Entries from July 2008 ↓

Special Note: The author would like to thank Keith Ball, Principal of Woodstock Middle School in Cherokee County, Georgia, for all the extra traffic he has been driving to this site.

If Mr. Ball referred you to this blog, please understand that his actions are the result of his personal vendetta against my fiancee’, Allison Burnes. For the record, Allison Burnes does not write, edit, approve, or support what is published here. I alone am responsible for this content.

Mr. Ball’s problem is with me, but he can’t seem to muster the courage to take me to task directly. Instead, he is referring all of Allison’s prospective employers here, hoping to sabotage her career by blaming my writings on her. It’s wrong, and you deserve to know his motives and the relevant facts. If you would like to read all of the articles related to Mr. Ball as of 2-15-2010, please use this link. The posts are displayed in reverse chronological order, so read from the bottom up. Thank you for visiting.

[This article was updated at 4:30 PM Pacific Time with the AJC story.]

I’m on a business trip in Riverside, California, but news from home and other areas has continued to flow in.  I have decent internet access here, and thanks to Allison and Mike, I have also been reunited with my flaky but serviceable phone.  Incidentally, if you are ever offered a PDA cell phone called the AT&T 8525, just say, “no.”  It is a piece of junk cleverly disguised as a useful appliance.  It makes a dandy battery discharger, so long as you don’t need a phone.

I also had the distinct privilege of experiencing a magnitude 5.4 earthquake on Tuesday.  The epicenter of the quake was just 40 miles away, roughly between downtown L.A. and Riverside.  While the shaking was modest by California standards and little real damage was reported, it was quite a ride for a man who generally expects the ground beneath his feet to remain fairly stationary

Okay, okay.  On to the updates.  First of all, Allison’s attorney let her know yesterday that an open records request placed against Cherokee County had been answered, and that the county had turned over a copy of her personnel file.  The attorney was shocked to find that, as suspected, copies of my blog entries are in that file.  This evidence will be forwarded to the Georgia Professional Standards Commission in support of the complaint I have already filed against principal Keith Ball.

Another item worthy of note appeared in today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  You’ll recall that Cherokee County School Board members Mike Chapman and Janet Read, who were recently re-elected,  were adamant about the board’s need to remain impartial and refrain from involving itself in personnel issues.

Cobb County seems to have the opposite problem.  Diane R. Stepp writes:

Cobb Superintendent Fred Sanderson apologized Thursday to school board members who didn’t know the principal they named to lead North Cobb High had been investigated on sexual harassment charges.

Some board members said they were not told about a seven-month internal investigation into allegations against Lawrence Bynum, former principal at Floyd Middle School .

“I was not aware that there was an investigation,” said board member John Abraham whose district includes North Cobb High. “It wasn’t brought to our attention.”

Board member Lindsey Tippins also said the board was unaware of the investigation when it approved Bynum’s appointment in June.

Cobb has a School Board that would have wished to know about a personnel problem so that they could have made more appropriate decisions as to that employee’s future with the system.  Cherokee’s School Board, our educational brain trust, would rather not know, thank you.

There was also a tiny article in a tiny Minnesota newspaper this morning bringing news in the case of priest Daniel Walz, who took out a restraining order excluding young Adam Race from attending services at St. Joseph’s church in Bertha, Minnesota.  As you may recall, Mrs. Race had her day in court in June, but a judge who (like most people, unfortunately) was ignorant regarding autism upheld the restraining order.  Carol Race still faced criminal charges for violating that restraining order and bringing Adam to church one morning — until today.  Mr. Walz apparently has tried to make himself and his congregation look less heartless by having the criminal charges dropped.  The restraining order, of course, remains in place.

You will not often catch this author quoting scripture.  However, one particular passage comes to mind.  I will quote it from the version of the Bible with which I am most familiar.

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. [Revelation 22:17, KJV]

I’ve always known that lawyers interpret laws in the way that has the most benefit to their cases.  I wasn’t aware that there were spiritual lawyers, too, but apparently Walz has found a loophole.  The God he serves commands him to throw open the doors to “whosoever” may come.   Apparently, he believes he can exclude autistic people like Master Adam and still be within the letter of The Law, somehow.

The saddest and most telling fact is that one Minnesota newspaper carried this story, and no one not carefully following the case, as I have been, will ever know.  It’s sad because the popular media have forgotten Adam, leaving Walz to practice his exclusionary beliefs far from the public eye.  It’s telling because the media have treated Walz’ decision to drop criminal charges with a level of exposure consistent with its importance.   In other words, no one but Walz and his apologists has any notion that he’s done anything of consequence.

The story mentions that the Races and the church have had one mediation session.  Let’s hope that someone at that church eventually realizes that they’re being idiots and drops this ridiculous restraining order.

Special Note: The author would like to thank Keith Ball, Principal of Woodstock Middle School in Cherokee County, Georgia, for all the extra traffic he has been driving to this site.

If Mr. Ball referred you to this blog, please understand that his actions are the result of his personal vendetta against my fiancee’, Allison Burnes. For the record, Allison Burnes does not write, edit, approve, or support what is published here. I alone am responsible for this content.

Mr. Ball’s problem is with me, but he can’t seem to muster the courage to take me to task directly. Instead, he is referring all of Allison’s prospective employers here, hoping to sabotage her career by blaming my writings on her. It’s wrong, and you deserve to know his motives and the relevant facts. If you would like to read all of the articles related to Mr. Ball as of 2-15-2010, please use this link. The posts are displayed in reverse chronological order, so read from the bottom up. Thank you for visiting.

I have today filed my complaint with the Georgia Professional Standards Commmission against Principal Keith L. Ball of Woodstock Middle School. Not having firsthand knowledge or hard evidence (yet) of his other ethics violations, I have confined this complaint to his professional misconduct with respect to my blog. To wit, I cite his attempts to censor me by applying inappropriate pressure to my fiancee’ and her career, and his maintenance of copies of my writing in her personnel file in violation of my copyright and my explicit written denial of permission.

You can view the complaint here. In the file, I have used old-fashioned mechanical means (Post-It flags) to redact certain personal information in the interest of my privacy and my fiancee’s. The report sent to the Commission is complete.

GPSC Complaint (2 pages, 110 KB, PDF)

Special Note: The author would like to thank Keith Ball, Principal of Woodstock Middle School in Cherokee County, Georgia, for all the extra traffic he has been driving to this site.

If Mr. Ball referred you to this blog, please understand that his actions are the result of his personal vendetta against my fiancee’, Allison Burnes. For the record, Allison Burnes does not write, edit, approve, or support what is published here. I alone am responsible for this content.

Mr. Ball’s problem is with me, but he can’t seem to muster the courage to take me to task directly. Instead, he is referring all of Allison’s prospective employers here, hoping to sabotage her career by blaming my writings on her. It’s wrong, and you deserve to know his motives and the relevant facts. If you would like to read all of the articles related to Mr. Ball as of 2-15-2010, please use this link. The posts are displayed in reverse chronological order, so read from the bottom up. Thank you for visiting.

A press release from the United Federation of Teachers discusses a recent case that appears to bear a striking resemblance to Allison’s experience with Keith Ball at Woodstock Middle School:

Teachers Union Sues Brooklyn Middle School Principal
For Reassigning and Defaming Teacher
Who Insisted on Mandated Services for Special Education Students

The United Federation of Teachers has filed a lawsuit charging that principal Marian Bowden of Middle School 393 in Brooklyn violated a state whistleblower law by removing special education teacher Kimani Brown from his classroom and sending him to a temporary reassignment center in retaliation for his insistence that his students receive required services.

The lawsuit – which also alleges that Bowden subsequently made false and defamatory statements about Brown’s professional conduct to his colleagues, students and at least one parent – was filed on July 3 in state Supreme Court in Manhattan by the law firm of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan at the behest of the UFT, the union representing New York City’s 100,000 public school educators.

Bowden reassigned Brown to a temporary reassignment center on May 21, 2008, which prompted Brown’s colleagues and parents to stage two large demonstrations outside the school on May 27 and June 10. The school, located at 1014 Lafayette Avenue and Malcolm X Boulevard in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area, serves general and special education students in grades 6-11.

Brown, a veteran teacher who is the union’s representative – also known as chapter leader – in the school, had maintained a good working relationship with Bowden for a while. In April of 2006, before Brown was elected chapter leader by his colleagues, Bowden wrote in a letter to Brown’s personnel file that he “is a dedicated and productive member” of the school’s staff.

But starting last fall, Bowden began to criticize Brown when they began to disagree on intervention services for special education students, alleged violations of group size regulations and the amount of time students were allowed to spend in the classroom and school budget priorities, among other issues. Bowden relieved Brown of his academic intervention service duties and the two subsequently clashed several times over issues ranging from services to students to respecting the contractual rights of the school’s educators and school safety.

“This is a clear case of a principal retaliating against an educator who had the nerve to stand up for his students,” said UFT President Randi Weingarten. “This principal needs to understand her role should be that of a leader, not a bully or tyrant.”

Weingarten said the union will continue to fight to have Brown reinstated at the school and have his personnel file at the school expunged of any disputed disciplinary charges or letters.

Other coverage of the story:

Principal’s out to get me, charges teacher in ‘Rubber Room’ suit
BY RACHEL MONAHAN, NY DAILY NEWS,Monday, July 14th 2008, 7:36 PM

A Brooklyn teacher claims he was banished to a “Rubber Room” after blowing the whistle on his principal for preventing special education students from getting services, the teachers union charges.

Kimani Brown, a teacher at Frederick Douglass Academy IV for three years, is suing Principal Marian Bowden for punishing him in retaliation.

“I’m a special education teacher. I’m supposed to make sure my students are getting their services provided,” Brown said. “So I spoke up.”

Brown charged Bowden hadn’t hired a resource room teacher until months into the 2007-08 school year and that special education students were denied counseling and weren’t given mandated extra time on tests.

The allegations mark another controversy swirling about the school, which reported a mom to child welfare services over her daughter’s supposed absences, even though she wasn’t enrolled, the Daily News reported last month. Brown has been idling at full pay in a detention room since May 21, a lawsuit the union filed July 3 in Manhattan Supreme Court charges.

The suit refers to a letter of commendation Bowden wrote in 2006, praising Brown for his “commitment” to “the special needs population.”

After Brown’s complaint last fall, the suit charges, city and state education officials visited and gave the school until yesterday to file a plan to correct problems, including the lack of individualized education plans for some students.

The officials said they are reviewing the document and will monitor the academy to ensure compliance.

Education Department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg declined to comment.

The school is also, it seems, ‘padding’ the roster with shadow students, an action that many principals do to obtain extra money for the school (or themselves).

Special Note: The author would like to thank Keith Ball, Principal of Woodstock Middle School in Cherokee County, Georgia, for all the extra traffic he has been driving to this site.

If Mr. Ball referred you to this blog, please understand that his actions are the result of his personal vendetta against my fiancee’, Allison Burnes. For the record, Allison Burnes does not write, edit, approve, or support what is published here. I alone am responsible for this content.

Mr. Ball’s problem is with me, but he can’t seem to muster the courage to take me to task directly. Instead, he is referring all of Allison’s prospective employers here, hoping to sabotage her career by blaming my writings on her. It’s wrong, and you deserve to know his motives and the relevant facts. If you would like to read all of the articles related to Mr. Ball as of 2-15-2010, please use this link. The posts are displayed in reverse chronological order, so read from the bottom up. Thank you for visiting.

Yesterday’s primary election in Cherokee County brought both kinds of news.  I’m happy to report that Kim Cochran, one of the most qualified people in the School Board race, won her seat on the school board, defeating Wes Frye.  I am confident that as a former educator with considerable experience, she will bring valuable insight and excellent leadership to the school board.  I congratulate her on her victory and could not be happier with that particular outcome.

The news regarding the other two school board seats is, unfortunately, tragically bad.   When only 14.7% of the registered voters actually bother to vote, the outcome of any election is bound to be ugly.  Those 15% of the people signed up for four more years of Mike Chapman and Janet Read on the school board.  The arrogant, unresponsive, smug incumbents have won the day, and the kids, unfortunately, have lost.

I sure wish that the incumbents had spent half as much time during their last term dealing with the actual issues as they spent preparing for that recent forum.  It’s interesting that finding out what the community’s hot issues are and developing sound answers to those issues becomes so much more important just before an election.  Shouldn’t that always be a priority for those elected to serve?

With Read and Chapman back in place, I worry that Cochran’s one, lone voice of sanity on the board will not have the power to bring about change.  As sad as this is, we might as well settle in and expect everything to remain as it is for another four years.  Good teachers will continue their mass exodus from places like Woodstock Middle School, where unqualified administrators like Keith Ball care more about their own personal growth than the kids’ educational growth, and more about their power trips than their school system’s health.

On that issue, it’s onward and upward.  If I reach high enough, I’ll find someone who will listen — and act.

[This article was updated on July 12 with additional information.]

It’s been an evening filled with interesting communications. Oddly enough, it seems I can write about an out-of-control principal, inattentive school board members, and unresponsive school system staffers until the cows come home and no one will bat an eye. However, when I mention the suspicions of a couple of candidates regarding a PTA-sponsored forum, I seem to get everyone’s attention. That’s disappointing.

First I heard from Mike McGowan, Director of Public Information, Communications, and Partnerships with the Cherokee County School System. He called me after apparently taking strong offense to what he considers my “insinuation” that he prepared the notes referred to in my last article. I think I can safely say he was quite indignant and not the least bit polite, accusing me of distributing unsubstantiated information. The attentive reader will notice that I mentioned the opinion of a source and insinuated nothing about Mr. McGowan. In fact, I had never heard of him until he called to take me to task and “warn” me concerning my blog. For the record, Mr. McGowan stated that he has provided all candidates with equal access to information and has maintained impartiality.

I do wonder where Mr. McGowan got my cell phone number, though. It’s certainly nowhere on my blog, nor do I publish it anywhere on my web sites. It is, however, listed in my fiancee’s personnel file as an emergency contact. I will make no assumptions here for the moment.

[UPDATE: Mr. McGowan telephoned my fiancee' on the morning of July 11 and stated that he got my telephone number from someone I called in reference to this issue. Since I called only one person, Denise Nani, it would seem that she passed my contact information on to the school district rather than returning my call or e-mail.]

Remember that group of very noisy ladies I mentioned in an earlier article who were so disturbing with their talking and heckling during the forum? I mentioned in an earlier update that one of them was Mrs. Read’s campaign chairperson, whose name I now know is Beth Choppa. Choppa is also Co-President of the E. T. Booth Middle School PTA.

I heard from another Read’s campaign staffers this evening: Valerie Johnson, campaign treasurer. In a long e-mail, she provided her condensed curriculum vitae, which I will summarize: she is a Georgia Tech graduate, and has worked as a research analyst for several largish corporations.

In a rather long e-mail, Johnson stated that she provided the cards that the two incumbents referred to during the forum. The cards, of which she said there were more than fifty, contained potential (emphasis mine) questions which were formulated based on current hot issues in the campaign. These issues, she explained, were gleaned from the candidates’ web sites, newspapers, and online blogs as well as the web sites and reports of many well-known organizations in the field of education.

Johnson also said in a manner that implies direct knowledge (underscoring has been rendered in italics):

“Mr. McGowan (or anyone at the CCSD) and Mrs. Nani (or anyone at any level of the PTA) did not provide any of the questions to Mrs. Read or Mr. Chapman at any time. What other candidates saw was the hard work of two very dedicated individuals.”

I counted three including Johnson herself, but let’s not split hairs.

To Johnson’s credit, she seems to recognize that a lack of information can often result in misunderstandings. Her e-mail was neither threatening nor contentious, but simply provided clear, factual information. She also took the high road in requesting, rather than demanding, that I provide correct information. I have now done so, and I thank her for her input.

What Johnson did not mention anywhere in her letter is the fact that she is herself a member of the PTA. I know this because PTA members were asked to stand and be recognized at the conclusion of the forum, and all of the ladies in her row did so. Some research of my own indicates that she was once Public Relations Chairperson of the Bascomb Elementary School PTA, and was an Action Committee Head at the Chapman Intermediate School PTA.

She would have done well to at least acknowledge the perception of impropriety that might arise when a PTA member coaches select candidates in a PTA-sponsored forum. I am prepared to believe that Johnson recused herself from any involvement in the planning or execution of the forum itself in her capacity as a PTA member. However, she did not so state in her e-mail, and I have already been taken to task at least once this evening for making assumptions.

[UPDATE: In a follow-up e-mail, Johnson clarifies (underscores again rendered as italics):

"...let me make it clear to you now that I was not involved in planning the forum in any way. "

She goes on to demur from further comment:

"I hope that this clarifies everything. As I stated in my previous e-mail, I am not going to comment any further on this matter in order to allow the candidates to focus on the more important issues of the campaign but I did want to take the time to thank you for your graciousness and consideration in making this correction."

I'm happy to have the candidates focused on the more important issues of the campaign. I have no idea what others consider important when electing leaders, but I consider integrity a very important issue indeed.]

Note: Please read the following article for explanation and refutation of some of this article’s content, and for additional information that was not available at the time of this writing.

It came to my attention this morning that there was more to Tuesday night’s candidate forum at Woodstock High School than met the eye. It would seem certain that, however it happened, the incumbents (Chapman and Read) enjoyed an unfair advantage over the other candidates.

I have personally spoken with two of the candidates who were part of the forum. Each of them was in a fairly good position to see what was happening. It would seem that the two incumbent candidates were in possession of identical sets of index cards. On those cards were either the actual questions that would be asked at the forum or a good representation thereof. (One man said he read the question from Chapman’s card as it was being asked, word for word, by the moderator. The other said that he didn’t get as clear a view, but that the cards seemed to have been prepared by Superintendent Petruzielo’s staff.)

I expect a certain amount of misconduct during election campaigns, but this seems particularly heinous. I hesitated to write about these allegations until I’d given the organizers (the Georgia PTA) an opportunity to respond. The president of District 13 of the PTA, Denise Nani, has at the time of this writing not been reachable via telephone or e-mail. I can’t wait forever, and the candidates are giving me information now.

If nothing else, this should again be a vivid reminder of the fact that allowing Chapman and Read to continue in their seats on the school board would be nothing short of disaster for this school system. Regardless of who provided it, use of this sort of “inside information” speaks strongly of their lack of integrity and their disregard of fairness. Do we need four more years of that?

If you live in Cherokee County, I urge you to do your own research. When you do, I believe you’ll find that Kim Cochran, Robert Strozier, and Danny Dukes are the right choice for our school board. Please vote on July 15.

Special Note: The author would like to thank Keith Ball, Principal of Woodstock Middle School in Cherokee County, Georgia, for all the extra traffic he has been driving to this site.

If Mr. Ball referred you to this blog, please understand that his actions are the result of his personal vendetta against my fiancee’, Allison Burnes. For the record, Allison Burnes does not write, edit, approve, or support what is published here. I alone am responsible for this content.

Mr. Ball’s problem is with me, but he can’t seem to muster the courage to take me to task directly. Instead, he is referring all of Allison’s prospective employers here, hoping to sabotage her career by blaming my writings on her. It’s wrong, and you deserve to know his motives and the relevant facts. If you would like to read all of the articles related to Mr. Ball as of 2-15-2010, please use this link. The posts are displayed in reverse chronological order, so read from the bottom up. Thank you for visiting.

I am the least political person (more than 14 years of age) that I know or have ever known.  When a situation becomes so mind-bogglingly ridiculous as to motivate me to being politically conscious, it’s a true red letter day in my life.  Such is the situation with the Cherokee County School Board.

In the course of taking steps to deal with the situation with Keith Ball at Woodstock Middle School, it has become clear that there are equally serious problems elsewhere in the system.  To wit, the School Board members, collectively and individually, have shown a troubling lack of concern for the workings of the system they govern.

Last Monday, we attended a forum intended to allow residents of Cherokee County to meet the candidates for various offices prior to the election on July 15.  Sponsored by the Cherokee County Republican Women, the forum was not well organized and seemed a bit impromptu. For example, questions were collected from the attendees and were to be directed to a single candidate, but were then posed to all seven candidates.  Despite promises that all questions would be heard, most were discarded, including ours.

The candidates were game and entertaining, and I gathered some interesting first impressions.  Three seats on the board are up for re-election, and there are seven candidates for those seats.  Here are my opinions and impressions, summarized from notes I took that night.

Post 7:

Kim Cochran speaks well and seems comfortable discussing the role of a school board member.  She is a homemaker, mother, and former educator, the only trained and experienced teacher running in this election.   In fact, if elected, she will be the first teacher to serve.  She seems to take a common-sense approach to the questions.  She knows schools and education law well and has served on several school advisory boards.  She champions fiscally conservative policies and would keep control of the schools, to the extent possible, at the local level.

Wes Frye apparently phoned in his answers.  He was physically present, but had all the charisma of a profit-loss statement.  His answers generally followed the answers of others, and he had little to say that was original or interesting.  He’s been in the energy business and is a paralegal, a title examiner, an appraiser, and a real estate professional and has an associate degree in database management.  Despite 5 terms as PTA president and 5 terms as PTA vice-president, I can’t imagine this man being effective on the board.

Post 4:

Janet Read, the incumbent, came across as an infuriatingly smug, condescending woman who seems far better at talking than listening.  She presently works, from time to time, as a substitute teacher in the very school system she’s charged with governing.  My favorite quote of the evening from Read was in response to a question about personnel problems in the schools.  “It does no good to talk to me,” she admitted.  Truer words were never spoken.  She and Chapman, both incumbents,  seem to stick together and look out for each other.

David Farrow seems like a sensible fellow, but he doesn’t speak well.  He’s fascinated with numbers like dropout rates and graduation rates. He doesn’t seem to care where the numbers came from; he’s just intent on fixing them.  This is noble in itself, but unfortunately he’s neither convincing nor assertive in his statements.  Like Frye, he doesn’t present himself as leadership material.  In order to overcome those who would leave the broken system be, we need strong-willed people who don’t mind getting a little aggressive when necessary, and I don’t see Farrow having those qualities, as much as I may admire his accomplishments and his integrity.

Robert Strozier strikes me as a cross between Ross Perot and a pit bull.  He cuts right through the crap.  Like Perot, he came prepared with charts and graphs to dismiss the ridiculous idea put forth by the incumbents that our graduation rates aren’t bad.  The fact is that they’re terrible, and his data show this unequivocally.  Strozier speaks his mind with a refreshing frankness and isn’t afraid to deliver a few swift kicks to the status quo.  Strozier also plans to donate his school board salary back to the system, something no other candidate has mentioned.  His many stated goals include rewarding good teachers and making overtime a paid activity, not volunteer work as it is now in many cases.

Post 2:

Mike Chapman comes across as an arrogant, condescending, contentious, overly comfortable incumbent who seems to take his seat on the school board for granted.  To him, the questions were opportunities to crow about the school board’s past achievements as if they were his own.  He champions impartiality at the school board level, something I find completely ridiculous when a school system has personnel in place who are damaging it and the superintendent and his staff are not acting.   Chapman’s opponent was surprised to see him here, since he’d skipped the previous forum held at Cagle’s Dairy in June.  Chapman’s wife works as a teacher in this school system, and that’s a definite conflict of interest.  Chapman would either need to vote on his own wife’s salary or abstain from such a vote.  Neither would impress me.

Danny Dukes is a bit of a scrapper and took some shots at Chapman, mostly about Chapman’s attendance record at meetings and non-meeting school board functions.  Dukes has a lot of opinions about how we should fix the broken parts of this school system, and they make sense.  Rather than simply go along, as the incumbents have, with the “this is how we’ve always done it” conservative rhetoric, Dukes chooses to take aim at bad programs like “Math 1-2-3″ which Georgia is forcing down the throats of local schools.  He’d like to see change, and I think he’s ready to bring some about.

Last night we attended another forum.  This one was solely for School Board candidates and was held at Woodstock High School, the school which shares a campus with Keith Ball’s current fiefdom, Woodstock Middle School.  This forum was also far more organized and was sponsored by the local PTA.

There weren’t many memorable quotes, other than the embarrassing moment when Farrow couldn’t remember whether the correct grammar was “…we must have done well” or “…we must have done good.”   Chapman did refer to matters that are outside the “purveyance” of the School Board, which made me chuckle.  By the definition of that word, the Board must think of themselves as royalty.

Dukes again came out with his … er … dukes up, landing a couple of blows on Chapman that seemed ineffective against his force-field of self-importance.  Nonetheless, his ideas and reasoning were sound and he offered well thought-out, meaningful answers.  Cochran again stood out as the calm, intelligent voice of reason.  Strozier spoke plainly and offered clear data and definite goals.  One of his goals was to “return non-value-added administrators to the classroom where they belong.”  Direct hit.

Frye again phoned it in.  Farrow bristled at what I thought was a rather sensible question about some land donated to the school system and responded angrily, which didn’t help his credibility.  Read remained smug and reversed herself on an earlier statement about her involvement in school system operation.

One interesting question involved substitute teachers.  The Board recently changed the rules to require at least a 2-year college degree for substitute teachers.  That resulted in a shortage of subs when they’re needed.  Candidates were asked how they would solve that problem.

Chapman opined that we should simply raise the pay we offer substitutes.  Brilliant.  Let’s throw money at the problem.

Read failed to address the question and instead spent her time explaining the original decision, as if she felt it needed to be justified.

Farrow rambled for a while.  So did Frye.  Neither had a definite answer, although both echoed previous answers.

Dukes suggested allowing people to work as substitute teachers while in the course of pursuing a two-year degree.  That idea made sense to me.  At least it was a fresh approach.

Strozier had the best idea of all, though.  He suggested implementing a competency test for substitute teachers, so that a definite benchmark (rather than an education requirement) would determine qualification for the position.  Nobody else thought of anything quite so sensible.

The evening was marred somewhat by a group of ladies who sat directly behind me, in the third row.  I’m not sure where they thought they were, but they seemed to feel that they were exempt from the rules of order as well as from common politeness.  They insisted on talking throughout the program.  They were so loud that at times, I found it difficult to lock in on some of the softer-spoken candidates.  As PTA members, perhaps they felt privileged.

(UPDATE 7/10: Who was the loudest of the ladies, who actually heckled one of David Farrow’s answers? I’m told it was none other than Janet Read’s campaign manager.)

In short, the statements, questions, and answers last night also served only to further reinforce the opinions I’d already formed.  The field consists of two arrogant, condescending incumbents (Mike Chapman, Janet Read), two unelectable hopefuls (Wes Frye and David Farrow) and three candidates who need to win their respective seats (Danny Dukes, Kim Cochran, Robert Strozier).

More as it happens.

Disclosure: This article was edited the day after I posted it.  I found my own writing to be somewhat substandard and took the liberty of fixing it. 

I’ve been distracted by other issues recently, and I realized today that I’d failed to post an update on the Adam Race story recently.  I apologize for this.  I’m much better at dealing with one miscreant at a time, so the recent surfeit of jackasses has disoriented me somewhat.  There has been news in the case, although it’s not encouraging news at all.

On June 24, Carol Race appeared in a court hearing to defend herself and challenge the restraining order filed by Daniel “Not In MY Church” Walz.  Race represented herself at the hearing, and even had the opportunity to cross-examine Walz on the stand for about am hour, during which time he admitted that many of the accusations in the restraining order were based on hearsay, but that he “believes” that they happened.  Well, at least he believes in something.

The presiding judge one Sally Ireland Robertson, concluded the hearing by saying she would take the matter under advisement and would “rule later.”  This in itself was somewhat disappointing.  The next time my job forces me to make a quick decision, I’d like that “rule later” option for myself.

The following week, Robertson announced her ruling, which surprised no one.  She upheld the restraining order as proper, which actually makes sense to me.  After all, the question was never whether or not Walz had a right to do such a heartless, stupid thing, but instead whether he should have done it.  Using what seem to be very clear-cut guidelines, the judge ruled that Adam’s alleged behavior constituted “harassment.”

Walz’ actions are inexplicable, at least without doing some research involving the DSM.  Faced with objections, outrage, and ridicule from every corner of the globe, he is nonetheless stubbornly maintaining his unpopular position and has not rescinded the restraining order as any intelligent, compassionate man would have done by now.  This is why I do not use his church title when I write of him today.  Actually, something that begins with “Mother” might be more appropriate, but I’ll leave that as an exercise for the reader.

The Race family has started a new web site known as “Project: Adam’s Pew.”  The site is pretty rough at the moment but it’s a good start, and I encourage you to stop by for a look.  Race is encouraging churches around the world to designate a pew specifically reserved for people with autism and other developmental disorders.

Oh, and a special note for our good friend, frequent commenter “Ben” from Minnesota.  Ben, your opinions are welcome here in the comments.  So are everyone else’s.  If you don’t like what someone has said, you are more than welcome to disagree with it and say so.  What I cannot tolerate are your assertions that unless someone is a member of Walz’ flock, his or her opinion carries less weight.  That constitutes an ad hominem attack, and is simply a lazy way of avoiding the hard work of supporting your argument.