Posted on 06/02/2005 4:50:02 AM PDT by NotchJohnson
GOVERNMENT SCHOOL --- SOLDIERS NOT WELCOME
We talked about this one on the show yesterday, but it didn't make the Nuze. So here we go .. the story of the Anita White Carson Middle School in Greensboro, Greene County, Georgia.
Our cast of characters is as follows:
Matthew Lund, first year teacher Ulrica Corbett, Principal. Zach Richardson, Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps. So .. here's the story, gleaned from the front page of the May 26th edition of Greensboro Herald-Journal.
Matthew Lund and Zach Richardson were college roommates. After college Richard joined the Marines and Lund started teaching. Richardson went to Iraq, Lund to Carson Middle School, there to teach a 6th grade language arts class.
As a class assignment Lund gave his students the opportunity to write a letter to Sgt. Richardson in Iraq. Richardson wrote back and gave the class the names of five other Marines who would like to receive letters. Soon other middle school classes were also sending letters to the Marines in Iraq.
When Sgt. Richardson returned to the United States he told Matthew Lund that he wanted to come to the Carson Middle School to personally thank the students for their support and letters. Lund filled out and submitted a "Resource Visitor or Guest Speaker Form" and submitted it to Principal Corbett. Lund says he never got the form back from Corbett. He says he asked the Principal about the form, and was told that she was not going to look at it.
Lund says that he realized his request to have Sgt. Richardson visit the school was going to be ignored by Ulrica Corbett. He made the decision to proceed with the plans for the visit, a visit that took place, or was to take place on May 23rd, one week before Memorial Day.
When Sgt. Richardson showed up at the Carson Middle School Lund took him to the school's media center to prepare to meet the students. At that point, according to Lund, Principal Corbett called him into the hall and told him that the Marine was not approved to be at the school. Lund told Corbett that the proper form had been submitted and had been ignored. Corbett's response was "that's your problem, not mine." Lund's version of the discussion with Corbett in the hallway suggests that Corbett harbored a great deal of hostility toward Sgt. Richardson and Matthew Lund. She told Lund that the students had not earned the visit from the Marine, and closed the discussion with Lund with the phrase "what part of what we just discussed do you not understand?" She then ordered Matthew Lund to escort Sgt. Richardson off the school campus.
When this story hit the local newspaper Ulrica Corbett thought it best to do a little CYA work. She submitted a written statement to the Herald-Journal in which she stated "My decision not to allow Zach Richardson to speak with the students on Monday came out of my regard for the safety and welfare of our children." What a crock. Is Ulrica Corbett saying that this U.S. Marine who had just spent a year putting his life on the line for his country presented some sort of a threat to the children at the Carson Middle School?
My guess? What we have here is some self-important middle school principal who harbors a dislike, if not an outright hatred, of the American armed forces, and who is steadfastly opposed to our actions in Iraq and quite possibly in Afghanistan. This principal then decided to let her petty prejudices stand in the way of what would have been a memorable and rewarding experience for both Sgt. Richardson and the children of Matthew Lund's 6th grade class. Now that's just a guess. I've received messages that Ulrica Corbett has family members in the military and serving in Iraq. You would have thought that information might have been set forth in her written statement to the newspaper. It wasn't
Corbett is saying that the teacher didn't follow protocol. The newspaper has signed and dated copies of the documentation submitted by Lund. Someone here isn't telling the truth. One thing for sure: Protocol be dammed, Ulrica Corbett could have found a way to allow this soldier to talk to the students who had befriended him. She didn't
This morning the story is getting increased attention. Calls have been coming into the Greene County Schools from across the nation. Superintendent John Jackson has offered a written apology, saying that the situation could have been handled differently. The official story still seems to be that Lund didn't follow the necessary steps to get permission for Richardson's visit. I would like to know a little more about Lund's assertion that Corbett told him that she was simply "not going to look at" the written request, and that this was "(his) problem, not mine." Right now it sounds more like the problem was with Corbett, not Lund. I guess it should be expected that the superintendent would protect an established principal in a controversy with a first year teacher on the way out the door.
Thanks to the Herald-Journal the people of Greene County know just what type of person they have in charge of the education of their children at the Carson Middle School.
Government schools. Gotta love 'em.
Where's the irony? Building and renovating schools in a foreign country, only to be turned away by an American one?
She's from Florida. That ring any bells when it comes to incompetence?
***
To be fair, in these situations, the incompetence seems to be spread all over. Hardly a day goes by that we don't hear of some lunacy in some school somewhere in this nation.
Check here.
Of course, the information is 2 years old, and perhaps under the good principal's tutelage, she has been able to effect the changes she envisioned in her bio statement.
sheesh ........
If Lund is telling the truth the Superintendent is lying as well as the Principal and bot should be sent packing.
No. It doesn't. Idiocy, apparently, runs throughout the US, doesn't it?
Sheesh, my grandson's school has had servicemen in more than once...this chicky will hear from me, too.
But she probably has no idea of the original context . .
This needs to be corrected. State School Superintendent Kathy Cox (R) IS NOT running for Governor as a Dem. Secretary of State Cathy Cox (D) IS running for Governor as a Dem.
Dang, Omarosa has a new job!
Dang, I can never keep the 2 straight.
I just know I'm not voting for any Cox as governor in 2006.
Thanks for noticing -- I knew we FReepers would catch the reference.
I remember in '91, our fashion class had a show. The military were invited. The idea (at least as some of us girls had thought was those at the end were to walk with the soldiers onto stage to present them with a flower or something. The announcer (another student) messed things up and we suddenly found out the grand finale was underway. Later she kept saying, "I didn't know." (should have been on the script) We weren't mad about not being able to show the formalwear. We were mad that this reduced the soldiers to mere doormen.
"Are those her actual words?!
If so, she writes like an eighth-grader."
Yuppers. And she has a "Masters in Educational Leadership", too. Eight-grader is about par for such people.
Let's be compassionate conservatives and cut her some slack. Do you have any idea how many coupons she had to clip out of the Miami Herald in order to get that degree?
So good to see you back and impaling idiots again! And this one is ripe for your attention.
Whoa, now take it easy. I know IssaquahKing and that was probably meant as both irony and satire, not a slur on the South. Now a slur on Southern socialists, I'll agree with you.
But isn't there an open season on those things, anyway?
Good to you see you my friend! Wish I could have been in the neighborhood to clue this one up! Maybe next trip?
...Another lefty loon exposed warping our childrens minds....
Yep, and she ain't gonna let anyone or anything get in the way of it. This would have been a very positive experience for the kids, and she has the utter gall to say it would have been bad for them.
If Castro came to visit, she'd probably welcome him right on in.
I may have overstepped the bounds of decency in being codecending to the south,( I have been there, and was well treated) but wish that they would handle the garbage better. Just like out here in the west, I promise to do more to get rid of Senator harry greed next election cycle.
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