This is huge. Just dismantled the improvised computer-riser that allowed me to stand and deliver blogs and columns (not book copy, because it called for too much standing time) and am now SITTING and typing!
It’s one small step for mankind by the stiff-legged man whose casts were sawed off only a few days ago! Yahoo! On to book-length copy production, not to mention even greater blogging and columning.
What do you say as a school administrator when asked why so many black kids are disciplined, far more than white kids?
You vaguely question teachers’ and administrators’ sensitivity to black kids’ needs, refer to the little-known and less-appreciated cyclic nature of student misbehavior, and cite vaguely how different is each child’s experience — with the latter countering the widespread impression that each child’s experience is the same or at least similar:
Kevin Anderson, [District 97’s] assistant superintendent for teaching and learning, hesitated to hazard a guess when asked why he thinks African-American males are receiving the majority of out-of-school suspensions.
“Is that a sensitivity issue on our part? Are we going through a cycle of kids acting out right now? It would be so different for every child, I can’t guess at this time,” he said.
Not fair to nail the guy for off-cuff comments, or at least not entirely fair, you say. But would we expect something more pointed and informative in a considered official statement? It would be a first for a schools bureaucracy anywhere.
Call just now from AFL-CIO, the caller-i-d told me.
Yeah? says I, expecting a recorded message.
It was state rep. Deborah Graham, promising what? You got it,
CHANGE!
Something here worth noting about CALEA, the Fairfax VA-based national police dept. accrediting agency whose deadline passed for Oak Park police’s doing required paper work:
“That process is really, really burdensome,” said Randy Criswell, Canyon [TX] assistant city manager. “It’s costly from a manpower standpoint; hours and hours a week just working on it. The results are good, you have a police force as trained as they can be, but it’s a little burdensome for a small agency.”
So Canyon police dropped CALEA, mainly because of the cost of complying
“Re-accreditation for the third time would be about $13,000 for three years,” he said. “This program, we would spend about $1,600 for all of four years, plus a little travel, so $2,000 to $3,000.”
Instead, they turned to the Texas Law Enforcement Agency Recognition Program through the Texas Police Chiefs Association.
This is a bad sign:
The Oak Park Police Department has failed in its attempt to receive accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA), Oak Park Police Chief Rick Tanksley said Tuesday.
“This was our first attempt to get the accreditation status and we fell short in our paperwork-documentation process,” said Tanksley, who received verbal notification on the four-day process in December.
Paperwork documentation, also known as record-keeping, which is as crucial to law enforcement as bullets in guns.
