Minnesota school will consider limiting visits by parents

KSTP-TV eyewitness news ^ | 04-24-2002

[Valin]

At a time when many schools practically beg parents to get involved in their child's education, some parents in Big Lake say they've tried, but the district treats them like the enemy.

"What's gonna be going on there that you're not wanting me to see? What are you teaching my child?," asks one parent.

"I think it is because parents have been asking too many questions about the curriculum," says parent Teri Dickinson.

Parents have loudly objected to some of the lesson taught at the Big Lake High School. One textbook in particular has drawn a lot of attention. It’s called Oppression and Social Justice. Parents say it rails against white males and capitalism.

"It was overwhelmingly political. It was a very liberal political agenda," says Dickinson.

The book states as fact that crime figures are exaggerated to scare people into building more prisons to lock up the poor. It states as fact that T-V networks--even PBS-- are run by Republicans, pushing their conservative, pro-business agenda. It urges students to become environmental activists, saying groups like the Sierra Club are too mainstream. And it states emphatically that America must cut defense spending and raise corporate taxes.

Last fall, one woman took video of student drawings on the wall, depicting Christopher Columbus as a rapist and killer. Now the district is talking about restricting videotaping in school and telling parents to give three days notice if they want to visit a classroom.

"In that three days, the teacher can basically hide everything if that's what they want to do, and keep things from the parents that they don't want the parents to see," says sophomore student Jeff Florek.

Eyewitness News spoke with the school superintendent and assistant superintendent, both of whom did not want to appear on camera. They say the visitation policy is a routine matter and that they are simply updating an old policy.

School administrators say the curriculum debate is another matter. The textbook Oppression and Social Justice is not required reading, but rather part of the school’s diverse perspectives course which is suppose to provide alternative viewpoints. The class was developed to meet the state’s graduation requirements.

Parents say they want to know these things.

"If I'm not allowed to be in class, then how can I be as involved as a parent with my child?" asks Becky Martin.

The district’s school board will vote on the new policy tonight. If it passes, school officials say some visitors could get a waiver from the three-day requirement if the principal thinks their visit would enhance the classroom setting.

©2002 Hubbard Broadcasting Inc.

[Valin]

Kudos to terilyn for posting the link on the Mn. board.

[Pushi]

Another reason not to send your children, which happen to be your most precious asset, to a government school.

[another cricket]

Did anyone see the show (I think it was on 60 minutes) about the DOD schools on our military bases? People are staying in the service and living on base just to send their kids to these schools.

One thing that they pointed out was that parents were encouraged to come to the school. If they wanted to come in to class and sit with their kid for a while that was fine.

Apparently they had nothing to hide and these guys do.

a.cricket

[Hawkeye's Girl]

It's complete insanity that the parents can't show up whenever they want to see their own kids.

We gotta do something!

[Mulder]

How much longer are people going to tolerate this communistic crap?

[general_re]

So anyway, what we have in this case is a bunch of academic Marxists who managed to lobby their way into having a gigantic bureaucracy with lots of federal money and authority over the education system. They now use this to implement their vision of a utopian gynocratic socialism in which men are basically uneducated worker bees who are kept off in the corner somewhere so that the lesbians running this effort could actually get to be in charge.

You were saying? ;)

[Hawkeye's Girl]

As long as they don't know about it.

If the kid says school is "fine" when asked, then the brainwashing continues.

[RightOnGOP]

May this post and its informative informative make its way into the hands of many people.
May they flame away at the appropriate officials in MN.
May those officials feel the heat of common sense and activism.
May this happen quickly.

[Hawkeye's Girl]

Here's the high school webpage (from the FR MN page): Big Lake

No e-mail links, but there's a phone number.

[Valin]

The thing that should really scare folks is Big Lake is about as smalltown moms applepie kind of place as you could ever want to see. If this kind of nonsense is happening there......

[Salvation]

LOL! This district thinks that only the parents' voices are irritating. It sounds like they need a good FReeping!

Just a thought -- don't those parents pay the taxes that keep the schools running in Minnesota?

[hedgetrimmer]

In Santa Cruz County THIS YEAR, our County office of Education approved a group called Barrios Unidos to start a charter school called the SCHOOL OF SOCIAL JUSTICE.

We taxpayers are paying communists to teach our kids to be communists.

In the California Assembly there is a bill, AB 2160 to allow teachers to choose curriculum in closed door sessions as part of the bargaing agreement. The parents WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO HAVE ANY SAY IN THE TEXTBOOK SELECTION PROCESS.

[Salvation]

Valin or terilyn,
Can you verify that this is indeed the school/school district you are talking about?

Big Lake School District No 727 - District Office 501 Minnesota Avenue, Big Lake, MN 55309 (763) 262-2536 map | driving directions | add to My Directory

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Big Lake School District No 727 - High School Office
501 Minnesota Avenue, Big Lake, MN 55309
(763) 262-2547
map | driving directions | add to My Directory

[Samwise]

Fire the bums! If anyone tried this in my town, we'd tar and feather them, and run them out on a rail. We are not only welcome at school at any time, we are encouraged to go. The teachers do put us to work, however. :)

[hedgetrimmer]

Minnesota is the home of a group called Rethinking Schools.

I became aware of this group when I went to a county fair and saw a display for Starlight School in the Pajaro Unified School District, PVUSD, proclaiming "Equity and Social Justice!". I didn't know where social justice originated then. I do now.

Check this Rethinking Schools

[Valin]

That's it.

[Valin]

don't those parents pay the taxes that keep the schools running in Minnesota?

Not any more. The state pays for it all now. Thanks to Jesse (gov. turnbuckle) Ventura.