Number of ed civil rights complaints on the rise

Lets have racial quotas in school discipline /s.

The story starts out by comparing suspension rates of black and white MALES. I assume males are suspended more often than females. Are the Feds going to make a civil rights issue of that?

When black kids misbehave in school they are hurting other black students who DO want an education.

As always, it’s about race, huh.......... =.= *shakeshead*

The Race to the Top agenda that obama is trying to get schools to sign up for would allow the ed civil rights board into schools even more. RttT give the fed gov the right to break up schools and redistribute students and teachers if needed.

ed a civil right, erectile dysfunction a civil right? I need coffee.

Last week I read a story in our local paper that said the department of education is working with the DOJ to equalize punishments in schools. Apparently they say black kids are punished more harshly than white kids.

"Democrats focusing on social change"

We've had enough change and political correctness already to have destroyed the once-great Republic.

Because blacks don't have a home life, have no moral compasses in the home, and 80%+ of them have no FATHERS IN THE HOME, their mis-behaving and lack of incentive to learn (selling crack and street/gang life are goals, to them, of earning a living, or taking all the handouts from "The Governement" as have three generations before them). That they have no learning skills, nor desire to learn, is somehow a reason to take more Taxpayer money and dump it into the NEA and school administrators who are under-performing and blame it on lack of pay is what this is promoting (the article).

Just like more blacks are incarcerated as an excuse, where criminal acts are committed, but it's not their fault! It's society that causes them to do these things!

One of our local teachers wrote a letter to the editor and pointed out that the degree of violence among black students is far more extreme.

She said that white students get into fights in the parking lot like they’ve always done but it ends with a few scrapes and bruises. Black students build up to a massive brawl among multiple students and it doesn’t end till someone gets stabbed or shot.

Those things need to be treated differently.

African American boys who are suspended at double and triple the rates of their white male peers.

Hmmm why would that be?? Thinking, thinking, thnking, Oh yeah, it must be 'racism'. Couldn't possibly be that many blacks are out of control, rude, little thugs?

“and it doesn’t end till someone gets stabbed or shot.”

The answer for that behavior is to take the administration of the correction out of the hands of the schools and put it into the criminal courts. Commit a crime with a gun or knife...5 years off the bat, no parole, no probation, plus whatever the main crime was.

From a MARCH 8th AOL article:

Mara Gay Contributor AOL News (March 8) -- In 1965, Alabama state troopers beat civil rights demonstrators on Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge as they marched for the right to vote. Today, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is marking the 45th anniversary of the "Bloody Sunday" march with a vigorous push for civil rights enforcement in the nation's public schools and universities.

"We are back in business," Russlynn Ali, head of the Education Department's civil-rights division, told The Wall Street Journal ahead of today's announcement. "Across all of the statutes under our jurisdiction, we will vigorously enforce civil rights laws."

There is an under-served minority of BLACK CONSERVATIVE parents and their children.

More attention should be given to these patriots who serve in the military. Attend church & raise God-fearing children. Work hard and pay taxes. Start small and large successful businesses. A silent minority which needs a voice in the GOP.

Put your cell-phone down, look around you, engage in conversation and engage with every American you meet.

Ignored but not ignorant.

When are “conservatives” going to figure out that their favorite welfare entitlement - “free public schools” - is destroying their children, families, churches, communities, and culture?

If salmonella laced food were given to you “free” by the government, would you give it to your children? Would you defend doing it by claiming that your salmonella laced food is somehow “different”?

Everyone here whinges about leftists, liberals, marxists, etc. Where do you think they are manufactured? Yet we hand our children over to be indoctrinated because we are lazy and greedy.

Of course we are far beyond “indoctrination” as the only danger in government education. Children are not even physically safe in government schools from other students, school employees, and, especially, the school nurse who, today, is mainly a drug, condom, and abortion pusher.

so what

we are color blind

if they don’t behave they get suspended

end of story

The liberals in this country have touted for years now that disabled children can and will achieve at the exact same level of their non-disabled peers, with the outcome for all children being to graduate from high school and attend college. Parents of these disabled children - some with very severe disabilities - have bought into the liberals claims and have the expectation that their child will one day be “normal”. Well, after having worked in public education for the past 14 years - all of it involving working with students who have disabilities - I am of the opinion that liberals are all “mentally irregular” to quote Rocky Balboa!!

Of course we are far beyond “indoctrination” as the only danger in government education. Children are not even physically safe in government schools from other students, school employees, and, especially, the school nurse who, today, is mainly a drug, condom, and abortion pusher.

America is a very large country. Most public schools exist outside of large urban areas where the types of problems you speak to are rampant. Not all public school children are exposed to the liberal indoctrinations you speak of. Not all public school children face dangers of bullies, drugs, or rabbid nurses. This tired generalization that all public schools are cesspools really burns my biscuits. I went to public school; my four children graduated from public schools; my grandchildren are attending public schools. We are all conservatives. Oh, and I work as a public school employee. While many if not most of the teachers and other staff I work with are democrats, some are Republicans, and many (even the democrats) hold conservative views.

Let's have an honest dialogue about public schools and the problems with them, rather than demonize the entire country and all those who are involved with public schools. If we don't then we will never make any headway in addressing the problems that do exist.

The “our schools are different” excuse doesn’t even pass the “laugh test” anymore.

Is your really different school district exempt from federal court decisions? Is your really different school district staffed by teachers and administrators that didn’t get their worthless ed degrees from schools of education that are dominated by a leftist worldview? I suppose that your really different school district isn’t subject to federal government regulations and that Kevin Jennings isn’t your “safe school czar”. Or, perhaps, your really different school district has a unique set of textbooks that isn’t produced by a textbook industry that is controlled by leftists. Can you, in your really different school district, tell children that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and that all treasures of knowledge are found in Christ? I suppose that your really different school district doesn’t teach “sex education” and that no children are being given Ritalin or other psychotropic drugs to control their behavior. I also suppose that “multiculturalism” and “diversity” are unknown concepts in your really different school district. Does your really different school district have a Christmas pageant at which Christmas carols are sung or something called “Easter vacation”?

Perhaps your really different school district does not have chapters of the Crips and Bloods, and perhaps it does well on your state’s fraudulent (unless you are in Missouri, in which case the students aren’t doing any better than the NAEP) “accountability” test. These kinds of things are hardly a justification for claiming that some particular socialist school system is “different”. In the ways that matter most, they are largely the same.

The only “honest dialogue” that can be had about government schools is on how to end them.

I invite you to leave your cave and start visiting schools around the country. Pay close attention to not only what goes on in the classrooms (multiple classrooms - visiting only one won't be meaningful) but also what happens outside the classrooms. You might be surprised to find that people at public schools, including students and staff, have conversations about Christianity, God, and Jesus quite often. That's been my experience in the four districts I've worked in.

Leftist world view!! Define that, please, as it relates to public education and curriculum in the classroom. While I'm not a classroom teacher, I've seen the curriculum we are using. I've yet to see a single example of a "Leftist World View) in a single textbook in the 14 years I've been doing this job.

Which court decisions are you specifically referring to? No Pledge recited at school? We do that at all the schools in our district, over the P.A. system for most. One school has the students stand outside around the Flag Pole to recite the Pledge. Prayer in schools? Iknow of more than one teacher who has led volunteer prayers at the school before the school day officially begins.

In 14 years I've not seen or heard of a single example of even one teacher pushing a fear of religion or a fear of God upon students. I have, however, experienced many situations in which teachers have requested prayers for family members suffering from severe illnesses or injuries. I've heard students discuss openly the importance of prayer with other students without a single teacher intervening to stop such conversation.

Sex education in the districts I've worked in, while part of the curriculum, included an opt out option for any parent who wished to have their child not participate. As a public school employee, and as a parent of children who have gone through the sex education curriculum, I have a serious question regarding what your knowledge is in this area. There is nothing in this curriculum that is inappropriate within my experiences. None of my children or grandchildren were exposed to someone putting a condom on a phalic like object. I've never heard of a single incident of this type either.

As a School Pscyhologist I have a great deal of experience working with children identified as having ADD or ADHD. Yes, our SOCIETY tends to over-medicate - not just children, but with adults too. There are way too many children who are prescribed medications for ADD/ADHD and other "disorders". However, it's not the schools that are prescribing these medications. This is being done by doctors outside the scope of the schools, and most often without any dialogue with school personnel. These children then come to school (either having taken their meds at home - most typical method, or who receive a dosage at school in the middle of the day - rare these days with time release medication) and the school staff either see a dramatic improvement in the student's ability to attend and focus on school work, or we see students who exhibit worse behaviors. Typically the parents do not share the observed results of their child's being medicated with the doctor when the medication isn't having the desired outcome. Schools are prohibited from directly contacting the physician without a signed release from the parent - which parents often refuse to do. So, school staff are essentially prevented from informing the doctor who prescribed the mediation that the child's behavior has either not changed or is worse. When we are able to communicate with the doctor, changes are made which have positive outcome.

Yes, my schools celebrate Christmas. My schools have Christmas trees (not Holiday trees). At several of the schools I've worked at the children put on a Christmas play - a play about the birth of Christ - wow, didn't expect that, did you. At another school one of our staff members puts on a Christmas choral - singing Christmas songs - from the Hymnal no less.

I must agree with you on the state testing. Not that I think the state testing isn't useful. But, that the state testing, as constructed, is a waste of time and tax dollars. If the state(s) want to know how well a school or school district is doing with respect to student outcome, then the testing should be a curriculum based assessment, not some standardized assessment contrived by people who sit in office cubicles. The testing should also be done at the beginning of each year, and at the end of each year to track and monitor progress within the curriculum. And, the curriculum should be based upon three primary areas - reading, mathematics, writing. Testing in History, Science, etc, should only be at the secondary level IMO.

Multiculturalism!!! Yes, another area where we agree. While I am in favor of people who come to this country maintaining ties with their home culture, I am against the pluralism that this has spawned. We should, in our schools, celebrate what it is to be American, regardless of where our ancestors originated. One country - one common language IMO.

In no school district that I have worked for has there been any significant problems with gangs. We've dealt with gang-wanna-be behavior, and we've had some students (small small number) who have had gang affiliation. But, it's not a huge problem. Most of the students who have gang affiliation either drop out or become adjudicated. I'd say that honest dialogue is something you have no experience with. Or, for that matter, any interest in. You have your narrow minded view - which is shameful IMO, as that is exactly what we see from the "leftist" in this country. Are there problems with public education? Yes. Are there pockets where the problems you describe exist - absolutely. However, your generalizations are nothing but lies and distortions of reality. This is a tactic of the left, not one that should be embraced by conservatives. Thowing out the baby with the bathwater is what liberals do. Fixing the problems with real solutions is what conservatives want to do. Think for just a minute about what you are suggesting. A complete dismantling of the public school system nation wide would result in what? Tens of millions of children not receiving any level of education. Hmmmmm. Sounds like a third world approach to the problem.

I see that you are unfamiliar with the systematic data on all of these issues; you are also oblivious to the fact that multiculturalism, which is an implementation of postmodernism/ gramscianism, is a left wing ideology and saturates textbooks. There is an extensive literature on textbooks that you evidently don’t know. If you can’t recognize the leftward tilt in textbooks, you obviously haven’t been reading about the textbook “wars” that have roiled educational circles for the last 40 or so years.

The comment that you have never “...seen or heard of a single example of even one teacher pushing a fear of religion or a fear of God upon students.” Is astonishing - not because I don’t believe you, but because you missed the point entirely.

Regarding “sex education” and its history - again, there is an extensive literature on this that is readily available to anyone. You might start with understanding SEICUS. There are endless articles about this on conservative websites and in conservative journals. You can then work your way forward to learning who Kevin Jennings is, what SB 777 is, etc.

As for your comments on schools not pushing psychotropic drugs (”...it’s not the schools that are prescribing these medications. This is being done by doctors outside the scope of the schools, and most often without any dialogue with school personnel.”), surely you jest. Of course, school personel do not prescribe meds, but they do “evaluate” children for ADHD using what is known as the “pencil/paper diagnostic exam”, which is based on the preposterously subjective DMS-IV ADHD symptoms. Based on these evaluations, school officials make recommendations that parents seek a “medical evaluation” for ADHD for their child, which Dr. Lawrence Diller, one of several pediatricians who have written and spoken extensively on this subject, refers to as “teacher speak for ‘Get your kid on Ritalin’.” This, along with aggressive promotion by the drug companies, is exactly how a large percentage of children - disproportionately boys - have been forced into the largest uncontrolled pharmacological experiment in history. As for children having better focus and concentration when using these drugs,anyone’s concentration is improved by speed and speed-like substances. That, however, doesn’t mean that all of us have a ritalin, meth, or adderall deficiency or some “disease” or disorder for which these are a cure. I do agree that the newer time-release formulations reduce the school nurse’s drug distribution burden. I wouldn’t take much comfort in that.

If you really do have Christmas programs in school in which children sing Christian Christmas carols, it is only because the ACLU hasn’t found you because, unfortunately, it is clearly illegal under a line of cases that begins with the Supreme Court’s decision in Engle v. Vitale, but which has its roots in the Supreme Court’s decision in Everson.

By the way, while I willing to assume that your school didn’t have a gang problem, it is interesting to know that the problem exists even in the Lake Woebegone district in which you work.

The problems that I mention are hardly isolated in pockets. The academic failure of our government education system is well known, not only here, but abroad. Drugs, promiscuity, sexual harassment, and assorted other social and spiritual pathologies are rampant throughout the system. If you don’t want to read the literature, you can always watch Stossel’s “Stupid in America” or the more recent “Waiting for Superman” to get a feel for reality.

As for throwing the “baby out with the bath water”, you are begging the question. There is no baby. Your comment defending our single-payer, socialist government school system could as easily be made by a Brit dismissing the possibility of doing away with the NHS and the socialized single-payer healthcare system there.

From your rantings it is obvious that your narrow mindedness is so purvasive that any further discussion - any reasonable discussion - is impossible to have with you. You will believe what you will believe regardless of what really takes place. Again, I invite you to do some first hand investigation rather than limit yourself to sitting at a computer and reading the positions of other people. Go and visit schools yourself. Go and look at the curriculum and talk to teachers. Ask questions of those who are working in the trenches every day, rather than from those who hate just to hate all things government (so called - someone should have pointed out that what "government" is is us). I hear the cries against public education that exist out there. But, I've yet to find anyone who is an expert in education and who has first hand knowledge of what is actually happening in school districts all across the country. No, they point to isolated incidents and examples, and then generalize those isolated cases against the entire spectrum of public education. And, they do this without taking any time to investigate for themselves if those isolated cases are just outlyers, or if they are typical of what takes place.

From your mantra of left wing ideology saturates textbooks, I take it you missed it where I work and what I do, and that I've seen the textbooks - what is written in the textbooks. I guess you also missed that I have children who graduated from public schools, and that I have grandchildren attending public schools. Your comments would suggest that I am incapable of discerning what these textbooks contain. This is hardly the case. Yet, I see nothing in the textbooks I've reviewed that meets your criteria as you've stated it in your rants.

Missed the point? What? That you don't know what your typing? You complain about teachers teaching the fear of God to our children. Yet, when I stated that I had not witnessed or heard of a single such example of this you say I missed the point! That's simply incredible. Psychotropic drugs! Yes, every teacher in America is out there trying to place every student in America on these psychotropic drugs./s Even in cases where a classroom teacher brings up the subject with the parent (which are much more rare that you seem to think they are), there is an inherent requirment on the part of the physician who prescribes such medications to diagnose a condition prior to prescribing such mediations. If the doctor is prescribing soley on the basis of a parent or a teacher making a suggestion, that's not a very good doctor - period. In my capacity as a school psychologist I am tasked with evaluation students in a variety of areas, including ADD/ADHD. Part of that evaluation, and only a small part, is the use of rating scales. I never rely soley upon the results of a scale which elicits responses based upon a person's perception of the student being rated. Any good psycholgist takes this approach. And, even when the data obtained through the use of rating scales, classroom observations, intellectual and processing assessments, background history, etc, etc, is suggestive that ADD/ADHD may be a concern, I never diagnose a child as having ADD/ADHD. We provide the parent with information and encourage then to discuss the results with their physician for further evaluation of their child. That has been the practice by every school psychologist I've worked with in the four districts I've worked in. Oh, and I always present to the parent suggestions on how to work with their child without the use of medications to alleviate the difficulties - I'm not a proponent for placing a child on medication un-necessarily. Too many children are prescribed psychotropic drugs in our society - and, as I stated previously, usually without input from the school staff. But, if you want to blame public education based upon your hatred of public education, far be it for me to dissuade you from your incorrect position.

Until you can demonstrably show that sex education as it has been taught to me, my children, and my grandchildren is wrong, I've said all I can on that subject.

I would hardly classify three of the four districts I've worked in as being LakeWoBeGone districts. One, yes. The other three? Not even close.

Your last comments are interesting. Apples and oranges are equivalent to you, apparently. I won't be responding again, unless you actually want a realistic dialogue on how and where to make improvements as opposed to curing the patient who has a hang nail by cutting of the head.

Public schools are a cancer on our society.