The Passion of Truth

I suppose each of us have a passion about something in our life. Some more than others. Some stronger than others. Some may have passions that lie dormant because they are not triggered.

When it comes to issues within the public school education system, blogs are full of passioned commenter's.

Yesterday I created this post.

I received this comment on the situation of public schools. It was better than how I could have framed it. I have permission to present it. As I have frequently made the same challenge when I write about my perception of the school system, she ends with the same: "prove her wrong".

For those who do not know, Bambi Lockman is the Chief Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services, Florida Department of Education.

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If I may, a personal comment:
I have had the pleasure of meeting and talking to Mr. Sammons on several occasions. One in particular comes to mind - late one evening after CAFE, Keith, Mr. Sammons and I stood before Bambi Lockman describing the plight of education for our children. Bambi stood patiently as we told the stories she already knows so well. I find myself curious at times as to how someone in her position can be immune to these stories. Sammons was compelling, and statements between us, Keith, Bill and myself, confirmed the systemic nature of these problems. No one has stuck their head in the sand. Bambi had heard it all before.


Ignorance was not an excuse.


Deniability on Bambi's part was not permitted. We pressed for answers. Some say the Holocaust happened because no one spoke out soon enough. If you meet enough families, you realize the comparison is carefully stated and applicable in reverent terms. And yet, racial segregation did end because many spoke out. There is no other population who have endured the forced submission, isolation, voracity, neglect, restraint, retaliation, dumbing down, bullying, verbal and physical abuse, as well as educational apathy that our children have endured. So how does this happen? Is it because our children themselves have no voice? Because believe me, families ARE speaking out - volumes. Administrators, teachers, and yes, indeed the Bureau Chief herself had intimate knowledge of this, and many other crisis situations. And yet, they walk away, just like Bambi did that night.


So once again, families are forced into the only means of educational enforcement our system grants - the courts. Eventually, this too will pass for this family. Drew will find his way, although certainly damaged from the lack of education. The Sammons family will be known as those "parents who sue" the school district and believe me a part of them will never be the same.. There will be a red flag in that cum file, a few more administrators in that next IEP. This will be used, not to grant positive educational change, but rather incite fear in teachers by manipulative school district attorneys that they need to "fear" parents or somehow they will be held personally liable. Somewhere, somewhere, the educators forgot about educating. Or maybe it was never seen that way to begin with. Maybe our children were the charity cases, the, "we love your child", we owe it to these poor disabled children to love them and care for them, but we can't really expect them to learn. I would say there is more to that at the heart of this than anything else. The deplorable stench of low expectations. And somehow, a few self-advocates, and a few real teachers, and most of all, a few pesky parents kept raising their ugly heads in protest. So why hasn't this been enough - these outcries, these lawsuits?
Those very school district attorneys are on the taxpayer clock (go back and compare the figures), while our families mortgage their homes, sacrifice their relationships, forgo their marriages, just to provide opportunity for those we hold most dear - our children. Our attorneys pay a cost too, in income, and survivability, So anyone out there, tell me I am wrong, tell me this is not a Holocaust of lives. Tell me where the march on Selma is for our children.
Tell me why hasn't this been enough and when is it going to end?
May God Bless and Keep the Sammons family.
Nikole