U.S. Flag - half-staff

Do you know why the U.S. Flag is flown at half-staff today?

And what the correct procedure is for returning it to full-staff? 

White Privilege training - San Diego

Leaked documents have revealed a White Privilege training in the San Diego Unified School District.

"What's that?" you say. 

Check it out by clicking here.

Is it here already (under another name) or is it coming to a school district near you soon?

As soon as I read "white fragility" in that article, I remembered checking out Robin DiAngelo's book from the Richland Library. What a waste of money that library purchase was. I don't think I read 10 pages before I returned it.

When I looked up articles about Gloria Boutee's Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, I almost fell out of my chair laughing. What I read in the top article about her work, was 

"Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP)" *

Culturally Relevant Pedagog

y (CRP)

Well, they got that right.

If I were a teacher and the district tried to jam that nonsense down my throat, they'd be looking for a new teacher the next day.

* Source: https://www.ijme-journal.org/index.php/ijme/article/view/343/512

Handwriting - becoming a lost art?

How is your penmanship?

Legible? I mean, to others... 

Are students learning cursive? Still? Again? I recall a middle-school teacher in Illinois who told me that my stepson didn't need to learn handwriting, because he could use a keyboard. 

She also told me he didn't need to know how to spell, beause he could use SpellChecker. And he didn't need to know arithmetic, because he could use a calculator.

I told her that, if we were playing baseball, she had just struck out!!!

Handwriting - legible handwriting - is an important life skill. Do you have it? Are you seeing that your children acquire it?

I still treasure my Cross pen and pencil set. I've had it for more than 30 years. And I still know exactly where I lost a Cross pen. In a library parking lot in Kansas City after a workshop I had presented. When I missed it, I knew where I had dropped it but, by the time I got back, it was gone.

I just purchased a new ballpoint pen, because I liked the design. Not cheap.

And I just purchased a new fountain pen and bottle of blue ink. There is something about writing with a fountain pen. When is the last time you wrote with a fountain pen? Ever?

In a recent Fireside Chat Dennis Prager mentioned his love for fountain pens. I sent this story to him.

When I was a life insurance salesman back in the late 1960s, I used a fountain pen. A new client complimented my use of a "real" pen and asked if he could use it to sign the application. I usually didn't loan my pen (you know why) but, in this case, I did. I uncapped it, put the cap on the end of the barrel and handed it to him. He signed the application and handed the pen back to me. I didn't notice that he had put the cap back on the pen. So I moved the cap to the other end and put the pen in my shirt pocket. You guessed it! I had to buy a new shirt!

Check out the Voice of Blythewood

Be sure to see the December 3rd article titled "R2 trustee threatens to sue constituent" in The Voice of Blythewood & Fairfield County. 

Reporter Debra McCown did a good job of summarizing problems facing Teresa Holmes about the issue of her (il)legitimacy on the  Richland 2 School Board.

It's basically very simple and easy to understand. Holmes has never taken the oath of office legally. Thus, she is on the board illegally and is usurping public office. 

She (and Amelia McKie) became eligible to take the oath of office on December 4, 2018 and they have not done so. 

The next legal step for me is to get leave from a Circuit judge to file a usurping charge in the South Carolina Supreme Court. Because of the importance of keeping unauthorized people out of public office, the state Supreme Court would hear the case in a matter of days. My case would not have to go to the end of the line and wait ten years to be heard.

McKie and Holmes would have to prove that they are not violating the South Carolina statute. The poblem for both of them is in two parts. They signed an notarized oath of office form on November 13, 2018, and they filed their Statement of Economic Interest with the South Carolina Ethics Commission on December 4, 2018 - three weeks later.

They should have filed their SEIs first and then taken the oath of office. They did it backwards!

Since they can't prove their innocense, they'll be convicted. The penalties are not minor. Read South Carolina Code of Laws Title 15 - Civil Remedies and Penalties.

If they want me to stop complaining about their being in office illegally, all they have to do is take the oath of office - this time, legally.

Keep debtors out of public office

The following email is being sent to S.C. State Representative Ivory Thigpen (District 79) and State Senator Mia McLeod (District 22).

"As a constituent in your district, I am writing to request that you propose legislation in your chamber to prohibit a person who owes a debt to any division of the S.C. State Government, including the S.C. Ethics Commission, from holding public office. If that person holds office, the person must pay the debt within 90 days of the effective date of the legislation or resign from office.

"Will you please let me know if you will sponsor such legislation? I shall appreciate an individual reply, not just your standard auto-response without any follow-up."

Richland 2 School Board Trustee-elect Amelia McKie owes $51,750 to settle a judgment in favor of the South Carolina Ethics Commission. She hasn't paid even one penny toward this debt in more than two years.

The S.C. Department of Revenue (DOR) is charged with collecting the judgment. There is no sign of any activity on their part. The DOR should be attaching her wages from Richland 2 School District, filing a lien against any income tax refunds and against her home and automobile, and attaching her bank accounts. 

According to the Ethics Commission on November 30, 2020, she still owes $51,750!

Mark Twain banned. What about here?

According to a recent email from Hillsdale College (Hillsdale, Michigan), Mark Twain's book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn "has been banned in thousands of public schools across America."

The book, published in 1884, has been a staple in many households. What's wrong with it?

I have a boxed set of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, illustrated by Norman Rockwell. No, not first edition (darn it), but they are as old as I am.

I guess it's time to re-read them and find out how warped my upbringing was, just by having them in the same house.

What about in Richland 2 schools? Is it read? Is it ever mentioned? Has it been banned here?

Legal action against public body? Ex., SCSBA

Should legal action be taken against a public body or a non-profit corporation, when it knowingly violates South Carolina statutes or its own By-Laws? 

Should a private citizen have to pursue such legal action at personal expense or should there be a public agent, such as the Attorney General or the Solicitor of the S.C. Secretary of State, who would take on the investigation and prosecution of these violations.

One of three organizations that come to mind is the South Carolina School Boards Association (SCSBA), which is being presented with the nomination of Amelia McKie as its Region 8 Director (representing Richland 1 and Richland 2 School Districts). The SCSBA is a South Carolina non-profit corporation.

It's my understanding that a Regional Director must be a member of a school board in the district being represented. If McKie were a legal member of the Richland 2 School District, she would be eligible to be nominated and to serve the SCSBA.

BUT, she is not legal school board member, because she has never taken the oath of office legally.

At a Richland 2 school board meeting in February or March 2019 I proposed an easy remedy. Just administer the oath of office to her. She became eligible to take the oath of office on December 4, 2018, when she filed her Statement of Economic Interests with the South Carolina Ethics Commission.

The oath that she took on November 13, 2018 was invalid and meaningless, because she was not eligible to take the oath on that date. (S.C. Code of Laws 8-13-1110(A))

McKie has been nominated by Richland 2 to the SCSBA. The Richland 2 Board never should have nominated her.

The SCSBA should refuse to appoint her to the Region 8 District Director position.

If it does so, then legal action against the SCSBA should begin.

Every single person in the Richland 2 School District should ask Amelia McKie to explain why she will not take the oath of office legally.

While you are at tit, ask the Richland 2 School District to explain why they allow her (and Teresa Holmes, who also has never taken the oath of office legally) to serve on the school board.