Update 2/3/2015, 12:00 PM: We’ve acquired Superintendent Bill Boyd’s email at [email protected]. Principal Roxanne Greer’s email is [email protected]. Let them know what you think! Also, since the review system at Great Schools is not allowing our reviews, go leave a review on their Google+ page! Also, here is the previously-hidden link to the school’s “Bully Reporting Form.” Report Principal Roxanne Greer for bullying Aiden Steward!
UPDATE 2/3/2015, 9:00 AM: it has come to my attention that GreatSchools.com is deleting our reviews (you can still upvote others’ comments, however), and the bully report form has been disabled by the school district since so many people were reporting Roxanne Greer. These things may change, but it is the current situation as of 2/3/2015, 9:00 AM central US time.
2/2/2015: Call to action: give Kermit Elementary School a negative one-star rating at Great Schools.com. Kermit Elementary has a “bully report form.” Use that form to report principal Roxanne Greer as the bully of Aiden Steward. Also, call Kermit School District at (432) 586-1000, or the elementary school directly at (432) 586-1020, and demand that everyone involved in the suspension of Aiden Steward be fired. [/dropshadowbox]
Is there something in the water that teachers and administrators at public schools drink that transforms them into anti-intellectual sociopaths? Is it some kind of requirement that, upon receiving your teaching certificate, you are required to turn in your common sense and human decency at the door?
Welcome to Kermit Elementary. I’m embarrassed to say that it’s in my home state of Texas. From NY Daily News:
Kermit Elementary School officials called it a threat when the 9-year-old boy, Aiden Steward, in a playful act of make-believe, told a classmate he could make him disappear with a ring forged in fictional Middle Earth’s Mount Doom.
The Stewards had just watched “The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies” days earlier, inspiring Aiden’s imagination and leading him to proclaim that he had in his possession the one ring to rule them all. Aiden claimed Thursday he could put a ring on his friend’s head and make him invisible like Bilbo Baggins, who stole Gollum’s “precious” in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy series “The Lord of the Rings.”
Roxanne Greer, the principal at Kermit Elementary
Just when you thought public school administrators could not get any dumber. As if the boy being suspended for having a pop tart in the shape of a gun wasn’t enough. As if the nine year-old boy being suspended for sexual harassment for commenting to another student that a teacher was “cute” wasn’t enough. As if a million other examples weren’t enough.
Sometimes I’m amazed that kids learn anything in school. So now this nine year-old boy’s education has to be interrupted and he has to feel like a criminal simply because of the crime of using his imagination. This has gone far beyond zero tolerance for anything that could be twisted and bent to be viewed as remotely threatening. It’s now become zero tolerance for having an imagination, period.
But this isn’t the first time he’s been suspended by the school. The article continues:
The family moved to the Kermit Independent School District only six months ago, but it’s been nothing but headaches for Aiden. He’s already been suspended three times this school year.
Two of the disciplinary actions this year were in-school suspensions for referring to a classmate as black and bringing his favorite book to school: “The Big Book of Knowledge.” ‘He loves that book. They were studying the solar system and he took it to school. He thought his teacher would be impressed,’ Steward said. But the teacher learned the popular children’s encyclopedia had a section on pregnancy, depicting a pregnant woman in an illustration.
Three suspensions that should have never happened in the first place. For a nine year-old he has quite a “criminal record” – none of it his fault, and all of it the fault of the school.
All this has got me thinking. Schools have made a lot of changes regarding security over the last twenty years. Where there once were open fields, there is now a perimeter of fences. Security cameras monitor the entrances of buildings. To get in, you’ll have to pass through a metal detector or two. And police officers – euphemistically dubbed “school resource officers” – patrol the hallways.
All of this was done in the name of protecting kids from some crazy adult getting in there to harm them. But maybe that’s not the case. Maybe it’s there to protect teachers and administrators from parents who, once they realize their tax dollars are funding people who act like sociopaths to their own children, will want to drive up there and beat the living shit out of them for being so stupid.
So here’s what you can do. Don’t beat the living shit out of them for being so stupid. But do go directly to Kermit Elementary’s profile at Great Schools.com. That’s a website used to rank schools. their Google+ page, where you can rate the school and leave a review. Give Kermit Elementary a solid one out of five stars. Make sure to leave a description for your complaint. Talk about the school’s lack of values, rampant indiscretion when it comes to punishing students, their lack of commitment to education, and so forth.
We’ve acquired Superintendent Bill Boyd’s email at [email protected]. Let him know what you think!
Also, Kermit Elementary has a “bully report form.” Use it to report principal Roxanne Greer [update 2/3/15, 1:15 PM: this is a new link!].
Lastly, call the school district at (432) 586-1000. That’s the general district line, and I have it on decent authority that (432) 586-1020 is the line for the elementary school. Ask for Roxanne herself if you call the elementary school. Ask for Superintendent Bill Boyd if you can get through to district administration. Or simply give the receptionist an earful if you can get a hold of no one else.
Tell them that they ought to be ashamed of themselves, that everyone responsible for this decision needs to be fired immediately, and that they should make an immediate apology to Aiden Steward and his family.
I remember, before the turn of the new millennium, that a lot of people thought that the future would bring incredible advances. So much for that. If our country’s progress were judged by looking at these people in our education system, we might as well be back in the stone age.
Roxanne Greer needs to be fired, and Aiden Steward deserves an apology.
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Update 2/3/2015, 12:00 PM: We’ve acquired Superintendent Bill Boyd’s email at [email protected]. Principal Roxanne Greer’s email is [email protected]. Let them know what you think! Also, since the review system at Great Schools is not allowing our reviews, go leave a review on their Google+ page! Also, here is the previously-hidden link to the school’s “Bully Reporting Form.” Report Principal Roxanne Greer for bullying Aiden Steward!
UPDATE 2/3/2015, 9:00 AM: it has come to my attention that GreatSchools.com is deleting our reviews (you can still upvote others’ comments, however), and the bully report form has been disabled by the school district since so many people were reporting Roxanne Greer. These things may change, but it is the current situation as of 2/3/2015, 9:00 AM central US time.
2/2/2015: Call to action: give Kermit Elementary School a negative one-star rating at Great Schools.com. Kermit Elementary has a “bully report form.” Use that form to report principal Roxanne Greer as the bully of Aiden Steward. Also, call Kermit School District at (432) 586-1000, or the elementary school directly at (432) 586-1020, and demand that everyone involved in the suspension of Aiden Steward be fired. [/dropshadowbox]
Is there something in the water that teachers and administrators at public schools drink that transforms them into anti-intellectual sociopaths? Is it some kind of requirement that, upon receiving your teaching certificate, you are required to turn in your common sense and human decency at the door?
Welcome to Kermit Elementary. I’m embarrassed to say that it’s in my home state of Texas. From NY Daily News:
Kermit Elementary School officials called it a threat when the 9-year-old boy, Aiden Steward, in a playful act of make-believe, told a classmate he could make him disappear with a ring forged in fictional Middle Earth’s Mount Doom.
The Stewards had just watched “The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies” days earlier, inspiring Aiden’s imagination and leading him to proclaim that he had in his possession the one ring to rule them all. Aiden claimed Thursday he could put a ring on his friend’s head and make him invisible like Bilbo Baggins, who stole Gollum’s “precious” in J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy series “The Lord of the Rings.”
Roxanne Greer, the principal at Kermit Elementary
Just when you thought public school administrators could not get any dumber. As if the boy being suspended for having a pop tart in the shape of a gun wasn’t enough. As if the nine year-old boy being suspended for sexual harassment for commenting to another student that a teacher was “cute” wasn’t enough. As if a million other examples weren’t enough.
Sometimes I’m amazed that kids learn anything in school. So now this nine year-old boy’s education has to be interrupted and he has to feel like a criminal simply because of the crime of using his imagination. This has gone far beyond zero tolerance for anything that could be twisted and bent to be viewed as remotely threatening. It’s now become zero tolerance for having an imagination, period.
But this isn’t the first time he’s been suspended by the school. The article continues:
The family moved to the Kermit Independent School District only six months ago, but it’s been nothing but headaches for Aiden. He’s already been suspended three times this school year.
Two of the disciplinary actions this year were in-school suspensions for referring to a classmate as black and bringing his favorite book to school: “The Big Book of Knowledge.” ‘He loves that book. They were studying the solar system and he took it to school. He thought his teacher would be impressed,’ Steward said. But the teacher learned the popular children’s encyclopedia had a section on pregnancy, depicting a pregnant woman in an illustration.
Three suspensions that should have never happened in the first place. For a nine year-old he has quite a “criminal record” – none of it his fault, and all of it the fault of the school.
All this has got me thinking. Schools have made a lot of changes regarding security over the last twenty years. Where there once were open fields, there is now a perimeter of fences. Security cameras monitor the entrances of buildings. To get in, you’ll have to pass through a metal detector or two. And police officers – euphemistically dubbed “school resource officers” – patrol the hallways.
All of this was done in the name of protecting kids from some crazy adult getting in there to harm them. But maybe that’s not the case. Maybe it’s there to protect teachers and administrators from parents who, once they realize their tax dollars are funding people who act like sociopaths to their own children, will want to drive up there and beat the living shit out of them for being so stupid.
So here’s what you can do. Don’t beat the living shit out of them for being so stupid. But do go directly to Kermit Elementary’s profile at Great Schools.com. That’s a website used to rank schools. their Google+ page, where you can rate the school and leave a review. Give Kermit Elementary a solid one out of five stars. Make sure to leave a description for your complaint. Talk about the school’s lack of values, rampant indiscretion when it comes to punishing students, their lack of commitment to education, and so forth.
We’ve acquired Superintendent Bill Boyd’s email at [email protected]. Let him know what you think!
Also, Kermit Elementary has a “bully report form.” Use it to report principal Roxanne Greer [update 2/3/15, 1:15 PM: this is a new link!].
Lastly, call the school district at (432) 586-1000. That’s the general district line, and I have it on decent authority that (432) 586-1020 is the line for the elementary school. Ask for Roxanne herself if you call the elementary school. Ask for Superintendent Bill Boyd if you can get through to district administration. Or simply give the receptionist an earful if you can get a hold of no one else.
Tell them that they ought to be ashamed of themselves, that everyone responsible for this decision needs to be fired immediately, and that they should make an immediate apology to Aiden Steward and his family.
I remember, before the turn of the new millennium, that a lot of people thought that the future would bring incredible advances. So much for that. If our country’s progress were judged by looking at these people in our education system, we might as well be back in the stone age.
Roxanne Greer needs to be fired, and Aiden Steward deserves an apology.
Thank You for Reading
If you like what you have read, feel free to sign up for our newsletter here:
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