Posted on 04/08/2008 6:57:06 AM PDT by mnehring
Melanie Bowers, 13, and her parents walked into Athens High School Monday afternoon to talk to campus police. They were hoping to get some answers.
"It never should have happened in the first place. The whole assignment was a silly assignment and they should have contacted us immediately after it happened," said J.R. Bowers, Melanie's father.
It was an assignment for history class--to make a protest sign for or against an issue, and Melanie said she chose illegal immigration. Her sign read, "If you love our nation, stop illegal immigration." Somehow, Melanie said the sign got passed around lunch and angered a group of Latino students.
"I didn't know any of these people," she said. One young, she claimed, jumped on her back and he put her in a choke hold. "We have brick walls in the middle school and he slammed my face on the bricks."
Melanie said a group of boys also threatened to rape and kill her. Eventually, the boys let her go and when she went for help, she was ordered back to class, and told she could not call her parents, she said.
"They handled this wrong, you know, they put a child back in danger," said J.R. Bowers. "It was a very racially motivated crime."
Athens ISD gave KLTV 7 a statement, confirming there was a disturbance in the hallway, Friday between two to three students. "We have a camera system in the building," said Louis DeRosa. "We are collecting other information and statements from witnesses and this is all the information we have at this time," he said.
Melanie and her parents said they just hope the right thing is done...and quickly.
"I won't be happy until the kids that did this are out of school," Bowers said.
The school was brought to task over the issue of not allowing the girl to call home. Thankfully the girl had a cell phone and called anyway.
School policy will now be addressed and that most likely will not happen again!
I commend you on your decision to homeschool. I hope and pray it works out well for you and your child.
Every parent who uses the public school to educate their children was called a child abuser by TE. It was a sweeping comment that put us all under the same umbrella.
Thank you. I hope & pray it will be the best thing for Sassy. The school has mold or something & the nurse forgets her treatments. Its been a mess. The hockey stick to Sassy’s face & her not calling me was the last straw. I will say the principal has been very good. She has been up front & does her job very well. Much to some parent’s anger. She takes the safety of the children very seriously & has stopped parties outside where there aren’t fences. I think through church & ballet Sassy with have plenty of social time, at least I hope so.
He is clearly someone who is really really sensitive on the topic of home schooling
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Homeschooling is the superior way to raise and educate a child, for those families with the ability to do it. This fact is now becoming completely evident, and impossible to ignore.
As homeschooling continues its rapid growth, I expect that those who institutionalize their children ( especially in government facilities) will become even more and more defensive and aggressive in defense of their decision.
That’s why I chose to not allow you to rile me as you have in the past.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Riled?
Personally, I always have great time on these boards. :-)
Were y’all the boys that got beat up by girls or the girls too weird to get a date?
I have not seen a good old fashion gun-totin’ American Conservative supporting home schooling. I have seen wimps, pimps and the ignorant doing so.
Public school is a competition and your kids are not up to the challenge. Are you going to home college your tots and home work them too?
The strong survive, the weak hide the fact that they are unemployable and explain the fact that they have a bicycle instead of a car is because they home school.
Silly, sad and pathetic. Are y’all the face of home schooling? If so then thank goodness for ANY other option.
LOL! You and Eaker are such ninny's.
So here’s an updated list of what homeschoolers are according to your own posts, starting with post 128:
Homeschoolers are: holier-than-thou, fanatics, idiots, just like muslims, child abusers, self-serving, don’t care about our kids and stupid...average IQ of about 80.
Add to that now, wimps, pimps, ignorant, weak, and unemployable.
I guess explains why my kids got into big name private colleges being invited, by the colleges, to join their honors programs.
Unemployable? Let’s see, I know homeschoolers who are PhD’s and teach at the local university, have masters degrees, are engineers, lawyers, nurses, meteorologists, and public school teachers.
If you don’t see good old fashion gun-totin’ American Conservative supporting home schooling then you are either willfully blind or you don’t know what a conservative is.
Now, about your being offended because people said either schools ARE child abuse or that sending your kids borders on child abuse, well, you accused homeschoolers of that, too, so we’re even on that part.
So you’re all bent out of shape over that but have added a whole load of other insults on homeschoolers yourself. You have some nerve copping an attitude over one comment in light of the plethora of insults you yourself have heaped on homeschoolers in a bid to retaliate.
There was a story on the local Texas news that these lawbreaking criminal women come to hospitals still wet from crossing the river in full labor just to drop the baby here.
The anchor baby law must be stopped.
It appears to me the leaders of our country to NOT love it as they continue to allow it to become a third world nation. If I thought mexico was such a wonderful place I would go live there. But, now it appears I’m in the minority in my own country. I’m really tired of it.
Actually, I was very popular. I went to so many school dances that my prom dresses wore out! ( These were in the days when young men still wore suits, bought flowers, and washed the family car for their dates.)
I have heard that homeschooling organizations today now have lovely proms and formal dances for their homeschoolers, and they teach their sons to wear suits, buy flowers, and wash the family car for their dates. They are also teaching their sons to go to work every day, support their families, to be faithful to one woman, and to defend their wives and children with their life. ( How quaint!)
As for competition: You are right. My kids did not compete against high schoolers. They were in college at the ages of 13, 12, and 13, and competing against the college students in their math major. Many homeschoolers start and **finish** college many years before their government schooled contemporaries.
And...By the way...My husband is a “gun toting” American Conservative, and I know he would defend me and our children with his life. And like a “real” man he has devoted his life to supporting us by going to work every day. As in the Alan Jackson song, he “bows his head to Jesus, and stands for Uncle Sam”. America could use more homeschooling dads like my husband. America could use more families raising sons to be “real” men like my husband.
This above is only one reason among many why homeschooling continues its rapid growth. It is becoming plainly evident. For those who can, homeschooling is the superior way to raise a child. It is too bad, but there will always be children who must be institutionalized for their schooling.
Well, isn't that *special*
Putting unuttered words in the mouths of others is what cheap attorneys do. Are you a cheap attorney? You sure argue like one.
I did not actually take a position on homeschooling. I took a position on your imagined slight by TE. Touchy, touchy, touchy.
And, I am not an advocate of home schooling. I am an advocate of individual choice. There are some well educated parents who are far more qualified to provide for their childrens' education than is the public school system, and if they want to put in the time, fine.
Finally, your argument that the school system is a jungle and that it is the strong survive is rather perverse. That is not the job of the school system. Furthermore, I see no evidence that in this jungle it is the strong that are surviving, but rather that the disruptive are dominating the agenda and preventing instruction from happening. Your own argument for public schooling is the best argument against it.
My own view is pragmatic. We have no realistic option to public finance of eduction for 90% of the population, and must do the best we can, which I would argue we are falling far short of. That does not necessarily mean the schools must be operated by government bureaucrats. Alternatives could include vouchers, or a competitive system something like allowing charter schools to operate in competition with schools that are operated by the public.
Does that mean you were a *gasp* public schooled individual? I can’t remember if you’ve said.
I think he is confusing gangbangers with conservatives.
They do? Really? I did not know that you got a car for attending public school. So that is where all the public school money went.
This is how you think when you are the bottom half of the bottom half of the IQ pool educated by the bottom half of the bottom half of public school teachers.
Does that mean you were a *gasp* public schooled individual?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Why are you gasping? Homeschooling was unheard of in those years and likely illegal as well.
Thankfully, humans are highly adaptable and most go on to unlearn the highly dysfunction prison survival “socialization” learned while institutionalized for their schooling. I did too. Homeschooling had recently be legalized in my state when my children were of school age, and I was able to offer them this superior educational experience.
I attended tuition free Catholic parochial schools and went to a Catholic University. I did attend government school for 2 years.
Maybe he feels inadequate because, despite surviving the jungle of the public schools,he was not actually competing against the best, who were educated through one of the many accessible non-public alternatives.
Personally, I don't judge a man/women by where [s]he came from but by what [s]he is.
I went to public school & I found some good teachers who really took an interest in teaching. But for the most part it really was 4 wasted years. I wanted to learn more about wars & the teachers weren’t willing to talk about Viet Nam. I also wanted to do more in English but frankly the English teacher really didn’t teach. I had that man for 4 years! He had hangovers & would give you a book to read & say write an essay. I learned more from what I was taught at home then in school. Both my parents taught me a love for reading & limited TV. Summers were spent reading classic books. Politics were talked about after dinner. Even though my home life was a mess I do have to give my parents credit for making their children interested in the world. I was shocked when my children told me term papers were not expected. I guess I am feeling my age ....
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The homeschoolers I know use mini-vans! :-)
Yet you came out of it able to think for yourself with the benefit of an education that allows you to homeschool your own children.
You were popular enough to have enjoyed going to dances with your classmates and you weren't raped, maimed or murdered while attending.
What a concept...it's not such a bad place after all?!
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.