Transgender Issues? "Don't Tell the Parents." Seriously?

Do parents have the right to know what the school is not telling them?

If a minor student identifies at school as transgender and wants to be addressed by a name of the opposite gender and be referred to by personal pronouns of the gender opposite to the gender at birth, should the school be able to inform the parents?  Or have to inform parents?

A live, virtual, Google Meet/Chat presentation was made to faculty at Ridge View High School yesterday (3/7/2022) by Helen Grant, Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer at Richland 2.

There is apparently no written policy at Richland 2 for dealing with the transgender issue. So what happens when a 15-year-old boy decides he wants to be a girl and heads for the girl's restroom?

Should a teacher stop that kid? What happens if a teacher does stop that kid? When the lawyers for the kid show up, will Richland 2 vigorously defend the teacher? Or will the District throw that teacher under the bus?

There apparently is an unwritten policy that teachers and staff will not inform the parents. Do you agree?

One of the callers to me expressed worries about the high suicide rate among transgender teens. 

If the District (ex., a teacher) knows that a kid is transgender but doesn't inform the parents and the kid dies by suicide, who is out on the end of the tree limb while Administration is standing next to the trunk with the chainsaw?

Should the school board and the superintendent step up and acknowledge their responsibility? Should they develop a clear, written policy that is not ambiguous to the teachers and staff? Should the responsibility be at the top of the food chain?

I submitted a request for a copy of the recording of the meeting at RVHS. Will I get it? That question shouldn't take long to answer.

What if you request it? Will you get it?

Should the recording be on the District's website, in an easily-found spot? And not buried 15 clicks down, way down out of sight? Should parents know what teachers are being told?

Are school counselors the right people to guide a youth with gender-identity questions? Are school counselors highly-trained in narrow mental health fields and qualified to help children understand their sexuality? 

Post your comments and questions below.

Library Use Denied

As many readers know, I am on Trespass Notice from Richland 2 School District and must avoid all school properties. In other words, I'm in Richland 2 Jail.

My sentence is for the remainder of the 2021-2022 School Year, which ends on June 30, 2022.

I cannot enter any school property until 12:01AM on July 1, 2022, under threat of arrest for trespassing.

The Richland Library leases an area of R2i2 for the Sandhills Library. On March 3, 2022 I requested permission (access authorization) to go to the library on March 10th from Marq Claxton, Director of Safety and Security for Richland 2, pursuant to his January 26th Trespass Notice. Claxton denied my request.

Claxton unreasonably denied my use of public, taxpayer-supported library property on March 7, and I have registered a complaint with the School District via Trustee Caution-Parker. I requested an acknowledgement of my complaint from Caution-Parker but have not yet received it. 

According to Board Policy KE, Caution-Parker is required to forward my complaint to Supt. Davis, who must make a decision on my complaint. If his decision is unsatisfactory to me, then I shall make a complaint about his unsatisfactory decision to the Board under Board Policy KE, and the Board must hear my complaint as a grievance at the next Regular Board Meeting or at a special-called board meeting.

Will the board permit me to attend my next grievace and grant me an opportunity to state my case?

The Board did not on February 22, when it supposedly heard my grievance in executive session and then voted in public session, all without hearing from me as the Grievant.

Open Letter to board about Policy KE revisions

Members of the Board and trustees-elect Holmes and McKie,

It has been pointed out to me, not by anyone on the board, that I missed Page 2 of the revision to Policy KE on the 3/8/22 Agenda.

Isn't this the first time that a policy revision has ever been shown on a following page, instead of below the existing parts of a Policy to be removed?

The revision is a blatant attempt to strengthen the superintendent's control over complaints. This board will never vote to over-ride a decision by this superintendent, but the new board in November 2022 might. Of course, they can always change the Policy back.

Why should the superintendent not be accountable to the board? Why shouldn't the board HAVE to hear a complaint against the superintendent's decision?

The statement about employees' feeling defamed should be removed. Any employee already has the legal right to challege defamation.

The false statement in proposed KE that the superintendent's decision is final should be removed. His decision is NOT finale. You have heard of courts; right?

Perhaps you should add that any person (ex., community member) who is defamed, libeled or slandered by any District Department or any person associated with the school system (ex., Board Chair, Board Vice-Chair) may be subject to legal action.

I suggest you keep KE exactly as it is.

Gus Philpott

More of the 3/4/2022 Workshop - Pitiful

I listened to more of Friday's board workshop today, hopiing to find it interesting enough to listen to the end. I picked up at about 40 minutes into the workshop. By the time that the counter got to 1:16:30 (and the end of the workshop was at 3:14:48), I had again reached my endurance limit.

Amelia McKie rambled on and on, repeating herself ad nauseum. Instead of saying what she had to say with some level of interest and energy, she just poured out the same drivel that she does at meetings. And without correction or coaching by Liz Guthridge, the person hired for "executive coaching". Where was the coaching? Lindsay asked Amelia to speak up. Judging by the volume on the recording, Amelia did not move closer to the microphone and speak more loudly.

Liz was probably as bored presenting the workshop as I was listening to it. But she is a "nice" person and was getting paid to be there. She didn't crack the whip or light a firecracker under the attendees.

Why was he superintendent there? Didn't he have some work to do somewhere in the District. His average hourly pay (excluding benefits and retirement) is $122.00/hour. Charge up about $500 for him to sit there and do nothing.

And the board members earned about $97/hour for sitting there. Each of them.

Round it up to $100/hour x 6 - $600 x 4 hours = $2,400 plus $500 for the superintendnet = $2,900, plus maybe $5,000 for Liz Guthridge, plus the staff time to set up and run the meeting, and the District wasted $10,000 or more on Friday afternoon's workshop.

But who really cares? It's just taxpayers' money.

Did it get any better, after I bailed out this second time?

Should R2 nix Board Policy KE?

On the Agenda for March 8th Regular Board Meeting is a revision to Board Policy KE - Public Concerns and Complaints. This is THE ONE protection that the Public has to correct ills in-between elections. Now look what the superintendent and the board chair have dreamed up.

First, read Board Policy KE:

Policy KE Public Concerns and Complaints

Issued 4/19

"Complaints to one or more board members against any action or any employee of the district or against any administrative rule or board policy will be referred to the superintendent.

"If the matter cannot be resolved satisfactorily by the superintendent, the complainant may register the complaint in writing with the board chair, setting forth the facts on which the complaint is based.

"The board, at its next regular meeting or at a special meeting, will then consider the grievance of the complainant and dispose of the matter according to its best judgment."

Adopted 2/03; Revised 7/1/03, 4/30/19

Now read Board Policy KE, as the revision is proposed:

Policy KE Public Concerns and Complaints

Issued 4/19

Adopted 2/03; Revised 7/1/03, 4/30/19

Notice anything missing? Right!!! The entire Policy is missing. What the superintendent and the board chair want to do is to eliminate the public's right to have grievances addressed.

Here is how it looks in the attachment to the Agenda:

Right now it is a right. It's in Board Policy, and the Board must follow it.

Why would the superintendent and the board chair want to get rid of Board Policy KE?

Maybe they don't want the Board to have to hear a complaint and grievance about the superintendent's wife and how she disrupted a board meeting and swore at a 14-year-old student.

Maybe they don't want the boare to have to hear a complaint and grievance about the superintendent's wife about her pity-party on WIS-TV and her lies about what happened on January 25th in the boardroom.

Maybe the board does not want to have to hear a complaint and grievance about the unfair Trespass Policy and how it was weaponized against two white men on January 25th to protect one black woman in the board room who is married to the superintendent.

Maybe the board does not want to have to hear a complaint and grievance against the Richland 2 Media Relations Department for issuing an untrue press release to the public and to the employees and parents.

WHAT CAN YOU DO? 

Communicate by email and phone right now with the seven board members and tell them you do NOT want them to eliminate Board Policy KE.

Board Workshop 3/4/2002 - Terrible

One member of the public showed up fo today's board workshop. Look at the "barrier" that was set up to keep him in his cage. That set-up reminded me of Caution-Parker's utterance in the courtyard after a board meeting last fall. Creating a fence to keep the public in its place is exactly that sentiment!

I could not believe what was going on in today's "workshop", which was described as Executive Coaching and Parliamentary Procedures.

Holmes was not there. The one person who NEEDED to be there was not. Manning explained that there had been a death in the family, but he didn't say what Holmes' relationship was to that person. Was the deceased an immediate family member? Or was it the dog's groomer's third cousin, twice removed. Holmes' missed another meeting within the past year of so for a family death, as I recall.

When Liz Guthridge asked questions, too many times board members just sat there without responding. And she let them get away with it.

Why didn't she say, "If you aren't going to be part of this workshop, just get up and leave. And don't collect your pay on the way out the door!"

Ms. Guthridge is a nice person. This board does not need a "nice" person. It needs someone who will dig in and whip them into shape as a Board.

A recent written interchange from Manning to Scott was sent to Guthridge before this workshop, so that she would know exactly what's going on between board members. It was nasty! Maybe the workshop should have started with her reading that aloud and starting from that point.

I gave up at 1:40PM. Had I been there in person, I would have walked out about 1:15PM.

Manning said, "Nobody knows what to trust or whom to trust." Not true! Some Board members aren't finding anything or anybody to trust! That's the problem.

Most of the board members there today sat there like bumps on logs. 

Lindsay Agostini brought up some good points, and the trainer put them on Hold for "later". Sure hope she returns to them.

Not to be sexist about it, but a male trainer was needed. A hard-headed business man. Or a hard-headed business woman, if she met the board head-on.

Richland Two has wasted its money on these two workshops. Wasted the money both on the fee for the trainer and for the pay for the board members!

If you want to know how bad it really was, check it out on livestream.com/richland2 for March 4, 2022.

Thursday (3/3/22) - Joe Trapp Meet-and-Greet

 

Come on out at 6:00PM on Thursday, March 3, and meet Joe Trapp, first to announce for the Richland 2 School 'Board.

I know Joe to be a man of integrity and honesty.

He was sitting in the second row of the board room on January 25, when Pamela Davis melted down when I introduced myself. Keep in mind, I did not know who she was. Joe didn't know who she was; nor did Gary Ginn or Ethan L.

But Joe witnessed what happened. And, as he told the school board during Public Participation on February 22, the District never asked him for a statement. Not the night of January 25th. Not since. No one was closer.

Come and meet Joe Thursday night (March 3rd).