Props from a recent Shakespeare play adorn the front lawn at ARHS
Perhaps someday the Amherst Regional Public Schools can can synthesize the past year long racial "event" -- for lack of a better term -- into a teachable moment school play. Or better yet, a Hollywood movie.
Maybe we can get Meryl Streep to play Superintendent Maria Geryk and Oprah Winfrey as math teacher Carolyn Gardner.
Maybe we can get Meryl Streep to play Superintendent Maria Geryk and Oprah Winfrey as math teacher Carolyn Gardner.
Clearly we are in a full blown Us vs Them situation divided along racial lines. And now we can throw Ferguson into the volatile mix.
The Amherst-Pelham Education Association and heavyweight Massachusetts Teachers Association just issued a statement supporting Carolyn Gardner while trumpeting their "commitment to confronting racism."
But do we really have any proof that these unsettling acts perpetrated against Ms. Gardner were genuinely racist, as opposed to kids being kids, or an adult trying to stir up racial turmoil?
Or what on the all powerful Internet is simply known as a Troll.
Either way, the case is now before the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination, who will spend the next 18 months deciding if indeed there is merit to the charge.
Until then candle light vigils, long winded comments at public meetings (with a side order of hissing) and press releases designed to win the hearts and minds of citizens are a waste of time and energy.
Until then candle light vigils, long winded comments at public meetings (with a side order of hissing) and press releases designed to win the hearts and minds of citizens are a waste of time and energy.
Not to mention a monumental distraction to the sacred mission of educating all our children.
Jean Sherlock reads NAACP letter of complaint to Regional School Committee
The NAACP issued a press release, err, I mean statement at the tense Regional School Committee meeting last week charging the schools with "illegal application of disciplinary measures" against the non-white student population.
Maybe they have not been paying attention but last year Maria Geryk presented to the Amherst-Pelham Regional School Committee statistics from the 2011-2012 school year showing 65% of the
out-of-school suspensions were given to non-white students at the high
school (who make up 35% of the student body) and in 2012-2013, 58%.
Back in July the Schools announced major changes to address these racial disparities, replacing two secondary school deans with "climate control coordinators". Geryk also told the RSC last December that the plan was to pretty much eliminate suspensions as a form of discipline altogether (except in extreme cases of assault or weapons possession).
So why now after the schools have been addressing this racial disparity for the past year is the NAACP suddenly bringing it up? And where were they for the previous 20 years or so, if indeed the Schools have been out of compliance since 1993?