The Tale of Two Cities
There’s a place called Needville, Texas, that’s about as redneck a place there is outside of Yehaw, Texas. It’s right down the road from me and in my county. And I am ashamed of that.
Needville ISD Superintendent Curtis Rhodes on Tuesday threatened to suspend any student who disrupts schools or walks out to protest current gun laws.
In a letter sent to families and published on schools’ social media sites, Rhodes said students would face a three-day, out-of-school suspension if they joined in growing protests nationwide over the shooting at a Florida high school last week.
And do you want to know why he’s going to suspend them? “A school is a place to learn and grow educationally, emotionally and morally,” Rhodes wrote. You know, except about your rights. And, apparently, he also thinks it’s a place to get shot and die.
The principal also makes it very clear that “parent notes will not alleviate the discipline.” Luckily no principal on earth ever said that to me about my children so I didn’t have to punch any of them.
Y’all, if they had that rule when I was in high school, I’d still be in high school.
Then on the other side in Dallas, Texas.
In the wake of last week’s deadly gun rampage in Florida, one of Dallas’ top leaders wants the National Rifle Association to hold its annual convention elsewhere.
Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway said Monday the NRA would be “met with opposition” if it continued with the event planned for May 4-6, WFAA reported.
And the NRA says —
NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said the group wasn’t changing its plans.
“No politician anywhere can tell the NRA not to come to their city,” he said. “We are already there. Dallas, like every American city and community, is populated by NRA members.”
I guess Dallas needs a high school principal.
Thanks to Irene for the heads up.
Rhodes scholar apparently has a different meaning in Texas.
1I’d be standing in front of that school reading aloud from the Constitution-especially the FIRST Amendment
2Broward County Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie is an example of how school superintendents should perform. Another example would be Representative Fredericka Wilson when she was a school principal. Education is not rocket science, but it does require leaders who lead by example. Both education and gun safety can be achieved.
3Rhodes is a supercilious waste of DNA. Its guys like him who inspire the growing rate of home schooled kids!
4I’m just glad to see what might finally be a toppling of the NRA monolith. It sounds as if enough people are finally getting fed up loudly enough that politicians are finally going to have to listen to us instead of the money the NRA stuffs in their pockets.
5Maybe Needville ISD Superintendent Curtis Rhodes should sit in on one of his high school social studies classes. Like the lesson plan about the 1st Amendment. How you can’t skip over it to get to the 2nd Amendment. How you can’t use the 2nd Amendment to crush the 1st Amendment with self-justifications and pretext.
6Dwaine Caraway is a 24x7x365 knucklehead, but on this NRA issue, he is right. City of Dallas offered, I have heard, some $400k in aid for NRA to hold its convention in Dallas. I’ve not heard how that came up or how it was approved, but it can and should be rescinded. ASAP.
7I don’t know about the children in the schools where Rhodes is the superintendent, but I’ve listened to a number of the students from the high school in Florida where the terrible shooting occurred. Each student from Florida speaks better than dRump, Turtle Mac or Jeff Sessions, who can’t give or read worth a damn. It would be painful to hear them even if you agreed with what they were saying. Sessions is the worse speaker I ever heard.
8Needville needs a three day sick-out to teach that bass a lesson.
9I’d be talking with my kids about the tough choices in life and how some things are worth the pain of an out of school suspension.
I would not, however, be surprised if that horses ass, aka Superintendent Rhodes, and made life uncomfortable for all the kids who chose to protest in addition to the detention. He just seems the type.
He might as well have a big sign around his neck saying, ‘I don’t care if these kids in the district get shot’.
10But they will get detention!
They should take the suspension. Every day a student is not in school costs the school money. If they leave and come back, no problem, if he suspends them that is 3 x number of students x about $50. And they will still be paying the teachers for those days.
11What is more representative of American ideals, suppressing free speech or
12https://www.salon.com/2018/02/21/gun-control-walkout-teens-protest-around-the-country-by-leaving-schools/
TrulyTexan: Rhodes might find the ACLU siding with the rights of the students, by filing a suit against him and his county school board if they suspend student protesters. At least I’m hoping the ACLU is watching this play out. I think the students should exercise their right to protest.
13I hope the students in Needville do what they think is the right thing to do. I hope their parents and other rational adults support them if they opt for the suspension. I’ll bet that missing three days in a Needville school does not mean that they will miss three days which will haunt them and make getting into college difficult. The Super needs to wake up, pay attention, and focus on education rather than discipline.
Adults, with and without Needville School students, should right now let the Super and any other local Neanderthals know that they will support the kids. Hint, hint, when the school board goes up for election and the Super looks for a raise.
14Even though the student movement for gun control is inspiring, this congress and this president will not do a thing, beholden as they are to the NRA.
15What they will accomplish will be to target the NRA stooges in the midterm election and possibly cause the blue wave to become a tsunami.
So one of my concerns is that these people really do not care about educating people. They like when they believe their lies. Fortunately it sounds like many of these high school students are way smarter and better informed than the people trying to keep them down.
16Guessing Curtis Rhodes owns a couple of AR-15s.
Call it a hunch.
17Rhodes said he was sensitive to violence in schools but that administrators would discipline students, whether it was “one, fifty, or five hundred students involved.”
“A school is a place to learn and grow educationally, emotionally and morally,” he wrote. “A disruption of the school will not be tolerated. (from a VOX article)
He’s going to suspend the next shooter for three days?
18Drumpf wants to expand conceal carry on campuses. Imagine 1st graders trying to conceal a Glock in their…..?
19I’d be delighted to admit those suspended students to my university or to any of the universities or colleges where I’ve been faculty or student (a pretty top-tier list, as it happens.)
They have the energy and courage to initiate non-violent civil action and the integrity to accept consequences. Future leaders, in other words.
As for Mr. Rhodes, I wouldn’t hire him at any academic level, for any job, not even to clean diapers in a nursery school.
20Another example of the rural/urban divide — even in a red state like Texas. Pitiful…
21I hope those Texas kids tell that guy where he can stick his suspension and every one of them walk out in protest. I have a suspicion that they won’t let him scare them out of this. He must think they are as gutless as NRA bought politicians.
22FWIW Jeff Lawson (CEO and founder of Twillo) said, “Attention students of America. If you get detention because you walked out and joined the March – I will send you a gallon of ice cream for every day of detention. Because kids should have ice cream, not detention. Seriously, text me if you’re in this situation 727-866-4867.”
23Minneapolis public high school kids walked out after lunch today. They held a rally in a city park and walked to city hall. The mayor and council listened to them then passed a resolution urging the state legislature to do what the students requested– ban assault type guns, raise the age limit for buying guns, background checks for any gun purchase and a few other things. Those students got in No Trouble and were treated respectfully. Unfortunately, snacilbupeR have a majority in the House so it’s not going to happen, but next year . . .
24Take the suspension, kids. Get video evidence that you’re protesting. It’s just the kind of thing universities are looking for; leadership among the young.
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