Michelle Obama Will Speak In Topeka

How lucky can this year's graduates of Kansas Unified School District 501 get? Michelle Obama will speak at their graduation! Usually, Topeka's high schools have their own graduations, but this year, there will be a joint ceremony for them on May 17. Michelle Obama will speak in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Brown v. the Board of Education in Topeka, the landmark court decision forcing schools in Kansas and the rest of the nation to stop racial segregation in schools and allow everyone to attend. 

Something all public school administrators and teachers in Kansas need to remember and discuss more efficiently with students is that the State of Kansas was in the wrong in that lawsuit. A black family decided to challenge the unlawful, racist lifestyle that made all those pink, fluffy, white Topekans very happy back in 1954 and challenge racial segregation in schools. No doubt, if Dean Dalinghaus, principal of Frankfort High School in Frankfort, Kansas had been the defendant, he would have told parents the same thing he told the parents of Frankfort High's valedictorian last year: "We do not encourage the children to learn very much about the Constitution because it's easier to run the school smoothly without teaching it". Yes, a public school principal in Kansas said that, as recently as last year. The comment was made by a pink, blue-eyed, bald, white high school principal, who encourages children to bully any child with a disability, and any child whose parents do not identify with mainstream christian whiteness as enjoined in the Midwest. 

Kansas has resisted a lot of the equality and progress enjoyed by other schools since Brown v. the Board of Education by refusing to consolidate it's public schools and make them all answerable to the State of Kansas, rather than to tiny school boards in "unified districts". The unified districts do not have to follow any state laws, and thumb their noses at federal laws as often as they can get away with it. If schools disbanded the unified districts and consolidated, they would be more organized, and students in Frankfort would have the same opportunities to take drama or a foreign language as students in Topeka. Children who are good writers could take honors English, which is not offered in many smaller Northeast Kansas high schools, instead of being blackballed as "dangerous" for writing  petitions and going door to door for signatures. (Marysville High School, in Kansas, after a student wrote a petition asking for a more challenging curriculum)

Kansas also needs to remember how very welcome Westboro Baptist Church has been over the years, conducting their picketing campaign. Many native Kansans do not think they have anything in common with Westboro Baptist Church, but other christian churches, in Kansas are almost identical, only lacking the publicity enjoyed by Westboro. New Hope Baptist Church in Seneca, Kansas, teaches that law enforcement should shoot anyone who identifies as gay. Teenage church members then attend local public schools and bully any gay child, with Reverend Curtis Knapp's blessing. Also, while discussing discrimination in Kansas, we must not forget that Republican congresspeople in Kansas recently wasted everyone's time passing House Bill 2453, a pathetic attempt to legalize unlawful discrimination. The Senate took one look at it and tossed it in the circular file, but if it had passed, it would have given businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies the right to refuse service to anyone perceived as "different" in some way....using faith and adherence to the christian religion as the basis for the discrimination. A skin complexion or religion seeming somehow "unbiblical" to a Kansas emergency room nurse could grant her the right to turn away a sick child. A pharmacist could refuse to fill the sick child's prescription for antibiotics because the bible says to hate certain minorities. Schools would have the right to turn gay students, black students, and any other student failing to be pink, fluffy, white, and conformist away. So much for Brown v. the Board of Education in Topeka. Kansas is still looking for ways to break the law and stay as vile and prejudiced as it was in 1954.

I wonder what Michelle Obama is going to say....... 

In Case You Slept Through Church On Sunday

In case you slept through church on Sunday and didn't hear, a child at Negreet High School, in Sabine Parish, Louisiana, was bullied by a teacher in class because he failed to understand Christian jargon on a test. When she wanted to know if it was "amazing what the ______ had made", he wasn't able to answer the question or fill in the blank. Besides the fact that this question appeared on a science test, and christian myth has very little to do with science, the sixth grade boy is of Thai background, and his family is Buddhist. Rita Roark, the teacher, will not give students credit for any work in science class reflecting any theory besides creation, and the notion that the earth and all life is only six thousand years old. His parents were already offended by the electric marquee that generates bible verses in front of the school, and when they complained, Principal Gene Wright told the Buddhist parents that "this is the bible belt", and that the law mandating no religion in public school was not applicable because of that prime bible belt location! Wright was not concerned in the slightest that Roark had informed the sixth grader, before the entire class, that "Buddhism is stupid". When the parents took their complaints to the superintendent, Sara Ebarb, she suggested that they change their religion! When they told her they were not going to convert to christianity, she told them that they should send their son to a school in a different school district, about thirty miles away, that had more children from different cultures!

Not only does Negreet High School unlawfully overlook Abingdon School District v. Schempp, which guarantees and prescribes that all public school children be educated in a non-religious environment, but Brown v. The Board Of Education In Topeka clearly grants public school children the right to attend the closest public school, un-harassed, with no pressure to convert to any religion and no favoritism of one religion or culture over another. This is very reminiscent of Frankfort High School, in Northeast Kansas. Teachers mercilessly bully any child whose parents are not christians, and have pressured yours truly to convert or attend one of their half baked churches countless times. The minister of one of those churches had the gall to ask me if my Dad was "satanic", and if I had learned my religious and cultural identities from him, which, as a matter of fact, I did; but the suggestion that my father is "satanic" insulted me to the extent that I will never allow my children to enter her filthy church again. Quite a few of the christian young people in Frankfort Kansas, the same ones who drive through the lawns and onto the porches of others in attempts to hit small children and pets, use religion at their PUBLIC school as a fulcrum from which to bully others and make them miserable. Dean Dalinghaus, the principal at Frankfort, clearly states that the 1963 FEDERAL law does not apply to him or to Frankfort School because the "majority" did not wish to obey the law. Curiously, this is his approach when faced with other criminal behaviors among faculty members, too. Predictably, the ACLU does not agree with Dean Dalinghaus, and he is very upset that he is no longer welcome to invite non-christians to "get saved" at school functions anymore. A little less predictably, he whined, complained, and threatened when I stopped holding Frankfort accountable to Brown v. the Board of Education and enrolled my children in USD 497 Lawrence, a considerable distance away. It turned out that he was grubbing for enrollment dollars, and Lawrence got the money granted by the state that my children would have brought this year, rather than Frankfort. Dalinghaus will not be bothered with equality and the lawful administration of a school, but puts on quite a production as an enrollment dollar whore.

The ACLU is now assisting in a lawsuit against Negreet High School in Sabine Parish. I will be following the proceedings with great interest. I predict that all the schools in Sabine Parish will find themselves obliged to become more professional and law abiding in the very near future, and when the case is concluded, I will not hesitate to remind the judicial system in Kansas that USD 380, which pimps Frankfort High School, treated my children in the very same manner that Negreet High School treats Buddhist children.

Reason Number One For Consolidation Of Kansas Schools

Kansas never ceases to amaze me with it's stupidity. The public schools in Kansas are not consolidated, which means that each "unified district" has a local school board that is not answerable to state or national standards, or to the state or federal authority, and can force any decision they please on children and parents, be it lawful or not. They can even hire sex offenders and kidnappers if they choose! We now have a Sedgwick County former coach, who was caught in an internet sting, attempting to solicit sex from a fifteen year old, demanding his job as a high school football coach back! Unfortunately, Todd Puetz (it really should be Todd Putz) was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of soliciting sex from a prostitute, and now, since he was not convicted of more serious sex offenses or required to register as a sex offender, his lawyer says he is "entitled" to his job as a high school football coach, and is fighting to somehow force the local school board to engrave him another invitation to endanger children!

Most of us would find this whole request, and the obvious best response......telling Mr. Puetz that he need not apply again.......to be a no brainer. After all, he was fired immediately after his arrest for sex offenses, the local school board did not wait for the trial or the disposition of the charges. As Kansas law does not guarantee a person a job in the event that his services are no longer relevant, and his contract violation(no abusing or molesting children) was proven by his admission of guilt, even though he made a plea in court to a lesser charge, there is a tradition in the unconsolidated, unified school districts of Kansas of covering up the misdeeds of teachers and coaches, and telling the victims to go to hell, because they don't matter. At the other end of the state, in Marshall County, a guidance counselor at Frankfort High still collects taxpayer dollars to endanger children by dropping them off by themselves along highways. The parent who almost had a heart attack over it was told by her local school board that this should not be a cause for concern. If schools in Kansas were consolidated, the laws against child endangerment would need to be followed at each and every public school, and there would be no local school boards protecting political favorites. A thug, such as the guidance counselor in Frankfort, would not be allowed to continue employment in a public school. In fact, the school's insurance should not be allowed to cover this employee any more than an auto insurance policy can be written to cover a driver with fifty DWI's. Child abuse is child abuse, and this guidance counselor committed child abuse and got away with it because Kansas school boards are unsupervised and do not answer to the state. They only answer to themselves. If they do not care about a particular child who has been abused by a teacher, they will generally not lift a finger to stop the abuse. Kudos to the school board who will not offer Todd Puetz his job again. This is an amazing change of pace for Kansas.

Most Kansans fight tooth and nail against consolidation of their schools. Brown v. the Board of Education in 1956 was quite a shock for the quietly prejudiced white population of Kansas, and keeping schools unconsolidated is quite likely a deliberate attempt to continue to keep schools as racially and culturally segregated as possible. Unfortunately, unified districts also have a lot of latitude to violate almost any law when running Kansas schools.

Blown Away And Back In Place

One day in the future, if there is ever enough genetic variance in Northeast Kansas to foster critical thinking among the population, public school will be consolidated. This will be very helpful in creating a curriculum with more and better choices; some of which, a college bound student may need, but not be able to take at present...thanks to the disorganized and haphazard approach taken by the stubborn, not-so-bright folks who occupy the school boards in Northeast Kansas. Of course, the less biased and more competent direction provided by a qualified, more centralized school board would mean that Kansas children would be required to stop taking guns to school after hunting, and also that Brown vs. The Board Of Education may finally become law in Kansas. On a related note, a "unified" school district in Marshall County just lost five students because school faculty was unable to act professional and respectful to parents who wanted their children to learn. One would think, amid all the whining about declining enrollment and all the outright fear in the face of consolidation of Kansas schools, that parents of large families would be treated with respect! Because there ARE other options, USD 380!

 

 

Another Answer To Multiple Comments

Ok, it seems that some people from Kansas think that all of the standardized tests their children take in Kansas cover the same materials that children take in other states, and that since Kansas ranks fourth, last year, I believe, that they're children are learning the same stuff as the rest of the nation's children. Let me just ask something: since both of my high schools on the East Coast offered French, Spanish, German, and Latin; and students are REQUIRED to not only take, but master, at least "first year" skills in one language, how can a Kansas student, who is not required to even enter a foreign language classroom at any time during his or her high school career, even begin to compare? You can rank fourth all you wish, but your children will not be as prepared for college or life outside of Kansas, with the pathetic offerings of your schools. And that's pretty much the whole area, not just one city or town, so please don't feel special.

On a related note, I know someone from a neighboring small town here in Northeast Kansas, who embarked upon a military career after high school. This poor man's lack of culteral skills led to a physical beating that could have cost him his life, simply because he had never met someone of a different race, and was openly and verbally unaccepting of many individuals of that race while dining in a resturant. I must give him credit; he blames himself and his big mouth for what happened......yet I'm still going to wonder if that type of violence can kill a person faster than war. I don't know......no statistics.......just a fleeting thought.

On another related note, I married a wonderful person who isn't prejudiced and would never discriminate in the manner I described in the above paragraph. His children, my stepchildren; however, do. They had never seen anyone from India, Vietnam, China, Jamaica, Russia, Indonesia, Isreal, or any African nation until he brought them to visit me. One of them comes home from school at last several times a week with prejudiced sounding guff coming out of his little mouth. When I sit down and discuss the things he states about others, the upshot is always that he wouldn't know what a person from a different background looks like ( he does not remember visiting me) and has no idea what he is really talking about. It's just guff he learned at school. At school. Now................I attended school back when the whole country was still fighting about Brown vs. the Board of Education, yet no teacher at any school I attended was ever backwards enough to make racist comments in his or her class. Not ever. Not even once. But the things my children heard many of their teachers here in Kansas say about Obama during the last presidential election, just because he does not need sunblock at the pool, are downright shameful. No; you guys are not preparing your children for anything but life in a small community in Kansas with your silly-assed daycare system that you call "school". Sorry. I'm gonna have to call it as I see it. And what's really sad is that I don't see a future in a Kansas small town for either my stepchildren or the child of whom we have guardianship. There's not a whole lot any of them can do, here in Kansas. They do deserve an education though.......how come each "community school" is really just a "training situation" for existance in it's community, and nothing else?

One more question: there is a much bigger Native American population in Kansas than anywhere I have ever lived. How come my children know as much about their cultures as they did before they moved here? How come my children have never met anyone from those cultures?