Makes me ashamed to be from Johnston County

I like the new one, I need to change mine as well, since the one I have looks nothing like her now. I figured once she gets her camera for xmas I will use one that she did.
Sheri

 

lol, I'm on my third cup..making up for cutting back during the week.
Sheri

 

Unbelievable!

It is soooo hard for me to comprehend why anyone would think they had the right to determine what others read.We are not talking about 10 year olds who are just beginning to ask parents difficult questions about their sexuality.These are teenagers, the majority of whom could probably teach us a few new tricks!
This reminds me of the Harry Potter series of books.I lived in South Carolina when they were first released and was so excited myself to read these books.People in the town I lived in had book burnings and even teachers at my children's school made it very clear they did not want those books in the classroom. Now we don't hear about them in a negative way anymore, and my kids have enjoyed the series.
My point is, we are fortunate enough to live in the LAND OF THE FREE. That should include choices we make when responsible enough to do so.

 

true. but minors are not given those rights. high school students would choose to read hustler if you just flat out gave them the choice. but they're underage, ie not responsible enough to make those choices...


and somebody please update me on who dr parker and mr fred are. are they school board members? if so, they have every right to decide. that's what you elected them to do....

 

where exactly was this? i'm from raleigh, and i never had to listen to pink floyd on any "underground" radio station. what's an underground radio station anyway?

 

Dr. Parker is the superintendent of schools for Johnston County. "Mr. Fred" appears to be a reference to Fred Bartholomew, chairman of the school board. I believe there is a question about whether there's a violation of "open meetings" laws.

 

When I was growing up we spent some time in ND. There were no rock and roll stations around that base.

 

so, are these people elected? if so, oh well. we got what we voted for. vote em out next time if you don/t agree, i guess.

 

woah, no rock stations? blasphemy!

 

I was 10 when I heard my first rock band. Boy was that different.

 

Mr Fred B is an elected person. I did not vote for him nor would I do so ever. People do keep voting for him he is old school I mean old school JOCO

Yes he is a school board member & he was the chairman. Dr Parker is the super. & he was hired by the board & given an extended contract b4 his was even up so there is alot of back door stuff that has been going on with these two people since Parker has been put in charge even though he has to answer to the board. Does all this make sense.

the issue is that they decided for the entire county what 10th graders can & can not read when the policy is that if a parent or student feels that the book is offensive they do not have to read it & then end of discussion. Then that child can move on & read something else & not be in "trouble" for it. Instead this father went to the board which is his choice & now the board made this decsion without JOCO tax payers/ voters

I am a parent of JOCO students & I stay involved in all aspects to protect my child & children that do not have family members that can help them. It is important to make sure that these people be held accountable for their actions. This is just the same if you had a child that did not follow the school rules-they would be punished. Why should these two people get away with it-so to speak! Remember everyone we pay their salaries!!

 

Late 60's early 70's, Alabama. No rock and roll radio stations. At 9:00 pm on an FM radio station out of Chicago we could pick up a great rock and roll station. We thought we had died and found the light.

In Atlanta they had an "underground" newspaper named the "Bird". If you Google it you can see what it was all about and I believe they have an archive. I wrote one article in that paper, which someone distributed at my high school in Alabama, and whoa nelly...I got in trouble. The article was about the injustice I saw in my school (go figure). Dad worked in Army Intelligence and Counter-Intelligence in a field office in Alabama but worked closely with the FBI. They contacted him as soon as my article (stupid me put my real name on the letter) arrived in the Bird's office (darn FBI was/is everywhere). The Bird published the article without my name so I thought I was home free...everyone at school put two and two together and I denied it. My dad knew the truth and when I lied to him picked me up from my chair by my hair. He stated that the article was good, would have been better without curse words but lying about writing it was why he was grounding me. He stood up to the school board and I did not get suspended but a valuable lesson on lying was learned. No matter how bad something was and he asked I always told "him" the truth.

Lots of things were "underground" at that time. Ever heard of the Underground Weathermen or Underground Weatherwomen? SDS started (Students for a Democratic Society) out as a good movement but became really radical and went "underground". I could go on and on.

Grace

 

ok, i'm catching up....

with regard to your third paragraph. you can't just put in hustler and then only let out the students whose parents complain later. there have to be some standards on the way in. hustler would never make it in the first place. not that i'm necessarily comparing this particular work to hustler, but you get my meaning from it as an example.

extending someone's contract before the term of the first one is up is not unheard of. if the board felt he was doing a good job, they are fully within their rights to offer that person a longer contract at any time.

and, the board made the decision with the full backing of the joco taxpayers and voters, since all but the superintendent were elected, correct? they were elected to make decisions and execute plans FOR you, not by checking with each individual every time. they are representatives of their respective districts, and they speak for those districts as a whole because they are elected to do so.

i am also the parent of a joco school child. in kindergarten, so i'm in for the next 12 years. trust me, i'll be as active as any of you. and so far, i don't see anything backdoor or underhanded about this...

 

Here's one you might like. Do you remember when the AM radio station in Clayton was billed as "Johnston County's Only Rock Station"???? (Mid-to-late 70s) I was a teenage DJ there and we even played Pink Floyd!!!

Of course WQDR 94.7 was the rock album station and played a lot of Pink Floyd.

 

DB,

I believe that the concern was that the issue was decided behind closed doors. If I understand the "sunshine" type of law, few meetings of elected officials can be denied to the public. Strictly a personnel issue is one of the exceptions. My understanding is that the meeting was scheduled as a closed door session for a personnel issue, but apparently the personnel issue was not brought forth, and instead, this issue was decided. If this is factual, then this meeting does appear to violate the sunshine laws for transparency in government operations. I expect a higher standard from those who would lead.

As a JoCo parent, and spouse of a JoCo teacher, I have concerns with the decisions made, that should be discussed and decided in public view. I understand the idea of protecting the confidentiality for personnel issues.

I also have difficulty with the board deciding, without appropriate advance notice, how to handle issues of controversy relating to books and publicly supported school libraries. I understand the POV of the family from Four Oaks, am glad that they are supporting and interested in their child's education. I hope that their interest extends to all facets of the child's life, not just this one issue of a book that they found to be objectionable. At the same time, while understanding and supporting their right to choose, I also reserve the right to choose for my own children what is acceptable or not. In this case, I feel that removing the books was an excessive measure, rather than restricting it to those whose parents have indicated their approval of this book.

Not trying to hijack this thread, but my gut tells me that the school board, as a minimum Dr Parker, was made aware of the arrest warrant for the teacher at Polenta in October, ahead of time. Certainly, Dr P or the board were in a position to request (and I feel sure that their request would have been followed) to make the arrest away from school.

Yes, they may be in charge. I have yet to see real LEADERSHIP.

H6

 

My concern over the entire issue is that the school board has made a decision for all high schools, failing to follow their own policy for challenged materials.

This is the requirements for a teacher choosing to use a book: (policy #3310)
Criteria for Selecting Resources

Individual teaching and learning styles, the curriculum, and the existing collection are given consideration in determining the needs for media resources in individual schools. After a careful needs assessment, resources considered for purchase are judged on the basis of the following criteria:
1. Purpose: Direct correlation to the North Carolina Standard Course of Study
2. Reliability: Accurate, authentic, current, authoritative
3. Treatment: Clear, skillful, well-organized, unbiased, comprehensive, well-balanced
4. Technical Quality: Relevant to content, consistent with state-of-the-art technical capabilities
5. Format: Clear, skillful, convincing, well organized, unbiased, durable, manageable and attractive
6. Utilization: Individual, small group, large group, introduction, in-depth study remediation, enrichment

The challenge must be made at a school, go through the Media/Technology Committee...they look at the entire book and how it relates to the curriculum, read reviews of the work, etc. to decide if it has educational and literary merit. If the parent disagrees with the decision of the committee, it goes to the principal who looks at the decision and why it was made. Only if the parent is still not pleased with the decision is this supposed to go to the school board. Here is the policy:

Policy Code: 3320 Challenged Resources Guidelines

Any employee or parent of a child in Johnston County Schools may challenge resources used in the educational program noting the fact that the individuals selecting such resources were duly qualified to make the selection, followed the procedures for selection, and observed the criteria for selecting resources.

The principal of the school will review selection policies and procedures with the school staff at the beginning of each school year. The staff will be reminded that the right to a review of a resource is one granted by the Johnston County Schools Board of Education and the procedures in this policy must be followed.

No parent has the right to determine the reading, viewing or listening resources for children other than their own.

The Johnston County Schools Board of Education supports freedom of and the right to a redress of grievances in both the First Amendment of the Constitution, and expressed in the Library Bill of Rights and in the American Association of School Librarians Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights. The Board also supports Access to Electronic Information, Services, and Networks: An Interpretation of the Library Bill of Rights.

The major criterion for the selection and utilization of the resources is appropriateness of the resource for its intended educational use.

A decision to sustain a challenge shall not be interpreted as a judgment of irresponsibility on the part of the professionals involved in the selection and/or use of the resource. Professional personnel shall not be punished or have their employment affected by decisions reached by the Review Committee at the school or system level.

It seems to me that the entire process was circumvented at SJHS, SSSHS, CHS, NJS, and Princeton School since the school board only had a complaint about the book at WJHS. There should not be any personnel issues over this per their own policy. Note the sentence saying you can decide what your children read, but you cannot decide what other children read. That is a very important statement, IMO.

 

it sounds to me like if the parent complained, didn't get the answer they were looking for, then appealed, etc., that it would end up in the hands of the school board anyway, right? and while the parent individually may not have the power to make a decision affecting the entire county, the county school board certainly has authority to choose whether or not a particular piece of literature is appropriate for the whole county, do they not? it states that a challenge must be made at "A" school, not all schools. one challenge at one school is enough for it to affect the entire county.

the only problem i see with any of this so far is what hat pointed out: the session was scheduled as closed-door under the guise of a personnel issue, then turned into a policy meeting which is supposed to be open. if that's the way it went down, i'd agree that they violated policy. other than that, they can certainly remove any book from the entire county school system that they want to. and if you don't like it, all you can do is vote them out next time around

 

hat

in a perfect world, you would be correct. but the fact is that your choice to keep that book in the curriculum affects my child against my wishes, whereas my choice to keep it out would less likely affect yours. you can just as easily give your kid a copy of that book at home and mine doesn't have to be exposed to it. you can't unring a bell. if you want to expose your kid to certain things, then by all means do so. in a manner that does not undermine the choices i have made for my child. honestly i think most people are reasonable. i'd bet there's very little we'd disagree on when it comes to matters of this kind. keeping a certain book out of a school library and curriculum does not keep your child from being exposed to it. keeping objectionable or questionable material in the school library and curriculum keeps my child from being able to avoid it

this is all hypothetical, you understand. i have no first-hand knowledge of this book, nor of how i will feel about it 11 years from now when my kid is a sophomore in high school.

 

DB,

In this hypothetical situation, could you not tell your child to avoid that book. Just because it's in the library doesn't necessarily mean they will be confronted with it. Why remove a book that I don’t proscribe to my child, and for which some portion of my taxes pay?

What if I were to complain that the Bible was an affront to my child's education? Would you stand for it being removed from all schools, in effect, ensuring that my child isn't confronted with it. Much of the allegory and writing in the Bible can evoke images of murder, death, mayhem, rape, incest....and I'm not even into the New Testament, yet.

Do we "dumb it down" so that there can be no possibility of offense to anyone?

I agree that there is much on which we would agree. My concern is that once the collective begins to decide, the line has to be drawn somewhere. Who chooses? In what manner will it be fair or equitable? Whose rights become entangled? On just how slippery of a slope are we willing to stand?

I do feel that discussing matters of this import are better solved when debated in as much an informed, civil exchange as possible. I look forward to your response.

H6

 

what has happened to the "teachable moment"? ​

we don't use these words because...
we say to our male children "you should not pressure our female children to have sex because..."
we say to our female children participating in sex to be "in", "loved", or "validated" leads to...
books we don't agree with have their place because...
we allow freedom of speech because ... and understand that what is objectionable to one may not be to another...​

by banning a book that has objectionable content and language does not make those things go away -- like Hat -- i have been blessed to be involved with the middle school and high school cultures and these things are realities -- and students are exposed daily (look at advertising aimed at teens, television geared towards teens, music teens choose to listen to)-- ignoring this doesn't make these issues disappear -- there needs to be frank discussions about these issues --​

allowing discussions of this nature gives students the opportunity to learn to articulate, debate and define their own values -- ​

i would much rather be involved in the discussion with my teens than shutting it down pretending those issues don't confront my kids --- and if a book, or a lyrics, or an ad gives me that opportunity to share my values and reasons for them with my children then i say thank you to the author, the lyricist, the ad guy...for the teachable moment...i may not like what you wrote or promote, but i can certainly use it to make my kids understand why...​