Dave Chandler

Exercise This!

I loved recess when I was in grade school ... nothing exceptional there because I don't remember a fellow kid who didn't.

I still like to exercise ... and I don't play video games (the 'great Satan' of mental and physical flabbiness).

However, the chief nanny of this session of the Colorado legislature wants to tell every elementary school student, every elementary school, and every school board in the state how much exercise they need to have every day.

Just as for myself, I am a strong believer in exercise and I recognize the childhood obesity problems afflicting our young people. But, I also think that teachers, principals and local school boards are fully aware of this situation, too. They can deal with it in a way that best fits their particular local situation.

They don't need 'momma Romer' twisting their ear lobe and laying down the law telling them exactly how many minutes everyday they must order the students to play or do jumping jacks.

Instead of yet another micro-management of local school districts' curriculums, I have another suggestion for Romer: introduce a repeal of the now excessive CSAP testing.

Romer is quoted in the linked to report below as saying: ""There are a lot of different ways for them to fit in the 150 minutes," Romer said, referring to five days a week of half-hour physical activity. "We would love to rescue recess from the pressures of CSAPs and other standardized testing."

There is a very good, healthy way to "rescue recess from the pressures of CSAPs and other standardize testing" -- let teachers teach, Chris! Get over your testing mania! Stop telling teachers how and when do to everything they do in the classroom!

With yet another newspaper report like this one, I'm more convinced everyday that the Colorado legislature is meeting way too long. They really do need to cut the session in half so that meddlers like Romer can find something else to do (work-out more?).

Lesson Plan: Get Moving in Schools | Denver Post

One state lawmaker wants Colorado elementary students to drop and give him 30. Thirty minutes a day of physical activity, that is.

Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, is pushing legislation aimed at battling childhood obesity by adding gym, recess and physical activity back into the school day.

The bill touched off a fight Thursday between cash-strapped schools that want local control and parent and health groups that worry about students' growing waistlines. ... MORE

Colorado School Administrators: UPDATE

Many 'zero tolerance' laws, rules and regulations in Colorado need to be revisited. That should be the message coming out of the actions taken by clueless Cherry Creek School District administrators after last week's 'training prop' fiasco at Cherokee Trail High School.

From the beginning, the high school educrats had the ability to make a bureaucratic decision that the training props simply did not constitute a "facsimile" (exact copy) of a deadly weapon -- end of incident. Whenever you see government bureaucrats going to extremes to punish a person, you know something is wrong with the institution. Though Ms. Morrow may not have been expelled in the face of much public outrage over her treatment, the school district is undoubtedly still operating with the same administrative mind-set that caused this unnecessary controversy.

When I hear of the superintendent of Cherry Creek, Jefferson, Denver, etc. school districts asking the legislature to change all of the 'zero tolerance' laws to reflect common sense, then I'll start to believe that the corporate educational establishment in Colorado is beginning to reflect the will of the people again.

Only time will tell.

Critics Aim to Revise Guns-At-School Laws | Denver Post

Marie Morrow is heading back to class after the superintendent of the Cherry Creek School District decided the student had been disciplined enough for bringing fake rifles used for a drill team to school.

But the issue has brought Colorado's dangerous-gun laws into the cross hairs while districts wrestle with when and how to enforce the law and when to use common sense.

"I'm just glad to be back in school and have this whole thing over with," said Morrow, a senior at Cherokee Trail High School in Aurora.

Morrow, 17, was suspended for up to 10 days on Feb. 5 after a student saw the fake rifles in her vehicle and notified school officials.

She faced expulsion, but officials decided Friday that the amount of school she already missed was enough of a punishment. ...

... Even bringing a fake gun to school requires mandatory expulsion under state law if the firearm facsimile could reasonably be mistaken for an actual firearm.

However, there are exceptions, including if a student gets permission to use the prop beforehand. Also, according to Colorado law, mandatory expulsion can be waived if the student notifies a teacher or administrator "and delivers the dangerous weapon" to a teacher or administrator.

In Morrow's case, another student saw it and reported it, kicking in the mandatory expulsion process. "It wasn't like she self-reported," said Morrow's attorney, David Lane.

But the tricky part is determining whether a fake gun looks close enough to a real one to warrant an expulsion from school.

"These are very, very difficult situations," said Jefferson County Superintendent Cindy Stevenson. "I hate expelling kids, yet you cannot risk other students' safety. I don't have a magic answer." ...

... The state's get-tough policy on weapons was instituted in response to the 1999 Columbine High School shootings.

But state Sen. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, has said he will introduce a bill this month that would give districts more leeway.

The Cherry Creek School District issued a statement Friday saying it had no choice but to proceed with the expulsion process.

No School in Jeffco Today

Today is an "inservice" day for the Jefferson County school district.

Funny how these days are almost always scheduled when there is also an immediately upcoming Monday holiday -- four days off for the kids ... and the teachers and administrators ...?

For my high school child's teachers the "professional development" at Pomona High School includes a morning of training-presentation-discussion about a program called "Response to Intervention."

Certainly at the high school level, there isn't any urgency for the teachers to be learning more about this program. It doesn't appear to me that even for the lower grades there is anything in this scheme that warrants taking a day off from time teaching in the classroom.

Color me skeptical (no surprise, uh?) about "Response to Intervention."

Google "Response to Intervention" and note the number of products that can be bought by schools to implement the plan. Is this yet another corporate concept to sell administrators on an expenditure of taxpayers dollars?

Then take a look at these two links and tell me what the heck "Response to Intervention" is ultimately supposed to do according to how it is explained. Contradictions, limitations and 'professional' jargon are replete in the descriptions.

A Parent's Guide to Response-to-Intervention

Response to Intervention

In my opinion, at least at Pomona High School, this morning when young people are not being educated is precious teaching time wasted. The 'professional development' revolving around "Response to Intervention" could be done during the summer.

Increasingly, I am concerned that students in Jefferson County are interrupted much too frequently with holidays, non-contact mornings or afternoons, "inservice" days, late-starts, early releases, CSAP testing days and weeks ... try learning or doing any work effectively when there are constant interruptions.

Yet another reason for parents and taxpayers to be very concerned about the decline in our public school system. Real reform is needed -- but we are not seeing it.

In Colorado, School Administration Stupidity Revealed

Read the news report linked to and excerpted below.

KUSA-TV says:

"A local school district has suspended a member of the Young Marines youth leadership group after students saw drill props in her vehicle.

Marie Morrow, a 17-year-old senior at Cherokee Trail High School in Aurora, is serving a 10-day suspension. Her punishment could be extended at an expulsion hearing later this month."

Here in our own backyard is a prime example of what I call the 'zero common sense' policy that is degrading our public schools. First, you can blame school administrators for being so timid and so servile towards the state legislature that they will do anything no matter how moronic to do their master's bidding. Contrary to popular belief, in this country these days 'the people' are NOT the master's of the government -- the bosses are bureaucrats, corporations and special interests.

As usual, you can ultimately blame the Colorado state legislature for micro-managing all of our schools, of undercutting local control and emasculating school boards. Undoubtedly this so-called 'zero tolerance' law was passed by a Republican state legislature, under pressure from the federal government, in the wake of the Columbine tragedy.

I don't blame the kids that turned in the young woman who is the target of the Cherry Creek School District's zero tolerance fervor -- there is a culture of paranoia and fear pervading the public schools, every student and teacher is supposed to be a spy and report the silliest blather that might be even tangentially interpreted as a 'threat'. I've even heard public service announcements on the radio encouraging students to be snitches on their fellow students for fear of their lives.

Ironically, because the school administrators will not stand-up to the state legislature and bureaucratically decide that a "training prop" is not a facsimile (an exact copy) of a deadly weapon, the result will be greater cynicism and distrust among students and TAXPAYERS about the current poor condition of our public schools.

This high school girl will surely survive and thrive despite the efforts of the Cherry Creek School District to 'punish' her. If the district had any integrity they would use this incident to march down to the state legislature right now and ask for revisions of the law that mandates this exercise in 'zero common sense' ... but they won't, giving up any of their power over children and their parents isn't on their agenda.

I have suggested before that the only thing educational bureaucrats and politicians understand is the power of the purse -- until this "zero tolerance" brainlessness is revised and/or repealed -- I recommend that voters just say no to any tax increases requested by your local school district or the state government. This isn't a case of "cutting off your nose to spite your face" -- the truth is that more and more if you care about your children, you have to do the most important parts of their education at home anyway.

Student Faces Expulsion for Fake Drill Team Guns | KUSA-TV

AURORA - A local school district has suspended a member of the Young Marines youth leadership group after students saw drill props in her vehicle.

Marie Morrow, a 17-year-old senior at Cherokee Trail High School in Aurora, is serving a 10-day suspension. Her punishment could be extended at an expulsion hearing later this month.

Morrow is a student leader in the Douglas County Young Marines, a group dedicated to teaching leadership and life skills.

Cherry Creek Schools suspended Morrow after other students reported seeing guns inside her SUV, which was parked outside school while she was in class.

The school also called police, who seized the three drill team guns made of wood, plastic and duct tape. Police told Morrow to claim them in time for her after-school drill practice off-campus.

School administrators, however, were less understanding. The guns were declared "authentic representations of genuine weapons," triggering a mandatory expulsion statute in state law.

"I have never been in trouble at all," said Morrow, who is planning to attend the United States Merchant Marine Academy. "I hadn't imagined in a million years that anything like this would have happened." ...

... "The law doesn't make any distinction between a genuine weapon and a facsimile," said Cherry Creek Schools spokeswoman Tustin Amole.

Amole says federal and state laws mandate expulsion, and that school districts only have discretion to determine the length of that expulsion.

Asked who had the discretion to deem the props "dangerous weapons," Amole said school administrators and police made the decision based on state law that defines a "dangerous weapon" as "a firearm, whether loaded or unloaded, or a firearm facsimile that could reasonably be mistaken for an actual firearm." ... MORE