Wellllll....

If I never worked in a school system and had I not read about Shaquanda Cotton or read about the little seven year old boy who was placed in handcuffs, I could say what! But here it is again, this time a little girl taken away in handcuffs from her school. This is too much, Florida.

Police arrested a 6-year-old Florida girl and even handcuffed her when she acted out in class. Police officers said Desre'e Watson, a kindergarten student at Avon Elementary School in Highlands County, had a violent run-in with a teacher on Thursday

.

The police must be hard up in finding criminals. They have entered the school system and began arresting little ones. It ain't right. No it ain't right. If they are scared of the criminals on the street, give up the job. I don't care, how you try to sell it this is not community policing. Leave these children alone in the school.

Parents its time. It's time you went to school and take back your schools for educating your children. And if the teachers don't like the students they are teaching it is time for school boards to tell these so called wannabees to find another career. Parents it is time.

Fort Wayne Obama 08 held at the Allen County Main Library

Voters came out to the webcast viewing of Obama 08 to support, share and learn more about Senator Barack Obama. Senate Obama spoke from a public library in tiny Onawa, Iowa. NOw that made me proud !! There was over 5000 sites throughout the United States plugged in watching Senator Obama. However, the community webcast kick off allowed local internet users to meetface to face.
Local attendees at the Allen County Main Public Library were concerned parents, students, small business owners and other Internet users with an interest in knowing more about Senator Obama. I received promises of pledges totally over $100. You can help me reach my goal of $1000 by donating online by going to my page at: http://my.barackobama.com/page/outreach/view/main/FWAAIW

If you are interested in hosting an event go to: http://www.barackobama.com/ or call me at 260-602-1878. Below are some pictures from Fort Wayne's local event.













Thanks to all who came and supported this event.

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.

Education-The fear factor

Parents are concerned about their children's education. Some parents move to community in hopes of getting a good solid education for their children. Some fearing that their students are not being challenged enough, hire private tutors. Others remove their children from schools and began homeschooling as a choice in providing their children with a certain type of education.

Other families are less fortunate, unable to home school or even to hire tutors, see their children failing in schools. Some of these students need only a little help that is unavailable in crowded classrooms. Those students unable to keep up, give up. Low grades, low test scores, lead many of these students to just simply exit the schoolhouse all together. The drop out rate increases not just in urban schools there was an increase in the drop out rate in the rural area. Children willing to forgo higher learning and go it along in the new high tech world. Government decided to intervene, seeing not children failing, but schools failing to produce students prepared to lead its country. The No Child Left behind Act wanted to do something about the lack of academic achievement of students in these schools.

It would offer federal oversight for parents and demand accountability from schools. Those school committed to teaching would be rewarded, those teachers who failed to educate the students who showed up would see their schools closed. The teachers were required to teach no matter the students.

Tutoring program would be available to offer assistance to students who want to compete, but the resources they need are either in short supply or unavailable. Parents who want to be engaged in their child learning, can utilize tutoring program online. ATS is one such program:

ATS Project Success is an on-line tutoring program for math and reading.
We send our computer to your home and provide dial-up access to our program. Students work on our program in the comfort and safety of their own homes, any time of day, any day of the week. To be eligible for our program, you must have a land telephone line in your home and your child must attend a NCLB qualifying school.

The computer is very easy to set up and technical assistance is available if needed. Parents are sent reports weekly about their student’s progress and are also called weekly to discuss progress.

Parents love what ATS Project Success does to help their children improve their grades and test scores in math and reading! They love the way their child’s attitude improves toward school and their increased self-esteem.

If a child attends a qualifying school, there is no cost at all to the parents. The school pays for the tutoring. We charge the school $40 per hour. Each school district determines how much money the student is allocated. Most students are eligible for 25 - 35 hours of tutoring, based on the school district's per student allocation. Students keep the computer until they have finished their tutoring hours. Then we have UPS pick it up at no charge to them.

Our website is www.projectsuccessworks.com.

The need for educational reforms has prompt others to remove accountability from the federal level back to the state. On the fifth year anniversary of NCLB new legislature is in the works to end No Child Left Behind mandate to fund certain program. Today, Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success (A-PLUS) Act of 2007 has been introduced by U.S. Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Jim DeMint (R-S.C.). Academy. According to Senator Cornyn website:

A-PLUS would give states flexibility to consolidate federal education programs and funding and redirect these resources to state education reform initiatives. Currently, the U.S. Department of Education forces states to use federal education funds on specific programs, an approach that has shown little success. In exchange for the flexibility A-PLUS provides, states would be required to be transparent about academic results.

Under the A-PLUS Act:

All states would have the option of establishing a 5-year Performance Agreement with the Secretary of Education.

States could consolidate funds from a few or all of the federal education programs and redirect them to innovative programs created at the state level.

In exchange for this flexibility, participating states would be required to meet their state performance objectives for improving student academic achievement and demonstrate a narrowing of achievement gaps.

If a state fails to improve academic achievement, its Performance Agreement would be revoked and it would revert back to the NCLB system.

Accountability and student achievement would remain a high priority with A-PLUS, but unlike NCLB, A-PLUS allows states to use a variety of innovative accountability programs.

Transparency would be ensured by requiring states to submit annual reports on student progress to parents and taxpayers.

, according to the website.

Cornyn suggest that if state really believe in preventing brain drain, improve their schools. And to get the federal government out the business of oversight of local schools, based on the belief that the state should know what works best for their students. But parents are still protected by the new legislature, because if the state fails to do what it is in the business of doing, meaning improving academic achievement for all of its students, the state will go back into oversight by the federal government.


Locally we are concerned with renovating our school buildings, at the national levels the concern is a quality education for all of its students. Something that every parents wants for his or her child.

No Child Left Behind-tutoring

Schools under the No Child Left Behind may be required to pay for tutoring services. Students must use only those tutoring services that are approved by the NCLB programs. Many of these programs charge a fee, but the child school may be required to pay the fee. Many parents are unaware that their children may qualify for these services. Parents should shop around and get the best service for their child and should not have to pay any out of pocket expense.


Krista Stockman of the journal-gazette reports on three schools in Fort Wayne Indiana. Children in these schools are entitled to paid tutoring. The article reports a low number of students utilizing the program.

Fairfield and Bloomingdale elementary schools in Fort Wayne Community Schools and Village Elementary in East Allen County Schools are required to offer free tutoring to students because they failed to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind for at least three years and because they receive federal money to assist schools with a high percentage of low-income students.

It would be interesting to know what tutoring services are available in Fort Wayne, how much do they charge, where they perform their services, and is the tutoring a group or individualized service. Many tutoring services are based out of town.

Both districts have tried to eliminate transportation as an issue by offering companies that do in-home tutoring. A to Z In-Home Tutoring of Nashville, Tenn., and Club Z Tutoring Services of Tampa, Fla., work with students in their homes.

Both districts are also working with Specialty Tutoring of Fort Wayne, which tutors at the schools. FWCS also uses A+ Grades Up of Fort Worth, Texas, and EACS uses The Neighborhood Learning Place of Fort Wayne, which tutor in the schools.

The online service would work wonder for students, if they had computers in their home. Perhaps, some type of funding program could provide computers in the home for some of these students.

5 1/2 year old child reads Fort Wayne Newspaper

No surprise there. We are considered the dumbest city. But to read that the millionaire, Wizard Baseball co-owner's daughter points out baseball and orangutan, is funny.

Yep, all the fun things in Atlanta and she connect Fort Wayne to seeing minor league baseball and orangutan. If she is lucky she might be able to get to talk to students here. Because, they will probably ask her in reference to the baseballandorgangutan, what's that? Our students are too busy having sex in school, dealing drugs and trying to survive. Read more about downtown development of baseball being the catalyst to growth.

Fort Wayne downtown is suffering raced white flight. Their children need jobs, but can't compete when they go out into the big world. Indiana is ranked 48 in the 50th state in education. Their children are not getting into Harvard, Mr. Freier, they are going to IPFW. Diversity is not a part of IPFW. Harvard at least has some diversity. Heck some of these students confuse an orangutan with African-Americans. So Mr. Freier do you really want to bring your daughter from the diverse Atlanta to white knuckle Fort Wayne? Just thinking outloud.

Oprah- Living History

In South Africa, Oprah Winfrey built a school for girls. The cost of the Leadership Academy, $40,000,000, controls the news headline. On Good Morning America, Diane Sawyer talks to Oprah about why invest in a school in South African rather than in the United States.

The opportunity already exist for such education in the United States and Oprah expressed her support of education in the United States.

Ministry of Education addressed the criticism of the cost of the school for educating those who have so little. But Oprah understood the difference the school will make in the future of the children. The expense of the school "just enough for now", Oprah expressed, suggesting that more is too come.

For the young girls who were selected for the South Africa, Henlep-on-Klip School, on girl stated, education is the bridge to independent. Some wanted to attend the school to help their families. Other because of the opportunity because they considered themselves poor girls. The school provides living quarters for the students of the school. Oprah is taking care of the future of South African, the young girls who will birth the future.

Oprah began her broadcasting career at WVOL radio in Nashville while still in high school. At the age of 19, she became the youngest person and the first African-American woman to anchor the news at Nashville's WTVF-TV. She then relocated to Baltimore's WJZ-TV to co-anchor the Six O'Clock News and later went on to become co-host of its local talk show, People Are Talking.

In 1984, Oprah moved to Chicago to host WLS-TV's morning talk show, AM Chicago, which became the number one local talk show—surpassing ratings for Donahue—just one month after she began. In less than a year, the show expanded to one hour and was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show. It entered national syndication in 1986, becoming the highest-rated talk show in television history. In 1988, she established Harpo Studios, a production facility in Chicago, making her the third woman in the American entertainment industry (after Mary Pickford and Lucille Ball) to own her own studio.

The Oprah Winfrey Show has remained the number one talk show for 20 consecutive seasons*. Produced by her own production company, Harpo Productions, Inc., the show is seen by an estimated 48 million viewers a week in the United States** and is broadcast internationally in 126 countries.

Dee McKinley, local radio program