Angry Chinook fans say school wronged athlete
On September 23 Dustin Thomas, a senior at Kalama High School (in the Kalama School District), dropped a friend off at a party. He returned later to pick up another friend who had called him for a ride. On October 3 the Kalama School Board suspended him for 20 days for being present at an event where alcohol was served.
CLARIFICATION 10/17/05: The Board suspended Dustin from extracurricular activity (the football team), not from scholastic attendance.
The school board investigated the matter the week after the party, said Jamie Imboden, attorney for Thomas and his family. He said the suspension took effect Oct. 3 and is continuing during Thomas’ appeal.
Imboden said Tuesday that the school board listened privately to Thomas, his attorney and others Monday night and said they will reconsider the matter and make a decision within 10 working days.
Since Dustin’s suspension is continuing while the school board reconsiders, it will be completed before the expected decision is rendered.
[Dustin] said he never entered the house, and witnesses told his attorney that no alcohol was present by the time he arrived.
For the Kalama school board, that’s close enough to being a wild party animal to hand down a 20 day suspension. And even when the populace rises up to tell you just how foolish you’re being all you need to do is fall back on bureaucratic inefficiency and the entire sentence will be completed before the unthinkable event of admitting a mistake becomes necessary.
Contact Information:
School Board President Russ Ipock
School Board Member Lisa Stevenson
School Board Member Bruce Rader
School Board Member Dave Walker
School Board Member Wes Eader
School District Superintendent Jim Sutton
Kalama High Principal Mike Hamilton
Kalama High Assistant Principal Brad Ramey
Great Poem, Stupid Title
The Shorewood High School magazine went to print minus one very powerful poem that was censored by school Principal John Green.
The poem itself was very well written.
It dealt with the pressure and emotional turmoil that high school girls face when it comes to being sexually active.
Too bad that most kids - and parents - won’t get to read it.
It also had the unfortunate title of “My First F*ck”. Green is catching serious flak over yanking the poem and it’s well deserved. No attention is being paid to the faculty adviser who OKed the poem with that title, nor is anybody pointing fingers at the student editors. That’s a shame because each of them in turn messed up just as badly as the principal.
Not one of these content editors had the basic idea to just do their job and edit the profane title.
(Tip credit to solara7)
‘This Is Not Right’
Cecilia Beaman, principal at Pacific Middle School in the Highline Public School District, found out just what zero tolerance is like when her bread knife was found by Transportation Security Agents during a pre-flight security screening.
This past weekend she and several other chaperones took 37 middle school students to a Heritage Festival band competition in California. The trip included two days at Disneyland.
During the stay she made sandwiches for the kids and was careful to pack the knives she used to prepare those sandwiches in her checked luggage. She says she even alerted security screeners that the knives were in her checked bags and they told her that was OK.
But Beaman says she couldn’t find a third knife. It was a 5 1/2 inch bread knife with a rounded tip and a serrated edge. She thought she might have lost or misplaced it during the trip.
On the trip home, screeners with the Transportation Security Administration at Los Angeles International Airport found it deep in the outside pocket of a carry-on cooler. Beaman apologized and told them it was a mistake.
“You’ve committed a felony,” Beaman says a security screener announced. “And you’re considered a terrorist.”
(more…)
Fourth Grader Suspended For Not Answering A WASL Question
Updated 16 May 2005: Suspension letter and legal requirements for administering WASL added.
Updated 16 May 2005: Full text of suspension letter added. Details at bottom of post.
Nine year-old Tyler Stoken, a student in the Aberdeen Public School District, didn’t know how to answer an essay question on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning test. As punishment for leaving the question blank his principal suspended him for five days.
Tyler paraphrases the question saying, “You look out one day at school and see your principal flying by a window. In several paragraphs write what happens next.” He’s asked, “So why didn’t you answer that question?” He says, “I couldn’t think of what to write the essay without making fun of the principal.”
He refused to answer the question even after his mother was called to the school. Tyler’s mother Amy Wolfe says, “And he said he didn’t know the answer. He just didn’t know what to write. And they were telling me to make him answer the question.”
He still didn’t, so Tyler was given a 5-day suspension. In the letter that went home to mother, the principal writes, “The fact that Tyler chose to simply refuse to work on the WASL after many reasonable requests is none other than blatant defiance and insubordination.”
(more…)
Snohomish High School calls nickname derogatory; suspends teen for T-shirt
Updated 29 April, 2005: Suspension lifted, “Snohos” t-shirts allowed in school. Details at bottom of post.
Some students at Snohomish High School have a nickname for themselves; SnoHos. The school website talks about “SnoHo traditions” and the yearbook contains many “SnoHo” references. So why was senior Justin Patrick suspended for wearing a t-shirt that said “SNOHOS”?
School officials say “Snohos” contains a slang term for prostitutes and is derogatory toward women.
“As a woman, I am sure that you can appreciate our desire in Snohomish to maintain respect for all members of our community, especially our young women, and to not allow the abbreviated form of our school name to be used to reference them as ‘ho’s,’ ” said district spokeswoman Shannon Parthemer, in response to an e-mail query about the suspension.
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Proxy site lands kid, teacher in hot water
Conrad Sykes, a student of Lewis and Clark High School in the Spokane Public School District, was suspended for two days for violating computer use policies. He violated them by creating a website at home and telling people about it.
The Lewis and Clark High School student’s site, called Bad Dog, has been shut down.
Conrad Sykes, 16, said he created the web site because the school district’s content filter [Secure Computing’s Bess] hampered student research. With Bad Dog, students could access research sites the filter blocked–but they also reportedly could visit adult sites or others that the district deems inappropriate.
A proxy web site, such as the one created by Sykes, offers an opening through an internet filter that allows a student to surf the web without restriction. The proxy site essentially fools the filter into thinking that the student is still looking at an allowable site.
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Puyallup School District Pulls Plug On Halo 2 Fundraiser
The Puyallup School District, previously profiled for cancelling the anti-Wiccan celebration of Halloween, has put the kibosh on a student organized game tournament meant to raise funds for Tsunami relief.
The game [Halo 2] is so popular, Rogers High School seniors Mike Alston and Joshua Shake figured a Halo 2 tournament would be the perfect way to raise money for tsunami victims.
“$380 we were thinking was going to go straight into the Red Cross Tsunami fund,” Alston said.
As a precaution, the boys even got parents to sign waivers acknowledging the graphic nature of the game.
But the Puyallup School District canceled the fundraiser, saying the game goes against its anti-violence policy.
(more…)
Puyallup schools ban Halloween festivities
School Says Halloween Disrespectful to Witches
There will be no dressing up and no tricking for treats in the Puyallup school district this year. They’ve decided to enforce a rule that’s been on the books for a few years. No Halloween celebrations will be allowed because it is offensive to witches.
Assistant Superintendent Tony Apostle advised Puyallup principals in a memo last week that Halloween costumes and parties are now banned. Pumpkins and cornstalks are fine, he said, but witches, black cats or “similar decorations that are intended to frighten or scare individuals” are not.
Halloween is a religious holiday for Wiccans, the memo noted, and its celebration in mainstream culture has generated unsavory images that might offend real-life witches.
“Building administrators should not tolerate such inappropriate stereotyping (images such as witches on flying brooms, stirring caldrons, casting spells, or with long noses and pointed hats),” Apostle’s memo states.
How do the Wiccans respond? It seems they don’t care. The caricature witch is an ingrained part of the commercial holiday and even if they don’t like it much they’re pretty resigned to it. Pete Davis, pastor of Aquarian Tabernacle Church thinks it’s a bit more nefarious than that. He sees it as a move of the religious right to get rid of a holiday with roots in paganism.
(Tip credits to David Newman, Robert Dudley and Jason Trommeter)
Teen Arrested With Toy Gun At School
An Eatonville High School 9th grader was arrested for bringing a toy gun to school.
Students notified school officials after they saw the teen with a toy gun in his backpack.
Police were called to the school and they removed the boy from class and questioned him Tuesday [5/18] morning.
The toy gun, similar to a BB gun, was in the student’s locker. The school superintendent stated that he would be expelled from school.
Secret Service questions student on drawings
Political cartoonists take note. Caricatures might not be enough any longer.
Secret Service agents questioned a high school student about anti-war drawings he did for an art class, one of which depicted President Bush’s head on a stick.
Another pencil-and-ink drawing portrayed Bush as a devil launching a missile, with a caption reading “End the war — on terrorism.”
The 15-year-old boy’s art teacher at Prosser High School turned the drawings over to school administrators, who notified police, who called the Secret Service.
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