Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Violent act, obcene gesture, or what?

The Osceola School Board admitted wrongdoing Tuesday night after administrators suspended an 8-year-old for using his finger as a toy gun in September. After a public outcry, the school initially offered to change Jordan's punishment from an “act of violence” to an “inappropriate or obscene gesture,” but the boy's mother refused to accept the punishment.

After some debate, the school board agreed to reinstate the boy, and count the suspension as an excused absence. I want to know which school board members were on the side of the debate that wanted to keep the suspension in place. That way, we know who to campaign for removal from office, come next election.

EDITED TO ADD ALL OF THE FOLLOWING:

Video of the school board meeting can be found here. The portion of the meeting that is applicable begins at 49:00 and ends at 61:03 of the video labelled "October 01, 2013 Board Meeting."

Board Members with common sense:
Jay Wheeler "We are elected to represent the public, not the school district."
Kelvin Soto "That doesn't mean that you can't come to us. I don't subscribe to the idea that the principal has the final say. The parents do have a voice through us, the school board."


Board members who deserve to lose their jobs in the next election. Each of them adopted an attitude towards the parent that it was not the school board's place to second guess the principal, and basically told the parent to sit down and shut up.

Tom Long "It is not this board's job to intervene in individual cases of discipline." That is exactly your job, tool. That is why we have an elected board.
Tim Weisheyer
Barbara Horn

In addition, the school superintendent Melba Luciano and deputy superintendent Tom Phelps need to be out as well. They are appointed by the board.

She had to hire a lawyer, Mr Nejame, to protect her son for making a finger gun. The county's attorney pointed out that there is no appeals process for a child being suspended: the principal has the final say in all discipline matters. This is insanity. A child attends school under mandatory order of the government, and the child is having his or her permanent school record damaged by this discipline, there needs to be a review process.
I will be voting accordingly in the next election.

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