ARHS 12:15 PM Thursday
A response from Jennie Traschen to Amherst Regional High School Principal Mark Jackson's email sent to all parents concerning the Thursday afternoon walk out to "honor" a black man shot to death in self-defense by a white #Ferguson police officer set off an interesting email string sent to ALL Amherst Regional School Committee members (thus making them public documents) prior to the walk out.
I'll let the emails speak for themselves. Maybe Dr. Shabazz and Dr. Baptiste didn't see the email in time. Or they don't care what the Superintendent thinks about "adults interceding on this student event".
Adult cheerleaders ARHS 12:15 PM Thursday
Regional School Committee member posted to their Facebook page
In response to my records request for walk out numbers:
Click to enlarge/read
Student walkout statistics (Only in Amherst!)
I say fire the lot of them. Close the school down until you can hire some responsible adults. Do it now.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what school policy is for students who are not their own guardians leaving grounds. Judging by the emails, if staff were volunteering to accompany the students, would that be civil disobedience.......Or a field trip?
ReplyDeleteOh, those harsh, angry words of Mark Jackson referring to a "disciplinary consequence". He is a bit of a prison warden, a tyrant. So good of Ms. Traschen to call him out on his overbearing, repressive approach.
ReplyDeleteHe should think twice before stepping on our children's pursuit of justice for all. Doesn't he know that the children are our future? Let them lead the way, Mark!
You know I thought this last reply was a joke. Are you serious? Of course there are and should be consequences. You have tasted the poison that was disguised as kool-aid. A Jonestown state of mind.
DeleteLarry, you're dating yourself again.
ReplyDeleteEric Burdon and the Animals?
"...if it's the last thing we ever do,
we got to get out of this place,
girl, there's a better life for me and you."
How many people can remember that song? Just the old fogies....about the median age of Town Meeting membership.
You don't have to have bought the record to remember or like it. (Incidentally, it was not E.B. And The Animals. Just billed as The Animals.) And House of the Rising Sun is one of the great records of all time. Same group.
DeleteIncidentally, I'm 17
Delete"I wonder what school policy is for students who are not their own guardians leaving grounds."
ReplyDeleteStep back one step -- what do the truancy laws say about it?
"Judging by the emails, if staff were volunteering to accompany the students, would that be civil disobedience.......Or a field trip?"
Or a criminal conspiracy to violate said truancy laws?
"PROF. JENNY TRASCHEN, UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS: Actually, what the flag stands for is a symbol of terrorism and death and fear and destruction and repression."
ReplyDeleteIt's been a few years, but I seem to remember her saying a bit more than that -- something about the red being the blood of murdered indigenous peoples and the white being White Supremacy.
I never intended to speak that night -- all I remember was a visceral "I can't believe she just said that..."
It IS unbelievable. But America hating is a leftie specialty. Funny. They seem to cAsh those checks they get from working here.
DeleteMy daughter was so annoyed that Shabazz stole the spotlight from them, and she said most students shared that sentiment. The students made a point of saying that they do not associate themselves with the Justice For Gardner group. Shabazz was like an insolent child needing attention when he found out that the organizing students did not want him there, so he stood on top of a car outside of the Jones Library, while the students ignored him and maturely entered the library. The students did not allow Shabazz or Baptiste into the Meeting Room during discussion. Shabazz is the dictionary definition of a narcissist.
ReplyDelete"I would request that we allow them the space to manage this as they have requested. After they exit the building they are determining the role of adults. I ask that adults do not intercede on this student event in order to allow them to determine the shape of the experience and to exercise their own voice."
ReplyDeleteI call that "just cause" to fire Maria G -- anyone care to speculate on the consequences of a child, having left the school without parental permission, had been struck by a vehicle?
I can't believe she put this into writing -- I really can't believe she did it...
And she's also established a precedent here -- remember that all regulations on speech must be "content neutral" so if a different group of students wish to leave school to engage in some other form of expressive speech, she can't stop them.
Even if they want to attend a Klan rally. That's the problem with giving students license for "good" speech -- the precedent applies to reprehensible speech too...
And I would, to quote Voltaire, defend to the death their right to say it. Good speech or bad.
Deletehttp://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/resolution-not-conflict/201210/are-you-narcissist-6-sure-signs-narcissism
ReplyDeleteGood post! But enough about me...
DeleteAnon 4:54 pm
ReplyDeleteIf this is true (and it sounds too good to be true), this is some of the best news I've heard in a long time.
Telling the self-promoters to go fly a kite. What a breath of fresh air. Anybody else see this?
Is that "House of the Rising Sun" or "The Party-House on Sunrise Avenue"?
ReplyDeleteI'm just not sure what rock classic Larry will adapt next.
Lol. I vote for "Get A Job"
DeleteDoes Shabazz have some kind of a scanner that tells him where race is going to be an issue next, and then he just jumps in his car and goes there?
ReplyDeleteBut America hating is a leftie specialty
ReplyDeleteUmh, gathering publicly and having a discussion about issues the people are concerned about is about as American as it gets. Denying those people the right to assemble is fascism or totalitarianism, and anonymous 5:27 PM is obviously an authoritarian creep and not at all a true American patriot.
It is a great country. We can call anyone who disagrees with us anything we like. Communist creep! Lol
DeleteI have to ask. Didd anyone see the carelessness that Shabazz demonstrtes in his correspondences'? i would have thought a learnered man could crtainly type an email using proper syntx and punctuation along wiht runon sentaces and an assortment of other issues that i am surprised a man who is a cllege level professor would send without proofing first let alone even making such egregious mistakes that certainly are a reflection of a persn in the world of macademia. its sort of embrassng frankly.
ReplyDeleteMacadia? I love those nuts!
DeleteEr...macademia...
DeleteIt's true 5:40 PM. None of the adults who crashed the students' event were allowed into the meeting room.
ReplyDeleteHere's how Shabazz handled it when he found out the students asked him and other adults to not be there, this was in front of the Jones library where the students gathered:
http://imgick.masslive.com/home/mass-media/pgmain/img/republican/photo/2014/12/04/-e8fd70cb4489bfcb.JPG
They've been saying no justice, no peace since at least Rodney King. Who said Can't we all just get along? I guess the answer is nope.
ReplyDeletePlease Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood is clearly the best song by The Animals. Hands down.
ReplyDeleteAnd it could also work as the title for many a blog post.
Lol, Nina. And then again. "Don't Bring Me Down" comes to mind.
DeleteIsn't that the theme song of all the white members of the School Committee?
ReplyDeleteAs in "Oh, lord, please don't let me be misunderstood."
Sounds more like a prayer in that context.
" you complain and criticize,..."
Delete--("Don't Bring Me Down"
Eric Burdon will be thrilled we've resurrected the Animals fan club. Spare a thought for John Lennon murdered 34 years ago, Dec. 8.
Hey! God forbid you should pray at these things. Though it couldn't hurt...
DeleteActually I think the lyrics really apply in some of these situations.
ReplyDelete"I'm just a soul whose intentions are good"
It would help all of us to assume good intentions more often.
And, as great as the original is, check out this unplugged cover version by Yusuf/Cat Stevens:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwNbsrGHa7s
Get elected in Amherst and then watch your intentions be misunderstood.
ReplyDeleteGet appointed to the Planning Board and watch your intentions be misunderstood.
At some point, we will exhaust the number of people willing to withstand that.
"Our school-wide plans to respond to the Ferguson decision are under development. I will share them with the community when they are finalized"
ReplyDeleteWhat does this mean? One school-wide response despite individual/ differing student views?
Not sure why a response is neede. To Ferguson, that is. Other than Agreeing or disagreeing with the decision. And either way it makes no difference.
DeleteI don't understand why Shabazz was excluded. He has very clearly proven himself a child on multiple occasions.
ReplyDeleteSomeone should show Shabaz where the spell check button is next time he writes an email
ReplyDeleteY'all should be careful, now. At any point, you will start seeing a support group forming around Shabazz a la Justice for Carolyn.
ReplyDeleteWhat'll it be called, Hubris for Shabazz?
to 9:41 pm, a school wide response does not mean that there is one point of view. In fact, we were specifically told that different perspectives should be considered legitimate:
ReplyDelete"If a student wants to indict America's criminal justice system, that's a legitimate perspective. If another student wants to defend it, that's also a legitimate perspective. Your job is to enable this to happen within a framework that keeps mutual respect, even under strained circumstances, high."
A school-wide response means providing students with an opportunity to discuss the issues that concern them.
source:
Principal's Journal
If only all of this protest stuff was really based on racism. Unfortunately it's not, but it drives ratings, makes people feel like they are doing their civic job, and lets Shabazz have his narcissism.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.liveleak.com/view?i=45f_1418081333
What about the new schedule proposal at the MS. What is the process for this to get approved. less music/art/drama/world language to make room for more English math history and sci.
ReplyDeleteNina Koch said...
ReplyDeleteActually I think the lyrics really apply in some of these situations.
"I'm just a soul whose intentions are good"
The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
In fact, Nina, the Holocaust itself was largely motivated (initially) by good intentions. Are you familiar with the Eugenics Movement? Yes. Nina, it was American intellectuals like Margaret Sanger who started the Holocaust -- it was just the National Socialists who implemented their ideas...
Heaven help me, but I start thinking Nazi SS whenever I see a police car going somewhere....
ReplyDeleteIt's become us versus them -- and there is no distinction between those of us who haven't done anything and the perps who have.
So why should we make any distinctions between them either? The only good cop is an unemployed one. Vote NO on the police budget...
If you ever need a policeperson, I'd like to see you tell 'em that to his or her face.
ReplyDeleteJackie, if I ever need a "policeperson", I will do without -- and WILL tell it to its face if asked why I made such a decision. )At least Judge Dredd was fair.)
ReplyDeleteI will trust the police when the Jews trust the National Socialists.
I will trust the police when African Americans trust the Klu Klux Klan.
And I am someone who is law-abiding -- I fear the police more than I fear the criminals. And I am not alone in this.
THAT, little girl, is why it really doesn't matter what really happened in Ferguson or NYC -- or Amherst -- I have not a scintilla of faith that any police officer would ever do anything supportive for me, under any circumstance. I do not consider them an asset to me or to my community -- and again, I am by no means alone in this belief.
And don't think they are going to get their pensions funded, either...