Wednesday, February 26, 2014

THOUGHTS ON SUSPENSION AND OTHER TRICKS

When I originally posted the quote below I didn't include the paragraph you're reading now and didn't mention that Superintendent Richard Carranza was the speaker of the quote which is an excerpt from his introductory speech at the Administrator's Institute from last June.  I wanted to see how people would react.  Replacing the word "superintendent" on a couple of occasions  to hide the identity of the speaker, I sought to demonstrate how people process the views, opinions and attitudes of others based on their political affiliations or preconceived notions. Some people naturally assumed I wrote it and derided me for it.  What is clear is this: Superintendent Carranza  expressed opposition to a suspension ban on the principle that it's disrespectful to his administrators. Nonetheless, he was supportive of the Board's decision to impose a ban. What do you think this says about the  Superintendent?  Is it fair to say the Superintendent had an understandable change of heart? Is this a case of pure hypocrisy or is it something else?  I'm curious to hear what you have to say. I my opinion I can appreciate a change of mind or heart. I cannot appreciate a change of heart about  what is respectful. This has more to do with character and morals and is not situational.

"I've been a teacher. I know what these kids are like. I wanted to smack one or two up side the head. Absolutely. I get it. But I'm the adult. If I'm putting that kid out of school am I contributing to that kid's prison life time? I don't know. I'm struggling with this. As your Superintendent, as an educator, as your educating buddy,  I'm struggling with this because, right now, I know that I could just say, "administrators, there will be zero suspensions for willful defiance for the rest of this school year." How do you think that would feel? Five urban superintendents have done that....But because I've been a teacher, because I've been a principal, you know what? It's so disrespectful in my humble opinion."


16 comments:

Anonymous said...

What's this? This blog's gone downhill.

Anonymous said...

But the district did ban suspensions so I don't get where you're coming from?

Anonymous said...

Don, willful defiance suspensions are racist policy. They unfairly single out blacks and Latinos. We need to understand the problems these kids face every day and stop punishing them for doing what any person would do under the same circumstances. I'm glad they banned willful defiance. It's about time. Stop protecting the adults and start protecting the children.

Anonymous said...

Don, you want teachers to be fired and you would have been if just up and smacked children right in their head. You are mean and have anger problems! Cut up crazy! I saw you! I never hit a kid and you treat me like scum. I saw your "meeting". 7 dirtgags. A Russian lady who knows nothing being ogled by a bunch of Asian weirdoes and dweebs who probably beat their kids for getting a B+, one of whom looked like Charles Ng, one wants to run for the school board, fat chance, I'll out him at the debates to Dennis Kelly and he's DONE, some black guy who sold his soul, some huge creepy looking guy (you?) who looked like the guys who turn out to be killers in Lifetime Movies, and one of the Chinese guys wanted to petition Obama and the other was yelling at him. At first it sounded like you cared about the oppressed and then suddenly it was testing this and fire teachers that and Vergara and blah blah blah. You people make me sick! I left as soon as I finished my sandwich and if I'd heard more I couldn't have kept it down, I just couldn't handle it, and a bunch of rowdy kids. 7 people and you think you can beat 6,000? Go to hell Don. Are you 6 foot 4 Don? Are you a Lifetime movie murderer? You sound like it. I assume that was you. You jerk! You also spilled your coffee for that poor girl to clean up. You know suspensions are evil! Willful defiance in white culture, racist culture. Black culture has more give and take, not hatred, whites need to control everything, don't make a joke, don't defy me, don't dress that way, in my day it was hats, don't wear a hat said whitie to the beautiful oppressed black victims who strove to be free. Don't say this, don't walk this way, don't wear that. Or I'll "smack you upside the head" and fire you in huge numbers. How about do something? How is a people to recover if all they are is lectured on what not to do? What about rebuild after centuries of hatred and oppression. What about NOT firing someone for once in your life. I bet you've fired lots of people. Do you call Candy after a crying woman leaves your office after you fired her? What about not trying to control people! Smellheads you're disgusting! Don, you're the worst of them all! Thanks for defending me from the police, but no thanks for helping Vergara the sellout and Davis the billionaire try in vain to ruin my life! You looked violent. I bet if I'd have told you who I was you'd have smacked me! You'd like that wouldn't you, to have everyone do what you want and if not, smack them, why not go back to lynchings for the willfully defiant you racist scum!?!? You still think black people are slaves who have to do whateve you say and can't have their own opinions. Phooey on all of you. Phooey!

Anonymous said...

You're crazy!

Anonymous said...

In fairness that should be remove.

Unknown said...

The post was named "thoughts on suspension and other tricks" for a reason. It was a trick. The post was a direct quote from Richard Carranza's speech at the Administrator's Institute. I only replaced the word Superintendent a couple of times with friend and administrator.

About the meeting you went to, Phooey, I wasn't there. I decided I didn't want to be part of that group for a number of reasons.

I urge you to try to calm down, Phooey.

Don

Anonymous said...

Don I think in fairness that should be removed. I don't know who she is. In fact, she's likely a man, no one was in the room who looked like they could be Phooey, the only woman was about 20 and Asian but several men looked suspicious. I think in fairness this should be removed. It is mean and irrelevant to the issues at hand. If you want to be fair let her re-write something only talking about suspensions, not hateful individualism. Please remove this post and that post, just focus on the issues or at least something somewhat relevant.

Anonymous said...

After reading thatquote Carranza appealed to me more. Then I woke up and realized he didn't believe one word of it. What a lowlife!

Anonymous said...

Phooey -- You have major issues! Please seek professional help!

Unknown said...

9:42,

That is the whole point of this post. To demonstrate how people viewing the same things have different perspectives.

When I asked you not to write irrelevant and off-topic posts you insisted that my comment moderation was censorship, though you used the term inappropriately. Since then, I have moderated my comment policy as I said before. I am no longer actively moderating for the most part.

Now you want me to censor, as you call it, because the comment is about you. You basically admitted to her who you are by doing this. Not to worry though. Phooey is clearly outside the realm of reasonable behavior and that is painfully obvious to anyone that reads her crazed rant, though I think you can be are pretty unreasonable, too. I don't think you have to worry about what a crackpot like her has to say. Think of it as a cautionary tale.

Anonymous said...

Lovin' it!

Anonymous said...

Interesting Don. I must admit, I thought you were saying you wanted to smack kids upside the head. Obviously Phooey came to the same conclusion. I see now you were quoting Our Dear Leader Carranza!

I think he changed his mind. In most cities, the superintendent controls the board. In SF, no way, it's the opposite. However, one can have an open mind. Matt Haney is a good example. I have hope for him that he thinks independently. He has an open mind and is reconsidering the neighborhood schools situation according to the Examiner, or at least his viewpoint. I have also heard he has upset the union leadership in negotiations despite them choosing and getting him in. I question whether it is a conflict of interest to have the union endorse people, and whether they can negotiate on behalf of children. In his unique case, he has. Any time the union gets mad at someone, it shows they are actually thinking and considering the kids. I believe Carranza genuinely changed his mind on this. I also believe we should show him some respect and refer to him as Our Dear Leader. If we give respect, we will get respect.

Anonymous said...

That's ridiculous. Where are we North Korea?

Unknown said...

Hey, I'm not getting that comment @ 1:54 either. I don't see any specific reason to indicate Matt Haney is going to lead the charge to these reforms. A couple of comments in the Examiner mean nothing without some policy initiatives to back them up. Either way, he wouldn't have the support of three other members.

Anonymous said...

Remains to be seen. Let's see Haney speak out on this again before we give him too much credit, he may have just had one too many Heinikins and actually told the truth for once in his life. Maybe we shouldn't assume Carranza is a dear leader either. From what I've seen he has a lot of great ideas but when push comes to shove the union-bought and sold status-quo loving board leads him around by the nose. If he's such a dear leader first he's got some 'splainin' to do.