A little follow-up on the situation with Lindsay Brown at Estero High School in Southwest Florida. It would seem that the Lee County internet servers got a little overheated yesterday. Soon after I posted the Nuze the Estero site was toast ... thought they had it up and running later in the day.
Judging from my e-mail, a lot of you Nuze readers sent e-mail messages to the principal of Estero High. The superintendent of the system got his share too. Here is one letter to the principal that was shared with us:
Dear Sir:
I read of this student's plight courtesy of the Neal Boortz website. My son was just graduated from high school and is headed to college. I began a new career as a teacher at a nationally ranked university in Atlanta in January. My son has been quite helpful in driving and helping us move from the north Georgia mountains back to the city. So indeed I am in a similar situation to Lindsay's parents.
My understanding is that Miss Brown will not participate in her graduation ceremony at your school because she inadvertantly brought a kitchen knife onto school property in her car. Allegedly, it had fallen out while she was moving things for her parents.
I can tell you right now that if someone had sent my son to jail over an incident like this and had tried to eliminate a hard-working achieving
student from his reward for being just that, I would be doing the following:
1. Every school administrator at the school up to and including the superintendent would be getting a summons for a lawsuit.
2. I would ask for a restraining order from the Superior Court to prevent further actions before graduation.
3. I would be on every talk show between Miami and Washington DC telling the world what kind of mindless stupidity is possesed by the school administrators.
4. Finally, I would have my son enrolled in a private non-government school for the minimum amount of time required as a transfer student to
get a diploma from an institution where people think instead of react.
Your response to this incident, if accurate, has reduced school officials to the level of Pavlovian dogs. Surely you are capable of thinking. I
know that this is just a mindless knee-jerk reaction to school violence particularly Columbine. No tolerance policies are not the answer as they
punish the wrong group as well as the right group. No, the answer is the enormous lack of involvement of parents and religious leaders in the lives of teenagers and students, which has been fostered by government policy
I grew up in an era when all boys (and some girls) carried pocketknives to school to clean their nails and to whittle on the playground. Now I bet you would be expelled from school for carrying a nail clipper in your bag.
___________ , M.D.
Well, the principal has decided that the rules are the rules and he's not going to budge. Lindsay Brown will NOT participate in the graduation. In fact, the principal proudly boasts that he would do the same thing again!
Around the end of the day yesterday the superintendent decided he had to respond. Here is the response, copied from the school board's website ( http://www.lee.k12.fl.us/district/news/TS052301.htm )
Superintendent Responds to Estero High School Student Arrest
Yesterday a student was suspended from Estero High School for having a knife in her car on campus. The Lee County School District has a Code of Conduct for students which indicates that weapons are prohibited on school campuses. The Principal of Estero High School has taken disciplinary action regarding the weapon possession that is consistent with the Code of Conduct for students and consistent with prior disciplinary actions taken regarding similar incidents.
High academic achievement does not shield a student from the consequences of his/her behavior. To treat students fairly, we must apply the Code to all students.
The facts in this matter justify the suspension from school and the removal from the commencement exercises. Leaving a knife in a car parked in the school parking lot presented a clear and present danger to students at that school. While it’s unfortunate that one student will not be able to participate in the commencement exercises, it would have been tragic had someone taken that knife from the car and ended the life of someone who would have graduated.
Lee County Schools are safe places precisely because our principals taken firm stands against any conduct that threatens the well being of students.
(emphasis added to show that this Superintendent is part of the hysteria!)
Can you believe this idiocy? The superintendent is telling us that leaving a knife in a car constituted a "clear and present danger to the students of the school." Horsecrap! I challenge this mind-numbed superintendent to find ONE SINGLE CASE in any government or private school anywhere in this country where a student wandered into a parking lot, found a weapon of any description in a car that did not belong to him, and then used that weapon to threaten students in that school Hell, he can't find one single instance where anyone, student, employee, urban outdoorsman --- ANYBODY --- has ever gone into any parking lot of any business or school anywhere in this country, discovered a weapon in a strange car, broke into the car to retrieve the weapon, and then walked into that school or business to use that weapon against innocent people. You can see that there is going to be no bending of the zero tolerance nonsense in Lee County.
When are the citizens of this country going to take control of their schools back from people like this Estero High School principal and this Lee County Schools superintendent?
Judging from my e-mail, a lot of you Nuze readers sent e-mail messages to the principal of Estero High. The superintendent of the system got his share too. Here is one letter to the principal that was shared with us:
Dear Sir:
I read of this student's plight courtesy of the Neal Boortz website. My son was just graduated from high school and is headed to college. I began a new career as a teacher at a nationally ranked university in Atlanta in January. My son has been quite helpful in driving and helping us move from the north Georgia mountains back to the city. So indeed I am in a similar situation to Lindsay's parents.
My understanding is that Miss Brown will not participate in her graduation ceremony at your school because she inadvertantly brought a kitchen knife onto school property in her car. Allegedly, it had fallen out while she was moving things for her parents.
I can tell you right now that if someone had sent my son to jail over an incident like this and had tried to eliminate a hard-working achieving
student from his reward for being just that, I would be doing the following:
1. Every school administrator at the school up to and including the superintendent would be getting a summons for a lawsuit.
2. I would ask for a restraining order from the Superior Court to prevent further actions before graduation.
3. I would be on every talk show between Miami and Washington DC telling the world what kind of mindless stupidity is possesed by the school administrators.
4. Finally, I would have my son enrolled in a private non-government school for the minimum amount of time required as a transfer student to
get a diploma from an institution where people think instead of react.
Your response to this incident, if accurate, has reduced school officials to the level of Pavlovian dogs. Surely you are capable of thinking. I
know that this is just a mindless knee-jerk reaction to school violence particularly Columbine. No tolerance policies are not the answer as they
punish the wrong group as well as the right group. No, the answer is the enormous lack of involvement of parents and religious leaders in the lives of teenagers and students, which has been fostered by government policy
I grew up in an era when all boys (and some girls) carried pocketknives to school to clean their nails and to whittle on the playground. Now I bet you would be expelled from school for carrying a nail clipper in your bag.
___________ , M.D.
Well, the principal has decided that the rules are the rules and he's not going to budge. Lindsay Brown will NOT participate in the graduation. In fact, the principal proudly boasts that he would do the same thing again!
Around the end of the day yesterday the superintendent decided he had to respond. Here is the response, copied from the school board's website ( http://www.lee.k12.fl.us/district/news/TS052301.htm )
Superintendent Responds to Estero High School Student Arrest
Yesterday a student was suspended from Estero High School for having a knife in her car on campus. The Lee County School District has a Code of Conduct for students which indicates that weapons are prohibited on school campuses. The Principal of Estero High School has taken disciplinary action regarding the weapon possession that is consistent with the Code of Conduct for students and consistent with prior disciplinary actions taken regarding similar incidents.
High academic achievement does not shield a student from the consequences of his/her behavior. To treat students fairly, we must apply the Code to all students.
The facts in this matter justify the suspension from school and the removal from the commencement exercises. Leaving a knife in a car parked in the school parking lot presented a clear and present danger to students at that school. While it’s unfortunate that one student will not be able to participate in the commencement exercises, it would have been tragic had someone taken that knife from the car and ended the life of someone who would have graduated.
Lee County Schools are safe places precisely because our principals taken firm stands against any conduct that threatens the well being of students.
(emphasis added to show that this Superintendent is part of the hysteria!)
Can you believe this idiocy? The superintendent is telling us that leaving a knife in a car constituted a "clear and present danger to the students of the school." Horsecrap! I challenge this mind-numbed superintendent to find ONE SINGLE CASE in any government or private school anywhere in this country where a student wandered into a parking lot, found a weapon of any description in a car that did not belong to him, and then used that weapon to threaten students in that school Hell, he can't find one single instance where anyone, student, employee, urban outdoorsman --- ANYBODY --- has ever gone into any parking lot of any business or school anywhere in this country, discovered a weapon in a strange car, broke into the car to retrieve the weapon, and then walked into that school or business to use that weapon against innocent people. You can see that there is going to be no bending of the zero tolerance nonsense in Lee County.
When are the citizens of this country going to take control of their schools back from people like this Estero High School principal and this Lee County Schools superintendent?
