From the BCCT this morning. Another big "thank you" to the retired teachers who participated. You gave once in the classroom, and now you're doing it again!
Project outifts kids for school season
School retirees donate backpacks, clothes and school supplies to needy families at the Family Service Association in Middletown.
By CHRISTIAN MENNO
Eleven-year-old Brielle Nusser loves the color purple.
Her twin sister Brianna has a strong affection towards anything pink.
On Friday, as they sat, sprawled out on the floor of the Family Service Association community room in Middletown, the girls eagerly examined their new backpacks — one purple, one pink — each bursting with school supplies and clothes, most of which matched their favorite hues.
As each item was removed from the bags, a quick “Mom, look!” squeaked through the twins’ relentless smiles.
Their mother, Jeannie Lutz of Bristol, gazed back approvingly, as tears welled in her eyes.
Dozens of others, mostly members of the Pennsylvania Association of School Retirees and staffers of the FSA, looked on as well.
Brielle and Brianna were the first children to receive their donated clothes and supplies as part of this year’s Bucks County Back-to-School Klothes 4 Kids Project.
This is the fourth year that FSA has joined with the PASR and the Bucks First Federal Credit Union to help needy children and families throughout the county, as they prepare for the always anxious and usually expensive back-to-school season.
“Families are struggling with the way the economy is right now,” FSA communications coordinator Stephanie Sides said, as she waded through the room packed with dozens of volunteers and more than 130 backpacks.
“They are not able to buy new things and kids are wearing handme-downs. It’s so important that these kids have a new outfit and some new things. It really gets them excited for the school year and it just gives them some encouragement.”
The project starts with the FSA, which puts together a list of names, along with clothes sizes and color preferences. Willing members of PASR then “adopt” a child, receive the information and start shopping. Meanwhile the Bucks First Federal prints brochures and sends them out to each of its 14,000 members to encourage any additional donations.
The result, Sides said, is a child with the confidence and enthusiasm to jump into the school year.
On Friday, it was clear that the two biggest smiles in the room belonged to Brielle and Brianna, but if anyone’s grin could compare it was Meg Kramer’s.
Kramer, a former president of PASR and a retired Pennsbury elementary school teacher, shopped for the twins this year. She had also “adopted” them two years ago, but had never met the soon-to-be sixth-graders until now.
“They were in my imagination and I just had fun shopping for them,” she said. “But this … I just can’t describe it. It’s wonderful.”
Kramer was then wrapped up with hugs as the girls showed their appreciation.
Their mother was just as grateful.
“This has been a lot of help over these last couple of years,” Lutz said, still holding back tears. “It’s very touching.”
Eventually all the backpacks will be emptied from the room, as FSA counselors deliver them to their families, giving dozens of other children a jumpstart for the school year.
Deborah Gable, who taught at Makefield Elementary for 32 years, donated supplies and outfits set to go to a kindergartner.
“This is my second year participating,” she said. “It was so invigorating last year that I just had to follow through again.”
Sides explained that these former teachers and school employees make the perfect match for this kind of project.
“Once a teacher, always a teacher,” she said. “The fact that they’re still helping these kids is very important to them.
“The kids see these complete strangers do something so nice for them, and they learn from that. They learn about giving back.”
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Can a School Dress Code Lead to Murder?
From the Inquirer by way of the Ventura County Star. This story was also the cover story in Newsweek several weeks ago. There's no winners in this heartbreaking story.
The school district itself can be rightfully blamed for a number of lapses, but blaming the presence, or lack of enforcement of, a dress code in this tragedy completely abandons the idea of parental responsibility.
Is there anyone on the planet who thinks that a fifteen year old boy in glitter and stilettos would NOT become the object of ridicule during the slow times in algebra class? The time to make this claim about dress code enforcement was at the breakfast table on the very first day it happened. The parent who (hopefully) spewed out their coffee over the morning newspaper should have addressed the situation right there and then.
I was once fifteen, and I suspect many of you can remember that time as well. I knew "everything" back then. It's only today that I know how woefully unprepared and naive I was. That's why we're provided parents, guardians, and/or mentors: to supply that perspective.
Larger than the issue of dress code enforcement is the question of where King should have been going to school. Seen in the context of Morrisville, should he have been attending MHS, or an alternative school like DVHS? I would rather fault the school district in that context. Think about this analogy: Was King rightfully kept in the mainstream for educational reasons or wrongfully because the school board president thought special ed costs were excessive?
If my children were students in that English class, were witnesses to this tragedy, and I found out that the local Emperor of Education had insisted on keeping a potentially disruptive student in the mainstream to keep costs down, well, let's say I would break my neck to find the lawyer that I would make rich.
This opens up the concepts of special education, IEPs, and the tuitioning out of MHS students to alternative schools. Let's not hype this unnecessarily, but these are all tough and real questions that would need to be answered.
A school provides services "in loco parentis", in place of the parents in some certain situations and occurrences, most notably in the matter of locker searches and basic adult rights being applied to minors. As the Wikipedia article explicitly notes, dress code issues in schools have never made it to Washington and the Supreme Court.
I hope Larry King's family can find some measure of peace, but the responsibility for their son's unconventional closet starts, and ends, at home.
Family of gay boy slain in Calif. blames school
Posted on Fri, Aug. 15, 2008
VENTURA, Calif. - The family of a gay teenager who was fatally shot in class blames the school district for allowing their son to wear makeup and feminine clothing to school , factors the family claims led to the death.
The parents and brother of 15-year-old Larry King of Oxnard filed a personal injury claim against the Hueneme school district seeking unspecified damages for not enforcing the dress code.
King, an eighth-grader at E.O. Green Junior High School, was shot in February. Classmate Brandon McInerney pleaded not guilty to the shooting last week. He was charged as an adult and also faces a charge of a committing a hate crime.
The family's claim, filed last week in Ventura County Superior Court, said administrators and teachers failed to enforce the school's dress code when King wore feminine clothing and makeup to school.
His parents, Dawn and Gregory King, said faculty members knew their son had "unique vulnerabilities" and was subject to abuse because of his sexual orientation.
King was a ward of the court and living at a shelter for abused, neglected and emotionally troubled children at the time of the shooting.
A call for comment to district Superintendent Jerry Dannenberg was not immediately returned.
State law requires individuals to file a claim before proceeding with a lawsuit against a public agency.
The school district itself can be rightfully blamed for a number of lapses, but blaming the presence, or lack of enforcement of, a dress code in this tragedy completely abandons the idea of parental responsibility.
Is there anyone on the planet who thinks that a fifteen year old boy in glitter and stilettos would NOT become the object of ridicule during the slow times in algebra class? The time to make this claim about dress code enforcement was at the breakfast table on the very first day it happened. The parent who (hopefully) spewed out their coffee over the morning newspaper should have addressed the situation right there and then.
I was once fifteen, and I suspect many of you can remember that time as well. I knew "everything" back then. It's only today that I know how woefully unprepared and naive I was. That's why we're provided parents, guardians, and/or mentors: to supply that perspective.
Larger than the issue of dress code enforcement is the question of where King should have been going to school. Seen in the context of Morrisville, should he have been attending MHS, or an alternative school like DVHS? I would rather fault the school district in that context. Think about this analogy: Was King rightfully kept in the mainstream for educational reasons or wrongfully because the school board president thought special ed costs were excessive?
If my children were students in that English class, were witnesses to this tragedy, and I found out that the local Emperor of Education had insisted on keeping a potentially disruptive student in the mainstream to keep costs down, well, let's say I would break my neck to find the lawyer that I would make rich.
This opens up the concepts of special education, IEPs, and the tuitioning out of MHS students to alternative schools. Let's not hype this unnecessarily, but these are all tough and real questions that would need to be answered.
A school provides services "in loco parentis", in place of the parents in some certain situations and occurrences, most notably in the matter of locker searches and basic adult rights being applied to minors. As the Wikipedia article explicitly notes, dress code issues in schools have never made it to Washington and the Supreme Court.
I hope Larry King's family can find some measure of peace, but the responsibility for their son's unconventional closet starts, and ends, at home.
Family of gay boy slain in Calif. blames school
Posted on Fri, Aug. 15, 2008
VENTURA, Calif. - The family of a gay teenager who was fatally shot in class blames the school district for allowing their son to wear makeup and feminine clothing to school , factors the family claims led to the death.
The parents and brother of 15-year-old Larry King of Oxnard filed a personal injury claim against the Hueneme school district seeking unspecified damages for not enforcing the dress code.
King, an eighth-grader at E.O. Green Junior High School, was shot in February. Classmate Brandon McInerney pleaded not guilty to the shooting last week. He was charged as an adult and also faces a charge of a committing a hate crime.
The family's claim, filed last week in Ventura County Superior Court, said administrators and teachers failed to enforce the school's dress code when King wore feminine clothing and makeup to school.
His parents, Dawn and Gregory King, said faculty members knew their son had "unique vulnerabilities" and was subject to abuse because of his sexual orientation.
King was a ward of the court and living at a shelter for abused, neglected and emotionally troubled children at the time of the shooting.
A call for comment to district Superintendent Jerry Dannenberg was not immediately returned.
State law requires individuals to file a claim before proceeding with a lawsuit against a public agency.
The New Math Teacher Looks a LOT Like Dirty Harry
From the Houston Chronicle. This was too off the wall to post in a collection of school stories.
Be careful. Your next teacher could be packing heat. "Does that homework portfolio have five assignments or six? Well, I don't rightly know, but it better have six. Do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do you?"
North Texas school district will let teachers carry guns
Associated Press, Aug. 15, 2008, 4:27PM
HARROLD, Texas — A tiny Texas school district may be the first in the nation to allow teachers and staff to pack guns for protection when classes begin later this month, a newspaper reported.
Trustees at the Harrold Independent School District approved a district policy change last October so employees can carry concealed firearms to deter and protect against school shootings, provided the gun-toting teachers follow certain requirements.
In order for teachers and staff to carry a pistol, they must have a Texas license to carry a concealed handgun; must be authorized to carry by the district; must receive training in crisis management and hostile situations and have to use ammunition that is designed to minimize the risk of ricochet in school halls.
Superintendent David Thweatt said the small community is a 30-minute drive from the sheriff's office, leaving students and teachers without protection. He said the district's lone campus sits 500 feet from heavily trafficked U.S. 287, which could make it a target.
"When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that's when all of these shootings started. Why would you put it out there that a group of people can't defend themselves? That's like saying 'sic 'em' to a dog," Thweatt said in Friday's online edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Thweatt said officials researched the policy and considered other options for about a year before approving the policy change. He said the district also has various other security measures in place to prevent a school shooting.
"The naysayers think (a shooting) won't happen here. If something were to happen here, I'd much rather be calling a parent to tell them that their child is OK because we were able to protect them," Thweatt said.
Texas law outlaws firearms on school campuses "unless pursuant to the written regulations or written authorization of the institution."
It was unclear how many of the 50 or so teachers and staff members will be armed this fall because Thweatt did not disclose that information, to keep it from students or potential attackers. Wilbarger County Sheriff Larry Lee was out of the office Thursday and did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment, the newspaper said.
Barbara Williams, a spokeswoman for the Texas Association of School Boards, said her organization did not know of another district with such a policy. Ken Trump, a Cleveland-based school security expert who advises districts nationwide, including in Texas, said Harrold is the first district with such a policy.
The 110-student district is 150 miles northwest of Fort Worth on the eastern end of Wilbarger County, near the Oklahoma border.
On the Web:
Harrold Independent School District, http://harroldisd.net/
Be careful. Your next teacher could be packing heat. "Does that homework portfolio have five assignments or six? Well, I don't rightly know, but it better have six. Do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do you?"
North Texas school district will let teachers carry guns
Associated Press, Aug. 15, 2008, 4:27PM
HARROLD, Texas — A tiny Texas school district may be the first in the nation to allow teachers and staff to pack guns for protection when classes begin later this month, a newspaper reported.
Trustees at the Harrold Independent School District approved a district policy change last October so employees can carry concealed firearms to deter and protect against school shootings, provided the gun-toting teachers follow certain requirements.
In order for teachers and staff to carry a pistol, they must have a Texas license to carry a concealed handgun; must be authorized to carry by the district; must receive training in crisis management and hostile situations and have to use ammunition that is designed to minimize the risk of ricochet in school halls.
Superintendent David Thweatt said the small community is a 30-minute drive from the sheriff's office, leaving students and teachers without protection. He said the district's lone campus sits 500 feet from heavily trafficked U.S. 287, which could make it a target.
"When the federal government started making schools gun-free zones, that's when all of these shootings started. Why would you put it out there that a group of people can't defend themselves? That's like saying 'sic 'em' to a dog," Thweatt said in Friday's online edition of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
Thweatt said officials researched the policy and considered other options for about a year before approving the policy change. He said the district also has various other security measures in place to prevent a school shooting.
"The naysayers think (a shooting) won't happen here. If something were to happen here, I'd much rather be calling a parent to tell them that their child is OK because we were able to protect them," Thweatt said.
Texas law outlaws firearms on school campuses "unless pursuant to the written regulations or written authorization of the institution."
It was unclear how many of the 50 or so teachers and staff members will be armed this fall because Thweatt did not disclose that information, to keep it from students or potential attackers. Wilbarger County Sheriff Larry Lee was out of the office Thursday and did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment, the newspaper said.
Barbara Williams, a spokeswoman for the Texas Association of School Boards, said her organization did not know of another district with such a policy. Ken Trump, a Cleveland-based school security expert who advises districts nationwide, including in Texas, said Harrold is the first district with such a policy.
The 110-student district is 150 miles northwest of Fort Worth on the eastern end of Wilbarger County, near the Oklahoma border.
On the Web:
Harrold Independent School District, http://harroldisd.net/
Moving up one rank
Remember our friend from the Nevada State BOE?
Aug. 12, 2008 Las Vegas Review-Journal
BOARD OF EDUCATION: Member of panel resigns
Conduct at public meetings called 'distracting,' 'shocking'
Greg Nance quit the Nevada Board of Education on Monday following a weekend of public meeting make-out sessions with his new wife.
Sharon Frederick, a fellow board member, said Nance's behavior was "like watching a reality TV show. It was so distracting!"
Vice President Anthony Ruggiero called Nance's conduct "shocking and deplorable."
Board member Jan Biggerstaff said she met with Nance on Monday morning and told him that the bad publicity was going to hurt his political career and ability to serve.
But Nance, 49, cited his health issues and the need to take care of his 20-year-old wife, Sharona Dagani, who has cerebral palsy, as reasons for resigning.
"I have to put her first," he said.
Dagani sat beside Nance at Friday and Saturday's Board of Education meeting while strapped into a motorized wheelchair.
A year ago, television news reports said Dagani had about $2 million in a trust fund from a medical malpractice lawsuit. Dagani's mother went to the media in 2007 after the young woman left her Jewish family to join the International Church of Las Vegas, an evangelical church where her part-time caregiver was a member.
Nance acknowledged he is now "well-off" but said he signed a prenuptial agreement to protect his wife's assets. He also told the board that he wants to change his last name to hers.
In January, Nance wrote in a Nevada financial disclosure statement for public officials that he "owned nothing" and that everything belonged to his ministry, Ambassadors for Christ, which he operated out of his home with his now-deceased wife, Rita Nyberg.
"We have taken a vow of poverty," wrote Nance, who said he is a Pentecostal preacher.
Nyberg died in October, when Nance allowed doctors to take her off life support.
"I didn't want to do it," Nance said, explaining that Nyberg had cancer and was unconscious from a seizure. She might have lived another month, Nance said, but there was no chance for recovery.
Within 24 hours of Nyberg's death, Nance said he suffered a heart attack, the first of three since October.
Nance met his current wife at the Mission Pines nursing home, where they were both patients.
The couple wed on July 28, according to a wedding certificate.
Nance was elected to the state Board of Education in 2006, representing District 5, which is in Las Vegas. During board meetings, Nance has spoken about being a special-education student while in school. He told the Review-Journal that he dropped out of school in the ninth grade and has worked as a taxi driver.
Friday was Nance's first meeting after a long absence because of health problems.
The meeting was a video conference between board members in Las Vegas and Carson City, but Nance was the only official in Las Vegas on Friday.
Nance said he was weary from a long honeymoon. "Too much partying and rock 'n' roll" were his reasons for sleeping through much of the meeting. Ruggiero often had to prompt Nance for his vote at the Friday meeting.
On Saturday morning when the board reconvened, Nance came dressed in the same clothes he wore Friday: white slacks, a sleeveless blue T-shirt and sneakers but no socks. Sometimes he donned Elvis-style sunglasses.
This time, board member Cindy Reid was in the room and objected when Nance began dangling jewelry in the face of his giggling wife. Ruggiero halted the meeting.
When Deputy Attorney Ed Irvin asked Nance to show decorum, he responded that there was no law saying his wife could not sit with him. "Therefore, bite me!" Nance told the attorney.
He had two years left in his term. Ruggiero and State Superintendent of Schools Keith Rheault hope the governor acts quickly to appoint Nance's successor.
Board President Marcia Washington has missed recent meetings because she has been taking care of her ailing mother, which means the board could have difficulty assembling a quorum.
"We don't want to let (Nance's vacancy) fall through the cracks," Ruggiero said.
Aug. 12, 2008 Las Vegas Review-Journal
BOARD OF EDUCATION: Member of panel resigns
Conduct at public meetings called 'distracting,' 'shocking'
Greg Nance quit the Nevada Board of Education on Monday following a weekend of public meeting make-out sessions with his new wife.
Sharon Frederick, a fellow board member, said Nance's behavior was "like watching a reality TV show. It was so distracting!"
Vice President Anthony Ruggiero called Nance's conduct "shocking and deplorable."
Board member Jan Biggerstaff said she met with Nance on Monday morning and told him that the bad publicity was going to hurt his political career and ability to serve.
But Nance, 49, cited his health issues and the need to take care of his 20-year-old wife, Sharona Dagani, who has cerebral palsy, as reasons for resigning.
"I have to put her first," he said.
Dagani sat beside Nance at Friday and Saturday's Board of Education meeting while strapped into a motorized wheelchair.
A year ago, television news reports said Dagani had about $2 million in a trust fund from a medical malpractice lawsuit. Dagani's mother went to the media in 2007 after the young woman left her Jewish family to join the International Church of Las Vegas, an evangelical church where her part-time caregiver was a member.
Nance acknowledged he is now "well-off" but said he signed a prenuptial agreement to protect his wife's assets. He also told the board that he wants to change his last name to hers.
In January, Nance wrote in a Nevada financial disclosure statement for public officials that he "owned nothing" and that everything belonged to his ministry, Ambassadors for Christ, which he operated out of his home with his now-deceased wife, Rita Nyberg.
"We have taken a vow of poverty," wrote Nance, who said he is a Pentecostal preacher.
Nyberg died in October, when Nance allowed doctors to take her off life support.
"I didn't want to do it," Nance said, explaining that Nyberg had cancer and was unconscious from a seizure. She might have lived another month, Nance said, but there was no chance for recovery.
Within 24 hours of Nyberg's death, Nance said he suffered a heart attack, the first of three since October.
Nance met his current wife at the Mission Pines nursing home, where they were both patients.
The couple wed on July 28, according to a wedding certificate.
Nance was elected to the state Board of Education in 2006, representing District 5, which is in Las Vegas. During board meetings, Nance has spoken about being a special-education student while in school. He told the Review-Journal that he dropped out of school in the ninth grade and has worked as a taxi driver.
Friday was Nance's first meeting after a long absence because of health problems.
The meeting was a video conference between board members in Las Vegas and Carson City, but Nance was the only official in Las Vegas on Friday.
Nance said he was weary from a long honeymoon. "Too much partying and rock 'n' roll" were his reasons for sleeping through much of the meeting. Ruggiero often had to prompt Nance for his vote at the Friday meeting.
On Saturday morning when the board reconvened, Nance came dressed in the same clothes he wore Friday: white slacks, a sleeveless blue T-shirt and sneakers but no socks. Sometimes he donned Elvis-style sunglasses.
This time, board member Cindy Reid was in the room and objected when Nance began dangling jewelry in the face of his giggling wife. Ruggiero halted the meeting.
When Deputy Attorney Ed Irvin asked Nance to show decorum, he responded that there was no law saying his wife could not sit with him. "Therefore, bite me!" Nance told the attorney.
He had two years left in his term. Ruggiero and State Superintendent of Schools Keith Rheault hope the governor acts quickly to appoint Nance's successor.
Board President Marcia Washington has missed recent meetings because she has been taking care of her ailing mother, which means the board could have difficulty assembling a quorum.
"We don't want to let (Nance's vacancy) fall through the cracks," Ruggiero said.
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