The end for now . . .

And now, the end is here

And so I face the final curtain

My friend, I’ll say it clear

I’ll state my case, of which I’m certain . . .

I did what I had to do and saw it through without exemption

I planned each charted course, each careful step along the byway

And more, much more than this, I did it my way

***

And so, I think it’s time to take my blog back and get back to my mostly light and fluffy blog posts about life, the universe and everything – from the perspective of one person, one parent, one wife, one friend, one woman, one citizen, one taxpayer, one voter, one American, one Mid-Western girl twice removed – from me.

Political activism is exhausting.  Who knew?

It’s not to say that I won’t follow up on the lunacy that I’ve learned is going on behind closed doors, just down the street, in the classrooms and meeting rooms in my little town, but for now, I rest.  I’ve learned a lot.

I’ve learned that the students in our towns are phenomenal people who support their classmates and have integrity, character, compassion and a strong sense of pride.

I’ve learned that the parents of those kids are intelligent, respectful, civil and neighborly.  With very few exceptions, those who engaged in discussion on this blog have done so in the spirit of healthy debate.  Kudos to you all and thank you for your contributions.

I’ve learned that no matter how often the mainstream media and so many of our public figures like to espouse their anti-American rhetoric — we are still, as a country, on the whole, flag-waving patriots who support our soldiers and embrace the principles of freedom for which those soldiers sacrifice to protect.

I’ve learned that the common sense and common decency of the common man has little chance of defeating the bureaucracy of big unions.  I’ve also learned that the Massachusetts Teachers Association will bankrupt every town and every city  in this state before we finally question and challenge their existence.  Talk about the power of the machine . . .

I’ve learned that it is true that one voice can be heard and can make a difference.

I’ve learned that the misguided, misplaced voices and actions of two teachers can have profound and lasting effects on not only their own community, but on the world.  And how sad and terribly unfortunate that they have so poorly [mis]represented their peers, because . . .

I’ve learned that there are far more teachers in this country (and I heard from teachers from all corners) who honor, respect and take very seriously the responsibilities of their chosen profession than those who put their own interests first.  These teachers work hard every day to uphold the basic principles of putting their students first, of teaching and not preaching, of educating and not indoctrinating, of facilitating a student’s ability to learn how to think and not what to think.  There are great teachers here and elsewhere who I respect a great deal.

I’ve learned a lot.  Thank you for coming along for the ride.

Shut Down. Surprised? Maybe I shouldn’t be

At the beginning of the School Committee meeting tonight, the first matter on the actual Agenda – as is stated in the public policy of the School Committee is Citizen Questions/Comments.  However, the Chairman interrupted the agenda to read a prepared letter.  Basically, the letter vaguely described “an incident” which occurred last week which upset many parents and students.  Now, I’m paraphrasing here, but in essence, the Chairman indicated that any matter of disciplinary action involving teachers is a personnel matter and therefore it is a private matter.  Also, the Committee is not responsible for making disciplinary decisions with regard to teachers.  I understand that it is the school administration who is responsible for making those decisions – I knew this going in but was told that I should air my grievances to the School Committee by the administrators!  He then indicated that the Committee is in the process of formulating a policy which relates to this issue.

I began to read my statement and I uttered ten words and was told that I was out of order.  The Chairman stated that they would not hear anything regarding the incident last week.  I asked if I would be out of order if I addressed the Committee about the policy which they are formulating, since that IS the Committee’s responsibility and policies are matters of public record.  This seemed to confuse them a bit and the Superintendent and the Chairman bowed their heads in whispers for a moment, then the Chairman told me that too would be out of order.  The Superintendent expressed that there is a standard protocol to be followed for developing policies and that first the subcommittee must meet and then there are several meetings and that when the policy is to be discussed at a School Committee meeting, she’d be happy to let me know.  I told her I would appreciate that.  The very fact that was most telling in this is that the Superintendent described the process that “would” take place, NOT that was already in process.  Interesting.  They want everyone to believe that the Committee was ahead of the situation in developing a policy.  I never believed that, but it seems the Superintendent just admitted it.  Oops.

I said something to the effect of: So, we’re not allowed to speak in any way about what happened last week?  That’s it?  Basically, the citizens have no say and cannot be heard?  They sat there looking at me like scared, guilty children and I stood up and expressed that I thought this was pathetic (or something like that – I was in shock and frankly, I don’t remember exactly what I said) and turned to walk out.  As I reached the door, another woman approached the microphone and began to talk about not speaking to the specific issue but wanting to discuss something about the United Nations (!!!) on the issue and she too was told that she was out of order.  She offered to give them the materials that she brought and I spoke up and said “As did I!” and I walked back up to the table and handed copies of  case law and the article by the ACLU which I said “might be useful in developing the policy, for what it’s worth.  No sense in wasting the paper.”

One Committee member, John Henderson (a voice of sanity and reason, perhaps?), asked if the Committee could hear the citizens but not respond and the Chairman told him no.

Funny, really.  Because I was going to have my say and then I assumed the issue would rot on the vine, as these things do.

I was only going to have my final say in front of the School Committee, in that limited format.  And do you want to know the funniest part?  What I wanted to be heard on was in great part, to give them credit for the hope I had that they would take the appropriate responsible, necessary actions which would be proportionate to the events.

I spoke to the Superintendent and to the Superintendent’s office four or five times this week and I specifically told her assistant the topic of what I wished to speak about.  I called to confirm this each day.  An ounce of civility and respect might have been called for in notifying me that there was no point.

Apparently, only paid public servants are allowed to speak freely in whatever format they choose, whenever they wish – even when it is OUT OF ORDER.  But if  a citizen of this town, a taxpayer, a voter and a parent of one their students wishes to be heard, takes every single possible step to follow proper protocol and is in line with parliamentary procedure – we have no say.

Interesting.  I think I shall have my say.

Fox & Friends Coverage!

Fox & Friends wants to do a story on what’s going on at Dennis-Yarmouth High School!  I’ll keep you posted as I know the details.  I wanted to get this to the nation’s attention and it looks like I’ve succeeded!  Thank you everyone for your interest!

School Committee Meeting has been rescheduled

The School Committee meeting has been rescheduled from next Monday to this Thursday, June 17th at 7:30pm at Station Avenue Elementary School.  I intend to attend and be heard on this matter.  I will also be attending the Town meeting when the budget override will be discussed since I can’t stomach the idea of not only paying the salaries of these teachers and the administrators who don’t have the gumption to properly discipline them, but to give them a raise!

It’s time to take back our schools

http://wbztv.com/video/?id=90267@wbz.dayport.com

Yesterday at my son’s school, there was an assembly to recognize the seniors.  During that assembly, a member of the Yarmouth Police Department was giving a speech to honor the seniors who had chosen to enlist in the military upon graduation and during that speech, a teacher displayed a sign which read “End War.”  While the National Anthem was being played and everyone rose with their right hands over their hearts, she held up a Peace sign instead.  As if this sort of anti-war protest isn’t inappropriate enough on public school grounds, during school hours, at an important school event, the real travesty was when everyone in the school stood to give a standing ovation to these six brave young men and women, and these two idiot teachers sat down and refused to applaud.

The sign reads "End War"

Spencer sent me a text message immediately to express how angry and upset this made him.  Once I got the entire story from him, I called the school principal to discuss the event.  I was told, in essence, that the school does not condone these two teachers’ actions and that they will be weighing their options and they will deal with it internally.  I told the principal that after listening to my son come home for the last six years, since middle school, telling me story after story about teachers who were using their classrooms as platforms to further their personal political agendas, this was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me and that I would be contacting the media.  He suggested I call the Superintendent of schools, which I next did.  I had a rather lengthy conversation with her and although she agreed with me entirely in principle, she indicated that the situation would be dealt with by the principal.  I explained that I would be contacting the media and that with the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District looking to the taxpayers for yet another budget override within the month, I hoped that perhaps the administrators of these schools might find the motivation to respond more strenuously to the actions of their teachers when it brings such negative public scrutiny to the district and puts the district’s goals at risk.

The Superintendent spent a great deal of time and effort trying to talk me out of going to the media.

My next call was to the Cape Cod Times, our ridiculously liberal rag of a local newspaper, and I left a message with someone at the newsroom.  Ironically, the only story that I’ve found thus far today in the paper is about a silly prank pulled by a small number of juniors against the seniors – typical, silly kid stuff.

Next, I sent an email to WBZ TV, the CBS affiliate in Boston.  Late in the afternoon, I received a phone call from Beth Germano, a reporter for WBZ that they were on their way to the Cape and would like to interview me.  I gave her the names of the teachers, the principal and the Superintendent.  WBZ stopped by to interview the teacher first – and you can watch a portion of that interview from the link above – and then went to the local middle school to interview two of the seniors who were being honored, a freshman who was present at the assembly, the principal and me.  The piece was only going to be one minute and thirty seconds long, so my interview was not shown.

After seeing the story aired and hearing the teacher’s words and the principal’s words – I am even more incensed by the whole thing.  What happened yesterday was appalling, inappropriate, disrespectful and proved without question that my tax dollars are paying two public servants who openly abuse their trusted positions of authority with our children.  The fall-out proves that my tax dollars are also paying the administrators who “cannot guarantee that disciplinary action will be taken against these teachers.”

But the other parts of the story were not told and I feel that there is much more wrong with what happened yesterday than the obvious inappropriateness of these teachers’ actions.

There is one basic tenet that the public school systems in this country are founded on which is being violated on a daily, rampant basis and no one is willing to expose this dirty, little secret because it furthers the interests of the administration as well.  In this country, every child is entitled to earn an education in a neutral environment, free from discrimination.  The point is argued continuously and consistently all around the nation – but only when it suits the administration to do so.  When it’s a question of “separation of church and state” or gay rights or any number of other topics, these teachers and administrators wave their flag of neutrality like a banner, but when it comes to remaining neutral about voicing and demonstrating their personal political agendas (which will pay their salary and provide more and more protection and benefits for them, and them alone), then it’s a matter of the First Amendment of the Constitution.

The hypocrisy has to stop and we have to find a way to take our schools back.

No child should ever have to walk the halls of a public school (which is paid for by the child’s parents’ tax dollars) and be concerned that even one teacher may judge him, disapprove of him, or God forbid – which is what happened here yesterday – publicly shun him for having the courage, pride and honor to choose to serve this country and defend that teacher’s right to have an opposing opinion to his choice.

I too will defend these teachers’ rights to have their opinions and to express their opinions openly until the day I die.  But they are not entitled, they do not have the right to do it on public school grounds, when they are being paid to be public servants.

Teachers hold trusted positions of authority and we teach our children to respect their teachers and to trust and have faith in them.  We believe that we are sending our children to a school which will provide a safe, neutral environment.  We expect our teachers to teach our children and impart knowledge and facts in various subjects via a specific curriculum.  It is the basic tenet of neutrality that I vehemently support in the public school systems.  It infuriates me to know that it is being blatantly and rampantly violated each and every day.  Yesterday, the violation of this tenet was egregious, disrespectful, poorly timed, inappropriate and the teachers who had the unmitigated gall to perpetrate it should be held accountable for such abuse of their positions.  And if the school administrators do not have the gumption to do so, I believe they are equally responsible.

These six seniors had one opportunity to be honored and recognized by their peers and by their role models.  They had one day and one event which was dedicated to them.  These two selfish imbeciles took it upon themselves to steal this time and the spotlight away from these young people.  In three months, these two women will have every opportunity (after all, they only work 180 days a year!!!!) to exercise their right to protest the war on their time as they wish, but these six young men and women will be learning the skills needed to defend their right to do so.  And next year, when my taxes will still be paying the salaries of these two worthless, selfish PUBLIC SERVANTS, they will have the opportunity to attend the senior assembly of another graduating class and these six young men and women may well be under fire and fighting to survive in a foreign land, with nothing more than a distant memory of a day when they were to be honored for their courage, but it was stolen by these teachers.

I hope Ms. Marybeth Verani and Ms. Adeline Koscher are terribly proud of themselves. How cowardly to take advantage of their positions and steal the spotlight away from the students in their charge.  And they will surely be rewarded by the school administration with a continued paycheck and a pat on the back for a job well done.

When will we find a way to take our schools back and bring back the principles that our forefathers intended?  There is no valor in hiding behind the First Amendment only when it suits your purposes.  Freedom of speech is a powerful thing, and I intend to exercise mine – at top volume.