Uncle Tom - see it now

As soon as I saw this headline, "'Uncle Tom' Blacklisted by Hollywood", in The Daily Signal this morning, I went to Amazon Prime Video and began watching it.

Do you know these names: Booker T. Washington? Larry Elder? Thomas Sowell? Herman Cain? Walter Williams? Col. Allen West?

If you are an Amazon Prime member, it's free; if you are not, it's worth the rental price ($3.99). Gather your family around, turn off the cell phones, and watch this 1¾-hour documentary. Tell your kids to take notes. Take notes yourself.

Better yet? Buy it for $9.99 and refer to it often.

Can you afford this?

Parents, read this article.

Now is the time for a serious conversation with your children about whether you, and they, can afford the announced policies of the Biden Administration.

What are your kids learning in Richland 2 schools? Do you know? Find out.

It's too late not to vote for Joe Biden. But you, and other parents around the country, can still affect decisions being made in Washington, D.C. by constant contact with your elected representatives in Washington. This means mail, email, phone calls and personal visits - telling them what you want, what you expect, and then holding them accountable.

It starts with the $1,400 top-up to the last coronavirus stimulus award. Now there is talk about even more money to families. But there is no talk about how all the "free stuff" is going to be paid for.

A strong economy is supposed to result in higher employment, and more people working should mean more taxes being paid in. That's more taxes being paid in by the working people, not sitting back and soaking "the rich" with higher taxes.

Right now your kids, and their kids, and their kids, and their kids will be the ones paying for all the "free stuff" being passed out. 

It ain't "free". 

Richland 2 history book?

Do you know what history book is used in Richland 2 schools? Have you, as a parent, read the books that your children are required to read?

Is there any chance that Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States is the history text in Richland 2?

Dennis Prager refers to Zinn as "an icon of the American Left". In Prager's book Still the Best Hope, he writes that Zinn's book "became the single most widely read history text in American schools." When you check out Zinn's beliefs, you will want to question whether Richland 2 should be using this text, if it is. 

Familiarize yourself with The 1619 Project and with the Report issued in January 2021 by The President's Advisory 1776 Commission. This Report was published days before the end of President Trump's term, and one of Joe Biden's first Executive Orders was to "disappear" the Commission.

If you want to read the Commission's Report, click here.

President's 1776 Commission

Do you know what The 1776 Report of The President's Advisory 1776 Commission is? It was published this month (January 2021) just before the end of President Trump's term. 

President Joe Biden trashed the Report and rescinded the Commission on his first day in office on January 20, 2021. I think we can all be sure that he did not read it. His Executive Order was on his desk and waiting for his signature on his first day at the desk. 

Does anyone else think his action is hasty, since he obviously didn't read it first. Who has his ear?

The 1776 Report can be read here.

Why would Biden do that? A clue can be found in the second paragraph of the Introduction.

"The declared purpose of the President’s Advisory 1776 Commission is to “enable a rising generation to understand the history and principles of the founding of the United States in 1776 and to strive to form a more perfect Union.” This requires a restoration of American education, which can only be grounded on a history of those principles that is “accurate, honest, unifying, inspiring, and ennobling.”

The Democrats and progressive education are re-writing history, as evidenced by absurd publications like The 1619 Project. 

Yes, watch ... carefully

The Richland 2 School District announces on its website that its superintendent is on a watch list of "progressive" superintendents in the country. The list is included in K-12 Dive, described as a "publication covering educational news".

Look at www.k12dive.com and decide for yourself what type of publication you believe it is. Is it middle-of-the-road, fairly balanced? Or is it tilted in favor of one category of demographics?

What does "progressive" mean to you? When you hear that word, do you think "modern?" "up-to-date"?

Or do you think liberal or far-left thinking "progressive"?

Isn't that where Supt. Davis is?

He is vigorously promoting diversity and inclusion. Gloria Boutte's Culturally Relevant Pedagogy is here. Davis' pet project "100 Premier Men of Color" gets a lot of time and attention, but it is not even a Board-approved project, since he told the board that he is not accountable for it on his performance evaluation. Why is it even getting a mention?

The majority of the board and many teachers have to ecstatic with Joe Biden's ascension to the office of POTUS. The Federal government will be leaning further to The Left now. Note: "The Left" is to the left of liberal, as Dennis Prager explains in Still the Best Hope - Why the World Needs America Values to Triumph. Published in 2012, it is even more relevant today.

Will Conservative views and values be taught in Richland 2 schools? 

Are teachers required to educate and teach students to consider a wide range of options and opinions, in order to choose intelligently the one right for them? 

For me, this "watch list" means watch carefully. Examine what is happening in this school district. If you don't like what is happening, get involved. Attend board meetings in person. Sure, it's inconvenient. You'll have to sit at the far end of the peanut gallery, where board members won't see the whites of your eyes. But be there. And insist that more than 30 be allowed to attend.

Emergency Board Meeting: 1/13/2021

The Richland 2 school board held an emergency (Special Called) board meeting on January 13, 2021.

How do you define emergency?

Here's what Google has to say:  "An emergency is a situation that poses an immediate risk to health, life, property, or environment. Most emergencies require urgent intervention to prevent a worsening of the situation, although in some situations, mitigation may not be possible and agencies may only be able to offer palliative care for the aftermath."

I'll agree with that. Will you?

The purpose of the special-called meeting wasn't even to make a decision. It was to give the board an forum to provide input to the superintendent.

Couldn't that have been done in an e-mail? Or the night before, at the Regular Board Meeting?

There were several notable moments during the meeting. For some strange reason, it has not been posted on YouTube or in the usual place on the school board webpage. You can watch it at www.livestream.com/richland2

Considerable time was wasted talking about how teachers were supposed to get vaccinated. Should they be allowed to go during the day? What if they have a negative side-effect? Should they get more paid time off?

Absolutely no one mentioned having all the teachers meet in the cafeteria after school and arranging a medical professional to come and vaccinate them at the school! 

Teresa Holmes pulled out the race card pretty early in the meeting by announcing that there are increased reactions/side-effect among minorities. Of course, no statistics. Just slipped the race card out of the deck and laid it out for all.

There are 3,655 full-time employees. Why is it the responsibility of the District to see that they get vaccinated (if they choose to)? Why not let them act like employees of every other business and get busy (after work) and make their own arrangements?

At least one trustee admitted to being scared. I was reminded of AOC's belief that she was going to be killed on January 6. If you are scared, call your therapist.

Suggestions for the Board:

Hire a consultant or coach to teach you how to make brief, succinct comments and then to stop talking. A couple of the board members don't know how to stop, once they get on a roll. This meeting had good examples of that.

TURN OFF YOUR CELL PHONES. Several board members could be observed looking off-screen, probably at their phones for text messages or emails. One Board member's phone could be heard dinging. Incoming text?

At 1:14:25 trustee-elect Teresa Holmes admitted receiving several texts during the meeting. If she is getting communications during a public board meeting, those communications should be shared with all the members and the public.

Board Policy BEDL specifically prohibits this in the very first line of the policy. "Board members will not communicate electronically during meetings with members of the public, other board members, or school district staff regarding official school board business ... as such communications are subject to public disclosure under the state open meetings laws." The Board Policy applies to personal and district owned devices, and it includes tweets, texts, phone calls, web posts and other electronic communication.

Who is responsible for filing a complaint against a board member for violating a board policy? What are the consequences?

At 1:16-10 trustee-elect Holmes said, with great authority, "The Board does not have the authority to make this particular decision", referring to re-opening schools. She is wrong! Of course, the Board has that authority. It chooses not to exercise it and, rather, to pass the buck to the superintendent. 

Was trustee-elect McKie having some type of medical emergency during the meeting? Watch the recording at 1:05:15. She was very uncomfortable, jiggling in her chair, distracted. Watch her eye movements. Then she either turned off her camera or left the meeting for half a minute. When she returned, she was inattentive and had jittery fingers.

If she is ill, perhaps she should resign from the board. Oh, wait; she can't "resign" because she is not even on the board legitimately. She needs to take the oath of office (legally) to become a legitimate board member.

Oath of Office - Important? (or not)

In this interesting article published by Yahoo!news seven years ago on January 20, 2013, the reporter highlights the importance on the oath of office being administered correctly.

It's important. At least, when the Supreme Court Chief Justice is involved.

Not so important way down the line at Richland 2 School District. But shouldn't it be?

In March 2019, when it was pointed out to the School Board that Amelia McKie and Teresa Holmes were ineligible to take the oath of office on November 13, 2018, the Board should have quickly scheduled a legal administration of the oath.

But, to this day, Inauguration Day 2021, Richland 2 has not done so. Why not?

First, the Board and the District are unwilling to admit that South Carolina Code of Laws 8-13-1110(A) was, in fact, violated on November 13, 2018.

What's that old saying? "Pride goeth before a fall."

The law is clear, simple and short. First you file the Statement of Economic Interests Report and then you take the oath of office. After you take the oath of office, you enter upon official responsibilities.

McKie and Holmes have been usurping public office since November 13, 2018.

Secondly, the School District has been disbursing public monies improperly and illegally to and for them since November 13, 2018. A school board trustee gets paid $800/month plus expenses.

To become legitimate Trustees, all McKie and Holmes need to do is take the oath of office now. They filed the SEIs on December 4, 2018 and, on that date, first became eligible to take the oath of office and begin serving.

The District should recover the monies paid out to and for McKie and Holmes, probably somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000 now. Each.

Thirdly, the School Board must realize that it is going to have to review all the board decisions (votes) since November 13, 2018 and correctly state the decisions, if the result is different after the votes of McKie and Holmes are removed. Some students will not have been expelled or suspended. Other votes will change when 4-3 decisions become 2-3 (failing) decisions.

It's only a matter of time until the Board realizes and admits that, instead of operating with seven trustees, it has actually been operating with five trustees. And, when one of those five wasn't present, then the Board could not even meet, because no quorum (five) was present!

Where has legal counsel for the school district been all this time???