Red Clay Mom Takes On Red Clay’s “Zero Tolerance Policy Against Bullying”

With Maya Paveza’s permission, she is allowing me to share a Youtube video she released today.  I will let the video speak for itself.  But it is a horrifying story about one student’s personal journey through hell in Red Clay schools over the past eight years.  No student or parent should go through this gut-wrenching hell at all, much less over eight years.  I hope Katarina gets the peace and healing she deserves.  I will post the other videos in this series.  I did the same thing three years ago, albeit in a different format.  Only fitting I help another Delaware student tell her story.

Living With Tourette Syndrome

Tourette Syndrome Awareness Month will take place this year from May 15th to June 15th.  My son has Tourette Syndrome.  As I try to educate myself on his journey through a very complex and often misunderstood disability, I find the best way to understand it is to hear from others who have it.  As such, a gentleman posted the following in a Facebook group this afternoon.  With his permission, he allowed me to put it on this blog:

Let me paint a picture for you. Imagine yourself:

-getting beatings for tics and then having severe outbursts afterwards.
-being hit in the face so hard that your nose starts bleeding.
-being pinched in the arm and having nails dug into your skin every time you tic, then having to wear long sleeve shirts to hide the blood coming from your arms.
-being targeted, bullied, and made fun of at school and in the neighborhood every day.
-having a teacher make you sit under a desk or stand in a trash can for ticcing.
-having to do years of therapy because your caretakers and teachers were insensitive to your needs and insisted on embarrassing you in front of family/classmates daily.

All of these things and MUCH MORE have happened to me, and I honestly can’t think of any other condition that a person could feel guilty for having other than Tourette’s Syndrome. It’s easy to lose count of how many times an authority figure tells (or tries to force) you to stop or calm down, not realizing that they are actually making the situation worse for the person with Tourette’s because of all the pressure they feel in trying not to embarrass the people around them. It’s hard to understand why our minds choose symptoms that are so embarrassing. It’s even harder for people that don’t have this condition to comprehend the fact that we don’t get to choose what symptoms we have and that we are always fighting our bodies every day to do things we would rather not do. There is so very little known about why we tic, why we tic until we are in pain, or hurt ourselves through tics.

It’s a complete nightmare to deal with insensitive people and people with so much lack of understanding. Sometimes their ignorance can be downright shocking. Everybody needs a good reminder every once in a while that people that have Tourette’s Syndrome didn’t ask for it. One more thing: Accepting a friend or loved one’s Tourette’s and being educated on this condition empowers you to stand with that person and support them when somebody out in public is being ignorant. #FeelTheTeel #TourettesSyndromeAwareness

If you know anyone with TS, please educate yourself on the disability and understand that a physical manifestation of Tourette’s is not behavioral.  It is neurological.  It may appear behavioral, but more than often it is not.  It would be like asking a paralyzed person to stand up.  It isn’t going to happen.

My son has TS, and in honor of him and all those who have TS, you will always be heroes in my book.  While all the above has not happened to my son, enough of it has.  It is in his name that I dedicate the entirety of this blog and every word I write has its origins in his own struggles with having a disability and his journey through Delaware education.

Governor Carney Shuts Out The Public With Family Services Cabinet Council And Screws Transparency & FOIA In Delaware

Delaware Governor John Carney is embarking down a very dangerous path.  I assume this is in response to my article last month about how the first meeting of the Family Services Cabinet Council was closed to the public.  Governor Carney rescinded his Executive Order #5 to create Executive Order #9 which established new wording in recreation of the Family Services Cabinet Council:

In accordance with the common law privilege protecting executive communications concerning the deliberative and policy-making processes, the records, investigations, internal communications, deliberations and draft work product of the Council shall be confidential and may be disclosed only at the direction of the Governor.

What kind of nonsense is this John Carney?  A Cabinet-level council, and you deliberately shut any discussion this group has out of the public eye?  The very term “deliberative and policy-making processes” demands it be open to the public.  You are full of it Governor Carney.  Your campaign promise and the part on your inaugural address about an open state government was a complete and utter lie.  We both know what will happen in these meetings.  Stop pretending you are a Governor and not a corporate puppet to the special interests that want to turn education and the workforce into their own molding.  I am done listening to anything you have to say.  With the stroke of a pen, in response to my article about transparency in your office, you have shown your true colors once and for all.  Shame on you Governor Carney.  You have destroyed FOIA in Delaware with this action by essentially excluding any of your Cabinet members on this charade of a Family Services Cabinet Council.  They can cite executive privilege in any FOIA request by stating it is tied to the activities of this council.  And with one line on this, you have made damn sure you can invite anyone to the party and protect them as well with no oversight or transparency whatsoever: “…and such others as the Governor shall invite.” But we will NEVER know who those others are, will we.  Open government my ass.  Dictatorship is more like it.

 

My No Holds Barred Response To Governor Carney’s Letter To Delaware Teachers As Districts Prepare Layoffs

Governor Carney sent a letter to all Delaware public school teachers this morning for Teacher Appreciation Week.  The irony of this letter, as several Delaware school districts are getting ready to layoff teachers, is astounding.  Because of Carney’s proposed budget for FY2018, Delaware school districts are put in a no-win situation.  School boards can either raise property taxes with the match tax or reduce their own budgets (of which they have to do anyways).  Carney shifted the onus of the budget deficit away from his office with his “shared sacrifice” language.  What he did was attempt to make damn sure the taxpayers of the state shift their anger at Delaware school boards when their taxes go up or see their children suffocate in huge classrooms with less teachers and programs.

I have this to say to Governor Carney: what you have done is shady and despicable.  It is the ultimate in political posturing, but your muscle flex is going to backfire on you.  You won’t get away with playing the budgetary Darth Vader where others do the dirty work for you if you want to survive past 2020.  Your opponents are most likely salivating over all this because you exposed a major Achilles heel very early in the game.  And you better believe if charters somehow benefit over all this, I won’t be the only one protesting.  Many will join me.  As an example, will the General Assembly get rid of the very useless charter school transportation slush fund?  Will charter schools also have teacher layoffs?  Will they actually lose some of their transportation budget like all the local school districts will?  If the answer to any of these is a no, I don’t see much “shared” sacrifice.

If any members of our General Assembly think they can sneak in the usual perks into the epilogue language of the budget in the final hours of this legislative session (I’m talking to you most of all Mrs. Death Penalty flipper), it will cause a ruckus unseen in Legislative Hall for some time.

It is past time Delaware stopped using students and teachers as sacrificial lambs.  It isn’t just Carney and the General Assembly who are doing this, it is also the school districts.  I have yet to see any school district cutting administrative positions.  So far, I am fairly sure Indian River, Christina, Caesar Rodney, and Colonial will be cutting teachers.  That list will grow.

Below is Carney’s letter to teachers.  Like I said, this is almost insulting.  I have no doubt students said many things about their teachers, but Carney (or whichever staff member wrote this letter) seems to cherry-pick certain things to further his Rodel’s own agenda.  Can we just stop pretending John Carney?  Just come out and rename the state Rodelaware.  You aren’t fooling anyone.  This letter demands the famous “John Young redline edition”…

From: Carney, Governor (Governor) <Governor.Carney@state.de.us>
Sent: Wednesday, May 10, 2017 8:34:32 AM
To: K12 Employees
Subject: Thank you

 

As the nation recognizes National Teacher Appreciation Week, we in Delaware have a lot to celebrate. Secretary of Education Susan Bunting joins me in thanking all of you for helping our students succeed in school and in life.

When you say “celebrate”, who is celebrating?  Of course Bunting is going to join you.  She will do whatever you want!  Nothing against Dr. Bunting, but if I have learned one thing about a Governor’s Cabinet, they follow whatever the Governor says, which usually translates to what Rodel wants.  Please don’t use words like celebrate at the same time teachers are facing unemployment.  It is the ultimate insult.

If I needed any help remembering how lucky we are in Delaware to have such great educators, I got it Monday morning. Secretary Bunting and I visited Capital School District’s Hartly Elementary School and I asked the students why their teachers are special. Their rapid-fire answers were right on point:

What were the other answers provided by students?  I have a very hard time believing that the majority of answers given by students in an elementary school were geared towards post-secondary education plans.  But I’m sure the Rodel and Delaware Business Roundtable business types love these answers.  Feed the beast!

“They make sure we’re ready for college.”

See above.

“Without them we wouldn’t know how to use decimal points.”

Okay, that’s a good answer.

“They’re helping us get good jobs some day.”

By standardize testing the hell out of these kids and forcing them to learn in digital technology classrooms, the state is robbing children of a true educational experience.  This data collecting of children, geared towards shifting the workforce to select jobs for the future, is social engineering at its absolute worst Governor Carney.  Please stop with the Markellian way of thinking and be your own man.

And my favorite:

“They teach us to care about each other.”

Awwww, that is so cute.  Reminding teachers, as many prepare to get pink slips, that it is about the students and they should just shut up and share the sacrifice for the good of the state.  And just so you know, many Delaware parents teach their children to care about each other.  That isn’t solely owned by teachers.  For many students, it is.  But parents across the state play the main part in raising their children.  So let’s not even get into the plans to transform education into a “public-private partnership”.  Kids need to be in brick and mortar schools, not the local non-profits at younger ages. 

Our kids get it. They know just how much you do and how invested you are in them.

Yeah, too bad our state isn’t invested in them.  Too bad they aren’t invested in our students either.  Unless you like having over 35 kids in a classroom.  Tell me Governor Carney, how many kids were in YOUR classrooms when you went to school back in the day?  But let’s keep paying for Smarter Balanced and all the Common Core bullshit.  Let’s keep our classrooms wired at all times so corporations get those nice bottom line numbers at the expense of students.  Let’s let the data whores continue to collect private information on our students through their iPhones and Google Chrome.  Schools, teachers, and students are not “investments”.  Those are corporate education reform words.  Yes, the children are the future, but by putting them in terms of financial gain, you insult every single child in this state.

I hope you were able to join us on April 27, when we hosted a Telephone Town Hall with Delaware educators to discuss issues around public education in Delaware. Specifically, we discussed education and our state budget.

I was on that call.  Most town halls end when the questions run out.  But not on your schedule Governor Carney. 

This is an important discussion, and I will continue to listen to educators during school visits across Delaware. We face a $400 million budget shortfall, but I remain dedicated to each of you and your students.

Dedication is more than “listening”.  It means making damn sure any sacrifice stays the hell out of the classroom.  But you can’t do that, can you?  Let’s pray our General Assembly finally and collectively says NO to your horrible budget proposal.

Our plan is to fix our structural deficit, and get to a place where we can again invest in areas that will move our state forward: early childhood education, arts, additional supports for at-risk students, health and wellness, and after-school programing, to name a few.

The key wording is “get to a place”.  That means you want to kick the can down the road, which Delaware is fantastic at doing.  Your predecessor was excellent in that regard.  “Invest now” all too often means “pay the price later”.  No child should pay the price for adult decisions.  If you want to fix the structural deficit, how about you actually go after delinquent property taxes?  Sign an Executive Order demanding the counties exert pressure on those who feel they don’t have to pay at all!  Like the Chinese company that owes Red Clay over a million bucks in back property taxes.  Or the golf club in Middletown that likes to play games with Appoquinimink.  Make sure our State Auditor has the ability to properly audit our schools and see where every single penny in Delaware education funding is REALLY going.  Cause we both know there is foul play going on in some circumstances.  But turning a blind eye to that has helped to lead us to where we are at now.

All Delaware students deserve a quality education, and an equal opportunity to succeed. And I know you work hard every day to deliver on that promise. Thank you for all you do.

All Delaware students do deserve a quality education.  But not your definition of it.  And let’s not even get into this “weighted funding” nonsense.  We both know what that is really about Governor Carney, don’t we.  If I were you, I would give considerable thought in the next week to revising your proposed budget.  Because if you truly care about students, this is not the way to go.  I tried to give you a chance and have faith in you.  I have yet to see you live up to that promise.  Tax the rich more.  Seriously.  That is the best way to start. 

Sincerely,

John Carney

Sincerely,

Kevin Ohlandt, the blogger who is getting sick of public education being a sacrificial lamb to the likes of Rodel and the Delaware Business Roundtable in the name of corporate profit and social engineering.

ALL The Delaware School Board Election Results

A day that saw victory and defeat for many ended at 8pm last evening as the polls closed for another school board election season.  Below are the results for all the Delaware school board elections.  Congrats to the victors.  For those who lost, I’ve been there.  It sucks.  You just have to pick yourself up again and move on.  Some run again and some we don’t hear from again in that arena.  Voter turnout was mixed in some districts.  Altogether though, given the population of various districts and the importance of local school board elections, they could all use more citizens voting.

Using Capital as an example, 239 votes were cast.  Capital has over 5,000 students.  It is in the heart of Dover.  Turnout last year was around the 500 mark.  Folks say signs don’t vote, which could be true, but they also bring constant awareness about the election date.  Last year, myself and my two opponents littered the town with campaign signs.  This year, I barely saw any.  I heard some say they knew nothing about either of the candidates so why even bother voting.  That is when you seek that candidate out if they don’t have an online presence.

I spent the evening up in Red Clay territory.  Both of the schools I went to had events going on that night.  Not in an attempt to dissuade voters, but to draw more people out to vote.  As a result, Red Clay had the largest number of voters out of all the districts with over 2,100 votes cast.  In my eyes, that is still low turnout given Red Clay’s student population, but it shows how community participation can lead to higher numbers in an election.

We need to elect our State Board of Education members like this.  None of this “Governor appointed” stuff.  Statewide elections, for each seat.

Without further ado, here are the “unofficial” results of the 2017 Delaware School Board elections.

Appoquinimink

Charlisa Edelin: 301 votes, Keinna McKnight: 206, Trevor Tucker: 24 votes

Brandywine

John Skrobot III: 402 votes, Alma Melina Gillis: 332

Caesar Rodney

David Failing: 495, Tawanna Prophet-Brinkley: 126, Alan Claycomb: 57

Capital

Joan Loewenstein-Engel: 154, Andy Ortiz: 85

Christina, District B

Angela Mitchell: 480, Justin Day: 457, Monica Moriak: 232, Karen Sobotker: 72

Christina, District G

Meredith Griffin Jr.: 828, Jeff Day: 369, Kimara Smith: 170

Lake Forest

Phillip Thomas: 294, Stephanie Justiano Johnson: 220, Austin Auen: 59

Milford

Ronald Evans: 227, Michael McKain: 124, Jason Miller: 96, Michael Firch: 79, Michael Wells: 52

Red Clay

Ashley Sabo: 1,142, Henry Clampitt: 833, Thomas Pappenhagen: 152

Seaford

Michael Kraft: 314, John Hanenfeld: 198

Smyrna

Vetra Evans-Gunter: 292, Karin Sweeney: 31

Woodbridge

Paul Breeding: 209, Darrynn Harris: 11