How To Stop Child Predators In Public Schools Like Wetumka - ROPE Report Short

In this video, Mary, of V1SUT, and Casey Yochum, one of the many victims of Brent McGee, former coach, teacher and athletic director at Wetumka public schools - where his wife Donna was the Superintendent - talk about the signs parents and community members can watch for to protect students/children against child predation. This is a great short video to watch and then share with other parents. It is invaluable information that so many people overlook. So many times a coach taking time with a student is considered mentoring - and hopefully MOST of the time it is - but not always and people in the community and within the school need to have their eyes open. Unfortunately, as talked about in the video, oftentimes, victims are looked at as lying when they come forward to tell their stories of abuse by school personnel. Then, the school closes ranks around the accused and the victim is further locked out and ignored. You can find the entire video here on our YouTube channel under our 'live' video tab and you can find Mary at V1SUT.com. There, you can find all the stories of abuse that she has been following within public schools over the last several years. This. Must. Stop.

Are Parents Rights Political? Should Public Schools Prevent Parental Rights Notification?

Recently, a teacher friend of mine took it upon herself to create a booklet out of the Parents Bill of Rights (posted here on the United Opt Out website - thank you Nikki Jones, Oklahoma Coordinator) passed last year into law due in large part to ParentalRights.org Oklahoma Coordinator Tracey Montgomery. 

So excited was she to impart this information to fellow teachers, staff and parents, she took them to school and began to pass them out. Not long afterward, her principal pulled her out of class, told her it was illegal to pass out the booklets and that she was to stop. 

My teacher friend knew this to be an incorrect interpretation of statute, so she asked her principal to cite the law and provide it to her in writing. That evening she received the following email: 

It has come to my attention that you are distributing political information to other teachers.  A complaint was made.  Please stop distributing the material immediately.  The OKCPS AFT Collective Bargaining Agreement states:

Article XII – Political Activity

Section 1:  Teachers’ political activities shall be individual and personal, and the involvement of teachers in any political activities shall be at the sole discretion of the individual teachers.

Section 2:  Teachers’ political activities shall in no way interfere with their obligations or assigned duties during their workday and shall not in any manner be injected into the educational programs of the District.

Section 3:  No action shall be taken with respect to a teacher’s political activities except in the case of a violation of this article.

Refrain from involving other staff members in any political activity that you are personally involved.

Is there anything in this email that refers to handing out a booklet of LAW covering the rights of parents? No. In fact, this email doesn't say that handing out information regarding a state law is illegal. A state law is NOT political. Political activities refer to such things as campaigning, lobbying and/or voting. The Parents Bill of Rights is a law - my teacher friend wasn't lobbying for the bill - it passed last year - nor was she trying to build a campaign for public office or get anyone to vote for the bill - again, it's a LAW.

I had another friend of mine search Oklahoma Statutes to see if this teacher was in violation of any school code (210:20-29-3. Principle I: Commitment to the students and 210:20-29-4. Principle II: Commitment to the profession). We were unable to find anything that would pertain to passing out a law detailing parents rights to parents, teachers and staff at a public school - where, incidentally, many of these rights exist. 

Looking for further information on the topic of "free speech and public schools" I found a document from the Center for Public Education. It says,

Over the years the courts have ruled that school employees are not always free to express their opinions and beliefs. Employees cannot be disciplined or suffer negative consequences for speaking out on matters of “public concern.” Schools can take action, however, when employees go public with strictly personal concerns.

The main U.S. Supreme Court case is Pickering v. Board of Education, which held that freedom of speech—while not absolute—gives employees Constitutional protection if they are speaking about issues of a public nature, rather than those things about which they have a personal stake. Pickering overturned a school district’s decision to fire a teacher for commenting on school expenditures through letters in a local newspaper.

Certainly, providing parents with a law concerning their rights would be considered a matter of "public concern". 

This certainly is a head-scratcher. Why would a public school administration not want parents and staff to have access to information that could only help parents understand their rights and responsibilities!? 

Sadly, we've found over the years as parents have sent us their concerns/complaints about their school/teacher/principal, that school administrators often either don't know the rights of parents, or misrepresent the rights of parents to the point that parents come away with the idea that school officials have more control over the student (child) than the parent. 

It seems a no-brainer that school officials would WANT parents to know their rights - including the rights they have over their child's education within the confines of the school community - but to be fair, schools are more often attuned to the rights of the student than the parent, so maybe there simply isn't enough training in this area and the principal's ignorance on the topic caused confusion.

In the end, I would hope all Oklahomans could agree that a booklet created to enlighten parents, school officials and others about the rights of parents would be a supported activity, not one deserving of formal reprimand. 

An Oklahoma Teacher Speaks Out About Common Core

I received this treatise on Common Core from an Oklahoma teacher with whom I've communicated for several years now.  Of course, I will not release this teachers' name and I have also been asked not to mention in which part of the state this teacher is located.  Why?  Because, as with so many other teachers in Oklahoma (and across the country) this teacher is afraid of repercussions for their job for speaking out against Common Core.

I have edited the form only slightly as this was sent to me in an unfinished kind of stream-of-conscientiousness form.  Here are the thoughts of this OKLAHOMA teacher.

The coming internal conflict among Education Administrators and Common Core Supporters. 

1)  There is a shortage of Teachers.  

2)  Alternatively Certified Teachers.

Due to the shortage of traditionally trained Teachers, combined with the weak economy, School Administrators are hiring more alternatively certified Teachers that are knowledgeable and successful in their field of study, even though they might not be fully aware of pedagogical methods and concerns. Those School Administrators are bringing them into the existing organizational structure of the Education System and burdening them with the same mandates and restrictions that seem to be part of the cause of failure of the system itself.   

Like teachers educated in the field of education, alternatively certified Teachers are also knowledgeable and accomplished in their fields and industry. They have college degrees in their respective fields. A Biochemist has a degree in Biological Chemistry;  A Business leader has a degree in Business Management;  An Author might have a degree in English Literature or Journalism (or the field in which they write). You get the point.  It is commonly explained as alternatively certified Teachers know WHAT to teach, whereas, traditionally trained Teachers know HOW to teach.  

3) Common Core pushes uniformity among Teachers and students.  

It strives to funnel all components of education, from teachers to curriculum to classroom management to students themselves, through it’s programmed system of policy and procedures so that all Teachers react alike and teach alike, regardless of what subject they teach.  Common Core Standards proponents believe that with these policies and procedures in place, all students will follow them with minimal variance, resulting in all students learning the same things at the same time regardless of their individual abilities, interests, and home life support.  

However, the restrictions that Common Core Standards enforce may very well frustrate the supply of alternatively certified Teachers and continue the shortage of Teachers in the classroom.  These Common Core Standards ( i.e.-policy and procedures) come from Washington DC, so, it also ignores variation among School districts across the USA.   

Let’s face reality:  School districts are supported by it’s tax base.  Nice houses owned by the people who live in them with lots of retail stores that make and sell goods provide sales taxes = more income for local schools.  Conversely, rental homes in low income areas with minimal retail sales tax revenue = less money for local schools.  This also applies to rural communities. Common Core policy and procedures don’t care.  

Uniformity is the desired result. 

In the old days, the desired result was quality education for students.  

But not any more.  

One of the most certain ways an organization can strangle itself and minimize its growth and quality output is when that organization designs policy and procedures and then applies them to an existing unstable organizational structure in order to better control human efforts and behavior.

Dr. W. Edwards Deming, recognized worldwide for the successful management concept which he developed, focuses on the overall system of the organization and how it supports the individual workers, or components.  In Deming’s management philosophy, once the appropriate system is in place the desired results will flow more naturally out of that system. 

The difference?  Common Core is a redesign and implementation of policy and procedures applied to an existing education system, which, according to most analysis is broken.  Dr. Deming's management concept focuses on a continual evaluation of the overall system, and redesigning the broken existing system if necessary, so as to attain a higher level of quality in its output.   

Common Core Standards in Education is the belief that if you have plenty of policy and procedures in place in the schoolhouse (from Board members to Custodians) then you will always get the same results, which is true. Uniformity through conformity, yes.  Quality, no.