Turtleboy: Lack of Teachers and Students at North High Meeting is a ‘Disgrace’

Friday, February 13, 2015

Turtleboy

On Thursday night Superintendent Boone announced there would be a safety meeting at North High. The problem with this is that teachers, students, and the community were not allowed into the public meeting. Ya got that? Teachers and students are the primary people whose safety is at hand, and they’re not allowed. That makes TONS of sense. And why allow the taxpayers into this meeting? They only financed the state of the art multi-million dollar building a couple years back. Why should they be allowed?

The reason they didn’t want anyone there is because the whole thing is a sham. I was down there last night and sat outside the cafeteria and listened to what was going on. Someone announced that the 20-30 parents who showed up would be splitting into groups to have a “conversation about perspective and understanding.” Obviously this will fix nothing. Obviously. There was also a question and answer session, in which only a small amount of parents were allowed to ask questions. The lone question that was apparently not allowed to be asked, was in regards to hiring a police officer in the school.

So who was running this circus? Well according to our sources the “facilitators” who were chosen by administration included State Representative Mary Keefe. Her campaign manager, Kevin Ksen, is one of the protesters filmed at Kelley Square illegally occupying traffic on MLK Jr. day. Ya got that? A state representative whose campaign manager obviously has a grudge to pick with the police was chosen as a “facilitator” at a meeting on whether or not police presence is necessary in the school. Yea, that seems pretty transparent.

School Committee member Diana Biancheria spoke with us, and made it clear that she was in complete opposition to the way the Superintendent was handling the meeting. She went so far as to call it a “disgrace” that parents weren’t given proper notification about the meeting, which would explain why only 1-2% of North High parents were involved in such an important meeting.

We also had the opportunity to speak with North High senior Leith Larson, who has been leading a student movement for more police presence at the school. He told me that his classes are often disrupted by defiant students who are sent to the main office only to be sent right back to class, presumably so the school can keep its suspension rates down.

Mr. Larson, who is going into the Navy next year and is a member of North’s award winning ROTC, recently started a petition for a police officer inside the school, which was signed by over 1/3 of the students, and 80 members of the faculty. However, the day he got the petition going was the day that 599 students didn’t come to school out of safety concerns. That means that over 75% of the student body in attendance signed his petition in one day. That’s an insane statistic, and one that Melinda Boone is completely ignoring the legitimacy of.

Mr. Larson’s primary reason for wanting a police officer in the building is for kids to build a better relationship with the police. People like Clive McFarlane and Kevin Ksen have given kids the false belief that the police are their enemies. They’re not. They’re here to help. By having a police officer inside the building it would allow kids to build a healthy relationship with the police instead of seeing them as the enemy.

Instead of this brilliant idea that the faculty, students, and parents seem to overwhelmingly favor, we’re stuck with a “liason” whose job duties are undefined. The bottom line is that this new “liason” is going to cost money; money that can easily be used to pay for a detail officer in the school. But apparently Melinda Boone and the powers that be don’t aren’t concerned about common sense solutions that improve safety conditions and community relations.