Thursday, May 08, 2008

What Parents Don't Know...

Protective mother said...

Years ago, my child came home from school upset, frustrated, angry and rebellious, totally out of character. He was not willing to tell me what was wrong, "Nothing" is all he would say. Was it bullies? Was it the school work? Was it the teacher?

I found out one day when I happened to be a Room mother for the day, in my daughter's classroom, her room happened to not be far from my son's classroom. I heard clearly that teacher screaming at the entire class that they were "stupid", "idiots", "lazy"!!!

She singled out several as the worst. One was my son, who until her class, had always been on the A honor roll for years and always considered one of the best students of the other prior teachers. That day, I had a long talk with my son about what I heard and reassured him that I was going to take action. Of course, he was afraid and intimidated by this teacher for fear of her repercussions to him, I told him not to worry things would change for the better.

The next morning, I arrived at the Principal's office and told him what was going on and that it had better stop immediately. But; I took it one step farther, I told that principal that I was going to sit in on this class as a parent observer, until I got the message across to this teacher that this was unacceptable. He agreed. I did just that, it only took one day. I told the teacher I was there to observe the school work to help my son, since his grades were falling.

She was not happy about it, but accepted my given reason. I sat all the way through the day. My son was scared, but at the same time, glad I was there. The other children appeared to be relieved too. At the end of the day, with nothing said prior during the day, I waited till the kids were gone, then I told her the "real" reason why I was there. Of course, she denied it and in my presence, she was well behaved all the day.

She had no idea that I had heard her the day before, but I let her know I had indeed heard her. I told her that if I EVER heard of her doing my kid or any kids like that again, I would go straight to the board and demand her resignation and if that did not work, the local media would be next. Needless to say it did not happen again, I sporadically went by her classroom on every chance I had, all was well.

My son began to do better and at the end of the year received the Presidential Academic Achievement award for the highest average of all the students for the six years of elementary. the award was presented to him by this same teacher. She was shocked that he had been named for this award. Apparently, she had no clue to his prior years of honor roll achievements.

The following year, that teacher was not rehired. I made sure a few board member friends, knew of her out of control behavior to be sure of it. So yes, parents need to take action and back their threats with whatever is at hand, the board, the media, whatever it takes to stop whatever needs to be stopped and to change whatever needs to be changed.....or THEIR child will pay the price for THEIR neglect and shame on them for having no spine to fight for their child and other children. No child can learn in an oppressive or frightening environment.

There is a large difference between classroom discipline and hostile tyranny. I know first hand what that is like, I was that same child, when I was little and promised myself then, that my kids would never have to suffer from an abusive and cruel teacher, as long as I had breath in me to fight back for them.

It is unfortunate that this type of scrutiny and oversight is necessary in our schools these days, but it is. More parents should get involved in their children's education... and the day that I was denied access to my child's classroom would be the last day of his enrollment in that school.

In my day, parents were not only a welcomed part of the educational system, but were present at almost all functions. The PTA was more about getting parents actively involved in a child's education than mere "pot luck and power-point".

Nothing will change if parents do not demand change! If it takes a national "60 Minutes" tell-all story and a band of cut-throat attorneys, so be it. Why should our children suffer under a tyrannical code of silence imposed by power-mongers and their stooges?

Our children have but one chance at a good education. Once that opportunity is missed, their entire future is in jeopardy.

Forthright

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sales taxes down, casino in bankruptcy, streets in shambles, businesses failing, more industry loss, more jobs lost, gas prices rising, daily living costs increasing with no way for salaries to keep up, mortgages being foreclosed, troubled and frightened citizens, children with nothing to do to keep them off the streets and out of trouble, crime rates rising, unemployment rising, welfare applicants increasing, wasteful spending within our local political city and county offices, internal illegal behaviors by our elected officials.....

Greenvillians/Deltans, we are in serious trouble. We are going to "hell in a handbag" at this rate. Something has to happen, we need miracles!

We need to push for progress! We need to demand accountability of our tax dollars! Millions are being lost or stolen everyday of our tax dollars, due to unethical, self serving, self promoting actions of too many of our locally elected politicians.

The City and regions of Greenville are under a siege of poor leadership and self serving actions. The lack of cooperation between our city and county government offices is disgraceful!

Some of these Elected officials disregard obvious internal actions of staff; such as theft, wastefulness or are guilty of the same. They have no concern for poor job performances by themselves or their subordinates and the consequences of this lack of concern. There is a "favors hiring system" everywhere with unqualified, untrained, nearly illiterate people in key positions of our city and county. All of that leads to what we read in the news, time after time, about our local government offices.

Greenville needs to clean house! We need to be better informed of where and how our tax dollars are being spent. We need leaders unafraid of the "favor" system retaliations of their co-officials and to stand up for injustice and demand change! We need ethics, trust, nobility, accountability, pride and honesty from our leaders. It is time for our leadership to stop passing the buck and take a stand within the offices of these politics. We need a "citizens rise up" in demands for our community, for our children and for our future.

GET INVOLVED! BE HEARD! DEMAND CHANGE! RISE UP TOGETHER FOR A BETTER FUTURE FOR OUR COMMUNITY!

If some miracles and changes do not happen very soon, Greenville and the Delta region will be lost beyond repair.

Pay attention! Greenville has been "flooded" way before any chance of the levee break waters, we are drowning in negativity, bitterness, dishonesty and lack of actions being taken by our leaders. Families are losing their homes, they are bankrupt and starving. The homeless numbers are rising.

We need FEMA right now, way before any chance of floods or acts of nature! Our city and county officials' self serving and unethical actions have done more damage to our citizens than any tornado, flood or earthquake. We are dying each day, breath by breath!

Each day more tax paying citizens are escaping Greenville and the Delta region with no chance of wanting to return. These people, good people, have given up on Greenville and why shouldn't they, Greenville is in serious financial and political leadership trouble.

Political promises have not been kept! Actions are not being taken! Cover ups, conspiracies, criminal behaviors are rampant with little or no exposure. Those who know of these actions are too afraid to lose their job because there are too few jobs for replacement.

Something has to change! We need good and honest leadership. We need our civic pride regained! We need our citizens and leaders to become watchdogs of our community and our government offices.

We need a city and county wide campaign started to remind these con artists, thieves and liars in office and their conspiring staff members that there are consequences to their unethical actions and they will be held accountable. We should demand accountability of every city and county tax dollar being collected and spent from every city and county office. More audits and checkpoint systems need to be in place to stop the stealing or misappropriations of our tax dollars.

With all these actions, those who are sincerely trying to make a difference are being set up to fail, with no chance of success.

Start a campaign in your local civic and church organizations to "Pray for Greenville", add Greenville to the church prayer list. God knows we need help, but we need to ask him for it, to pray that it happens. We need to bring Greenville/Delta back to her grass roots of pride, ethics, integrity and honesty.

If not....I hope I escape in time, too.

Anonymous said...

Let's start at the top, the Mayor's office and the County Supervisors! Let's CLEAN HOUSE!

Anonymous said...

** http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D90G3OU81&show_article=1

Owner of Tropicana casinos files for Chapter 11 protection
May 6 07:06 AM US/Eastern
By WAYNE PARRY
Associated Press Writer
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) -

The owner of Tropicana casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, nearly five months after New Jersey regulators
stripped the Tropicana Casino and Resort of its license.

The bankruptcy filing covers nine properties: The Tropicana Casino & Resort in Las Vegas; Bayou Caddy's Jubilee Casino in Greenville, Miss.; Casino Aztar in Evansville, Ind.; Horizon Casino Hotel in Vicksburg, Miss.; Horizon Casino Resort and the MontBleu Resort Casino & Spa, both in Lake Tahoe, Nev.; the Tropicana Express Hotel & Casino in Laughlin, Nev.; River Palms Resort & Casino in Laughlin, Nev.; and the Sheraton Hotel and Belle of Baton Rogue Casino in Baton Rouge, La. **

Even the big bucks Casinos are struggling, especially one of our own. Another hit on our tax dollars being lost from the gaming funds. More jobs lost, more bills upaid!

Anonymous said...

The casinos were believed to be our golden goose, just as in Tunica's success story. Somehow it is not happening here. Why NOT?? Where are the gaming dollars? The gamblers funded these dollars, we can only hope we get to share them to save this city.

Anonymous said...

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. lPeter 5:6

Anonymous said...

Good grief. Look at this week's local paper. One GPD officer charged with domestic assault, a GFD employee charged with rape. Whom can we count on? And where does accountability begin?

Regarding our "stellar" police force and their effectiveness: I have driven the same route to work for umpteen years. My fellow drivers and I literally crawl along Bowman Boulevard to stay under the imposed speed limit. On Monday morning, I was pulled over at the stop sign. Yes, the blue lights came up behind me and flashed as I sat stock-still in front of the crossing guard. (This same crossing guard gleefully motioned for the early-model car ahead of me to move through the intersection, even though she had already signaled that traffic should halt.) As the crossing guard motioned for me to turn onto Holly Lane (I assumed the cruiser was after someone else!), I couldn't imagine why I'd been pulled over. The officer---after calling for backup---informed me that I'd been speeding in a school zone. According to his technology, I had been driving 31 MPH in a 35 MPH zone (yes, 4 miles under the limit), except that the school lights had been flashing, indicating that I should have slowed to 15 MPH by the time I'd crossed that invisible threshhold. I had been braking for the crossing guard that was posted at the intersection less than 30 yards from the flashing lights. Tell me if I am guilty of speeding.

Can you smell bacon? Does anyone else sense a moneymaking machine to add to the City's bleeding coffers?

After I was given my citation (with backup! Dangerous middle-aged white lady in good neighborhood!), the police cruiser followed me back to Bowman Boulevard, then SPEEDILY passed me, made a U-turn, and took off with blue lights in pursuit of some other poor schmuck who was creeping along Bowman at an unrealistic MPH.

Just so you know---I drove past Carrie Stern, Melissa Manning, Em Boyd, Our Lady of Lourdes, and Washington School this morning. There were no officers present, other than crossing guards. No monitoring of speed. No monitoring of any activity. The policemen had been assigned to the area where the ticketed could afford to pay the fines.

I will find an alternate route to work.

Anonymous said...

That's right, funds are tight, so the order was sent out from City Hall to crack down on the public to make up the difference.

My husband travels Broadway and Broadway extended nearly every day. He says that the GPD works that strip hard too.

My question is rather than harass the public over a mile or two difference, why not focus on collecting the presently, long overdue tickets and fines? That is money already owed and should already be collected.

Law abiding citizens should not be fined or ticketed at random, for a mile or two indiscretion that could be for varied traffic reasons and then used like we are the local piggy bank of City Hall.

Anonymous said...

Maybe the Mayor needs more money for her globe trotting trips??? I, for the life of me, have no clue what all her overseas trips can do for Greenville. So far I have not seen anything that it has helped. Must be nice to take such trips on the tax payers hard earned dollars. Nice perk indeed!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

To the Ticketed Lady,

You were speeding and there was a flashing street light telling drivers the speed limit is 15 mph. Sorry, but you're busted. I've been caught in the same identical situation and learned from it. I couldn't play dumb and I didn't know why the cop pulled me.

Now, there have been speakers and gurus promoting the idea of "Broken Windows." It means cops crack down on "small" crimes to set a tone that helps prevent for larger crimes. Greenville, you shouldn't mind that local police are writing tickets for 31 mph in a 15 mph zone on a school morning. You've been asking for it for years.

Yes, there is a measure of revenue collection involved with writing tickets and issuing fines. But, the laws are concrete and you run a risk by breaking them - a risk to your lunch money.

Now, let's hope they start cracking down on out-of-date license plates - a great source of income being stolen by many tax cheats and the expense of property tax valuations.

Anonymous said...

To Semi Regular Reader: You're missing the whole point. If driver education and safety were the real issue, then this would be enforced all over town, not just where the drivers can afford to pay. Yes, I was technically speeding. But I resent being held to a standard that is not fairly enforced throughout the town, nor upheld by the arresting officer when driving his vehicle.

Anonymous said...

Greenville finally made the CBS national news tonight! The story was about poverty that transcends race. We rank among the most impoverished places in America. Wow! A visit by Obama and national recognition as the best of the worst... we are on our way now!

Anonymous said...

http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/video.aspx?RsrcID=2036

Anonymous said...

OK,, Giving the fact that if I was a Black man, I would vote for Obama. I can understand that!! And God bless you!
But I am not a Black man, and I can not for the life of me figure out why anyone would vote for this man and how did he get this far in the elections!! If Obama was a white man he would have been put out long long ago! Are people blind? How? Is he getting votes because he is black? What is the justice for his votes?

Anonymous said...

African americans are a minority so even if your logic were the only issue then obviously it is not African americans alone voting for him. Perhaps some ( of all races ) are voting becuase minority in office shows a positive change for the country but I think it is a bit insulting to a racial group to suggest they would automatically vote for a candidtate just becuase they are the same skin color and not becuase of their politics.

So all this comes back to ... why are they voting? ... because they like position on issues and his approach to running the office. Personally I couldn't understand why Bill Clinton got elected ( or re-elected ) but the answer, whether I like it or not, is that most people liked his way of running the country. I didn't, but thats democracy for you.

So same goes for Obama. If you can't understand then take a closer look at what the vast majority of people are interested in, on every level, and there are the answers.

Of course he hasn't even squared off with McCain yet so that remains to be seen.

Anonymous said...

Also on the news we see Cleveland School District to the north with the government breathing down there neck about racial inequality. To the east is Indianola with allegations that the students had help with there subject area tests.But right in the middle sits Leland with more test "help" than anybody else in trhe state. Any teacher can tell you that our students don't pass that test on there own. But nobody ever questions us. Watchful in Leland

Anonymous said...

Ray Humphreys announced today that this is only the third year that DRMC has lost money since the purchase of KDH. Wow, it was purchased in 2005... and this is 2008... do the math!

The NICU is finally complete and ready to open. All they need are doctors and nurses to staff the unit... a minor detail!

New ER is coming right along. The contruction has provided the staff with a handy excuse for the 8 to 10 hour waits... although construction workers outnumber nurses 2 to 1.

LTACH... what a grand idea! It requires twice the staff of an acute care facility and Ray can't even staff the hospital.

Just another "build it and they will come" folly. By the way, what crop are "we tax payers" raising this year in Ray's field of dreams?