"Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage."
- Confucius, philosopher
"Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear."
- Mark Twain, author
"Courage is fire, bullying is smoke."
- Benjamin Disraeli, politician
"Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened."
- Billy Graham, minister
"The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice, it is conformity."
- Rollo May, psychologist
And a final one...
"Let us go forth with fear and courage and rage to save the world."
- Grace Paley, author
When faced with fear, do you have the courage to stand upfor what you believe - what you know - to be right?
The following numbers are approximate as they are pulled from a bar graph from Board of Ed notes:
ReplyDeleteThe following are stats about Student Involved Incidents of Workers' Compensation Claims:
School yr 2012-2013. School yr 2013-2014
Jul 18. Jul 17
Aug 2. Aug 2
Sept 35. Sept 52
Oct 50. Oct 72
Nov 40. Nov 66
Dec 18. Dec 32
Jan 37. Jan 30
Feb 18. Feb 35
Mar 51. Mar not available
Apr 50. Apr not available
May 49. May not available
June 18. June not available
OMG! Please keep in mind that the above are only teachers/administratots/staff/ta's that are injured to the degree of missing work! How can Contreras call the violence in the schools PERCEIVED? I certainly pray that the Board, now under the leadership of Mignano, stops taking what Contreras has to say at face value. When not pushed into a corner and when prepared Contreras is a good speaker. When pushed into a corner and forced to speak on her toes she can not speak in a professional manner. How can anyone look at the above and push the escalating violence under the carpet? How can ANYONE believe this type of learning environment is conducive to ANY child learning and being prepared for LIFE? How can the Board of Education continue to have CONFIDENCE in this Superintendent? If all members of the Board take a deep breath, step back, take their egos and personal agendas out of the picture...they would immediately look else where for a new Superintendent!
ReplyDeleteI am but one voice, yet am confident that I speak for SO many, if not most SCSD staff (and increasingly more parents). The above post (beginning with an appropriate "OMG!") is right on the money (no pun intended), particularly regarding how the (majority of the) Board of Education, despite all evidence to the contrary, continues to take this misguided, self-serving superintendent at face value. It is a poorly-kept secret that the SCSD is a mere stepping stone for Ms Contreras' next career move, leaving the SCSD carnage in her wake. Good luck finding ANY superintendent capable of, and willing to take on this disaster. What is incredible is how the public and key elected officials fall for her well-designed sound bytes over and over and over. She has promised, endlessly, and since day one, has failed to deliver for the students, let alone PROTECT them and the staff. If EVER there was a classic HOSTILE WORK ENVIRONMENT, the Syracuse City School District would be the poster child. The level of violence has escalated to unimaginable and unprecedented levels, from HS all the way down to early primary grades. Kindergartners are now regularly causing bodily injury to staff, who are trying to protect other students as well as themselves, and this fails to make the headlines. The above stats of WORKERS' COMP claims of staff injuries involving students are a mere drop in the bucket, as countless injuries are never even reported, and of those that are, the majority do not result in medical leaves. Come on, people! PARENTS, ARE YOU LISTENING? Is this somehow good for your children? Even if not injured, themselves, thousands of students are forced to witness DAILY verbal and physical assaults of other students and staff. SCSD staff, are you even able, let alone willing, to continue along this route? This is madness. We have already lost way too many of our most talented, dedicated and capable educators to other districts and/or to early retirement. Those that can leave are doing so as fast as they can. Those that cannot, are counting down the months and years with more resentment than ever. Meanwhile, class sizes go up, and scores go down, as parents of even elementary students bemoan the impossible task of helping their children with incomprehensible (often ambiguous, inconsistent and riddled with errors) homework, as their kids literally cry over subjects which they formerly loved. WHAT is it going to take? We already have weapons in schools (at ALL levels) on a daily basis, though it doesn't make the press (the SCSD is VERY careful about what information is released). Have we not yet reached the breaking point? If not, one would shudder at just how much WORSE it will have to get. But, certainly, we can do BETTER than THIS!
DeleteI would hope that Contreras supporters come out to the Weds Board meeting...that is what friends do in another friend's time of need. I would also hope that her friends make the difficult decision to look at the current statr of the District with an open mind and open heart! That is a sure fire way to get on the path to rebuilding the District, the path to rebuilding a healthy school culture, a path to buildup our youth! We need to stop giving our children excuses. Administrators and District have been heard to say that the escalation of verbal and physical hostility in the District is because teachers are not engaging the students. Really? Since when does boredom give anyone an excuse to act out in a hostile, disrespectful, disruptive manner? Stop giving students an excuse to act out. Give students the social, emotional and academic tools to succeed! School is not going to be fun and engaging every single minute of the day, but it can be an overall positive force on a child's life!
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