A part of me admires the ingenuity and dedication of this kid in pulling off a classic sports prank. Is a suspension really an appropriate punishment here? Is any punishment warranted?

A high school student who tricked football fans from a crosstown rival into holding up signs that together spelled out, "We Suck," was suspended for the prank, students said.

Kyle Garchar, a senior at Hilliard Davidson High School in suburban Columbus, said he spent about 20 hours over three days plotting the trick, which was captured on video and posted on the video-sharing Web site YouTube. He said he was inspired by a similar prank pulled by Yale students in 2004, when Harvard fans were duped into holding up cards with the same message.

At the end of the video, Garchar wryly thanks the 800 Hilliard Darby High School supporters who raised the cards at the start of the third quarter during last Friday's football game.

"It couldn't have been done without you," reads the closing frame of the video.

Garchar, 17, created a grid to plan how the message would be spelled out once fans in three sections held up either a black or white piece of construction paper.

Directions left on stadium seats instructed fans to check that the number listed on their papers matched their seat numbers. Darby supporters were told the message would read "Go Darby."

"It was tedious," Garchar said. "I didn't really think it was going to work."

There was a day, not many years past, when folks would have found this humorous and the kid would have become one of those school legends that is talked about for years to come. Faculty and administration would have been at least marginally approving of the show of school spirit that went into the prank.

Today we make it a matter for serious discipline.

What do you think -- is the punishment appropriate or not?

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Perri Nelson's Website, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary's Thoughts, DeMediacratic Nation, 123beta, Adam's Blog, Right Truth, Inside the Northwest Territory, Nuke's News & Views, , Stuck On Stupid, Webloggin, Leaning Straight Up, Cao's Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, , Conservative Cat, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, third world county, Right Celebrity, Woman Honor Thyself, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The Uncooperative Radio Show!, The World According to Carl, Pirate's Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, CommonSenseAmerica, CORSARI D'ITALIA, Right Voices, and Church and State, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Posted by: Greg at 10:12 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 423 words, total size 5 kb.

I don't agree with their challenge to the policy, but I respect their willingness to stand up for what they believe.

The leaders of a student group at Montgomery County's Wissahickon High School that opposes a new rule requiring backpacks worn inside the school to be made of mesh or clear plastic won praise from the school board and administration at a board meeting Tuesday night, but got no change in the policy.

The students vowed to continue the fight; they are calling for a "Day of Silence" on Sept. 12, when they will refuse to talk during classes. The board agreed to take another look at the policy after school starts.

The new rule was part of a 13-page list of school safety recommendations released in July by a school safety task force convened by Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. Several other Montgomery County school districts already either require see-through backpacks or have banned backpacks altogether from school hallways.

Principal William Hayes decided over the summer to implement the clear or mesh backpack policy, saying that while it was not a surefire way of keeping weapons out of the school, it would "make kids think twice" about bringing contraband into the school.

The move unleashed a wave of protest from students who formed an online group calling itself "Hell No I'm Not Wearing a See-Through Backpack."

What is particularly nice here is that the school board is taking its responsibility to encourage good citizenship quite seriously. Rather than dismissing the complaints and punishing the students, they offer nothing but praise for the kids and express a willingness to discuss – but not necessarily change – the policy.

Posted by: Greg at 12:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 291 words, total size 2 kb.

As classes start today, I'm pleased to say that we don't have a single vacancy in my building. That is not the case at many schools around the country.

The retirement of thousands of baby boomer teachers coupled with the departure of younger teachers frustrated by the stress of working in low-performing schools is fueling a crisis in teacher turnover that is costing school districts substantial amounts of money as they scramble to fill their ranks for the fall term.

Superintendents and recruiters across the nation say the challenge of putting a qualified teacher in every classroom is heightened in subjects like math and science and is a particular struggle in high-poverty schools, where the turnover is highest. Thousands of classes in such schools have opened with substitute teachers in recent years.

Of course, there are ways of fixing the problem -- starting with higher salaries to entice more and better-qualified teachers into the classroom. Giving teachers more support instead of adopting the attitude that the student and parent are always right would help as well. Too many teachers I know walk away from the field in the first five years because they are imply beat down by the constant expectation that they accomplish miracles while standards of conduct and achievement are lowered for students. Until we see a return to the day when teachers were treated as respected professionals, the shortage will continue.

Posted by: Greg at 10:07 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 238 words, total size 2 kb.

It is great to see someone you know get good coverage in the paper.

And Al Bates certainly deserves it.

He worked long hours for more than three decades, making good money in the restaurant business. But Al Bates says there was always something more he wanted to accomplish.

Now he's getting his chance. He had to take a detour from his executive's job to a stint as a substitute janitor, but he got there.

Bates, who is 53 and has eight grandchildren, is preparing his classroom for the big day Monday — when he starts his new career as a fifth-grade teacher.

He achieved his dream job at the Galena Park school district's new Sam Houston Elementary by working as a janitor, and later in the warehouse, so he could study in his off hours and earn his alternative certification, an increasingly popular source of new teachers in Texas.

Like many of the pupils who'll show up Monday, Bates expects to have a case of jitters.

"It's new and different," he said as workers scurried to finish the school at 4101 E. Sam Houston Parkway North. "I'm sure, after a couple days and I'm into it, I'll be just fine. For me, it's a huge, huge change, career-wise."

Bates substituted around the district, including my school. We all knew he was seeking his certification, but not all of us knew his story.

I'm glad to see him get the sort of recognition he deserves, and know that his students are getting a fantastic individual as a teacher.

Welcome to the profession.

Posted by: Greg at 11:14 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 270 words, total size 2 kb.

Sounds like there are a number of good recommendations -- but none that would allow students to defend themselves against a killer on the loose.

Officials at Virginia Tech University issued a set of mild recommendations for campus security Wednesday, suggesting the university provide more counseling for mentally troubled students, erect Internet-based message boards across campus to alert students of emergencies and install more surveillance cameras and better internal door locks.

These are all good, as far as thy go. But until students and staff are permitted to freely exercise their rights under the Second Amendment -- especially those already holding a concealed carry permit -- there is no safety on the Virginia Tech campus.

Posted by: Greg at 10:50 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 135 words, total size 1 kb.

As a teacher, my only reaction is scorn for those who made this absurd decision.

Chandler school officials have suspended a 13-year-old boy for sketching a picture that resembled a gun, saying it posed a threat to classmates.

But parents of the Payne Junior High School student said the drawing was a harmless doodle of a fake laser, and school officials overreacted.

"I just can't believe that there wasn't another way to resolve this," said Paula Mosteller, the boy's mother. "He's so upset. The school made him feel like he committed a crime. They are doing more damage than good."

The Mostellers said the drawing did not show blood, bullets, injuries, or target any human. They said it was just a drawing that resembled a gun.

But Payne Junior High administrators thought the sketch was enough of a threat and gave the boy a five-day suspension, later reduced to three days.

Chandler district spokesman Terry Locke said the sketch was "absolutely considered a threat," and threatening words or pictures are punishable.

The school did not contact police and did not provide counseling or an evaluate the boy to determine if he intended the drawing as a threat.

The clincher is that last sentence above. If this were considered a real threat, the school would be morally and legally obligated to call in the police. If this student were believed to be somehow dangerous, a psychological evaluation would be mandated before he could return to campus. The fact that neither of these took place settles the matter for me.

Does my school have a similar sort of weapons policy? Yes, especially insofar as the dress code is concerned. And yes, I have been obligated to send a kid to the office for wearing a Marvin the Martian t-shirt if the cartoon character has his ray gun out (the same for Scarface shirts with a weapon shown)-- but the punishment is a stern warning (detention for repeat offenses) and being required to wear a day-glo yellow shirt with "Dress Code Violation" printed on it until the end of the day. But a suspension? Good Lord -- not in a million years!

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Perri Nelson's Website, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary's Thoughts, The Random Yak, Nanotechnology Today, Jeanette's Celebrity Corner, Big Dog's Weblog, Nuke's News & Views, Stuck On Stupid, Webloggin, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, Conservative Thoughts, Inside the Northwest-Territory, third world county, Right Celebrity, , The World According to Carl, Planck's Constant, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, The Yankee Sailor, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Posted by: Greg at 12:18 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 450 words, total size 5 kb.

Speaking as a history teacher, I have a startling confession -- I hate Black History Month. Hispanic History Month, too. Ditto all the other special months that "celebrate" homosexuals, disabled individuals, women, Asians and the oppressed minority du jour.

I also hate special days and weeks for different groups. I'm also not particularly fond of Constitution Day and the federal mandate imposed upon me as an educator to teach about the Constitution on a given day in September.

Does that make me a bigot? Does it mean I hate everyone but for white men? No to both questions.

Instead, it means that I have a problem with agenda-driven history and curricula. And while I don't like the reasons for dropping the designations of special months in the Philadelphia School District, I do like the result.

Consider what I teach -- World History. Now this may come as a surprise to some of you, but history is generally taught in a somewhat linear fashion due to the shocking reality that time itself is linear in nature. As a result, I find it somewhat absurd to drop a less on on the Constitution in the middle of my unit on the early river valley civilizations. Similarly, Dr. King and the civil rights movement really fit better in May when I deal with the contemporary era of history, not back in February during the French Revolution. And as for the noted (alleged and presumed) homosexuals of history, I gladly deal with them in their respective historical context.

In a history classroom, content should not be balkanized in the name of promoting pride. I may have to deviate from a strict chronology from time to time (I deal with Alexander the Great before the Roman Republic because he fits better in the context of Greek Civilization before I chart the rise of Rome, which I concede began over a century before the Macedonian conqueror's death), but a chronological approach does make sense in a subject built, in large part, on chronology.

More to the point, the history of each and every one of these groups is the common heritage of all humanity. Properly taught, history provides us lessons on the common struggles and triumphs of various people's around the world, leading to the global society in which we live. Decontextualizing these groups and their achievements undercuts that message, no matter how much the advocates of these groups claim otherwise.

"It is appalling that a school district would drop months that recognize and educate our school children about the history and contributions of America's diverse fabric," said Malcolm Lazin, executive director of the homosexual advocacy group Equality Forum, in a news release.

"GLBT History Month is important for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) students and for the mainstream community," he said. "The GLBT community is uniquely disadvantaged because it does not learn its history at home or in public schools.

"It is important for young people to have role models, know their history, and take pride in the national and international contributions of their community," Lazin said.

I'm sorry, but that is dead wrong -- the diversity of the fabric is only seen when the threads are blended together to create the whole, while unraveling those threads destroys the fabric. These "separate but equal" months and celebrations, like "separate but equal" schools, do an injustice to our students and sow division, not unity.

Posted by: Greg at 09:50 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 579 words, total size 4 kb.

Here's a story I can sure identify with. And sadly, it exposes the sort of thing that happens all too often in education today -- minimum grades even for students who do no work at all.

Several weeks into his first year of teaching math at the High School of Arts and Technology in Manhattan, Austin Lampros received a copy of the schoolÂ’s grading policy. He took particular note of the stipulation that a student who attended class even once during a semester, who did absolutely nothing else, was to be given 45 points on the 100-point scale, just 20 short of a passing mark.

Now I can identify with this -- my district decrees no grade lower than a 50 with a state-mandated 70 as teh minimum passing grade. Of course, we are not permitted to assign a grade of 68 or 69, so we then have to decide which way to manipulate a student's average to determine whether or not the kid passes or fails -- and I've listened to more than one principal offer the not-so-subtle guidance that "if a kid is that close, I don't know how you can really argue he deserves to fail."

Now what this means, of course, is that under our grading system (we have three terms per semester) a student can get an 80 for each of the first two marking periods and then do nothing during the final one and end with a 70 before taking the final. Then if the kid hits even a 60 on the final, there is that subtle pressure to pass the student on the theory that "one test shouldn't be the difference between passing and failing."

This leads me to the case of a student some years ago who did well during the first two marking periods of her final semester of senior year, and then "checked out" because she figured that she had a 73 average going into the final once she averaged in that gift of a 50. She literally did nothing for six weeks -- and then scored a 38 on her final exam, earning her a 67 for the semester. Despite all the pressure brought to bear on me by the administration and the athletic department, I stuck to my guns -- and the girl had to take summer school to graduate so that she could take her volleyball scholarship. Fortunately, state law forbids anyone other than me to change teh grade, so it did stick.

I don't know what I would have done if something like this happened.

Mr. LamprosÂ’s introduction to the high schoolÂ’s academic standards proved a fitting preamble to a disastrous year. It reached its low point in late June, when Arts and TechnologyÂ’s principal, Anne Geiger, overruled Mr. Lampros and passed a senior whom he had failed in a required math course.

That student, Indira Fernandez, had missed dozens of class sessions and failed to turn in numerous homework assignments, according to Mr. LamprosÂ’s meticulous records, which he provided to The New York Times. She had not even shown up to take the final exam. She did, however, attend the senior prom.

Through the intercession of Ms. Geiger, Miss Fernandez was permitted to retake the final after receiving two days of personal tutoring from another math teacher. Even though her score of 66 still left her with a failing grade for the course as a whole by Mr. LamprosÂ’s calculations, Ms. Geiger gave the student a passing mark, which allowed her to graduate.

Ms. Geiger declined to be interviewed for this column and said that federal law forbade her to speak about a specific student’s performance. But in a written reply to questions, she characterized her actions as part of a “standard procedure” of “encouraging teachers to support students’ efforts to achieve academic success.”

Frankly, such a decision by a principal is outrageous -- and any policy that allows for it is immoral and unethical. I won't even get into this frightening response by the parent in this case.

Samantha Fernandez, Indira’s mother, spoke on her behalf. “My daughter earned everything she got,” she said. Of Mr. Lampros, she said, “He needs to grow up and be a man.”

Three thoughts.

1) No, she didn't.

2) He is the only one acting like an adult and a professional in this situation.

3) It's a pity you didn't see fit to act like a parent during either of your daughter's two senior years.

Indeed, this sort of situation is precisely why every state should have a law making the classroom teacher the final arbiter of grades, unless there is substantiated proof of a calculation error or a violation of district grading policy. Allowing administrative grade changes under any other circumstances constitutes academic fraud.

I am, however, troubled by one aspect of this story. There is information disclosed here, connected with the name of a student, that I don't believe should ordinarily ever be released to the public. Where, exactly, did the new York Times get the grade and attendance information? Was permission granted for the paper to obtain that information? Depending on where this information came from, I believe that there may be grounds for both legal action and sanctions against the professional licenses of those involved.

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson's Website, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary's Thoughts, The Random Yak, DeMediacratic Nation, Right Truth, Shadowscope, Stuck On Stupid, Webloggin, Leaning Straight Up, Cao's Blog, The Amboy Times, The Bullwinkle Blog, Conservative Thoughts, Pursuing Holiness, third world county, Nuke's news and views, Planck's Constant, The Pink Flamingo, Wyvern Dreams, Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, Public Eye, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Posted by: Greg at 12:02 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 959 words, total size 8 kb.