School politics

[47of74]

Cue the whining from the Branch Trumpvidians about books not getting banned. 

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Five books labeled “inappropriate” by some parents will stay on school shelves in Urbandale.

KCCI reports a school committee voted in favor of keeping the books on Monday.

A parent filed a complaint about the book “Hey, Kiddo,” that is a memoir about a child dealing with addiction in his family.

But other books are also on the chopping block, including “All Boys Aren’t Blue,” “Gender Queer,” “Lawn Boy,” and “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.”

 

[47of74]

And in nearby Johnston the school board also voted against removing controversial books

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In the Johnston Community School District, the conversation about diverse books keeps going.

At Monday evening’s school board meeting, the board voted 4-3 to support the recommendation that the challenged book, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexei,” remain part of the curriculum, provided parents are given the option to choose an alternative book for their student(s).

During the discussion session before the vote, parents opposed to the measure went for shock value to make their point.

When Johnston parent Michele Veach spoke, she used slurs such as the n-word and the f-word, and a few curse words. She also challenged the policy of giving students the opportunity to opt out of required reading with a different book.

 

[47of74]

Mason City school board stood by their decision to retire the Mohawks mascot name.

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The decision to drop the name “Mohawks” was upheld by the Mason City School Board at its meeting Monday night, after the item was brought up for reconsideration.

Last month, the Mason City School Board decided to end the use of the name “Mohawks,” at athletic events and on merchandise. Over the long term, building signs and school décor will also be scrubbed of the name, as the district assesses costs related to rebranding. 

After a Dec. 6 presentation by members of the Facebook group “Mason City Mohawk Save the Name,” the name-change topic was put back on the agenda as an action item for Dec. 20.

Monday's meeting had a little over 90 attendees, which was held at the high school’s performance hall and FEMA Room. Around 20 people spoke during the meeting’s open forum, with roughly the same number speaking in support of change as spoke in favor of keeping the Mohawk name.

Of course the Branch Trumpvidians are probably bent out of shape about this. 

[47of74]

Yeah, welcome to CovidKimIsStan

[47of74]

A school district in Tennessee decided to ban the book Maus hoping it would fade into obscurity.  Nope.  Not what happened.

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Just days after the banning of “Maus” by a Tennessee school district made national news, two editions of Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel about the Holocaust have reached the top 20 on Amazon.com and are in limited supply.

“Maus” was No. 12 on Amazon as of early Friday evening, and was not available for delivery until mid-February. “The Complete Maus,” which includes a second volume, was No. 9 and out of stock.

Neither book was in the top 1,000 at the beginning of the week.

Earlier this month, the McMinn County School Board in Tennessee voted to remove “Maus” due to “inappropriate language” and an illustration of a nude woman, according to minutes from a board meeting. Spiegelman's autobiographical book, winner of a Pulitzer in 1992, tells of his father's experiences as a Holocaust survivor.

 

[AlmostSavedAtTacoBell]

On 1/29/2022 at 1:37 PM, 47of74 said:

A school district in Tennessee decided to ban the book Maus hoping it would fade into obscurity.  Nope.  Not what happened.

 

I adore it when book banning backfires! I was lucky enough to have a teacher my junior and senior year of high school who intentionally chose many books that had been on “banned” lists. There is a reason she is still, over thirty years later, credited as one of the most influential teachers many of us from our graduating class ever had. One of our classmates had parents who would regularly object to the assigned book so he was given an alternate assignment. After he moved out of his parents’ home, he read every single book he had been denied. He is a big fan of choosing books that have been the subject of protests/bans and rarely goes back to see his parents. 

[47of74]

14 minutes ago, AlmostSavedAtTacoBell said:

I adore it when book banning backfires! I was lucky enough to have a teacher my junior and senior year of high school who intentionally chose many books that had been on “banned” lists. There is a reason she is still, over thirty years later, credited as one of the most influential teachers many of us from our graduating class ever had. One of our classmates had parents who would regularly object to the assigned book so he was given an alternate assignment. After he moved out of his parents’ home, he read every single book he had been denied. He is a big fan of choosing books that have been the subject of protests/bans and rarely goes back to see his parents. 

I'm thinking of getting a book case when I go to my new condo and stuffing it full of all the books on the GQP Index Librorum Prohibitorum,  Along with actually reading all of these books and encouraging my nieces to read them too.  Because FUCK Republicans.  That's why.

Edited January 31, 2022 by 47of74

[47of74]

The Iowa House is considering legislation to increase the number of teachers

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Iowa House lawmakers are considering at least four bills that aim to put more teachers in classrooms.

Right now, there are roughly 1,000 classroom and special education teaching positions open across the state.

House File 2085 would give an alternative teaching license to someone with a bachelor’s degree, who’s at least 26-years-old, completes an alternative teaching certificate program, and passes a teaching exam.

Republican Dustin Hite plans to introduce something similar, so people can teach in grades 7-12.

Yeah, well how about actually supporting teachers and not trying to turn Iowa into a Branch Trumpvidian shithole and you might get some teachers to stick around.

[Alisamer]

On 1/30/2022 at 7:11 PM, 47of74 said:

I'm thinking of getting a book case when I go to my new condo and stuffing it full of all the books on the GQP Index Librorum Prohibitorum,  Along with actually reading all of these books and encouraging my nieces to read them too.  Because FUCK Republicans.  That's why.

Just added a new "to do" to my lottery list... buy up banned books and put them in Little Free Libraries wherever I see one. 

[47of74]

Reason number oh fornicate I lost track of why I moved out of Iowa

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Several education bills were introduced during the first month of January, which Republican lawmakers said gives parents more transparency.

One bill introduced by the Senate President on Friday would allow parents to sue educators and administrators who give students obscene material or what the bill terms “hard-core pornography.”

Another bill would allow criminal charges to be filed against educators over what’s deemed inappropriate material being shared with students.

A bill introduced by Rep. Norlin Mommsen, of De Witt, would mean cameras would be installed in all classrooms.

 

[47of74]

Pretty much par for the course down in Iowa. 

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The Iowa Department for the Blind said prisoners within the Iowa Department of Corrections had access to students’ partial names, birthdays and mailing addresses, according to emails our KCRG-TV9 i9 Investigative Team received through a public records request.

Emily Wharton, who is the director for the Iowa Department for the Blind, wrote in a memo that her concerns regarding student information being accessible to prisoners were ignored. She said she brought the issue to the Department of Education in February 2019. Documents show changes, like removing a student’s date of birth and assigning a code number instead of using a student’s first name and last initial, were implemented more than two years later in November 2021.

Director Wharton said the Iowa Department for the Blind still has concerns about prisoners released with the information and possible FERPA violations after changes were made by the Department of Education. She also wrote that she was disappointed with the length of time it took the department to fix the data issues.

“I am writing this memo to you as a human being who considers it her duty to not stand idly by as the personal information of children is needlessly being placed into the possession and allowed to continue in the possession of inmates and ex-offenders,” Wharton wrote. “I cannot understand why it has taken so long for these issues to be addressed at all and the actions taken so far below the bare minimum of what anyone remotely familiar with data security would expect.”

 

[47of74]

Ugh

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The superintendent of Iowa’s largest school district announced he will resign in June after a decade-long tenure, which included a standoff with the state’s conservative governor over coronavirus protections that led to his public reprimand.

Thomas Ahart said Monday that he would quit his position leading the 31,000-student district on June 30th. He expressed satisfaction about accomplishments during his 10 years as superintendent but acknowledged the job at times was “frustrating and exhausting.”

Pretty much what #CovidKim and the Iowa GQP want is to exhaust all the good people working in Iowa schools to the point that they say fuck this and leave. 

[Cartmann99]

Florida man asks schools to ban Bible following the state's efforts to remove books

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A Florida activist known for his tongue-in-cheek petitions to local government agencies has asked school districts in Florida to ban the Bible.

In petitions sent to public school superintendents across the state, Chaz Stevens asked the districts to "immediately remove the Bible from the classroom, library, and any instructional material," Stevens wrote in the documents, which were shared with NPR. "Additionally, I also seek the banishment of any book that references the Bible."

His petitions cited a bill signed into law last month by Gov. Ron DeSantis, which lets parents object to educational materials. That bill came about after some parents complained about sexually explicit books being taught in Florida schools.

Many of those books, such as Gender Queer: A Memoir, deal with LGBTQ themes and coming out stories. DeSantis celebrated the removal of Gender Queer at a news conference after the signing of the law. It's "a cartoon-style book with graphic images of children performing sexual acts," he said last month. "That is wrong."

Liberals have been critical of the legislation. After passage, the state's Democratic leader, Lauren Book, lamented Florida's joining "places like Russia and China, modern-day examples of what happens when free thought and free speech are tightly restricted in all levels of society, including in school."

 

[47of74]

3 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

Florida man asks schools to ban Bible following the state's efforts to remove books

 

Yeah someone in Iowa should do that too and tell all the school boards that they need to pull the bible, and watch how quickly all the people insisting on books being banned start singing a different tune.

[GreyhoundFan]

[WiseGirl]

Spoiler

14 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

 

Wtf? They only noticed the similarity now????

[Alisamer]

5 hours ago, WiseGirl said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Wtf? They only noticed the similarity now????

Entirely possible they didn't think anyone would care, until now.

[WiseGirl]

Truth 

 

[GreyhoundFan]

This school system is in Virginia. Sigh

[CTRLZero]

How did someone not notice this similarity?  I see the administration’s apologizing profusely, but local neo-nazis are probably lining up.  Sigh, indeed. 

[Audrey2]

You're not sorry that you created this shirt and allowed pictures of it to be shared, you're sorry that you got caught.

[WiseGirl]

I predict less in the future. While I love working with kids I don't encourage anyone I know to go into the teaching profession anymore. 

[GreyhoundFan]

This is insane:

[fraurosena]

On 9/1/2022 at 6:38 PM, GreyhoundFan said:

This is insane:

How to insidiously indoctrinate young children 101.

Question: Is this a public or a private school? In other words, are taxpayers paying for their children to be indoctrinated with MAGA-fascism?

 

[GreyhoundFan]