Students walk-out against Recuriters. Teachers get fired

Just received this from a community organizer in the
area.

ALERT: Tukwila Teachers Being Fired For Student
Counter-recruitment Walkout

On Friday, November 16th, more than a 1,000 students
in Washington State walked out of school to protest
predatory military recruiters. Since the beginning of
the Iraq War, the Pentagon has been assigning ever
greater numbers of recruiters to dupe young people
into signing up for this bloody, costly and illegal
quagmire. In Olympia , 300-400 students walked out in
protest, as did 700 young people in Seattle . In the
marginalized, bedroom community of Tukwila, 200
students walked out of one high school to protest the
recruiters that daily stalk their lunchrooms. Student
made signs, marched to an I-5 overpass, and
subsequently to the Tukwila City Hall for a civic and
peaceful assembly. Now the principal and school
district superintendent have begun a witch-hunt, not
against studentsŠyet, but against at least six of
their teachers. These teachers have stood up for their
students, some of the most disenfranchised in the
state, both inside and outside the classroom. Who will
standup for these six Tukwila teachers?

One teacher was put on administrative leave on Monday,
November 19th. At least five more were delivered
"memos" notifying them that the Tukwila school
district was "investigating reports of possible
misconduct relating to you in connection with the
student walk-out." These teachers were further
notified that they were not to discuss "this matter
with any District students or staff" or they could be
fired. Several of these teachers were completely
unconnected with the walkout, but having been
previously been marked out as individuals that speak
their minds, are being lumped into the teacher hunt.

There is only way to deal with a political witch-hunt,
and that is for people to take it and break it
head-on.

With a "No Child Left Behind" of 2001 provision
forcing principals to give up the private contact
information of young people to military recruiters,
students and teachers have the natural right to
protest.

With a bloody and illegal war, where the soldiers that
die and are maimed are disproportionately minorities
and victims of the "poverty draft," students and
teachers of Tukwila have the natural right to protest.

With more than a trillion dollars and the lives of
more than a million Iraqis having been utterly wasted
on a failed war, with schools in marginalized areas
falling apart, we should all be protesting with the
slogan: "Money for Schools-Not For War!"

With 70% of the American people polling against the
war, and a Democratic Congress still making excuses
why it can't cut off funding to bring the troops home,
we must support the young people who speak out against
their future being bombed away.

And we MUST support their teachers whose only
misconduct was making their lesson plans truly
relevant to the lives of their students.

of the students they have taught for so long and connected with. Seems like it's part of a teacher's duty, in fact.

There's something fishy going on with it.

High school students march against Iraq war

Several hundred students walked out of classes to create their own civics lesson Friday in downtown Seattle, protesting the war in Iraq and apparently prompting a military recruiting station to close for the afternoon.

The targets of the demonstrators -- mostly President Bush and U.S. involvement in Iraq, but also racism and big business -- were typical of other protest marches that start at Westlake Park and halt traffic.

What was different was the age of the demonstrators. Most were from high schools from Everett to Tukwila, Seattle to the Eastside.

Fresh-faced speakers said the money spent on the war should be used to improve schools and pay for college educations.

(more...)

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/340003_peace17.html

mention of firings in local media.

I'm a skeptic of ALL media (especially having worked in it in the past...)

Lol, I hear that sister. B-)

I've been known to take news stories and just edit them until they fall apart completely--as a good editor should do.

I used to do it here occasionally--maybe I'll do it again sometime.

no mention of the teachers being fired.

Only mention of a teacher is a retired one who particiapted in the protest. :shrug:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/340003_peace17.html

As much as the MSM may hide some stories you can usually still rely on smaller local sources. Something like this would be front page news in Washington state.

They've got a news channel for that.

I'll debate with people with critical thinking skills, thank you.

BTW--you paid no attention wahtsoever to my other posts on this thread, did you? What a frigging waste.

Bye.

critical thinking....how about some critical reading...damn

I'd think the teachers would have some sort of union, in any event, that slows firing down to a crawl. Hell, it takes forever to fire a molesting teacher--this was just a simple, direct civics lesson.

...that's where the REAL news usually comes from first.

As always, there is a conspiracy of silence in the "liberal" media against anything that can be silenced.

Brings up the old saw about giving a little power to a little person....

The teachers' unions need to stand up against these twits and protect their academic freedom, not just pay and benefits.

And I hope Tukwila citizens (your school admins work for you whether or not you have a child in the school system) will give the little Machiavellians (and their bosses on the school board)a piece of their mind.

the teachers were encouraging truancy, and that is one of the few things that can get a unionized teacher fired. Their hearts were in the right place, but they wouldn't have much of a case to challenge their termination.

Did they 'encourage' the walk out? Or did they say "I can't tell you what to do, but I can't tell you what not to do, either".

I think teachers are very clear on what their boundries are, and there is a huge difference between saying they support the walkout, and saying they will support the sudents no matter what they decide to do.

Even in the event that a teacher accompanied the students on their march - not something that is claimed - they have every right to say they were there to keep an eye on the students, keep the march peaceful, and keep the police from overreacting. IOW, doing their duty as teachers.

It appears that at least some of the students were not truant.

I want to listen.

v

BRIEF BACKGROUND:

On November 16th, over 1,000 students in Washington State walked out to protest the war in Iraq and the presence of military recruiters in public schools. Students at Foster High School in Tukwila, Washington organized and 150 walked out, saying “Money for Schools, Not War.”

Foster students rallied at the school flagpole, marched down to the I-5 overpass, and then marched to the Tukwila City Hall. The march and rally were student generated and entirely peaceful.

In reaction the Tukwila School District has done the following:

· Suspended one Social Studies teacher, Brett Rogers, who supported his students in a student generated democratic movement
· Threatened administrative action against five other teachers
· Threatened to discipline students for exercising their First Amendment Right to free speech

When Brett Rogers was asked if he had a personal stake in the war, he said: “It’s an illegal war and my cousin is deploying December 4th, and I’m not happy about it.”

Please call and email the Principal and Superintendent now!

Tell them they need to:

--Reinstate the teacher Brett Rogers who has been put on administrative leave.

--Drop the disciplinary hearings against all six teachers who face
investigations.

S--upport the initiative and moral fortitude of students who took a stand against the effects caused by this war to their communities.

--Take no disciplinary action against students who participated in the walkout.

We request that you flood the school administration with phone calls and emails. Tell them to halt all disciplinary action against students and the Tukwila Six!

CONTACT:
Foster HS Principal George Ilgenfritz: (206) 901-7905
ilgenfritzg {at} tukwila.wednet.edu

And Interim Superintendent Ethelda Burke: (206) 901-8000, (206) 901-8006, burkee {at} tukwila.wednet.edu

Please send a copy of protest emails to us at

tukwila.teachers.solidarity {at} hotmail.com so we can count how many protest emails have been sent in.

If they refuse to answer your call, call Foster HS Assistant Principal Daryl Wright (206) 901-7902 and Foster HS Office Manager Darlene Aguiluz (206) 901-7915.
--------------------------------------------------------------------




The husband of one of the teachers who received the threatening letters is an Iraq veteran. He went to Foster High School on November 16th and spoke to the students from first-hand experience about the truth of the Iraq War that the government and corporate media are actively hiding from the American people, and he walked out with the students.

As the Iraq veteran left the building, he was confronted by a security guard who identified himself as a police officer/veteran/federal marshall who said: “Don't even start with me, I'm a veteran.”

The school administration is disciplining a teacher whose husband is a veteran whose life was put at serious risk in Iraq and who has now turned against the war. This is very disrespectful to the veteran, his family, and the working-class students who are being forced to shoulder the burdens of this war. The school administrators are more concerned with trying to having power over teachers and students than letting the communities who have been hit the hardest by the war speak out against the war and the predatory military recruiters in their schools. This—after the American people voted the Democrats into Congress to end the war, but the Democrats are still making excuses about why they cannot cut off funds for the war and direct those funds toward education and other desperately needed social services.

When the leaders of our country will not end this unjust war, then it becomes up to ordinary workers, parents, students, and soldiers to end the war.

The attendance secretary at the school also refused to excuse the absences of students who had permission slips signed by their parents to miss school, which is a flagrant violation of parent and student rights.

Principal George Ilgenfritz also told one student that she didn’t know anything about war. (Ironically, the student is from an immigrant Somali family who still has family in the war-torn country of Somalia.)


On the Tukwila School District’s website, the following message has been posted by Interim Superintendent Ethelda Burke: “We believe in the historic mission of public education within our democracy… Our schools are expectedto encourage and prepare students to be productive citizens. We believe the challenge is to transform every child – to give every student a chance to become an autonomous, thinking person and a self-governing citizen. We are all here to work together to provide the best education for the most prized commodity of our fine city – the students of the Tukwila School District.”

Yet when the students participate in an act of peaceful civil disobedience in the best traditions of Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement who challenged unjust segregation laws, now the Superintendent is hypocritically trying to discourage students from being “self-governing citizens” and standing up for what is right.

We need to match the determination of these courageous teachers, students and the Iraq veteran with all the support we can! Please take a few minutes now to call and email the Principal and Superintendent at the numbers and emails at the top of this email!

YouTube video of Foster High School student rally for peace:


www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOuLz3kKExI
Report on Washington State Nov. 16th student walkouts against the war: http://yawr.org/nov16/seattle.html
Articles on Youth Against War and Racism student victories against military recruiters in schools:
http://yawr.org/victory/victory.htm#tacoma
http://yawr.org/victory/victory.htm#kennedy

Please forward this email widely to supportive organizations and individuals who might be able to help!

For more info, contact the Tukwila Teachers and Students Solidarity Committee: foster_nfo {at} hotmail.com (253) 573-9252

Please leave a brief message and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

are more interested in federal funds than they are of teaching or upholding and defending the rights of Americans.

Another way that this rogue regime has of controlling the population. The schools have to teach to the government program.

THE SAME THING HAPPENED IN GERMANY.

Just fired off emails to the Super and Principal.

Administrative leave is NOT a firing. It's leave. Of an administrative nature. Usually because they want the teacher separate from the environment, for whatever reason.

They're different things, leave and firing. There will be an investigation, there may be discipline, but the discipline does not necessarily have to be loss of a job.

The protest very definitely occurred, but the teacher "firing" seems pretty suspect.

don't mention it.

there is no question that the students held a very successful protest--and to them :patriot:!

They may have been suspended. But teachers sign contracts that are good through the end of the school year. So they may be not issued a contract for next year but I find it hard to believe (based on the info posted here) that any teachers have already been terminated.

You can bet that the teacher will, as soon as the school district can manage to cut through all the contract and union regulations, be in the unemployment line.

Administrative leave is as good as a formal notice that one is going to be fired.

to Illinois from Colorado, I served as a Para at a local middle school. Trust me, if the administration wants you out, you ARE gone.

Because I was/am a strong children's advocate and spoke out against the treatment of "good" vs "bad" kids in the school (and never in front of the kiddos), I was told I could either resign or he (Principal) would be writing a very unfavorable letter regarding me, to the Board. Jackass. Like a fool, I did resign, never having been fired before. Hind sight is always 20/20, wish I would have stood my ground, but that's another story.

Will look again tomorrow and report if I find anything. Congrats to the students doing the walkout! Good job!

Spilled over into broader coverage than what could be "managed."

Take control of this, YOUR World!! I Love it, exactly what WE were doing when I was 16 and everyone was fucking DYING in droves.. Now if only they could get their parents off their ASSES and in the Street, THIS is how it's Done, Ladies and Gentlemen!!

Or we'll shut you out of the profession forever!! Just try paying back your $40,000+ in student loans for the Master's degree that your district pushed you into because they needed a high percentage of "highly qualified" teachers to qualify for NCLB funds now! This is scary stuff. Bravo to those teachers.

I would like to send this out to my groups but I need a link.

Thanks!!

If only everyone had the courage of their convictions....

Wonderful

tenure?

NOTE: I've given this post it's own thread, http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=103&topic_id=323049&mesg_id=323049">here.

David Graeber didn't yet have tenure, and Finkelstein was denied tenure, but the whole thing stinks:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ward_Churchill

Ward LeRoy Churchill (born October 2, 1947) is an American writer and political activist. He was a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder from 1990 to 2007. His work primarily concerns the United States and its historical treatment of political dissenters and of American Indians. In these subject areas, he has made numerous controversial and provocative claims, often in a confrontational style.

In January 2005 Churchill was widely discussed in the mass media for a 2001 essay in which he claimed that people killed in the World Trade Center attacks were involved in provoking the attack.<1> In March 2005 the university began to investigate allegations that Churchill had engaged in research misconduct; it reported in June 2006 that he had done so.<2> The university fired Churchill on July 24, 2007.

Churchill has contested the finding of misconduct. Some observers infer that the investigation and these actions were in retaliation for Churchill's controversial statements about the World Trade Center attacks because it began in the midst of national media coverage of his statements, with one stating that Churchill's writing was "subjected to a line-by-line review for evidence of academic malfeasance solely as a punishment for his political statements." Eleven CU professors have signed a complaint against the investigation and its findings, claiming the Committee's research violates standard scholarly practices by using biased information and suppressing information favorable to Churchill's.<40> CU Professor Margaret LeCompte views the Churchill case as a "key precedent that could lead to curtailing academic freedoms."<41> In addition, scholars and organizations including the ACLU, the National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Drucilla Cornell, and Immanuel Wallerstein, have issued statements objecting to the circumstances of Churchill's firing

"When you knowingly accept the collateral effects of business practice as usual, projected by the United States into the rest of the planet, and even if you don't agree with it, contribute your expertise, your technical ability, your proficiency to furthering the process of extermination of masses of children, for your own personal gain and benefit, to fit into the structure, without challenging it, you are, in the Hannah Arendt metaphysical sense of Eichmann, Eichmann."

"Well, really. Let's get a grip here, shall we? True enough, they were civilians of a sort. But innocent? Gimme a break. They formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America's global financial empire – the "mighty engine of profit" to which the military dimension of U.S. policy has always been enslaved – and they did so both willingly and knowingly."

"If there was a better, more effective, or in fact any other way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, I'd really be interested in hearing about it."

"White domination is so complete that even American Indian children want to be cowboys. It's as if Jewish children wanted to play Nazis."

- Ward Churchill

Related videos:

http://www.anarchismtoday.org/News/article/sid=15.html">Ward Churchill: Perpetual War, State Terror, Limits on Academic Dissent

http://www.anarchismtoday.org/News/article/sid=26.html">When They Came for Ward Churchill

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Graeber

David Graeber is an anarchist and anthropologist. He was an associate professor of anthropology at Yale University, although Yale controversially declined to rehire him, and his term there ended in June 2007. On June 15, 2007, Graeber accepted the offer of a senior lectureship in the anthropology department at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He began teaching there in September 2007.<1> Graeber has a history of social and political activism, including his role in protests against the World Economic Forum in New York City (2002) and membership in the radical labor union Industrial Workers of the World.

In May 2005, the Yale anthropology department decided not to renew Graeber's contract. Pointing to Graeber's highly-regarded anthropological scholarship, his supporters (including fellow anthropologists, former students, and anarchists) have accused the dismissal decision of being politically motivated. Critics argued that Graeber's dismissal was in keeping with Yale's policy of granting tenure to few junior faculty and Yale has given no formal explanation for its actions. Graeber has suggested that his support of GESO, Yale's graduate student union, may have played a role in Yale's decision.

http://www.anarchismtoday.org/News/article/sid=11.html">David Graeber on Charlie Rose

Norman Gary Finkelstein (born December 8, 1953) is an American political scientist and author, specialising in Jewish-related issues and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular. A graduate of Binghamton University, he received his Ph.D in Political Science from Princeton University. He has held faculty positions at Brooklyn College, Rutgers University, Hunter College, New York University, and most recently, DePaul University, where he was an assistant professor from 2001 to 2007.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Finkelstein

In a decision which aroused widespread controversy, Finkelstein was denied tenure at DePaul in June 2007, and placed on administrative leave for the 2007-2008 academic year, his single course having been cancelled.

Finkelstein made his reputation with his meticulous examination of Joan Peters's best-selling From Time Immemorial. A "history and defense" of Israel, Peters' book had been effusively praised in mainstream United States media sources by figures as varied as Barbara Tuchman, Theodore H. White, Elie Wiesel, and Lucy Dawidowicz. Saul Bellow, for one, wrote that:

"Millions of people the world over, smothered by false history and propaganda, will be grateful for this clear account of the origins of the Palestinians."<8>

Finkelstein in his doctoral thesis, by minutely examining all of the sources Peters harvested and the way she used her evidence, concluded that the book, elsewhere acclaimed as a breakthrough into a balanced perspective on Jewish-Palestinian demographics, was nothing more than a what he now calls a "monumental hoax".<11> However, according to Finkelstein, whereas Peters' book received widespread interest and approval in the United States, a scholarly demonstration of its fraudulence and unreliability aroused little attention:

Of the 30-odd people Finkelstein sent a draft of his preliminary findings to in the U.S., only one, Noam Chomsky, responded, warning him of the probable consequences of his research:

"I warned him, if you follow this, you're going to get in trouble—because you're going to expose the American intellectual community as a gang of frauds, and they are not going to like it, and they're going to destroy you."

--snip---

Shortly after the publication of the book The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz, Finkelstein derided it as "a collection of fraud, falsification, plagiarism, and nonsense". Asserting, during a joint interview by Amy Goodman, that Dershowitz lacked knowledge about specific contents of his own book, Finkelstein also speculated that Dershowitz did not write the book, and may not have even read it. In an interview with a Dutch newspaper Finkelstein said: "In September 2003 I had a TV-debate with him. The notes in his book showed that he had worked on the manuscript until June 2003. However in September he had no idea of what was in the book. He didn't know names of people he cites. ... But it is true that I couldn't prove my thesis, I withdrew it."

In June 2007, following a 4-3 vote by DePaul University's Board on Promotion and Tenure (a faculty board), a decision affirmed by the University's President, the University denied Finkelstein tenure. The political science department of the university had praised Finkelstein and recommended tenure by a 9-3 vote (a recommendation endorsed by a 5-0 vote by the College Personnel Committee), but according to university president Dennis Holtschneider, Finkelstein's "unprofessional personal attacks divert the conversation away from consideration of ideas, and polarize and simplify conversations that deserve layered and subtle consideration." The university denied that Alan Dershowitz, who had been criticized for actively campaigning against Finkelstein's tenure, played any part in this decision. At the same time, the university denied tenure to international studies lecturer Mehrene Larudee, a strong supporter of Finkelstein, despite unanimous support from her department, the Personnel Committee and the Dean.

The Faculty Council later affirmed the right of Professors Finkelstein and Larudee to appeal, which a university lawyer said was not possible. Council President Anne Bartlett said she was "'terribly concerned' correct procedure was not followed". DePaul’s faculty association considered taking no confidence votes in administrators, including the president, because of the tenure denials. In a statement issued upon Finkelstein's resignation, DePaul called him "a prolific scholar and an outstanding teacher." Dershowitz expressed outrage at the compromise and this statement in particular, saying that the university had "traded truth for peace."

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/04/17/1327203&mode=thread&tid=25"> Democracy Now!: Noam Chomsky Accuses Alan Dershowitz of Launching a "Jihad" to Block Norman Finkelstein From Getting Tenure at Depaul University

Call them. Talk to them face to face. Attend the meetings.

Put pressure on the mayor. Even if they aren't appointed by the mayor it can be tied to him politically when he runs for election.

If the school board is elected then keep tabs on which side of the issue they are on. And make sure to run candidates against them.

Write letters to the editor.

Find out if your US Senator and Representative supports the bill and the actions of the supt and principal.

Why are they even allowed on campus. I suspect they have student records in hand and are approaching the students. If a student wishes to volunteer they would go to the recruiters office not have the recruiter infringe on their time at school. This is shameful behavior.

What do their state reps and senators have to say about it. Have they been asked to intercede in this matter. Where the hell is Tawilla anyway?

Sea-Tac. I agree that it's shameful, too. Take a look at this related post and the response I got from the vet. Apparently the belief that recruiters ought to leave high school kids the hell alone isn't universally shared - even on DU.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=259x7464

Reference?

all you are to them is a future corpse.

vote Republican

about the teachers being messed with is huge! :scary:

But who is pulling the Principal and School Superintendents strings? It would be real interesting to find out what political party they are members of. Any guesses?

Heck they may even be pedophiles like so many other Repukes.

the Constitution instead of the Ten Commandments ...

All the teachers are cleared.

It would gain even more attention to their cause, and maybe their numbers would even grow larger.

The school would have no choice, but to back off.

I am hosting a small get together tomorrow night of a Tukwila yahoo group called Progressives for Tukwila. We will be discussing this matter. Either I or Jeff Lopez-Stuit with touch base with Noemie about anything of interest that comes out of the discussion.

Chuck Parrish
Tukwila, Wa
206-244-8427
chuckparrish2002 {at} yahoo.com

Remember that kiddies, before you sign up and get shit on and/or die for Bush and his criminal war monger buddies. Oh yea ...notice that once again there's no national network news coverage of these events and that's because FOX CBS ABC NBC CNN MSN are our enemies. For the news that the networks won't report, check out Democracy Now on FSTV, LinkTV, or on line at democracynow.org, www.freespeech.org and www.linktv.org.

regular officer corps(marines) and as a wife of one who served 22 years I felt this way too. After three deployments and other separations etc I really felt politicians had too much power over our family and its future, we got out because of this power.

If these ass-holes come near my kids, so help me... :mad:

Resist the military machine.

K&R

It is wonderful to see this awakening. :hippie:

--IMM

if no one signed up for their bullshit proxy wars. (proxy because we are not fighting to save our own country or our own interest or our own lives-we are fighting for others agenda-it has nothing to do with America. The national Guard being in Iraq is a farce of high proportions)

Must punish those that dissent from the war machine. Bodies are needed. Lots of bodies.

It does make me sick that kids are being recruited so Bush can finish daddy's war. But...

The military recruiting in school is a long-time tradition. What exactly is wrong (the Bush aspect aside) with our country asking our finest to serve and protect it?

Anti-Bush, I'm right there with you. Anti-military, we're going to be seriously disagreeing.

I don't think they belong there at all, and I don't recall any recruiting in my high school.

During the Cold War. And I'm glad the recruiter came there, otherwise I probably wouldn't have known of the opportunity in my small town.

Put out information with other companies during "career days", but why make a special thing of allowing military recruiters who lie to fulfill their quotas access to students on a regular basis? And yes, they lie. I know from experience, both personal and friends.

I can not believe how many hits have been on this article. I received this article from a teacher friend who is also a Veteran.

I teach at a community college in West Tennessee, and we are not allowed to support or endorse any candidate. The Tennessee Board of Regents finds it a conflict of interest. Unfortunately for the state of Tennessee as well as progressive and/or democratic candidates, most people in Tennessee (especially West Tennessee) bleed Republican. Anything that might ruin the "business" of this community college is prohibited.

Whatever happened to academic freedom? Whatever happened to freedoms? You know, Henry David Thoreau wrote in "Civil Disobedience" that the government ought to support citizens' pointing out the government's faults.

I teach Thoreau in my writing class, and I have been subject to a lot of scrutiny within my department. Mostly, they are looking out for me, but should my asking students to think freely and independently be brought before a board, I would undoubtedly lose my job.

to parents and kids that they have the right to opt OUT of military recruitment stuff at school and that the recruiters and a lot of the teachers will lie and say that participation is mandatory. I've told my kids that they should never, every under any circumstances give their name and personal information to the recruiters at school and that if they try to force it they are to demand that the school call me immediately and I will come take them from school if necessary.

http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_112807WAB_tukwila_teachers_war_protest_LJ.491e9a88.html

have read anything on the YAWR website.
These kids have petitioned their school boards, they have written their Representatives. So as last resort they have organized and participated in a peaceful, non-violent protest.

And what would be wrong with a "social studies" teacher advocate their students to participate in Democracy.

you just never know what might happen.

:sarcasm:

I'm a student at foster high school. i know its sort of long but just thought i should keep everyone informed.

last night there was a school board meeting where about 100 or so people showed up to voice their opinions on the subject of the teachers being under investigation. after about 20 minutes they had told us our time was up but a few more people stood up anyways to speak. they told us our thoughts were dully noted and they could not speak on the issue for legal reasons. they people who were not able to talk walked right outside the door into a crowd of about 30 and began sharing their different thoughts on what was going on. this went on for about an hour or so standing out in the cold. as of today my history teacher brett rogers was brought back and allowed to teach. although him and the other teachers are still under the disciplinary investigation and could be fired any time. the other teachers did not walk out. they did not help plan the walkout they have just been victimized by the districts witch hunt, only because they have been known to teach their students what is actually going on in the world today.

after the school board meeting me and a few other students were talking with a Representative from YAWR (youth against war and racism) and decided to start a branch at our school. we decided to gather in the cafeteria after school the next day and then find somewhere to go to sit and talk about where/when we would meet. then today after school got out me and a friend walked into the commons to see about 10 police officers + our 3 school security guards standing in the cafeteria telling us we cannot meet there and that we needed to go home. the man from yawr walked into the building to see where we were going only to be taken off the school grounds by police and threatened to be arrested for trespassing. discouraged on their attempts to start up a yawr only about 10 of us went up the street to talk about where/when and how we will be able to have these meetings. and if we are going to demand the school board have another meeting sooner than the one coming up in 2 weeks. i will post another message as soon as i find out when the next board meeting will take place.

all of your support is helping alot i thank you all very much.
sincerely,
FHS

some links to news coverage of the board meeting.

http://www.kirotv.com/education/14714796/detail.html

http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_112807WAB_tukwila_teachers_war_protest_LJ.491e9a88.html

I can post his contact info if you like--

This message will be posted in several places so please forgive the absence of a personal salutation. What I am about to share is my opinion based on my participation in a small discussion which included one school board member. The student protest and teacher issue at Foster High School has been exaggerated far beyond the reality of the situation. It is informative to see how these things happen and how easily people arrive at conclusions with minimal information.

A student protest was organized as part of a larger statewide event. It related, as I understand it, to the war and to the presence of military recruiters in the high school. The reason for the protest does not really matter here. Having a good, fair process is what matters.

To participate in the off campus protest, the students were required to get permission slips from their parents. Those who did not get the permission slips were issued tardy slips as they would be in any other situation.

The question of teacher participation is still being investigated. The school district engaged an independent outside entity to investigate the situation. This seems wise and reflects a "cool head". The one teacher who was put on administrative leave is already back to work. It is a personnel matter and the school district is not releasing information on it. They are simply going thru a process which seems totally appropriate to me.

There was a general consensus (in our little 8 person discussion) that whatever the results of the investigation, we want the school board (all dedicated volunteers) to exercise flexibility and not be a "hard line enforcer" of rules. If a teacher made an error in judgment and recognizes it as such, just deal with it on that level. Who doesn't make mistakes? If a modest administrative "slap on the hand" in needed, so be it. Our expectation of the school district is to focus on keeping good teachers to serve our students.

It is my understanding that the next board board meeting will devote a significant portion of the agenda to this event.

Hope this helps.

Chuck Parrish
Tukwila resident

well there were no permission slips. although if you didn't want to have an unexcused absence (which can lead to things such as detention and if you have enough unexcused absences you have to go to court.) you had to get your parents to write you a note (such as when you stay home sick.) its not as if they teachers passed out field trip forms to the students.

yes Brett Rogers was temporarily reinstated the day after the school board meeting. but while the disciplinary investigation is going on he can still be fired. including the other 5 teachers who had no part in the walkout but are still being investigated just because of things they are teaching.

i agree Brett Rogers should only receiver a "slap on the hand" for all he did was support his students. one thing i have heard school board members say is that mr rogers was persuading us to walk out. which as a student in his class, i can safely say mr rogers never persuaded anyones opinions or tried to "push his beliefs" onto any of us. what he did do is support that we had a choice. to either walkout or not. whichever one we chose he gave us support on making that choice.

another thing that wasn't mentioned in this letter but in another that was mailed to my house the monday after the walkout.is that the school board and administration claims when all the students walked out the morning of November 16 it was a complete surprise to them. and they had no idea what was going on.

this is a complete lie. on wednesday and thursday afternoon mr Ilgenfritz announced to the student body that their were better ways to voice our opinions on the war, and before this, the lesson plan for the walkout was presented to the administration. i did have a copy of the lesson plan lying around but i cant seem to find it.

i completely agree that the school board needs to focus on keeping the good teachers. but obviously they are not doing this if they are conducting a disciplinary investigation against them, and telling the teachers that if they talk about what is going on with their students or to their colleagues they will be fired.

i just don't think thats right.

also I'm not sure what the board is trying to accomplish. are they only trying to push the blame of the walkout onto a teacher?
if so the teachers aren't who to blame, it was a STUDENT walkout. the teachers had no part in planning it.

(its like 3 in the morning so I'm hoping this is making sense and that its easy to follow, although i doubt it is since I'm running on about 4 hours of sleep from last night. thank you insomnia.)


btw. chuck parrish does your wife happen to be a teacher at the elementary school? just wondering because i had a ms parrish for a teacher some years ago.

He's in the 11th LD Democrats and Democracy for Washington.