Pelham School Battle Escalates

Aisha Hiza and her darling daughter

Call it intuition developed over 40 years of martial arts training, or maybe just my Irish gut, but I find it hard to believe Aisha Hiza, a once proud graduate of the venerable Amherst Regional Public School system, represents a physical threat to anyone in that system.

   Pelham School Battle Escalates

But this issue of a rashly implemented stay away order IS a threat to the system, because it flies in the face of one of the highly valued goals of ARPS:  Social justice.

 Maria Geryk was appointed Amherst Regional Public Schools  Superintendent in 2011

Where's Calvin Terrell when we need him?

Pelham School Committee just before going into executive session May 5th.  Attorney Tom Colomb 3rd from right

Not Inclusive Enough?

The Vagina Monologues 1996 (left) vs later edition

Well I guess I don't have to worry about Amherst Regional High School ever doing another sanctioned performance of the Vagina Monologues on public school property now that the bastion of PC feminism Mount Holyoke College has mothballed VM because it's not "inclusive" enough to include transsexuals.

As some of you may sadly remember ARHS was the only high school in the nation to allow VM back in 2004, only five years after being the only entity in history to ban a performance of West Side Story.

After Principal Mark Jackson was soooooo impressed with an off campus production put on by the kids in 2007 he allowed VM back at the ARHS in 2008, but not since then. 

My main complaint with the work of "art" is the repeated use of the C-word (rhymes with bunt).

Ensler claims she wanted to "reclaim" the word.  And we see how well that has worked out over the past two decades.  Right up there with reclaiming the N-word, although the hipper 5-letter version does actually gets used way more often than it should these days.

And the monologue, ‘The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could’ glories sex between an adult and underage girl after the minor had consumed vodka.

In the original version published, in 1998, the girl is only 13 and the monologue closes with her gushing:

“Now people thought that it was a kind of rape. I was only thirteen and she was twenty-four. Well, I say, if it was a rape, it was a good rape then, a rape that turned my sorry-ass coochi snorcher into a kind of heaven.”

Yikes! Can you imagine if a white, middle aged, Republican had authored that?

Yes I did attend the 2004 showing at the high school because Fox News paid for my ticket and requested I attend.  And no, I did not try to record it.

Obviously it's not a First Amendment violation for the public schools to ban taking pictures of minors on school property (although you have to question the wisdom of the schools allowing those minors to perform R rated material).

 Calvin Terrell, Amherst Regional Middle School last week

And the schools fulfilled the requirement of copyright law by posting public notice a week before the event that VM was off limits to recording.  Also, unlike Calvin Terrell's "performance" at the Middle School last week, a fee was charged at the door.

Maybe when Terrell returns to perform next academic year he can dress up as a vagina, just for old time sake.

First Amendment Warrior

Calvin Terrell, Social Justice Warrior

Yes I did feel a bit like the school kid squealing to a higher authority about an altercation on the schoolyard that left you fuming, even a couple days later.

The Chair of the Regional School Committee, Trevor Baptiste, did not seem to initially understand my complaint with School Superintendent Maria Geryk.



Obviously she did not pay the woman to snatch my iPhone (last words, "no videotaping" is Maria Geryk) but she did give verbal commands -- before and after the incident -- declaring a ban on videotaping.

And the Superintendent did not seem overly concerned about the physical nature of the altercation brought on by her edict. 

To ban journalists from recording an event should always make you wonder:  what is it they don't want you to know?

Masslive reports (as usual Comments are the best) 

Flashback

And Justice For All?

Maria Geryk introduces Calvin Terrell to the crowd of about 100- 125 Middle School parents/guardians and a few hand picked students

No tears were shed, nobody puked and professional counselors were not required as "social justice" speaker extraordinaire Calvin Terrell paid a return visit to the Amherst Regional Middle School -- the scene of the crime -- to "reenact" his October 2nd routine that terrorized far too many impressionable young students.

This time around school officials told parents to keep their children at home, kind of like cops separating two partners in crime during questioning so they can't compare notes.

Although nine ARHS students, all members of IGET (Inter-Generational Equity Team), were trotted out to the front of the room to tell the crowd why they are "warriors".

ARPS Superintendent Maria Geryk, the highest paid public official in Amherst, announced at the outset that no video recording was allowed (while looking directly at me).

 Calvin Terrell displays a t-shirt from a racist group in his home state of Arizona

Over the course of the first two hours the affable Terrell put on a good show that was a cross between a pep rally and a religious tent revival meeting.

 Audience stands for one of many interactive exercises

But the last half hour became a bit more somber as he reenacted the "visualization" exercise that was the most traumatic aspect of his controversial October 2nd presentation.

He told the attentive audience that this would be the "exact same way I did this with your kids."

He asked us to close our eyes and envision heading into our school on a cool October night holding the soft hand of a five year old girl, with our most beloved adult accompanying us, walking on our left.

Suddenly people are running, shots are fired, and we're understandably scared and confused.

A man near us pulls a gun of his own and says he's going to end this, but he's cut down by the shooter who is yelling things indicating he had been bullied.  Another shot rings out, only this time it's the police doing the shooting and the perp is neutralized.

He then pauses ... and you can almost see the Hollywood-like cut to a new scene which he describes as a room in a funeral home with two coffins, one of them for a child.  It's a closed coffin because the child was shot in the face with the resulting damage too great for the mortician to repair.

We then take a brief break and he asks everyone to check on the persons sitting next to them to make sure they are emotionally okay.

But in the October 2nd version I heard from a half-dozen Middle School students (one of them my daughter)  there was a much closer more graphic visualization of the shooter killing the 5-year-old girl and your most beloved adult right in front of you while you helplessly watched in sheer horror.

No wonder they didn't want this talk recorded.

Terrell also made snide remarks about men who dress "in Brooks Brother suits and work in tall buildings" yet he claims the reason he doesn't want his talks recorded is to protect his intellectual property, which generates a decent income.

In this case $38,000 for ten visits to Amherst.  So even if tonight was "free," it was done to protect his $38,000 contract.  Kind of like a restaurant giving you a free meal because the one you paid for previously gave you salmonella.

 Calvin Terrell:  As photogenic as he is smooth talking

As I was taking video at the outset of the meeting (and no, I was not going to video the entire 2.5 hour presentation) a woman sitting behind me suddenly snatched my iPhone, reminding me that it was against the rules.

I was sitting in the front row seat of the PUBLIC Middle School auditorium, the same seat I have occupied over the past 24 years as an Amherst Town Meeting member.  It was well below freezing tonight so keeping the auditorium warm (and lit) cost the taxpayers a few dollars.

And this event was sponsored and promoted by the Amherst PUBLIC schools to try to atone for the October 2nd mishap that was widely covered in the local media.

Social Justice does not trump the First Amendment.




Editor's note: To her credit the woman who grabbed my Iphone did apologize to me; as did Calvin Terrell to the audience late in his reenactment for having upset some students at the original October 2nd presentation and badmouthing the town after the controversy erupted in the media. 

Shock Therapy Déjà Vu

Calvin Terrell Amherst Regional Middle School (among angry parents) 10/3/14

Okay parents be sure to bring a box of tissues to the presentation this Sunday when Calvin Terrell sneaks back to Amherst to "recreate" the presentation that traumatized so many of our children back in October.

Although adults are probably a lot less prone to his emotional manipulation.

 click to enlarge/read

Interesting that school officials do not want any children at the presentation this time around.  If parents had gotten an advance peek at his act back in September, the sorry episode could have been avoided.

By firing him.

"We're # One!"

Last month I stated that unless a major catastrophe occurred which, thankfully, did not,  the March 8 Blarney Blowout would be my 2014 "story of the year" -- as it was for the year 2013.  And indeed it is.

But because the aftermath of that debacle has been so subdued, with our college aged youth falling in line through better behavior, I have great hope -- matched by confidence -- that it will not repeat in 2015.  After all, a third time is not very charming.

Thus what was to be my #2 story climbs into a tie for #1:  When Political Correctness collides with teen-aged angst under the roof of the Amherst Regional High School.

Specifically the way school officials treated Dylan Akalis, a white kid from Holyoke who dared like a lot of kids do to use the (modified rap version) N-word with an African American friend, who took no offense. 

Other African American kids did, however, and responded with bullying both online and in person that was reported to school authorities, who did nothing.  Dylan, in self defense, took matters into his own hands and made a "threat" on Facebook suggesting he came to school packing a pistol. 

In a panic, the school was closed for a day.  Dylan was summarily suspended, but his tormentors were not.  His father who worked (with his hands) for the schools was later fired for using a common electrician term in front of an African American school employee. 

Although his diploma reads Amherst Regional High School, officials would not let Dylan march in his cap and gown with fellow students and friends at the June 6 Mullins Center graduation ceremony, or attend the senior prom the week before.  Although a young woman who violated his privacy rights with a public Internet petition was allowed to march in the graduation ceremony.

Had Dylan not been white, the story would have played out in a radically different way.

From cancelling "West Side Story" because it was "racist" to allowing kids to perform the R-rated "Vagina Monologues," ARHS is a shining example of the mayhem that results from Political Correctness run amok.

As usual the response of school officials is to throw money at the problem:  They spent $38,000 enlisting smooth talking  Calvin Terrell, who terrorized 7th and 8th graders back in October and should have been instantly fired.  He returns next month.

The schools spent $48,000 hiring a "Media & Climate Communications Specialist" (fancy term for PR flack) to deal with racial issues, and the first thing she does is get into an embarrassing public fight with a long-time prominent local radio station over transparency.

And of course the  Carolyn Gardner affair was mishandled at the start when school officials kept the original graffiti incident in October a secret, something that could come back to haunt them when the Mass Commission Against Discrimination takes up their investigation. 

No, I don't have high hopes that 2015 will be any better when it comes to the race game played in our little "college town."

"Psychological & Emotional Abuse"

 A benign Calvin Terrell appears before angry parents 10/3/14 at the Middle School

The Special Education Parent Advisory Council, a state mandated organization whose charge is to give advice to the District and advocate for children with special needs, heard members brand Calvin Terrell's 10/2 presentation at Amherst Regional Middle School "psychological and emotional abuse" at their 10/15 meeting.

The advisory group members expressed dismay with Amherst Public School officials response to the fiasco saying, "This slow and anemic response is not acceptable."  Indeed!

   Amherst SEPAC on Calvin Terrell Draft Minutes

Interestingly the schools did launch an Internet survey of Middle School parents but refuse to release the actual ANONYMOUS responses, citing privacy concerns.

But their "analysis" shows a majority (54%) had problems with the presentation and only 15.5% thought his work "should continue".

WHMP radio takes up the issue

Our Survey Says ...

Calvin Terrell stands before angry public school parents

In yet another front page Gazette follow up -- pretty much a rewrite of a Masslive story from earlier this week -- concerning the disturbing presentation that occurred to our Middle School children on October 2, results from a parent survey that I requested via Public Documents Law  (thus far ignored) for the raw results gets a brief mention.

 Calvin Terrell:  Not my fault!

As I suspected, a majority (54%) of the 103 parent/guardians responding had problems with the presentation.  And only 15.5% thought the Schools should "continue the work begun by Calvin Terrell."

Considering the "work" to fight racism and bullying is an admirable goal, not a very good overall response to such a leading open ended question. 

Of course if the aging Gazette actually had children in the schools they would have actually received the survey and would know that it was anonymous. Doesn't get much more "private" than that.

Thus when the Schools do get around to responding to my Public Documents request and blow me off  like they did the diffident Gazette with the old "information that could be considered student records" thus protected by state privacy law, I will call them on it. 

"Vetting Communities"

 Calvin Terrell dealing with unhappy customers

If you operate a service business and someone complains about your product you can either blame the customer and ignore the complaint, or think about what you may be doing wrong to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Smart businesses -- the ones that stay in business -- choose the latter.

Obviously Calvin Terrell, who sells racial harmony with a side order of anti-bullying, doesn't subscribe to that theory.  Perhaps why he worked at a Red Lobster rather than owning one.

Although he is smart enough not to bite the hand that feeds him, in this case Amherst College ($38,000 -- a lot of bread!).

But his way of dealing with the snowballing controversy over his graphic presentation to young children is to blame the Schools.  Which of course is -- like the anecdotes he uses in his presentations (Columbine, Lord Jeff's infected blankets) -- partially correct. 

Yes the Schools should have sent out the parental notifications warning parents about the graphic nature of Terrell's pitch.  But I'm also certain that if the Schools knew exactly how graphic that pitch was going to be they would never have allowed it in the first place.

To suggest that Amherst of all places is an atypical outlier and somehow overly sensitive about mature material is absurd.

If Terrell bothered to do his homework he would know that ARHS was the only high school in America to perform the decidedly R rated 'Vagina Monologues' in 2004, and five years before that created an international uproar by cancelling 'West Side Story' because of alleged "racism."

Both controversies brought on by overly empowered 17-year-old's.

The Schools have now gone into their usual mode of dealing with controversy.   Stick your head in the sand and wait till things blow over.

Worked well with the "Nut Ban" controversy.  Last night the Regional School Committee voted to set a policy that allows administration do pretty much what they want with nuts (insert joke here).

And a year from now that same diffident Regional School Committee will vote a policy allowing the administration to bring in any speaker they damn well please.

Well at least David Koresh is no longer available.

Public Comment?

Trevor Baptiste, the only minority member of Regional Agreement Working Group at 6/12 meeting

UPDATE 3:00 PM  School Superintendent Maria Geryk has kindly negotiated a live session between Mr. Terrell and concerned parents.  Next year.   And only now is he "developing an outline of his presentations"?!

#####

Tonight's 6:00 PM Amherst Pelham Regional School Committee meeting -- so soon after the Calvin Terrell disaster at the Regional Middle School -- should be nothing if not interesting.

In his first act as the new RSC Chair Trevor Baptiste proposed changing the restrictive "Public Comment" period to allow for more extemporaneous input after the disastrous June 24 meeting cost Lawrence O'Brien the chairmanship. 

The public comment period had become a hot bed of activity around racial issues -- and deservedly so.  The predominantly white committee (7 of 9) was having trouble concentrating on their routine agenda items.

At a June 18th meeting of the Equity Task Force, Chair Amilcar Shabazz purportedly talked about an unreported -- more like covered up -- violent racial incident where three black youths "aggressively and seriously assaulted" a white youth because he was the "greatest student racist they could find."

Unnamed members of the Equity Task Force seemed to think Shabazz violated the (FERPA) rights of all the youth involved, since insiders were well aware of the incident and the names of all concerned.  But us lowly outsiders -- who represent the vast majority -- had no idea the incident had even taken place.

Individual Chairs of the school committees that make up the Region, circumventing the Open Meeting Law, signed a sharply critical memo chastising Shabazz and apologized to the parents of the white child involved.

Lawrence O'Brien Chair (for a day) 6/24 RSC meeting

In response, RSC Vice-Chair Trevor Baptiste called a renegade Regional School Committee meeting without approval of then Chair Lawrence O'Brien to countermand the 7/15 memo pillorying Shabazz.  That single motion passed by unanimous vote of the five members (out of nine) who dared to show up. 

And at the next meeting of the full Committee (8/14) Baptiste was elected chair, trouncing O'Brien (5 votes to 3).

So how is Mr. Baptiste -- one of only two black members of the RSC -- going to handle this sad, sadistic episode where a well-paid black motivational speaker terrorized all too many 7th and 8th graders with violent images of loved ones being gunned down before their innocent eyes?

#####

No controversy is complete without an internet poll (not mine)

Poll Of The People

Calvin Terrell demonstrating the power-of-the-universe-in-a-phone routine to upset parents  at packed 10/3 Middle School Principal's Coffee Hour

Mass email to parents 10/3 (click to enlarge/read)

"The School Messed Up"

Assistant Superintendent Mike Morris (far left) Calvin Terrell (multi-colored cap), none too happy parents (right) 10/3 meeting which Terrell thought was an "emergency meeting"

A friend and l-o-n-g time reader likens my school posts to, "distant underwater tremors that turn into 30 foot waves breaking on the beach."

Amherst Public Schools "Media Climate & Communications Specialist" Carol Ross

My boots on the ground coverage of last week's (10/3) "Coffee hour with the Principal" took a few days to catch fire, but as of now the Comments are fast approaching the limit allowed by Blogger, a barrier previously broken only once (school related of course) out of over 3,368 posts published.

 Today's Gazette editorial:  (go to Google News and search using the headline)

While it took the Gazette almost a week to catch up to the shocking story of race/anti-bullying "motivational" guru Calvin Terrell terrorizing our children, they now seem to be making up for lost time. 

Today for instance, in the highest circulating edition of the week, the venerable Daily Hampshire Gazette presents a very thorough editorial decrying the sorry affair.

Although in their typically diffident manner they fall short of demanding the schools exterminate their relationship with Terrell.

A glaring oversight. 

 Last year Terrell was paid $2,700 for one day gig

Springfield Sunday Republican Reports 

If It Sounds Good ...

Calvin Terrell (left), Middle School Principal Mendonsa  (rt) explaining themselves to large crowd of peeved  parents

In addition to screwing up the story of good old Lord Jeffery Amherst and his famously infected blankets, Mr. Terrell also had a fanciful spin on why police did not expeditiously move in at the 1999 Columbine massacre.

Naturally it was a race thing.

Although he is correct that the horrific high school mass murder was a watershed event, forever changing the way police react to such situations.



Just as 9/11 was a sea change for airline personnel who were originally trained to be compliant and go along with hijackers -- give them whatever they want.

After all, whoever heard of using commercial passenger airliners as guided missiles.

Click to enlarge/read

A Satisfied Customer

 Youth Adventure Academy at play July 25

Rather than the Amherst Regional Public Schools spending $38,000 to scare the Hell out of our kids, I wish they would put it to more wholesome team building activities like this Amherst & UMass Police Youth Adventure Academy, which my daughter obviously enjoyed.  Thoroughly.

The recent mandatory Middle School assembly with Calvin Terrell, not so much.

Shock Therapy @ Amherst Middle School

Calvin Terrell defending his "warrior" philosophy to a packed meeting of unhappy parents

In the wake of the Newtown/Sandy Hook tragedy you would think a public speaker addressing children in a forced school assembly would be careful about conjuring up images for such an impressionable audience to contemplate:  like that of a  beloved five-year-old being shot in the head,  with the resulting damage so great the wake is closed casket.

Or the other adult person you love, also involved in this hypothetical active shooter scenario, ending up dead from gunfire as well. 

What any of this has to do with improving racial harmony I'm not overly sure.  Neither were the traumatized kids who heard this explicit speaker, Calvin Terrell, doing his shtick yesterday morning at Amherst Regional Middle School.  Even scarier, he prefaced his performance by saying this would be his "5th grade presentation".

School officials had to make counselors available all day yesterday and plan to do so today as well.

ARMS Principal Marisa Mendonsa addresses standing room only crowd of upset parents

At a contentious "coffee with the principal" this morning at ARMS attended by almost 50 parents -- 90% of them displeased with yesterday's performance -- Mr. Terrell apologized for his graphic presentation.

School Principal Marisa Mendonsa apologized for not making sure "parental notification" went out the day before, warning about the potentially upsetting nature of the graphic talk.

Numerous parents used the term "inappropriate",  with one going so far as to brand it, "totally irresponsible, it was horrible!"  When Terrell likened himself to Santa Claus, an angry parent shot back:  "You were not Santa Claus, you were the Grim Reaper."

One parent confirmed his child had to leave the assembly that morning to find a bathroom and then threw up. 

Terrell defended his invocation of the Sandy Hook horror by comparing the universal devastation brought on nationwide by that tragedy, yet people don't get  upset when millions die in the Congo.

Kind of like saying 9/11 was not such a big deal because only 3,000 died vs the 10,000 who die annually via drunk drivers or 400,000 who die from cigarettes.

Other parents were upset with his use of the word "retard" when describing an incident of bullying. Of course one parent wondered if he would be so quick to have used the "N-word" in such a scenario.

 Talib Sadiq, Climate Coordinator and Principal Mendonsa stand before parents

While the presentation yesterday morning was not filmed, school officials confirmed that Mr. Terrell will redo his performance next Thursday night at the Middle School so parents can get a taste of what their children endured for two hours.

Better yet, he should simply be terminated from his $38,000 contract.  Now!

Schools start to backpedal

Come Together, Right Now

 

Maria Geryk, Calvin Terrell, Aaron Hayden, John Musante, Connie Kruger

Amherst Regional School Superintendent Maria Geryk hosted a meet and greet in her office this afternoon between Amherst town officials and chief warrior in the war on racism, Calvin Terrell.An outgrowth of a joint partnership between the schools and town dubbed "Amherst Together".

Amherst College has agreed to underwrite (at a cost of $38,000) ten visits to Amherst over the next year by Mr Terrell to work with elementary, Middle School, High School and Amherst College students.

Adults too must be involved, like all those in the room this afternoon, which included Town Manager John Musante, Assistant Town Manager Dave Ziomek, Select Board Chair Aaron Hayden and rookie SB member Connie Kruger.

Only two of five Select Board members attended (the other three were on vacation) but since this was a public meeting with no actionable motions on the agenda, not having a quorum was inconsequential.

The group discussed race, equity and power for just over an hour with the stated goal of constructing a path towards what in Amherst has been an illusive search for the Holy Grail since the the 1970s:  Racial harmony.

According to Terrell, "Youth are the tip of the spear."  

 

Media & Climate Communications specialist Carol Ross (left)  Maria Geryk, Calvin Terrell

Acknowledging the difficult, unending work that lay ahead, Terrell told the group, "You're always going to have naysayers.  But they should serve to keep you focused, to make you strive even harder."