SEPTEMBER 12 - 18, 1998
SEPTEMBER 18, 1998
A good comment from a good teacher
The recent editorial about violence in schools and teachers in general and how
things have changed prompted a letter from an area teacher. That teacher wrote:
"I hope that column "Hey George" got some people thinking because not
everyone realizes how much is totally out of control with school employees no matter how
serious they are about doing a good job. I don't analyze what other parents do much. I'm
too busy just trying to do my job. However, consider this problem.
"Perhaps the biggest threat to quality public education today is the immoral use
of a law. Chapters 14 and 15 of the Americans with Disabilities Act concern special
education and attention deficit. All parts of the ADA were no doubt written with good
intentions even though some attorneys see them entirely as a way of enriching themselves.
Why are these chapters a serious threat to quality learning?
"Disruptive students are disciplined because they waste taxpayer dollars intended
for instruction and because they may endanger the safety of other students. If the student
has no special education status such as an "individual education program" (IEP),
the school may effectively discipline the student to protect the rights of the majority
and even enlighten the offender. However, if the disruptive student is Special Ed, the
school is much more limited in its action. If the parents are unwilling or unable to
discipline or approve a measure like "Alternative Education", the rest of the
class is seriously cheated.
"The problem student develops an attitude: "I can't be expelled because I am
Special Ed. This school is my stage and my playground. My parents and (perhaps) my
advocate will get me out of any problem.
"There is a double standard, possibly in most states about weapons. Just because a
student has an IEP doesn't man a weapon is less deadly. Even if he doesn't realize the
danger, should other students be endangered for the sake of all of his "rights"?
"On a less lethal level, how about time wasted by disruption? Remember this
student can't be easily removed or suspended. His actions and sometimes mere presence can
undermine a class. In some cases, wasted minutes could cost a class a whole semester or
more time in Middle School and High School. Thousands of dollars for paid instructional
time are wasted.
"Are we doing these students a favor by being so permissive? As adults such
students will not find the police or their employers so accommodating.
"This is not a complaint about Special Education students, most of whom are great
kids. It is a complaint about the immoral use of Special Education Laws. Actually, the
typical student with an IEP is quite inconvenienced by the bad actor. The badly written
law backfires on the bad actor as he grows up feeling he is not responsible for his
actions and wonders why he is in jail or fired or beaten up by someone he flashed a knife
at. By then, how many has he inconvenienced or harmed?
"The Federal Law must allow for a chronically disruptive student being put into
alternative education by School districts without parental consent regardless of the
student's educational status such as IEP status. Laws regarding weapons on school property
must be the same for all students. There can be no exceptions for Special Ed
students."
Thank you for taking the time to give us this information.
Hey George, did you know that? I didn't! No wonder the teachers don't give a
damn when the kids hang out in Callahan Park and skip class.
Of the students who are out there shooting up the schools, I wonder how many of them
have this special status? While this letter does give us an insiders view, I believe the
violent killers are students who are generally withdrawn. Perhaps, with teachers spending
so much time dealing with these problem students, then the ones who actually need genuine
attention and do not demand it, go lacking.
Again, it is easy to sit here and take shots at a system when you don't know all the
facts. Nothing is the same as it was. We said that in "Hey George." We know that
and now we know one of the reasons why. Thank you once more and good luck. We need more
teachers like you who are willing to take the time to enlighten us.
SEPTEMBER 17, 1998
Other ideas - some good, some not...
Cheri O'Mara came to the McKean County Collaborative Board meeting on Monday
afternoon. Seems like over a year since she attended one of the them. Cindy
Zembryki took time out of her busy day of buying chair lifts for the ARG building to
attend, too. Another face we haven't seen in awhile.
Anyway, to the point: Cheri, in passing, joked, or made it sound like a
joke, when she made reference to most of the students being in Callahan Park instead of
being in school. I caught it and so did several others who were in attendance. Was
it a joke or was she serious? We decided to check.
Callahan Park is a large public park that is adjacent to the Bradford Area Senior High
School. It has been a long standing joke, kind of like the one Cheri made on Monday, that
the students get off the bus, go in the school, get counted for attendance, and then go
out the back door. Every year there is some tough policy about putting an end to this, and
every year, the policy fails miserably. The teachers feel it it their job to teach the
students who want to learn. Understandable, and it seems the administration is either too
inept, or lazy, whatever the case may be, to deal with this serious and on going problem.
Because I was leaving town, I asked someone else to check for me. We decided to talk to
the neighbors who can watch the school from their homes. They made no bones about it.
"Why even have doors?" one neighbor said in a serious tone. "They're in
Callahan Park and then they are downtown or somewhere else; every place except where they
are supposed to be - school. They don't care at the school. They just let them go. It is
ridiculous when you consider what we pay in school taxes to educate these kids and how
they and the school people just don't give a damn. It's ridiculous!"
In Callahan Park on Tuesday, sure enough, there were students. If it is illegal to sell
cigarettes to anyone under 18, then a whole bunch of people broke the law. No one was over
18 and they were all smoking. Where did they get the stuff? Beyond that and the fact that
students who should have been in school and were not, we should be concerned.
The school should deal with the rest of the activity that is occurring before the
police do. If they didn't find any drugs in school, then maybe they should have checked
Callahan Park. Maybe the people in the park who are not students should have been checked,
too. Isn't someone at least a little curious about those New York license plates on cars
that are parked there most of the day? Aren't we concerned about young adults having
dealings with high school students during the school day?
Maybe that was where Cheri went when she left the meeting early after finally
deciding to attend one. I sure hope she didn't run up the street to buy some more
furniture.
She was present to hear the discussion about Communities that Care. That was
good because like Judge Cleland and Juvenile Probation, The Bradford Area School District
should be, and should have been, taking an active part in this program. To date, the
school district and Ms. O' Mara have not participated. They should and in fact do have a
responsibility to participate because this is a prevention program that is aimed at their
students and addresses the obvious problems that they have either ignored, or have been
unable to solve. They have an obligation to be at the table and be involved, not leave the
meeting early.
Unfortunately, The School District partially shares the same philosophy as Judge
Cleland and Juvenile Probation. They want to spend money on the problems, not prevent
them. The only difference is that the School District want someone else to deal with their
problems. They are looking to the Court System and Juvenile Probation, who will use County
taxpayer dollars in an effort to do the job that is legally and rightfully theirs. They
are looking to Juvenile Probation, who in turn is looking to the County Commissioners, to
hire another Juvenile Probation Officer to be school based and work exclusively in the
Bradford School District to act as a Truant Officer. The proposed cost of this person?
$20,100 plus benefits - another seven to eight thousand dollars!
Heck! If Cheri would get rid of her Public Relations Director, she could hire
two of these people herself. Since when do the taxpayers of McKean County have to
hire and support personnel to work exclusively in the Bradford Area schools?
While Mark Caldwell, Director of Juvenile Probation, claims to have a grant for the
position this year, what about next year and the years after that? We initially got a
grant for the School Based Probation Officer we currently have. The commissioners then
were told the money would last forever, just like Caldwell is saying today. We now pay not
only for his salary and his benefits, we also pay for his vehicle, gas,
and insurance. The entire program costs the taxpayers, apart from contributions from
school districts, in the area of $40,000 a year. That's a bunch of money.
That is an expense that I feel should be borne totally by the school districts the
program serves. County tax dollars should not be subsidizing the school districts. They
have the ability to tax on their own. If this is a necessary program, then they should
build the expense into their budgets, just like they do for new furniture or anything
else. They should be attempting to solve the problem, not just control it. They should be
dealing with the future as well as dealing with today. They aren't!
Governor and Mrs. Ridge have initiated an aggressive program to prevent juvenile
delinquency, truancy, substance abuse, and teen pregnancy. This is The Governor's
Community Partnership for Safe Children. Neither the Bradford Area School District
nor the Juvenile Probation Department have chosen to belong, attend, or participate
in their activities even though the process is moving forward in McKean County.
Cheri didn't ask one question during the Communities that Care
discussion. I seriously doubt if she has read the final draft of the proposed ten year
prevention program either. As a school superintendent, don't you think it would be
incumbent upon her to be involved in prevention programs that affect the students of her
school district? Isn't running a school district more than just building buildings and
buying furniture? Shouldn't Cheri be leading the effort instead of just showing up
whenever she can make it - maybe every year or so?
It is highly unlikely that we will be able to keep the High School students from
cutting classes and leaving the campus. It is unlikely because the school doesn't care
enough to stop it. We will still continue to see students wandering Main Street when they
should be in school and those students will continue to graduate never knowing the capital
of Pennsylvania is Harrisburg. Students, like one of my own nieces, will
continue to graduate from the Bradford school system with absences equivalent to exactly
25% of her four year high school experience. One full year of absences! That is not only
amazing, it is also absurd!
It is also absurd that a Superintendent of Schools does not actively participate in a
process that will produce a positive change in the children who have entered school this
year. Dr. Richard Catalano, the co-founder of the process known as
Communities that Care, said yesterday in Harrisburg: "Students we have worked
with in grades K through 6, and then left alone, have consistently had better attendance,
more interest in school, are more involved in their communities, and have higher grade
averages in the last six years of their experience in school."
Cheri! If that is true, and it is well documented to be true, why then
would you not belong? I know you have the best interests of the children in your heart.
Why haven't you come to us and asked, "What can we do to help get this started in our
schools?" Cheri, it doesn't cost you money, only time! Positive reinforcement is much
better that visible and physical enforcement. Join up, endorse and participate, and I
promise, no more articles about you buying furniture and your shopping mall
mentality. Deal?
SEPTEMBER 16, 1998
Good ideas
I have been here in Harrisburg since Monday night. I am attending the
Communities That Cares Annual Awards sponsored by Governor and Mrs. Ridge. Over 200 people
from across the state are here being honored for their work with the children of our
Commonwealth.
The unique aspect of this program is that it deals with juvenile crime prevention, not
by building more jails or hiring more juvenile probation officers, but rather by changing
attitudes in peer groups of children, in families, in schools, and in communities. This is
a successful program! It is currently in some sort of implementation stage in 26 states,
Canada, and Australia. It is embraced whole heatedly by the state Juvenile Court Judges
Commission and funded by state and federal monies. McKean County is in the fourth round of
this process and is one of 28 counties that is involved.
We began Family Services Systems Reform in McKean County in 1996. At that time we
envisioned using Family Centers as places where the extensive array of human services
offered in the county as places that would be more readily accessible to the population in
need. In the past, services were offered only in Bradford. Four family centers were
funded. Three new ones were opened in Smethport, Port Allegany, and Kane. Today all four
are very successful.
At the time we were attempting to secure a State Grant, we were also attempting to
redirect county funds to help supplement the program. The state wanted us to maintain the
single family center in Bradford and junk the idea of opening three new ones. We fought
and did not only receive funding, but were able to open the three they thought were not
economically feasible.
Also, at that time in late 1996 when we were anxiously seeking funds, we asked Judge
John Cleland to join in with us. We wanted him to participate and become an active voice
on our newly formed Collaborative Board. He refused. Instead, he sued the Commissioners
and demanded more funding for his program of institutionalizing juvenile offenders. He was
not interested in the idea we had for bettering communities in the county. He wanted more
money for his programs.
Family Centers became a reality and the law suit fell flat on its face. He asked us for
more staff. He asked us for more funding. We gave him what we felt he needed which did
include all of the above. Again, he was asked to join with us and sit on our board. Again,
he refused.
As we began 1998 , he wanted more money and more programs. Some we gave him and some we
didn't. During this same period we asked him to participate in this new prevention process
called Communities that Care. Once more, Judge John M. Cleland refused to participate and
also would not allow his people in Juvenile Probation to participate. Instead, he wants
higher pay for the probation officers and increased staffing to hire more Juvenile
Probation Officers. That will eventually mean more County Funds being expended for
correction and he and his people totally ignoring prevention.
Sitting here in Harrisburg listening to the success stories of other counties, I wonder
what might be wrong with our county. Nearly every single successful program includes
Juvenile Probation and the Judge in that county. We are told that this inclusion of
Juvenile Probation and the Judges is necessary. We do not have that one piece to make our
process as successful as it should be. Why?
Ours is moving on because the Collaborative Board established in 1996 has embraced
Communities that Care. The Board believes in prevention. The Board recognizes that we must
cure the problem of Juvenile Delinquency, not just treat it. While the Judge asks for more
and more of the county's resources (tax dollars) in a time when those resources are
limited and in fact dwindling, Communities that Care has cost the county absolutely
nothing except our time and our energy.
This is one of those good ideas that cannot be ignored. Why then is Judge Cleland doing
just that? Why does he continually make increasing demands on the County General Fund for
more officers and more programs when we have a process to change and correct that problem
being handed to us gift wrapped by the State? He refuses to belong. Why?
Maybe we should ask him.
SEPTEMBER 15, 1998
The message we send
Yesterday at noon I had to run to Bradford to have a prescription filled. I had the
radio on and was listening to "The Live Line", a radio call in show on
WESB-AM. Tony and Bob gave half of the show to whether Clinton should resign or not and
were accepting calls from the audience. While I was tempted to call, I resisted the urge
and drove back to Smethport and listened.
Many people, including Bob, feel that Clinton should be forgiven because he has said he
is sorry for lying to the Grand Jury, lying in a deposition, and lying to the people he
was elected to serve. I was not impressed by Clinton's Jimmy Swaggart style apology,
admitting that he sinned. Hell, we all knew that! We also know that he isn't sorry about
hurting anyone. He is sorry he got caught! If he wasn't, there wouldn't be all of this
bunk about the technical definition of sex and perjury.
Isn't this the President who wanted to put 100,000 new policemen on the street
to fight crime? Didn't he want tougher laws against criminals? Wasn't he in favor of
"Three strikes and you are out" or in other words, in jail for the rest of your
life. What gives here? What goes on? Is there a set of rules that applies to us and not to
him? I am sorry, but I am at a loss here.
Try telling a judge that the black drug dealer has apologized for selling crack cocaine
to a ten year old, and because he has apologized to the child, his family, and the
American people, we should let him go and allow him to escape punishment. How would you
like to be the lawyer who was putting that argument on the floor? Think about it! Yeah,
Bob, think about it! Tony is right. Clinton doesn't deserve a "get out of jail
free" card just because he has said he is sorry. It isn't supposed to work like that.
Hey Bob, what about the $371 that was reported but according to them, not on the right
form? What if I say I am sorry? Do you think the Republican Party will forgive me and call
off the Attorney General? What about the Pyle Report? If it does exist, will Jeff Duke say
he was sorry and be forgiven, like you want us to do with Clinton, and not be tried for
Perjury and Obstruction of Justice? Bob, think of the precedent you are setting by
allowing Clinton to go scott free and escape the punishment he deserves.
Would any public official in McKean or Warren County be allowed to get away
with what Clinton has done? What about me? Would I get away with it?
It is a sad day in the time of this nation when ordained ministers of the
religions speak out from the pulpit and say that because he said he was sorry and
confessed, that was enough. What message is that? Is that what you will teach your
children? Do whatever you want, just as long as you say you are sorry and confess your
wrong doing, that is all you will have to do. What about the people who think it isn't
enough? Many of us are asking why have laws if this is the way it works. I don't
understand. I am missing something. What is the message?
This goes beyond politics, Bob! WE are talking about MORALITY here!
We are talking about our way of life and everything we hold near and dear to us. We are,
if you look at what is happening, placing our moral fabric in a very dangerous position.
We are condoning immoral behavior by the President of the United States of America!
You and I both believe in and would fight for Freedom of Speech. I am not trying to
impede you and what you believe. However, Bob, think long and hard about the message we
send when we attempt to brush aside Clinton's actions. Tony is right this time. Bob,
reconsider your position!
SEPTEMBER 14, 1998
HE SHOULD RESIGN!
When his own personal lawyer has the gall to go on national television and say
lying under oath is not perjury, HE SHOULD RESIGN.
My feelings about lawyers are well known. What goes on is not justice. Locally, the
District Attorneys in Warren and McKean Counties care little about the law. Both
understand what the President of the United States has done because both would not bat an
eye or hesitate to do exactly the same thing to save their own skins. These people, these
lawyers, will do what they want to serve their own ends and needs.
I can't say that it has always been this way. I grew up with a respect for the law. I
respected judges and lawyers. They were people who represented something to us. They
represented our system of governing and the body of laws that we used to keep order in our
nation. What happened? Where did it take a different turn in the road? How was it that it
came to change? Who is at fault?
I say that it is your fault! It is your fault and it is mine. We allowed this
to happen. We looked the other way, have said nothing, attempted to mind our own lives and
business, and let these corrupt people pervert out system. We allowed it because we
accepted it.
So why are we shocked or surprised?
The President of the United States of America is a liar. William Jefferson Clinton is a
hypocrite. His wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, no fool, allowed her husband to disgrace this
nation because she was less of a woman, less of a wife, more of a cabinet member, a
Presidential wanna be, and accepted his behavior. She knew what he was doing!
Not every woman in the world is a liar! Hillary looked the other way. She actively
participated in the destruction of other women and their reputations. She did it so she
and her husband could hold power. The end, holding the Presidency, justified everything to
her. She is as guilty as he is. She should apologize to her daughter. She should apologize
to this nation, too.
By her own words, by the words she wrote about Richard Nixon when she worked on his
articles of impeachment, she has damned her own husband. One of the articles of
impeachment for Richard Nixon was "Deliberately misleading the American People by
making false statements." "I want the people to know their President is not a
crook!" "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Monica Lewinsky."
Breaking the law is breaking the law. Telling a lie under oath is perjury.
Whether you lie about the "Pyle Report" in the Court of Common Pleas of McKean
County, or lie in Warren County about your involvement in framing Jay William Buckley for
the murder of Kathy Wilson, or if you lie about having sex, it is still a lie. Under oath,
it is still perjury.
Who told those lies? They were lawyers. Did they tell those lies under oath? They did.
Did they know better? Of course! Why did they do it? It suited their purposes. They cared
about themselves and the mission they had for themselves. They all placed themselves above
the law and certainly above us.
Bill Clinton should resign and put an end to all of this.
The Mountain Laurel Review joins with other publications across the
nation calling on President Clinton to resign and save the nation any further
embarrassment.
SEPTEMBER 12 - 13, 1998
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