Spring Valley SRO escapes jail time

No doubt you saw the news about the Spring Valley SRO who escaped jail time for his misdeeds at Spring Valley High School. Just exactly why did Judge Daniel Coble not send him off to prison???

If you only read the local media or watched it on TV, you missed the whole story.

Read the long article on the Washington Post website. Read it slowly and carefully.

Ask why. Ask WHY!

What kind of investigations were done that allowed Jamel Bradley to get away with it for so long?

Where were the breakdowns in Richland 2? Where were the breakdowns at the Richland County Sheriff's Department?

Here's the link to the WashPo story:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2024/south-carolina-sro-child-sexual-abuse-jamel-bradley/

Georgia School Shooting

I found a shocking statement in one of the CBS News' online articles.

"FBI Atlanta said on social media Wednesday night that county authorities had interviewed the suspect last year about online threats to commit a school shooting."

It's my guess that school officials, SROs, and other law-enforcement personnel know who the future shooters are.

And that they are reluctant to "profile" them.

The school-to-prison "pipeline" can be shutdown. Implement the right programs of respect and discipline. It's way past time for "Tough Love".

The Social Justice Warriors, at least around here, will scream racial profiling. I say, "So what?"

Look at the photos of the troublemakers in your schools. Look at the photos of the criminals and suspects in the news? What do you see? 

National BeSmart Week was August 26-30. I'll tell you, folks. Gun locks will not solve the gun violence problem in schools or in Columbia or in this country. Wimpy approaches to the problems will solve none.

All the "Did you know..." questions are worthless. I don't want to hear that pitch one more time. 

Surely there are some smart people around Richland 2 who can figure this out. It's time to stop talkin' the talk and start walkin' the walk. 

R2 School Board Race

The race is on. The filing period for the school board election closed on August 15. As I recall, there are at least eight hats in the ring.

What should the qualifications be to win one of the three Trustee positions that will be elected this November?

First and foremost, the person should have executive leadership and decision-making skills and experience. Help elect these people, not just the ones with the most friends.

The Trustees on the Board are in charge of policy-making. They don't operate the District; that is the job of the superintendent. They should leave the "dirty work" to the superintendent.

Give direction to the superintendent and then monitor her performance.

Too many board members have been "in the kitchen" too often. Can you imagine what would happen if Directors of Ford Motor Company spent time on the factory floor, listening to employees who put fenders on cars or operate robots?

The persons elected should understand finances and the "big picture". 

They should understand that "they" make the decisions for Richland 2, not the South Carolina School Boards Association. They should stop wasting so much time on revising Board  policies.

Splashed on the District's website is "Purpose Driven, Future Ready". Seriously? Look at the grade-level reports. 

Abdullah Mustafa was the sole speaker in the Public Comment period on August 13. To view Mr. Mustafa's comments, go to this board meeting and scroll forward to 20:44 on the timer.

R2 Board Members - how much pay???

Do you, a taxpayer, really know how much pay a Richland 2 School Board trustee receives?

Be sure to read this article from The Voice of Blythewood & Fairfield County (July 15, 2024).

Pay special attention to this sentence in the article: "Invoking FOIA to justify higher school board trustee member pay is 'a very creative interpretation of state law and accounting practices,' Bender said."

Jay Bender is an attorney with strong skills in school board matters. Read that comment again, and then read "between the lines". What does "creative interpretation" mean to you???

Apparently, Richland 2 trustees have found a way to earn more than $395/meeting times 30 meetings in a year (is that a school year or a calendar year?).

A while back it was pretty clear that they got paid only for School Board meetings. Then some of the trustees wanted to have committee meetings - lots of them. Why not scarf up $395 for a 2-hour meeting?

And agenda-setting meetings? What the heck! "It's my time; I should get paid." Seriously?

Who is watching? Anyone?

2024 School Board Race

I almost hate to put the word "race" in the same sentence as "school board", but there it is.

Who will be filing to run for the three seats that are up for election?

The terms of Trustees Agostini, McFadden, and Scott expire in November. 

The filing period is August 1-15. Who will be filing?

The voters should pick the very best three, but they should have excellent candidates from which to pick. Unfortunately, there are few qualifications for the office other than getting the most votes. 

Should successful candidates have good critical-thinking skills? Be free from bias and influence? Be free of identity-politics?  Have a clear understanding of business management? Business finances? Think as executives, not as management (or, worse, as employees)? Understand the role of Trustee is to direct, not "do".

Will Release Time Make a Come-back?

Will Release Time for Religious Education make a come-back in Richland 2?

Several people went into the attack mode against Lindsay Agostini in her run for S.C. Senate District 35 over the Release Time issue. Many of the comments were libelous. She probably won't spend money to drag the liars into court. If she did, I'd certainly kick in some money for her expenses..

The people with loud voices and pens dripping venom don't understand (and don't want to understand) exactly what happened at the last school board meeting that addressed Release Time.

Release Time for Religious Education was on the agenda as a Discussion-Only item. No vote could be taken that night to approve or disapprove of the item. All the Trustees knew that (or should have known that).

Trustee Agostini made a motion to remove that item from the agenda. Her reasoning was well-based. All that the motion did was remove the item from that night's agenda. Nothing else!

Before* the vote to remove it, Board Chair Joe Trapp announced that the vote to remove the item from the agenda would effectively kill Release Time. He was wrong. He should have been challenged on the spot, but he wasn't.

Release Time could have been right back on the agenda of the very next board meeting. But it wasn't, and I don't think it has been on an agenda since then.

But there are rumors that some trustees want to resurrect it. Will they?

The terms-of-office of three school board members (Trustees Agostini, McFadden, and Scott) expire this November. (The terms of Trustees Nash, Porter, Trapp, and Washington run until November 2026.)

The filing period for Richland County school board elections is August 1-15, 2024. Who will be filing to run for Richland 2 Trustee?

* [Edited 7/21/2024] The original blogpost read "After the vote to remove it ..."

Are the Children Well?

Do you remember this from a couple of years ago (under the old regime)? How many times was that said?

"How are the children?"

"The children are well."

I received an email today from The Heritage Foundation with the subject line, "The kids are not alright. [sic]"

Overlooking the grammatical error ("all right"), the message is right. Here's that email, in part:

American children are in trouble.

The radical Left has infiltrated America’s core institutions, especially schools and universities.

From the minute American children enter our schools, they are overwhelmed with leftist ideas like transgenderism and critical race theory. 

An [sic] if they aren’t fully indoctrinated by the time they graduate high school, college professors and administrators finish the job by pumping their brains with intellectually childish lies about American history and denying basic facts like men can’t be women.

This toxic leftist indoctrination is what created the shocking protests across America’s elite universities this year."

What Do R2 Students Learn about the Constitution?

What do Richland 2 students learn about the U.S. Constitution?

It's too bad that school is not in session right now, so that they could study the SCOTUS ruling on Presidential immunity and learn why the Supreme Court ruled as it did.

The progressives are having a meltdown. Even Joe Biden doesn't understand or accept it, but perhaps we can cut him a little slack as "a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory."

Except that Joe was probably reading off notecards written by someone in the shadows.

If you believe in the U.S. Constitution, you know that the Supreme Court issued a correct ruling in the Presidential immunity case, as well as in Dobbs.

The Left and many Progressives hate it. Too bad, so sad.

17-year-old arrested with stolen, automatic pistol

 Watch this interview with Sheriff Lott, when he talks about the shooting earlier this week at the pool at the Villages of Lakeshore. Two arrests have already been made.

Sheriff Lott stresses the importance of the partnership between the community, parents, schools, churches, etc. In the first video shown in the press conference, you can hear automatic fire; yes, true automatic fire. 

The sheriff showed a "Glock switch", an illegally-manufactured replacement part for a Glock pistol that allows the pistol to be fired on "automatic"; i.e., one trigger pull fires many bullets until the trigger is released or the magazine is empty.

Treshawn Keller, 17, has already been arrested and is being charged as an Adult. Deputies caught him after he ran from the area. They caught him with a stolen pistol.

Where is (was) he a student? Richland 2? Which school?

More arrests are expected.

Why did the Villages of Lakeshore allow large numbers of non-residents to gather at its pool?

We here at The Summit must be on the alert for gatherings of kids. If you spot a large group circling the pool or other amenities, notify the office AND call RCSD.

Lott advises parents to search the car, bedroom, backpack of their kids. Find the guns. 

Compare this presser with Sheriff Lott and the recent production of The Moore You Know, with Supt. Kim Moore and Marti Brown, a staff member at Westwood High School who is part of Be Smart. Which one do you think will be more effective at slowing or stopping gun violence?

Patriotism in Richland 2

(not the table at Home Depot)

Yesterday morning (May 27, 2024 (Memorial Day, observed)) I was in the Home Depot store at Sandhills. 

As I entered, there was a table set up with one place-setting and a folded American Flag. I recognized its significance and paused to honor it. It's called the Missing Man Table.

This made me wonder how many people passing it did recognize it and what, if anything, is taught in Richland 2 schools about the importance of Memorial Day.

Honoring our Veterans (all of them) has declined in the past 50 years.

When I was 28, I learned what not to say about Memorial Day. I was in the life insurance business and had taken an client to an exam at a  doctor's office on the Friday before the Memorial Day week-end.

As we left the doctor's office, I said, "Have a nice week-end." That doctor's expression told me I had said something out-of-order, and I have thought about it every year since. 

Don't say "Happy Memorial Day" or "Have a nice week-end." It should be a somber time to think and to remember what the holiday is. It is to honor those who died in service, so that we can have the freedoms that we have. 

The Left would have us lose those freedoms. That is NOT going to happen.

Arizona Teacher Quits over cellphones

Here's another reason why teachers are quitting.

Read this article about the 11-year teacher in Arizona who quit after giving up on trying to break students' habits of addiction to their cell phones.

Mitchell Rutherford taught at Sahuaro High School in Tucson, Arizona. 

To me, an outsider, it looks like a simple task to prohibit the use of cellphones in the classroom. Obviously, it's not. Any teacher can tell you what happens when s/he tries to eliminate cell phone use in the classroom.

But should it be difficult? Not at all. Teachers have the backbone to do. My guess is that they are not backed up by department heads, assistant principals, principals, or District administrators, or even school boards.

What's like in RSD2? Will any teacher or administration have the courage to comment below?

DDid R2 approve it this way?

As you drive out of the center exit from R2i2, this is what you see.

Most likely, Richland 2 gave specifications to the driveway painting contractor and told him what to paint on the driveway and where to paint it.

Is this how it was given to the contractor?

Will it be corrected?

"ClapperGate" - Calif. Supt. Fired

Read this story about the firing of a school district superintendent, Marian Kim Phelps, from her job at the Poway Unified School District in the San Diego area.

Phelps was fired Tuesday night, April 30, 2024. What's interesting is that the school district has not yet updated its internet message on Wikipedia, as of the morning of May 4, 2024. It still names Phelps as the superintendent.

"ClapperGate" resulted from Phelps' alleged activities after her daughter did not receive enough applause at a softball awards banquet last May (2023). 

You can read the NBC story here: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/california-superintendent-fired-allegedly-threatening-students-didnt-c-rcna150229

This story reminded me of a night at a school board meeting at Richland 2 and shouted words in the board room, "I KNOW WHO YOU ARE. DON'T TALK TO ME. GET AWAY FROM ME." The then-school board failed to take any action against either the then-superintendent or his wife, a teacher in the Richland 2 system.

Virginia School District sues parent

Be sure to read this article on WISTV.com about the school district in Virginia that is suing the parent of a special ed student.

I can sympathize with the parent.

From 1996-2009 I was an advocate for my stepson - from his Second Grade until he aged-out at 22. The Special Ed Department there hated me, because I would insist that they provide the accommodations to which they had agreed, in writing, in his IEPs.

I recall telling one of the male teachers after my stepson entered high school that I was glad I would finally be dealing with adults, meaning the teachers and spec ed staff. Boy! Was I wrong!

I remember the first IEP I attended, after his mother and I married. I paid his therapist and a professional Spec Ed advocate to be there with us. There were 11 (ELEVEN!) from the school district there, all jammed into the Principal's small conference room.

One of his teachers had told me in a parent conference something like, "Me and him went to the library." I should have challenged her but didn't. She even spoke the same error in the IEP! It's no wonder kids grow up with poorspoken language habits.

That IEP lasted three hours forty-five minutes - with no breaks! Toward the end the school district's attorney, who had tried to avoid introducing herself at the beginning of the meeting, offered us three choices and asked which we wanted. I said, "None." 

When I listed the three accommodations that we wanted (1. aide in the classroom; 2. in-school services (not bussed to a different school; and 3) I've forgotten the third), she agreed. That took five minutes!

It was over the years after that, that we couldn't get the District to provide the accommodations as written in the IEPs. The special ed staff would cry "Wolf", when I raised their failures, rather than admitting they just had not provided them.

Election Security - 2024

 Concerned about 2024 Election Integrity?

Watch this excellent 90-minute program by Glenn Beck at www.blazetv.com/glenn . It's free until about 9:00PM EDT 4/25/2024. Use code SECURE2024, if needed The message is appropriate for Republicans, Democrats, Independents, etc. Learn how election machines could have been hacked and how to improve election security for 2024.

Check out MillionVoices.org, too.

Photo Opp. Who should be in the middle?

In this photo of the 2023-2024 board members published on Richland 2's website, why is the superintendent positioned near the center, as if she is the president or chairman of the board?

The board chairman should be in the center position. 

The superintendent shouldn't even be in the photo of Board Members.

Biden and Feds are destroying the USA

From The Daily Signal (publication of The Heritage Foundation) on April 20, 2024:

"Under the Biden administration’s sweeping new Title IX rule, any school that receives federal funding would have to open girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms to boys who “identify” as girls."

Are We, the American People, going to put up with this?

If I, as a parent of a school-age child, found that this was happening in my child's school, I would immediately withdraw my child.

What would you do?

How much in Federal funds does Richland 2 receive annually? Is it worth it to have to kowtow to Biden and his gang?

Read the full article here.

Woke rules in N.C. school district

Be sure to read this FoxNews article about a North Carolina high school that kicked a student out for three days over the term "illegal alien".

The headline of the article is 

North Carolina high school student suspended over using the term 'illegal alien': Report

Be sure to "how" the student used the term.

The article says, in part, "Another student allegedly took offense to the term and threatened to fight McGhee’s son".

And so Leah McGhee's 16-year-old son got kicked out.

This happened at Central Davidson High School in Lexington, N.C.

The problem with suspensions is that they are imposed almost immediately, before any serious consideration of circumstances or a hearing. That happens there and here. 

By the time the student wins his case, the period of the suspension has passed. You can't give the lost time back to the student.

Iowa teachers, staff may carry guns

The Iowa legislature is seriously considering a bill to allow school teachers and staff to carry guns. 

See this article by KCCI-TV 8.

The Iowa Senate has passed the bill, and it now goes back to the Iowa House after a Senate amendment.

An online article by USAToday carried this: "More than 30 states allow teachers or other K-12 school staff to be armed in at least some circumstances, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures." One Senator said, ""Seconds count when law enforcement are minutes away even in the quickest response."

All 30 Republican Senators voted in favor. All 14 Democrat Senators voted against it.

American Citizenship

What is taught in Richland 2 schools about American citizenship, history (the real history), politics, the founding of the U.S., the meaning of responsible participation in the government, the awareness and understanding of identity politics, and the ability to think and make independent decisions?

A free online course titled "American Citizenship and its Decline" is offered by Hillsdale College at https://online.hillsdale.edu/courses/american-citizenship-and-its-decline. 

Hillsdale College, in Hillsdale, Michigan, accepts NO government funding. It avoids the "strings" that are attached to government dollars. It doesn't have to kowtow to government regulations to keep the dollars flowing.

Take this eight-lesson course. You'll be surprised. Comment below, please, after you complete the course.

California city bans most identity flags

Huntington Beach, California has prohibited most non-government flags on city property. Read this article.

Gone will be LGBTQ and "breast cancer awareness, Pride, Confederate and all other non-U.S flags on city property".

Another article on FoxNews reported that the Springfield, Missouri School Board has refused to accept a LGBTQ "statement of support". The school board president, Steve Makoski, delivered a calm statement and explanation of the decision, which can be viewed here. (Apologies for the long, embedded ad.)

That would be a good position for Richland 2. 

Severely limit excessive identity activism and kowtowing to special interest groups. Close the DEI program. Get back to educating the students.

Like the New Intro to Livestreamed Board Meetings?

This afternoon I decided to check the length of last Tuesday's School Board Meeting. The January 23, 2024 board meeting length is recorded as 4:43:04. Assuming it started with the Executive Session at 5:30PM, the meeting didn't end until 10:13PM!

Did they accomplish anything important?

What shocked me was the new filler that precedes the board meeting. Watch it here or by going to livestream.com/richland2 and selecting the January 23 meeting.

There is no introduction to what you see at the beginning of the recording, and there is no button to advance past the recognition of long-time employees. It's almost like one of those endless infomercials.

If you wait long enough, the opening of the 5:30PM public session is at 4:09 on the recording. After the board enters executive session, a banner is added that the board meeting will resume after the executive session concludes. The public session resumes at 1:07:26.

A question: How much did the District spend to produce that filler?

Tonight's Agenda

I just received a text from a friend, and he had assumed I'd be going to tonight's Richland 2 School Board meeting.

So I looked at the agenda and shook my head in disgust. What a total waste of time! Of everybody's time.

Policy Proposal JLIG - Sun Safety. Seriously? The District is wasting time on a policy about sun safety and using sunscreen?

No wonder school grades and student failure-to-progress are so dismal.

And "Gavin's Law" for staff and students. There are laws on the books for that stuff. Are Board Policies really necessary?

If the School Board is going to give adequate time to all those items on tonight's agenda, the meeting should be over by dawn. 

I remember my first school board meeting in 2018, right after the shootings in Parkland, Fla. Craig Plank was the board president. I think that meeting was about 60-90 minutes long. That's all!

I urge the school board to deal with important matters - like educating the students to graduate with the skills they need for life and for further education. Cut out all the drivel. Richland 2 must be trying to out-do the Federal Government with wasted efforts, time, and policies.

Post and Courier's article about Supt's contract

The Post and Courier published an "interesting" article today about the superintendent's contract.

I had read the superintendent's contract several months ago, after it was texted to me. I didn't save it.

From memory, I recall that there was to be an evaluation within four (maybe six) months, and then the Board would decide whether to extend the contract for a year. I recall thinking at the time, "WHY?"

My opinion was the contract provision resulted from poor negotiations by Richland 2. They were under the gun to hire somebody fast, because they lost the first three months after Baron left in January. The negotiating team was behind the curve. They were not in the strong position in which an employer usually finds it. And why would the legal advice to the District ever agree with that provision?

The superintendent's contract is a personnel issue. Why did the article have comments from two board members? 

Will an evaluation occur "in the fall"? Historically, since the superintendent's contract runs from July 1-June 30, there would be a review before the end of the School Year (June 30), and a contract amendment, if there were to be one, at that time.

Angela Nash's gushing comment about the superintendent ("So far we've had such a great working experience with Dr. Moore") weakens any position of the Board, should it decide not to extend the contract when it enters its second year. That would have been better unsaid.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

What do today's students, and many adults, know about Martin Luther King, Jr.?

That today was his birthday?

That he gave a speech?

That he marched?

That he was killed?

Do they know any details?

Jason Riley, Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, tells us about Dr. King in the 5-minute video from PragerU.

I was fortunate to hear Dr. King speak. On October 15, 1962 he spoke at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. I sat at the left end of the first row in front of the stage. The podium was about 20 feet from me. I didn't meet him that day or shake his hand. I liked what I heard.

If you'd like to know what he said that day, you can read his words here.

Grade Card for the District. How say you?

What is the general feeling about results being produced by the Richland 2 School Board since November 2022?

They've been busy. Lots of meetings. What are the results?

Have significant steps been taken to improve the academic results of students? Will students be better qualified for further education or work at the time of graduation? Granted, change in that category is like turning a battleship. But has the rudder moved?

Are the right people in place to produce a positive result?

Have attendance rates improved?

Have disciplinary actions gone down? What's happening with discipline? Are changes in the wind? What type of changes? What is being done to instill the concept of higher personal responsibility in students?

What's going on with DEI? (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) Is that still a huge consideration? Or has Richland 2 come to the conclusion that Accomplishment and Merit are more important than the woke ideas of DEI?

How is employee morale? Up? Down? Unchanged? On a scale of 1-10, where is morale - on the average? Is it high? Low? Why?

Does every employee have a clear job description that is not just HR boilerplate? Are employee expectations clear? Attainable?

I know that, for many of the job openings I explored in the business world, one look at the Job Description caused me to wonder how many people were going to be hired to do that (one) job.

Your School Has a New Principal

 

What if, today, your school had a new principal? As nice as your principal was, that person is gone. When you arrived today, your first class was in the auditorium, and this is what you heard.

Teachers, parents, students, what do you think?

Richland 2's DEI program could be this

 

What if this were Richland 2's DEI program? Here's an old (1996) video with Dennis Prager and Larry Elder.

This was mentioned on a 2019 Fireside Chat (#100), when Dennis' guest was Allen Estrin, co-founder of PragerU. 

If you aren't a fan of Dennis Prager yet, check out www.prageru.com for the Fireside Chats (30 minutes on Thursdays) and many 5-minute videos and other videos.

Character and abilities are important - more so than gender, race, ethnicity.

Richland 2 is Wrong !

My comments that follow are based on a story published by The State newspaper on January 2, 2024. I have written about it previously, based on comments on NextDoor.

Correction: In The State's article the term "snitch" is attributed to the boy who took and broke the student's glasses, not to a teacher, as it was previously described on NextDoor.

According to yesterday's article, the incident started ON school property, when a classmate took the female student's charger. It continued on school property when a student broke her glasses. It continued when the mob attacked the girl near the closed Chick-fil-A location on Decker Blvd.

This means Richland 2 is involved, and it IS a school matter. Richland 2 can stonewall and say not. Richland 2 is wrong!

From May 2023 until now is far too long for this case to wind its way through the juvenile justice system. It shouldn't have taken more than a month! The punishment to that mob should have been meted out within 30-45 days. They've got to be laughing their fool heads off.

The family's lawyer says the victim "...will likely deal with the emotional and physical fallout from the attack for the rest of her life."

That's good language for a lawsuit against the mob and the school district, but it doesn't have to be the case. 

The right therapy will help the girl and her mother deal with what happened and put it in the rearview mirror. The girl was a victim then, but she doesn't have to feel like a victim forever.