Posted on 10/22/2007 9:06:49 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
After a week filled with rumors and absences, Ithaca High School has some changes ready for this week, and Ithaca City School District Superintendent Judith Pastel asks that students, parents and staff have patience as everyone adjusts.
The most obvious change students can expect to see will be locked classroom doors once classes start. Pastel said one recommendation that came from the Ithaca Police Department last week was to lock doors at the beginning of every class. Police and school officials are working together to ensure the students' safety. Locking classroom doors at the start of a class will make students more punctual and help identify which students are skipping class outright, Pastel said.
On Friday, an estimated 550 of the 1,600 students in the school missed a full day or up to four periods, Ithaca City School District Superintendent Judith Pastel said. An estimated 700 students were absent on Thursday, following rumors earlier in the week that something violent would occur at the school.
Some parents still intend to keep their children out of school.
“As of right now, I'm not comfortable sending my son back to school,” said Kari Cornell, who is keeping her son out of class. “But I'm so glad to hear that they're starting to take these concerns seriously.”
Cornell, who is a member of Concerned Parents of Caroline, said she wants to see how the district responds to a letter the group sent the district.
“I want a written response from the school district and board members before I'm comfortable sending my son back, and maybe I won't even be comfortable after that,” she said. “I need more than their word. I need to see progress.”
Jerry Achilles, of Enfield, is also keeping his daughter out of class today.
“I agree with the Concerned Parents of Caroline's demands, and I am going to make sure the school district is going to be enforcing these things before I send my daughter back,” he said.
Achilles said he liked the district's move to bring in personnel from the New York State Center for School Safety.
“I think that's good,” he said. “Somebody that's not from the school district needs to be looking into this.”
Achilles and Cornell said they both plan on being at Tuesday's school board meeting and possibly will voice their concerns about safety at the high school.
It’s probably OK if there’s panic hardware on the doors (like a push bar across the entire width of the door, so if there is a crush of bodies against it the door opens, as opposed to a knob or thumb latch), and if the doors open outward.
Ithaca City School District Warden Judith Pastel indicated there would be a lock down of all inmates, so they could be assured of a properly sized opaycheck, since the most important part of the day is rollcall, to ensure all inmates are in their cells.
Recently at Ithaca High school OPEN HOUSE, young children of color (too young for HS students)were handing out flyers basically backing “THE RACE CARD”... the flyers were traced back to Ithaca College .. home base of the ITHACAN ... which is just like any other media. .. but then around here ... PRAVDA would probably be considered a RIGHT WING RAG!
Now that that's out of the way ... does anybody have any confidence whatsoever in the word of a mother who names her daughter Epiphany? And of course there's no mention of a father ...
Neglect? Parents have no choice but to send their child to school when mandatory attendance laws are in place. Because of such laws, refusing to send the child to school (even for their own safety) can get the parent arrested.
It's damned if you do and damned if you don't.
Some of us have to work! LOLOLOL One of my favorite movies of all time! Classic line!
Because the NEA doesn't want parents to be able to afford to choose to send their kids to safer schools.
Great post. You have it figured out.
Government schools and the First Amendment are utterly incompatible. This makes government schools human rights offenders.
**Why is locking school doors necessary?**
Locking doors is the DIVERSION, to hide the fact that such a LIBERAL, PROGRESSIVE, ENLIGHTENED city has RACE PROBLEMS.
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
It should properly be called ¨”ransom”.
The word “tuition” is entirely inadequate for what it takes to escape the government school prison camps and to send your child to a private school.
“I know nothinnng, NOTHINNNNG!”
John Banner, Sgt. Schultz, we miss you.
There are private/home-school alternatives to putting one’s child at risk. Mom chose to turn this into a media event instead.
The classroom doors in that school are lever door handles and they open INWARD into the classrooms.
I think it is a violation of fire code.
Ithaca and common sense do NOT belong in the same Paragraph.
In a way, this sums up what public education is all about.
Pastel said one recommendation that came from the Ithaca Police Department last week was to lock doors at the beginning of every class.
Maybe you read that statement in a different way than I do
Dont misunderstand me...I disagree with Sis. She’s been indoctrinated though.
I agree...however she meant it, it seems to be working to the good...other parents are keeping their kids out of school and may decide, why not keep their kids out permanently. At the very least the school administrators are finally paying attention, now that their stonewalling tactics didn't work and the media spotlight is on.
Parents know it doesn't pay to sue a school district--that is counterproductive. It's more effective to embarass them into doing the right thing.
Here's to hoping that more parents nationwide "strike back" by keeping their kids home when their school districts step out of line. We can certainly pray that more and more of them will wake up and rescue their children from the public school hell pit.
Can't fool me....I live in Seattle!!
[grin!]
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.