Horlick voting project canceled

The Journal Times ^ | 11/1/04 | Phyllis Sides

[TexKat]

RACINE - The get out the vote project planned by Horlick High School students has been canceled.

Racine Unified School District Superintendent Thomas Hicks said what started out to be a class-related activity last week turned out to be a partisan event. The decision to cancel the event was made Monday morning after he learned the facts had changed and it was no longer a bipartisan endeavor.

"At one point it appeared it was going to be bipartisan and reach out to all of the community. But some groups decided they didn't want be part of it. Not everyone was interested in being part of a bipartisan effort," Hicks said.

"Over the weekend it turned into what gave appearance of not being bipartisan. And even if it's only the appearance of less than bipartisan the district's policy is very clear. Teachers and students cannot be involved in that type of activity during school time."

However, teacher Al Levie did follow procedure in developing the project, Hicks said. "The last thing I want people to think is that the teacher didn't follow policy or did something wrong. He did everything he was supposed to do."

Levie said Jose Martinez, assistant superintendent for secondary education, called him Monday morning to say that the trip would be canceled.

The students were upset by the news, Levie said. Although he doesn't know if the decision was prompted by political pressure, it was a shame that a valuable learning experience had been lost, Levie said.

If political pressure was responsible, he added: It would be "very disturbing that political pressure could be brought to bear to stop the project. If so, it's the antithesis of democracy. We're not teaching kids good values when a learning experience can be canceled by partisan politics."

On Friday the Free Republic Web site posted a Journal Times story about the project with this header "Racine, WI - Need FReeper help to counter massive liberal GOTV effort using public school students! To read all the posted comments check out http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1261500/posts

For more information, see Tuesday's print edition of The Journal Times.

[weegee]

So students took matters into their own hands. They skipped class, with their parents' permission phoned into the school, and hit the streets anyway.

That would be an UNEXCUSED ABSCENSE. If I were a teacher there I would have a simple pop quiz that day (nothing challenging for the students who DID show up).