Tag Archives: middle school

hey great valley school district, tag you’re it and can you “tinker”?

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The below and this post is me exhibiting my First Amendment rights. The media articles and television reports on the Great Valley Middle School horror show of TikTok is freedom of the press under….wait for it…First Amendment rights.

I have found the Great Valley School District’s responses shall we say, scripted? They have been overly scripted on everything coming out of their mouths since COVID.

While I supported the district trying to be responsible to all during COVID and felt for them having to deal with anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers in all of these school districts, I firmly believe that the school district could and should do more here. Frankly, I think Great Valley School District Superintendent Daniel Goffredo needs to put his scripted responses down and find where he misplaced his balls. And yes, this is an opinion and I can have it….wait for it…as part of my Amendment Rights.

Here are some comments about this off of Reddit as well as my prior post:

hey great valley school district, wtf 😳????
Written July 7, 2024

It seems like so much time has passed since I wrote my initial post. And what a whirlwind has occurred locally.

I understand how these teachers feel. I had an adult in another state do something similar to me years ago. This person was a relative of someone who was in my life years ago. This had nothing to do with me being a blogger, this had to do with me being happy in my life. It was totally twisted.

Every day they did something.

And it was ridiculous. Social media platforms talk a good game about stopping these behaviors but hey they can’t even stop a bunch of Great Valley middle schoolers on TikTok can they?

Eventually the abuse stopped. But things I won’t forget are the people who thought it was okay. One of those people is a sitting elected official in Chester County. She enjoyed the harassment of me because she didn’t like my blogging. If she runs for office again I will remind her that she liked what this person did and show people.

I don’t wish what happened to me, and what still occasionally happens to me, to happen to anyone, let alone teachers.

And again, middle schoolers are doing this, so where are their parents?

Today I found this new news piece on WHYY:

After targeted TikTok campaign, Great Valley teachers are pushing for a digital citizenship curriculum

Digital Citizenship?

I hope it comes with a side of accountability. This is an error like that Reddit screenshot person said deals with the people who use the screens as babysitters for the kids. The screens are still babysitting the kids, only the kids no more than the parents, and in some cases the schools. So I’m sure you know you kids get school issued iPads, and what not, and how many of the kids know how to do the factory settings reset or whatever so they can bypass restrictions that the school has in place?

Now Great Valley thus far in the midst of their scripted responses, haven’t really done anything . They actually could expel those kids, especially since after their suspension vacation earlier in 2024, they are creating again in the summer.

I was reading something that I found interesting :

Lozano Smith/ Attorneys at Law

Supreme Court Sets Aside Student’s Cheer Team Suspension, but Confirms Schools’ Authority to Regulate Off-Campus Expression 

July 20th, 2021

In its first student free speech case since 2007, Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L, the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of a student whose off-campus and off-color social media (Snapchat) posts resulted in her suspension from the school’s junior varsity cheerleading team. The Supreme Court confirmed, however, that schools may still regulate student expression occurring off-campus on a case-by-case basis under the Tinker standard, albeit to a lesser degree than when regulating on-campus student expression.

Background

In the preeminent 1969 student speech opinion, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, the Supreme Court articulated a standard wherein “conduct by a student that materially disrupts classwork or involves substantial disorder or invasion of the rights of others” does not enjoy the “constitutional guarantee of freedom of speech.” The facts in Tinker involved speech that took place on campus. For decades, schools and lower courts have grappled with the applicable standard for measuring the regulation of a student’s off-campus expression by school officials, with nearly all courts determining Tinkerpermits schools to impose consequences on students for off-campus expression, assuming an adequate showing of substantial disruption to the educational environment or infringement on the rights of other students resulting from the student’s expression.

Mahoney Area School District v. B.L.

[CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ]

This case, this BL judicial opinion does indicate that schools YES indeed CAN regulate what students are saying in very specific circumstances.

Importantly, the court noted various examples of off-campus student speech that may satisfy the Tinker standard and thus be subject to regulation as well as disciplinary and extracurricular consequences. Such examples include sexually harassing expression, bullying, or threats of violence targeting a student, staff member, or school site.

And at 11 AM on WCHE Friday this will be a topic of conversation.

I think these kids should be removed from the district, and I hope the teachers sue the district and the parents , and finally ? Consider a strike .

How to show support for the GVSD teachers:

  • come to the school board meeting this Monday 7/15 at 7:30pm
  • speak when it’s time for public comment, even if it’s just to stay you stand with all teachers and staff. Because they are all experiencing trauma and stress of some degree.
  • if you cannot attend, send an email and cc the superintendent and all school board members, their contact info is on the website. https://www.gvsd.org/

Thanks for stopping by .

school days: what happened to age appropriate?

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I am going to wade into something some parents and people in general might take issue with, but I am going to do it, anyway. I think it is a conversation that parents everywhere need to have with educators.

I am not a prude.  I don’t believe in treating children as a collective of village idiots.  But I do believe there are topics that are age-appropriate.

A few years ago a friend told me about a program a private school was running with elementary/middle-school aged kids about being gay.  At that age, most kids have no inclination of what that means even if they have same-sex parents. Anyway, my friend told me of the confusion and upset it caused the children.  Not the parents – the kids.  At the time I wondered aloud to my friend why they did this with kids so young and naive.  Basically kids who hadn’t even had any sex ed classes, either.

Now I am asking the same question of schools preparing for mock elections: what is age appropriate and when does it cross a line and make people fear there is another political agenda? (And I will note that I have a BIG problem with educators who bring personal politics of ANY kind into a classroom – it is not right – they are supposed to teach and be apolitical, educational Switzerland. Not put forth political agendas.)

What has got me on this topic?  Things I am hearing from parents all over whose kids are getting ready for mock elections at school.  Some schools require kids to have specific homework projects on it.

I have no problem with mock elections, I participated in my first one in 7th or 8th grade (when Jimmy Carter ran and became president).

What I have a problem with are some teachers are not only asking kids to do this but include as age appropriate topics for the NOT upper levels of high school set: abortion and gay marriage. These kids are elementary and middle schoolers. Not even high schoolers.

That truly bothers me.  What life experience and complex emotional capability do 10 – 14 year olds have to discuss gay marriage and abortion?  This is a complex subject, and to me it is something to be discussed at home….when they are older, or basically when the PARENTS decide. And truthfully, I don’t think the lower end of high schoolers (9th and 10th grades) should have this shoved at them as appropriate discussion either.

I am not even sure the average middle schooler can comprehend and articulate on the topic of gun control either for that matter. I mean is it really necessary?

And let me be clear, I might be a Republican, but I am decidedly pro-choice which is why I am also a ticket splitter half the time.  And I believe that a woman should have a right to choose and it is also a personal matter.  It is not for political platforms, courts, or pulpits.

As for gay marriage. Really?  Who does it hurt? Can you see it from your window? I have friends who have kids in their kids’ classes with same-sex parents.  Everyone gets along just fine. No one feels the need to wave a flag. It just is. The kids and the parents are accepted.

I just feel that these are very complicated topics that adults can’t even discuss pleasantly for the most part.  So why do middle schoolers and elementary schoolers have to?

I just do not see it as appropriate, and I question the underlying motives of any teacher that does this and school that promotes or allows this.

There is enough to learn about the electoral process, the issues, and individual politicians without having to explain to kids who haven’t even had sex ed in a lot of cases what abortion is.  Or to give them a pre-disposition towards gay marriage.

We do need to teach our children well.  But certain topics? Best saved for another discussion…and to an extent, I feel that there are certain  conversations which should occur at home when parents decide the time is right.

Seriously, I think it is bad enough when parents dress their kids like mini-me versions of themselves and schedule them so hard they don’t really know what it is to just be a kid, but to weigh them down with topics they are not emotionally or intellectually equipped to handle?  Just not right.