We should be so far beyond anything like this ever happening – especially in an educational setting.
The principal of Mission Viejo Elementary School in Aurora, Colorado, Andre Pearson, finds himself in a little bit of a predicament.
We think he should out of a job. (Or at least suspended.)
Pearson sent a letter home to parents advertising the school’s new tutoring program. In the letter, Pearson said the program was only for “children of color.”
One of the parents whose child needs or wants tutoring was going to contact Pearson directly when they received a voice mail from the principal:
“This is Andre Pearson. It’s focused for and designed for children of color, but certainly, if we have space for other kids who have needs, we can definitely meet those needs,” Pearson told Cox in the voicemail.
The school has reversed the policy and will allow kids of all races into the tutoring program. Tustin Amole, a spokesman with the Cherry Creek School District said Pearson made a mistake.”
Anytime you have kids in a school program who are excluded by race, it is wrong. It is morally, legally and ethically wrong.
A kid writing 2+2=5 on a test is a mistake. This is professional malfeasance and stupidity.
The principal should be suspended (at the very least) and required to take some sort of “sensitivity training.” After all, if the principal had excluded children of color from the program, that is the minimum that would have happened. To be consistent, that is what should happen here.
As a nation, we should never tolerate racism in any form. Ever.
It happened in Aurora, Colorado and should not be tolerated.
Period.
Feb 9, 2013
Posted by AAfterwit on Feb 9, 2013 | Comments Off
While we were on “computer hiatus,” our friend William Teach over at the Pirate’s Cove wrote a brief article on a 10 year old child who was arrested for bringing a toy gun to school and showing it to friends on the bus.
He was also suspended from school, and Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Morton Sherman said further action is being considered, including expulsion.
On Monday, the boy showed the plastic gun to at least one other student during a bus ride home from the school. The 10-year-old did not point it at anyone or threaten to shoot it, but he neglected to mention that the weapon was fake, said Alexandria police spokeswoman Ashley Hildebrandt.
There is so much stupidity here it is hard to imagine. The child wasn’t “brandishing a weapon” because the toy isn’t a weapon. There was no risk of any one being harmed. Furthermore, the allegation by the Alexandria police spokesperson that the child neglected to mention the toy was a fake gun is belied by the fact that the toy had an orange tip to it, which is mandated by the Federal government for toy guns that cannot fire a projectile. The very presence of that orange tip screams “this is not a real gun.”
We can argue all day long as to whether the 10 year old should have brought the toy to school, but it seems to us there is very little argument that arresting the kid will do anything to make anyone safer, teach the child a lesson, or anything that schools should be doing. All the arrest does is show how ridiculous the actions of some people in school systems are and how they lack critical thinking skills.
Take for example the case of a fifth grader in Philadelphia who was searched in front of her classmates, yelled at by administrators and called a “murderer” by those same classmates for the awful “crime” of having a piece of paper torn and folded into a shape that resembled a handgun. (more…)
According to the Florida Today, Brevard County School Superintendent Brian Binggeli is set to recommend the closing of four schools in the county due to budgetary issues.
The schools recommended for closure are Sea Park Elementary in Satellite Beach, Gardendale Elementary on Merritt Island, South Lake Elementary in Titusville and Clearlake Middle in Cocoa.
The recommendation will be made formally during a Nov. 20 board meeting, including proposals for new boundaries assigning students from the closed schools to adjacent ones.
The recommendations are being made as part of the district’s attempt to deal with inadequate funding for facilities maintenance and renewal, a situation the district’s head of facilities called “dire.”
Voters on Tuesday shot down a half-cent sales tax the district proposed that was estimated to raise $32 million annually to support capital needs.
Without that new revenue, Binggeli will recommend the school closures and says future decisions await about impacts to school programs, as more operating funds are shifted to support capital needs.
We are going to be the first to admit that we aren’t as fluent in the Brevard County School budget as we should be.
That won’t stop us from noting a few things that are giving us pause.
First, there are people who are blaming the failure of Brevard County residents to approve a 1/2 cent sales tax increase this past Tuesday.
In the comments on the Florida Today story, Debbie Franqui of Palm Bay writes: (more…)
May 24, 2012
Posted by AAfterwit on May 24, 2012 | Comments Off
We realize the job of being an educator is often one full of challenges. We recognize that dealing with parents, kids and various situations during the day can be difficult.
However, if one is going to enter into educational world, one should not be stupid.
Take the case Deltona High School senior Michael Rudi. Michael, who is 17, suffers from asthma. Throughout his school career, his parents have notified the Volusia County School District of Michael’s need for the use of physician prescribed inhaler. This year, for whatever reason, that notification slipped through the cracks. The school district never received the notification from Michael’s parents.
It was somewhat foreseeable, therefore, that during the school year Michael would suffer an asthma attack.
As luck would have it, the assistant principal had searched lockers last Friday and had found an inhaler in Michael’s locker. The inhaler was still in its original packaging, with Michael’s name on it and complete instructions. The school promptly confiscated the inhaler.
So when Michael started to have an asthma attack, instead of going to his locker to get the inhaler, he went to the school nurse – who promptly told him there was nothing she could do.
You read that correctly. Because of the school policy of not allowing the nurse to “administer” prescription drugs without a signed consent form from the parents of the student, Micheal was left to suffer in the nurse’s office while the school kept the inhaler locked away.
The school called Michael’s mother Sue, to tell her her son was having an asthma attack. (more…)
Mar 27, 2012
Posted by AAfterwit on Mar 27, 2012 | Comments Off
Eric Dompierre is a 19 year old with Downs Syndrome. As a junior at Ishpeming High School, Dompierre loves basketball and plays on the team. His teammates and coaches love him being on the team and consider him a “perfect teammate.”
Except for one problem – Dompierre is no longer allowed to play on the team.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) has decided to uphold a rule that says those participating in a high school sport must be 18 years of age or younger.
As we noted, Dompierre is 19. Because of the Down Syndrome, Dompierre got a late start in school. Yet here the kid is getting an education and participating in a sport.
Good for him.
We are usually against rules that cut out special provisions for the disabled if there is a great cost or if the provision is overly burdensome. In the case of Dompierre, there is no cost and there is no burden to the school or other schools. This is a win win for everyone. You end up with a kid that is actually part of a team and learns what that means, and a school that can be proud of the fact it is not shoving the kid in a corner for being different and or “disabled.”
Despite 23 other states having rules on the books that allow disabled children like Dompierre to compete in sports at the high school level, the MHSAA said: (more…)
Mar 1, 2012
Posted by AAfterwit on Mar 1, 2012 | Comments Off
We have written a lot lately on racism and “outrage” over what can best be called “faux-racism.” First there was the controversy over a teacher being suspended for telling his students the “n-word” was inappropriate. There was the kerfuffle over headlines written about NBA player Jeremy Lin, where a US Congresswoman showed her ignorance of the English language as part of her faux-racism outrage. Finally, there was a supposed “comedian” who went to BYU and what he discovered was a massive failure of the US educational system.
However, there are times when the stupidity of people to not notice a racially charged item never ceases to amaze us.
Imagine if you will, being the director of the “Nutrition Department” of a school district. On Fridays, you are going to serve the little snowflakes that come through your cafeteria lines chicken nuggets.
YUM YUM!
To make the nuggets appeal more to the kids, you decide to describe them on the menu as “crispy, crunchy chicken.” Nah. That won’t work. That isn’t cool enough. Not hip enough.
Some genius in your Nutritional Department decides to change the letter “c” to ‘k.”
Now we’re talking. We have “Krispy, Krunchy Khicken” to serve kids.
Your “marketing genius” is on a roll now, and when the menus are printed and sent home with the kids, you label Friday’s meal as “KKK Chicken.”
A four year girl old attending pre-school in North Carolina had the lunch her mother had made confiscated by school officials for allegedly not meeting USDA guidelines for a healthy meal. The child was then given a meal from the school. (“Given” is not the right term as we will see in a moment.)
When the child returned home, she handed her mother the lunch the mother had packed, a note from the school on the lunch contents, and a bill from the school for the lunch they had “given” the child.
The mother was understandably upset.
We don’t blame her.
First, let’s look at the contents of the lunch the mother packed:
a turkey sandwich with cheese and mayo on bread
a banana
potato chips
apple juice
The USDA recommendations for meals are at least:
one serving of meat
one serving of grain
two servings of either fruits of vegetables
As we said, the school confiscated the lunch because they allege the lunch did not meet the USDA guidelines.
The Gwinnett School System of Gwinnett County, Georgia wins today’s “Best Example of Idiocy in a School System” award. The award is the result of the actions take by the Lanier Middle School against 13 year old Jack Persyn.
Persyn was in Chess Club when he discovered a one and a half inch pocket knife in his lunch bag. The military styled bag was a gift from his aunt, who had purchased the item at a yard sale.
Persyn reported he had accidentally brought the knife to school to his teacher.
The school responded with four days of in-school suspension for the kid.
The school district defended the decision to suspend the child.
The Gwinnett School System insists their policy on weapons in school is not zero tolerance, yet a school spokesperson said any student found to have a weapon at school will face punishment even when a student self-reports accidently having that weapon.
“We can’t ignore the fact that there is a weapon on campus somewhere that someone can use,” said system spokesperson Jore Quintana. “This is obviously to keep the safety of our students in our schools.”
What is the purpose of the punishment for Persyn? What lesson(s) is the school and the school district trying to teach the young man? (more…)
We should be so far beyond anything like this ever happening – especially in an educational setting.
