Via Orb:¹

08/19/2008 22:00 PACIFIC

SEATTLE, WA - ORBUSMAX EXCLUSIVE

***** DID OBAMA SUPPORTER BREAK SCHOOL POLICY AND/OR ELECTION LAW ON MONDAY AND PRIMARY ELECTION TUESDAY (8/18-8/19)? *****

The Seattle Public school system may be finding itself in more hot water, following dustups over last fall’s “Myth Of Thanksgiving”, and last summer’s “Exploring White Privilege”. A reliable source has told ORBUSMAX that at least one Obama supporter was caught openly selling Obama for President t-shirts, “on Seattle Public School premises during an official School District Training” for teachers, yesterday and today, at the Aki Kurose Middle school.

The source says they overheard the Obama supporter being told by an attendee of the training on Monday that the table display was inappropriate and may be in violation of school policy, but nonetheless the Obama supporter returned on Tuesday and once again set up the display with the t-shirts for sale. It appears school officials made no attempt to stop or remove the display either day.

(#1 - See SEATTLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS - LEVY OR ELECTION INFORMATION DISTRIBUTION, #4, at http://www.seattleschools.org/area/policies/e/E22.00.pdf - “Students, teachers, and administrators may not use school facilities to make or display election propaganda”. “Signs, memoranda, or the like, stating the reasons why voters should cast their votes for or against a particular ballot issue or candidate cannot be made at school, cannot be made with school materials, and cannot be displayed at school.” )

(#2 – See Seattle Public Schools Policy E02.01 on “COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES”, at http://www.seattleschools.org/area/policies/e/E02.01.pdf: Certain Corporate Support or Activity Prohibited. No corporate support or activity will be permitted in the District or in the schools that: … f. Promotes or opposes any political candidate or ballot proposition )

ELECTION LAW VIOLATION?

Aki Kurose also served as an official polling place for the Washington State primary held Tuesday. The source went on to say “although the Obama display was not next to the main polling place entrance, there were undoubtedly some voters who walked by the Obama display on their way to the polls today”.

OK, I may be narrow minded, but this bothers me.  I overheard this today on The Commentators.

Here in Washington, like other states, we have the state standards of graduation.  One of those is the controversial WASL, which has been under a lot of heat for being an assessment test that assesses nothing.

According to the Seattle Times, there is a total failure rate of around 5-10 percent, so presumable those kids did not graduate, or rather they did not meet the requirements for graduation.

In some schools, notably Federal Way, many of those students were allowed to attend the graduation ceremony and walk with their class anyway.

In other words, they were presented as graduates, when in fact they had not graduated.

Is this kindness or fraud?

Grads: WASL daunted some, motivated others

Some school districts allowed some students to participate in graduation ceremonies even if they hadn’t passed the WASL.

Seattle Public Schools, for example, let some in English-language programs participate, as long as they had enough credits and met other criteria.

Federal Way probably went the furthest. For those who hadn’t yet met all requirements for a diploma, Federal Way principals let individual students and their families decide whether or not a senior would “walk” in graduation. That felt, they said, like the humane thing to do.

Lisa Griebel, principal at Federal Way High, thinks the WASL has helped raise standards and that the Class of 2008 is better prepared than any before it. Still, she didn’t want to deny any student the chance to attend graduation if he or she was close. She didn’t want students to feel like failures, she said, just because they need more time to finish.

At her school, she said, about half the families said no diploma, no ceremony. The other half chose to let students participate anyway.

So exactly what was the point? 

I’ve been offline for a week, and when I come back, what awaits me?  The most ignorant stupid thing I have seen thus far this year.

Fla. Teacher Accused Of Wizardry: Man Made Toothpick Vanish In Class

Teacher Jim Piculas does a magic trick where a toothpick disappears and then reappears.

Piculas recently did the 30-second trick in front of a classroom at Rushe Middle School in Land ‘O Lakes.

Piculas said he then got a call from the supervisor of teachers, saying he’d been accused of wizardry.

“I get a call the middle of the day from head of supervisor of substitute teachers. He says, ‘Jim, we have a huge issue, you can’t take any more assignments you need to come in right away,’” he said.

Piculas said he did not know f any other accusations that would have led to the action.

The teacher said he is concerned that the incident may prevent him from getting future jobs.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.

What the hell is wrong with people?  Seriously!

On a happy note:  This does make Seattle Schools look pretty good, so at least we have that.

 Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Rosemary’s Thoughts, Right Truth, Kodera’s Korner, Shadowscope, DragonLady’s World, The Amboy Times, Democrat=Socialist, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, DragonLady’s World, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, , Dumb Ox Daily News, Right Voices, Stageleft, Pooh Flinging NeoCons, A Blog For All, 123beta, Big Dog’s Weblog, Cao’s Blog, , Conservative Cat, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Faultline USA, Nuke Gingrich, Allie is Wired, McCain Blogs, The World According to Carl, Gulf Coast Hurricane Tracker, Wolf Pangloss, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Well not in as many words, but that is the essence of todays show, whether the blustering Mr Schram wants to believe it or not.

According to Schram, he got an email from the mother (Pseudonym Lisa) of a student (Pseudonym Billy) at Maplewood Heights Elementary School.  This mom was aghast at the horrific punishment her child had to endure at school.

Though the child’s actual crime was undisclosed, it surely must have been something horrible to have generated such punishment.

For this unknown crime (I shudder to think that there is a cover up to conceal the facts here) the child was PUBLICLY HUMILIATED!!!

The child - and I forgot to add, the implication was that there were more than one involved - the child was forced during recess to…I don’t know if I should say this out loud…I must, the truth demands to be told…the poor victim (for after all, liberals believe we are ALL victims) was made to stand - YES I said STAND -  against a wall during recess.

My hands are shaking as I write this, such is my outrage.

His time to bond and explore diversity with his peer unit, his chance to exercise and maintain his proper cardio vascular fitness was ROBBED from him, for some trivial punishment, where a stern talking to and perhaps the admonition to be more enlightened and progressive would have been much more efficient.

But I have saved the worst for last.

Dear reader…the child, the poor abused child had to wear a sign around his neck one that showed how many minutes of his recess time he was denied.

It was public shame and humiliation ladies and gentlemen.  It was cruel, and promoted…wait…

Surely the sign had some other humiliation on it?  A stark description of his crime perhaps…(reviews tape…)uh…no…

Um…

So Ken, let me see if I hear you correctly.   According to the pod cast, the sign is for the teachers to know long the student is on the wall for.  The student broke something, and received a 2 day recess suspension.

Now, let me state outright that if the grade was due to the quality, this would not be on my blog.

It wasn’t.  It was because the religious artist had the audacity to include a scriptural reference on his. 

See the pictures below.  First, the failing art:

Now the two that passed:

And:

So all three are of fairly equal quality and show great talent by the artist.

The problem?  The bible verse in the first picture.  

Via Michelle Malkin:

Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a federal lawsuit Friday against the Tomah Area School District over an unconstitutional policy that bars religious free speech. Citing a policy prohibiting depictions of “blood, violence, sexual connotations, [or] religious beliefs,” officials penalized a Christian student for his artwork depicting a Bible verse and a cross but did not penalize students who included demonic illustrations in their artwork.

“Christian students shouldn’t be penalized for expressing their beliefs. It is unconstitutional for the school to punish students simply because they choose to exercise their First Amendment rights,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman. “Further, teachers are not permitted to censor Christian religious expression in artwork while at the same time allowing other types of religious depictions.”

A student at Tomah High School drew a landscape picture for an art class containing a road, clouds, and mountains with a cross in the background and the words “JOHN 3:16 – A sign of love” written in the sky. The teacher of the class told the student to either remove the scriptural reference or cover it up with a border.

The teacher cited a document that the student and all other students in the class had been required to sign at the beginning of the semester which prevented them from creating artwork with the prohibited depictions. After the teacher said that the student had “signed away his First Amendment rights,” the student respectfully protested by tearing the signed document in half.

Sure, I know that is a loaded title, but every time I turn around the Seattle School district is getting dinged for its diversity in which the focus is less on equality and opportunity then it is on blame shifting and rationalization.

Just recently I blogged about their latest manifestation:

Forget the War on Christmas, here comes the War on Thanksgiving

Caprice Hollins, the Director of Equity and Race Relations for the Seattle School District is at it again.  Caprice as you may remember was the architect of the idiotic racist racism policy for Seattle schools not long ago.  The school district was also sending kids to a bogus White Privilege seminar.

They love their faux diversity, they do. 

Before that I noted that:

As I noted earlier, Seattle went this route earlier this year.  As I noted in this blog, the issue was raised locally by sending a bunch of High School kids to a White Privilege Seminar .  You should be even more alarmed to learn that the curriculum is being pushed at high school levels too:

And speaking of White Privilege, that has made the news in Seattle, where the over compensating racial policies have turned a new page, are now sending students to a white privilege conference:

For the first time, Seattle Public Schools are sending students from four high schools to attend the annual White Privilege Conference, sponsored by the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, the University of Denver, Teaching Tolerance, Study Circles Resource Center, The Matrix, Center for Judaic Studies, GLSEN, and many more organizations. Speakers include Geneva Gay, Peggy McIntosh, Joy Leary, John-Paul Chaisson-Cardenas and many others who are actively engaged in anti-racism.

…

” The annual White Privilege Conference (WPC) serves as a yearly opportunity to examine and explore difficult issues related to white privilege, white supremacy and oppression. WPC provides a forum for critical discussions about diversity, multicultural education and leadership, social justice, race/racism, sexual orientation, gender relations, religion and other systems of privilege/oppression. WPC is recognized as a challenging, empowering and educational experience. The workshops, keynotes and institutes not only inform participants, but engage and challenge them, while providing practical tips and strategies for combating inequality.

The problem is that these conferences begin with a faulty premise and operate under no other possibilities, making the whole thing less about diversity and more about indoctrination of racism.

Seattle has a history of this overly sensitive multi culturalism, and reading back in previously blogs, you will note that White Privilege is an old theme that previously generated a lot of controversy:

Caprice Hollins needs to go

Today’s P-I has a news article on the swirling controversy over the Seattle School District’s bizarre definition of racism and the woman responsible for it, “Director of Equity and Race Relations” Caprice Hollins. The P-I’s headline reiterates what I noted yesterday: “School district pulls Web site after examples of racism spark controversy“. The original definition of racism is still in the google cache. And the statement that replaces it is just as appallingly un-American and racist as the original:

Our intention is not to … continue to hold onto unsuccessful concepts such as a melting pot or colorblind mentality.

Well, Orbusmax had a few links up with flashback to this whole history, and some of the darker aspects of this are much clearer, so here is a much broader look at the racism in Seattle, and the implication that the people behind it are as much selfish and greedy as they are altruistic.

Embarrass Your Employer, While Getting Rich Off of “Diversity” Scams

Glenn Singleton of Pacific Educational Group has become a rich man by preaching racism, hate, and scapegoating. School systems hire him for hundreds of thousands of dollars to insult and scapegoat teachers and students based on their race under the guise of “diversity training.” That embarrasses the school systems that hire him in high-profile legal cases. Yet foolish school superintendents continue to hire him at exorbitant rates, as the Discriminations blog notes, citing a recent story in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Previously, Singleton embarrassed the Seattle Schools. In 2002, they hired him to indoctrinate their students and staff about racism. As a result, they redefined racism consistent with Singleton’s extreme and radical beliefs. The Seattle Schools defined “individualism” as a form of “cultural racism,” said that only whites can be racist, and claimed that planning ahead (”future time orientation”) is a white characteristic that it is racist to expect minorities to exhibit.

Singleton promotes the basest racial stereotypes, such as claiming that “’white talk’ is ‘verbal, impersonal, intellectual’ and ‘task-oriented,’ while ‘color commentary’ is ‘nonverbal, personal, emotional’ and ‘process-oriented.’” He also blathers about “the ubiquity of white privilege and racism,” and depicts Asian students as being “majority students” just like whites because they have the temerity to succeed academically in a predominantly white society. But although he views minority culture as not being “intellectual” and “task-oriented,” it is white teachers whom he blames for the underperformance of many minority students, since he claims it would be a “racist statement” to place any responsibility for minority underperformance on minorities themselves.

Caprice Hollins, the Director of Equity and Race Relations for the Seattle School District is at it again.  Caprice as you may remember was the architect of the idiotic racist racism policy for Seattle schools not long ago.  The school district was also sending kids to a bogus White Privilege seminar.

They love their faux diversity, they do. 

Well she is back, and this time Thanksgiving is her target.  The goal?  White guilt.  Michelle Malkin picked this up from Orbusmax.

 The war on Thanksgiving

The annual war on Thanksgiving begins. Via Orbusmax, the Seattle schools are using the holiday to indulge in oppression studies 101:

Dear Seattle Public Schools Staff:

We recognize the amount of work that educators and staff have to do in order to fulfill our mission to successfully educate all students. It’s never as simple as preparing and delivering a lesson. Students bring with them a host of complexities including cultural, linguistic and social economic diversity. In addition they can also bring challenges related to their social, emotional and physical well being. One of our departments’ goals is to support you by suggesting ways to assist you in removing barriers to learning by promoting respect and honoring the diversity of our students, staff and families.

With so many holidays approaching we want to again remind you that Thanksgiving can be a particularly difficult time for many of our Native students. This website http://www.oyate.org/resources/shortthanks.html offers suggestions on ways to be sensitive of diverse experiences and perspectives and still make the holiday meaningful for all students. Here you will discover ways to help you and your students think critically, and find resources where you can learn about Thanksgiving from a Native American perspective. Eleven myths are identified about Thanksgiving, take a look at #11 and begin your own deconstruction.

Myth #11: Thanksgiving is a happy time

Fact: For many Indian people, “Thanksgiving” is a time of mourning, of remembering how a gift of generosity was rewarded by theft of land and seed corn, extermination of many from disease and gun, and near total destruction of many more from forced assimilation. As currently celebrated in this country, “Thanksgiving” is a bitter reminder of 500 years of betrayal returned for friendship.

No, I do not think I am overstating the actual reality of the UD’s program.  It was an attempt to use the accusations of bigotry and racism to promote bigotry.

The program counted on the notion that whites continue to have a system designed to keep minorities suppress, and I just don’t buy it, not any more.

Sure once upon a time that is precisely how things were.  But Governments no longer restrict by Race, and if anything offer so many advantages to minorities that the playing field has become unbalance the opposite way in compensation.

And likewise, corporations are subject to constant scrutiny and litigation for even the appearance of racial injustice.

So a program that takes the sins of the past and attempts to present them as still just as bad of not worse, and ignores the advances made is useless.

In short, the way to combat racism is not to create even more racial distrust with over generalized accusations, coupled with standards that are not only fallacious, they are so slanted as to create racism out of whole cloth.

Well FIRE took the program public and the bloggers took the program viral, and now the University has shut it down.

Breaking: University of Delaware terminates its indoctrination program

Wow. The combination of FIRE + blogs proved to be too much for the University of Delaware.

Late Thursday, University of Delaware President Patrick Harker released on the school’s website a Message to the University of Delaware Community terminating the university’s ideological reeducation program, which FIRE condemned as an exercise in thought reform. He stated, “I have directed that the program be stopped immediately. No further activities under the current framework will be conducted.” Harker also called for a “full and broad-based review” of the program’s practices and purposes. While concerns remain about the University of Delaware’s commitment to free expression, FIRE commends President Harker for his decision to immediately terminate the Orwellian residence life education program. FIRE will have more on this development tomorrow.

I might be willing to concede that Childhood obesity is an actual area of concern, but the roots of the problem are far deeper then sodas and cupcakes at school.  The availability of lousy food and a sedentary culture are far more to blame. 

School district bans candy, cakes, and cookies

Kids might see it as a trick, but there will be no traditional treats, including candy, at this year’s Halloween parties in the East Syracuse-Minoa schools.

And class birthday parties this fall are taking on a new flavor because cupcakes, cookies and cakes have been banned.

ES-M has become the first district in Central New York to prohibit outright sweet desserts in classroom celebrations. Chances are pretty good others in the region will follow, school nutrition experts say.

Schools around the country are cracking down on cupcakes in the classroom, even though some parents say the policies go too far. The cupcake ban is just one of many steps schools are taking to help curb childhood obesity.

The problem is that the schools and the government are not the ones who should be dealing with Childhood obesity in the first place, at least not as the primary focal point of response.

The homes are.

The second bit of school weirdness is from the UK, but no less weird.

Teachers’ Muslim dress order

A SCHOOL was yesterday accused of MAKING teachers dress up as Asians for a day – to celebrate a Muslim festival.

Kids at the 257-pupil primary have also been told to don ethnic garb even though most are Christians.

The morning assembly will be open to all parents – but dads are BARRED from a women-only party in the afternoon because Muslim husbands object to wives mixing with other men.

Just two members of staff – a part-time teacher and a teaching assistant – are Muslim.

Yesterday a relative of one of the 39 others said: “Staff have got to go along with it – or let’s face it, they would be branded racist.

It is shocking but I am not shocked.  This is actually less of a surprise to me then many, as the local schools went down this road already.  I’ll get right back to that.

I first noticed the story at Hot Air:

FIRE: U of Delaware student indoctrination teaches that all white people are racist

You can’t make this stuff up: The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has found a program that would make the most totalitarian Communist proud of its hard left bias, its heavy handedness and gall.

The University of Delaware subjects students in its residence halls to a shocking program of ideological reeducation that is referred to in the university’s own materials as a “treatment” for students’ incorrect attitudes and beliefs. The Orwellian program requires the approximately 7,000 students in Delaware’s residence halls to adopt highly specific university-approved views on issues ranging from politics to race, sexuality, sociology, moral philosophy, and environmentalism. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) is calling for the total dismantling of the program, which is a flagrant violation of students’ rights to freedom of conscience and freedom from compelled speech…

The university’s views are forced on students through a comprehensive manipulation of the residence hall environment, from mandatory training sessions to “sustainability” door decorations. Students living in the university’s eight housing complexes are required to attend training sessions, floor meetings, and one-on-one meetings with their Resident Assistants (RAs). The RAs who facilitate these meetings have received their own intensive training from the university, including a “diversity facilitation training” session at which RAs were taught, among other things, that “[a] racist is one who is both privileged and socialized on the basis of race by a white supremacist (racist) system. The term applies to all white people (i.e., people of European descent) living in the United States, regardless of class, gender, religion, culture or sexuality.”  (emphasis added)