WMUR covered the Oyster River student walkout Thursday morning: 500 Students Walk Out Of School. The article includes video of the event and quotes Superintendent Colter supporting the students:
Superintendent Howard Colter said they were "very courteous" and a few representatives met him in private.
"We are not going to discipline students for walking out to share such an important message in such a thoughtful and respectful way," he said. [Read More]
Editors note: Original blog post converted to pull quote and link at the request of Hearst Corporation.
To any board members who think this outrage is going to blow over, you are sorely mistaken.
ReplyDeleteWe are just getting started; see you all on the 27th
The voice of the student body WILL BE HEARD
Graham,
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the "voice of the student body" doesn't really count here. The School Board (not the Superintendent) is the body with the legal authority to hire principals. Why? Because the School Board is elected by the voters of the district.
For better or worse, the vast majority of students do not yet have the ability to vote. The School Board's responsibility is to represent the will and wishes of the voters, not the will and wishes of the students.
If the appropriate procedure had actually been followed (ORCSB Policy GCCR, posted elsewhere on this blog) students would have had the opportunity to weigh in on the candidates during the interview process, however there is never any guarantee that the wishes of a particular group (committee, teachers, parents, students, etc.) will be adopted by the SB.
That is the policy and the law. And skipping out of another afternoon's classes will not change the situation.
Many of us may not be their constituents; in that we did not vote for them, but they ran to serve us, on the platform that they were interested in what EVERYONE had to say.
ReplyDeleteand in case you havent noticed, the students are not the only one's who feel this way.
Perhaps I am young and nieve to think that a politicain would actually hold true to their word and follow the stances they used to get voted in. An honerable one would do just that.
They are a board to represent the needs of the schools, not just the taxpayers
Brett,
ReplyDeletePlease allow me to do some deconstruction here:
1. The voice of the student body is a powerful thing regardless of whether or not you think it counts. For your information, the majority of the people involved in the walk-out were seniors, of which all but about ten are 18, and were at the time of voting.
2. There is no one "legal body" that hires the principal, the entire process is democratic, and the SB just has the final vote in the process.
3. The responsibility of the SB is ultimately to adhere to the will and wishes of the students; the point is to have a body that will make decisions to build a strong environment for students, and the school board as of late has been making decisions incredibly unpopular with everyone but the people that truly have a vested interest in the district. In my observations at the school board meetings, the people that think we are in the wrong, are people who have no children in the district/their children are no longer in it and have lost touch/have children too young for them to understand what damage is being done.
4. You treat what was a 100% student planned, student organized and student driven peaceful protest as the wanton act of a bunch of brats that just wanted out of class. I've read your posts elsewhere on this site and you clearly have a problem with students having an opinion and voicing it. To quote you; "...I would like to know why teachers and administrators colluded in this attempt to use students to influence the community." Do you think we are brainless shells open to be programmed? We are all intelligent young men and women (in actuality a good portion of us are grown men and women) that can produce our own opinions. This isn't the old days. Children aren't "seen and not heard" anymore. We have a voice, and we'll yell if we need to. Change needs to happen, and we took it upon ourselves to catalyze it.
I hope that an adult such as yourself can take criticism from an adult such as me.
Sincerely,
Collin Lawson
ORHS Class of 2011
I don't know why, but my comment was removed unjustly, seeing as I made a critical, but perfectly respectful post. I'll repost and see what happens
ReplyDelete________________________________________________
Brett,
Please allow me to do some deconstruction here:
1. The voice of the student body is a powerful thing regardless of whether or not you think it counts. For your information, the majority of the people involved in the walk-out were seniors, of which all but about ten are 18, and were at the time of voting.
2. There is no one "legal body" that hires the principal, the entire process is democratic, and the SB just has the final vote in the process.
3. The responsibility of the SB is ultimately to adhere to the will and wishes of the students; the point is to have a body that will make decisions to build a strong environment for students, and the school board as of late has been making decisions incredibly unpopular with everyone but the people that truly have a vested interest in the district. In my observations at the school board meetings, the people that think we are in the wrong, are people who have no children in the district/their children are no longer in it and have lost touch/have children too young for them to understand what damage is being done.
4. You treat what was a 100% student planned, student organized and student driven peaceful protest as the wanton act of a bunch of brats that just wanted out of class. I've read your posts elsewhere on this site and you clearly have a problem with students having an opinion and voicing it. To quote you; "...I would like to know why teachers and administrators colluded in this attempt to use students to influence the community." Do you think we are brainless shells open to be programmed? We are all intelligent young men and women (in actuality a good portion of us are grown men and women) that can produce our own opinions. This isn't the old days. Children aren't "seen and not heard" anymore. We have a voice, and we'll yell if we need to. Change needs to happen, and we took it upon ourselves to catalyze it.
I hope that an adult such as yourself can take criticism from an adult such as me.
Sincerely,
Collin Lawson
ORHS Class of 2011
Collin - sometimes, the blogspot site has a delay in posting the comments. If you don't see yours, just try again. It is out of our control unfortunately. I want to assure you that no one deleted your comment. If so, you would see an entry stating "comment removed by an administrator".
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Seth
Collin's Post:
ReplyDeleterett,
Please allow me to do some deconstruction here:
1. The voice of the student body is a powerful thing regardless of whether or not you think it counts. For your information, the majority of the people involved in the walk-out were seniors, of which all but about ten are 18, and were at the time of voting.
2. There is no one "legal body" that hires the principal, the entire process is democratic, and the SB just has the final vote in the process.
3. The responsibility of the SB is ultimately to adhere to the will and wishes of the students; the point is to have a body that will make decisions to build a strong environment for students, and the school board as of late has been making decisions incredibly unpopular with everyone but the people that truly have a vested interest in the district. In my observations at the school board meetings, the people that think we are in the wrong, are people who have no children in the district/their children are no longer in it and have lost touch/have children too young for them to understand what damage is being done.
4. You treat what was a 100% student planned, student organized and student driven peaceful protest as the wanton act of a bunch of brats that just wanted out of class. I've read your posts elsewhere on this site and you clearly have a problem with students having an opinion and voicing it. To quote you; "...I would like to know why teachers and administrators colluded in this attempt to use students to influence the community." Do you think we are brainless shells open to be programmed? We are all intelligent young men and women (in actuality a good portion of us are grown men and women) that can produce our own opinions. This isn't the old days. Children aren't "seen and not heard" anymore. We have a voice, and we'll yell if we need to. Change needs to happen, and we took it upon ourselves to catalyze it.
I hope that an adult such as yourself can take criticism from an adult such as me.
Sincerely,
Collin Lawson
ORHS Class of 2011
Seth, thank you for clarifying. I was confused for a moment
ReplyDeleteCollin,
ReplyDeleteI disagree with your point #3 above.
The SB is not elected to "adhere to the will and wishes of the students". If that were the case, then the SB would be elected by the students. The SB is in fact elected to represent the will of the voters. This is at least in part because by-and-large the citizens are either property owners or renters and thus are paying the property taxes that fund the school system - therefore they are the "owners" of the system.
I am not trying to suggest that students should not have opinions or a voice ("seen and not heard"). I am saying that any student who feels that the SB owes them certain "rights" is mistaken. The job of the SB is to represent the voters, not the students. If those interests coincide, great; if not, the students lose. It's not necessarily "fair", but that's the way the system is.
If the job of school board is to represent the voters
ReplyDeletethan again I think they failed.As a voter, taxpayer
and HS parent I believe they had a duty to explain
the reason for their vote.
Watching the last meeting it seems that they could not agree between themselves the reason for this.
I fully understand that they can not ( and should not)
go into detail about a certain person.
The SB could have stated simply it was a budget issue, personal,or process ect.