Monday, September 16, 2013

Interesting Situation In Michigan

What's interesting here is that finally I have a story wherein most of the adults are acting like adults, at least for awhile:
Enrollment appears to be nosediving in a Michigan school district where several teachers publicly supported a former colleague who admitted having sex with a middle school student.

The student body count in the West Branch-Rose City district, in northeast Michigan is down unofficially some 87 students following a tumultuous summer in which angry parents blasted seven teachers for writing letters in support of former teacher Neal Erickson. The letters urged a judge to be lenient in sentencing Erickson, who admitted to sexual misconduct with an underage, male student from 2006 to 2009. When the school board declined to take action against the teachers, many parents vowed to pull their kids out of the public schools, which have a total enrollment of just over 2,000.

“I can’t speculate as to why the students have left, but there were certainly parents who vocalized that they were pulling their children out of school because of the teacher’s support,” West Branch-Rose City School Superintendent Daniel Cwayna told FoxNews.com. “We addressed the issue as best we could without infringing upon the teacher’s first amendment rights. There’s only so much we can do.”
The teachers supported someone they thought needed supporting. The parents disagreed and asked the school board to fire the teachers. The school board rightly refused to do so--if a cop asked for leniency for a cop-killer it would be seen not as unprofessional but as a sign of humanity and forgiveness.  The parents don't like this decision and pull their kids out of schools taught by people whom they do not respect. 

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