Valedictorian Speaks Out Against American Educational System At Graduation Ceremony

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School district blames disabled student for own molestation

(RAW STORY)   When a teacher’s aide at Saddleback High School in Santa Ana, CA was arrested for molesting one of the special-ed students under his care, the school district’s first impulse was to cover the incident up and hope no one would find out.

Now the student’s parents have sued the Santa Ana Unified School District for negligently keeping on an employee that other parents had been complaining about for years. The district’s lawyers have responded by not only blaming the mentally disabled girl for her own abuse but asking that the judge dismiss the charges and make the victim’s family pay the district’s legal fees.

The seventeen-year-old victim, who has cerebral palsy, has the mental capacity of a seven-year-old and is confined to a wheelchair. Because she is unable to speak, no one knows exactly what was happening when another school employee found her alone in a room with Alonso Manuel Gonzalez, with her shirt pulled up and her breasts exposed, but the incident resulted in the aide’s arrest for a “lewd act with dependent adult.”

The school’s immediate reaction was to attempt to keep the incident under wraps. Saddleback teachers told the OC Weekly they had been told not to discuss the incident with anyone. Parents were not notified and a school representative refused to discuss the matter with a reporter. Over the next few months, the school district made no public acknowledgment of the arrest, either when Gonzalez was arraigned or several months later when he pleaded guilty to child abuse and endangerment.

The parents of other disabled students, however, quickly came forward with their owncomplaints about Gonzalez, going back to at least 2005. They told the OC Weekly that a group of parents had met with Saddleback’s principle and the head of the district’s special-ed program to complain that Gonzalez made the students uncomfortable and seemed to want to spend time alone with female students, but that the district ignored their concerns.

Now, a year after the aide’s guilty plea, the parents of the student have brought a civil suit against Gonzales for causing mental and physical trauma to their daughter and also against the school district for negligence. As a result, the district’s lawyers are fighting back — hard.

In a filing with the Orange County Superior Court, the attorneys claim that the wheelchair-bound girl “chose to encounter the known risk” of being alone with Gonzalez, that she “consented to” him lifting up her shirt, and that her injuries were the result of her having “failed to use due and reasonable care for her own safety and protection.”

They also charge her parents with having “negligently, carelessly and recklessly supervised, monitored, controlled and instructed the minor plaintiff so as to legally cause and contribute to her injuries and damages, if any.”

“As a grand, caring finale, the district asked presiding Judge Luis A. Rodriguez to not only dismiss all charges against them but to make the victim’s family pay all legal fees,” the OC Weekly concludes, adding, “Since when did the Santa Ana Unified School District take its directions toward sex abuse from the Diocese of Orange?”

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0625/school-district-blames-disabled-student-molestation/

Teacher Sues Over Right to Flunk Her Students

(FOXNEWS)   Sheila Goudeau, by all accounts, was a good teacher. In fact, she was the only nationally certified teacher at Riveroaks Elementary School, and she was a nominee for teacher of the year.

But that didn’t qualify her to grade her students, according to a suit she has filed against the East Baton Rouge, La., school and its administrators.

According to the civil rights suit filed in federal court in Baton Rouge, Goudeau was asked to teach fourth grade last year by the school’s principal, Shilonda Shamlin, in order to help raise grades and have students prepare for the state mandated Louisiana Educational Assessment Test (LEAP), which all students in the state must pass to move on to the next grade.

After she took the job, the suit alleges, Shamlin ordered that no student was to get a failing grade and that teachers were not to record any grade lower than a “D.”

Goudeau’s attorney, Craig Sterling Watson, said the suit doesn’t specify why Shamlin gave the orders, and he said Goudeau still doesn’t know. He said Goudeau complied with the orders and didn’t fail students, but she complained about the orders and filed a grievance with the school district.

At that point, the suit claims, Goudeau was monitored, harassed and disparaged in front of her students.She has since transferred to another elementary school in the district.

The suit seeks unspecified damages for Goudeau’s severe and extreme mental pain, suffering, and anguish; physical pain, suffering and anguish; loss of sleep; loss of quality of lifestyle; loss of reputation and standing in the community; humiliation and embarrassment; medical expenses; counseling; wages; and loss of earning capacity from the principal, the school district, and current and former school superintendents of the district.

Principal Shamlin did not reply to repeated requests for comment. Domione Rutledge, general counsel for East Baton Rouge Parish School Board, said the school district couldn’t speak about the allegations “because it still hadn’t been served with the papers.”

Lawsuits like the one Goudeau filed are rare, said Perry A Zirkel, a professor in education and law at Lehigh University says. He explained that while courts generally agree that a teacher’s right to grade is protected by the First Amendment, they also find that administrators have the same right and can change grades as they like.

“So the teacher wins the right to give a D and the school has the right to change it to an A,” he said.

But the suit has already served one purpose. It brought about a wave of criticism aimed at the principal and school administrators and showed that the school staff was bitterly divided. When a story about the lawsuit appeared in The Advocate, a Baton Rouge daily, a chorus of complaints charged that Shamlin ruled the school with a heavy hand and demanded regimentation of studies and classrooms.

“It’s a crippling work environment at Riveroaks and the school’s reputation is well-known throughout the parish,” wrote an anonymous poster to the newspaper’s website. “Just consider the teacher turnover at the school. There is almost an entire new staff hired each year. This year won’t be any different.”

But another responded, “Mrs. Shamlin has done more to improve the quality of education at Riveroaks in the last four years than any other principal. Ask any parent that has had more than one child there over the years. She cares about the students and has high standards for them and the teachers.”

The case is unlikely to go to trial for some time, Watson said.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/07/teacher-sues-fail/?test=latestnews

Obama Backs Race-Based College Admissions

(NEWSMAX)   Conservatives hoping the Supreme Court will limit affirmative action at pubic colleges are at odds with an Obama administration legal brief asking a federal appeals court to uphold race-based admissions at the University of Texas.

The brief is part of a case before the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans challenging the school’s practice of using race and ethnic background as significant factors in the admission of 25 percent of the university’s student annually. The remaining 75 percent are admitted mainly on academic grounds.

“We think it is critical to being able to achieve the diverse institution that we think is important,” Patricia Ohlendorf, Vice President for Legal Affairs at the University of Texas tells The Wall Street Journal. Ohlendorf says many public and private school have turned to affirmative-action programs for blacks and Hispanic groups, who on average have lower entrance exam scores than Asian-American and white students

The Obama administration concurs: “[The] university’s effort to promote diversity is a paramount government objective,” says the brief filed by the Education and Justice departments. The administration disputed claims that Texas was simply engaging in raw racial preferences.

“The question is not whether an individual belongs to a racial group, but rather how an individual’s membership in any group may provide deeper understanding of the person’s record and experiences, as well as the contribution she can make to the school,” the brief says.

The case was brought by two rejected Caucasian applicants who allege that the admissions evaluation is civil rights violation. The District Court denied their claim based on a 2003 Supreme Court ruling that upheld an admissions system at The University of Michigan Law School that used race as a factor.

In that ruling, Grutter v. Bollinger, the court said the law school had “a compelling interest in attaining a diverse student body.” The court prohibited “outright racial balancing,” but said that race could be a “plus” factor to build a “critical mass” of minority students.

The Texas plaintiffs’ case is currently before the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Whoever loses there will likely petition the Supreme Court.

Bert Rein, Washington attorney for the plaintiffs said this case “might cause the Supreme Court to think again” regarding whether diversity still justifies classifying students by race.

http://newsmax.com/US/obama-race-college-admissions/2010/03/31/id/354391

Texas school books are being rewritten and history is being changed

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Students across U.S. plan to protest education funding cuts

(CNN)   Dissatisfaction, anger and an uncertain future have led professors and students in California and across the country to call for a day of action Thursday to defend education at state colleges and universities.

Budget cuts have resulted in canceled classes and class waiting lists doubling or tripling in California.

Whitney Thompson experienced this firsthand when all her courses at Fresno State University were dropped, setting her back an entire year. She is part of a rising phenomenon in which students take up to six years to graduate.

These “super-seniors,” as they are referred to by the universities, have to take out more debt to carry the full-time load needed to maintain their financial aid and health insurance. She is now enrolled in classes that do not meet her graduation requirements.

“My plans were messed up, I now have more debt, and I’m taking classes that were my least choice,” Thompson said.

Are you in on the protests? Share pics, video

Alejandro Laro-Briseno at the University of California, Berkeley, said he knows students who have to choose between buying a book and eating.

Honora Keller, a fifth-year student at San Francisco State University, has to work three jobs to keep up. “I have to eat, buy books and [pay] tuition, and I’m still taking out more loans,” she said.

“People are taking semesters off to save for tuition. It’s a common conversation you hear everywhere on campus,” Keller said.

Similar conversations are taking place across the country as states slash funding not only for colleges, but also for elementary and secondary education.

That’s why protests of various kinds are planned Thursday in at least 29 states. See where protests are planned

“There needs to be some honest conversations about what’s happening [in our schools],” according to CNN Education Contributor Steve Perry, who founded Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Hartford, Connecticut.

“The system is being fleeced by the people within.”

Perry said teachers’ salaries make up 70 to 80 percent of schools’ budgets. In order for school programs to survive, those salaries must be based on performance and revenue instead of union mandates, according to Perry.

“At CNN, you don’t get a raise if there’s no money. It doesn’t happen that way,” Perry said. “If there’s no money and you’ve not performed well, then you do not get a raise.”

Most of Thursday’s protests will center on cuts to state-funded colleges and universities, which could translate into even higher tuition costs.

In Georgia, a legislative committee proposed $300 million in cuts to the state’s college system, on top of $100 million cut in the past two years, University of Georgia President Michael F. Adams wrote in an open letter to students, faculty and staff.

“This is not our plan; these are not cuts we offered to make; and we will vigorously oppose any effort to implement them,” Adams wrote.

In response, student organizers in Georgia are urging fellow students at every college in the state system to wear black this week to “symbolize the ‘death’ of our education,” according to a posting on Facebook.

State funding for the California State University system was reduced by nearly $1 billion for the academic years between 2008 and 2010. Schools have responded by increasing fees, canceling classes, cutting student support programs and furloughing professors.

From 2002 to 2009 fees increased by 182 percent, and annual 10 percent increases are expected.

“The less affordable education becomes, the less likely low-income students will be able to get a college education,” said Lillian Taiz, president of the California Faculty Association and professor of history at California State University, Los Angeles.

Alejandro Lara-Briseno — the first in his family to attend college — now doubts he will be able to finish. “I remember when I was accepted to the University of California, Berkeley, my mother started crying,” he said.

“The university administration is not discussing with students or unions their decisions to cut recruitment and retainment centers that help minority students,” he said.

More students take particular classes — not because they are interested in the topic or even fulfilling their requirements — but because they are unable to register for anything else, says Vivian Chavez, an assistant professor at San Francisco State University.

Furlough days and a 10 percent salary decrease have affected the morale of professors and students at San Francisco State University,

“We are doing more with less,” Chavez said. “I normally teach 45 students and last semester I taught 68 students. It was so difficult to remember student names. How do you give each one individual attention?”

As students and professors prepare for Thursday, they face many challenges and obstacles but remain hopeful that administration and legislators will listen.

“I want people to question where the priorities are,” said Honora Keller. “To see people getting together to accomplish a goal by creating awareness for something as simple and as basic as the right to be educated.”

http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/03/03/education.protest/index.html?hpt=T2

PROGRAMING: Teacher Gives Stugents Fake Pills For Anxiety

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Detroit schools offer class in how to to work at Walmart

(RAW STORY)   Walmart has been widely condemned for offering its employees only low-paying, dead end jobs. Even President Obama criticized Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential campaign for having served on Walmart’s board and stated that the firm ought to pay “a living wage.”

In inner-city Detroit, however, where the unemployment rate is estimated at an astonishing 50%, the prospect of a Walmart job may appear far more attractive.

Four inner-city Detroit high schools have decided that employment with Walmart is an opportunity worth training their students to pursue. The schools have teamed up with the giant merchandiser to offer a for-credit class in job-readiness training that also includes entry-level after-school jobs.

According to the Detroit Free Press, the principal at one of the schools optimistically suggested that “the program will allow students an opportunity to earn money and to be exposed to people from different cultures — since all of the stores are in the suburbs.”

The announcement of the program outraged Donna Stern, the Midwest coordinator for the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights And Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN). “They’re going to train students to be subservient workers” she told the Free Press. “This is not why parents send them to school.”

Detroit area schools have cooperated on projects with Walmart in the past. Last summer, Walmart sponsored a letter-writing contest in which students could win classroom supplies, and at Christmas Walmart donated presents to needy students in a Detroit suburb.

Neither of those acts of corporate generosity, however, carried the same racial overtones as training inner-city students for a career as suburban Walmart store clerks. The fact may be that Detroit’s schools are now desperate enough to accept help wherever they can find it.

The school district has been running badly in the red, and though emergency financial manager Robert Bobb has already closed 29 schools as a cost-cutting measure, it was reported this week that “the 84,000-student Detroit Public Schools could face additional layoffs and about 40 more school closings.”

Detroit’s teachers have also been chafing at a contract accepted by their union that forces them to make involuntary long-term loans to the school district out of their paychecks. A Detroit Federation of Teachers union meeting on Thursday broke down in chaos after members tried to put the question of recalling the union president on the agenda.

http://rawstory.com/2010/02/detroit-schools-offer-class-work-walmart/

Planned Parenthood wants schools to teach ‘Pleasures of Sex’ to 10 yr old kids

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School district pulls Anne Frank’s diary over ‘vagina’ passage

(RAW STORY)   Anne Frank’s adolescent curiosity about sexuality is too much for a Virginia school district that has pulled the complete version of the young Jewish girl’s diary off its curriculum and off its shelves over a parent’s complaint about sexually explicit passages.

Culpeper County Public Schools has pulled Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl: The Definitive Edition off the shelves because parents complained “over the sexual nature of the vagina passage in the definitive edition,” reports the Culpeper, Virginia, Star-Exponent.

The complaint has to do specifically with an expanded version of the diary published in 1995. Frank’s father, Otto, had excised large parts of his daughter’s diary prior to publication in the late 1940s. Anne was killed at the Auschwitz concentration camp in March, 1945. Her diary has made her arguably the most famous Holocaust victim.

According to Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post, the offending passage is a description of female genitalia:

There are little folds of skin all over the place, you can hardly find it. The little hole underneath is so terribly small that I simply can’t imagine how a man can get in there, let alone how a whole baby can get out!

The decision to pull the book appears to have been made quickly, last November, on the basis of one complaint from a parent. The Star-Exponent reports:

Citing a parent’s concern over the sexual nature of the vagina passage in the definitive edition, Allen said school officials immediately chose to pull this version and use an alternative copy.

“What we have asked is that this particular edition will not be taught,” Allen said from his office Wednesday morning.

“I’m happy when parents get involved with these things because it lets me know that they are really looking and have their kids’ best interest (in mind). And that’s where good parenting and good teaching comes in.”

Amazon.com lists Anne Frank’s diary as one of the most banned children’s books, “for being too depressing for students.” The diary chronicles some two years of Frank’s life as she hid out with her family in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam during World War II. It is considered one of the most famous and vivid accounts of the war.

But the American Library Association says it has documented only six challenges to the book since 1990.

http://rawstory.com/2010/01/school-district-pulls-anne-franks-diary/

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