Typical Teacher

“Parents fume over school ruling on Bush appearance


By Josh Duke
josh.duke@indystar.com
May 16, 2003


A Westfield eighth-grader’s singing appearance during President Bush’s visit struck a sour note with school administrators who refused to treat her missed classes as an excused absence.

Brianna Tull won’t be allowed to make up any work or get credit for the classes she didn’t attend because she was singing with the Indianapolis Children’s Choir during Bush’s appearance Tuesday at the Indiana State Fairgrounds.

Chris Tull, mother of the Westfield Middle School student, was incensed by Principal Ed Mendoza’s decision.

“As parents, this is the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Tull said. “With this new (attendance) policy we can’t take our children out of school for virtually anything.”

Mendoza, who was not at school today, was unavailable for comment. However, district superintendent Mark Keen said Brianna’s case didn’t meet the standard for excused absences.

However, Tull argued that it did fit under “other educational activity” as described in school policy.

“If attending a presidential speech isn’t educational, I don’t know what is,” Tull said. “She is working on a report about the experience that we are going to present to Mr. Keen.”

School policy defines “other educational activity” as “relevant to the child’s academic growth and equivalent to the child’s school activities/experiences.” The absence requires 30-day notice and must be approved by the building principal.

Brianna sang during Bush’s appearance at the fairgrounds. The president spoke about the war on terrorism and pushed his tax-cut plan in his speech in the Pepsi Coliseum.”

“Seems legit to me. It is equivalent to a vacation day.”

“That's an odd position to take.

Around here attending a Presidential speech (any President mind you) gets you extra credit.”

“The President must be from the "wrong" party.
It's sad when the adult leaders take out their political views on the children.”

“It does depend on the rules that the school sets up. Student absences are a huge problem nowadays and depending on the day structure (standard or block type schedule), missing a class can put a child behind. Without knowing all the details and policy, it does us no good to "poo poo" the school actions. I do take offense to the suggestion that the "UpUrs" is saying that this is typical of a teacher (trying to insight that teachers are ALL liberal Republican haters) is flat out bull#&%!$! Kindly f u c k off, you jacka s s!”

“Nope. Can't agree with the school on this one.”

“I can see why you're upset, Uppy, being the typical 7th grader you are.”

“Bush did say we need more accountability for the weak points in our public schools. (Had to say that :))”

“Not to mention it wasn't a teacher, but an administrator who made the interpretation.

That, as any teacher will tell you, is a major difference. Teachers have their own horror stories about administrator interpretations of educational requirements.”

“I don't know how they do it in this school system, but our students get a certain number of days to play with before it starts to diminish their grade.

In our district, kids can have four absences per marking period. We have four marking periods. That means a student could be out sick for 16 days without penalty. That's a bit less than 10%.

Our only "excused" days are for field trips or school-run extra-curricular activities. A presidential visit would not be excused, and given the logic of our system, it shouldn't be excused.”

“this is my town youre talking about. central indiana. the land of mullets and suv's. i doubt if the administrator was anti-bush.”

“As a School Board Chairman, in my opinion the administrator was an idiot and/or the policy is not well thought out. They should have been bragging about that. Instead they are getting bad PR. Really smart thinking.

If a student is in a school choir (especially the chorale), they miss a lot of classes to perform at functions and competitions. Our kid's school had their choir perform for President Bush when he was in California. It was a big PR opportunity.

What if a high school student (e.g., Janet Evans) qualified to compete in the Olympics and had to miss a few days of school to attend the trials. Unexcused?”

“maybe george can write her a note.”

“As much as I'd like to get into a rumble with Phil, I'll defer on this one. This is probably one of those times when you wink-wink and throw the grades into the book anyway.

It just seems strange to me that there is this much controversy over one day. There must be a history here.”

“i live in westfield and i never heard about this. its a non-event. but we here at trail talk have to pick up every little thing that pisses us off, or might piss us off, and beat it til it bleeds.”

“but we here at trail talk have to pick up every little thing that pisses us off, or might piss us off, and beat it til it bleeds.

You have something against trail talk, scoopy? That's pissing me off!”

“I brought some baggage into my comments, I must admit, based on some experiences at the state university and the K-12 school I am involved with.

We had a very minor incident at our school that got blown way out of proportion because of a policy that was followed that caused us to lose control of the situation. It was unfortunate.”

“Maybe the school's administration is pro terrorism and/or anti Bush. ;o)”

“yea phaed to black, i do. you wanna fight? fight me. ~does bad bruce lee impression~”

“I can't agree with the scoll on this one. The position of "President of the United States" transcends any political party. Attending such an event is definately education. To be selected to perform at such is exceptional. The spot the girls is in is indicative of the shortsightedness of public education today. It hasn't changed much since the 1930's.”

“Mendoza, who was not at school today..."

LOL!”