Our nominee for Authoritarian High School Superintendent of the Month is
Rick Martin, superintendent of Prague High School, who in a Kafkaesque move (Prague - get it?), wants to deny a high school valedictorian her diploma because -- gasp! -- she used the word "hell" in her valedictory address.
The people who run high schools in North America behave more like tinpot dictators than educators.
Showing posts with label authoritarianism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label authoritarianism. Show all posts
Monday, August 20, 2012
Friday, May 04, 2012
Authoritarian High School Superintendent of the Month
North American high schools are not places where free speech and criticism of authority are welcomed. Instead of teaching lessons about free speech, free expression, the Bill of Rights, and the Charter of Rights, principals and superintendents routinely impose arbitrary rules and punishments.
This month's Authoritarian Creep award goes to South Shore Regional School Board Superintendent Nancy Pynch-Worthylake from Nova Scotia, for suspending student William Swinimer for five days for wearing a shirt that said "Life is wasted without Jesus".
Swinimer's t-shirt expresses a moronic and wrong sentiment, and he sounds like the typical evangelical jerk who can't keep quiet about his own "good news". But when he says, "I believe this is worth standing up for — it’s not just standing up for religious rights, it’s standing up for my rights as a Canadian citizen; for freedom of speech, freedom of religion", he's absolutely right.
Superintendent Pynch-Worthylake could have turned this into a teaching moment. She could explain that in a multicultural society there will be people who assert that their religion is the only valid one, and that's the way life is. She could explain that the Charter guarantees "freedom of thought, opinion, and expression", and even though she disagrees with Swinimer's sentiment, she defends his right to express it in a non-disruptive way. Instead, she took the authoritarian route. Shame on her.
This month's Authoritarian Creep award goes to South Shore Regional School Board Superintendent Nancy Pynch-Worthylake from Nova Scotia, for suspending student William Swinimer for five days for wearing a shirt that said "Life is wasted without Jesus".
Swinimer's t-shirt expresses a moronic and wrong sentiment, and he sounds like the typical evangelical jerk who can't keep quiet about his own "good news". But when he says, "I believe this is worth standing up for — it’s not just standing up for religious rights, it’s standing up for my rights as a Canadian citizen; for freedom of speech, freedom of religion", he's absolutely right.
Superintendent Pynch-Worthylake could have turned this into a teaching moment. She could explain that in a multicultural society there will be people who assert that their religion is the only valid one, and that's the way life is. She could explain that the Charter guarantees "freedom of thought, opinion, and expression", and even though she disagrees with Swinimer's sentiment, she defends his right to express it in a non-disruptive way. Instead, she took the authoritarian route. Shame on her.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Authoritarian High School Superintendent of the Month
This month's Authoritarianism Award goes to Ricky Clapton, superintendent of the Copiah County schools in Hazlehurst, Mississippi. Mr. Clapton erased a student from her class yearbook. And what was her offense? Did she murder someone, or cheat on her final exams? No. She wore a tuxedo instead of a dress.
When asked about it, Mr. Clapton retreated behind legalese, saying "We have had our legal counsel research the validity of the position of the School District on this matter.. We are informed by counsel that this exact issue has been litigated in federal court. The decisions of the federal courts completely support the policy of the district in this regard. It is the desire of the Copiah County School District to inform, first, the patrons of the district, and second, all other interested parties, that its position is not arbitrary, capricious or unlawful, but is based upon sound educational policy and legal precedent."
Horseshit.
Congratulations, Mr. Clapton. Your award is well-deserved.
When asked about it, Mr. Clapton retreated behind legalese, saying "We have had our legal counsel research the validity of the position of the School District on this matter.. We are informed by counsel that this exact issue has been litigated in federal court. The decisions of the federal courts completely support the policy of the district in this regard. It is the desire of the Copiah County School District to inform, first, the patrons of the district, and second, all other interested parties, that its position is not arbitrary, capricious or unlawful, but is based upon sound educational policy and legal precedent."
Horseshit.
Congratulations, Mr. Clapton. Your award is well-deserved.
Friday, December 04, 2009
Authoritarian School of the Month
Recursivity's award for the Authoritarian School of the Month goes this month to the Needville Independent School District in Needville, Texas.
These creeps have a rule against long hair for boys in their schools. But it's not the school's business to govern how students can wear their hair. If there are concerns, such as head lice, these can easily be handled by techniques used in other schools.
In this case, the jerks at Needville enforced their rule against a kindergartner who wore his hair long in keeping with his parents' religion. Luckily, the ACLU was there to defend the kid's rights. [Are you a member of the ACLU yet? If not, send them a donation.]
A judge ruled in favor of the kid, but the school appealed. Now the case is being heard in the Appeals Court.
I sure hope Needville gets their butts kicked back to Texas. Why school administrators delight in enforcing these bizarre and arbitrary rules against their students is beyond me. Schools should be about learning and helping students achieve their potential, not authoritarian discipline.
Pictures of the kid here.
These creeps have a rule against long hair for boys in their schools. But it's not the school's business to govern how students can wear their hair. If there are concerns, such as head lice, these can easily be handled by techniques used in other schools.
In this case, the jerks at Needville enforced their rule against a kindergartner who wore his hair long in keeping with his parents' religion. Luckily, the ACLU was there to defend the kid's rights. [Are you a member of the ACLU yet? If not, send them a donation.]
A judge ruled in favor of the kid, but the school appealed. Now the case is being heard in the Appeals Court.
I sure hope Needville gets their butts kicked back to Texas. Why school administrators delight in enforcing these bizarre and arbitrary rules against their students is beyond me. Schools should be about learning and helping students achieve their potential, not authoritarian discipline.
Pictures of the kid here.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Authoritarian Creep of the Month
Kurt Greenbaum is the "director of social media" at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Last Friday, he posted a topic for discussion, What's the Craziest Thing You've Ever Eaten?
One not-particularly-clever commenter wrote in the answer, "pussy", and Greenbaum's authoritarian streak took over. How dare anyone refer to oral sex in his space! How shocking! How vulgar!
Greenbaum then did what every good little fascist-in-training would do: he tattletaled on the commenter to his employer:
A few minutes later, the same guy posted the same single-word comment again. I deleted it, but noticed in the WordPress e-mail that his comment had come from an IP address at a local school. So I called the school. They were happy to have me forward the e-mail, though I wasn’t sure what they’d be able to do with the meager information it included.
About six hours later, I heard from the school’s headmaster. The school’s IT director took a shine to the challenge. Long story short: Using the time-frame of the comments, our website location and the IP addresses in the WordPress e-mail, he tracked it back to a specific computer. The headmaster confronted the employee, who resigned on the spot.
Not surprisingly, the reaction to Greenbaum's misconduct was negative. What to do? Why, shut off the comments, of course!
Comments are still open on here, in case you want to pile on.
Update: the Post-Dispatch deleted my comment, although it contained no profanity - just criticism. Big surprise.
One not-particularly-clever commenter wrote in the answer, "pussy", and Greenbaum's authoritarian streak took over. How dare anyone refer to oral sex in his space! How shocking! How vulgar!
Greenbaum then did what every good little fascist-in-training would do: he tattletaled on the commenter to his employer:
A few minutes later, the same guy posted the same single-word comment again. I deleted it, but noticed in the WordPress e-mail that his comment had come from an IP address at a local school. So I called the school. They were happy to have me forward the e-mail, though I wasn’t sure what they’d be able to do with the meager information it included.
About six hours later, I heard from the school’s headmaster. The school’s IT director took a shine to the challenge. Long story short: Using the time-frame of the comments, our website location and the IP addresses in the WordPress e-mail, he tracked it back to a specific computer. The headmaster confronted the employee, who resigned on the spot.
Not surprisingly, the reaction to Greenbaum's misconduct was negative. What to do? Why, shut off the comments, of course!
Comments are still open on here, in case you want to pile on.
Update: the Post-Dispatch deleted my comment, although it contained no profanity - just criticism. Big surprise.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Authoritarian High School Principal of the Month
Our nomination for authoritarian high school principal of the month goes to Thomas Murray, principal of Danvers High School in Danvers, Massachusetts, who has chosen to ban the word "meep" from the campus.
Students reportedly had been using the nonsense word to disrupt classes. But isn't disrupting class already an offense at the school? Why would a word need to be banned, too?
Instead of using this opportunity to talk about free speech and preserving a good learning environment, the principal chose a heavy-handed and authoritarian approach to the problem. Shame on him.
Students reportedly had been using the nonsense word to disrupt classes. But isn't disrupting class already an offense at the school? Why would a word need to be banned, too?
Instead of using this opportunity to talk about free speech and preserving a good learning environment, the principal chose a heavy-handed and authoritarian approach to the problem. Shame on him.
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