glory is an opinion.
Could you stop characterizing and start quoting?
A bit of a leap on my part, yes.
So, what troubles me isn’t what you’re saying or how you’re saying it, it’s that your come across as pretty actually IRL angry over what amounts to petty bullshit. Granted, that’s me characterizing you, but have you actually read you?
Also, your logic includes a fair number of fallacies. That’s a fact.
Working at a school that was twice sued over its policy is the least persuasive fact, right?
It seems to me that your wrapping several broad-stroke assumptions into that statement, some of which may have to do with your judgement of the peanut gallery.
If I were to do what you do and jump to conclusions about people’s states of mind, you would appear to be reveling in your disgust with other people’s disgust at the administrators. But I won’t do that because I’m not arrogant enough to psychoanalyze people I’ve never met through the internet based on a few forum comments.
Solid professional judgment — wish there was more of it around.
The person that asked him to remove the kente was a teacher who was also the student activities director. Other teachers came and supported the request.
Teachers are under attack all too often in their workplace (see http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2011/2011002.pdf), the last thing they need is a presumption on the part of the internet keyboard army that they are not doing their best in a difficult and underappreciated job.
The irony here is that Cosumnes is a paradigm of what such schools should be, with a very good track record of success with students from a broad mix of backgrounds and of positive student-teacher and parent-teacher relations.
might makes right? noted.
That’s an unreasonable assumption, esp. at a school. What was happening there was a “teachable moment” sort of situation.
If these officials consider a teenager wearing a kente cloth to be “difficult circumstances” necessitating a police escort, then those officials need to find different, less stressful jobs that don’t involve interacting with teenagers.
However, judging from student interviews in the Sacramento Bee everyone but this student seems to have got the message…unless he too got the message but decided to make the graduation all about him.
Uh, this was his high school graduation. It was “all about him”.
I haven’t got a problem with asking the student to comply with the dress code. I do have a problem with their disciplinary choices after he chose not to comply. It appeared the authoritarian who was involved with the discipline was an admin, perhaps they were a teacher. Regardless of their role, they deserve condemnation for their response to the student’s behavior. Armed law enforcement officers should never have been permitted to have been involved.
I think all teachers would be benefitted by joining in a strong, clear condemnation of authoritarians in schools who inappropriately pull in security/LEOs to harass students (regardless of race) merely for being strong willed while not causing any actual problem other than temporary embarrassment to the authorities.
Not really irony, rather this is exactly the kind of failure we should be vigilant against and be careful to condemn to ensure they don’t lose that track record.
But… but… I talk back to teachers, admins, ceo’s, investors like every day and don’t get LEO called on me.
No, it is the actual situation. The school apparently took their dress code seriously - we can disagree with that, that is an issue for that school’s community - but they put considerable energy into warning students and parents in advance of the ceremony that deviation would not be permitted. During the ceremony this student violated this dress code. The teacher, whose job it was to do this, asked the student to remove the garment. The student refused. The teacher had to make a decision in real time what to do next. Deciding on his own to ignore both the mandates of his job and the open disrespect of the student was an option, but I don’t think it is fair to say that by not taking this option he was being a racist asshole.
What would you have had him do in this situation? As I’ve said above, I don’t know what I would have done, and I think it is cheap and unreasonable to criticize this teacher without offering a reasonable positive alternative action.
[quote=“AcerPlatanoides, post:190, topic:78756”]
might makes right? noted.[/quote]
You hate teachers? Noted.
The context of my statement was a response to nemomen’s distinction between administrators and teachers.
They didn’t. The difficult circumstances (should I assume you genuinely didn’t understand my posts, and aren’t just driving trollies?) was that the decision had to be made in real time, as this big school event was taking place.
Well, it is now, but it shouldn’t have been. See my post above.
Internet comments don’t count.
Their decision was to call the police and escort Mr. Holmes out of his graduation. That is wholly inappropriate and an insane overreaction.
So, other than “not that”, what would you have done in his position?
Well, if you’re in my office talking back to me I have an easy way of getting rid of you; I switch off the air conditioner.
In 1996, my buddy almost wasn’t allowed to walk because he wasn’t wearing a tie underneath his gown. He had on one of those collarless button-up shirts that was popular at the time. Some goddamn coach came and yelled at him while we were standing around, then finally settled down and walked away. The following year there was a big to-do because a girl wore a pantsuit underneath her gown instead of a dress. I can’t remember if they let her walk or not.
Our co-valedictorian had been in trouble for credit card fraud, but he was allowed to walk with no problem, on account of his tie.
Said king Pyrrhus of Epirus.
1: Let Mr. Holmes wear his kente and nod in approval as he crossed the stage
2: Fire the people that called the cops
3: Tell the student paper Mr. Holmes convinced me to abolish that stupid rule
