Recently headlines on local news outlets have been: Walton Middle School Students Drunk on School Bus, or Students Attack Administrator at Local Middle School.
News, yes. But not new. Five years ago headlines were: Loaded Hand Gun on School Bus and Loaded Hand Gun in Local Middle School.
There is so much that doesn’t make the news.
No one covers the dress code violations. It is OK in some Albemarle County Public Schools (ACPS) to let your butt cheeks hang out of your booty shorts. Media must be aware that drugs and drinking on buses and in schools are regular ACPS events. That doesn’t make the news either.
Students at Walton Middle School regularly and repeatedly have been caught violating rules. Now the school administration has failed so badly that students are having sexual relations on school property during the school day with impunity. When they should be in class they are in each others’ pants.
ACPS Administration Fails Local Students And Parents: that should be the headline on local news.
The schools have been out of control for a long time.
The current principal at one elementary school used to have parents watch classrooms alone, without supervision, without background checks, while he held meetings with teachers in the school library.
No one cares at ACPS.
The high school athletic departments signed contracts illegally and have never accounted for thousands of dollars of missing money.
No one cares at ACPS.
The computers used by our school students were virus-infected so badly that many were unusable. The usable ones were distributing malware into the homes of students. This was all shown, with proof provided by the Department of Homeland Security, to the ACPS Central Office technology department.
No one cares at ACPS.
The Albemarle County Public Schools don’t care. They follow the Chris Dumler model. We will do what ever we want. Rules do not apply to us. We are above you, we are better than you and will not listen to you.
THIS ENDS NOW. Walton Middle School Parents and Students are going to lead the way.
The Parents and Students of Walton Middle School have called a meeting tonight, 6pm May 7th at the school, to force the schools to address their failures.
It was the Parents and Students who demanded this meeting happen. No one from the schools gave a hoot until they saw their backs were against the wall. In typical fashion the school administration is trying to spin their way out of another failure in the system.
This email arrived at 5:01 pm on Monday, May 6th.
From: “WALTON MIDDLE SCHOOL” <email@blackboardconnect.com>
Date: May 6, 2013, 5:01:02 PM EDT
Subject: School Improvement MeetingA message from WALTON MIDDLE SCHOOL
Good afternoon.
We will hold our quarterly school improvement meeting on Tuesday, May 7, 6-7:00PM at Walton Middle School. This meeting will review school climate data and begin the improvement planning process for next year. We are also in the process of soliciting any parents who might wish to participate on our school improvement team for next year. The team meets quarterly after during the school year. Please feel free to contact Alison Dwier-Selden at school if you might be interested.
Thank you and have a good evening.
This e-mail has been sent to you by WALTON MIDDLE SCHOOL. To maximize their communication with you, you may be receiving this e-mail in addition to a phone call with the same message. If you wish to discontinue this service, please inform WALTON MIDDLE SCHOOL IN PERSON, by US MAIL, or by TELEPHONE at (434) 977-5615.
They can pretend this is a regularly scheduled meeting; it is not.
The community will not tolerate the ignoring of the rules any longer in our schools.
When police are called to a school for ANY reason, parents must be informed as to what is happening and what is being done.
No longer will any student be allowed to attack another student, any teacher or any administrator.
No longer will any school teacher, director or administrator be allowed to make up special rules for their school without first obtaining school board approval. And, they will not be allowed to ignore any rule that the school board has approved.
The community is speaking out. Albemarle County Public Schools’ Central Office had better listen.
No longer will drugs, drinking, guns, and sexual relations be tolerated in our school buildings or on our school buses. Period.
You won't believe what's going on at Walton Middle School (hint: sex, drugs, etc.) Read Jim Stern's expose…
They called a meeting to review "climate data"? You have got to be kidding me.
Maybe they can get the " Peace Squad" from Walker Middle School in there to straighten it all out.
And once again local lamestream media knows nothing about any of it?
Maybe parents should raise kids and invest in them instead of relying on the school to do so…hmmmm
what a ridiculous load of garbage…poorly written and unsuccessful at rousing any passions other than "shut up"
classy…ridicule a group of students trying to make a positive change…
Rob, aside from being insipid and irresponsible, your piece is inaccurate, full of assumptions, guesses, projections and just really badly written. I don’t know what school you went to or taught in, but the fact that the rules were never broken there seems amazing to me. Your attempt to take an admittedly unfortunate occurrence and turn it into an indictment of “government schools” would be laughable if it didn’t insult so many people who selflessly dedicate their lives to educating the children of the community. Someone raised these kids to bring alcohol and guns to school and it most likely wasn’t a teacher or a principal. I really wish you’d find some honest line of work.
Trevor,
Glad you are reading the blog and listening to my radio show. Please check your reading comprehension, though, I am not the author of this story. You must be a proud product of (and/or an employee of) government schools. Be looking for the upcoming report on sexual assault in another one of Albemarle County’s middle schools. And please share it with Steve Koleszar when you get the news.
I agree with Beau Williams. Perhaps there is an unhealthly climate at Walton Middle School. But why do we always look for someone to blame? Walton Middle School nor its administration is to blame for the two students making a poor decision to engage in intercourse on school property. Walton Middle School nor its administration is responsible because some kids made a poor decision to drink alcohol on the way to school or prior to school. Is there any accountability at home? Families are breaking down and we are seeing the results. Don’t expect educators to educate and raise your children. Rob, forget about school vouchers. It isn’t going to happen.
But why do we always look for someone to blame?
A lot of Christian conservatives rant about government schools and present themselves as self-righteous victims of “godless” liberalism, but teen pregnancy and drug use and other social ills are as high or higher in red states than in blue states – those misbehaving kids may well have conservative parents. Never mind, though. Blame Steve Kolezsar!
Well Ken, I am Christian, pridefully so. We Christians do have a lower divorce rate and I would submit we are parenting our children more than non Christians. I think it’s ridiculous to suggest that parents’ polictics has anything to do with their children’s misbehavior. I believe that parents engaged in the polical process, on either side of the aisle, are probably more engaged in parenting their children that parents who are not engaged. Quite blaming. It solves nothing. Take charge, parent your children. Don’t expect a handout, get a job.
I am Christian, pridefully so.
So Christ had to die for your sins and you’re proud about it?
I didn’t say that parental political persuasion has a causal link to misbehavior. Rob blames the problems in public schools on liberal parents, and the facts don’t support that. It’s true that Christian conservatives who attend church regularly do divorce much less often than the general population, although those who just identify as Christian conservatives but don’t attend regularly divorce more often. But divorce isn’t a problem Walton Middle School kids; sex apparently is; and the children of evangelicals are more sexually active than Mormons, mainline Protestants, and Jews, two out of three of which are likely to be liberal. So if Rob’s going to blame parents (I’m not) it shouldn’t be liberal parents. But he makes charges, not arguments.