Love me some Peanut Butter

Fort Wayne creative minds at work, wins a college scholarships. News-Sentinel reports,

Alexandra Yoder, 12, won a $25,000 college scholarship after taking first place in the “Jif Most Creative Peanut Butter Sandwich Contest.”

Let children be children and look what they can do! It has nothing to do with the school but their own creative juices.

The sixth-grader’s creamy concoction, self-titled Peanut Butter Rolls “Sushi Style,” bested nine other finalists in judging Thursday at the Culinary Loft in New York City’s SoHo area. Yoder, a sixth-grader at St. Vincent de Paul School in Fort Wayne, wrapped Jif peanut butter, granola, strawberries, bananas and strawberry cream cheese inside a crepe.

Follow procedures-Steps to Censorship

Amy Sorrell, a teacher at Woodlan Junior-Senior High School is in the hot seat. Sorrell failed to discourage an opinion piece written by a student. Did Sorrell not read what happened to a young male student at Carroll High School in expressing his views about a friend. This student was kicked out of school for expressing an opinion also for defending a friend but in his own publication that dogged his school.

But student, Megan Chase expressed an opinion in support of a friend with same sex issues. Bad, Bad She wrote this opinion and it was printed in the school student newspaper. For all the other students to be exposed to same sex issues. Hello, can we say Rosie, Ellen, Rock Hudson, just to name a few. It's not like it's the student looking hearing about the issue. Nevertheless, Chase's opinion stirred the Woodlan's Principal into action. The Principal took over the student newspaper. This way, he will have final say on what goes on in the student's newspaper.

It's not like the school is against same sex issues. Sorrell does not understand how it could have come to her losing her job. Krista Stockman reports:

The East Allen County Schools teacher at the center of a controversy over the newspaper at Woodlan Junior-Senior High School has been placed on paid leave.

English and journalism teacher Amy Sorrell was told Monday that she was being placed on leave while the district investigates allegations that could lead to terminating her contract.

She said she doesn’t know what the investigation is about or why she is being placed on leave.

“I’m assuming it’s with this whole mess of all this other stuff, but I really don’t see how it got this far,” Sorrell said.

Sorrell, probably got caught up in groupthink and decided she is an adult and skirted the rule of going through through the proper channels. Had Sorrell followed the correct procedure, the article would not have seen the light of day.. or at best would have been more balance. Balanced in the fact that the articlewould not have leaned so heavily toward supporting same sex relationships. Lesson, students need to follow school rules. And learning about same sex relationship has nothing to do with following man rules.

Sorrell knows the rules, she's a teacher. First and foremost schools are not about what students think. You can gossip all day, but don't have a student thinking. It is a place to teach them how to fit into society. Second rule, do not challenge authority. Who cares if authority, or role model are wrong. Heck the President started a war based on information that was wrong. But the President is authority, just follow the rules.

Sorrell broke the rules, and now her job is on the line. Sorrell took the risk, and now a quick dismissal will teach the students the price of not following the rules. Schools don't care if you eat, sleep, chew gum and even have sex, but for goodness sake, it's not a place to encourage students to think.

Oh by the way, Sorrell is a female. The student who wrote the opinion was a female. The reaction towards these two female is not out of character for a district that allegedly stopped collective bargaining with a group of workers who were mainly females.

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) A federal labor board has ruled that an Indiana school district may have discriminated against female employees when it stopped collective bargaining with employee groups made up mostly of women.

East Allen County Schools said in December 2004 that the district would no longer negotiate contracts with nurses, secretaries, paraprofessionals and food service workers. District officials said the decision would save the district money, and noted there was no legal requirement to bargain with the associations, though they had done so for decades.

The four groups had a total of about 310 employees in 2005, but less than five were men. Union officials say the EEOC will work with the school district and the groups to come to an agreement.

East Allen County Schools attorney Tim McCaulay said he would forward the determination to the school board and consult with outside legal counsel about the ruling.

The saying goes, if you discriminate against one you will discriminate against others.

So now what? Hopeful those in the same sex community will stand with Sorrell and the student. Sorrell stood. Sorrell stood for the right to express your view. That students do have opinions and they need to be able to express these views without being censored. Let's see if the same sex community is without bias by standing up in defense of a female.

Censorship gone Wild

Hey girl students it is okay to participate in having sex in the school. Sex only beocmes a problem when you talk about it or discuss sexuality within the school setting. For example, two students in Indiana were not hiding out in an empty classroom having sex. No, the two students engaged in a sexual act while the teacher and other students were present in the classroom. Yes. And when the school learned about the sixth graders inappropriate behavior, the school wanted the matter to be the school's little secret. Sounds similiar to a don't ask, don't tell policy, I heard about coming from the military. Almost.

But when it came to talking about same sex issue, a student newspaper in Indiana found itself under scrutiny. Megan Chase wrote the article and it provoked the principal of the school into taking over the student ran newspaper. New rule for the school's student newspaper, from now on, articles will have to get the thumbs up from the publisher, the principal. This way, the student's newspaper will become the Principal's exercise in limited free speech.

And for those young women out there who believed they've come a long way,baby. New York got some news for you. Three young women were suspended for saying the V word during a reading in their school. No the students did not use the F word, it was the V word that got these sassy maturing teens booted from the school. No girl power is to be expressed in that school.


And girls after you learn that you are to shut up and it okay to have sex. Wait until you get to college in DePauw University in Indians for another defining moment. There a soriority booted girls for not having the right looks, ugly Betty no need of applying. **Messages being sent to you sistas, listen up** Girls you need to learn how to follow the rules. You know the rules that you are to be seen not heard. Where are the Dixie Chicks when you need them?