It is my opinion that Sac school board president, Shirley Phillips took advantage of the turmoil that is being wrought by a group of 10 to 20 children in the middle school and used it to take a political cheap shot at the teachers and employees of our school district. I think her actions at the April 12, 2010 school board meeting were designed to make the entire school, and the residents of Sac and WLVA districts look like they are incapable of raising children that will become humans.
Shirley Phillips did not achieve her apparent goal of splitting the school districts up, but I guess what I percieve to be the hate in her heart will not let her stop continuing to try and split up East Sac County School through other means.
I suppose using fear and manipulation to get revenge on a school district that has no more need for her services are all she really has have left, (if that's what she's doing.). From observation I’ve noticed that the most effective weapon in Shirley Phillip’s manipulative handbag is the power to make people hate each other. (Check!)
I wonder if she regrets her fear inducing words of that April 2010 evening. I wonder if she has enough of a conscience left to feel shame about the turmoil she has caused. As the school board president she has a responsibility to chose the high road and figure out a way to work WITH the teachers, councilors, and administrators of East Sac County School to be part of the solution.
For the record, if Shirley Phillips at some point insists that she and her cronies were trying to work with the schools and that they were not listening, you can be safely assured that this is a lie. All preliminary indications are that no emails with the word bullying in the body of the email from any school board member to any school administrator has been exchanged in the run up to the April school board meeting.
No doubt, she and her followers tell themselves that bringing this issue to light DID do good, and I believe that they are partially right, because I too believe that good will come of her words. Unfortunately, I believe that because of the petty, short-sighted, and manipulative way in which she chose to deliver those words, that good will now take much longer to come about then had she said nothing .
What Shirley Isn’t telling you is that the school has a program in place that, at its core, is designed to gain bullying victims’ trust so that the school can then actually DO something about the problem.
I wonder why she doesn’t tell people that?
In FACT, in the last year, as a result of that program, the _reported_ cases of bullying went up, indicating that more students were starting to come forward so that action can be taken. (Unfortunately, this number, too, has been twisted around to suggest that there is MORE bullying. Shirley Phillip’s supporters will tell any lie as long as it benefits them.)
Now, because of the fear that Shirley Phillips words have spread, people seem willing to settle for nothing less than a zero tolerance policy that calls for (very expensive) juvenile incarceration.
There is a bullying problem in our school, in the school district over, and in all of the school districts everywhere, including in those schools that are actually FOR juvenile offenders. Kids find ways to be mean to each other, and at no age are they bigger monsters than in their middle school years. You can’t make bullies quit, and you can’t protect their victims if they don’t trust you. I believe Shirley Phillips deliberately misused her position as school board president to send a message directly to the victims and the parents of victims of bullying that the school is your enemy and that they do not care about you. I believe she did this because she is bitter about the results of the consolidation and subsequent interim school board election, and it troubles me that so many people are falling for it.
What happens next as a result of her words is predictable. At the next school board meeting there will be throngs of angry parents. The school, not able to actually snap their fingers and make bullying go away, (no one can,) and unable to explain to an angry mob that their policies are designed to gradually gain the trust of victims and curb bullying long term, will be forced to do something incredibly time wasting and counter-productive like forming a task force or committee, to “address” the problem.
This task force, which I have a pretty good feeling Shirley Phillips or one of her favored sycophants will volunteer to lead, will accomplish zero, and the actual plan that IS working will be put on the back burner.
About 2012ish, when this has all blown over and the bullying problem is bigger than ever, the task force will be quietly dismantled and the school will be back at square one… where they were in 2007 when they started getting serious about solving the bullying problem in the first place.
Shirley Phillip’s apparent message is that the employees of the school do not care about fixing the bullying problem. I know you are smarter than that.
COMMENT RULES
1. No trolling.
2. No referring to specific people by name or job.
You are welcome to bitch about the bullying problem as much as you want, the same basic rules are in place and I'm not going to hold you back, the only change is that I will not take the time to remove names from your comments, I will simply delete the entire comment if you've included any.
(Trolls don't deserve an explanation.)
have fun
Copyright (c)2007-2010 Curtis Bloes All Rights Reserved
I tried to reply and say that I was ok with the pictures, just not ok with what the kids did. My comment didnt come out the way I wanted it to. :) I have no clue who the kid was that was doing most of the bullying. It was on the Sac team.
ReplyDeleteHow come the only school board member you trash is Shirley?? Are you abscessed with her and trying to make her look bad? She speaks her opinions and doesn't hold back like the other members do. From what I hear the new School President has already tried some pretty shady deals, if you are a true reporter maybe you should check into some of his recent hiring practices. If I were the new superintendent just hired I would be thinking twice about coming to ESCO.... What a mess he is walking into......
ReplyDeletewell said.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100% with the above comments!! As a parent of 2 middle school kids, I know for a fact that many, many times the students that are getting into trouble and recieving reprimands for bullying have in fact only defended themselves. Here is what is going on: student A is name calling, student B retaliates then student A reports it. Student B isn't a tattle tale is really the only difference. It's like the saying says "don't dish it out if you can't take it." Also as a parent of the so-called middle school "gang" I'm fed up past my eyeballs with all of this garbage. Not a single thing that I know of has warrented the kind of attention that this is getting.
ReplyDeleteWhen I said I agree with the above comments I was referring to Curtis.
ReplyDeleteit is true that its not the entire eighth grade. I know a few eigth graders that i care about alot. There are some who are very bad but not all of them. Also the high school is not afraid of them. We honestly think that high school is going to be a rude awakening when they get there. I also know the kid that was bullied whose pictures were put on faceboook. What happened may not have happened at school but they have had problems with the bully before i hear. This is bad and I think that the whole community should do something to stop it. We had someone from R5 productions come to are school. He was a motivational speaker and was very good. I can honestly say I learned from him. He was energetic and made it fun and interesting.
ReplyDeleteIn the videos they said in school suspension wasn't good enough. I know for a fact when my son got in school suspension he was put in the FCS room with a few of his friends and the principal was in the room the whole time. To me that does not sound like bragging when they leave the office. They were never in the office! You can have the principal tell you himself that when the "group" had in school suspension that he was with them in a room. He kept a good eye on them the whole time they were in there. Nobody else came in to that room. That is not going out and bragging about what went on in the office. If you do not know what you are talking about keep your mouth closed.
ReplyDeletewhy are we using this to trash the reputation of our school system? has anyone thought about how this looks and sounds to people that are thinking of moving to anyone of our communities and have children that are school age. Speaking for myself, I would think twice about moving to this school district after reading these comments. I am not saying we need to cover up what is going on, but what good is it doing to post all these comments? If you think it is a problem, why was it not addressed when the many situations being referred to happened?! How are the school board members suppose to know what happens if they are not told? Are they suppose to be perfect individuals and know everything? Then they are accused of being nosy...can they win?! Do you really think posting some of the horrible comments that some of you are posting is going to do any good? How are you any better when you either put down the bullies by calling them names or putting down the individuals getting bullied? Maybe instead of bitching to a bunch of people who can't do anything about it, you should call a school board memeber or be heard at a meeting.
ReplyDeleteI agree this is a situation that needs to be addressed, but do any of you have PROOF our school is the worst in the state? I have relatives that live in a neighboring community that has the same problems, the difference? Parents dont bail the kids out so they keep getting away with it, they hold them accountable. The other difference? The school has punishment for these kids that make a difference. I will definately be attending the next school board meeting to have my voice heard. I have discussed my childrens issues with a school board memeber, why haven't any of you?!
To the person who wrote this:
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
How come the only school board member you trash is Shirley?? Are you abscessed with her and trying to make her look bad? She speaks her opinions and doesn't hold back like the other members do. From what I hear the new School President has already tried some pretty shady deals, if you are a true reporter maybe you should check into some of his recent hiring practices. If I were the new superintendent just hired I would be thinking twice about coming to ESCO.... What a mess he is walking into......
First off it is obsessed not abcessed. Please look up the difference. Second, what is a school president? Are you referring the the new superintendent that was voted on by all 10 board members? Third, I am not sure what hiring practices you are in reference to. You possibly might want to state your facts or don't mention them. It is my understanding that he currenlty is not in a position to hire anyone as he is a college professor. As for the new superintendent thinking twice about coming, I have to disagree with that. He was interviewed by several focus groups including parents and bullying by far was a common theme!! I am sure he knows what he is getting himself into. Please dont write things unless you have the facts. We are all in the together, some people just have different ways of getting things done. I think we can all agree that we do have a problem, so lets stop trying to insult people and focus that energy on something positive...........like a SOLUTION!!!
I am a parent of an 8th grader. My son is by no means an angel, but I will stick up for him when I feel he has been wronged. He has been labeled since begindergarden. A certain "teacher" has been with this class since the beginning and I feel she does like to take sides and try to pick out who she feels needs to be "popular" and would often ask my child in front of his peers if he had taken his meds. So, 3 problems incured with the teacher...1.Labeling 2.Harrasment 3. Belittlement They have accused me of not raising my child but they have no clue what happens at home. He does get punished when I get a call from school. And our school does like to pay another district to take their "problems" off their hands. They tried to send my child to Denison, but I refused to let that happen. As the school was making up their mind on what to do with my child, he missed a whole week of school just because one person had a hard on for him and has had since elemetary. He is still in school with the rest of his class and doing great, because she is no longer allowed to be involed with him in anyway. I find it a shame she will be working with the elementary again. I think East Sac needs to do some house cleaning and get rid of the teachers that think they are untouchable.
ReplyDeleteAs for the kids bullying, there are some nasty things done and said, but I believe that the teachers feed the drama. It's a huge he said she said game! All bullshit! I like the Idea of cameras in the classroom and the hall, but we have them on the bus and it still doesn't stop it. The kids will always have to deal with some sort of judgement and need to learn to deal with it in some way. Life isn't fair and there will always be someone bigger than them and they will learn that. Our school is raising a bunch of tattle tale cry babies that society will chew up and spit out. I have taught my son to tell, and it makes things worse. He now lets it roll off his back and if it's bad enough he will take matters into his own hands. He does get into trouble, but I know that he has conviction and will stand up for what he believes in.
What are some solutions to this bullying problem? I believe the school has a system in place to educate the students about bullying and what to if they are being bullied. But what can we as parents and community members do?
ReplyDelete1) We can begin by teaching our children right and wrong.
2)I think concerned parents and citizens should address the school board--but not in an angry way. The only way to improve and make an impact on this problem is talk in a civilized manner.
3) I would like to see a few changes made at school. Now I realize that I probably don't know exactly how the school runs day to day, I only know what my child tells me. It seems like referals and that system worked, but has stopped working and is not serving its intent. With the students changing classes all day long and there being so little time to deal with discipline, maybe we need a full time person to do so. One would generally say that would be the priciple. Now, some may take offense to this comment and I mean no disrespect. With the priciple's absenses this year there seems to have been a break down in the system. It is of no fault of his for not being able to be at school and follow through with discipline, but if we care about the kids and want change to take place-we must be consistent. If the principle is not able to be there, then we need to find proper coverage--consisten-long term coverage.
Does anyone else have solutions or ideas that will be proactive in solving our discipline and bullying problem????
It all start with leadership hopefully the new Superintendent is the solution to a number of issues as ESCO. Need a strong leader who doesn't micro manage every situation and lets the teachers be role models our kids need. Its hard to deter bullying when your are lead by one.
ReplyDelete