Eighth grader penalized for missing school, singing at Bush Event

WRTV ^ | 05/16/2003 | www.wrtv.com

[IAmNotAnAnimal]

This is my first post, bear with me. ...a student's absence can be excused for an illness, a family death, or an educational experience...Singing in a choir for the president of the United States, as Westfield Middle School eight grager, Brianna Tull, learned, dosen't count...was told she couldn't earn crdit for homewrok, tests and quizzes given that day

[Mister Baredog]

I have the solution to this problem: Have the President send the school a absense note for her!

HE is the reason she can't get the credit in the first place, Clintoon would have been fine, the whole class would have gone. I do like your idea though. Maybe BUSH should ask Rod Paige to look into this, you know, make a few inquiries about allocation of funding etc.LOL!

[Protagoras]

Wrong. The solution is to remove government from the schools.

One thing at a time. You can do the first now. Then you can work on the other. I have always advocated the abolishment of government schools. But I won't wait til my kids are grown while I wait for the other to happen. So I'm not wrong.

[tom h]

>>...Keen said. "Going to see the president is certainly an experience, but what did the child learn from that?"...<<

Send your reply directly to the idiot that runs this school district:

Dr. Mark Keen Superintendent 867-8010 keenm@wws.k12.in.us

Here's his photo:

[valkyrieanne]

There is a poll on the front page, too - have to click the link under the headline for the related story. When I voted it was 91% against the school, 9% for.

[Hildy]

I hope she learned to work hard so she can send her kids to private school.

[mware]

I am sending it to Sweet Baby James at WABC Radio. He is Sean Hannity's program director.

[Cordova Belle]

A "bump" means that someone posts a comment (or only the word "bump") to your article. What that does: bumps it to the top of the heap of "Latest Posts," where it will catch the eye of people browsing for the lastest action on FR.

"Ping" = the poster, by typing the name of a fellow FReeper into the "To" line, alerts that person to come over here to your thread and read the article/issue.

That's "bump and "ping."

And a hearty welcome to FR!

[GOPrincess]

You're to be commended for sharing that special time with your grandchild! Not only is a weekday more special, but you can often beat the crowds that way too :).

My parents occasionally took us out of school early for things such as matinees of "old" movies at the county art museum (in the pre-video & cable '70s, that was the *only* way to see a movie like SINGIN' IN THE RAIN complete and uncut, and you'd better believe that "cultural education" has stayed with me my entire life!) or for Opening Day at Dodger Stadium. Some of my happiest memories. "Learning" means far more than doing what the other kids do every single schoolday of the year.

[GOPrincess]

Welcome, good job!

[george wythe]

.

“If attending a presidential speech isn’t educational, I don’t know what is,” Tull said. “She is working on a report about the experience that we are going to present to Mr. Keen.”

School policy defines “other educational activity” as “relevant to the child’s academic growth and equivalent to the child’s school activities/experiences.” The absence requires 30-day notice and must be approved by the building principal.

source

Let me take a wild guess.

Mr. Keen is Democrat

[GOPrincess]

"The thing I always did was tell the school, "My child will not be there tomorrow". None of their business why."

Reminds me, my mother used to send in notes when we were sick saying things like "Please excuse so-and-so from school as she was sick." I know she meant to be polite (grin) but my philosophy is rather like yours -- I'm the one in charge, not the school. My notes just say "So-and-so was absent due to illness" or "So-and-so will not be at school Monday." I'm not asking permission :).

[Velveeta]

Just made the Drudge Report! Congratulations.

[cake_crumb]

"This is Super Keene"

Looks more like Super Dork

[lilylangtree]

"Singing in a choir before the President of the United States is not educational or a culture experience?" That's ridiculous.

[GOPrincess]

I love your idea of the President writing an absence note. In fact wasn't it in Bill Sammon's last book that described the President writing an excuse for the grandson of the Ground Zero fireman he'd stood next to, after the guy was invited to bring his family to the White House? They gave the teacher a copy and saved the original :).

[kayak]

Welcome to FR! You've really started off with a bang ...... :-)

Great first post!

[coder2]

What a crock of BS !!!

Last year hubby wanted to take our son elk hunting in Colorado for 10 days. The school principal not only excused our son, but asked if they had room for him to tag along...

Another school district close by has the Friday of deer hunting season a school holiday...

All this idiotic (liberal) superintendent is teaching the kids is that to get by, you have to lie if you are a conservative... PURE BS

[Mister Baredog]

I just sent my first letter to Mr. Keen

Me too, but I wasn't quite as "diplomatic" as you are. I'll bet he gets "lots of love" today, his e-mail box will be gagging soon.

[GOPrincess]

"We went to Washington DC and Virginia this spring for vacation during spring break and my son (7th grade) earned EXTRA credit for standing up in class and talking about all the historical places he visited..."

That's wonderful! It looks like our family will make our first visit to those places in June...I'm very excited!

[Teacher317]

"I'm not sure what was gained from an educational value," Superintendent Mark Keen told RTV6's Vicki Duncan.

Sure would be nice if the Superintendent could put together an itelligent sentence.

For those outside of central IN, Westfield is a rather well-to-do suburb of Indianapolis.