Sunday, May 08, 2005

AINT PUBLIC SCHOOLS GREAT?

Rumors of impending violence between black and Hispanic gang members kept an estimated 51,000 students away from city schools on Cinco de Mayo. "I'm devastated that a rumor can cause such fear," said Randy Cornfield, assistant principal at Hamilton High School. "I was telling parents it would be safer to have their kids in school than out on the street or at the mall." The Los Angeles Unified School District reported that about 18 percent of the 290,000 students enrolled in middle and high schools failed to show up Thursday. The absence rate was 8 percent higher than for the previous Thursday. At Crenshaw High School in South Los Angeles, about 1,700 of 2,800 students did not attend - more than a fivefold increase over a normal day. "I am sitting here staring at a mountain of absentee cards," said Johnny Stevenson, an attendance officer. Attendance was expected to return to normal Friday.

A circulating e-mail rumor had said that Hispanic gang members were going to use the traditional Mexican holiday to attack black gangsters in retaliation for drug thefts, Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton said. The rumors followed two outbreaks of ethnic violence that ended with injuries and arrests last month at Jefferson High School in South Los Angeles. Bratton said the LAPD investigated the rumors and concluded they were baseless. However, school and city police beefed up security at campuses as a precaution.

The only violence reported Thursday in the district was a scuffle between about 10 youngsters outside Narbonne High School in the Harbor City area. The lunch-hour confrontation was quickly broken up and there were no arrests, school police Sgt. F. Minutella said.

More here




FAR LEFT LOSE STUDENT ELECTIONS AT UCLA

But their arrogance is undiminished

Results for the Undergraduate Students Association Council elections were released Thursday night, with the opposition slate Bruins United winning council majority – the first time the Student Power! slate and its predecessors will not control council in over a decade. Runoffs will be held for the positions of president and external vice president, as no candidate received a majority of votes. Jenny Wood with Student Power! and Alex Gruenberg with Bruins United will compete for the position of president, and Jesse Melgares with Bruins United and Jeannie Biniek of Student Power! will compete for the position of internal vice president.

Thirty-one percent of undergraduate students voted in the primary elections for a total of 7,241 voters – the largest voter turnout since 1993, when 36.9 percent of undergraduate students participated in an election where free ice cream cones were given to voters. Seven of the nine candidates from the Bruins United slate were elected in the primaries. "We just did something that has not been done in a long, long time," said an ecstatic Gruenberg, the current Financial Supports commissioner.

Gruenberg said Bruins United winning council majority is the completion of the vision the slate has had since its inception, when it was created to challenge the reign of Student Power! Rallying their supporters in Meyerhoff Park with the help of the 8-clap and a bagpiper, Gruenberg promised his slate would make a full sweep in next week's runoff elections.

With the most influential position on council, the presidency, still undetermined, the race isn't over yet, said Joe Vardner, the newly elected Facilities commissioner. Wood said if elected, she is confident she can overcome the barriers of her slate's minority on council. No candidates were elected from the Future Front or the Bruin Liberation Movement slates, and none of their candidates will advance to the runoffs.

Despite having two of their candidates defeated in the primaries, Student Power! candidates say they are ready to fight even harder during runoffs. "This is our university! We own it!" Wood said while rallying Student Power! supporters as they gathered on Bruin Walk after hearing the election results. Student Power! candidates remain optimistic about their prospects for the future, both individually and for action on council. Pointing to the large number of Student Power! supporters still gathered at 10:45 p.m., Biniek said her slate had the ability to get work done, with or without positions in USAC.

Wood said Student Power! candidates and supporters will continue to work toward social justice and issues on their platform, despite minority standing on council. Wood said she will remain active on campus if not elected, but not necessarily on USAC. Bruins United leaders said they will take the overwhelming student support they have received in elections and try to turn it into substantive change on council. "Some changes are going to be happening to student government," said Vardner. "USAC will once again be opened up to all students."

Source




Sex-Ed Curriculum Put On Hold

Post lifted from The Narrow

For those of us tired of being told that homosexuality is normal, natural and morally right, U.S. District Judge Alexander Williams Jr., has put on hold a sex-ed program in Montgomery County MD that would have taught all of these ideas.

Judge Williams agreed with the two groups that filed the lawsuit -- Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum (CRC) and Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays (PFOX) -- who argued that the curriculum is biased toward homosexuality and dismisses religious perspectives on the subject.

Montgomery County Public Schools "open up the classroom to the subject of homosexuality, and specifically, the moral rightness of the homosexual lifestyle," the judge wrote in his decision.

"However, the Revised Curriculum presents only one view on the subject -- that homosexuality is a natural and morally correct lifestyle -- to the exclusion of other perspectives.

"The public interest is served by preventing [school officials] from promoting particular religious beliefs in the public schools and preventing [the officials] from disseminating one-sided information on a controversial topic," Judge Williams wrote.

The program was to have been taught at three middle schools and three high schools.


It is very refreshing to see a Judge use logic and reason while making a decision. Our society has redefined tolerance not as something that allows leeway from a societal norm but rather something we should not only tolerate, but embrace and condone alternative lifestyles. So, for the Judge to say The Revised Curriculum presents only one view on the subject -- that homosexuality is a natural and morally correct lifestyle -- to the exclusion of other perspectives is quite a stand in this climate.

David Fishback, chairman of the citizens advisory committee that approved the course materials, said he expected Judge Williams to rule against CRC because the curriculum "does nothing more than state basic facts about sexual orientation as understood by every mainstream American medical and mental health professional association."


Nothing quite like statements without facts. Mr. Fishback's assertion that the curriculum does nothing more than state basic facts about sexual orientation as understood by every mainstream American medical and mental health professional association demands evidence. I have seen no valid evidence presented by this advisory committee to back such an assertion. Just because you want to believe something is true, doesn't make it so.

I pray this decision holds and this pro-homosexual program never sees the light of day.

***************************

For greatest efficiency, lowest cost and maximum choice, ALL schools should be privately owned and run -- with government-paid vouchers for the poor and minimal regulation.

The NEA and similar unions worldwide believe that children should be thoroughly indoctrinated with Green/Left, feminist/homosexual ideology but the "3 R's" are something that kids should just be allowed to "discover"


Comments? Email me here. For times when blogger.com is playing up, there is a mirror of this site (viewable even in China!) here

***************************

No comments: