December 13, 2005
A Pennsylvania student is off the hook after the American Civil Liberties Union defended his right to wear a political T-shirt to school.Chris Schiano's T-shirt said "International Terrorist" and had a picture of President Bush.
A security guard at his high school north of Philadelphia told him to take it off. He refused.
Schiano says he's well versed in the First Amendment. He says he "knew right off they had no legal footing to stand on."
The principal says after hearing from the ACLU, school officials realized that the shirt, while potentially offensive, didn't violate the school's dress code. It had no references to sex, drugs, ethnic intimidation or explicit language.
Schiano says he's now wearing the shirt to school and no one's given him a hard time.
In this case, the ACLU is absolutely right -- Treason Boy has the right to wear his shiirt at school.
And every other student has the right to call him an America-hating moron.
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As Lehigh University students prepared for final exams this week, they found themselves grappling with the news that the sophomore class president had been arrested for allegedly robbing a bank.
"I didn't believe it when I first heard it," Kathryn Susman, an 18-year-old freshman engineering student from Hereford, Md., said Monday.
The robbery occurred Friday afternoon. Authorities said Greg Hogan, 19, handed a note to a teller at a Wachovia Bank branch, saying he had a gun and wanted money.
Hogan, the son of a Baptist minister, was picked up at his fraternity house later that evening and charged with robbery, theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property.
Police said he got away with $2,871.
Hogan admits to the robbery.
I do, however, find this little tidbit somewhat chilling.
When a student is charged with a crime, the university's Office of Student Conduct, a disciplinary committee of teachers, staff and students, decides what action to take regarding the student's status at the school, said Dina Silver, a school spokeswoman. Sanctions can range from a warning to expulsion.
Notice – when a student IS CHARGED, not when they are convicted. Seems like they are putting the cart before the horse.
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December 09, 2005
Six of the 10 varsity cheerleaders at Clear Lake High School have been removed from the squad for drinking alcohol and sent to an alternative education center.The names of the cheerleaders were not released because of privacy laws, said Karen Permetti, spokeswoman for the Clear Creek school district.
Nancy Parker, who has served as an officer for the cheer squad's booster club, declined to comment.
While declining to discuss the specific incident, Kelly Worley, whose daughter Nicole remains on the cheerleading team, stressed, "Those removed from the squad were all really good girls. I know them personally. They are honor students from good families and did a lot for school leadership."
In addition, she said, the Clear Lake cheerleading team as a whole is a group of talented athletes whose dedication to hard work has earned them a national title.
Last year, the squad won the national championship in the Big Apple Classic in New York City and later was featured on CBS' The Early Morning Show, Permetti said.
I live in CCISD, and the local kids go to Clear Lake High School. The school board adopted a policy for those who represent the school, and I support it. If you want to be on the team or squad or other extracurricular, you have to conduct yourself properly at all times.
In support of its "zero tolerance" policy, the school board this year passed a code of conduct for extracurricular activities that expanded penalties for the use, sale or distribution of drugs or alcohol during school functions to even non-school related events off campus."There was a feeling that student leaders ought to be held to a standard or we ought not make them leaders. They need to accountable," said Joanna Baleson, an at-large district trustee.
The regulation requires that first offenders, such as the cheerleaders, be suspended from the squad and all other extracurricular activities for the remainder of the school year or calendar year, which ever is longer.
A second offense would result in a permanent ban from such activities.
The regulation stipulates the offenders must be moved from the regular classroom to an alternative education center for 30 days. Such centers provide instruction and counseling outside of regular classes in a more strict, structured setting.
Now I might quibble about the alternative school placement. That is't appropriate for out-of-school conduct. Nut inthis case, the alcohol use isn't in a party setting.
The two cheerleading sponsors, Kathy Thiessen and Amy Lardie, were unaware that alcohol was consumed on a school bus before the Nov. 4 football game against Bellaire High School, authorities said.An unidentified tipster alerted a high school administrator that some of the cheerleaders may have been "under the influence" during the Bellaire game.
The district wants to enforce an alcohol-free environment for cheerleaders who are performing potentially dangerous flips and lifts, authorities said.
They were drinking on a school bus on the way to a school event, and were consuming a substance that increased the risk of injury to themselves or their fellow cheerleaders. That is thoroughly unacceptable, and justifies a harsh action being taken.
I am curouos, though, how it was that the sponsors didn't know that the girls had been drinking. How well supervised were the girls? How closely were they observed before being permitted to perform?
In the end, I applaud those involved in this case for taking the right steps to carry out a an appropriate policy to maintain discipline and student safety.
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December 08, 2005
Conservative columnist Ann Coulter cut short a speech at the University of Connecticut amid boos and jeers, and decided to hold a question-and-answer session instead."I love to engage in repartee with people who are stupider than I am," Coulter told the crowd of 2,600 Wednesday.
Before cutting off her speech after about 15 minutes, Coulter called Bill Clinton an "executive buffoon" who won the presidency only because Ross Perot took 19 percent of the vote.
Coulter's appearance prompted protests from several student groups. About 100 people rallied outside the auditorium where she spoke, saying she spread a message of intolerance.
"We encourage diverse opinion at UConn, but this is blatant hate speech," said Eric Knudsen, a 19-year-old sophomore journalism and social welfare major who heads campus group Students Against Hate.
No, Eric you moron, you clearly do not encourage diverse opinion at UConn -- other wise you and your anti-civil -liberties goon-squad would have graciously permitted Ms. Coulter to say her piece. Instead, you carve out an exception to the notion that people have a right to speak on political and social issues by calling ideas you don't like "hate speech." What, exactly, was hateful? I doubt you could point to anything.
And what about the rights of Ms. Coulter and your fellow students to explore ideas with wich you disagree. You know, people like this classmate.
UConn junior Kareem Mohni, 20, said he was disgusted by his peers' reaction to Coulter."It really appalled me that we're not able to come together as a group and listen to a different view in a respectful environment," Mohni said.
That's right, they don't count -- they are part of the problem of "hate speech" that you have to wipe out, even if it kills freedom of speech in the process.
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December 02, 2005
A federal judge ruled that a lesbian student can sue her school district and her principal for revealing her homosexuality to her mother.
Charlene Nguon, 17, may go forward with her suit claiming violation of privacy rights, U.S. District Judge James V. Selna ruled in a decision dated Nov. 28 and announced Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.Orange County's Garden Grove district had argued that Nguon openly kissed and hugged her girlfriend on campus and thus had no expectation of privacy.
However, the judge ruled that Nguon had "sufficiently alleged a legally protected privacy interest in information about her sexual orientation."
No trial date was set. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.
"This is the first court ruling we're aware of where a judge has recognized that a student has a right not to have her sexual orientation disclosed to her parents, even if she is out of the closet at school," said Christine Sun, an ACLU attorney who brought the case.
Now this creates quite a quandary, in my opinion? How are we, as teachers, supposed to know what students have and have not disclosed to parents – especially when information is public in the school setting? After all, this girl was very public about her sexuality at school. And does this same measure of privacy also include other details of a sexual nature, such as a teacher becoming aware that a child is sexually active (but not being abused)? Where are the lines? This ruling leaves me very unsure.
MORE (AND DIVERSE) DISCUSSION AT: American Madness
, My Amusement Park, Boots and Sabers, Althouse, Right on the Left Coast, Pliwood Munkee, Education Wonks, Eyes of Faith, Digital Brownshirt, Left Turn On Rights, Just to the Left, New World Man, Right Side of the Rainbow, The Colossus of Rhodey.
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November 25, 2005
Teacher under investigation for alleged liberalism
You see, it is the teacher's unwarranted injection of his political views into his classroom materials and vocabulary assessments that are the problem, not the views themselves.
"I wish Bush would be (coherent, eschewed) for once during a speech, but there are theories that his everyday diction charms the below-average mind, hence insuring him Republican votes," said one question on a quiz written by English and social studies teacher Bret Chenkin.The question referring to the president asked students to say whether coherent or eschewed was the proper word. The sentence would be more coherent if one eschewed eschewed.
Another example said, "It is frightening the way the extreme right has (balled, arrogated) aspects of the Constitution and warped them for their own agenda." Arrogated would be the proper word there.
Chenkin claims, of course, that the quizzes are being looked at out of context. While he may have a point, I have a difficult time imagining a context in which these items would be appropriate -- and I say that as a social studies teacher who is also a certified English teacher (though not, as many of you have noticed, a typing teacher). I suppose if one were teaching a unit on propaganda or the use of biased language it would be possible to justify such assessment items, but I'm not sure that i would be comfortable using them in my classroom.
Do I want to see Chenkin fired for this lapse in professional judgement? No, I do not. I don't think he has crossed the line far enough for that. Do I think he needs to be cautioned and reminded that there are lines beyond which a teacher should not go? Yeah, I do.
I'll be watching to see how this situation plays out.
(HAT TIP: Michelle Malkin)
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November 14, 2005
"While my parents and I are happy the case is resolved, most importantly, I'm hopeful this will help ensure that free-speech rights of students aren't trampled on again in the future," said Dwyer, who is now in 11th grade.Dwyer created the Web site containing criticism of Maple Place School in April 2003, on his own time from his home computer. Comments posted on the site's "guest book" section angered school officials, who suspended Dwyer for a week, benched him from playing on the baseball team for a month, and barred him from going on his class trip, among other discipline. The district's lawsuit said anti-Semitic remarks were posted on the site, which Dwyer denied writing.
"The school district has never — to this day — explained to us what rule or policy our son violated," said Kevin Dwyer, Ryan's father.
Maybe a few more big payouts like this will cause zero-tolerance crazed administrators to think critically before slapping students with draconian punishments for infractions that are no infractions at all – especially when it involves the illicit limitation of rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
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Al-Madina newspaper said secondary-school teacher Mohammad al-Harbi, who will be flogged in public, was taken to court by his colleagues and students.He was charged with promoting a "dubious ideology, mocking religion, saying the Jews were right, discussing the Gospel and preventing students from leaving class to wash for prayer," the newspaper said.
Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, strictly upholds the austere Wahhabi school of Islam and bases its constitution on the Koran and the sayings of the prophet Muhammad. Public practice of any other religion is banned.
And this isnÂ’t the first time a teacher has been punished for such apostate comments.
Come on, folks, when are you going to speak out in favor of the academic freedom of teachers in other countries? How about religious freedom?
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November 13, 2005
It's the single-name schools that attract the attention.Like the Hutto Hippos, a name that goes back to 1915 when a hippo escaped from a circus train in Austin and finally was found in a creek near Hutto, about 25 miles to the northeast.
In the 1924 yearbook at Mason High School, the football team was called the cowpunchers, another term for cowboy.
As the years went by, the name got shortened to the Punchers, and it survives. The school plays in the Puncher Dome.
Local economies factor into many of the names. In the 1940s, the Rockcrushers of Knippa got their name when a rock-crushing plant moved there, and Rocksprings adopted the name the Angoras when it became "The Angora Goat Capital of the World."
Brazosport High School, along the Gulf Coast, has the Exporters. Robstown has its Cottonpickers, and Port Isabel, at the southern tip of the state on the Gulf of Mexico, has the Fighting Tarpons.
Some were obvious. In Hamlin? The Pied Pipers. Muleshoe? The Mules. And in Winters? The Blizzards.
Other one-of-a-kinds include the Porcupines of Springtown, who trace their mascot to a 1920s basketball player who suggested the name because people feared the animal's sharp quills. Local folks quoted in the book are more inclined to remember the awful smell of a real porcupine adopted by students in the 1960s.
Itasca's Wampus Cats owe their birth to a 1921 school pep rally where the term apparently was yelled out by a cheerleader. According to the book, it's either a Cherokee evil spirit, a legendary ferocious half-man, half-wildcat wandering Georgia or a striped cat from Tennessee.
The Mighty Red Ants of Progreso are named not for the pesky insect but for the nickname a beloved teacher called her students when the district had only one elementary school. When the high school was built, it was filled with her "little red ants."
In the book, football coach Elvis Hernandez is quoted as saying the school name prompts fans from opposing schools to greet his teams with signs of: "Got Raid?"
You have to remember -- historically, the local high school team was the focus of life in a community.
In some places, it still is.
During the Hurricane Rita evacuation, my wife and I stopped in Gainseville, Texas to fill her prescriptions. The hot topic of conversation between the pharmacy staff and the locals who were waiting to get their medication? That evening's homecoming game.
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November 07, 2005
The Chicago school district plans to open an all-boys high school primarily for black teenagers.The Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men must be approved by the Board of Education this month, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Mayor Richard Daley plans to open 100 schools in the city in the next five years. Plans for the next two years include a virtual elementary school, a high school operated by the University of Chicago and a high school stressing business entrepreneurship.
Urban Prep would be located inside Englewood High School. Backers say it is aimed at a group that has the lowest graduation rate of any in the city.
"We're going to take our students where they are and help them gain admission to college and succeed once they are there," said Tim King, the founder of Urban Prep. "Clearly there is a high need for figuring out how to serve these kids academically."
I’m all for getting students – of every race or ethnicity – prepared for success in life. Heck, that is what my career is about. But I am concerned any time we set up programs that include a race or ethnicity based admissions formula or criteria.
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November 06, 2005
But it does.
It has even happened a few times at the school where I teach over the years. They hauled a 18-year-old football player out in handcuffs when they caught him on the stage with his 14-year-old girlfriend my first year there. During the height of Monica-gate, the girls basketball team walked into the gym for practice and found a couple doing the Full Lewinsky. And then there was last spring, when a somewhat shaken student returned from girls restroom and informed me that there were two girls engaged in "hot lesbian action" in the handicapped stall.
I assumed that such incidents were rare, and could be accounted for by the huge enrollment at our school (grades 9-12 have grown from 3300 to 3900 in the last decade). But it seems like it is getting more and more common -- and that some kids don't even find it shocking.
Perhaps the most shocking thing about students having sex in a high school auditorium was that other students didn't find it very shocking at all."I glanced over and, whatever, I just let him continue on with his business," said a 16-year-old linebacker on the Osbourn High School football team who, along with a friend, stumbled upon a couple engaging in oral sex. "I stayed for five to eight minutes, just talking. We weren't worried about it. When the janitor came in, everyone started running."
Manassas school officials weren't as laid back. The students -- eight in all -- were quickly identified and suspended, and the matter prompted the small school system to confront an issue many adults would rather not face: in this case, two girls and three boys engaging in oral sex or intercourse on school property while three other boys watched, according to sources familiar with what happened.
"In all the years that I've been in education, I've never run into this one before," said John Boronkay, the school system's acting superintendent. "It's a new one."
Actually, it's not so new. According to some teenagers, sex on school property is more frequent than adults might imagine. And some adults who work with teenagers said it's happening more often these days.
There's anecdotal evidence to support that:
Two students were discovered recently having sex in an Anne Arundel County high school gym. Four students at Col. Zadok Magruder High in Rockville were arrested in June after performing sex acts in the school parking lot. A boy and a girl at Springbrook High in Silver Spring were caught "touching inappropriately" in a school bathroom. Last year, three teenage boys at Mount Hebron High in Howard County were arrested after a student accused them of sexually assaulting her in a school restroom, but charges were dropped after the boys said the sex was consensual and the girl recanted.
"Students would have intercourse on the stairwells, locked classrooms, in the locker rooms," said Ihsan Musawwir, 18, a recent graduate of Dunbar Senior High School in the District. "It was embarrassing for me to walk in on it."
Jessica Miller, 19, who graduated in June from T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, said that for some students there, sex on campus is a popular fantasy -- and sometimes a reality -- particularly in the auditorium.
"It's so big, it's so dark," Miller said. "There's a lot more places to find privacy -- behind the stage and on the catwalk."
But what's the appeal? "Just being rebellious," she said. "Coming back to class and saying, 'Ooh, guess what I just did? I just had sex in the auditorium.' "
Deborah Roffman, a Baltimore-based sexuality educator, said she has been hearing more about similar occurrences in the past five years. "Schools are calling me, asking, 'What do we do? We've had this incident at our school.' "
The fact that teenagers have sex is well established: Roughly half of all 15- to 19-year-olds have had vaginal intercourse, and more than half have had oral sex, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But getting a handle on the reasons students are emboldened to risk having sex at school is as tricky as figuring out how many are doing it. Musawwir, the Dunbar graduate, who has helped lead teen forums on sex, said she thinks students have sex in school because they have nowhere else to go. "And it's the thrill of getting caught or not. And the media has a lot of things to do with it. They think that if they see it on TV, they can get away with it in real life."
What is shocking is that many schools are finding out that they don't even have such situations covered in their handbook or district policies.
Many schools don't have rules specifically banning sex on campus but punish students who do it through a clause prohibiting "immoral conduct" or behavior that offends the community's morals, said Naomi Gittins, a staff attorney at the National School Boards Association. Gittins added that more specific policies would make it easier for schools to defend themselves against legal challenges.
Gotta love that -- the rules are needed not to prevent exploitation, not to encourage proper behavior, not to encourage morality, but rather to use as a legal shield! Where are our priorities?
So, folks, what do you think? Do your really believe that it isn't happening at your schools? Do you really think it isn't your kids? And what would do you think should be done?
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November 03, 2005
On Wednesday the court dismissed a lawsuit brought by California parents who were outraged over a sex survey given to public school students in the first, third and fifth grades.Among other things, the survey administered by the Palmdale School District asked children if they ever thought about having sex or touching other people's "private parts" and whether they could "stop thinking about having sex."
The parents argued that they -- not the public schools -- have the sole right "to control the upbringing of their children by introducing them to matters of and relating to sex."
But o n Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit dismissed the case, saying, "There is no fundamental right of parents to be the exclusive provider of information regarding sexual matters to their children...Parents have no due process or privacy right to override the determinations of public schools as to the information to which their children will be exposed while enrolled as students."
Judge Stephen Reinhardt, writing for the panel, said "no such specific right can be found in the deep roots of the nation's history and tradition or implied in the concept of ordered liberty."
Funny, I always believed that the right to raise oneÂ’s child and to control their education was one of those things that fundamentally predates civilization as a whole, and which society may therefore not infringe upon.
I guess that the State really is their mother and their father – at least in the Ninth Circuit, and as long as the state doesn’t use permit the use of the “G-word” around them.
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October 31, 2005
LOUISVILLE, Ky. A civil-liberties activist says school officials should better inform parents of their right to keep their children's information from military recruiters.Beth Wilson says some schools are putting notices in handbooks or newsletters rather than providing separate forms to students. Wilson is director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky. She recently sent a letter to 176 school superintendents.
The 2002 No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to provide names, addresses and phone numbers to recruiters or risk losing federal funding -- unless parents "opt out." The law didn't specify how schools should notify parents of that right, and procedures vary among schools.
Kentucky education officials let districts decide how to notify parents.
This fall, about 24 percent of Louisville public high school students opted to keep their information private, up from about 20 percent last year.
Military recruiters say information from schools helps them to make home visits and calls and to send promotional material.
Now i see a real problem here. Assuming these kids are American citizens, do they not have the right to receive communication from their own government? Is it not a violation of the rights of the child to permit a parent to interfere with their right to communicate freely with agents of their government?
And what I find particularly amusing is that folks who don't believe parents have the right to be notified of, much less consent to, their child undergoing an invasive surgical procedure (abortion) now want to let parents control their child's access to career and educational opportunities. Groups that object strenuously to parents being permitted to pull their child from programs discussing what they view as immoral lifestyles are willing to permit them to opt their child out of contact with a government agency. Do I detect a bit of hypocrisy here?
UPDATE: The Washington Post has a longer article on the issue.
Now many parents -- aided by such anti-recruiting groups as the San Francisco-based Leave My Child Alone -- are demanding that school boards make it easier for families to prevent military recruiters from contacting their sons and daughters. They are mounting e-mail and letter-writing campaigns telling families they can block school systems from releasing student information to military recruiters. Even such national educational groups as the PTA are getting involved in the effort to get the word out.But the military is spreading its own word -- about the benefits of a career in the armed services. This month, the Pentagon launched a $10 million marketing campaign aimed at encouraging parents to be more open to allowing their children to enlist. Although officials say the effort is not tied to growing antiwar sentiment, the commercials feature kids broaching the topic of enlistment with apprehensive parents and urge mothers and fathers to make it a "two-way conversation."
Many states have long allowed military recruiters access to student phone numbers and addresses, but the practice received a boost from the federal No Child Left Behind act. School systems that decline to release the information now risk losing federal dollars.
The advocacy is putting school officials in a quandary, particularly principals who say they want to be responsive to parents but also want to be fair to military recruiters, who by law are allowed the same access to student information as college recruiters. And, principals point out, although some parents wish to prevent military recruiters from reaching their children, others view military service as a good option.
"I'm just trying to follow the rules -- and the rules are the same for everyone,'' said James Fernandez, principal at Albert Einstein High School in Kensington, where recruiters have visited four or five times this year. Last year, five students from the school enlisted in the armed forces.
As i said, I'm a bit taken aback by those on the Left who don't care about the views of parents on any other isue DEMANDING that parents be able to prevent the federal government from talking to their children.
And, of course, they seem to have no problem with that same government funding the school those children attend. In fact, they usually want more.
Wouldn't it be refreshing to hear the proto-Sheehans tell the truth? "We loath the military and would prefer to leave the US vulnerable to attack."
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October 27, 2005
A Duquesne University sophomore will risk being kicked out of school rather than write an essay as punishment for expressing his view that homosexuality is "subhuman."Ryan Miner, 19, of Hagerstown, Md., was sanctioned by Duquesne after posting his view in The Facebook, an online directory that is not related to the university.
Miner opposed an effort by other students to form a Gay-Straight Alliance group, an issue that is still being debated by the university.
"I believe as a student that my First Amendment rights in the Constitution were subverted and attacked," said Miner.
After Miner's comments appeared online, some students complained to the school.
After a hearing, the Office of Judicial Affairs found Miner guilty of violating the University Code, which prohibits harassment or discrimination based on sexual orientation, among other groups.
A 10-page paper was assigned as punishment. Miner said he refuses to write it and will file an appeal.
On what basis, I wonder, is this punishment being dished out? The Facebook is not a university publication. The university does not own or control the internet. Where is the nexus between this speech and the university that would subject Miner to university disciplinary action? I donÂ’t see one.
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October 24, 2005
Rather than tell him (and his sponsor in the Ohio House) to go take a hike, the IUC passed a resolution on Oct. 11 confirming the following truisms: "Ohio's four-year public universities are committed to valuing and respecting diversity of ideas, including respect for diverse political viewpoints. Neither students nor faculty should be evaluated on the basis of their political opinions."Except that not all "political opinions" are made equal, especially since modern conservatism has become synonymous with intolerance: it is anti-intellectual, counter-scientific, socially inept, recklessly interventionist and fiscally extravagant - even as it still defends discrimination against blacks, women and homosexuals.
College helps folks un-learn these toxic beliefs. It doesn't teach that they're of equal value to tolerance itself.
The liberal viewpoint is something to be defended, not compromised, which is probably why today's conservatives feel so out of place on America's college campuses.
How tolerant! The purpose of college -- and a state-funded one, no less, which exists on tax dollars extorted at the point of a gun -- is to instill the values of one side of the political spectrum and eliminate those of the other.
Is it any wonder that we far-right-wing extremists (read that "Republicans") feel there is a need for protection from those who would turn institutions of learning into centers of extreme-left-wing anti-American propaganda?
(Hat Tip -- FIRE's "The Torch")
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October 21, 2005
A 10th-grade student in southern Prince George's County who allegedly attacked a biology teacher with a baseball bat during a class this week faces expulsion and possible criminal prosecution, a school system spokesman said yesterday.
Did you see that – “possible criminal prosecution� What the hell is this “possible†crap? A teacher was physically assaulted with a deadly weapon in his classroom by a student. If this creep were to have done this to a random person on the street there would be no question of prosecution and he would already be some career criminal’s new girlfriend. Instead, we get this report.
According to [Prince George's schools spokesman John] White, the male student entered a biology classroom about 1 p.m. Wednesday and allegedly attacked the teacher in front of other students shortly before the class was to be dismissed. A witness said the assailant wore a ski mask, according to the Associated Press.The suspect had been enrolled in a biology class with the teacher, but not during that period.
White said campus security officers caught the student as he was fleeing the classroom. He was questioned and released to his parents.
White said the teacher was treated at Southern Maryland Hospital Center in Clinton for bumps and bruises, including injuries to the face, head, shoulders and hands. The teacher was released late Wednesday and was recuperating at home, White said.
White declined to identify the student or the teacher. He said the teacher was a 28-year veteran of the school system who had been at Gwynn Park for more than a decade.
"It's unfortunate and unexpected," White said. "It's not a routine occurrence. That's why it's shocking."
WJLA television identified the teacher as Dario Valcarcel, who was listed on a school Web site as a science faculty member.
The school principal did not return a telephone call for comment. Messages left at a residential phone number for Valcarcel were not immediately returned.
Look at the stuff I put in bold there. “Injuries to the face, head, shoulders and hands†– in other words, an assault designed to incapacitate and/or kill Mr. Valcarcel and injuries sustained as he attempted to defend himself from what could reasonably be classified as ATTEMPTED MURDER. But all that happened to the perpetrator was being sent home with mommy and daddy! Why were the police not called in immediately so that an investigation could begin immediately and would-be killer arrested on the spot?
And you will notice the little bit at the end of the article about neither the principal nor the teacher responding o telephone calls seeking comment. My guess is that there will be none, at least if things operate as they do in my district. Only the district spokesperson and superintendent are permitted to speak to the media – we are even required to wear a little card along with our IDs that tell us that in the event of media contact we are required to report the matter to our supervisor, who will then contact our district spokesperson. The card also gives us the sum total of what we are allowed to say to the media under such circumstances – “You need to speak to the director of communications, Olga Obfuscation. Her cell phone number is XXX-XXX-XXXX.†Any further comment is grounds for disciplinary action, up to and including termination.
How long will it be until teacher safety is taken seriously in this country? Why are reports to the police not automatic and immediate? Why the secrecy surrounding incidents in the schools – like the one several years ago in my district in which an assistant principal was knifed breaking up a fight (fortunately with no serious harm)? Will it be necessary for another teacher to be driven from the classroom from Post-Traumatic Stress, to be permanently disabled, or to be killed?
Do we as educators need to speak out to raise the issue more clearly? Or will it take a nationwide walkout for teacher safety – and I ask that as a teacher in a state where such actions are illegal and grounds for both termination and sanctions against our certification.
Or are we just expected to continue be low-paid functionaries whose safety is irrelevant to our employers?
(10/22/05 -- I'm linking this to several "Open Trackback" posts around the web. Welcome to visitors from Cao's Blog, Jo's Cafe, MacStansbury, Cafe Oregano, Basil's Blog, Adam's Blog, Mudville Gazette, Publius Rendevous, Obligatory Anecdotes, Indepundit, The Political Teen, TMH's Bacon Bits, Vince Aut Morire, Two Babes and a Brain, Point Five, and My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.)
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A 10th-grade student in southern Prince George's County who allegedly attacked a biology teacher with a baseball bat during a class this week faces expulsion and possible criminal prosecution, a school system spokesman said yesterday.
Did you see that – “possible criminal prosecution”? What the hell is this “possible” crap? A teacher was physically assaulted with a deadly weapon in his classroom by a student. If this creep were to have done this to a random person on the street there would be no question of prosecution and he would already be some career criminal’s new girlfriend. Instead, we get this report.
According to [Prince George's schools spokesman John] White, the male student entered a biology classroom about 1 p.m. Wednesday and allegedly attacked the teacher in front of other students shortly before the class was to be dismissed. A witness said the assailant wore a ski mask, according to the Associated Press.The suspect had been enrolled in a biology class with the teacher, but not during that period.
White said campus security officers caught the student as he was fleeing the classroom. He was questioned and released to his parents.
White said the teacher was treated at Southern Maryland Hospital Center in Clinton for bumps and bruises, including injuries to the face, head, shoulders and hands. The teacher was released late Wednesday and was recuperating at home, White said.
White declined to identify the student or the teacher. He said the teacher was a 28-year veteran of the school system who had been at Gwynn Park for more than a decade.
"It's unfortunate and unexpected," White said. "It's not a routine occurrence. That's why it's shocking."
WJLA television identified the teacher as Dario Valcarcel, who was listed on a school Web site as a science faculty member.
The school principal did not return a telephone call for comment. Messages left at a residential phone number for Valcarcel were not immediately returned.
Look at the stuff I put in bold there. “Injuries to the face, head, shoulders and hands” – in other words, an assault designed to incapacitate and/or kill Mr. Valcarcel and injuries sustained as he attempted to defend himself from what could reasonably be classified as ATTEMPTED MURDER. But all that happened to the perpetrator was being sent home with mommy and daddy! Why were the police not called in immediately so that an investigation could begin immediately and would-be killer arrested on the spot?
And you will notice the little bit at the end of the article about neither the principal nor the teacher responding o telephone calls seeking comment. My guess is that there will be none, at least if things operate as they do in my district. Only the district spokesperson and superintendent are permitted to speak to the media – we are even required to wear a little card along with our IDs that tell us that in the event of media contact we are required to report the matter to our supervisor, who will then contact our district spokesperson. The card also gives us the sum total of what we are allowed to say to the media under such circumstances – “You need to speak to the director of communications, Olga Obfuscation. Her cell phone number is XXX-XXX-XXXX.” Any further comment is grounds for disciplinary action, up to and including termination.
How long will it be until teacher safety is taken seriously in this country? Why are reports to the police not automatic and immediate? Why the secrecy surrounding incidents in the schools – like the one several years ago in my district in which an assistant principal was knifed breaking up a fight (fortunately with no serious harm)? Will it be necessary for another teacher to be driven from the classroom from Post-Traumatic Stress, to be permanently disabled, or to be killed?
Do we as educators need to speak out to raise the issue more clearly? Or will it take a nationwide walkout for teacher safety – and I ask that as a teacher in a state where such actions are illegal and grounds for both termination and sanctions against our certification.
Or are we just expected to continue be low-paid functionaries whose safety is irrelevant to our employers?
(10/22/05 -- I'm linking this to several "Open Trackback" posts around the web. Welcome to visitors from Cao's Blog, Jo's Cafe, MacStansbury, Cafe Oregano, Basil's Blog, Adam's Blog, Mudville Gazette, Publius Rendevous, Obligatory Anecdotes, Indepundit, The Political Teen, TMH's Bacon Bits, Vince Aut Morire, Two Babes and a Brain, Point Five, and My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.)
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October 18, 2005
A Bridgeport teacher says he was fired because he refused to display the American flag in his classroom.Stephen Kobasa taught English at Kolbe-Cathedral High School. He didn't want a flag in his classroom. He says it conflicts with his Catholic faith and teaching beliefs.
Stephen Kobasa says,"In the room there was a crucifix, a depiction of the executed Christ, which cancels all flags. It would simply be a contradiction for me to maintain them both."
Kobasa says he offered a compromise in which he agreed to display the flag at the start of the school day so students could say the Pledge of Allegiance if they wanted, then he would remove the flag. He says the diocesan superintendent rejected that compromise.
Having the American flag in class is part of a new Bridgeport diocese policy.
School administrators wouldn't comment on Kobasa, except to say they will not discuss personnel matters.
First, this is a simple case of termination for insubordination. The diocese made a reasonable rule regarding the display of the flag. The teacher refused to comply, preferring to substitute his own preference for the policy of his employers. The decision to terminate him is appropriate.
And I’m curious – how can one work for a Catholic school that requires the display of a flag yet try to claim that such a practice contradicts the teachings of the Catholic faith? I know that in four years of Catholic seminary education, I never encountered any such prohibition, nor any such convoluted theological reasoning against the display of a flag.
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October 16, 2005
I don't write about students with any degree of specificity for the same reason -- posting my candid views about some of them would be difficult to defend. I love them all, but cannot say that I like every last one of them. And I won't get into my opinion of some parents I've had to deal with over the years.
That is why I think this former teacher was stupid to be accessing her blog from school -- ESPECIALLY considering the content.
A Mansfield elementary school teacher resigned after school officials found she used her class computer to access a personal Web log chronicling sexual exploits and containing disparaging remarks about her students.Becky Pelfrey, 38, had worked for the Mansfield district for three years and had spent seven years working for Arlington schools.
Her log featured links to sexually-oriented Web sites and comments about her students, including a reference to them as "stinky kids."
School district spokesman Terry Morawski said the district has not sought to file criminal charges and he is not certain that Pelfrey committed a crime.
Pelfrey and her husband think his ex-wife (Becky Pelfrey's former best friend -- we won't get into the issues that raises) may have alerted the school to bolster her side of a child custody case. That really isn't relevant in my book. If you are a teacher, you should not have a sexually explicit blog that you are accessing from home (actually, I don't think you should have one at all). And if you do discuss your sex life on a blog, you really should not be talking about your students in that forum.
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After the devil went down to Georgia, it seems, he got censored in Prince William County.In preparation for a guest appearance at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, the marching band at C.D. Hylton High School had a logical and seemingly innocuous idea: play a Georgia-themed song. They decided on "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," by the Charlie Daniels Band.
But early this month, a local newspaper, the Potomac News, published a letter by a Woodbridge resident who, after having seen the C.D. Hylton Bulldawg Marching Band perform the country-western hit at a football game, wondered how a song about the devil could be played at school events, because of the separation of church and state.
Fearing bad public reaction, Hylton's longtime band director, Dennis Brown, pulled the song from the playlist. "I was just being protective of my students. I didn't want any negative publicity for C.D. Hylton High School," he said.
The result has been a loud outcry in Prince William COunty and the surrounding area.
"God have mercy. How did we become a country full of weenies who give into the cranky nonsense of 1 voice?" one person tapped out on a computer. "I guess I need to go back to school. I thought the idea behind our country was that the majority ruled? You know, like the majority of people voted for the President's re-election and now the ruling party is knuckling under to every left wing nut out there? I give up!"A person identified as Ticked Off Parent chimed in: "What's next? School Book Burnings because someone finds To Kill a Mockingbird offensive? Whoever started this should be banned from the school, NOT THE SONG!"
Another wrote in: "So what if the song does actually 'revolve' around Satan? Satan has its rightful place in history as does Women's suffrage, slavery, and every other subject bad or good!"
We know, of course, how we reached such a point. The ACLU and their fellow-travelers in the judicial branch have twisted the First Amendment into something other than what was envisioned by those who wrote it and thaose who ratified it. Constant lawsuits by militant atheists like Michael Newdow have rendered school boards and too many teachers afraid to permit even the most innocuous religious references stand (a friend in another state tells me that the faculty was told not to say "God bless you" in response to sneezes after one parent complained). So the religious and cultural practices of the majority are ruthlessly suppressed in many schools in the name of "sensitivity" to a relative handful of whiners.
Even Charlie Daniels himself has weighed in on the matter.
"I am a Christian, and I don't write pro-devil songs. Most people seem to get it. It's a fun little song," Daniels said Friday in a telephone interview from Mokena, Ill., where he was scheduled to perform a concert. "I think it's a shame that the [marching band director] would yield to one piece of mail. If people find out that he can be manipulated that easily, he's going to have a hard way to go."
And what of the author of the original letter that appeared in the local paper? What does he think?
As for that nettlesome letter writer, Robert McLean? The defense contractor, whose children are home-schooled, said he went to Hylton's football game just because he enjoys the sport. His letter, he said, was meant to start a philosophical debate, not to wreck any student's marching band experience. Besides, he said, he loves "Devil.""It was one of the first 45s I had as a kid," he said.
So it appear that NO ONE had a real objection to the song. Someone just wanted to point to the absurdity of stripping Christian rligious references from the public square and public school. And one spineless band director, unable to comprehend the satire, backed down.
I have three suggestions.
First, restore the song to the band's repertoire.
Second, find a new band director, one who has the courage of his convictions.
Three, transfer the current band director, Dennis Brown, to someplace where he is likely to do no harm -- like the the district bus barn, where he can sweep and wash the buses twice a day.
There is a particularly fine post on this controversey at Bacon's Rebellion, which includes a comment with links to a number of relevant stories and letters from the community in the paper where this all started.
More at Sierra Faith, Ignorant Hussy, Sasha Undercover, ACSBlog, Life on the Wicked Stage, Patrick Cooper, and Daily Pundit.
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October 14, 2005
My cousin Bilbo would be proud of your third email to me this morning, which defended separate campus facilities for blacks including, but not limited to, African American centers. In that email, you explained that you really arenÂ’t a segregationist. That was before you said that black people just feel more comfortable when surrounded exclusively by blacks.My cousin Bilbo felt more comfortable when surrounded by his kind, too. At least he was honest enough to call it segregation.
You and my cousin Bilbo have a lot in common. You both support segregation and you both have what you personally “feel” are good reasons for it. But I am against both you and Bilbo. I will fight segregation, despite the fact that your daughter is “black” and “upset” and that you think I have tongues growing out of the side of my face. I will fight segregation because I believe that it is wrong. And I will not capitulate to identity politics.
It is a strange day in America when segregationists are called “anti-racists” and anti-segregationists are called “racists.” It makes me very sad. But my cousin Bilbo would be proud.
As little as four decades ago, the end of segregation was seen as “progress” by liberals. Today, the resegregation of America is progress. I guess it is true – if you wait long enough, what’s old is new again.
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October 09, 2005
So why should it be surprising that the liberals of this world expect schools to keep on feeding kids at taxpayer expense during the summer? The Houston Chronicle is upset that some local school districts have not caved into its demands that they arrange meals for students during the months of July and August, after summer school ends.
Let me restate what I said back in July on this very subject.
Who Is Responsible For Feeding The Children?No, I'm serious -- who is responsible for feeding the children? Is it the parents, or is it the government?
That is my reaction to an editorial in today's Houston Chronicle.
Last month, needy children ate more than 2 million free, nourishing meals thanks to the Houston Independent School District. The Galena Park school district fed wholesome meals to 48,000 hungry youngsters.Both school systems should be commended for recognizing the importance of a reliable, accessible source of food for children whose parents can't provide it. So it's inexplicable that both districts left the same kids utterly adrift when both shut their doors to prepare for the school year.
Now wait just one minute here. What is the business of a SCHOOL district? Is it providing an education for its students, or is it the complete care and feeding of the kids year round? I think the answer is obvious to sensibele, thinking people. That would explain why the Chronicles editorial staff gets the answer wrong.
Now I have to be careful here, because I work in one of these districts, but it seems to me that we have lost focus on the mission of the public schools. That mission is the intellectual, social, and moral education of children. It is not to be a one-stop medical/feeding/day-care center. During the school year, my district offers a free day-care program for the offspring of our students, a free/low-cost heath care clinic for students, and a free/reduced lunch program for all students. This summer it offered free breakfast and lunch for any "child" who walked in off the street, regardless of income -- and "child" was defined as AGE 20 AND UNDER! That's right. We had "children" age 18-20 (what most thinking people would generally refer to as "adults") walking into school buildings and being fed at taxpayer expense. What was even more absurd, the regulations imposed by the federal government forbade the sale of these same meals to school employees who were working in the building, including those of us who were actually teaching summer school!
Now, though, that the program is over, the Chronicle is upset that these districts are shirking some sort of purported moral responsibility to feed the children when there is no school in session.
Like other school districts around the country, Houston and Galena Park are eligible for reimbursement from the federal government for food and operating costs of student free meal programs. The government pays $2.74 for each meal a child consumes, which can be used to hire staff to handle the food and monitor the number of meals served. But as summer school ends and the fall semester starts to loom, school systems apparently find it difficult to keep serving the federally-funded meals on their campuses. Galena Park stopped serving its meals Friday; HISD shut most of its 256 cafeterias several weeks earlier.This needless lapse in stewardship should not be allowed to happen. Even if entire school systems must close their doors for maintenance, the schools can still act as conduits to get that free food to poor children. Even after a district has ended its program for the summer, it can restart it again as a sponsor for another site, almost until the start of the school year. All the district needs to do is contact nonprofits, whether community centers or churches willing to provide a site where children can eat. Schools can invite teachers or contract cafeteria personnel to freelance as food managers at the interim locations. More than likely, some parents and other community members would be happy to oversee a meal program for free.
Arranging interim food service in the summer might be time-consuming, but what task could be more urgent?
I don't suppose that the Chronicle ever considered proposing that private groups run such programs without government money or oversight. After all, how can we possibly expect there to be positive results without government involvement? And I can't help but laugh at the notion that teachers should volunteer to run such programs -- after all, Texas teacher salaries are only about $6000 below the national average. Why doesn't the Chronicle send its employees out during the middle of the day to run such programs if, as they claim, "there is no task which could be more urgent"? All of this overlooks such antiquated notions as having the children fed a meal at home, prepared by a parent or other family member.
It's certainly feasible: In San Antonio, the schools have organized an almost seamless transfer of summer meals. There is no excuse for Harris County school districts to deny the same services for our own hungry children.Right now, tens of thousands of Houston children are going without needed meals. Administrators at HISD and GPISD should get on the phone to help them right now. They'll likely find plenty of nonprofits eager to lend a hand. Galena Park Boxing Academy, which is also a child enrichment center, has space for 200 children to eat free meals at once, academy President Kenny Weldon said. The facility can even supply a monitor.
"Of course we'd be willing," Weldon said. "What do you do — take care of kids for one part of the year but not the other?"
But then again, maybe I am too hard-hearted. Maybe the editorial is right. Children need to be fed year-round, and parents are clearly not up to the task.
But what about other school breaks and holidays? These children should not be left to fend for themselves for a week or two at Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Spring Break! Clearly, the cafeterias must remain open during those times off as well.
And what about the irresponsible practice of sending children home on Friday afternoon and closing the cafeterias over the weekend? It seems absurd that we would expect children to survive through a Saturday and a Sunday without a hot breakfast and lunch. School districts need to keep the cafeterias open on the weekend as well, to avoid subjecting our nation's children to two whole days without nutrition.
I've also got a solution to what I see as the "dinner problem". By extending the school day by two or three hours, we can make sure that each student gets a hot dinner, ensuring three square meals a day. The interim time could be devoted to additional instructional time, though I certainly see the objections of those who see the extra classroom time as educators over-emphasizing academics.
But what I've not managed to solve is how to guarantee that evey child gets a bowl of ice cream and a kiss on the forehead before bed. What do you think -- are parents up to such a task?
Now let me begin by saying that additional reflection has led me to recognize that my comment about children getting a kiss on the forehead and a bowl of ice cream at bedtime is a bit insensitive. After all, I left out both the mint on the pillow and the turn-down service that is given at any decent five-star hotel. My sincerest apologies for not including them in the expected services that schools should be expected to provide for their students!
Quite simply, folks, the time has come to get schools to refocus on their primary mission, which is providing an education. Lunch and breakfast programs are fine during the school year, but parents must take responsibility for providing basic necessities for their children. Schools need to get out of the business of providing medical care and social services to children. Speaking as a teacher , I can tell you that those of us on the frontlines of education in a classroom are simply being overwhelmed by the additional demands placed upon us that go beynd the scope of providing an education to our kids. We cannot be all things to all people, nor can we provide all services to all children, if we are to effectively fulfill our primary role of teaching our students. Please, for the sake of our children, let us get back to teaching!
Unfortunately, it looks like one of the districts (or at least the district spokesperson) has fallen into the Chronicle's trap of conceding district responsibility for feeding children year-round.
But Galena Park has not made any effort to transfer its meal service. The Parks and Recreation Department contacted the school district to discuss the matter, but the district did not follow up on that conversation, spokeswoman Staci Stanfield said."It's a priority to make sure that our students are fed," she said. Nevertheless, she added, the district has taken no action "at this point in time" to fulfill that priority.
I wish you had given a better answer, Staci. The correct answer to the question was "It's a priority to make sure that our students are educated, and the district plans on taking no action at this time or any other to operate or facilitate any program that detracts or distracts from our focus on that mission. As such, it is up to the private sector to see to the feeding of children when we are not in session."
Of course, giving that answer would require a level of courage and honesty that those who rise to the rarified heights of district spokesperson or other district administrative positions have long-since lost in their quest to make more money and have less day-to-day contact with children in that messy setting that is a classroom. It also would have required remembering that the primary task of a school district is education.
And sadly, too many of those who set educational policy have lost focus on that task.
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October 06, 2005
A recent Mexican Independence Day assembly at Larkin High may have taken cultural sensitivity one step too far, a Larkin parent said this week.Robert Bedard said his son was reprimanded when he declined to stand for the Mexican National Anthem during a ceremony at the west Elgin school last month.
His 17-year-old son, a senior in the process of enlisting, feared honoring another nation’s anthem might jeopardize his military status. Sitting down cost him a trip to the office.Bedard questioned this week whether the scales of cultural diversity may have tilted out of balance.
I have no problem with cultural celebrations. I have no problem with students learning about other countries. Good Lord – I am a world history teacher who has to spend a lot of time dealing with the cultures of many different societies over the span of at least five millennia. I’m therefore not too bothered by the existence of programs to teach awareness of Mexican (or, more broadly, Latin American) culture and history.
On the other hand, this seems to have crossed the line from being a learning experience into an indoctrination program. It was a celebration of the patriotic holiday of another country, when most schools do not even mark all of the American patriotic celebrations, such as Columbus Day, Veterans Day, of President’s Day (interestingly enough, schools around here only mark four national holidays – Thanksgiving, Christmas, the socialist-inspired Labor Day, and the politically correct Martin Luther King Day). None falls into the category of “patriotic holidayâ€. Why mark the independence of a foreign country with a patriotic program – and punish the failure of students to demonstrate sufficient patriotic fervor for that country?
In this case, the father has a clear issue about patriotism.
“If they have an assembly, I would be happy if they will not try to force students to honor patriotic elements of another culture unless they also honor our flag, our anthem as well,†Bedard said. “It’s just respect for both cultures.â€
I think the point needs to be made even more forcefully. This is America – our public institutions do not mark the patriotic celebrations of other countries, only our own.
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A recent Mexican Independence Day assembly at Larkin High may have taken cultural sensitivity one step too far, a Larkin parent said this week.Robert Bedard said his son was reprimanded when he declined to stand for the Mexican National Anthem during a ceremony at the west Elgin school last month.
His 17-year-old son, a senior in the process of enlisting, feared honoring another nationÂ’s anthem might jeopardize his military status. Sitting down cost him a trip to the office.Bedard questioned this week whether the scales of cultural diversity may have tilted out of balance.
I have no problem with cultural celebrations. I have no problem with students learning about other countries. Good Lord – I am a world history teacher who has to spend a lot of time dealing with the cultures of many different societies over the span of at least five millennia. I’m therefore not too bothered by the existence of programs to teach awareness of Mexican (or, more broadly, Latin American) culture and history.
On the other hand, this seems to have crossed the line from being a learning experience into an indoctrination program. It was a celebration of the patriotic holiday of another country, when most schools do not even mark all of the American patriotic celebrations, such as Columbus Day, Veterans Day, of President’s Day (interestingly enough, schools around here only mark four national holidays – Thanksgiving, Christmas, the socialist-inspired Labor Day, and the politically correct Martin Luther King Day). None falls into the category of “patriotic holiday”. Why mark the independence of a foreign country with a patriotic program – and punish the failure of students to demonstrate sufficient patriotic fervor for that country?
In this case, the father has a clear issue about patriotism.
“If they have an assembly, I would be happy if they will not try to force students to honor patriotic elements of another culture unless they also honor our flag, our anthem as well,” Bedard said. “It’s just respect for both cultures.”
I think the point needs to be made even more forcefully. This is America – our public institutions do not mark the patriotic celebrations of other countries, only our own.
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A new analysis of the sex lives of high schoolers has this advice: Teach the older teens to keep their hands off the younger ones.One in four girls under 18 who have had sex say their first lover was with a male 3 or more years older, according to a new analysis of federal data.
One in 10 boys who have had sex say they lost their virginity to a female 3 or more years older.
Some of these cases involve teens with older adults. But, said the lead author of the report, "most of these sexual experiences occur between young teens and older teens.''
The analysis, by the think tank Child Trends, described the typical scenario as a 14-year-old girl having sex with a 17- or 18-year-old male.
So parents –know who your daughter is dating, and equip her to make good decisions. And do not be afraid to cut the guy out of her life if it seems that sexual activity is possible/probable. That is the first line of defense to protect these young women from sexual exploitation.
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October 05, 2005
A substitute teacher in Lake County, Fla., was terminated and banned from teaching in the county after he ripped out a student's insulin pump during class apparently thinking it was a ringing cell phone, according to a Local 6 News report.Officials said a ninth-grade student at East Ridge High School, who is a Type I diabetic, was in class Monday when his insulin pump began to beep, indicating he was low on insulin.
Witnesses said the class teacher, Richard Maline, 51, asked the student what the beeping was.
School officials said Maline then grabbed the device, thinking it was a cell phone beeping and detached the tube that connects the insulin pump to the student's leg.
The student went to the school's clinic and had the tube reinserted.
It generally isnÂ’t a good idea to try to snatch something away from a kid unless it presents a clear and present danger, regardless of how insubordinate a student is being. This substituteÂ’s actions, probably taken without even asking for an explanation, are truly beyond the pale.
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October 01, 2005
State district Judge John Dietz last autumn ruled the Texas school funding system unconstitutional and issued an Oct. 1 deadline for the Legislature to fix the system or stop funding it.Lawmakers have since failed three times — once during the regular legislative session and in two failed special sessions called for the issue — to overhaul the way Texas pays for public schools.
The state, represented by the office of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, has appealed Dietz's ruling to the Texas Supreme Court. The state's high court is expected to issue a decision in the case within the coming weeks, but it wasn't in the court's Friday package of decisions
Now the appeal to the state Supreme Court should have resulted in an automatic stay, but no actual order has been issued. Some districts, especially those which filed suit, are not sure what they should do. The state attorney general says that the filing of the appeal made the stay automatic, but no court has spoken on the issue.
Not, of course, that the schools do not have the money to open.
Even so, schools receive their funding from the state on the 25th of each month, meaning schools are funded at least until Oct. 25, said Debbie Graves Ratcliffe, a spokeswoman for the Texas Education Agency."They've just gotten their payments," she said. "Schools will be open in most parts of Texas — the guys that didn't have hurricane damage will be open."
Yeah, that is true -- but do they have the authority to spend it?
So who knows -- the schools here in Texas may be shutting down sometinme in the next three weeks. Let's wait and see.
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September 17, 2005
The governor, along with state and federal education officials, visited a southwest Houston middle school on Friday where more than 50 students displaced by Hurricane Katrina have enrolled.U.S. Secretary of Education and Houston Independent School District alumni Margaret Spellings, Gov. Rick Perry, Texas Commissioner of Education Shirley Neeley and Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams toured Pin Oak Middle School at noon.
Educators and classmates at the school have welcomed the displaced students with open arms. Pin Oak Principal Michael McDonough and the school's social worker, Alyson Bricker, sat down individually with each student and his or her family during the enrollment process to talk about their needs.
The displaced students were assigned a regular Pin Oak student as a buddy, given three Polo shirts with the school's logo on it, a spirit shirt that can be worn on Fridays and a school planner. School officials also organized a clothing drive for the families.
More than 1,200 students attend Pin Oak, located at 4601 Glenmont, which has served as a middle school in the district for four years and offers a foreign language magnet program.
Officials said the district has enrolled more than 4,000 students evacuated from the Gulf Coast region.
I teach at a high school in a neighboring district, and I can tell you that we've done many of the same things. We've gotten kids needed clothing and school supplies, assigned them buddies, organized a support group,and started to integrate them into our extracurricular activities.
The three students I have are wonderful -- a shy and quiet girl, a young lady with a melodious laugh that I hear often, and a serious, studious football player who can't wait to get in the game. We've got 50 in all on our campus , and we are ready to take more if they come. I can tell you without a doubt that every Houston educator feels the same way.
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September 14, 2005
Consider the situation in San Antonio where 25,000 evacuees are living on a colsed military base. If only 20% are children, that means an influx of 5000 students into a districtt. In the "real world" of rnning a school district, you would have several years to "ramp-up " to such an influx of kids, but not in this case. If a subdivision or three were being built in a district, neighborhood schools would be built to accommodate them. But that did not -- and could not -- happen in the case of this calamity. When you have such a situation, you have to improvise a solution. It is, by definition, unforeseeable.
So what some officials are proposing is that evacuee children in such settings be educated in their shelter setting. That would require a waiver of the McKinney-Vento Act, which forbids segregating homeless children. In the case of evacuee children, many of whom are black, there are also racial segregation questions.
Let's look at the Texas situation I mentioned above.
Texas Education Commissioner Shirley Neeley, noting that 25,000 evacuees are housed at a closed Air Force base in San Antonio, asked the federal Education Department last week for "flexibility" to serve students "at facilities where they are housed, or otherwise separate from Texas residents during the 2005-2006 school year." U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican, introduced legislation Monday that would grant Secretary Spellings authority to waive McKinney-Vento.Such proposals are arousing consternation among advocates for the homeless, who fear that nearly two decades of gains in public-school enrollment for homeless children will be wiped out. They note that the act, which also requires school systems to enroll homeless children even without documentation such as health and residency records and to employ liaisons to the homeless, was vital to the swift, open-armed response of school districts to the student influx in the hurricane's aftermath. Also, they say, thousands of storm-battered children have already enrolled in public schools across the country without ill effects.
Gary Orfield, director of a Harvard University project that monitors school integration, said that segregating a predominantly black group of evacuees could raise "constitutional questions of racial discrimination." He also said that because many of them may be traumatized, have learning deficits, or come from failing schools, it would be "terrifically difficult" to teach a separate class of the displaced students, and that placing them in middle-class schools and communities would benefit them educationally.
William L. Taylor, chairman of the Citizen's Commission on Civil Rights, said the administration's plans to ease McKinney-Vento and No Child Left Behind could leave the displaced students warehoused and forgotten. "We need some focus on the needs of the children, and not go around waiving a lot of regulations without deciding whether there's a need," Mr. Taylor said.
Now let me begin by noting that the concerns about racial segregation are somewhat overblown. Racial segregation in schools is legal if it is de facto and not de jure. Government action did not create this situation -- nature did. Therefore the constitutional issue is really a red herring. And having worked for Dr. Neeley for a number of years, I can tell you that race is not even a consideration in this request -- she came to her position from a district that is substantially non-white and overwhelmingly low-income, and which was the largest majority-minority district in Texas to obtain an Exemplary rating.
No, what is being sought here is the ability to educate an existing community of students and keeping them together -- essentially neighborhood schools. The bulk of these kids will likely be heading back to Louisiana by next year, and so a separate program where there is a substantial population of students in an evacuation center will allow them to be taught using the Louisiana curriculum standards. These separate schools could also employ Louisiana teachers displaced by the storm. It creates a situation in which everyone wins, as far as I see. Am I missing something?
And for those who are concerned about undermining the educational rights of homeless kids, I do not see how you can argue with the logic of Pamela Atkinson, an advisor to Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., and Senator Orrin Hatch.
But Pamela Atkinson, a special consultant to Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., had other ideas. The displaced families had experienced "so much trauma, anxiety and separation" that the parents "wanted their children close by," said Ms. Atkinson. "Since we had classrooms at Camp Williams, it made more sense to keep them there."She contacted Sen. Orrin Hatch, a Utah Republican, who then asked Secretary Spellings to seek to waive McKinney-Vento. "These displaced and homeless children are not the typical homeless children," Sen. Hatch wrote. "Nearly all of them are with their families. It is important to keep families together as the Katrina victims receive aid and support."
This situation is different than the situation facing most homeless kids. Their needs are different. Let's not try to make them fit into a mold designed for kids in a different situation.
Now I will agree with those who oppose concept making the rounds.
Businesses from charter schools to distance-education providers are already pressing for permission to teach the homeless in shelters and other makeshift housing, hoping to gain broader acceptance for their approaches to education. Mark Thimmig, chief executive of White Hat Ventures LLC, which educates nearly 5,000 students in Pennsylvania and Ohio via the Internet, said last week that his company would be eager to educate displaced students in the Astrodome.
Absolutely not -- there should be no experimentation on these kids. It simply is not acceptable to use them to "try out" approaches that are not generally accepted. These kids need a normal school experience, whether they are integrated into local schools or are educated in their own special school. As for the Astrdome, those kids are scheduled to be out by Saturday, so that is a moot point.
The important thing is that these kids are educated, no matter where they are. If they are integrated into local schools, as is happening in my district, that is wonderful. But if logistics make a separate program the optimal solution for Katrina's kids, then regulations be damned.
Additional commentary from liberal bloggers at Think Progress, Huffington Post, Liquid Toast, Cory Holt. Hopefully conservative bloggers will pic this story up and contribute to the discussion.
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September 13, 2005
A public junior high school in Japan's northern port town of Kushiro had a new item on the menu for its students Monday _ rice topped with whale curry.The meat is from minke whales the local whalers had caught just off the coast of Kushiro on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, Kyodo News agency reported.
Whale meat returned to public school lunches in Kushiro, the former whaling hub about 560 miles northeast of Tokyo, last year for the first time in 38 years as part of the city-sponsored campaign to promote whale meat.
Whale meat dishes, however, are not on the menu every day.
The whale curry will be served at elementary schools in town on Tuesday, and whale meat croquettes are planned in January, Kyodo said.
I still think it beats “mystery meat”.
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September 08, 2005
The legislature could not get a pay raise passed for Texas teachers, but it could increase its pension by a minimum of $6500 per legislator per year for their $7200 per-year part time job (no, that is not a typo -- seventy-two HUNDRED dollars a year).
That means that the annual pension for a legislator with eight years of service is now at the same level as the salary for a teacher with ten years in the classroom making the state minimum salary.
And the increase in pension benefits is, almost to the dollar, equal to the amount Texas teachers are paid below the average national teacher salary.
Virtually every legislator ran making a promise to boost teacher salaries to at least close the compensation gap. They didn't -- and the Lt. Governor even called pay raises for teachers (along with adequate funding for textbooks) "poison" to the process of passing an education bill this year.
Shame on you, Governor. This on your part move makes a vote for Kinky Friedman look much more attractive.
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September 07, 2005
If you are a teacher who has lost his/her job due to Hurricane Katrina, I want to bring this to your attention:
SEEKING WORK?HISD will be holding interviews for job applicants.
• Who: Teachers, counselors, speech pathologists, social workers, teaching assistants
• When: Thursday, 1-4 p.m.
• Where: HISD administrative headquarters, 3830 Richmond, in the Weslayan Building B auditorium
• What to bring: Résumés, teaching certificates, transcripts, references, any other relevant information available
• More information: 713-892-6673
Houston Independent School district is opening two elementary schools that were closed, and is hiring more teachers.
Other districts in the area will need additional classroom teachers and other staff.
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Israeli teachers are less demanding of their students than teachers in countries of the developed world, according to a study conducted recently by Prof. Zemira Mevarech and Dr. Bracha Kramarski of Bar-Ilan University.The study, which was based on an analysis of data appearing in the Program for International Student Assessment from 2003, reveals that Israel languishes at the bottom of the world table when it comes to demand for achievement from students, with most developed European and American countries ranking above it.
AdvertisementThe study also shows that the level of support an Israeli student receives from a teacher is relatively high.
"The study paints the picture that teachers in Israel spoon-feed the material to the students and don't challenge them," Mevarech says.
The 2003 PISA tests were written by a representative sample of 4,500 Israeli 10th graders and hundreds of thousands of their peers around the world. As part of the assessment, students were asked to complete a questionnaire that reviewed their teachers' demand for achievement.
Mevarech and Kramarski's study shows that on a scale of 1-10, the demand for achievement in Israel earned a score of 3.3. Demand for achievement in the United States scored 6.4; in Britain, 7.3; in Russia, 6.5; in Italy, 6.3 and in Finland, 5.7.
The study also reveals that while the demand for achievement in Israel is low, the level of support a student receives from a teacher is high.
"The teacher in Israel spoon-feeds the students, processes the material for them and poses a low demand threshold," Mevarech says. "The figures show that teachers in Israel are prepared to receive sloppy work from their students."
So it would appear that the US doe do better than one might have imagined, though not nearly as well as we might hope.
And the results for Israel shatter certain ethnic stereotypes, don't they?
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September 02, 2005
I will be general in this post, too , but I have to say that I'm going to be a bit more specific in what I say here.
I teach on the east side of Houston, at a 9-10 grade high school campus. We have about 2300 students, 80% minority, well-over half qualifying for free/reduced lunch. We are blessed by an industrial base, as we straddle I-10, and we are also a growing residential community because of new home construction on the north side of the district. I won't name the school or district.
We are being touched by Hurricane Katrina in a small way. My campus had four students fom Louisiana enrolled as of the start of school today. Our sister campus (grades 11-12) had 10. I would speculate the district probably had received 30-40 as of this morning. Who knows how many came in to the district today? I won't even begin to speculate about what will happen next week, though I will note that we already have a lot of students with Louisiana roots whose cousins are likely to turn up.
We got word from the district today -- we will take all comers without question. What's more, the word out of the district offices is that none of these students is expected to lay out a penny for anything -- not pens and pencils, not paper, not notebooks. To quote my principal, "If they don't have clothes, we will take them clothes shopping." I applaud my district for taking that stand, which I suspect goes even furhter than TEA requires of us.
But the commitment goes further than that. There aren't any openings in the district now (we pay well for the area, and have a reputation as a good place to work), but the district is planning to hire on some of the displaced teachers from Louisiana as long-term or permanent substitutes, so that they have money coming in. It won't be anywhere near their regular salaries as teachers, unfortuantely, but it will be something. After all, a lot of schools are closed for the foreseeable future over in Louisiana, and teachers have been told that they are on their own.
The district has asked employees to help. At our faculty meeting today, we were challenged to donate at a certain level (varying depending on whether the employee is uncertified, a teacher, or an administrator). We approved that by acclamation. Proceeds will be going to the school district in Pascagoula, Mississippi, with which there is a pre-existing relationship.
Our kids are in on this, too. One of our service organizations is running a clothing/bedding/canned goods/toiletries/everything-but-the-kitchen-sink drive. Students at the New Arrival Center (for recent immigrants needing to learn English) on one of our other campuses will be sponsoring a car wash tomorrow.
And then there was the fundraising drive by student council. I'm not sure how much they raised, but I suspect that it was in excess of $5000 just from sending someone around to each classroom during third period. I suspect my class ponied up about $50-60. A colleague tells me of one boy who, before going to lunch, pulled out his wallet and emptied the contents into the can -- at least $20.00. I've got this kid in one of my history classes, and know he comes from one of the worst neighborhoods in the district and from a family that doesn't have much. I know he wors after school and on weekends to contribute to the family budget, and doesn't keep much for himself -- so it was probably all or most of what he has for a week or two. He's the type of kid that I refer to when I tell folks that I teach the best kids in the world -- he may not be the best student, but he is an outstanding human being.
I don't doubt that the other schools in the district are responding in exactly the same way.
I'll update you folks about how Katrina impacts my school and my district as time goes on. One thing I can tell you, based on what has happened so far -- we WILL step up. And so will every other Texas school and district.
(Michelle Malkin has a round-up of relief efforts here in Texas -- and Lone Star Times is covering the action at the Astrodome)
UPDATE: As of mid-morning on Friday, at least 6100 students displaced by katrina have enrolled in schools around the state of Texas, according to the Texas Education Agency (TEA).
UPDATE: Michelle Malkin talks about the situation in Pascagoula
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August 29, 2005
Which leads to this situation in England.
A secondary school is to allow pupils to swear at teachers - as long as they don't do so more than five times in a lesson. A running tally of how many times the f-word has been used will be kept on the board. If a class goes over the limit, they will be 'spoken' to at the end of the lesson.The astonishing policy, which the school says will improve the behaviour of pupils, was condemned by parents' groups and MPs yesterday. They warned it would backfire.
Parents were advised of the plan, which comes into effect when term starts next week, in a letter from the Weavers School in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.
Assistant headmaster Richard White said the policy was aimed at 15 and 16-year-olds in two classes which are considered troublesome."Within each lesson the teacher will initially tolerate (although not condone) the use of the f-word (or derivatives) five times and these will be tallied on the board so all students can see the running score," he wrote in the letter .
"Over this number the class will be spoken to by the teacher at the end of the lesson."
Parents called the rule 'wholly irresponsible and ludicrous'.
This is not a plan to eliminate the use of the particular word – it is permission for the kids to use the word in question. Kids are going to feel that they now have the right to use the word. And since the consequence of going over the permitted limit of five is that the class (as a group) will be “spoken to by the teacher,” there is effectively no consequence for spewing out the profane term in question.
I can hear that discussion at the end of class – the teacher reminds students that the word is inappropriate in a classroom setting, to which someone responds “whatever you effin’ say, teach!”
If this were my school and they persisted in following through with this stupid policy, my response would be “I effin’ quit!”
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August 23, 2005
There are 490 female students at Timken High School, and 65 are pregnant, according to a recent report in the Canton Repository.The article reported that some would say that movies, TV, videogames, lazy parents and lax discipline may all be to blame.
School officials are not sure they what has caused so many pregnancies, but in response to them, the school is launching a three-prong educational program to address pregnancy, prevention and parenting.
IÂ’ll resist the temptation to make a snide comment about the contention that school officials donÂ’t know what has caused so many pregnancies. IÂ’m sure that a health of biology textbook clued them in really quick.
No, the reason is that sex has no consequences today. Look at what the school is doing – creating a parenting program to help these kids raise their kids. If it looks anything like my school district’s program, it will include free day care, free medical care, special scheduling, and a coordinator to get the new mothers hooked up with all the relevant entitlement programs. Getting pregnant and dropping a kid at age 16 won’t have any consequences at all – and when the little girl with the rotund belly is the guest of honor at a cafeteria baby-shower surrounded by all of her friends, being a “baby mama” will continue to look glamorous. And I won’t get into the question of the small number who actually get married on Saturday and come to school on Monday showing off their new wedding ring. And after graduation, many of them will be eligible for special scholarship money for overcoming the hardship of being a teenage mother.
I can still remember the day when getting pregnant (or even married) meant that you education was over. You had made an adult choice, and needed to live with the adult consequences. But with the consequences removed, what incentive is there for a young lady to put a dime between her knees and keep it there until graduation? None.
I realize that shame and consequences are dirty words in today’s society, and that using them marks one out as a cold-hearted SOB with an archaic value system. But let’s be honest – those social sanctions worked. Maybe we need to go back to them.
Either that, or more of my colleagues had better expect to hear what I heard from a student in my class several years ago – “Mister – I think I need to go to the nu-u-u-u-u-r-r-r-s-s-s-e! My baby’s coming.”
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August 14, 2005
But the legislature has passed something.
And there is the Texas statehouse, where lawmakers, meeting in a so-called "education" session, recently sent Gov. Rick Perry a bill giving judges a pay raise while continuing to reward teachers with compliments and promises.(Guess, in case you haven't heard, which profession's pay is tied, under a longstanding law, to legislators' retirement benefits. Yes, the bill that went to the governor will give those pensions a boost.)
Just so you understand what the legislature gets out of this bill, let me explain the situation. The Texas legislature is a part-time job which pays an annual salary of $7200. Yes, you read that right -- seven thousand two hundred dollars. Legislatorscan retire at age 50 with a pension of around $35,000 with 12 years of service -- and can receive over $100,000 with sufficient years of service and senior leadership positions factored in. Now the legilators could have amended the bill to eliminate the windfall to themselves (which, by the way, is some $6400 annually -- close to the amount Texas teachers are paid below the national average), but they didn't.
Which is not to say judges do not deserve a pay raise -- but look at what they are getting.
The judicial bill, which Perry is expected to sign, will increase the state's contribution to a state district judge's salary from $101,000 to $125,000 a year, which counties can continue to supplement. Salaries for court of appeals judges will rise from $107,000 to $137,500, and for members of the Texas Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals, from $113,000 to $150,000.The raises, the first enacted by the Legislature since 1997, will bring judges' salaries in Texas more in line with other states.
Funny, isn't it, that the folks whose pay is being increased to the national average are already making over $100,000 annually, while teachers are only going to see half of their gap closed by this legislation -- and $1000 of that will be an illusion, switching our untaxed health care stipend to taxed salary dollars.
And i won't get into the issue of the failure to appropriate the money needed for new textbooks which are sitting in warehouses waiting for delivery.
These two issues of education funding may go by the wayside -- but at least the elected officials goth theirs during the "education" special session.
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August 12, 2005
Meloy says he was jumped by four other students who were bullying another member of the baseball team.His family blames it on Alief ISD's strict "no fighting" policy.
"He'd write, "Dad, I didn't want to get kicked out. I didn't want to get suspended. I didn't want to fight. I didn't want to do that because I didn't want that to happen', " says his father, Rick Meloy.
Meloy's father says his son was obeying the school district's zero tolerance policy when it comes to fighting.
"He absolutely knew that because that is something that is in the handbook at the school. It's drilled into the students' heads that if you participate in any way you will be expelled," says Jess Mason, the family's attorney.
When asked if they tell kids not to fight back, "We tell them not to assume they can use that as a justification," says the district's Paula Smith.
Just how badly was the 215-pound, 6-foot three-inches Matthew beaten? Well, his injuries included a jaw broken in two places, teeth floating on busted gums and injuries so severe that he couldn't talk. Two years later, he still has additional surgery ahead of him.
This rule and the way it is expalined and enforced makes students incredibly vulnerable. Matthew Meloy was terrified of being expelled just weeks before graduation, which would have destroyed his future plans for a college education at Texas A&M, one of the finest educational institutions in Texas (no matter what I say to the faces of my Aggie friends). Instead he was beaten to a pulp and could easily have been killed.
Will the next victim of this policy be a young woman who fears that any resistance to a sexual assault will result in her expulsion?
It seems to me that the courts need to intervene and hold those who make such policies liable both professionally and personally for the damage that they and their policies cause.
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August 11, 2005
Just days before the start of school in HISD, some contract teachers don't have permanent jobs.They were all let go when three highs schools deemed low performing by the state were reorganized.
The total number of teachers in this situation? Seventy. Why so many? because state law requires that such chronically low performing schools have a 100% replacement of staff. Personally, that strikes me as a bit inefficient. After all, within that group of teachers are folks whose students did well and who would be an asset to the resonstituted campus.
It is interesting, too, who doesn't have a permanent assignment.
When school starts Monday at Kashmere High, veteran teachers Peter Nagy and Linda Murray won't be there. They've lost their jobs."I love teaching," said Peter Nagy, history teacher. "I don't like what HISD has done to me. I think that is utterly unjustified."
Nagy taught history at Kashmere for 20 years.
Murray is a 10-year veteran who taught English. Last year she was Kashmere's teacher of the year.
But as of Thursday, neither one of them has been assigned to a new school.
The school's teacher of the year wasn't scooped up? I wonder why. I mean, here is someone who looks to be an asset somewhere in the district.
Honestly, I'm surprised that the district hasn't mandated their placement somewhere.
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August 08, 2005
I've hinted around school issues once or twice, but quite obliquely.
Today I'm going to break a rule -- I'm going to comment on a colleague.
This colleague is a large, arrogant individual who has alienated a great many colleagues. It doesn't take most folks long to recognize him for the sort of person he is.
He is also the campus representative for one of the four major teacher organizations in the state -- the one that presents itself as a union (there are no real teacher's unions here in Texas, since we can't strike or collectively bargain). So during our in-service time, he was permitted to make a brief "sales pitch" to the faculty along with the other campus reps.
What comes out of his mouth as part of his presentation?
"And if you have a problem and need a lawyer, just call them and they'll get back to you within 24 hours. They do a great job getting things straightened out for you -- I wouldn't be teaching here if they didn't!"
Our principal simply bowed his head and covered his face. One of the folks at my table whispered "Now we know who to blame --maybe Shakespeare was right about killing all the lawyers."
You know -- I don't think that little tidbit added to the credibility of that particular organization at all.
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