussion about Pearl Harbor, or the Rape of NanKing. Maybe you and I (political differences put aside) should work together to do a history blog.

Posted by: Bubba Bo Bob Brain at Tue Jun 14 14:24:36 2005 (aHbua)

2 Hmmmm....

An intriguing thought.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Tue Jun 14 17:06:58 2005 (HMt1E)

3 Yeah, sad to see these things happen. They need to learn to put their shoes in that era to see why these things happen. Truman was absolutely distraught in deciding whether to bomb the cities or not.

One thing tho, are we seeing a balance in history for other races who had helped contributed in the making of the United States? It's been more than 20 years since I was in high school and yet my oldest daughter will be in the 7th grade. It'd be interesting to see what her history book says. Watch out for those PC lines in history books.

Posted by: mcconnell at Wed Jun 15 03:01:18 2005 (JRKms)

4 I just recently found out, a Great Uncle was slated to be in the first wave to attack Japan, if a ground war was to happen.

Without the use of those two bombs, would I have my uncle and my cousins? I seriously doubt it.

To listen to him talk about the preparations, the military had already written off the first 2 waves that would storm the shores of Japan.

The soldiers were being prepared to fight the elderly and the women and children of Japan.

Don't know about any of you, but I am glad I was not there, and have nothing but respect for those soldiers preparing to invade Japan.

Something kids today don't do is listen and hear the stories of WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam from those older relatives they have that were there, and did the actual fighting.

Instead they get liberal indoctrination as soon as the 1st grade, in some states.

I would be interested in the History blog if you B can do it without political spin.

You can never know everything, and learning should be an everyday thing!

Posted by: scubachris at Wed Jun 15 04:21:47 2005 (AktpP)

5 My great uncle was killed by a Japanese sniper by putting a bullet into his back on one of the islands in the Pacific during WWII.

Posted by: mcconnell at Wed Jun 15 10:18:12 2005 (LmcbS)

6 Also, my cousin was killed by a hand thrown grenade tossed into a tent shared by many sleeping troops in Kuwait prior to the 2nd Iraq war at Camp Pennsylvania. The tosser was none other than one of their own.

Posted by: mcconnell at Wed Jun 15 10:22:21 2005 (LmcbS)

7 Hey when it comes to history there is no politics as far as I am concerned, there are facts (sometimes inconvenient) and there are myths(always inconvenient, and almost always wrong), I think if I were to do this I would make sure that opinions were advertised as such.

Posted by: Bubba Bo Bob Brain at Wed Jun 15 13:30:07 2005 (aHbua)

8 McConnell: I don't think I'll get any rounds of disagreement from anyone when I say that the person who did that to your cousin was an absolutely vile person.

I am sorry for your loss, and respect your cousin's desire to do his or her duty and protect both our lives, and the lives of the Iraqi people. Nothing can repay such sacrifice, but I'd like to find out that we honor the soldiers that fight for us now as best we can.

Sub

Posted by: Subjugator at Wed Jun 15 14:23:10 2005 (r/FBF)

9 Thanks Sub. I never knew him. Just my mother's cousin (Betty Lenzi) whose son was killed. My mom knew him when he was a toddler. However, I can you tell you thing. There is one person who have frequented this board who said that Maj. Gregory Stone deserved to be buried rotting 6 ft under. A very vile individual indeed. Dirty mouth and all.

Posted by: mcconnell at Wed Jun 15 17:37:58 2005 (JRKms)

10 Exact words:

"...second, to make fun of his dead, mangled cousin who is rotting six feet under the cold ground."
http://ridor.blogspot.com/2005/04/reminder-for-bitch-session-iv.html

That alone proves how some people prefer to side with the enemy and put them on a pedestal instead. In this case, his hero seems to be Sgt. Akbar.


In any U.S. wars we should honor and remember the dead. Even some of the enemies such as the ones in Japan and Germany. They were the victim in the politics of war. Many of them were forced into battle. So many young men..literally boys who never gotten a chance at a good life.

I've seen a PBS show or something similar where both Japan and U.S. WWII veterans met each other for the first time on one of those Midway islands. Many veterans were happen to have reconciled knowing it was a vile time in history. I thing reconciling such past events is therapeutic and helps heal wounds.

Posted by: mcconnell at Wed Jun 15 17:51:52 2005 (JRKms)

11 I feel bad about anyone who dies in war. They're almost always kids who are either conscripted, brainwashed, misguided, or otherwise actually doing the right thing. What they rarely are is people that are flat out evil and wrong.

Now - the LEADERS of the countries that are evil and wrong...well...let's just say Saddam has none of my sympathy.

Sub

Posted by: Subjugator at Thu Jun 16 00:15:32 2005 (r/FBF)

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I’m glad to know that I, as a history teacher, am in good company with one of out top contemporary American historians – David McCullough.

"We're raising a generation of Americans who are historically illiterate," McCullough said during a speech here Monday. "What they don't know about our history is staggering."

We are a society that has come to value immediacy over context. Too often there is a focus on the contemporary issues to the exclusion of the past. Imagine the shock of my students when they find out that slaves in the Greco-Roman world were white. And I won’t get in to the issue of how many of them insist on correcting me when I try to tell them about the Reformation and Martin Luther – they all shout out “King” the first time I mention the man whose 95 Theses are one of the most important documents of the last millenium. The American Revolution, and Great Depression are mysteries to them, and all they know about the Civil War is slavery. World War II is nothing but the Holocaust to them.

IÂ’m only about 40 years old, but I knew this stuff at a significantly younger age. So did my peers, and our parents. How can we stem the tide that may result in the loss of much of our heritage in the space of a generation?

Posted by: Greg at 01:18 PM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
Post contains 239 words, total size 1 kb.

1 Ya know I've been thinking the same thing, believe it or not. I am a few years older you, and I work with several twenty-sonethings that are utterly clueless about our own hustory let alone the history of the world. I began to notice this when I heard about the "new emphasis" that our actions @ Hiroshima & Nagasaki were "immoral", and there was no corrosponding discussion about Pearl Harbor, or the Rape of NanKing. Maybe you and I (political differences put aside) should work together to do a history blog.

Posted by: Bubba Bo Bob Brain at Tue Jun 14 14:24:36 2005 (aHbua)

2 Hmmmm.... An intriguing thought.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Tue Jun 14 17:06:58 2005 (HMt1E)

3 Yeah, sad to see these things happen. They need to learn to put their shoes in that era to see why these things happen. Truman was absolutely distraught in deciding whether to bomb the cities or not. One thing tho, are we seeing a balance in history for other races who had helped contributed in the making of the United States? It's been more than 20 years since I was in high school and yet my oldest daughter will be in the 7th grade. It'd be interesting to see what her history book says. Watch out for those PC lines in history books.

Posted by: mcconnell at Wed Jun 15 03:01:18 2005 (JRKms)

4 I just recently found out, a Great Uncle was slated to be in the first wave to attack Japan, if a ground war was to happen. Without the use of those two bombs, would I have my uncle and my cousins? I seriously doubt it. To listen to him talk about the preparations, the military had already written off the first 2 waves that would storm the shores of Japan. The soldiers were being prepared to fight the elderly and the women and children of Japan. Don't know about any of you, but I am glad I was not there, and have nothing but respect for those soldiers preparing to invade Japan. Something kids today don't do is listen and hear the stories of WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam from those older relatives they have that were there, and did the actual fighting. Instead they get liberal indoctrination as soon as the 1st grade, in some states. I would be interested in the History blog if you B can do it without political spin. You can never know everything, and learning should be an everyday thing!

Posted by: scubachris at Wed Jun 15 04:21:47 2005 (AktpP)

5 My great uncle was killed by a Japanese sniper by putting a bullet into his back on one of the islands in the Pacific during WWII.

Posted by: mcconnell at Wed Jun 15 10:18:12 2005 (LmcbS)

6 Also, my cousin was killed by a hand thrown grenade tossed into a tent shared by many sleeping troops in Kuwait prior to the 2nd Iraq war at Camp Pennsylvania. The tosser was none other than one of their own.

Posted by: mcconnell at Wed Jun 15 10:22:21 2005 (LmcbS)

7 Hey when it comes to history there is no politics as far as I am concerned, there are facts (sometimes inconvenient) and there are myths(always inconvenient, and almost always wrong), I think if I were to do this I would make sure that opinions were advertised as such.

Posted by: Bubba Bo Bob Brain at Wed Jun 15 13:30:07 2005 (aHbua)

8 McConnell: I don't think I'll get any rounds of disagreement from anyone when I say that the person who did that to your cousin was an absolutely vile person. I am sorry for your loss, and respect your cousin's desire to do his or her duty and protect both our lives, and the lives of the Iraqi people. Nothing can repay such sacrifice, but I'd like to find out that we honor the soldiers that fight for us now as best we can. Sub

Posted by: Subjugator at Wed Jun 15 14:23:10 2005 (r/FBF)

9 Thanks Sub. I never knew him. Just my mother's cousin (Betty Lenzi) whose son was killed. My mom knew him when he was a toddler. However, I can you tell you thing. There is one person who have frequented this board who said that Maj. Gregory Stone deserved to be buried rotting 6 ft under. A very vile individual indeed. Dirty mouth and all.

Posted by: mcconnell at Wed Jun 15 17:37:58 2005 (JRKms)

10 Exact words: "...second, to make fun of his dead, mangled cousin who is rotting six feet under the cold ground." http://ridor.blogspot.com/2005/04/reminder-for-bitch-session-iv.html That alone proves how some people prefer to side with the enemy and put them on a pedestal instead. In this case, his hero seems to be Sgt. Akbar. In any U.S. wars we should honor and remember the dead. Even some of the enemies such as the ones in Japan and Germany. They were the victim in the politics of war. Many of them were forced into battle. So many young men..literally boys who never gotten a chance at a good life. I've seen a PBS show or something similar where both Japan and U.S. WWII veterans met each other for the first time on one of those Midway islands. Many veterans were happen to have reconciled knowing it was a vile time in history. I thing reconciling such past events is therapeutic and helps heal wounds.

Posted by: mcconnell at Wed Jun 15 17:51:52 2005 (JRKms)

11 I feel bad about anyone who dies in war. They're almost always kids who are either conscripted, brainwashed, misguided, or otherwise actually doing the right thing. What they rarely are is people that are flat out evil and wrong. Now - the LEADERS of the countries that are evil and wrong...well...let's just say Saddam has none of my sympathy. Sub

Posted by: Subjugator at Thu Jun 16 00:15:32 2005 (r/FBF)

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It seems that a liberal gay Hispanic is no longer enough to make one immune from censorship on one California campus.

Writer Richard Rodriguez, invited to speak at the California State University East Bay commencement in Hayward on Saturday, has decided to withdraw from the program after some graduating students threatened to boycott the event.

Rodriguez, author of the acclaimed memoir "Hunger of Memory," drew criticism from some students for his views against bilingual education and affirmative action.

"I'm a bilingual educator," said student Leah Perez, 32, who is graduating with a master's degree in urban teacher leadership and protested Rodriguez's presence at the graduation. "He believes in assimilation and rejection of one's cultural identity, and we don't feel that is what we stand for in our program, and we don't want him representing us."

Views such as Rodriguez's go against the mission of the university, she said, noting that CSU East Bay has an education curriculum that produces bilingual teachers and emphasizes social justice.

Uh, no it doesn't -- especially since bilingual education goes against state law out in California, as dictated by the voters several years back. Besides, isn't it also part of the idea of a university to encourage the expression of diverse thought?

more...

Posted by: Greg at 02:00 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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A mother in England has three daughters, age 16 and under, who have all given birth within the last few months. Three of them. So of course, when asked why this has happened, she blamed. . . the schools, and later still, the government as a whole.

Julie Atkins' three daughters fell pregnant within a few short months of one another. Natasha recently gave birth to a girl, just around her 16th birthday. Her sister Jade, 14, also gave birth to a girl.

However, the first of the three sisters to deliver a baby was 12-year old Gemma, who gave birth to a boy. She named him T-Jay, which presumably means something in 12-year-old circles, and was chosen, of necessity, without consultation with the 14-year old father, who has made himself scarce.

Nor does 14-year old Jade seem to have any great expectations of seeing the father of her baby any time soon either, noting off-handedly that she became pregnant as a result of "a one-night stand".

Their twice-divorced mother, who lives with her daughters and their babies in a free three-bedroom council house told the papers, "Frankly, I blame the schools."

When the neighbors, reading this, lost no time in calling the papers to report that Mrs. Atkins had been allowing her then-11-year old daughter to have sex with her 13 year old boy friend in the family home, Mrs. Atkins widened her sphere of culpability for her daughters' pregnancies to include "the government."

more...

Posted by: Greg at 01:52 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Here is a man talking simple common sense about race in contemporary society. When are we going to do away with government-sponsored segregated graduation ceremonies at colleges and universities?

Because our daughter is African American, we had the dubious honor of attending two ceremonies — one for African Americans only, and then the next day, one for the general population of graduates. This was our third child to graduate from college, and all three universities — two in California and one in Washington — had these twin exercises.

Posted by: Greg at 01:57 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Looks like a little bit of common sense might be injected into Texas school disciplinary proceedings if a bill recently passed by the Texas Legislature is signed.

A bill that would give school officials more discretion in discipline matters by allowing them to evaluate individual circumstances before expelling students for certain infractions is awaiting Gov. Rick Perry's approval.

The measure, House Bill 603, co-authored by Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, would have a significant effect on cases in which students unknowingly bring weapons to school.

"There are circumstances when students don't realize they have brought illegal items to school and this bill would offer them some protection," said bill supporter Lonnie Hollingsworth, director of governmental relations with Texas Classroom Teachers Association.

more...

Posted by: Greg at 12:05 PM | Comments (70) | Add Comment
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Forgive my language, but it seems like too many senior pranks this year revolved around shit. Cow manure, chicken feces, and, in one case, even elephant dung were spread around American high schools by graduating seniors, who were just trying to be funny. They weren't -- though the elephant manure did sort of raise the bar for originality.

That is why the senior prank at Montpelier High School in Vermont is such an exceptional one. A group of kids broke into school over the weekend and painted a mural on the lobby ceiling (a picture is included with the article). And the official reaction to the prank is one that demonstrates that administrators can exercise common sense and common decency in carrying out their responsibilities.

more...

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