Friday, November 16, 2007

DID WINDWARD TEACHERS ORGANIZE PROTEST?

Just under 100 FERNDALE and WINDWARD HIGH SCHOOL students skipped school today.
If I understand the student handbook, this is punishable by a 2 hour study session. The students that I talked to said that is not the same as Saturday school. To me 2 hours on a Weekday or on a Saturday is irrelevant.
Good for these kids as they exercise their God given right to peaceably assemble and to political free speech, even if I disagree with what they are doing. I hope that they understand that with choices even if you believe that you are right, there are rewards and consequences. I hope that Dawn Fairchild will not punish them for protesting, but punishes them according to the Ferndale student Handbook guidelines for skipping school.

It has come to my attention from a couple of Windward students who were proud of this, that there may be one or two Windward Instructors who coordinated this school skipping event.
That I have a little trouble with. I do hope that the instructors will examine all consequences of their choices that they made. According to one of my kids(who did not take part or agree with them) most kids skipped because it was an excuse to skip, (even if they agreed with the war)

I hope that that those same instructors address these issues along with their "Lesson plan for protesting the War"
1) If you are willing to break the law or rules that you will humbly accept any appropriate punishment and don't be surprised if the punishment is more than you expected.
2) Is there a chance that you will actually have an effect whether good or bad on the policy you are protesting?
3) Your friends from the last few years who are older than you who have chosen to serve will be affected if they read about this, and this time of the year, soldiers already feel lonely. Don't be surprised if they may have hurt feelings and resent you. I suspect that they may understand, but you never know.
4) Could you possibly give the enemy soldiers courage to keep fighting even if they are starting to lose hope? Ask your teachers about General Giap and the North losing 90,000 men during the failure of the 1968 TET offensive on the ground, but U.S. peace protesters gave them hope to keep fighting against the protesters' friends and family who were serving. It was a propaganda coup for the NVA.
5) Is there a potential for things to get out of hand and people who are protesting or near to get killed during the protest, i.e. Kent State.

Finally I disagree with your choice to protest, but respect your right to do so, I just hope that if any teachers instigated, encouraged, organized or participated that they will humbly teach some lessons about consequences and be prepared to face consequences for encouraging students to skip school. This had to be coordinated somewhere as it nationally occurred. I just hope my taxes didn't pay for the organization of this event and if my student intel is incorrect then I will make a note of it on this blog. Fair enough?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Damn straight Parkenfarker



Arnold