Open Letter to Richland 2 Board & Supt.

The following email has been sent today to the Richland 2 School Board and the superintendent about the BeSMART program. Agendas for board meetings are often planned on the Thursday prior to a board meeting.

Members of the Board, trustees-elect Holmes and McKie, and Supt. Davis,

On December 9, 2021 Richland 2 launched, with great fanfare, the BeSMART initiative on ending gun-violence in Richland 2 schools.

On March 7, 2022 14-year-old Trevion Fuller, a Blythewood Academy student from Richland Northeast High School, was shot to death about two blocks north of RNE.

A 16-year-old was arrested that same night, and three additional juveniles have been arrested. How many of them were RNE students?

To my knowledge, BeSMART has not been mentioned at a board meeting since December 9th.

I request an update to the Board and to the Public at the April 7, 2022 Regular Board Meeting or the following meeting. Please add this item to the agenda.

Sincerely,

Gus Philpott

Five Kicked Off Penna. School Board

Be sure to read this FoxNews article about the judge in Pennsylvania who booted five school board members. 

https://www.foxnews.com/us/pennsylvania-judge-boots-school-board-members-mask-mandate

A parent got sick and tired of the mask mandate and went to court. She argued that "under the Pennsylvania school code districts have no authority to require students to wear masks."

Pennsylvania must have partisan school board races, because the five who were booted were all Democrats.

Gee, what would be said if Holmes, McKie, Caution-Parker and Manning got booted off the Richland 2 School Board? I'll bet at least three are Democrats; maybe all four?

Does this tell you something about the West Chester Area School District? "The board opted to continue requiring masks after Pennsylvania's state of emergency first ended in June 2021. It kept the decision in place two months after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court declared the mandate unconstitutional in December."

How important are words?

One of the things I've learned over the years is how important each word is in a rule, regulation or policy. I notice spelling, case, number, punctuation. Maybe that's why I like editing manuscripts and proof-reading for authors. 

I recall one day at the Sears headquarters in Chicago, when I was discussing a policy with an associate in the Des Moines call center. We were having a conversation that was becoming more and more intense over one sentence in the policy, when I suggested that he fax me the page at which he was looking and I would fax him the page in my copy of the policy. The sentence in question turned out not to be identical. One of them had the word "not" that was not in the other copy. No wonder we couldn't agree!

Now to Richland 2.

In Administrative Rule KI-R the section on “No Trespass” Notices reads,

"District and school administrators, after school or after hours program managers, district security and safety staff, school resource officers or other on-duty, or extra-duty law enforcement officers assigned to work at a school or event may issue a verbal or written “no trespass” notice for the school facility, delay the entry of a person for cause, or ask for the removal any such individual as necessary. On-duty law enforcement officers patrolling a school campus after-hours may also issue a “no trespass” notice to individuals who are not in compliance with a school’s “no trespass” sign or rules, are causing a disturbance, or are not in compliance with a local law while on school property."

I've added the emphasis with yellow highlighting.

Notice the wording "for the school facility". The reference is singular. "Facility" means one building. It does not mean all the properties of the Richland 2 school district. If those who wrote the policy had meant for a trespass notice to apply to ALL buildings, property, etc., the crafters of the section would have used a plural word.

Now, look at the wording in the Trespass Notice letter issued by the District. It reads, "... you are excluded from any and ALL [emphasis in the original] Richland School District Two properties, facilities, campuses and buildings ..."

I am challenging Richland 2 on this point. Marq Claxton exceeded his authority when he broadened the Administrative Rule and banned me from ALL properties. If the District is going to hang its hat on a Board Policy or Administration Rule, they are going to follow it.

I have filed separate and distinct complaints, other than my own grievance, with Holmes, McKie, Caution-Parker, and Manning. None responded. When I followed up with Manning on the lack of a response from Holmes to my March 8th complaint, he wrote "You have repeatedly emailed the entire board, members of the executive staff, and Dr. Davis with your complaints. You have received formal correspondence from our board secretary notifying you that a decision has been made related to your grievance."

And right he is. And I shall continue to write and to complain on valid points. They opened the can of worms, when The Core Four failed to investigate the superintendent and his wife, Pamela Davis, for their words and actions on January 25. 

And, on a picky point, that correspondence did not come from the "board secretary". It came from the woman who is Special Assistant to School Board; i.e., secretary to the board, not "board secretary". The (acting) Board Secretary is trustee-elect Amelia McKie, and she isn't even the legal Board Secretary. You have to be a legitimate member of the board in order to be a board officer!

Shocking! Should be. Is it?

Read today's FoxNews article about the Eau Claire, Wisconsin school district and its war on parents. The title of the article is "This school district might be the worst violator of parental rights."

Compare the article closely with what you are learning about the Richland 2 school district.

Do some of these words ring the wrong bell with you?

"Woke bureaucrats" (recall Teresa Holmes' urging about "woke")

"white privilege tests"

"heterosexual privilege checklists"

"hide gender transitions from their parents"

"progressive playbook for hijacking education"

Teacher training that " '...parents are not entitled to know their kids’ identities. That knowledge must be earned.' Stunningly, both the superintendent and the school board president fully defended the training."

Read the entire article. Remember to speak out here. Attend school board meetings in-person. Send emails. Make phone calls. Write Letters to the Editor. Remember the majority of the Richland 2 board that they are not bureaucrats or autocrats; they are elected.

Don't expect board members to consider your opinions, if all you do is post on social media and watch board meetings on your computer. That is NOT good enough.

You know that the Richland 2 board chair is one of the loudest cheerleaders of the superintendent. Is she really your elected representative? 

Remember, Teresa Holmes could have called a special board meeting to investigate the bruhaha that occurred on January 25th in the board room. She could have had Mrs. Baron (Pamela) Davis investigated for disrupting schools and conduct unbecoming a teacher, when Pamela Davis cursed out a 14-year-old student.

Teresa Holmes did not. Some leader, eh?

And school districts wonder ...

 ... why the public is all over them?

Check out this story about the Georgia mom who began reading at a school board meeting from a book from a school's library. For the FoxNews story, click here.

Michelle Brown, of Cherokee County, Georgia, was at a school board meeting, when she was interrupted while reading a passage from a school library's book. The book title is not mentioned in the article, but the passage is described as "sexually-explicit".

A board member told her, "Excuse me, we have children at home."

Does that sound familiar? Haven't Teresa Holmes and Amelia McKie said that? I've wondered, "Really?" Students at home are going to waste their time watching the chaos of a school board meeting? Out of 28,000 students in Richland 2, how many watch board meetings? I'll bet you could count them on the fingers of one hand (and not even use all the fingers).

As I recall, a Loudoun County, Va. parent was shut down at a board meeting there for attempting to read from a book in a school's library or classroom.

I wish I could find one of those books in a Richland 2 library. I'd read from it at the July 12th board meeting.

Put this date on your calendar. I'll see you there. Should I reserve a meeting room for the party? Order cake and coffee? Before or after the meeting? Join me in celebrating the end of Teresa Holmes' Reign of Chaos.

A Richland 2 parent had this to say about this story and Richland 2: "I think the story reflects R2,  if a student or parent uses mild profanity, R2 is outraged. If faculty or staff screams profanity at student or parent, it is acceptable."

Edited: A later FoxNews story identified the book as other than the book mentioned in the Facebook post that I had copied here.

Board Policy KE summary

This morning I posted this summary on Facebook of last Tuesday's discussion of Board Policy KE.

"I was very disappointed in the gross representation of the former Policy KE. It did NOT allow a person to go straight to the BOARD with a complaint. A person could complain to a Board MEMBER (that's not "to the BOARD"). That board member was required to forward the complaint to the supt. If the supt's decision was unsatisfactory to the person, then the person could appeal to the BOARD, and the Board HAD TO hear the complaint. That "right" for the complaint to be heard by the Board is gone now. Thanks to the SCSBA, the Core Four, and the supt. Board Policy KE had finally become known to the public, and the board ran for cover. (Important: I was first told there was no appeal procedure. I appealed my Trespass Notice, anyway, and KE popped up.)"

What is a Woman? Anyone?

Pres. Biden's pick for a U.S. Supreme Court nominee, Ketanji Brown Jackson, wouldn't even say what she thinks a woman is.

Now, is that someone whom anyone wants on the Supreme Court? 

That not only reflects poorly on her, but it reflects poorly on Biden for nominating her. Did he actually talk to her, or did his minions put her up and say, "Pick her. Pick her"?

People keep telling me not to judge (no pun intended) a book by its cover. As a photographer, I realize that any photograph is just 1/1,000th second of a person's expression. In Jackson's case, I do so judge.

The photographs circulating in conservative news scream at me, "Not that one. Not that one."

Biden previously announced he intended to nominate a black woman to the SCOTUS. That's about as stupid as Richland Two's 100 Premier Men of Color project.

There are ways for a high court's nominee to avoid answering questions that could come up before her in an official capacity later on. Refusing to say what a "woman" is, is probably not one of them.

OK, is Lia Thomas a woman?

All this nonsense suggests to me that I ought to put on a brassiere and stroll into the April 7th school board meeting. When Marq Claxton grabs me and tries to have me arrested, I'll just say, "I am not Gus Philpott, to whom y'all issued a Trespass Notice. I am Frankie Philpott. Now get your grimy paws off me before I have you arrested for sexual harassment!"

If you can get at it, read today's Daily Signal, a publication of the Heritage Foundation. There are two great articles. One is about Jackson.

The other is by Hans Spankovsky and the attempt of the League of Women Voters to cancel him in Akron, Ohio.

If you aren't yet a supporter of the Heritage Foundation, I strongly encourage you to become a member.