Posted on 05/15/2008 3:21:07 AM PDT by Man50D
Parents whose children attend a Mississippi school embroiled in controversy after a science teacher had 6th-graders vote on who was most likely to become pregnant – or be dead – by age 19 say officials now are stonewalling them.
Parent Curtis Lyons wants to see the assignment given his daughter, but is being told he won't be allowed to review it.
"I have a right to see that assignment," he told WND today, "but I've been refused."
The controversy erupted when a science teacher at Chastain Middle School in Jackson, Miss., asked 6th-graders to vote from among themselves who was the most likely to be pregnant, infected with HIV, or dead by the age of 19.
The students initially refused to vote, but the teacher overruled them. The 6th-graders then were horrified to see their names listed on a chalkboard, ranked in lists for everyone to see.
Parents like Lyons, whose 12-year-old daughter was voted among those most likely to be pregnant, were outraged. Lyons' concerns were heightened when he sought to see the assignments his daughter's class was given, and he discovered the school had confiscated them.
"My daughter told me the first page listed percentages of African Americans that drop out, get pregnant, get HIV, or die before adulthood. The second page listed names of students within the class and then instructed the children to vote who was most likely to fulfill the statistics on page 1. I have asked the school repeatedly to see the actual assignment," said Lyons, "but the school hasn't yet told me when, or even if, I'll get to see it."
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
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Seems the school has confiscated the assignments given to the kids and won’t let the parents see them. Any parent has the absolute right to see their children’s assignments and classwork. Glad to see the parent and World Net Daily aren’t letting this one go. Parents deserve to know how their kids are being educated. The school referred to the incident as a “personel matter”.
What if the parents took a poll on the most likily teacher to be shot? Wonder what the teacher would think of that?
Here’s a poll question: Who is the teacher most likely to be beat up by an irate parent?
6th graders? When I heard about this yesterday, I thought it was a high school class, but this is still grade school. You are right about the parents having every right to know. I fought with the school many times over my sons and things that went on, and that was years ago. I would be a crazy person these days.
Good point, but the parents would be arrested for even thinking this.
The parent has organized an informational meeting in case some of the parents don’t yet know what was going on in their child’s classroom.
He said his daughter would come home and put on lip gloss, but now won’t even wear it at home after being voted most likely to become pregnant. I can’t imagine what the child who was voted most likely to die must be thinking. Crazy.
The courts in California (9th circuit, is it?) ruled that parents have no right to knowledge of or influence over what their children are taught in school. State's schools, state's rules. It appears this Mississippi school is taking the same position.
You could be right, and I agree that the parents' raising a stink is the right thing to do. It might even work, especially if there's a school board election in November.
However, if it went to a court? The 9th Circuit decision isn't a binding precedent for another part of the country, but its assertion that use of a government "service" is equivalent to a surrender of basic rights seems to be in the mainstream of modern judicial activism.
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