Campfire Songs of the Disgruntled
Wafting over the hillsides come snatches of the lonely campfire songs of the disgruntled, huddled around their fires feeling left out, trying to figure out who to sue next.
The Allied Defense Fund sent a letter this week to the Montgomery County school board, complaining that PFOX isn't treated fairly. They say:
Here's what the Churchill Observer -- the school newspaper -- said at the time:
So it sounds like the administration explained exactly the letter of the law to the teachers, and they followed that.
Further down in that story:
OK, they made the materials available to students, check. Those that didn't want them had a place to throw them away, check.
Well, the Alliance Defense Fund says...
Hey, I'm no lawyer, I have no idea how this comes out. PFOX won the right to have the schools distribute their bizarre information in the schools, and that's happening. The schools didn't have to promise Service With a Smile.
Before you start feeling special for living in a county lucky enough to receive this kind of attention ... ahem ... you should see that the same exact thing is going on down in Albermarle County, Virginia. From the June 30th Charlottesville Daily Progress:
Seems that some people wanted equal opportunity for themselves, but not for pagans and people with a "secular worldview," whatever that is.
In the meantime, we'll wait to see if MCPS gets sued for providing containers for the trash they are required by law to distribute.
The Allied Defense Fund sent a letter this week to the Montgomery County school board, complaining that PFOX isn't treated fairly. They say:
Recently, several school employees and at least one principal ... have encouraged and incited students to throw out the materials distributed by PFOX. This was accomplished primarily by school personnel placing PFOX's name on trash cans in the main lobby and encouraging students to throw PFOX's materials out.
LETTER HERE (pdf)
Here's what the Churchill Observer -- the school newspaper -- said at the time:
"The administration contacted the teachers to let them know that they were not required to physically hand the letter to each and every student—the teachers merely needed to make the flyer available to the students should they choose to take it," SGA president senior Roisin Magee said. The distribution of the letters by CHS was mandatory. The administration had no other option but to make the flyers available to students.
In response to the flyers, the GSA organized a protest, allowing students the option of discarding their letters in recycling bins around school and student distributed trash bags labeled "PFOX." The protest, which was officially held after homeroom Feb. 1 in the Bulldog lobby, was viewed as a success by many.
So it sounds like the administration explained exactly the letter of the law to the teachers, and they followed that.
Further down in that story:
The administration was also supportive in helping the protest run smoothly and effectively. Trash cans were placed in the center of the lobby, and security guards and administrators stood by protestors to ensure safety.
"[The protest] was wonderfully planned out, wonderfully executed, and wonderfully received, with great respect from the administration, especially Dr. Benz," Richard said. "Having her be there by the trash cans with us was incredible, and a great symbol of the support we had from the school. The protest couldn't have gone any better."
OK, they made the materials available to students, check. Those that didn't want them had a place to throw them away, check.
Well, the Alliance Defense Fund says...
... certainly, actively encouraging students to throw PFOX's materials in a trash can, while not interfering in any way with the dissemination of materials by other non-profit organizations, violates PFOX's First Amendment right to distribute materials at Montgomery County Schools. Such conduct is a blatant example of unlawful viewpoint discrimination.
Hey, I'm no lawyer, I have no idea how this comes out. PFOX won the right to have the schools distribute their bizarre information in the schools, and that's happening. The schools didn't have to promise Service With a Smile.
Before you start feeling special for living in a county lucky enough to receive this kind of attention ... ahem ... you should see that the same exact thing is going on down in Albermarle County, Virginia. From the June 30th Charlottesville Daily Progress:
The Albemarle County School Board has settled a debate first sparked last summer over the role of schools as community informers, deciding in a 5-1 vote to allow only school-sponsored and local government groups to send fliers home with students.
The decision means groups such as vacation Bible schools and sports leagues not affiliated with the county recreation department - including Little League and the Soccer Org-anization of Charlottesville-Albemarle - cannot send fliers home in students' backpacks.
"For us, it was very much the question: 'Where are we spending staff time?'" School Board Chairwoman Sue Friedman said Friday.
The former policy, enacted in late September, allowed all outside organizations to distribute fliers twice a semester.
Friedman said it was not the number of requests that changed the board's mind, but the time involved in fielding reaction from parents.
"Staff would get 15 calls from parents asking about the flier policy and not asking how their kids are doing," Friedman said.
During summer session last year, Hollymead Elementary students were not permitted to hand out fliers advertising a vacation Bible school at a local church. Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit that offers litigation and policy advice, then sent a letter to Albemarle officials informing them that the flier-distribution policy excluding religious groups was unconstitutional.
The School Board's attorney, Mark Trank, informed the board at a September meeting that all outside groups must be treated similarly, prompting the board to broaden its policy despite some members' reluctance.
Board member Stephen Koleszar summed up the attitude of a majority of the board during this meeting: "I value our schools as community centers and I don't want to stifle that," Koleszar said. "At the same time, I don't want this to get out of control."
During this past school year, the distribution of a pagan flier around Christmas time and a flier advertising Camp Quest, a residential summer camp for those with a "secular worldview," spurred some parents to voice concerns, and the board decided to revisit the issue this month. That led to Thursday's vote.
Friedman said that there are methods - such as bulletin boards and information tables - that schools can use to convey community information.
"If indeed we are perceived that we are one of the only communication links, we would be more than happy to see how we can meet those needs," she said. Albemarle schools rewrite flier policy
Seems that some people wanted equal opportunity for themselves, but not for pagans and people with a "secular worldview," whatever that is.
In the meantime, we'll wait to see if MCPS gets sued for providing containers for the trash they are required by law to distribute.
posted by JimK at 7:10 AM
18 Comments:
Jim writes,
"Campfire Songs of the Disgruntled"
Wafting over the hillsides come snatches of the lonely campfire songs of the disgruntled, huddled around their fires feeling left out, trying to figure out who to sue next.
LOL...I am puzzled at how in victory you continue to wax on in this tone that really can only be described as pusillanimous that equals that of the defeated PFOX, CRC, et al.
Could it be a case of "arrested development"?
Animus- mind and anima- life principle, root, spirit are the two roots upon which lots of words like animal, animation, inanimate etc are built.
Magnanimous is animus + magna- great. Magnanimous souls rise above petty issues.
Pusillanimous is animus + pusillous- tiny. In contrast to magnanimous, pusillanimous people are mean and petty and have small minds and souls. Of course not literally but figuratively.
And then there is this,
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/18/
education/18abstain.html?em&ex=1184
990400&en=9e2b5d184fc32b9c&ei=
5087%0A
which I will have to admit has one of the best pictures I have seen in a while, that of Jami Waite "an honor graduate, a band member, a true friend, a head cheerleader — and a steadfast virgin." What do I see? I see a face of determination that sees a future full of promise...and one that does not for a moment think that the contraceptive message (which is really the core message of comprehensive sex ed programs...yes, I know, go ahead, copy and paste the curriculum with all the "abstinence message" talking points, and after the condom video how many of those points will be remembered? lol...talk about naive) has anything wise to teach her.
The Allied Defense Fund is acting in a "pusillanimous" manner. They try to make it look like there is a case by lying. Their contention that Churchill administrators led the protest is corrected by the eye witness accounts in the Churchill Observer. Student members of a tolerance club, the Gay Straight Alliance, initiated and organized the protest. School administrators controlled, contained, and observed the protest so that all were protected and no one was hurt. The protest helped publicize PFOX's message that "Gays should live life in the closet." PFOX should be grateful.
This post highlights why education shouldn't really be a function of government. Government's role should be merely to ensure accessibility to education for all citizens. Citizens will gravitate toward the most appropriate atmosphere and valuable curriculum. There will be schools for everyone, available to everyone if government would fund schools but stop trying to run them.
Someone needs to arouse a sleeping giant: an urban population largely excluded from the American dream because of the work of the teachers' unions to block voucher programs enabling citizens to hold schools accountable for their negligence.
oops! that last one was by joltin' joe
There's a great article exposing the so-called "voucher movement" in the August Harper's. Not online yet, but it will be.
Well, unfortunately, no one need "expose" the public school system. It's failure is apparent to all.
JJ- did you go to public school? - then I agree it was a failure for you. I got a fine education as did my parents(the children of immigrants) and my kids. I know people who made every effort to get here so they could have freedom and public education.
"JJ- did you go to public school? - then I agree it was a failure for you. I got a fine education"
It's hard to tell but we'll take your word for it.
Easy for you to be flippant. Inner city kids all over America are being let down. School vouchers could be more valuable than a thousand welfare checks.
Perhaps Cairo Joe (or is it Joltin' Joe? - one and the same, I suspect) needs to do some reading on current research that shows no appreciable difference between public schools that are open to all students and those schools where vouchers are awarded to a select few. Vouchers were created not to address the needs of inner city kids but to provide a mechanism for elitists to ensure that their kids didn't have to be schooled along side of these inner city kids - a clear subversion of the principle of equal education for all students. Your comment about vouchers being more valuable than a thousand welfare checks exposes clearly how you feel about inner city kids, C.J.
Rob
"Perhaps Cairo Joe (or is it Joltin' Joe? - one and the same, I suspect) needs to do some reading on current research that shows no appreciable difference between public schools that are open to all students and those schools where vouchers are awarded to a select few."
Ignorant. Schools don't award vouchers. The whole point is that parents can look for a better school and not be stuck with a dangerous, dilapdated school with unqualified teachers.
"Vouchers were created not to address the needs of inner city kids but to provide a mechanism for elitists to ensure that their kids didn't have to be schooled along side of these inner city kids - a clear subversion of the principle of equal education for all students."
Elitists already have good schools. They don't need vouchers.
People like Rob are determined to Rob kids of hope for the sake of teachers' unions.
"Your comment about vouchers being more valuable than a thousand welfare checks exposes clearly how you feel about inner city kids"
Yes, it does. I feel they can accomplish anything if given the same opportunity for education that people like Rob have had.
"C.J.
Rob"
Which is it?
Here is my take on the ADF's letter.
Under the 4th Circuit's Child Evangelism Fellowship decision, PFOX appears to have the right, under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, to have their flyers distributed if other organizations are permitted to have theirs distributed.
The decision does not mean that somehow the students' First Amendment are abrogated. In other words, neither the decision nor the First Amendment requires the schools to force students to bring those flyers home.
Faced with a legitimate expression of student protest of PFOX's approach, the staff at Churchill High School acted properly, in the words of the school newspaper article, "in helping the protest run smoothly.. . . Trash cans were placed in the center of the lobby, and security guards and administrators stood by protesters to ensure safety." Any legitimate protest by students should be done in an orderly way, and it is the responsibility of school staff to assure that matters do not get chaotic and that littering does not occur.
Moreover, Alliance Defense Fund's assertion that all school staff must, as a matter of law, remain neutral about the PFOX flyers is simply incorrect. While the schools may be required to permit the flyer distribution, the schools are not required to tacitly endorse them, either. Indeed, all flyers from any group, must state the following: "Note: These materials are neither sponsored nor endorsed by the Board of Education of Montgomery County, the superintendent, or this school."
While the flyer distribution arrangement may be deemed a public forum, that does not prevent individual government employees (here, for example, the GSA sponsor) from expressing their own views, or, indeed, the government as an institution from expressing its own views. For example, the state could create a public forum, in which speakers could not be prohibited from advocating repeal of the income tax. That would not mean that the government could not state its opposition to that message.
Fortunately, David's not a judge.
The forces behind vouchers are almost exclusively people who send their children to religious schools or other private schools (as is, ina America, their right), and want the government to fund that.
There are several problems with the voucher idea:
1)1st and foremost, private schools, unlike public schools, have no obligation to educate any student; they can, and do, pick and choose their clientele;
2)the amount provided by voucher programs doesn't cover the cost of most private school educations;
3)all the research I've seen indicates that students who receive vouchers do no better (on average) than they did when they were in public schools.
Personally, I find the idea of school choice appealing; if a school is working for a child, he or she gets the chance to go to another school. The problem is, I think, that the people who support vouchers aren't really concerned about the same students I am, and real-world experience tells us that this solution isn't a real solution.
I would be more supportive of expanded early-childhood programs.
rrjr
"1)1st and foremost, private schools, unlike public schools, have no obligation to educate any student; they can, and do, pick and choose their clientele;"
No problem. There are schools for everyone.
"2)the amount provided by voucher programs doesn't cover the cost of most private school educations;"
Thus is mainly because of the opposition of teacher unions. Additionally, virtually all private schools have assistance funds that would cover the difference for those in need. And need is liberally defined.
"3)all the research I've seen indicates that students who receive vouchers do no better (on average) than they did when they were in public schools."
All research is preliminary. And academics is not the only factor. Negative socialization and lack of basic safety is a major problem in inner city schools.
"Personally, I find the idea of school choice appealing; if a school is working for a child, he or she gets the chance to go to another school. The problem is, I think, that the people who support vouchers aren't really concerned about the same students I am, and real-world experience tells us that this solution isn't a real solution."
Too bad you're so political that you find opposing certain people more important than the welfare of children. Your rationalization is appalling.
Ask yourself this: if you had a kid, would you like it if the government told you the child had to be educated in a failing school in a dangerous part of SE DC. If not, how can you be against those who have been told that by the government?
"I would be more supportive of expanded early-childhood programs."
Me too. If they weren't run by the government.
I can easily say that the welfare of children is best served by limiting their exposure to people like you. But I wouldn't, because it's a diverse world and kids need to be exposed to the marketplace of ideas.
I find the expectation that teachers will load advertisements of any kind into kid's home folders or backpacks or even onto their desks to be offensive. I was one of those so imposed upon as an MCPS teacher, and always loathed all of the useless junk my children were required to stuff into their bookbags for me to discard at home. Be it PFOX, PFLAG, or any other non-MCPS program, I neither want to have to load it in at school nor toss it out at home. As we have all learned, the fact that an organization is a "non-profit" is no assurance that folks aren't living large off of it's revenues--for example, remember DebtWorks?
"I was one of those so imposed upon as an MCPS teacher, and always loathed all of the useless junk my children were required to stuff into their bookbags for me to discard at home."
Of all the stupid arguments on this subject, this here is the stupidest.
Oh, the imposition and insult to these poor innocent NEA members to have to pass out an extra flyer!
"parents can look for a better school and not be stuck with a dangerous, dilapdated school with unqualified teachers."
No student should have to attend "a dangerous, dilapdated school with unqualified teachers." Instead of spending $200 million a day in Iraq, or frittering public funds away on vouchers that provide NO assistance to American public school systems, we should be investing in our public schools so that none of them are dangerous or dilapidated, and so that only the most qualified teachers are hired and paid a worthy wage to teach.
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