10:55 AM (Original Post)So the B-I-G news today is not who turned in nomination papers for a spot on the March 29 local election ballot but, she who did not. Indeed, now we know for whom the bells toll. They toll for all of us who care about accountability and transparency in our expensive system of governance--particularly for those who work incredibly hard to better the Amherst schools for all our kids.
For almost three years Catherine Sanderson has been a lightening rod for controversy--all too often resulting in an avalanche of rude public comments within earshot of a husband and children. Thus, she's decided to take a breather, step back from the breach, let somebody else lead the Charge of the Light Brigade.
In other words she will not seek, nor will she accept the nomination to Amherst School Committee for a second term. A dark day indeed for those who respect the rays of sunlight she brought to a system that prefers operating in the shadows.
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Take this for example, posted yesterday on Catherine's blog:
catherine sanderson - you are an embarassment to this commmunity. your arrogance and self serving behavior are unconscionable. you had an agenda prior to the search - you wanted an ivy trained PhD and would settle for nothing less. you don't listen to your constituents either. many SC members mentioned that maria had overwhelming support from parents, community members AND staff. you ignored all of it. you are a disgrace and i hope your loss in the upcoming election is HUGE.
as for comments about you being outspoken, you are not outspoken. you are a BULLY. you only do things for your own ego - not for the common good. you didn't even look at maria during her interview. for all i know, you were doodling on your notepaper the whole time. i never saw you look her in the eye. how can you possibly know what she had to say if you weren't even listening????
you are a LOSER.
107 comments:
the way she was treated is an embarassment to our community.
I agree and Amy Wasserman's comment was signed. I can hardly even imagine all the abusive anon comments that Catherine received.
I've never seen a verbal hook-kick before...
I don't agree with many of Catherine Sanderson's decisions. I probably wouldn't have voted for her. But there is no excuse for the name-calling. She stepped up to serve our town, and she acted with integrity in standing up for her beliefs. She deserves our respect, whether we agree with her or not.
it is terrible how people cannot even show common decency in interacting with people who whom they disagree, especially people who are working hard for the community in a more or less volunteer position (whatever minor stipend SC members receive is nothing for how hard they work). Politics in Amherst are becoming more and more ugly.
School Committee pays zero, the Select Board makes a whopping $300 per year and the Town Moderator $10.00
There is no excuse for petty name calling.
However, people who have dealt with Catherine Sanderson have their own stories. These attacks on her didn't come out of left field and for no reason. She has a long history of being vindictive, petty, hostile, accusatory and just plain old mean.
Whatever ideas she had for reforming the schools were unable to be heard because she couldn't work with people or ever, ever admit fault.
She dug her own grave. No one dug it for her and no one forced her out of office by a few negative words on a blog.
The insiders and their puppet Geryk have now made the schools radioactive.
A play that would make the Karl Roves of the world proud.
Hail the puppet masters!
Hail their thief!
Now there will be a war.
Interesting that Larry Kelley, of all people, wants to come to the rescue of the maid in distress.
Larry, who has done more for bitter-minded, obsessed name calling than any other Amherst resident over the past 30 years, is suddenly mr. clean?
Sure, Larry, whatever.
At what point will you switch back to your old mean self?
Wait, wait, here it comes.
Yep. Very predictable, Nitwit Larry
Ask any member of the current Amherst School Committee whether THEY had any trouble working with her.
This is a disagreement about substance masquerading as a disagreement about governing style. Some of us are not fooled.
Let's face it: the most important political force in our community in governing our schools are our teachers and administrators. In the long run, they rule. An attempt at oversight has been made, and it has failed.
There are so many ways to take down elected leadership in Amherst. One way; "you are not nice." Eventually, no one will run. Look for more unopposed candidacies going forward.
She's getting a write in vote from me as thanks for all the crap she put up with.
Anon 12:40 pm
I am planning to do the same.
Does anyone know which nearby middle and high schools accept school choice students? We cannot afford private school and I just can't take this anymore.
I believe Catherine is/was not the problem, but Steve is. Sadly, the wrong school committee member is stepping down.
And sadder still is the fact that allies of the former School Committee members who got us into such a mess (Andy Churchill and Elaine Brighty) will now have a clear path to getting on the School Committee.
Why does no one talk about the real longterm issue facing the schools: the Town's continued focus on building low income housing projects with no thought as to the impact on and cost to the town. Managing the Changing demographics in the elementary schools will continue to put pressure on the school budget, and divert teacher time and resources all at the expense of middle class students. And middle class parents will,like Samderson, opt out of the public schools.
maybe Steve will resign. I think he will find myself more and more marginalized on the SC.
Can't stand the heat? Then don't come to the School Committee with a flame-thrower.
I hope Steve will consider stepping down now. The "polls" are in and this whole ACE thing just isn't working for most of us. Let's put in a couple of fresh, new, collaborative s.c. members, give Geryk three years, and I'm confident we'll see bright days ahead.
ACE is not just about Catherine Sanderson and Steve Rivkin, though they were the founders. It is about people who have genuine valid concerns about the schools and want more for their children and the community. Irv Rhodes is also a member of ACE, as are many other community members.
I hope that ACE does not just go away.
You want more for your children and for your community?
Troublemaker. Bully.
Team Maria simply failed to read Machavelli and they are now in the situation of having both created a martyr and removed the person whose willingness to work with Geryk (should Geryk have been willing) would have reigned in the more radical elements.
Machavelli was very clear -- you leave no living enemies -- you either have to kill them or not have them as enemies and Machavelli argued for the latter. Team Maria is not going to be able to silence everyone, so now they have a major mess.
George Washington realized this with Daniel Shays -- and that is why he pardoned him. He knew what would have happened had he executed Shays...
Ed,
You are a true scholar, quoting obscure writers. Who is this Machavelli? Does he write as well as Machiavelli? I hope your thesis is written better.
Watch as your children are drowned in a bath tub of mediocrity.
Watch as their families are enriched beyond what yours ever will be, while your children stumble and fall and fail.
Watch as they completely disappear when it all comes undone.
Watch as your families are the their victims again and again and again...
This is what is happening Amherst.
This evil, right in your faces.
She is an embarassment.
Reminds one of the day the house landed in Oz.
"Watch as their families are enriched beyond what yours ever will be, while your children stumble and fall and fail."
Hey pal,
The rich have always had much better quality of life than anyone else. What planet have you been living on?
Of course, anyone who can pay for private school will buy a better education, in general, than any public school. That's what wealth does.
Spare us the hyperbole. If you hate Amherst so much, which is obvious from your 5 posts here, why not simply leave. Or, if you live outside of Amherst why care so much about it?
You are the strange one my frined for making yourself miserable over a school committee member.
"You are the strange one my frined for making yourself miserable over a school committee member."
Oh, I'm not your "frined",
"pal".
Now, would you like a cookie?
Sometimes this blog is downright strange.
Reformers are always branded as rude, impolite, party-crashing, trouble-making bullies.
It goes with the territory.
Amherst, despite all its pretensions to be enlightened, is no exception. The community took its vengeance for being told impolitely by a woman who didn't fit the princess mold that it could be better.
anon 3:36
You are right. Reformers are not always popular. You are dead wrong to say that they are always branded as "rude, impolite, party-crashing, trouble-making bullies." On the contrary, some are viewed as nice but misguided. In fact, isn't that the criticism that Catherine Sanderson leveled at Maria Geryk?
Don't worry, you'll get to choose again, and again, and again. Nobody could last long with you disfunctional lot.
What does Geryk think she's going to accomplish now? Her abilities (see her record) are mediocre, she's never possessed a vision, she's not been careful with tax dollars (to put it nicely), her brand is damaged etc etc. And the team that "got" her the job, are they also good at resurrecting a failing school system? If they had been, we wouldn't be where we're at presently. As a matter of fact, it was this "team" that got us here in the first place!
LOL.
Gonna be cooooold up on the mountain top, folks.
Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...
Catherine stood up for what was the best education for ALL kids in this town. She demanded data and accountability, and didn't always get it. And, only a few others on the SC demanded the same. Under the old SC of Elaine Brighty and Andy Churchill, no data was ever demanded...new programs and courses could be instituted by the whims of the teachers and/or administrators. Please stop using our children as guinea pigs, and go with a program, curriculum, coursework that helps all children achieve high levels, as proven by data from other districts!
We need people like Steve Rivkin to stay on SC, as well as Irv Rhodes to work hard, question policy and hold Ms. Geryk to the goals that will be assigned to her.
It is a sad day in Amherst when someone with the creativity and energy as Catherine has, feels that she can't run again.
Let me see if I have this straight.
A few people posted nasty comments on Catherine Sanderson's blog. As a result she decided to not run for re-election. On top of that, she's threatening to pull her kids out of the public schools.
That's all it took? A blog comment or even half a dozen? What ever happened to her commitment to change and reform? Whatever happened to wanting to buck the status quo. Doesn't that mean standing up to critics? With Catherine apparently all it took was a few public critics and one person calling her a bully (might be true) and a loser and she picked up her ball and went home.
I'm disappointed.
And you're a Cowardly Anon Nitwit, so I don't care what you think.
Anon 6:07
Catherine has been under attack for 3 years. Anyone who publicly supported her or her work has been put down too, Ive seen it and been victim of it. I think some parents need to read the Bullying guidlines the schools have to follow and grow up.
I feel badly about the bitter tone of debate coming from both sides in this town. And anyone who says it has been one sided in either direction has either blinders on or has just not been paying attention. Sadly, I think Catherine and her close supporters have been among those wearing the blinders. Her intentions, I have no doubt, were positive. But her lack of peripheral vision just totally impaired her ability to understand, value and respond effectively to the landscape of opinion around her. She was an alienating force. Not just because she sought change, but because she charged in on her white horse ready to force it on everybody. She was armed with all the answers and too few questions. And effective change agents, no matter how well intentioned, just can't work that way. It is simply counterproductive. Which is what must have become all too clear to Catherine as the feedback forms related to the superintendent search began to pour in. It makes sense for her not to seek reelection within this climate, especially given how unlikely it seems that she would find anywhere near majority approval. I applaud her decision to spare not only herself and her family, but the larger community from the bitterness and ultimate futility of that battle.
During her time in office Catherine has proven herself a master at putting her own spin on things, and with the way she has dropped out of the race has afforded herself the opportunity to get the last word. Perhaps she deserves it. But I hope that as some seek to paint her as nothing more than a bullying egotist and she offers back the image of herself as a misunderstood savior in a world of complacency and ineptitude, that we can reject both characterizations. Catherine is no more a blatantly bad person full of egotistical, self serving intent than our schools are a blatantly bad system full of lazy, complacent teachers and administrators. Both are imperfect entities with vast room for growth and improvement who want what's best for our kids and their education. I hope those of us willing to stick this out can put the focus back on that particular quest and start the dialog anew.
When we moved here 14 years ago it was solely for the quality of the school system. Since that time I have found this town to be very disappointing. The people here that so boldly claim the town is one big melting pot of different cultures and beliefs, and that is accepting of all, is much less than that. For an assumed intelligent community I can't believe the childish behavior that so many have trying to cloak your comments as some form of debate. Every where I go now there is at least one person that says they would never live here and it's gotten to a point where I don't blame them. The only reason you post as a anon is you are saying things that you wouldn't be caught dead saying in public. I learned early in life if your not willing to say it to a persons face don't say it at all. I would be willing to bet top dollar the likes of Amy Wasserman would not have the spine to tell Cathrine Sanderson their comments word for word to her face. Not that they fear her but out of embarassement.
http://www.cutnpaced.com/aboutamy.html
Get to know Amy Wasserman.
Geryk has accepted?
Boycott:
http://www.cutnpaced.com/aboutamy.html
akab
Anon 8:25 p.m.
Even though Amy Wasserman's post was outrageous, your response here is way over the top too, especially your final comment which relates to her status of a breast cancer survivor.
I know that this blog has been a place where people rant and like to call each other and Larry names, but I would hope that we can raise the level of discourse and civility, even when people like Amy Wasserman have not. Personal hostile attacks on her are not the answer.
Agreed. I deleted them both.
NA NA NA NA
NA NA NA NA
HEY HEYYYYYY
GOOOOD BYEEEEEEEE
So glad I got my kids out of that school. And to think that it was help up as a beacon of enlightenment. Tsk, tsk.
To Larry's original point: Sanderson screwed her supporters and the voters by waiting until the last possible moment to drop out, preventing any kind of competition for the seat. Thanks Catherine. Your self serving spin about rude teachers doesn't discourage the thought that you quit because you knew you were going to lose the election and that the Supers search wasted $50,000 (not counting the bump we now have to give Geryk) by bringing in cast-off candidates when the inevitable Super was already there. You are a key reason that the search company warned about the lack of qualified candidates because the Amherst SC is viewed as "dysfunctional". Take your ball and go home.
@ Anonymous 1:01: "And middle class parents will,like Samderson (sic), opt out of the public schools." Reality check: She and her family live on Alyssum Drive in Amherst Woods. She is a faculty member at Amherst College. Middle class? I don't think so. She's just realized that no matter what she does, the public schools won't give her kids the private school education she wants them to have.
No
Ain't you a C.A.N.?
So was Amy just having a bad day? She looks so nice and friendly on her web site.
To the person looking for a good middle/high school for their children instead of Amherst:
Check out Hopkins Academy and Frontier Regional. Both are great although some don't like the block scheduling at Frontier. PVPA is also an option if your children love the arts. We are very happy at Hopkins and I know former Amherst parents who are very happy at Frontier.
Thank you, I was about to ask again since the thread went off in another direction. Do you know how the sports are at both?
Sports at ARHS are far superior to both Hopkins and Frontier. Kid play Field Hockey, Ultimate, Swim, Lacrosse? Well s/he won't be doing it at Hopkins. Swimmers at both schools want to choice into ARHS. No orchestra at either place so if your kid plays a string instrument- too bad. Latin? Nope at both places. WHo has more AP classes? Guess who? ARHS. Want to your kid to be surrounded by kids who are almost all white and with very few low income kids- then these schools are good choices.
Contrary to what you read on this and the other blog- ARHS is a very good school.
Frontier has an orchestra and an excellent sports program.
My children go to Hopkins and yes we started in Amherst. Every school has some problems, just like everything else. It really comes down to community and how the problem is handled.
Hopkins is starting to see an uptick in student and money issues because of some of the school choice students, plus a young staff and a few other things. The amount of money Amherst pays its Superiintendent actually causes Hopkins some issues.
Hopkins has agreements with other schools including APRS to allow their students to participate in sports that Hopkins does not offer. The latest sport is football.
Hopkins has an excellent band program. Although the rumor is Mr Foreman will retire soon. That has been said for the last 4 years.
We also looked at Frontier and may actually have a child there in a year or so.
I think everyone should feel comfortable sending their child to whatever school will be the best fit for that child. There is no good or bad here. Just different.
As a community we must stop seeing everything as either black or white, right or wrong, me or you.
Who is this Machavelli? Does he write as well as Machiavelli?
Why don't YOU go lobstering for years, smash the hell out of your hands repeatedly, and then lets see how many keys YOU miss on the keyboard while typing quickly...
If Maria Geryk and company accept the job offer, will they be getting a congratulatory phone call and a certificate of completion from the Karl Rove school of "by any means necessary"?
New ARPS motto:
"Mission accomplished"
Hey Karl Rove fan:
Waaa waaa waa
Yes, you are the wonderful whiner and a sore loser.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaa
~I~ lost something?
Haha.
I won a long longgggg time ago.
And my little cup-cake, I keep on winning, because Amherst is the little gift that keeps on giving and givinggggggg...
Now, how about a cookie?
You sure do sound like a winner. I think I'll leave you to eat the rest of the cookies since you've already had all the kool aid.
cheers!
The ugliness of Amy Waserman's "Pelham tantrum" is remarkable - even for this community.
What folks who move to the area fail to realize is just how many people like Wasserman live here.
Ok maybe you liked the nature trails and the appearance of community, the colleges etc... but what one soon realizes is one is surrounded by a whole lot of people who've retreated to Amherst/Pelham for one very good reason... they suffer from mental illness (in one form or another). This really is a community for them.
Do I think we should discriminate against them? No.
Do I think people should know this is definitely NOT a healthy place to raise your children?
Yes, I do.
From Sanderson's blog:
"I feel sorry for Farshid that he's still so clearly bitter, although I do find it ironic that he feels qualified to discuss how to conduct oneself in public. It's time he moved on to other things. I worry what he'll spend his time on now that Catherine is no longer running.
Farshid, your continued need to make mean-spirited comments about Catherine is sad and embarrassing for our community. She's moving on, and so should you.
Traci Wolfe"
Jihad is not something you "move on" from.
Soon only the mentally ill will be willing to serve in local elected office.
"Rhodes wrote to Hajir on May 20, after a divisive meeting on the Amherst-Pelham union, urging him to resign, saying he used "circumspect and dishonest parliamentary procedures to thwart the will of the committees."
"I believe that your behavior and actions have severely damaged the ability of the committee to effectively collaborate with each other and the school administration," he wrote. "I further believe that you have become a divisive force within the committee and as such you further magnify any divisions between the committee and the administration."
Whatever Hajji, whatever...
"Mark's gonna want to talk".
How long Amherst? How long?
http://onlyintherepublicofamherst.blogspot.com/2010/03/school-bullying-even-in-amherst.html
Farshid Hajir is my husband. It's disgusting to imply that he is a Islamic fundamentalist/terrorist just because of his name by using the terms "Jihad" and "Hajji". I recently explained to my kids that there are people out there who would be prejudiced against them because they are half-Iranian, but I was thinking more about their peers, not adults. Larry, I'm sure you wouldn't allow posts with epithets against other ethnic groups. I'm asking you not to label my kids or other kids who don't have European last names by allowing such posts to your blog.
It is wildly inappropriate to make fun of Farshid's name or infer anything about his politics from his ethnicity. It's base, offensive, and stupid.
Farshid's behavior on the regional SC was reprehensible. He shilled for the administration and the lilly white hill towns. His words and deeds made him a figure of great derision in Amherst.
Let's leave the criticisms of those words and deeds and keep his background and family out of it.
Janice then let me say this clearly and without implied prejudice.
Your husband is a scoundrel and an accomplice and a fraud. I wont go so far as to describe him as a "criminal", not now anyway, for your (and especially your family's) sake.
Further, instead of being insulted, maybe PRECISELY what Mr. "Hajir" needs is for you to encourage him to MAKE the Hajj... to freshen up on the teachings of the Holy Qur'an,
a document he obviously knows NOTHING about.
Farshid SHOULD be deeply ashamed.
How selfish and completely un-Islamic of him (and that mob with him) from beginning to end.
Farshid, what did it benefit YOU???
p.s.
And while you're at it Janice, ask him to release his notebooks pertaining to the Rodriguez affair. For their illustrative and historical value, naturally.
More despicable nonsense on Larry Kelley's blog. Anon 5:49 you clearly have never spoken to Mr. Hajir and have no clue what you are talking about. If you had ever spoken to him you would know what a caring gentleman he is.
Also, when is the last time you served your community?
Reading this blog is like walking through a sewer.
The notebooks.
I've spoken to Farshid and had email exchanges with him. Two points about that:
1) He was an egomaniacal buffoon in all of those interactions. He was in public as well.
He would show up at Amherst SC meetings (he is a resident of a hill town, not Amherst) and talk for 5-10 minutes during public comment. He dominated and said very little beyond his belief that Amherst should shut up and do what the administration and the hill towns wanted. And then, as chair of the regional SC, he didn't allow people to make public comments -- except he allowed Mark Jackson to demean an Amherst SC member at the meeting in which they put Maria in as acting without that even being on the agenda.
2) You're right. He did do very fine volunteer work for his community. He served the interests of the lilly white hill towns, as another poster put it. Leverett, Pelham, and Shutesbury got their way and Amherst was screwed.
Anybody want to bet that Farshid will keep on beating this dead horse well into the spring?
There's a maxim: when you've won the argument, stop talking.
You and your friends drove her out: enough already.
Hey, this blog is a sewer.
But it's a sewer that you and I and a lot of other people come back to to drink heavily from and refresh our sense of outrage in on a regular basis.
So come on in, the water's horrid!!!
Ayatollah Farshid Hajir,
(with all do respect to real Muslims, everywhere)
criminal.
Nah, Amy is a good person who made a mistake.
Farshid? Well, he needs to show us a little humanity. No one likes gloating. And his alleged expression of regret in the Gazette about Catherine's service rings a little faux.
Amy Wasserman posted an apology on Catherine Sanderson's blog on Thurs.
I am sure Amy has gotten a feedback and criticisms on her earlier attack, and that life probably hasn't been all the pleasant the last few days for her. Still, it was to see her admit her error.
Yes, she contacted me on Facebook to request I remove the quote, or at the very least her name.
I told her if she apologized to Catherine I would.
She resisted at first, but finally came around.
So her apology was basicly fake.
Larry,
You are a piece of work. Amy's post on Catherine's blog was meant for Catherine's blog only. Your copying it and exploiting in on your blog to stir the sh*t was low, even for you.
You think you want to be a journalist? I read you are taking journalism classes. You should think again. No decent journalist would stoop this low.
Amy's apology had nothing to do with you. Let me put that in bold. Nothing to do with you.
She made a mistake and owned up to it, which is more than I've ever seen you do.
Even with her apology, Amy Wasserman's post will still be circulating on the internet for evermore. I am sure that will make her feel really sorry.
10:36, the local papers take quotes off of blogs and the internet all the time. You cant post something ONLINE and expect it to stay private. Ever hear of Facebook and issues people have with employment due to things they post?
It was newsworthy, Larry reported it.
Mr. Hajir is a gentleman of the highest order who was not going to allow Ms. Sanderson to bully him or anyone else on the school committee while he was chairman.
People who use the bully posture and attitude, like Sanderson did on the school committee for the past 3 years, often get away with it. She pushed hard to get what she thought would benefit certain kinds of students in the schools, mainly top performers.
Indeed, our politicians are regularly elected because they bully their way through the campaign, often smearing anyone in their way.
When Mr. Hajir refused to be bullied, Ms. Sanderson's moment of truth was at hand.
The story tells itself after that.
Arod, another one who used the bully strategy, was called on the carpet for it, couldn't handle the pressure of whatever happened going public, and fled Massachusetts for Florida.
In the battle for power on the school committee, this moment was a clear defeat for Sanderson and a clear victory for Hajir.
And then people came out of the wood work to stake a claim on either side.
Soon the union with Pelham was blamed because Sanderson was denied victory on the interim supt situation.
She started grasping for straws only to realize she was free falling. The people came out in force to support Geryk and in doing so essentially held a referendum on Sanderson and her strategy to push hard, i.e. bully her way through.
Sanderson quit the SC race not because she feared putting her family through a tough race, but because she knew she would get blown out of the water and that would be too embarrassing.
Her family has been through the ringer for 3 years because Sanderson determined her course of action was to bully her way through. The campaign would not have been anything new for them. More of the same she had subjected them too for 3 years. She is the one who lit the fire. She is the onoe who dragged her family into this.
Were the rest of us just supposed to shut up and let her bully us?
The response among the people was strongly negative in the face of Sanderson’s strategy.
This lesson about hubris is not new. Indeed, it's one of the oldest stories we know. Those who are so arrogant that they think they can do whatever they want and succeed with no consequences most of the time cause their own fall, as Sanderson has here. She may not have thought herself arrogant, but when is the last time a bully admitted it?
Here here, Homer. I could not have put it better myself. Thank you for laying this all out so succinctly.
3:00 and 4:01
""Rhodes wrote to Hajir on May 20, after a divisive meeting on the Amherst-Pelham union, urging him to resign, saying he used "circumspect and dishonest parliamentary procedures to thwart the will of the committees."
"I believe that your behavior and actions have severely damaged the ability of the committee to effectively collaborate with each other and the school administration," he wrote. "I further believe that you have become a divisive force within the committee and as such you further magnify any divisions between the committee and the administration.""
Hajji, release the notebooks.
That was Irv Rhodes opinion. Many many others have a different opinion of the work of Farshid Hajir on the School Committee.
Larry i know you allow all sorts of trash on your blog, but racism is a new low. you can not allow this sort of trash.
يَوْمَ يَغْشَاهُمُ الْعَذَابُ مِن فَوْقِهِمْ وَمِن تَحْتِ أَرْجُلِهِمْ وَيَقُولُ ذُوقُوا مَا كُنتُمْ تَعْمَلُونَ
Just when you think that the blogs in Amherst can't get any lower we get the racism shown in the last several posts here. For Larry Kelley to allow this to continue is abhorent.
Homer, love that mental masturbation.
Did you smoke a cigarette after that rant?
Finally, and irrevocably, Amherst's true nature has come to light. Fifteen years ago I moved here from NYC so my kids could attend the Amherst schools. After reading the incredibly hateful, sick, disgusting entries on this blog all I can say is that I'm very grateful my kids are done with
this school system. You people are a bunch of juvenile sickos and prove that our town of Amherst is nothing more than a house of cards and I feel embarrassed to tell people I live here. It used to be, "Ah, Amherst." Now it's "Ugh, Amherst."
I have lived in Amherst for over 30 years and these blogs make me embarrased to say I live in Amherst. And Larry, your true colors are appearing strongly. You are clearly racist against people of Arabic descent. If you weren't you'd remove the racist comments that seem to now be flowering on your blog. It's inexcusable.
Racist against people of Arabic descent???
Please, do not make the mistake of calling Mr. Hajir an Arab.
BTW lovely to see that passage above, from the Holy Qur'an, which is translated as:
Ankabut 29:55
"On the day when the punishment envelops them from above and below, he (Allah) will say: "Taste the flavor of your deeds!"
Was that comment (above) meant for Catherine? Seems fitting.
7:45 a.m. -
Given your response to my comments, I beg to differ. Your words alone, with their bile and nastiness, suggest that you might want to take a good long look at yourself in the mirror but it probably wouldn't do any good.
Now it is meant for you.
February 12, 2011 10:12 & 11:26 AM here.
@10:14
Although I don't agree with everthing from everybody. I will say we all are quite opinionated when it comes to post as a anon. I look at this as the same behavior as someone that displays road rage. As long as they have 3500lbs of vehicle around them they are all powerful, but I'd bet top dollar if they or you even thought you could be approached face to face the conversation would take on a whole new twist. Love to debate and slander as long as can hide behind the curtain.
dale, that's a good analogy...
i prefer the public bathroom stall graffiti wall analogy, however. perhaps as technology progresses we will be able to draw crude pictures of our supposed opposition's genitalia here on larry's blog.
Yeah, well if it's just fine for Amherst Regional High School to cheer young girls shouting the C-word in public (all in the name of "art" of course)...
Homer,
Great fictional piece. It is always nice to read how history will be reinvented. Usually you have to wait years for this type of garbage to surface. Irv's assessment of how Hajir conducted himself is spot on. We all know there were significant insider politics going on with a-rod suddenly stepping down, Maria getting appointed with out pubic comment. That appointment is the only thing that gave her any credibility to put her name in for Superintendent. The well organized insider crap just continues to go on an on.
Farshid said he was going to step down and go away quietly. He has done nothing but trash CS and SR since. He is nice on the surface but through his actions proved vindictive to the core.
It was his actions that made the union 26 debate look like a circus. It was his actions that put Maria in without public comment. The search firm said in one of the public meetings that you never appoint an interim person who gets to run for the job. They also said they would never hire a leader in a school district that did not use the schools for there own children. Do we know any principals or school committee members who fit that profile. Farshid is decisive and manipulative pure and simple.
well if the search firm said it, it must be true and correct.
.... and, there is no middle ground where blame for the nasty climate surrounding our schools can be shared by all. Just look at the doctored photo Larry used as a header for this thread... with the round, fuzzy halo effect surrounding "St. Catherine". As long as the polarized images of who is right and who is wrong in all of this prevail, we'll never get on with a constructive dialog.
I guess for Geryk and company life begins at 18.
Abort all children.
"The search firm said in one of the public meetings that you never appoint an interim person who gets to run for the job. They also said they would never hire a leader in a school district that did not use the schools for there [sic] own children."
Don't recall them saying that. When exactly was that? In other words, I don't believe they did.
I'm really not particularly impressed with the job the search firm did anyway. In fairness, the SC's behavior over the last few years sorta stacked the deck against them being able to come up with candidates that were not retired or desperate.
They got the best one though, and that's all that really matters.
Had enough?
www.ace-amherst.org
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