Gun Violence Will Still Have Students in the Crosshairs in 2023

 With 2023 two months old, news came down from Virginia of a horrific school shooting. A six-year-old brought his mom’s gun to school and shot his teacher, nearly killing her. Then Michigan State University: 3 dead, five injured. Seven K-12 school shootings resulting in injury or death through Feb 26. History has taught us that this will not be the last use of a gun in a school, nor the end of targeting teachers.

Violence will continue to plague our K-12, Higher Ed campuses throughout the year. According to the Washington Post, 338,000 students have been exposed to armed violence at school since 1999. Gun-level events are the most lethal but rarest manifestation of school insecurity. Every day, kids and staff are subjected to mental, emotional, and physical threats and attacks from multiple fronts.  

In-person. Online social media. Phones. The daily tribulations of anti-social, oppositional—even criminal--behavior, impede educational progress, and harm the school environment. One incident in one classroom or hallway can reverberate schoolwide. The disrespect, the threats, the shakedowns, the stabbings, the thefts, the assaults, the bullying all sit simmering on the back burner as the left and right fight it out over gun control. Progressives and liberals believe gun control will make schools safe, but then advocate and implement negative discipline policies indifferent to victims of daily serious misbehaviors. Sympathizing with the perpetrators who victimize individuals and even an entire school only encourage violent acts. Conservatives support harder discipline for safety infractions and other forms of school discipline violations, yet they fight tooth-and-nail gun reforms that potentially would mitigate the frequency and severity of active shooters on school campuses.

 We need to cleave off the gun control of the Left and the stronger discipline of the Right; add comprehensive interagency cooperation  among law enforcement, mental and other social services, with new  approaches for proactive monitoring and early intervention, we just might gain control of the scourge mass shootings and school assaults represent. The two present a dangerous synergy producing thousands of physical and mental casualties in schools. We have not addressed the problem effectively.   

There is some shared ground, but don’t expect terre firma walking it.The Left and Right both see a shooter’s mental, emotional status as significant. That’s where it ends. The conservatives close their eyes to the reality that most perps arm themselves with an inventory close to a small country. I guess they’re okay with unstable, volatile Rambos possessing such firepower. The Left believes strongly in mental services and gun control—a good start. They also want to defund law and get PDs, SROs out of schools, leaving them defenseless and attack-friendly, from intruders to cafeteria riots. Uvalde and Parkwood were law enforcement failure, but if the lesson learned is the Left’s police and security purge for guidance counselors and therapy sessions, or the Right’s arming teachers, remedial help in understanding the subject is needed.

One more thing. More important than legislation, more powerful than an impassioned speech, more transforming than alchemy, more difficult to change than a closed mind. But reducing school and campus  gun deaths and other violent acts won’t happen without it. An upcoming Green B Letter feature will tell you what’s missing from the gun debate, so vital to school safety.

Gov. DeSantis' Most Dangerous Gayme

Bad enough DeSantis bullied teens into not wearing masks because he was afraid the optics would upset the anti-vaxxer, anti-mask, pro-Covid Trumplicans he’s trying to pull into his corner for a 2024 presidential run. Now he’s putting more than 100,000 Floridians under 18 years of age in jeopardy. That’s an estimate of the number of LGBTQ+ youths who live in Florida, attending school, playing sports, working part time, worrying about college, figuring out life in the Sunshine state.

The infamous and euphemistically named Parental Rights in Education Act  should have been called “Let’s Make Life Harder and Riskier for Our Young Gay People”. These kids—10% of any population fit into the LGBTQ umbrella, closeted or not—suffer higher rates in the following: suicidal thoughts and attempts, alcoholism and drug abuse, depression, victims of  bullying, mental and emotional issues. For many, tween and teen years mean a daily struggle to get through the day.

Across the country, many school districts attempt to reduce attacks on LGBTQ+ by promoting a positive environment. This includes developing trust between students and staff, maintain counseling and open communications, and programs promoting respect and tolerance.  Sexual minority students feel more positive about themselves and do better overall in a nonjudgmental, supportive school climate. Many Florida districts openly proclaim this goal in statements found in their  codes of conduct.

Florida’s Polk County Board pledges to “vigorously enforce its           prohibition against harassment based on race, color, national origin, sex (including sexual orientation, transgender status or gender identity). Osceola School District will not tolerate behavior by students or staff which ”insults, degrades, or stereotypes any race, gender, disability, physical condition, ethnic group, religion, sexual orientation”. Palm Beach County has extensive, vivid behavioral regulations regarding anti-gay actions, whether verbal or physical.

Stemming from a Supreme Court ruling, codes of conduct are in every school district. They’ve grown from pamphlet-sized delineations of simple infractions and consequences, to quasi legal booklets with dozens of pages informing the school community of rights, responsibilities, expectations, as well as infractions and consequences.

Broward County’s Discipline Code has an aggressive approach to  students’ wellbeing. A full page on human trafficking discusses sexual exploitation, explaining LGBTQ+ is especially vulnerable. According to the BCDC, Florida ranks third in sex trafficking among states, which attests to why some districts are concerned about high-risk populations.    Also, the Broward Code expressly forbids (pg. 18):

Harassing others because of age, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, marital status, race, religion, or sexual orientation.”

 Bullying a student for gender expression is no different than harassing someone for race or religion; everyone’s case will be treated equally. Since all students receive or can access the district guide online, Broward—and other Florida districts expressing similar policies—violate Don’t Say Gay (DSG) as soon as they distribute the behavioral rules.

Broward County’s code also states curriculum policy in the general area of family and personal health (p. xvii). K-3 includes lessons on feelings, positive self-image, staying healthy. Grades 4-5 discuss puberty, HIV, friendship, self-esteem; grades 6-8 covers abstinence, decision making, HIV. High Schools teach about abstinence, risk, exploitation, health.

 Teaching is about asking questions, providing answers, showing choices, pointing ways forward—helping kids understand. This applies across the K-12 curriculum. Although prohibition lessens to “age and developmentally appropriate”  after grade 3, primarily because “age and developmentally appropriate” interpretations have been wrested from educators and co-opted by politicians. Under  DSG, teachers and deans will either break the law or their professional responsibility. Kansas and Ohio are considering similar legislation as Florida’s. The chilling effect for teachers across the country will be more like an Ice Age, as every breath vaporizes with potential disciplinary or legal action regarding any utterance about LGBTQ+.

 Activist parents and crusaders see themselves as good soldiers in the culture wars. They could demand random visits to classrooms; tell their children to record or video a teacher; Ask a child what the teachers discussed in class; give instructions to write  down and report back anything on the subject. Inquiries like these go beyond the normal parental questioning, weaponizing kids, who like nothing more than getting a teacher in trouble.

Besides classroom instruction, other services support the educational environment, such as guidance counselors, school psychologists, social workers, and the disciplinary agents. They all have a kite-string thin tightrope to walk, especially deans.  While not a classroom per se, these support offices may be construed as a classroom and the communication with the students as instructive.

These vital interactions in discipline cases inherently contain serious discourse about gender identity or homosexuality. Based on this, counseling the victim and dealing with the perpetrator will automatically place the school officials in the crosshairs of DSG.  These incidents cannot be resolved without professional responsibilities and the new law being in abject conflict.

Students accused of conduct infractions are entitled to due process. An investigation ensues, followed by such measures as guidance, counseling, discussion, and restorative sessions, as well as more severe consequences. It is impossible to discuss an LGBTQ+  incident without talking about gay or gender expression. Any lawyer worth his shingle will have no problem proving a K-3 violation or the “age and developmentally appropriate” clause. It only takes one sentence in a forty-minute conference with a student to find violations of the law’s standards.

Florida’s new educational waters ring the buoys’ alarm bells, as  potential sacrifices—teacher and LGBTQ student both--dangle defenselessly, holding their breath in fear and uncertainty, like so many baby seals in the heated water.

 Maybe that’s the whole idea of Governor DeSantis’ most dangerous gayme.

THEY LEFT THEIR SEATS IN SAN FRANCISCO.

Three SFSB members went a school too far, as the far Left progressive trio were recalled and ousted from the city by the bay’s school board. They died of self-inflicted wounds, impaled on the radical spike of far left activism.  

 The school-renaming movement built momentum as a reform to stop honoring Confederate figures. Given where we are in the 21st Century, it’s  a reasonable project whose time had come. The train derailed when the hit list went after time-honored Americans—usually dead white males— replacing them with progressive icons and symbols of its unofficial platform.

 Wiping out George Washington, revolutionary war legends, Abraham Lincoln, and others in favor of politically correct heroes appalled even the tres, tres liberals of San Francisco. Many recognized the immense damage to the national culture, and educational implications of equating Abraham Lincoln to Jefferson Davis. In addition to our native population, we have a huge immigrant demographic with little knowledge of their new country’s past. Denigrating revered Americans and banishing their names to skewed pedantic politics weakens the national character by disavowing the best of our historical icons. Cancelling members of the American pantheon is oxymoronic to inclusion. We can cherish our noble past, discuss our mistakes and failures while exploring the zeitgeist in which it all unfolded, and move forward to a more perfect Union.

 Incidentally, I doubt very much the new names would meet the SF3’s own standards of saintly perfection, an unblemished life without error, unstigmatized by prejudice. The progressive Left has their own issues with bias and inclusion. However, their objective transcends mere nomenclature.

 Among the first acts of attaining power, revolutionaries will destroy the manifestations of the past because legitimizing the new regime is critical to solidifying power. Name replacement is about supplanting traditional American beliefs and shared homage to our democratic heritage with Far Left progressivism. The Right is doing the same when they control the school boards. We see it in the anti-democratic book censorship in schools and support of anti-anti-bullying programs. school boards disrespect our democracy by denying or repelling any social and cultural advancements made since 1960 or name change for partisan advantage . The victim of both extremes is our national identity, common cause, shared reverence for imperfect humans who rose to be great when needed the most. Our students and country suffer when revisionist politics turn heroes to outliers.                                                                                                                                                                    .

A case in point: the SF Board placed Dianne Feinstein Elementary School    in the crosshairs of the Name Police. The Left’s beef with the former mayor rewinds to a 1984 incident, wherein then Mayor Feinstein replaced a Confederate flag, torn down by activists. In addition to this incident, local media has reported her centrist views has drawn their ire for decades. Canceling Feinstein would be a major moral victory for progressives, despite her minority status as a  woman and—or because of it—an octogenarian Jew. Feinstein’s erasure smacks of the radical Democratic socialists’ own partisan aims and prejudices that infuriated the rest of San Francisco.

 While the trio lost their way in the name game, the school system and its communities of students, staff, parents,  was free falling. The mayor saw “a political agenda” supersede their management obligations. The members also strove to eliminate requirements for its elite high school—a flashpoint for hard progressive leftists that also carried anti-Asian connotations. Accusations over COVID19 miscues was the last straw.

 The city’s mayor, London Breed, summed it up when he said the school board was distracted by “political agendas. “ (Newsmax).  Mayor Breed got one thing wrong: the political agenda was not a distraction. It was the raison d etre.

Cutting Student's Hair Not in the Job Specs

In Michigan, a teacher cut a seven-year-old girl’s hair. A student had snipped the girl’s locks days earlier,  leaving her head with a very uneven look. Taking the girl’s plight to heart, the teacher released her inner coiffeur and tried to compensate for the tonsorial damage.

However, she never spoke to her parents about restoring the imbalance. WHAT?! I’m not sure what her intentions were, be they maternal or underlying, but most teachers know not to violate a student’s person. The teacher might have asked the girl, but seven is not the age of consent for anything. You don’t cut hair, clip fingernails, paint toenails, pierce ears, or otherwise alter kids’ bodies. You can’t even put a hand on a student’s shoulder these days.

She and just about everybody in the district is being sued by her parents. Two other teachers knew of the incident but never reported it. They are now in hot water for not coming forward.  Let’s hope the school interviews the student who originally did the cutting and find out what’s going on there. This could require student disciplinary action, guidance counseling, or some intervention to ensure the well being of the student perp and the victim. Not to mention the adult.

I’m curious to find out how the school managed the original incident. There seems to be a scarcity of reporting on that, but such incidents could be indicative of issues deeper than a youngster’s prank, such as a hostile relationship or friendship gone sour. That’s why a thorough, multi-pronged approach is necessary in such cases. We have student-on-student and teacher-on-student aspects  here.  It’s not just about the what, but the why and the what now. And that has long term  implications for all involved and the larger school community.

Virginia Dept of Education Forgets the Unforgettable

Some dates and days stand out in American history. They marshal the national spirit in a common bond, no matter how disparate our people. We celebrate July 4 for our independence; we mourn for lost soldiers on Memorial Day and pay tribute to all veterans on Nov 11. We know the Civil War ended in the Spring of 1865, as did Lincoln’s life by bullet.  Jan 6 now connotes when our Capitol was besieged by rioters and insurrection filled the air we breathed. Surprise attacks inflicting thousands of casualties come to the fore of our consciousness on Dec 7, 1941, a “day that will live in infamy.” 

Nothing stands in such stark relief to contemporary America as 9/11. Maybe because so many lived through it and so many died on it. Targets held no military significance, as did the Pearl Harbor surprise attack. Civilian planes turned into fuel-laden missiles with human shrapnel. It was terror yes, taking down the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, nearly turning the Pentagon into a scrap heap, and a third plane pulverizing metal and bodies in a Pennsylvania field.

 It was transcendental. These were not armed soldiers in a field of battle or huddling in redoubts and forts. The several thousand dead were secretaries and stockbrokers, computer geeks and maintenance workers. They were everyday people going to work, earning a living, an aggregate of the diversity that perished on 9/11 because that is what America is everyday, before and since. The people who died and the buildings that were targeted precisely were blown up because they represented e pluribus unum—out of many, one; our buildings the economic and political might brought about by a democratic nation and a multicultural demographic. Bin Laden’s attack was, at its heart, mass murder against a political system he didn’t like, a culture that wasn’t his, a system needing to be defeated to impose his will for his goals and his ego. No one epitomized pathological bullying and mass murder more than the personification of Islamic jihad, a figure who now holds his own place in hell’s pantheon.

We have always faced our enemies squarely. We fought the Nazis not on a racial or religious bias but a political one. Although there was a racist component ot some of our war propaganda, we fought the Japanese because they bombed our territory and killed our people. In all the years since, we never flinched in who our foes were, and why we went to war. It was the Germans; it was the Japanese, and they were trying to kill us and our democracy. 

Twenty years after the worst attack on our homeland, twenty years commemorated year after year with the names of the dead read like a Georgian incantation at the Sacred Trough of Ground Zero, two rounds of silence at each plane’s time skewering the WTC buildings, and the reliving of private and public nightmares, personal anguish, charred lives of heroes still succumbing to their wounds; of men and women jumping 100 stories to escape the flames of death in one final defiant choice before falling.  

In one of the most disrespectful assaults on our country, our values, our defense, our freedoms, the Virginia Department of Education has striven to obfuscate the truth, pander to a political agenda, and betray its fundamental mission: to teach. In yet another attempt to suppress Americanism in America, the VDOE published a webinar for 9/11 professional development video for classroom lessons commemorating one of our most tragic days. Somehow, the disclaimer of “these views are solely that of the Dr.Decuir doesn’t quite it cut it.

The purported central objective of “Culturally Responsive and Inclusive 9/11 Commemoration” is to prevent and protect Muslim students from bullying, which Prof Decuir sees as the tragic result of the World Trade Center and other targets attacked that day. Decuir cites a troubling statistic—Muslim students are the second most bullied group in school. She doesn’t cite her source, nor does she name the first. I would imagine LGBTQ or Jewish students might head the dubious list, since statistics show gay youth ae subjected to harassment, ridicule taunts, physical and verbal abuse. Jewish students are now among the most threatened of all. I also tried an in an internet search to see what other kinds of bullying and harassment Prof. Decuir has written about, but I came up empty. Perhaps my poor Google skills failed to turn up a Decuir body of work on how to protect LGBTQ and Jewish students in our public schools from the actions Decuir says is aimed at Muslim kids.

No child should be harassed, threatened, bullied or otherwise feel unsafe during the school `day. Schools have strong discipline codes, which include violations pertaining to bias and discrimination under the umbrella of bullying.  Tweeners and adolescents have a strong mean streak compounded by numerous other teenage afflictions. Religion, ethnicity, physical appearance, jealousy—you name it, and kids will find ways to make you cry before you can get home and open the door. Schools do what they can with the resources they have and the authority given to guide youth in managing their conduct and social relationships in positive ways. Bullying has many definitions, explanations, approaches, to mitigating bullying. In a society valuing individual power, the job is significantly harder.

 What you don’t do is change history, suppress the truth, rewrite events, conjure fact into fiction.. If you are fighting bullying.  You must recognize the bully. Hijacking jets and turning them into missiles with human shrapnel targeting office buildings is the most malevolent, sadistic act of bullying—and war.

The video says “say what happened  and that’s the end of it”, according to reports. (The video was pulled from You Tube before TGBL could view it). Let’s teach what happened that day – a good lesson for our kids, those who teach them, and those who tell teachers how to teach. The Fire Department lost 344 members to Bin-Laden’s inferno; NYPD lost 71 officers that day, 74 law officers total. Many more suffered chronic or life ending afflictions. Many responders are still dying from their heroism to this day. 2,605 civilians who kissed their families goodbye, wished kids to have a good day at school, planned their work as they headed into the Trade Center, The Pentagon, or sat on Flight 93. All for the last time.

Yes,  the Virginia Department of Education, who promoted the video for 9/11 teacher training--let’s just say what happened happened. But that is far from “it.” Just talk to the victims” families, the responders relatives.  It is not “it” when residents and workers and students in the areas still suffer the physical and psychological effects of the day that changed America, and the world. To obfuscate  9/11 reality, to erase Islamic jihad’s Pearl Harbor in the guise of teacher development, to minimize America’s suffering and instruct how to suppress its pedagogy in the name of reducing bullying defiles the legacy of every victim, and violates every educational principle in a free society.

To borrow from Lawrence O’Donnell, Asra Nomani, president of Parents Defending Education, (quoted from the Daily Mail) has the last word:

“As an American Muslim parent and journalist who has investigated Islamic terrorism for the past 20 years, it’s offensive, immoral, unethical, manipulative and dangerous.”

EIGHT JUDGES OUT: The Legal Assault on School Safety and Discipline Has a New Champion

Mos Eisley—You’ll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.                                           — Obi-Wan Kenobi

On a beautiful late June evening, the educational hives across the country were a buzzin’ late into the night. The growing number of education lawyers and their student clients--the misbehaved, oppositonals, the “dare ya” kids, the thieves, the bullies, the assaulters, the sociopaths and other EDPs who comprise the threat to a school’s community, raised their bottles and toasted the Supreme Court of the United States deep into the night and the wee hours of the morning. In particular, the man of the hour, 83-year-old Justice Stephen Breyer, writer of the majority opinion, was toasted more than marshmallows at summer camp.

Prompting the adulation was the 8-1 decision in favor of Brandi Levy over the Mahanoy School District. The somewhat ambiguous decision said that the schools cannot discipline students for off campus speech or expression. Except when they can.  SCOTUS, and this was an objection raised by Thomas’ dissent, did not elaborate on standards for intervention. They were very good at delineating the standard for non-intervention, but left it to the schools to decide on action for off campus behavior, using Breyer’s three point  guide, a piece of work on its own. TGBL looks at his three-armed monster below.

IN LOCO PARENTIS—I hate to tell the good judge, but no educator believes ILP even has a footing in the modern school, and young teachers[T1]  may know the phrase as a 3-point multiple choice question on a test in Education Administration 101. The constant judicial and political weathering of school authority has left ILP nothing more than an anachronism from a bygone era.  Many parents have been raised on weak schools, and their interference rather than collaboration has made ILP DOA. There is no ILP when kids are off campus, pontificated the judge.

Yes and no. ILP may be dead in the water, but schools are receptors for a student’s SOS. Come Monday morning, many middle school students will run to a guidance counselor, a dean, AP of Security with weekend,  off campus happenings--complaints, fears, or intel they hope will prevent a disaster, to themselves or others. Very often they are stories of domestic issues, bullying, threats, racist comments, personal anecdotes. Many of them sown in cyber,  in the park, the streets, the yard—for some kids the school is the only confidante. It may not be the narrow ILP of yore, but a child who feels trusting enough towards the school staff expects a level of protection, one he or she just lost. 

HEAVY BURDEN OF PROVE TO INTERVENE. There’s a famous analogy every political science major learns. The federal government is either a layer cake, with hard rigid lines of authority in relation to the states, as defined by the Constitution, laws, policy and precedent. Everyone knows the lay of the land. The second view is that it is more marble cake, with jurisdictions, policies, power, resources, authority executed on a more collaborative, blurry org chart, not without its friction.

When it comes to school discipline and its ecology,  Breyer has exposed himself as a layer cake in a marble-cake world. Certain school administration staff works with police, youth officers or SROs (NYC still can’t figure it out}, social agencies, mental and emotional health organizations, even religious leaders in the community to help students. Some situations that trigger such collaboration may not occur in schools. This ruling could hurt a school’s ability to assist in a child’s progress because behavioral issues off campus would now be off limits for fact-finding. While the Court said the schools have some leeway, no one will want to touch anything off campus for fear of lawsuits, which happen with more frequency than a kid “fuck you-ing” the school from the malls.

NURSERIES OF DEMOCRACY. WHAT?? Justice Breyer’s future on the court has been the subject of much speculation. Liberals fear his seat will be lost to another young right winger if he doesn’t resign, retire and give Biden a badly needed liberal voice on SCOTUS. After reading his opinion, he needs to retire…period. His 3rd piece of non-interference based on schools as free speech forums for students to express their political views free from school interference must have been written in his ivory tower before sending it to press.

Does he really think school administration gives a rat’s ass about what these kids say on their own time –or even in school—about politics, movies, dating, TV, fashion, or any other subject? Does he really think administrators fret over whether Johnny or Kim are cursing on their laptop from their bedrooms [T2] at 9:30 Saturday night? Kids will roll the entire gamut of obscenities and curses off their tongue before 4th period lunch.  The number of teachers called stupid, mother abusers, self-abuser, etc. will fill more pages than the New York Times archives.

Also, I am trying to discern from Breyer’s inestimable reason how disciplinarians will discover such political heresies, unpopular utterances, and yes…the curse words that dare not speak their names. Schools do not spy on their kids nor plant microchips in their innocent unsuspecting wrists to give a direct link to the surveillance office. Perhaps Breyer, while writing the majority opinion, experienced an inner John Nash moment while watching A Beautiful Mind.

No one cares, Judge. No one is listening. Schools do not hire staff to spy on students who don’t even talk politics except to repeat what they hear at home. Sex, drugs, rock and roll rather than the Greek Wars and nuclear energy still dominate the mouths of the roiling adolescent. To listen to Brandi Levi’s lawyers,  liberal phalanx, and the majority opinion, one gets the impression the schools could put the Russians to shame on domestic spying. Let me repeat to Justice Breyer: no one gives a damn what the students say out of school. How much they curse. Who they want to become president. Why they hate Trump or Biden. Or the Supreme Court. No one has the time, no one has the inclination, no one cares. End of story. Like current politicians pushing voter suppression laws in the guise of election integrity, Breyer provides an answer to a problem that doesn’t exist.

But here’s the rub. The bedrock issues relegated to the shadows  are school safety, discipline, and order. New York City for years operated under a simple premise. Yes, you have to show a strong connection between off-campus behavior and the school building, but any kind of activity threatening the welfare and stability of the campus ipso facto warrants investigation and possible disciplinary measures. If off-campus activity potentially endangers the school community, the dean and assistant principal now face a whole series of legal questions before they can even look into the problem or face accusations of First Amendment violations.  Let’s add one more item to the list of what keeps school safety officers up at night. Apparently,  the Supreme Court couldn’t give a rat’s ass about any of it. 

Maybe in Exeter or Phillips Academy or the Hunter School, places known for academics and upper class snobbery do these basic concerns  of the lesser advantaged public institutions fall on the back burner. Also, as private enterprises, they live by different rules from the plebeian abodes of most school children. But those vested with the safekeeping of public schools, especially in urban areas have no such luxury. Deans, Assistant Principals  of Security or Discipline, walk in to work Monday morning with worst case scenarios of a dozen incidents germinated on Friday running  through their minds like torpedoes. Did the ethnic slur turn into a schoolyard rumble; Did Sue continue her bullying online; Is Kim’s crush on another boy going viral when someone stole his phone and private, intimate messages were on there.

Not enough discussion was had about the safety implications of this decision, by the parties involved.  The majority opinion held schools do have a right to intervene in some off campus activity, but without offering an elegant, effete three-point standard. School officials will have to show linkage of in-school interaction that started the incident and off campus escalation. Yet that may not be enough,    Breyer covered his magnificent seven’s black-robed butts by stating the obvious in a vacuum

There were girls who were upset about the postings, and the cheerleader who made varsity could have easily been a target for retribution, if not from Brandi, maybe a friend, a boy trying to impress her.  What would the ruling be if violence or bullying followed? A disturbed adolescent among the 250 who received the posts might commit dangerous acts ins school. The court talked about severe bullying as a threshold to cross for off campus involvement but left it ambiguous. A simple “Fuck You”  can be severe if the consequences result in harm.  Sorry for your daughter’s injuries ma’am, but we were huddled up trying to figure what part of Breyer’s Triangle we could use to be proactive. We could not see the printouts because it was off campus, free speech, not during a school activity time. She is on her own.

The next school stabbing, shooting, assault or massacre will fall on school officials who decided they could not intervene because the situation was off campus and non-school related. He hung the staff who work in safety and discipline out to dry, and gave the lawyers a field day. Robert Hardaway wrote that, in a lawsuit against a school,  any good lawyer will try to knock down the good faith principle, another gem from SCOTUS past. Also, an equally serious charge is that the school did nothing when made aware of a situation. Now, SCOTUS applied the Gordian knot to resolving critical safety issues with this decision. Off campus issues were always a bit fuzzy, but there were ways to probe a potential exigency. These are now cutoff because talking to possible perps is now unconstitutional, as written record about the intervention and findings is a disciplinary action needed  to be filed. When as student’s head is busted or nose broken, parents and a panicky district want to know what the school did. It is legal protection that you did your job in good faith. Yes, if the assault happened in school, it could be dealt with. A workable case –did it start in school, did it start off campus, is it protected speech and does the school even have the right to intervene to determine that—may give way to staff, students, or visitors being harmed.     

“Tell them I came, that I kept my word”. So spoke the horseman in Walter de la Mare’s brilliant poem “The Listeners”.  At the heart of the intense work is a man committed, driven to ride alone to a house inhabited by phantoms just to declare his fealty to his honor, his word.  Maybe among  lawyers keeping your word of honor has lost its luster of integrity, but for young people it is one of the lessons without a grade, but whose mark lasts a lifetime.  Pledging to live by certain conditions to be on a team is also a vow to yourself. It builds character, teaches responsibility, holds you accountable. Living up to your word has more value than a bitcoin, as it sometimes forces self-sacrifice and hard choices, an ideal to achieve,  based on a promise to the whole of which you are a part. We like to think organized sports and competition shape the life for future productive and admirable behavior. Central to this concept is the teammates’ willingness to honor their commitment. There is a price to be paid when you breach the oath  taken, the contract on which you put your name, the deal you made with your team, your mates, yourself.     

This is what all the cheerleaders signed onto when they tried out for the squad. But Brandi Levy, her lawyers, parents and the Supreme Court held a different standard.  To the girls honoring their voluntary agreement to become cheerleaders, to Brandi Levy, who accepted the same terms of her own free will, and to students everywhere,  Breyer and his own oath-taking comrades on the Court taught a valuable lesson: don’t worry  about it, your word means nothing.  

Evaluating Education Secretary Nominee Miguel Cardona

When assessing anyone for the top job in education, be it local, state or federal, the first step must be educational professionalism. For several decades, anti-teacherists have been using the top executive positions within education departments to further a corporate agenda, private, charter and  for profit public school interests. Public education has had the deck stacked against it by profiteers, anti-unionists, political types and ambitious educators, whether right wing conservatives or progressive leftists. As a result, many unqualified, incompetent, ambitious, and rapacious individuals took the helm to steer their own ambitions, rather than those of students, community, country. Much of the wrath takes dead aim at teachers and their unions, for reasons which are beyond our scope here.

As a site devoted to the health of schools seen through educational ecology – society’s many connections to safety, security, and discipline—we will assess the relevant players. TGBL will judge the influencers or wannabes of educational policy-- executives, politicians, interest groups, individuals--as part of its mission for advocating the well being of our students and community through its commentary       .

 Unlike some previous education secretaries and other school chiefs, Cardona has been an educator his entire career. This is a welcome change, bringing some badly needed professionalism and experience.  His specialty is bilingual and bicultural education, with degrees earned from Central Connecticut State and UConn. He has invaluable building level experience, as an elementary school teacher and a principal. Cardona served as Connecticut’s Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning and then state Commissioner of Education  He also taught educational leadership working as an adjunct professor in University of Connecticut’s Department of Education.  He supports fully the public school as an ideal and American institution. Cardona’s depth of knowledge coupled with years of classroom and administrative work bodes well for the DOE.   

 He appears well liked and respected, with a willingness to reach out to constituent groups, including teachers. His particular discipline and passion  for it has the potential to improve school safety and culture by devoting much of his efforts to reach perpetually high-risk groups. For a ship often traveling through seas full of storms and mines, a competent pilot steering it gives hope for the future.

 We do have one major concern. Cardona is under major pressure from left wing advocacy groups to restore the well-intentioned but wrong-headed disciplinary guidelines  of the Obama administration. The sweeping changes over the last few years has resulted in disciplinary paralysis, verbal and physical assaults on teachers, lack of follow up on support services in lieu of eliminating most corrective measures, and a foxes-rule-the-hen house mentality. TGBL has no objection to reviewing the Obama policies and improving on them. However, a blind re-implementation would continue to put students and staff at high risk for physical and mental abuse.  If Cardona is confirmed, we’ll find out just how  sagacious and strong an educator  he is. School safety is a matter of life and death,  and asking students to learn from there actions often cannot be satisfied by a 20 minute therapy session during lunch and a good rendition of kumbayah.

So, we find Miguel Cardona highly qualified based on his resume, advocacy for public education, and work on behalf of minority students. However, because we have qualms about his vision of student discipline, we are withholding our top rating of most qualified.

The Politics of Cuties: What Was Really Going On

Cuties, the controversial movie about dancing tweens, received shock and awe from the conservative Right and the progressive Left when shown on Netflix. The Trumplicans attacked the film for sexualizing underage girls; the Berniecrats claimed it dehumanized women through sexual exploitation instead of empowering them. Both pointed the finger at the French production with a yelping “Je vous accuse de pornographie des enfants!

 Sen. Cruz, the pride of Texas, took charge. Yes, the Trump buttwhipping boy turned die-on-the-sword defender of the president, has become the born-again conscience of our moral rectitude. Cruz wrote a letter urging Cotton Mather-like vengeance to rain down investigations and child pornography charges on the depraved perverts who threaten the United States of America’s very security with a barrage of Exocet obscenities bombing Netflix, inflicting untold casualties of shattered innocence upon American youth.

 Joining the fray from the Left, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard swooshed in like the huntress Artemis, Greek goddess of young girls and chastity. Tulsi summoned her inner archer  and aimed  at the helpless and hapless Gaullic moviemakers and their collaborators. Fire One: “Child pornographers!” Fire two: “gasoline for child sex trafficking”. Fire three: “pedophile buffet!” Fire 4: “Complicit Netflix!” All that’s missing in the politically ambidextrous indignation is Septe Unelia ringing the bell and crying “SHAME!” as creator Maimouna Doucoure marches naked on the Walk of Shame.

  We thinks thou protesteth too much.

 When these two guardians reached their epiphanous come-to-Jesus moment is rather uncertain.  Whatever complaints levied by The Huntress and the Texas Bull against Cuties, they have never seemed perturbed by the limitless availability of similar material for years on the internet. Young girls in typically skimpy outfits dance and gyrate and contort on myriad videos. Many of the female performers are the     same age as the stars in Cuties--or younger. Cast calls must ring out for females ranging in age from under 10 to 30 for all kinds of performances, competitions, and peek-a-boo opportunities. A caveat: guessing the age of You Tube vedettes seems part of the allure. Many of these YT screen stoppers seem ambiguously aged, slotting in at one of three groups: fully adult, barely legal and don’t even go there.

 Our youthful mermaids lounge around pools, beaches, or anyplace conducive to showing their bikini-clad tails and shiny, sun-soaked midriffs, all with fresh-faced yet sultry expressions. For the more active, warmup with long-legged nymphs before they steal your oxygen in a breathless cardio workout. Or just peek in on Brazil’s finest, 14 year old Thiassa Marvila, 2014 Bikini Fitness champ--one million have in the last three years.  It is a universe filled with young, nubile stars contorting and twisting in yoga elasticity, spreadeagling in sexy gym routines, ballet exercises (Russians specialize in those),  horizontal-bar stretching—all in such obtuse angles that it will change your concept of Euclidean geometry.

 If you are more Calvin Klein than Richard Simmons, take a front row seat at the fashion shows from around the world  by sashaying  to YT.  Behold the beauties working the runway. Swimwear is particularly popular; however, one finds participants in a range of events wearing all sorts of sartorial splendor.  

 And, if you are more Steve Harvey or Bert Parks than Calvin Klein, an array of beauty pageants are a click away. Young girls enter in their age category: toddlers,  pre-pubescents, teens and 20-somethings. The starlets parade in haute couture pulchritude—from elegant gowns to two piece outfits with more skin showing than an 18th hole hustle. They may gyrate, shoulder roll, hip thrust as if dancers in a Bob Fosse musical, all to wear the beauty queen’s crown —even if some are just old enough to be babysitters—or need one.

 Actually, the Bible Belt beauty pageants for the underage seem like a pretty popular pastime. Contests in the former republic such as the Texas Glits Stars and Stripes Pageant, Little Miss Texas in Austin, Texas Walk of Fame, and All Ages Pageant in Dallas are common throughout the region. Regardless of years, the young and less young do their own razzle-dazzle in two piece unis, leotards, or themed outfits on a sufficient number of channels to keep fans wholly occupied and quarantined through the entire COVID19 crisis.

 A huge company producing such events is headquartered deep in the heart of…Texas.  Beauty pageantry is a multi-billion dollar industry, most popular in the Senator’s political wheelhouse. Elizabeth Blumer Thompson, who wrote Girlhood, Beauty Pageants, and Power: Trailer Park Royalty called these kiddie pageants “a phenomenon in rural Georgia”. Rita Cordero, author of Children’s Beauty Pageants: Growing Up On Stage labeled it “a subculture”; faithful to family values and shared community, an authentic expression of Americana.

Internationally a fine, wide array of bathing suit pageants or other contrivances displaying half clothed Lolitas abound. Teen contests such as Miss Juniors World and Meninas o Piscina do y Tio (YT had to age restrict the viewing on that one!) will keep popping up on your You Tube page in an endless buffet.

 Given the copious amounts of virginal limbs in swaths of textiles masquerading as clothing on You Tube, the silence and embrace of the wildly popular network juxtaposed to the all-out assault on the film beg the question: Just what is so ugly about Cuties?

  The movie portrays 11 year-old Amy, a Senegalese immigrant girl living the ageless conflict of new-world acceptance vs old world values. Bound up in a religious community’s isolation and clashing cultural identities, Amy yearns to join a small dance group competing in an upcoming contest. Nothing would stamp “arrived” more than induction into the dance team and a trophy in her room.

    For all the sound and fury, Cuties is nothing more than a Karate Kid for girls, expressed in updated 2020 terms. Instead of Cobra Kai delivering knife-hand strikes and round house kicks to Daniel LaRusso, the Cuties verbally punch and socially distance Amy—taunting and isolation being the young female’s universal weapons of choice. La Russo answered his tormentors by becoming part of their world and crowned king with the most famous kick in cinema history.

Instead of the crane technique, the twerk and thrust (and a bit of malevolent sabotage) punched the young Senegalese girl’s ticket to acceptance. Unlike Daniel, who found personal balance in his conquest, Amy rejected her membership, fleeing the dance routine during the contest, returning to her neighborhood, reveling in the virtues of family and faith.

 Besides their objections to the overall tone of Cuties, two aspects of the film drew the most ire from its critics. Amy does a twerking practice in her briefs. Decades ago, Brooke Shields’ naked derriere in Pretty Baby created lots of controversy as Hollywood pushed the First Amendment envelope. Compared to Brooke’s Violet and her surroundings, a tween twerker in what looks like the bottom of a girl’s 2-piece should hardly be the stuff of such a massive outcry nowadays. Like Pretty Baby, Cuties received critical acclaim as an objet d’art du cinema. From Violet to Amy, the world transformed in those 40 years, especially for the young.  

 Amy, frustrated in her quest to be one of the girls and popular at school, sat on the toilet and took an intimate phone photo of herself and texted it, hoping for instant popularity. The plan backfired. Her friends scolded her for making them seem like whores as the whole school snickered in ridicule of Amy and her dance team friends. Well, Senator, Congresswoman, this is the third decade of the 21st Century, and sexting is a serious issue but a common practice, among adults as well as kids. The negative feedback stunned Amy, and her impulsive act cost her dearly.

 The movie explores young teens’ sexting, taking a  condemnatory view because its consequences are not thought out by socially naive kids hoping explicit images to be their ticket to romance or the crew you wish to call BFFs. Maïmouna Doucouré’s sends a strong warning emanating from the film’s traditional themes to youngsters. In the culture war swirling around Cuties, its fervent enemies, especially right wingers, are blind to the conservative themes its creator espouses.

  Just what ulterior motives drove Gabbard and Cruz to lead the righteous opposition against a small, artsy movie compared to the availability of internet material far more risque? 

 Bludgeoned in the 2016 primaries, rattled by his near loss to Beto, laughed at in Blue America and its media for his Trump obsequity,  Senator Cruz became Trump’s Teddy to Ramsey’s Reek. Cruz found redemption and renewal in his charge against Cuties, the perfect opportunity to garner righteous applause of RedNation independent of Trump—and national media attention. Cruz didn’t even have to ask the president for permission (well, maybe he did and we just don’t know about it). Saint Ted got  his mojo back. Just as Theon found his manhood without really finding his manhood, Cruz emulated the emasculated - and found a way to flex, well, his muscle.

 It also doesn’t hurt that Cuties is a French film (not that kind of French film). American pop culture views France as a prissy nation overindulgent in le vin and l’amour anyway. A Euro culture wholly deficient in martial will and 2AM barroom macho threw a hanging curve to Cruz’s mocked son-of-a bitch image. He knocked it out of the park. A brilliant win-win for the gentleman from the Lone Star State. Well played, Senator Greyjoy.

 Hold on.

 Ted Cruz must never have seen You Tube. Otherwise, he would know that the vast spectrum of similar, and often far more titillating, visuals than Cuties abound. Yet, no relentless Cruzade over YT programming, no finger pointing for child exploitation. Gabbard too, put no Tulse on the American pulse to end “fueling the child sex trade.” Surely young teen girls learning pole dancing at the very least alludes to strippers dancing at euphemistically called gentlemen’s clubs. Excuse me, but can anyone point me to the “Pedophile buffet”? Senator? Congresswoman?

   All of which brings us to You Tube’s immunity from the top two Cuties critics.  The Google-owned social media mega company is firmly established as a US-based business and a global institution. The American Dream of financial success and personal  stardom rides a binary boat called You Tube. The entire inventory of nubile Lolitas and mesmerizing sirens in beauty pageants, fashion shows, festivals, sports, parks, homes have millions of viewers clicking their videos. The more viewers, the more subscribers, the higher the sponsored advertising rate for those videos.

 YT hauls in billions generated by millions of channels. Top stars can earn seven figures while lesser lights in the firmament still earn a very good living and attain Hollywood-level celebrity. Going after You Tube would be a direct threat to the American entrepreneurship and the Bible Belt’s pageant “subculture”. Ted Cruz knows the holy parameters of Puritan wrath. Asking for Congressional inquiries of You Tube for the very same perceived offenses of Cuties hits way too close to home. 

  Livelihoods lost, publicity dissipated, a sacred custom stigmatized—a Cruz friendly one at that. His abstention from similar opprobrium for kiddie beauty pageants dismisses issues of child sexuality, eating disorders, body image. Cruz’s combative attack had nothing to do with defending America’s young maidenhoods from a cinematic invitation for pedophiles, sex recruiters, and wide-eyed innocents exclaiming with Miranda-like wonder “Oh brave new world to have such” dancing in it. Senator, hang around a middle school for a day or two and you’ll see more twerks than in 100 Cuties.

 Cruz’s ersatz indignation revived his swaggering persona and tough Texas brand. He also managed to keep You Tube off the radar and the word hypocrite suppressed. Thanks to the Senator’s deft tactics, his people could keep their souls pure of heart, and consciences void of sin as the subculture’s 11 year olds strut nascent sexual femininity all dressed to the adult nines.

 Exploitation of kids works in mysterious ways.

  Tulsi Gabbard’s just a spring chicken by standard congressional measures. The House member has her own self-interest to keep the arrows in the quiver when it comes to the internet in general and You Tube in particular. Namely, she’s all over it. In her bathing suit, hanging ten on her surfboard, evoking physical fitness, sexiness, while still showing her other side as military hero and House member. For someone like Tulsi, a ripped Rep capitalizing on her youth,

You Tube  is a match made in Planet Fitness heaven. TGBL awaits as a matter of time her gym workout in her signature red bikini on Waikiki Beach. Already Gabbard stars in a video called Tulsi Shows Off in the Gym, supported by other DC types. The vid proudly boasts 89,000 views in a year.

Just as in Cruz’s case, a campaign against You Tube works against Gabbard’s cyber investment. Her ubiquitous exposure plays perfectly to building her Wonder Woman charisma. Although double standard and politician often seem oxymoronic, it would occur to most people that criticizing any internet site for demeaning women and boosting “sex trafficking” when the critic’s red-bikinied bod is all over cyber world does question credibility.  It sure adds some feminine allure to the National Guard officer. Smart. Tough. Sexy. Smart. A shrewd marketing sell in the perfect medium of web sites and videos.

 Politically, Gabbard has played both ends against the middle, with liberal and progressive views but enough conservative DNA to draw a following on the right. Attacking Cuties with harsh right-wing language, Major Gabbard re-affirms her nexus to conservative  America. At the same time, she draws the admiration of far Left feminists who share the identical position on pornography as the Bible Belt Right, though the reasons may differ. While her critique of Cuties earns points on both sides, the same vitriol aimed at You Tube could adversely affect her standing with the baby beauty subculture. Gabbard has achieved a very unique place politically as an enigmatic centrist Democrat. She’s not risking any of it. Even Artemis knows when to hold up.

Lessons from The Elwood UFSD/John Glenn HS Hate Texts

Nothing is sacred anymore. Or private. Or local. If what happens in Vegas still stays in Vegas, they can give lessons to the rest of us and how we can stop micro from becoming macro. It seems “none of your business” is an anachronism, and all the world is entitled to your private thoughts, messages, texts, exchanges even when content and transmission are done legally and among consenting participants. Elwood School District’s John Glenn High School learned that lesson this past week.  

According to Newsday, Long Island’s only major newspaper, in early July “a group of students engaged in a string of hate-filled text messages”. We learned from various news reports the “vile” exchange between students involved rants about gays, Jews, and racist (groups unknown) language. Thanks to a text pirate who screenshot the messages and the speed of Cyberspace, the posts spread nationally like missiles fired from the KKK; a national counterattack ensued, as people hit their mark with their two cents aimed at the district office. More coins hit Elwood than tossed into the Trevi Fountain.

THE DISTRICT.  HQ responded in several ways. Two letters were sent to apprise the parents of the texts. It expressed its revulsion that a small group of students could hold such hateful, disgusting views, that it does not reflect the attitudes of the school community, and the curriculum will undergo changes to encompass lessons on tolerance and respect. Counselors would be made available for students who felt traumatized by the situation. School officials promised “a quick investigation, handled on an individual basis for each student involved, and promise serious consequences.” They have not met with the texters yet, so we wonder how the school concluded the boys texts reflect innate prejudice, to what degree such views are held, or whether they were highly insensitive or immature.  

THE TEXTERS. We do not know much about the boys. The whistleblower (the female student who posted the texts) described the subjects as “some white boys from Elwood being racist and homophobic”. The term “white boys” connotes its own questions. We have no information on their actual background, how they identify, or to what ethnicities they belong. In the 21st century, personal identity can be more complicated than assumptions based on cursory impressions. We also do not know how well, or if at all, the female student who outed them knows the texters. We do not know if there are special education students among them, which would affect the disciplinary process, in addition to other factors. To outsiders, the student profiles are wholly blank, save for the controversial exchange. 

 We also know nothing about their records. Do these boys display racist or discriminating behavior in school? As a group or individuals do they have a history of violence, intimidation or racism? Are they special ed, which requires a subset of protocols to follow. The rush to judgment and the infusion of politics militate against a fair and impartial disciplinary process and lean more towards pressuring for a kangaroo court.

THE WHISTLEBLOWER. The female student said the comments couldn’t be “dark humor” because the texts were “too hateful for that.” She also feared the boys needed “serious “repercussions so racist boys don’t become racist adults.”

There are several things going on here that may complicate the picture. Wanting to alert someone to the heinous comments is admirable. However, screen shooting the texts and then distributing to the parents of the boys and social media oversteps the bounds. The material should have been turned over to school authorities first. They could decide there is a nexus to John Glenn HS., giving them authority to act. The discriminatory texts could have an adverse effect on the welfare of the school community if brought onto the campus and then those attitudes manifested itself within the building in the form of disruptions or racially motivated misbehavioer. All the voices raised in alarm just took for granted the school had authority to act. Incidents off campus, not during school hours and unrelated to an event or the school day presents a gray area. More and more, schools have been asked to widen their scope of jurisdiction over kids who go to their schools but at the same time schools have had their authority to act forcefully limited.

We just do not know what the family situation is for each one of those boys. Sometimes a student ends up in harm’s way when parents or guardians are suddenly presented with the child’s serious misbehavior. School officials often have a relationship with the families and know the household. By presenting the situation in a thoughtful, professional manner and giving a lay of the land discussion, experienced educators  minimize the risk of further family tension or even physical abuse.  The early notification provides the dean or AP Security/Discipline and principal a chance to assess the case and how to proceed expeditiously and prudently.

A vigilante quality creeps into the way this unfolded. All students know to express grievances with the school. Certainly, high school students are well aware with whom to lodge a school-related concern. The whole process implemented to protect children and the school community--the disciplinary process—was subjugated to the haste in revealing the texts. Bypassing the normal channels condemns the boys as racists “for life” unless “serious repercussions” are handed down.

She’s way out of her league here. TGBL heartens to her passion for tolerance, but wish she applied the same dedication to protecting the rights of the accused, which follows legal statute, district guidelines, and a complex code of conduct, the law of the school. School discipline is not about a rush to judgment by political actors or before a national jury. They are not criminal defendants, despite how judicial disciplinary hearings have become. Although lost in the legalese and  growing business of education law, discipline is about accountability, guidance, individual growth. As anachronistic as it sounds, as old-fashioned as it may be, Emil Durkheim had it right, believing character building is at the heart of student discipline. The cacophony surrounding this case made everyone deaf and blind to the school’s educational component of the disciplinary mission.

The Supreme Court ruled  50 years ago that the 14th Amendment due process clause extends to students accused of infractions, especially those facing suspensions. The punishment imposed results from numerous considerations’. It is one thing to fight an injustice or right a wrong, but playing judge, jury and executioner doesn’t make you a superhero. The boys, in the Durkeim model, would become better citizens through education and learn from the imposition of appropriate consequences. Turning the incident into a national political cause does not meet the criteria for personal growth.

THE TEXTS. A partial reading of the texts appeared on CBS and on Long Island news channels. The texts revealed nothing about people of color (it may have been there, but was not shown), but gays and the Holocaust feature prominently in the conversation. The boys joked about having gays instead of Jews in the holocaust (sic). It was then suggested to trap gays for a revival of the Holocaust because ” it wouldn’t kill anyone except for lgbt.” This was followed by “send them all to concentration camps to help them concentrate on being straight”. Horrible, as we all agree.

The female student posted: “Here are some white boys from Elwood being racist and homophobic. Email the principal, parents, school, I don’t care WHAT (caps her own} happens to them. You don’t openly be homophobic and racist and expect to get away with it.”

Without the full transcript to analyze, we simply do not know what specifically was said about Jews or other racial minorities beyond this. Let’s go with the fragments we do have. An overlooked but important factor in this scenario is that the text messages were taken from a private conversation. When you are talking to friends, people who know you, your guard is down and people will say outrageous things. The deeper drilling must find out if the anti-gay attitude and callous Holocaust view are deeply held beliefs or just stupid talk among friends talking to each other.

We know the female student doesn’t believe the texts were teens gone wild. She stated they were “too hateful”. Yet, that is a subjective statement. For instance, art often walks a line between acceptability and affrontedness. So does humor. Comedy often speaks in extremely bad taste, whether on stage, in film, or in a private chat on personal computers.   

A second critical element here stems from the participants’ intent. From what we know, nothing was addressed to a specific individual. No threats rendered, no one specifically targeted. Usually teens express online hate at an individual, accusing the victim of being a member of a despised group and then making contemptible comments about both. These generally contain threats of physical and mental abuse coupled with attacks on both. They never aim for humor, but send bullying missives armed with persecutorial warheads, obscenity bombs and multiple ordnance launched at a person and his perceived groups of belonging. If you want hateful, go read texts when a victim stands in in the crosshairs of teenage fury. The Elwood texts pale compared to an onslaught of genuine toxic adolescent menacing.

Frankly, much worse has been said by political leaders and clergy. Louis Farrakhan said in a speech at a Chicago mosque in 2018: “Call me a hater, you know how they do – call me an anti-Semite. Stop it, I’m anti-termite!” This was echoed by an African American Georgia Congressman, Hank Johnson, who called Jews living in Judea “like termites.” The Nation of Islam leader rails against those who support gay rights, but distinguishes between gay people and the sexual sins of homosexuality, which is against the word of God, according to him.  In another speech  Farrakhan said, “The government is my enemy, the powerful Jews are my enemy”.

 An imam at a New Jersey Mosque referred to Jews as “apes and pigs”, also in his sermon: “Count them [Jewish people} one by one and kill them down to the very last one! Do not leave a single one on the face of the Earth”. The mosque says the imam was suspended and sent for retraining. The comments were not an isolated example in contemporary North America.

American political leaders, from both left and right have made profoundly insulting and hurtful comments. From American Nazi Party Republican Arthur Jones in Chicago to Holocaust denier John Fitzgerald in California. Current Congresswomen Rashid Tlaib and Ilhan Omar have made a name nationally by excoriating Israel alone, demanding punitive action and making pejorative remarks many see as blatantly anti-Semitic.

Evangelist Billy Graham was instrumental in making opposition to gay rights a priority of the Christian Right. Franklin Graham has followed in his footsteps. When his organization, Samaritan’s Purse, did Covid19 work in April, volunteers had to sign a pledge that they agree marriage was between biological members of the opposite sex, a man and a woman. Transgender need not apply. According to an NBC news report, he said gays “would burn in hell”.

What the “white boys were getting away with” were stupid opinions and prejudicial comments in their own private talk. The words spoken by powerful people are openly homophobic and racist. Expressed in sermons, campaigns, Congress, any mountebank from which to stand and beseech the crowd to hate Jews, deny people of color, reject gays --- these are the people who shouldn’t get away with anything. Yet people cheer them, pray with them, vote for them, take photos with them. And no one stops them. When the powerful exhort the hateful, it seems “they just get away with it.” Their disciples defend them with pledges of loyalty and displays of reverence. Sure, there’s pushback, but only against the omnes you don’t like.

 The far more dangerous and outrageous sentiments are those expressed by religious leaders and politicians because they have the power to influence myriad people. Representatives initiate legislation that, if signed into law, can have serious impact on the well being of targeted groups. A president or governor can sign executive orders that throw lives in turmoil. Just ask the families with kids in cages at the southern border. Celewbritiwes cnlend their fame to hurtful causes, influencing millions.  

THE FALLOUT. People from across the country weighed in on the hate. The besieged superintendent, in addition to the already mentioned responses, promised to revamp the school curriculum to reflect greater tolerance. He expressed his horror that such sentiments could be uttered by an Elwood UFSD student. A local activist added that the teachers should receive more training as well, even though the incident did not involve any staff. The students’ fate is still a TBD, and whatever punishment is handed down will remain officially undisclosed because of confidentiality. Translation: Give it a day before the boys tell their friends how many lashes they got, and word spreads throughout John Glenn HS.

 One would think John Glenn High School was the nation’s Ground Zero of intolerance while the rest of America basked in total acceptance of the scale of human differences.            

TGBL wonders if outraged America asked for the Nation of Islam or Christian evangelicals or house of Representative members or candidates to be punished, retrained, and excoriated with the same outrage and multi-level scale stating fully “They can’t get away with it.” If adults in respected positions of our society become heroes for their racist views and achieve success as a result, aren’t we being a bit over reactive –or premature, at the very least—in condemning to hellfire some kids for what they said online in a private conversation? What would happen if in the new curriculum of tolerance, certain people or cultural norms were held up as shining examples of hate? Right now, California districts are adopting an ethnic studies curriculum that mainstream Jewish groups find shockingly anti-Semitic and Israelophobic. TGBL hasn’t uncovered the same coast-to-coast indignation permeating California districts as it did Elwood. Perhaps the conscience sees a moral clarity  of right and wrong when your own beliefs are not at stake. What are you willing to risk to truly not “let them get away with it?”

Students are encouraged to report bullying or discrimination, if observed or victimized, to school authorities. The Elwood code of conduct doesn’t explicitly state if the incident must be on school grounds, have a nexus to the school community, take place within school-hours only, or what evidence is required. Very often students will alert school officials about events occurring on weekends, usually when violence or threats are part of the scenario, but rarely when an outside party objects to language in a general, closed conversation.

Despite the affected indignation by cyber mobs, local activists, and harried school officials--  all in shock that high school boys (or girls, for that matter) would actually make vile racial and homophobic comments--the question of what “serious repercussions” are in store for the most hated authors of hate texts in school-age America? 

  THE VERDICT. According to Elwood UFSD’s discipline code, the only charge the boys could face seems to be defamation. False or unprivileged statements or representations about an individual or identifiable group of individuals that harm the reputation of said person or group. The Elwood code says discrimination includes using a person’s actual or perceived group—since no specific person was a target, an accusation of discrimination would be difficult. Also, “unprivileged statement” is a hard left-wing political term. This case already skates on thin First Amendment ice. If the school charges the testers with making “unprivileged statements,” superintendent  Bossert better tell his legal team to clear their dockets. Rightly or wrongly, the Supreme Court ruled students do not leave their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse door. “Unprivileged statements” are another person’s deeply held political beliefs. Or dumb jokes told in poor taste—or the right to be offensively but legally politically incorrect. Most Americans are against burning the United States flag, but the act is protected free expression.

Being on the outside, The Green B Letter can only make a general assessment and is fully aware of unknown factors that may reveal themselves during the investigation and meetings requiring a different path. If the case were in our hands, TGBL would schedule conferences with the students, parents (a guidance counselor, and AP/Dean of school discipline. Get their side of the story before the whole thing goes dyslexic—handing down the punishment then asking the kids what happened, which is appropriate in other types of violations. This appears to be forthcoming. The texts warrant some form of accountability, more in the line of detention, documentation in the file. Sensitivity training won’t hurt either. Those who demand “serious repercussions” i.e. suspensions, come from the same political side that supports restorative justice and alternatives to punitive discipline. Well, you can’t have it both ways. TGBL certainly agrees addressing the issue is critical; what is found in the weeds will determine the path the district and school take.

One other item should be on the agenda—better Holocaust teaching. These boys apparently do not know that, although the Nazi ideology obsessed about Jews and placed them front and center for extermination, gays were a targeted group for imprisonment in     concentration camps. Many suffered sexual abuse and death. Homosexual inmates wore pink triangles. If they were Jewish they also wore a Star of David. On the Nazi hierarchy of subhumans, no inmate was lower, no prisoner received crueler treatment than a gay Jew. Perhaps their serious repercussions can start with a history project.   

Georgia On My Mind

  Leave it to Kemp’s blood-red Georgia to do the best imitation of Trump world. This time, instead of a decorated, multi-lingual military officer (and his twin brother)¸ or returning your former attorney to jail because he was doing the most un-American of things – writing a book, or throwing fireballs at one of the world’s leading epidemiologists for reporting scientific and medical research, the whistle -blower predators found a teenage girl to target. God Bless America. God Bless Georgia.

Hannah Watters, a student at North Paulding High School near to Atlanta, saw the sardine can packed hallways with virtually all the students without masks. We know two things in combination to be effective in fighting the Coronavirus, wearing masks and social distancing, two heretical ideas departing from what is or was (who can keep track?) Trump doctrine, for which Dr Fauci received  fifty virtual lashings for apostasy.  

Hannah played Nellie Bly by photographing the school corridor and posting the image online. Making public the truth about school openings and the risks being taken cannot be tolerated by public image builders and governors trying to show the world is normal as they sacrifice the young and their Covid progeny in the academic cauldrons brewing the deadly virus as microorganism incoming and no Iron Dome to destroy them in midair.  As Henry V says at Harfleur “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more or close” the halls up with our school age dead.

According to reports, Hannah was exiled for a five-day suspension covering several infractions of the rules: using a cell phone during instruction time, transmitting to social media, filming students and posting it on social media. Congratulations to North Paulding, which proved any school can unjustly pile on the charges as much as a district attorney’s office looking to get the one who knows too much.

 Hannah’s version of the rules differs.  The code of conduct for NPHS says 9th-12th graders are exempt from the prohibition on phone use. She also states the postings occurred  after school. She does not plead innocent. In fact, she invoked the John Lewis ghost, she got into “good and necessary trouble” because of her “concern for everyone’s safety.”  This may or not be true, whole or in part. The Joan of Arc self-sacrifice on the part of students who embarrass or seek punitive actions against their school or staff are not unusual. Some do so under the pretense of a righteous cause; others to push the proverbial buttons.  It is, especially in the age of phone cameras, easily done and more commonly tried.

With discipline an assault victim from politically far Left fronts, social service and child workers, educational lawyers (a nice new field for the cramped lawyerin’ business), and no-consequence soft as butter alternatives they favor, emboldened children act with unfettered glee at the impotence of school authority.  What happens in school doesn’t stay in school anymore. An incident in some classroom with 18 kids in a class and 300 for the entire school  in a rural county can make national headlines or one of those “Next Page” chain stories on AOL.   

Turning the tables on the administration or a teacher has become the national sport of our youth.  Pushing the envelope from bad behavior to speech to dress, students vie for the trophy in the contact sport known as Beat Your School. A spot on GMA, social network celebrity, local attitude champ can all be had--just be a little naughty for the right reason. News media love the single combat student-warrior victimized by bully-school stories (case in point.)  They level the playing field leveled as the principal plays the student called into the office for being a troublemaker.  TGBL will consider this an unfiled amicus brief supporting Hannah. We all often have several motivations for our actions, an agenda. Whether altruistic or not, Hannah’s heroic reveal was epic.

The image of the school corridor belies the problem, not only of school openings but many other issues. You can have all the guidelines in the world but if they are not followed, they are worthless. Authorities in charge of enforcement must make their constituents adhere to them; it is dereliction otherwise. If people have no faith or enthusiasm for the guidelines, public health and safety demand enforcement. In conservative Georgia, under a Trumpian governor, the appearance of normalcy epitomized by the first day of classes, with bustling hallways and youthful exuberance, is a reelection image Republicans covet. When masks are optional, optional is what you get. You pays your money and you takes your choice.

Hannah’s camera made the state authorities look foolish, careless, negligent regarding the spread of Covid-19. When the image appeared in media, parents’ nightmares of the virus infecting their kids and invading their homes grew.  Not what President Trump, nor the governor, ordered for a political victory.

So they did what has been customary throughout history—kill the messenger. School authority has often overreacted to disciplinary situations as a means to reset the relationships of who is in charge and who is not. The situation at North Paulding High is exactly what gives the anti-disciplinary crowd its fuel, and further eviscerates the very authority schools try to exert. NPHS punished the bearer of bad news, treating her more like Mata Hari than Hannah Watters.  A five-day suspension for cell phone usage is exceedingly severe, the school equivalent of cruel and unusual punishment.  A beat down by the schoolyard bully, who happens to own the school yard

Being an honor student and first time offender are factors usually taken into account when imposing disciplinary measures. In a progressive scale, which TGBL does not know if her school follows, Hannah would have received, as she told local CH11 Alive “a slap on the wrist”. Certainly, in one of today’s non-punitive, no consequence movement schools, she would have been assigned restorative justice, a seat in a circle or one-on-one session. If she caught a thief breaking into lockers or a teacher doing weed, the administration would have hailed her a hero. The image would be evidence;  we’re sure no punishment issued.

The whistleblower factor manifests itself in the school’s code of conduct. While the rules prohibit cell phone use in the halls, Hannah, as a 12th grader, is exempted and allowed to use it. With Georgia’s confirmed 200,000 cases of Covid-19, Hannah embarrassed the school, the district, the governor and Trump by capturing real-world life at school in the middle of a pandemic.  She posted no threats, no sexting, no blackmail, no extortion, no disrespect, no defiance or insubordination, to our knowledge based on news reports.

North Paulding backed off and nullified the suspension, so it disappears from Hannah Watters record. There was also a second student, guilty of the same charges, whose suspension was dropped. The Superintendent Otto said adjustments will be made and the Lt Governor called the early days of opening schools a “work in progress”. Also a work in Progress: How  our schools balance political considerations when dealing with students and a lethal, contagious disease.  In the caser of North Paulding, where masks and social distancing were not mandatory, nine students and staff tested positive. The school is now closed and undergoing a disinfectant process worthy of Bill Murray’s Carl Spackler sterilizing the pool in Caddyshack.

On July 20 Georgia had 4,689 cases of school aged children testing positive, from 1% to more than 3%, a three-fold increase since May. Nationally, the infection rate for children increased 40% since June 9,  recording 97, 000 cases for the last two weeks in July. The data now says children are more vulnerable to contract and transmit Coronavirus than previously thought. The trends and numbers clearly indicated for more stringent protocols and enforcement for schools to open safely.  

A red-state in the Coronavirus red-zone with a seven-year-old child dead from the virus, Georgia refused to make mandatory the vital steps necessary to stem the virus. Hannah Watters might have just saved more lives with one phone camera than all the mask-denying, politics-first state and national  officials. She sought  “good and necessary trouble”  and willing to take the consequences for the greater good. Georgia officials, led by Gov Kemp, got into bad and unnecessary trouble for choosing politics over the safety of its children. Opprobrium hurled their way are well deserved missives.

Perhaps their embarrassing mess could serve as a warning to other states and their districts as to what to do – and not to do in this health emergency. Keeping students safe and free of the virus equals a healthy staff and community. It may be politically unpopular with certain groups who believe the Constitution guarantees the right to kill by infection, but it just seems like good and necessary trouble.  

Unsafe at NYC Schools--To Open or Not To Open

NYC Schools Chancellor and Mayor DeBlasio announced the plan to re-open the largest school system in the country several days ago. With all the fanfare of a Ralph Lauren showing off a new line of Polo fashion but without any of the money to produce it, Chancellor Carranza and Mayor DeBlasio walked the Covid aisle and put on full display the emperors’ new clothes.  Over a million students in 1700 overcrowded, poorly ventilated, mostly un-air-conditioned, don’t-drink-the-water schools will dutifully distance six feet from each other, wear masks, stay in pods and VOILA! You’re all dressed for school.

TGBL has commented extensively on the pandemic, kids, and schools recently. We are not going to dwell on it nor repeat what was said previously. However, school openings have become a national issue for political and health reasons as we’ve learned more about the effects on our school age population. And, after all, this is New York City. Big Apple.

Let’s give New York its due.  The City of 8 million—15 million on a normal workday—was under siege for months. Once again, a vicious enemy targeted the city and, for the second time in 20 years, Ground Zero flew its flag here,  upriver from lower Manhattan to Queens. Gov Cuomo and Mayor DeBlasio, despite the Obstructionist in Chief working against them, brought the virus under control. The siege of New York lifted, for now. Diligence among the citizenry and enforcement from the government  have performed a miracle. Only vigilant leaders and a determined people in war can stave off a threat.  All measures show Coronavirus is still contained, but the enemy is out there, lurking and regrouping.

We need to look at NYC closely as a model for other localities struggling to rein in this pandemic, and to monitor its success or failure in school openings. But more information about the virus gives us pause for such a large-scale undertaking. The UFT, the powerful teachers’ union headed by Michael Mulgrew, has not exactly been banging the pompoms for the reopening. They have legitimate fears about the firewalls put up to stop the virus in school. UFT head Mulgrew sees harsh reality over a too optimistic administration. There is a hodgepodge of rules, numerous scenarios, wildfire contagion all brewed for recipes on who gets it, where did it start, how many, what to do, when to close. NYC is a school system suffering chronic shortages of material, personnel, politics—both inhouse and public-- without an ongoing pandemic. How much all the constituent groups follow the protocols remains to be seen. How severe and what category of breach to the procedures will produce what level of viral outcome in the school and communities at large is simply unknown.

The latest information should not warm the hearts of open-the- school advocates. A camp in Georgia, with close to 600 people, had to shut down when 75% of its population tested positive days after opening.  260 children and staff contracted the virus, the largest grouping was aged 6-10, once peddled off as the immune brigade, which has been discredited by time and case number. An Indiana middle school shut down when a kid walked through the door with Coronavirus on first day. More ominous is a report in Brookings Institute website citing a study that says the previously thought a minimally affected group, kids 10-19 potentially spread the disease faster than any other age group. Worse still, the adolescence cohort seems to develop the largest virus load.

Many NYC students travel by mass transit to schools. They walk in packs to and from school since many live in the  same apartment complex. They go on the subways,  the buses.  They stop at stores for drinks and snacks. They have fights at the bus stops. They pack in on subways.  German field marshal Moltke the Elder said “No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy.” As the President goes AWOL, Covid-19 spirals out of control in some places and takes a steady toll in others,  and some politicians pressure schools to open, literally inviting the invader into your home, like Count Dracula waiting patiently for the asking.

Let’s not rule out the Cuomo-DeBlasio rivalry as a factor in how all this unfolds. Right now, the governor’s office is not thrilled with what it has seen. What City Hall calls a plan to open, Albany says is an outline. This could get more viral than the virus. That’s not a blueprint for war, it’s “Surrender at Appomattox”.

New York City  has the numbers to open. The infection rate stans at 3% citywide, well under the 5% baseline. The leash on this dog will be short. A hybrid schedule of remote and in-school learning appears to be a favored option, not only in New York City but around the country.  

TGBL would recommend that schools integrate remote learning and in-school instruction--a hybrid.    Split the schedule into blocks of Monday/Thursday and Tuesday/Friday for in school attendance. Have different groups come in at staggered intervals. Report to school the first day your scheduled for in-school instruction. Give homework in the form of projects, reports, reading journals, etc. for submitting assignments on the second day.  Soc Studies, Science, and English more easily align with this delivery system because internet sources can provide plenty of learning opportunities beyond the assigned books. The variety and scope of work should engage the students while at home. Teachers are available during the home days for remote classes, but TGBL belies this is a bit unrealistic and the efficacy unproven. Better would be one-to-one tutorials, and online conferences with each student, and specific inquiries from individual class members.  The combination of teacher—student communication online and quality of assignments are keys to maintain student interest and task completion.

Of course, it all sounds within the realm of the workable, but you know what they say about battle plans.  If a NYC opening is fraught with contagion possibilities, what will happen in districts with high infection rates and states struggling to gain control of the crisis? What if a second wave hits New York before the schools are closed? If Indiana’s and Georgia’s experiences are examples, this could be a most dangerous year.  

Unsafe at Any School, Part III: The Missouri Compromise

 A few weeks ago Texas Lt Governor Dan Patrick exhorted America’s seniors to die at the altar of Covid, hoping to please the god Virulence with such sacrifice so that he would normalize the economy and leave everyone else alone. Missouri governor and fellow Republican Mike Parsons wouldn’t be  outdone. In a Good Ol’ High stakes Texas Hold ‘em he ante’d up. “I’ll see your old people and raise you  your kids.”

 With your parents and grandparents out of the way and the kids sniffling from Coronavirus, you can go back to work with a clear conscience. While driving to the office, remember to stop at CVS for some tissues; grab some oxygen tanks too. It may make breathing a little easier between coughing spells. Remember, it’s all for a good cause. The young and the old, human shields defending our leader of self-proclaimed “great wisdom” for his and the party’s reelection –it’s the economy, stupid. The economy above all else.  Die Wirtshaft Uber Alles.

Here is what Governor Parsons said, as quoted in the Kansas City Star:

These kids have got to get back to school; They’re at the lowest risk possible. And if they do get Covid -19, which they will, and they will when they go to school—they’re not going to the hospitals. They’re not going to have to sit in doctors’ offices. They’re going to go home and they’re going to get over it and most of it all proves out to be that way if you look at the science.

Yes, Governor, we all know kids have to get back to school. This is not exactly a statement of understated, brilliant leadership. Sometimes a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. In the hands of  some politicians these days, it packs a wallop of a C-4 exploding. You want to look at the science, Governor?  Let’s look at the science.

According to the CDC as of mid-July, 175,374 children aged 17 or under contracted Coronavirus. That represents 6% of the total; deaths for the group is only 0.2% of all fatalities. In actual numbers, that’s 228 children dying from Covid-19. Here’s where statistical legerdemain plays its cards: under 15, deaths drop to 31. New York, North Carolina, Minnesota, Texas, Oklahoma have all suffered at least one death of a young person. In Texas, one county has reported 85 infants under one year have tested positive. According to Houston’s KHOU 11’s website, Coronavirus taskforce member Dr. Chris Bird, “We’re in the middle of an outbreak within an outbreak.” No one saw this coming. If you look at the science, it would have been a blank page under Infant Outbreak until recently. Our medical knowledge of Covid-19 evolves as the plague rages on, and scientists gather more data to turn into vital information.         

Science, more than Trump or Parsons or Patrick or any other lunatic, says we don’t know everything and are still learning. Schools need every precaution, all safeguards, vigilant monitoring and a button that says STOP!. Most districts shut schools down early as the virus’ arc swept upward in the spring. We simply do not know what may happen to children’s health when schools open in the middle of a deadly pandemic. The same holds for effects on the neighborhoods at large.

 Nervous central administrative offices, coerced by the powers-that-be, will tell you what they are going to do to protect their students. They will assure parents and convince themselves it is safe for everyone. Districts and their municipal governments are notorious for falling short on promises, spending less than they guaranteed, not hiring the personnel needed. Unfunded mandates, thy name is school. They are ill-equipped for the looming emergencies Coviod-19 threatens.

Most important of all, when school policy is decided on political, self-interest, or ideological reasons rather than disinterested professional analyses for safe schools, disaster awaits. This holds true for Democrats as well. Covid-19 education policy is emerging as a classic case of political need usurping health and safety in a medical emergency. So, parents, if you believe Gov Parsons and Lt Gov Patrick and Pres Trump are doing all they can to protect  your school-age children and not desperate to open because they see schools as the means to economic recovery and their election, send them all to school and God be with you. Just remember, like soldiers storming the beach, not all will be shot, not everyone will be hurt, but there will be the dead and injured.

 If your children are over ten, if there are pre-existing, underlying conditions the odds say your children are increasingly at risk. If there’s an infant and or seniors in your house, the 12-year old potentially could be a walking Covid bomb. You may not have received a draft notice, but your tweens or teens have been conscripted for battle. The president has ordered them to the front lines. Some will be casualties of war; Family members collateral damage. As the good governor says, look at the science.

Editor’s note: See The Green B Letter post “Covid and Kids” for more on opening the schools and the dangers to children and family.

Unsafe at Any School, Part II: Kids, Covid, and the Coming School Year

TGBL wrote several weeks ago about the reopening of schools and the dangers of having more ominous X-factors than the movies have X-Men. With many districts’ scheduled SY20/21 opening approaching faster than you can say social distancing, the debate has heated up across the country like the Mojave Desert in August. The epicenter travels like a deadly cloud from New York and Michigan and Illinois to Florida, Texas and Arizona. We can only hold what breath we have left as the lives of our kids and families are in the hands of a clueless president, an obsequious Education Secretary, waffling and ignorant governors, lunatic Lt Governors,  fearful faculties, nervous administrators, partisan bickering, anxious parents, and cooped up tweens and teens.

The CDC and medical experts have provided professional policy for operating schools as safely as possible, even though the Administration and others have trashed it. The protocols may also be our best hope to save lives with in-person learning by maximizing safety in schools. The CDC actually grasps the severity of a lethal pandemic and how best buildings can strive to maintain a healthy environment in the sixty-page guidelines the once venerated institution produced. A scientific consensus has formed around it, supported by mostly medical professionals, school superintendents/commissioners, sane Republicans and Democrats. The devil is in the details, not to mention a dogged, invisible foe.

The White House and its acolytes have rejected the CDC because their recommendations are too expensive, too scientifically based, too much work and, most importantly, not politically useful to the president. The GOP wants the schools to reflect a life-as-normal regimen, hoping that would reflect positively on their decisions to open. Also, the veneer of a regular school day routine may comfort people. The feel-good move, however illusory, would boost overall confidence that we’ve turned a corner, leading to increased consumer spending. For Trump, who is as allergic to governing as he is to truth, “Make America Normal Again” keys his reelection, no matter how many bodies lay in refrigerated trucks.

In late April, Gov DeSantis of Florida proclaimed, "Everyone in the media was saying Florida would be like New York or Italy and that has not happened”, CNN quoted him from late April. Still proclaiming victory in July, the Sunshine State has turned into the Febrile State, running out of beds, cases are skyrocketing, and positivity is at 24% tested—33% in Miami Dade. Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, led a small but vocal chorus of Conservative Republicans urging senior citizens to sacrifice their lives to re-open the economy. This, from the same party who accused Obama and Democrats’ Affordable Care Act of creating death panels for seniors. They’ve yet to prove how such a sacrifice would be the casual agent for pre-Covid prosperity, but why stop at old people? Physically challenged, health compromised of all ages, high-burden citizens could be thrown in the mix. Put your ears to the conch pf history and you will hear the faint echoes of “Lebensunwertes Leben”, Life unworthy of life, sacrificed for the Fatherland’s making Germany great again. No one should be exempt from America’s new patriotic exhortation: “I regret that I have but one life to give for the economy and Trump’s reelection”.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, the Bambi of the Administration, has been eyes-in-the-headlights clear about several things. There is no plan from the Department of Education to guide, collaborate, and help public school districts open amid the pandemic. She has very eagerly threatened to withhold funding for those districts that do not open in full. When asked on CNN if she could confidently tell parents no one will get COVID from re-opening schools, her best Bambi showed up. She tells us America has a commitment to invest in our kids’ education; “schools have to open up”. We also have a commitment to safety to go along with the investment, but we are not hearing that. We are not hearing sympathy for the victims of Covid-19, nor see tears shed for frontline warriors in hospitals and clinics and everywhere care is needed. We do hear threats, we have learned the sound of callous indifference, the denial of help to get by. There is a sadistic bent to our Covid-19 non-policy from the administration. This is what you are facing when you send your kid to school in 2020.    

Before the school bell rings, let’s review.  A non compos mentis Education Secretary; a President who is trashing our leading expert on infectious diseases because Fauci’s truth telling mitigates against panicky campaign spin; our best scientific advice goes unheeded, unwanted, unused by Feds as virus casualties skyrocket. Governors in Florida, Texas, South Dakota, Oklahoma do their best imitation of “Jaws’” Murray Hamilton as Mayor Vaughn saying, “What shark? It’s our busy season!”  Only one consistent policy exists--Trump’s favorite: extortion. His threat to withhold funding for schools that do not fully open is no different than his holding back on PPE for Michigan, or withholding weapons from Ukraine. The more lives at risk, the better the extortion, the greater the adrenalin rush.

 Overcrowding will be Covid-19’s best friends. For decades, school density has been met with expedience for larger and larger class size. No matter what the class size, all kids can learn. Middle schools should be topped at 500-750 but run to 1200-1400; high schools max out at 4000--5000 plus, but should be no more than 1500-2000. In many places, such as New York City, schools share one building, adding to ghetto-like conditions of wall-to-wall people and sharing common areas, such as cafeterias and gyms. The history of cutting expenses and sardine-stuffing classes brought those numbers home to roost, as Covid-19 demands the reduction to minimalist headcounts. The health and logistical nightmares of opening en masse and in full are brewing a perfect storm for the virus to feed. Ominously, Florida has just reported 30% of its children tested positive.                                              

Three Arizona teachers shared a classroom for remote lessons contracted Covid-19; one died. Protocols apparently were followed and still the potency of this disease manifested itself. Teachers share classrooms more than ever, often traveling to multiple rooms in a day. Children  walk through narrow corridors, up and down staircases, loiter in lobby areas. All these areas are minefields of adolescent expectoration, touchy feely kissy moments, depositories for expired chewing gum, target practice for spitballs and water balloons, fistfights and impromptu slalom runs around the ones who prefer a mere walk to class, often resulting in collisions with the unwitting human poles to varying degrees of damage and confrontation. Every face a target for a bully’s saliva, or a new enemy made by a wayward glance. In urban schools, eyes briefly locking have caused race or gang-based riots. Masks may be worn, but a more seductive target for a takedown has not existed since baggy shorts. An expansive list for creative acts of teen age rebellion and chest-beating displays of victorious invulnerability stands ready for revelation. Just ring the school bell.  

 Anyone believing school kids will not make a mockery of rules or break them at such frequency as to stretch staff’s ability to count needs a remedial lesson in the real world. In the Age of Covid-19, any annoying or obnoxious act now has the immediacy of a medical emergency.

We know healthy children can deal better with Covid-19 than adults, but what we do not know is the extent to which the virus will infect, and to what degree, a school’s student population and the impact on adults in the building. Children over ten are more susceptible, and the effects of the virus can differ from child to child. We know children can suffer multi system inflammatory syndrome. We know some have died or suffered permanent damage to heart, lungs, and brain from having suffered through it. Students also have pre-existing health conditions, such as asthma, heart, and weight issues.

It is bad enough no one knows what will happen when schools open, whether to 100% capacity or even 50%, given the current severity of the pandemic. Without implementing strict CDC guidelines and in the absence of a hands-on federal government, our national leadership has gone AWOL. Inadequate resources, political decisions over safety, ignoring the warnings and rejecting the protocols that minimize contraction will leave the rest of us with chewed finger nails, and knuckles whiter than a polar bear for what each day may bring.

At some point, America will bring itself to account for what may develop this fall. TGBL knows full well the need for parents to return to work. The unwritten number one job of modern school is babysitting ever since two-income, career-driven households became the norm. Kids do have to return to school. We agree with the American Pediatric Association in principle. Lost learning and socialization has already taken a toll on our youngest Americans. The basic necessities of life – the ground floor of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs—food, shelter, clothing ---cannot be sustained when the hunter-gatherers do not leave the cave. Proceed with caution: Any opening must be measured and circumspect, meeting steppingstones of safety and CDC guidelines with utmost diligence. Someone described the awakening of states and their localities being on a dimmer rather than a switch. We’ll stick with that metaphor, and put to the country that our hand must turn it brighter only after the previous click sheds more light on the situation. Open when ready, stay shut if not, incremental steps as warranted.

For schools that open with social distancing and much smaller classes, an interesting pedagogical experiment will be taking place. For some 30 years, schools have been operating on the premise that collaborative or group work is the only way effective learning happens. This model is perfect for neutralizing absurdly large classes by trading the teacher-centric model to a student centric one, with a few kids gathered around a project or task and working together. It has kept college professors very busy with studies, papers, and advice to K-12 educators on grouping techniques, characteristics, etc.  It has also been used as a ruse to weaken the practice and art of teaching, and a way to diminish the role of the adult in the room. For years, a growing movement says teachers are less important, less needed than in bygone times, especially with the advent of technology. Grouping is not only about pedagogy; it’s also politics and a cottage industry dipping into the cookie jar.

Given social distancing, minimal sharing of objects, and small classes, actual learning should be quite poor since medical safety steps will militate against current, decades-long practice of groupwork methodology. What if students’ learning under Covid-19 rules equals success in the collaborative classroom, or exceeds previous learning measures? Could it be group learning and collaborative work are exaggerated, even rendered meaningless? TGBL believes learning by committee is a valid tool, but the coming year’s circumstances may show it has been overused, overdone, overplayed.

The lesson drawn would be the group work models are less important, even less effective, than class size and instructor-centered instruction. And no one wants to cede that turf back to teachers. Group work has its place, but it may prove not to be at the head of the class. Of course, nothing will be normal under the circumstances amid this crisis, but in those places where protocols are in place and education is working, the way we teach kids could undergo a sea change long after the virus has been put in its place.

Along with scientists, pediatricians, parents, educators, and government officials anxiously awaiting to see what transpires, college professors, educational consultants, and all who make their living by instructing schools on collaborative group learning, will be joining the nail-biting, white-knuckle club with the rest of us.    

.

Isn't It Good, Norwegian Would

 For decades, everyone knew the Palestinians’ school books indoctrinated hate, incitement to violence, Anti-Semitism; the daily objective for the lesson was always the same:  destruction of Israel as the world’s only Jewish state. In 2003 a US Congressional Appropriations subcommittee held a special hearing, “Palestine Education: Teaching Peace or War?” In 2017, Jerusalem-based Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural tolerance in School Education found the same issues as the Congressional Committee, only worse. In 2019, in a report commissioned by the European Union, the George Eckert Institute for International Text Book Research. Their conclusions were consistent with previous findings: children are fed from an early age the necessity for hatred, violence and terrorism throughout the curriculum on all age levels. Despite this knowledge, European countries and the EU poured tens of millions of dollars into the Palestinian Authority Education cupboard, with less attention to accounting and accountability than Eva Peron’s foundation did in her glory days. Thus, European governments prolong the enmity and war they claim so passionately to see resolved.

So, when Norway announced a few days ago it would cut in half its commitment through 2022 of 24 million euro to the Palestinian Authority if they did not remove the offending material from their curricula, the sudden clarity was an eye opener, especially from Norway. The Scandinavian country has had a hate-hate more relationship with the Jewish-majority democratic state for some time.

 Several possibilities exist for the tough love. The Norwegians’ recognized education’s profound effect on the path a society walks. Children taught bigotry, violence, and mass murder, including suicide attacks, grow up glorifying and acting out those values. Perhaps the Norsepeople cast an eye on the history page titled 1930s Fascist Europe. The Third Reich’s education was on a war footing, training its young in Aryan supremacy, Nazi ideology, and the sadistic racial humiliation foisted on Jewish students.  With Norway’s memory shaken, the idea of kids being taught the greatest glory is death for the Fatherland just hit too close to home. Perhaps its country’s parliament, the Storting, heard South Pacific’s “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught” and heeded the lesson:

You've got to be taught To hate and fear,

You've got to be taught From year to year

It's got to be drummed In your dear little ear

You've got to be taught before it's too late, Before you are six or seven or eight,

To hate all the people your relatives hate, You've got to be carefully taught!

Let us digress for a moment. Closer to home, in this time of George Floyd, racial unrest, cries for justice and equality, mass demonstrations, we all need to sing the song as the unofficial anthem for tolerance and respect. Because of its multi-racial interactions, Jewish creators Rodgers and Hammerstein II, and the brazenly integrationist “Carefully Taught”, the show itself was subjected to threats, government intimidation, and menacing by the very same social forces driving our citizens into the streets. The writers never yielded; the show must go on. The stage and screen became their streets. Sixty years ago, a show tune wore the mantle of a protest song, resounding through history as a hymn for our time.

Norway’s Foreign Minister Ine Soreide showed courage to stand behind parliament and demand a progressive, racially tolerant curricula for their investment. Such a European calling out of the PA appears with less frequency than Kahoutek’s Comet. The Palestinian leadership never had to answer for their spending money like a rich old man’s trophy wife. Norway’s icebreaking threat may lead other Europeans to an across-the-board re-examination of how PA and Hamas spend the donated money. If others do follow suit, the new-found pressure on the Palestinians may be the catalyst needed to bring the two sides closer to fulfilling UN Resolution 242’s demand for a negotiated solution. 

Norway’s position revives the late 60s call for peace and harmony: If you are not part of the solution, you are part pf the problem. In Westeros as in Europe, the Kingdom of the North leads the way.

The Delicate Balance

On Christmas day in 1991, the hammer and sickle flew for the last time, and its permanent removal represented a political tsunami. The tidal wave broke over the 70- year-old Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and inundated Eastern Europe and western Asia, and the rushing tide brought not death but a baptismal hope of a new life of freedom.  In 2011, the Arab Spring blossomed into a flowering new day of political pluralism, participation and expansion of individual rights – democracy reaffirmed as the universal wish of the world.

Winter is coming. The Old Iron Curtain countries have had, with an occasional exception, an ambivalent if not regressive relationship to true democracy. The Arab Spring was a very short season of hope. Civil war in Syria and erratic behavior in Egypt. Dictators on the left and right rule with a façade of democracy and an iron grip to replace the Iron Curtain. Democracies and their liberties weakened by their own leaders.

Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing.                                                                                     Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago.  (Pete Seeger)

 Winston Churchill said democracy is a bad form of government, but the others are so much worse. It now appears deflated, and its survival uncertain. It demands constant participation and attention.  Democracy has always been a delicate balance, held together by a gentlemen’s agreement and a handshake. A principle of Shotokan karate says the art is like boiling water, without the fire, it turns cold. Winter is coming.

In 2004 during a talk at the American University in Rome, Franco Frattini, an Italian diplomat and past EU official, said that although Europe’s nations are Old World with far longer histories than the USA’s, America is the oldest active and most vibrant democracy. That is why Europe looks to American leadership. The brightest star in the constellation. The light has dimmed and the glow from Lady Liberty’s torch has darkened.

No, the cause is not the Constitutional right to protest, a glorious expression of freedom that has stirred others for decades. We see this playing out in our streets across the country. There are people of all colors and religions, united to make things better through our First Amendment. Much has been accomplished by peaceful protests drawing out the evil that they bring to light. From tragedy comes hope for good and needed change. Pres. Trump, himself ignorant of history, has cut the ropes and raised the anchor setting adrift the ship of state. He is not the only one to blame.   

We don’t teach our students to honor all of America’s servicemen and women, so people may freely voice their opposition, in the streets and at the polling places. No, it is not perfect, and never will be. But we endeavor to make it so, as if there is a perfect form of America in Plato’s sky of perfect objects that we can only attempt to achieve. Perfection from fallible humanity defines oxymoronic.

We all have political grievances, disagreements of low and high degree. Racial, economic, religious, environmental, social. But in America’s flaws we can tell our kids nowhere else do people rise above and fight for justice, fairness and equality in so many ways and be so proud of that. Love and respect transcend family arguments. If our young people don’t respect nor understand the massive sacrifice of so many to protect those rights to march openly and speak freely, that is our fault.

 We have a large immigrant and minority population; many serve, guarding our democratic heritage; many have not. Most natural born Americans, since the draft ended, never served. Without conscription, a family with a veteran or a tradition of military service, education is Uncle Sam’s outreach to illuminate the human cost of preserving democracy.  Schools must examine our nation’s failures, just as Germany mandates Holocaust studies, we too cannot look askance at our Japanese internment camps nor give slavery short shrift. Our mistakes cannot define us, but our lurching forward to atone and make amends for a better country can. This includes a new-found appreciation for our military.

 How do we preserve the freedoms to demand a more perfect union without acknowledging the history behind the holidays, and honor the soldier’s legacy. It’s time to honor the military in our schools and begin teaching about our nation’s high holy days: Memorial Day, Veteran’s Day, Flag Day, July 4th, reflecting and paying respects to our soldiers and responders who have lost health or lives, so free expression in America still stands as the global model for legitimate dissent.

Nothing happens in May and June, ‘the vast wasteland’ of the school calendar. The last five weeks can be a glorious time to celebrate America—what it means, what it must become, and why we must hold sacred its current and past warriors. What a perfect time to implement teaching about true heroes from small towns and big cities, what they fought for and the debt owed. For all the unnecessary and dubious requirements thrown at schools, what we need most has been injuriously absent. If we don’t keep the water boiling, it will turn cold.

June 6th, 2020 marked the 76th anniversary of the largest invasion in world history. Thousands died, many more hurt on that day alone, so that those commemorating the life and protesting the death of George Floyd could do so. Not a single sign or salute during the demonstrations paying tribute to them could be seen in Saturday’s crowds. Did they even know it was D-Day, or what it signifies?  Mass protests have taken place in Floyd’s name also in UK, Canada—democracies that lost so many young men on Normandy’s beaches. It was D-Day, and everyone took for granted the rights they exercised by ignoring the sacrifices made that day and subsequent days of battle and death.   

“Johnny Tremain”, a novel about Boston on the cusp of revolution, was once required reading in New York City. A valuable learning tool on so many levels, was amputated by the curriculum butchers. Near the story’s end, in a secret meeting, the Sons of Liberty contemplated a question from James Otis, ”Why fight?”  He answered his own question for all: “So a man can stand up.”

If we don’t keep the water boiling, it will turn cold.