Amherst Regional High School
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43 comments:
I wonder if tomorrow will be the least attended school day by students in Amherst ever. It just goes to show, you can't demonize one kid for all of ARHS's problems.
Luckily you took a Spring ARHS stock photo to use for all these stories
Actually it was an out take from Sunday's photo shoot.
Sorry Anon 11:00 pm can't publish that.
But now that you mention it ...
Wouldn't want to be Mark Jackson or Maria at this point. They just can't win. Threats are likely kids just screwing around to see the reaction of the adults or just want to get out of school, but.....
And so the chaos continues.
Has Principal Jackson asked Camila Carpio for a handwriting sample yet?
This is the result of the S/C and other involved with the school, for sitting on their brains.
I agree with Anon 12:26 am.
On the other hand, I'm still not sure that this is part of some systemic problem, reflecting deep-seated rot in our schools. Mr. Hood still has not met his burden to show that this is the case.
This could simply be a handful of miscreants, who have succeeded in applying a broad brush of stink to many, many sincere, kind professionals and students.
How about a petition to exclude Ms. Gardner from participating in the graduation exercise? As a parent, I am now feeling threatened that her presence at the event, obviously with protection necessary for her own well-being, creates an atmosphere of fear for all participants. I'm frightened.
Team Maria has lost confidence of this town. Without vision, playing political correctness to its extreme, playing favorable game at the influence of special interests groups, favor one group at the expensive of other groups, eventually fell into a victim of its own policies.
To restore confidence, policy change is necessary. The pursue of excellence should be the goal of school. Every child should be challenged to its ability and desire. Reward and punishment should be completely based on its merit, and color-blind.
Make rule and stick to it. Don't bend your rule at the Influency of special interest group. Other you lose your credibility.
I'm with you Anon 8:53. She is as dangerous to the safety of graduation as Dylan is.
Larry, this school system sure could use a cloakroom.
And a few Sisters of St. Joseph.
I thought I read somewhere that Dylan was suspended for saying the N work. If that is the case, why isn't anyone else being suspended for the same thing? I understand the terminology is pretty rampant among black students. Are they also being suspended? Or do only white students get suspended for using the word.
School Committee member Rick Hood only seemed concerned about it being used by white kids towards black kids (although he did not specify if it was only the six letter version ending in R).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqp5m_JD6Oc
What I don't understand is the nonchalant approach to this -- the word "gun" and the name of a teacher in the same "threatening note" would appear to be a fairly specific threat of serious violence and a hell of a lot more than they had last January.
More disturbing is that it is part of an escalating pattern of threats -- *that* is what I was taught to be worried about. (My child would not be in school today...)
What I don't understand is why Team Maria didn't borrow the metal detectors from UMass and have the APD (or UMPD if APD isn't trained to use them, apparently quite a bit of training is necessary) search absolutely *everyone* entering the high school including Principal Jackson. Everyone.
I'd tell the parents exactly why we were doing this, and that it will end when we identify/arrest the person(s) responsible. I'd have a uniformed police officer standing every 10 feet in every hallway of the building -- APD, UMPD, MSP, Environmental Police, I don't care who (and with UM now on break, the 63-officer UMPD can be asked to provide mutual aid).
Now there are a lot of things that an officer every ten feet will hamper, drug dealing being one, and I'd let it be known that the officers will be gone when we end this -- and if anyone wants to tell me who's behind it, I'd be happy to listen. (This tactic works -- I've seen it done.)
If I were Maria G, I'd ask for volunteers amongst the staff to join me going through the metal detectors at a press conference (outside of school hours) so that the parent's don't get freaked out about it -- that we're not the TSA and we're not groping their daughters or anything -- and that all of this will end when we end this.
What I don't understand is why the FBI isn't involved yet -- this at least appears to be a racial hate-motivated matter with what we are told is a Black victim (Carolyn Gardner). The FBI takes these things seriously -- and they are quite good with their forensics, which might be what people are worried about.
Anyone remember what happened the last time they were asked to investigate a racial incident in Amherst? Yep, I'm talking about the Black Fraternity at Amherst College and the cross-burning in front of it.
Well the FBI traced back the wood used to construct the cross and found that it had come from the same tree as lumber found in the basement of said Black Fraternity. Seems that the fraternity members had done this themselves -- and when Amherst College proceeded to discipline these young men for doing something that wasn't exactly nice, the outcry was so visceral that it reportedly led to the college's president committing suicide.
May I suggest that it is way past time for us to even care why someone is doing this and is now time to simply find out WHO is doing it and to ARREST him/her/it/them.
Yes, we accord the perp due process and a fair trial, it is about who we are as a people, and then we incarcerate the SOB! And if there is a mental illness behind this, fine -- give the choice of commitment to a mental hospital instead.
What I see right now is like all the fire trucks, ambulances & police cars going somewhere -- lights flashing and sirens blaring -- but only going 2-3 MPH, with bicyclists & joggers passing them. One would ask: "If it is important enough for all of you to be going, shouldn't you be driving a little bit faster?"
Seems to be that the school system is practicing a form of racism when rules are applied differently based on what color skin you have. If it's wrong for a white kid to say any version of the N word then it should be just as wrong for a black kid to say it. The punishment should be the same, no matter what color your skin is. To do anything other than treat all equally is its own special form of hypocrisy...and believe me, high school kids know hypocrisy when they see it. Kids will look with derision at rules that are applied un-equally. I think that is already happening in the schools.
The truth behind the note needs to come out. I hope APD does a thorough investigation. If it's a kid at the High School, no doubt other kids know about it too.
If it is true that the suspension was for using the n word on Facebook, Geryk and Jackson better get to work suspending all the other kids who use it.
Ever clap your hands near a tree full of jittery birds? Any kid can do it.
Tony,
I think at least one kids, if not more, have already done it. Guessing they will do it again.
Great comparison.
So glad I pulled my kids out of this quagmire of hypocrisy.
To Anonymous 11:51
Just curious what planet you have moved your kids to that does not have any issues regarding race and the ongoing struggle to make this world a more equal place? I hope they do well at whatever insulated island of learning you have sent them to. Yeah, this situation is ugly, but I have two kids at the high school who are doing great, and I know a number of faculty members who work their butts off to make ARHS a great place. Your smugness says it all.
We are actually glad you pulled your kids out of the school too, since you believe the place is so bad.
We'd really like to have your kids back, but we don't want you so maybe it's better if your kids stay away too.
And even though you hate the place with a passion as is obvious from your words, you can't stay away, as your post here indicates.
What does that say about you that even after you've made a huge decision and pulled your kids from their local HS, you still have to add your hate to this blog?
It says you are a hater, that you took some of your valuable time in this life to spread hate simply for the sake of causing damage.
Ouch! Sucks to be you and your kids.
Guess I'm glad my parents didn't have that much hate in them. What would I have turned out like if they did?
Does any school really need more haters? When your kids were in these schools, is that what you hoped for every day they went to school, that some hate-filled parent like yourself would voice that hate loud and clear and broadcast it to the world online?
I hope and pray for the school teachers and administrators of the school you put your kids in. I doubt that school needs the hate either.
I'm reminded of a school that had a problem with bomb scares.
In a meeting with students, the principal announced that the response to any future bomb scares would involve the state police bringing in their dogs to sniff lockers.
Oh, and yes, these are the same dogs that can smell drugs, and if they happened to find any drugs, they'd of course have to arrest the student and all, quite unfortunate but we have to look for a bomb when we get a bomb threat.
Certain students very quietly let it be known to the individual responsible that it would not be a good idea for him to call another one in. They also let it be known amongst the student body as well...
And they didn't have any more bomb threats...
Wow, looks like someone touched a nerve
Someone forgot to tell Anon: 11:51 that you are not supposed to speak up against the machine that is public education in Amherst.
I'm not sure who is angrier, Anon 11:51, or the two people who posted what a horrible person Anon 11:51 is.
Between this anger, Nina's swearing on another post, and someone who said you have to live in Amherst for generations to be a real townie it is clear that Amherst really does have to work on acceptance of all people.
Between this anger, Nina's swearing on another post...
And note, I didn't swear in response -- not that I wasn't tempted...
Shakespeare put it best: "Methinks they doth protest too much...." They wouldn't be this angry if they weren't trying to hide something...
If I were Carolyn Gardner, in a situation where it *might* be possible that I was writing the notes myself (or knew who was doing it on my behalf), I'd be publicly pleading for an opportunity to exonerate myself.
We don't see Gardner doing that, do we????
Anyone is free to speak up if they have have a beef with the schools, who is stopping them? Just don't be surprised if someone else defends the schools. Do I think anonymous 11:51 is a horrible person? Not really, I just resent someone calling our community a " Quagmire of hypocrisy". Perfect Amherst is not, but that comment comes from a bitter person who instead of working for change clearly has the privilege to pretend they are better than the rest of us.
Amherst is a "Quagmire of Hypocrisy" and I go back to what I said to the Selectboard on the evening of September 10, 2001--
"Allowing the American Flags to be displayed shows that Amherst is also tolerant of those of us who don't hate our country."
The quote is from memory -- you were there Larry, you might remember exactly how I worded it, but my point was/is clear -- if Amherst isn't hypocritical and actually believes all of this "tolerance" and "inclusion" and such stuff, then it'd be tolerant of me too, and it ain't.
If you suspend one student for using the "N" word, then you really ought to suspend absolutely every student who uses it. That's called "being consistent" -- not doing it is called "hypocrisy."
I still say that the boy was trying to identify with his Black friends, to essentially "be" Black -- and that's not racism!
Shakespeare put it best: "Methinks they doth protest too much...."
Excellent point. Does it explain why you posted half a dozen comments on the other thread to refute the assertion that you're unemployable?
Don't Feed The Trolls!
Does it explain why you posted half a dozen comments on the other thread to refute the assertion that you're unemployable?
No, I was rather pissed....
No, I was rather pissed....
Ah, of course. Someone points out -- by linking to your own rant -- that you tend to get excessively angry. So how do you try to prove them wrong? By... wait for it... getting excessively angry.
Aw c'mon Ed don't be pissed. We all know you're just a squirrel shit shoveler at heart.
"Ah, of course. Someone points out -- by linking to your own rant -- that you tend to get excessively angry. So how do you try to prove them wrong? By... wait for it... getting excessively angry."
No. Someone libeled me.
And yes, I do need to follow that link because there is stuff attributed to me which I never wrote. But it was the libel which upset me, not the link.
Nina said something about me which was both defamatory and not true. Something with which I took great offense and reacted as as a "reasonable man" inherently would.
"Unemployable"?!?!
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot -- what dimension of reality does that woman exist in? It's neither hers nor anyone else's business what I'm doing or how much money I am making doing it -- nor would I be stupid enough to ever give anything specific, although :) might give you a hint.
(Let me just say that I consider the ARSD teacher's pay scale to be the least I'd really ever be interested in working for -- and remember where Dr. Ed would be starting on that...)
I don't think Nina's a complete moron, so where the hell did she get that idea from????
"getting excessively angry" would involve doing something like what Nina did. Or any number of similar things.
I'm told that "I could really hurt someone if I ever wanted to" -- having never wanted to, I can't speak either way to that -- but I've not only seen "excessive anger" lead to violence but been one of the people that calmed things down.
(There really is nothing quite like having two armed police officers looking to you to protect them from violence -- that actually happened once. But I digress...)
Anger is passion -- if you have no anger, you have no humanity. You have no soul.
That is what the psychological profession simply does not understand -- it is not that one is angry about something but that one is able to control ones anger. Where they want to turn people into mindless zombies, my attitude is that we need to emphasize things like self-discipline, character and personal integrity.
For example, I did not use the adjectives "Delta Charlie" to describe a certain person -- not because she didn't deserve it, but because no matter how mad she had made me, I didn't intend to do it. Furthermore, note that I'm not even using that quite-offensive expression here as children may be reading -- "Delta Charlie" is alphanumeric for two letters of the English alphabet, and I trust most understand which two words, starting with said letters, I am referring to.
Folks -- "still waters run deep." You want to worry about the quiet people -- those are the ones who snap. I, by contrast, am not breakable -- I may bend, but I will not break.
Darling Cherub, how sweet of you Ed.
Seriously, Ed? Do you honestly think that anyone will believe that you didn't write that rant?
You're going to just straight up lie and say you know nothing about it -- the way you did when it was proven that you'd written that Maria Geryk "is cute and has a hot body"?
C'mon, Ed -- surely you can do better than that. Perhaps you'd prefer to claim that you suffer from dissociative personality disorder...? You do seem to know a lot about it.
Perhaps you'd prefer to claim that you suffer from dissociative personality disorder...? You do seem to know a lot about it.
I'm an educator. I was dealing with a student who had serious mental health issues, and I attempted to do the best I could for the student.
FERPA precludes me mentioning anything else, including the individual's name, but were I to mention the student's name, anyone who is intellectually honest would instantly understand why I would have done a great deal of background reading in paych.
Yes Nina, some of us actually "go the extra mile" for our students.
As to Maria G, I described some of the things she was doing as "cute" and that was sarcastic -- VERY sarcastic. For example, I think that Obama's foreign policy is cute -- he's going to start WW-III the way he's going.
As to the Enku Gelay piece - I haven't read it and don't intend to unless my lawyer tells me I have to -- I think Enku is an incompetent, dangerous and lying schmuck -- I well may have written it, I well may not have.
And?
I do need to follow that link because there is stuff attributed to me which I never wrote.
I well may have written it, I well may not have.
Which is it, Ed? You never wrote it, or you may well have written it? (Both quotes are from your comments on this page.)
If Maria G is hired because she is cute and has a hot body then it will be very clear to absolutely everyone that this is all a chirade [sic]
And that's quoted from your comments on this page:
http://onlyintherepublicofamherst.blogspot.com/2011/01/town-manager-presents-no-override.html
So does Obama's foreign policy have a hot body, too?
If Maria G is hired because she is cute and has a hot body then it will be very clear to absolutely everyone that this is all a chirade [sic]
IF - THEN. Are you truly so obtuse that you can't understand that I'm saying if that is the only reason she's hired, then it will be clear that the whole hiring process has been a charade.
For that matter, why didn't you quote the entire sentence as that makes it very clear what I am saying here:
If Maria G is hired because she is cute and has a hot body then it will be very clear to absolutely everyone that this is all a chirade and that working within the system is ineffective and that we need to openly attack it.
I'll grant that the comment was a bit intemperate, but I was talking about "declaring war on" those who would hire her on this basis -- which is quite a bit different from me attributing her those adjectives.
Fact check: I was calling her a dumb bimbo. I was saying that her appearance was the only reason why anyone would ever hire her -- and that I didn't want to see her hired.
Gee, Ed, now I'm really confused. Those words about Maria Geryk are quoted on this page...
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=5035949355013113578&postID=6996379012787249094
...in response to which you wrote this:
Larry, you know as well as I do that crap quoted below doesn't resemble anything that I would wrote -- someone is parodying me and you know that. And if you have a scintilla of personal integrity and or honor, you will remove it.
And if you don't Larry, it speaks volumes to your lack of moral character and your lack of personal integrity.
Yet now you admit that you did in fact write "that crap".
So which is it? Were you lying then, or are you lying now?
Im wondering if maybe Ed writes so much "crap" that he forgets what he writes. I also recall him writing about having a cooler full of bud light that he finishes off, that could lead to memory issues too.
Ed, if you tell the truth, you don't have to try and remember the lies that you made up. Your great mind and education still relies on excuses every time you are backed in a corner. If you didn't fabricate so much shit you would not need so many excuses or lies,whatever the case may be.
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