Stop the bullying: Arizona school principal's letter tells parents their children are lazy or stupid

Today, I read an Associated Press article posted on Education Week website where a principal put in writing what parents report they have heard in meetings and via telephone...

An Arizona school principal who penned a sarcastic letter that chided parents for children who were either "too lazy or too stupid" to complete their assignments in class was suspended after the missive was mistakenly sent home.

"The math we do is really easy," said the letter from Litchfield Elementary School principal Ron Sterr. "If your child is either too lazy or too stupid to finish it in class, I'm sending it home so that you can work with them and judge for yourself whether it is laziness or idiocy that inhibits your child's progress."

Ron Sterr has called each parent individually to apologize and take responsibility, the Litchfield school district said.
More http://tinyurl.com/ycx2vcf

As a parent, I have been the recipient of such language from a teacher at our local high school. When I reported these hostile comments to the administration, nothing was done despite my multiple requests.

Often, we chastise parents for failing to teach their children the morals to prevent bullying. It is my opinion that many school administrations' anti-bullying curricula is primarily "do as I say and not as I do."

Do you need help in determining what your child needs to learn and help advocating for appropriate educational support and curricula in school? visit my website at http://www.techpsychologist.com

Victory via the secret ballot: "No way!" to New Trier Referendum

For those who said you can't prevail against powerful bullies, I quote Margaret Meade:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

Because individual community members from New Trier township dared to join with others to demand transparency by the administration and school board in the secretive process, dared to speak up about the hidden costs of the referendum, and dared to expose the facade that our community members are unaffected by the current economic realities, this referendum was soundly defeated (by over 62%) in the private voting booth.
Some of my remaining questions are these:

1. How many taxpayer dollars were spent on developing, promoting, and other expenses associated with this boondoggle? Did the school board approve of these expenses during an open board meeting?
2. How many taxpayer dollars were spent on political advertising for support of the referendum? Is this an allowable expense?
3. Were taxpayer dollars spent for attorney fees for this referendum? If so, did the board approve this expense?
4. When the school asked former school board presidents to come out in favor of this referendum, were there violations of the Illinois Open Meetings Act?
5. Were there other violations of the Open Meetings Act in promoting this referendum?
6. Do the current administrators for New Trier live within the New Trier district, and if not, why not?
7. Who made the decision to place this referendum on the ballot despite the community survey that indicated that more than half of the community was against this building project? Did the school board approve this referendum with full knowledge that the school's own survey indicated the community was against it?
8. How much do the current administrators pay for property taxes at their own residences?

I hope that we can harness some of the vibrant community energy into building community involvement in improving the quality of the education itself for every one of our students (not just those destined to Princeton) in OUR schools. A "successful" huge empire-building project doesn't matter one iota if we leave behind even one student (who may be a diverse learner), segregated in a team-taught class with others "of his own kind." After all, the administrators don't own the schools, the community owns the schools. The school board is supposed to represent all the members of the community, not the administration's personal desires.