The school district does have a mandatory uniform for the middle school students. The school handbook devotes a section to proper attire that states shoes, boots and sneakers with matching-colored laces are permitted. It also says if clothing disrupts learning, the administration has the right to set rules about questionable attire.

If a student does not comply, discipline can range from a reminder sent home to parents on the first offense to possible detention or suspensions at the principal’s discretion for repeated offenses.

Virtual charter schools allow students in grades kindergarten through 12 to take classes at home with a computer and the help of a parent or guardian serving as a “learning coach.”

Students interact with a teacher through email, telephone and interactive software, including video conferencing.

Two schools in the state opened last year — one based in Grand Rapids with about 800 students and the other in Okemos with more than 500 students.

Educators, including the state Board of Education, have asked that lawmakers not allow more of the schools to open until several years of academic data is accumulated to determine if the schools are effective.

Cyber learning means that the parent makes the decision about what the child does “at school” and the child has flexibility in determining what he wants to learn and/or not learn. Individuality and creativity is not a part of the plan. Thanks to James Nellis for the link.

In 95 minutes, THE WAR ON KIDS exposes the many ways the public school system has failed children and our future by robbing students of all freedoms due largely to irrational fears. Children are subjected to endure prison-like security, arbitrary punishments, and pharmacological abuse through the forced prescription of dangerous drugs. Even with these measures, schools not only fail to educate students, but the drive to teach has become secondary to the need to control children. Not only do school fall short of their mission to educate, but they erode the country’s democratic foundation and often resemble prisons.

School children are interviewed as are high school teachers and administrators, and prison security guards, plus renowned educators and authors including:

Henry Giroux: Author of Stealing Innocence Corporate Culture’s War on Children

Mike A. Males: Sociologist, author of Scapegoat Generation

John Gatto: New York City and New York State Teacher of the Year

Judith Browne: Associate Director of the Advancement Project

Dan Losen: The Civil Liberties Project, Harvard University

In early 2012, wristwatch-like devices called Polar active monitors will be used by older students in PE classes at all 18 Parkway elementary schools. District officials say the devices should help improve the students’ fitness and academic achievement.

Later this school year, the district plans to collect data about activity levels and even sleep patterns for a week at a time. It will have the students wear the devices round the clock.

…The monitors measure activity by tracking every movement of the person wearing them. They display steps taken, calories spent and time spent at various levels of activity. An animated figure on the monitor indicates the activity level. A bar shows the target time for doing moderate to vigorous activity and the amount of time achieved at that level.

The federal schools are taking Americas’ children prisoner one step at a time under myriad federal “guidelines” designed to shape and mold them into propagandized, mindless, collectivist soldiers who will worship the conventional wisdom that will dictate every aspect of their lives. Nowadays, almost any act of tyranny in the schools can be justified by “concerns” about obesity and health (or now, bullying). In the modern American totalitarian tradition, serfdom is sold as the ideal freedom in order to “protect” the sheeple and keep them all safe and healthy.

A new city ordinance, enacted January 2, has police taking school truancy into their own hands. If kids are caught skipping school they could now be arrested on misdemeanor charges. If their parents are complicit in the hooky-playing, they too could be hauled into court. It’s all part of a new crackdown led by Ken Kippenbrock, Director of Pupil Personnel for the Covington school district.

Yes, there really is a Director of Pupil Personnel. Here’s more:

This week, local police were given a cheat sheet with times when kids should be in school (essentially 8am to 3pm) along with early dismissals, and procedures to follow when encountering a kid outside of school during those hours. If they come across a suspected skipper, officers have the option to bring the child back to school, return them to their parents’ home, or if the child isn’t allowed back in the school, and their parents can’t be reached, booking them.

Kids can’t skip their prison sentence because state funding is linked to attendance, and each unexcused absence reduces the booty that flows to the jackpot. Public school apparatchiks have no shame in publicly exclaiming that the lives of children are sacrificed for the collective benefits of a few. Children are imprisoned in their day pens for the purpose of bringing government money through the door to enable powerful government unions, create jobs for more union minions, and preserve hefty salaries for so-called administrators. On a similar note, in one county in Florida, school administrators want to ban … hair. “Extreme” hair, that is.

According to a Fox 35 news report, the list of shunned style includes any “extreme” hairstyles, unnatural hair colors, and makeup that affects direct eye contact in the classroom. A school spokesperson named Chris Patton said these creative styles detract from learning. “When you have someone who has extreme hairstyles or different colors like pink or purple, it could be a disruption to the education happening in the classroom,” Patton told Fox 35 News. “Kids start talking about it, they start teasing the kids with the different pink or purple color hair.”

Here, eye shadow that looks too “rock star-ish” will be banned. Any hair color or style sweep can be subjectively deemed “extreme.” But really, it’s all in the name of safety because we want children to be safe. Here is a quote from a school spokesperson that goes into the “you can’t make this ___ up” file: “Mascara, eyeshadow, and even the bangs if they are blocking the eyes-where you can’t see a students eyeballs, that’s even a safety thing.”

At Wolcott High School one morning this week, an urgent announcement crackled over the intercom: a threatening intruder was in the building and students were told to immediately take refuge in classrooms.

Doors were locked and police, with dogs, moved in. Students stayed huddled in classrooms where they were told to stay away from the windows.

But what sounded like a frightening situation was just a search for narcotics. Drug-sniffing dogs combed the school while students stayed in locked classrooms, believing that an attacker was roaming the halls.

…”We wanted to practice,” said Superintendent of Schools Joseph McCary. “We said there was a lockdown with an intruder inside. Doors are locked, shades are drawn and the lights are turned off and students are told to move to a corner of the room.”

What did the Superintendent say when asked about this sickness? He was quoted saying, “After 10 minutes we say this is a drill and at that point we started a search for drugs. We are providing a safe and secure nurturing environment.” A spokesperson from the local ACLU stated that, “Young people will learn not to trust the police.” Really?!

At the same time as jack-booted, armored men and women in black clown costumes are parading through school hallways like the great gods of moral righteousness, the federal government has thrown millions of dollars at resources for fighting violence/bullying in the public schools.

The USDA, a legalized, federal crime racket, has been authorized by President Obama’s “Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act” to choose three states – and Michigan is one of them – to participate in a pilot program that turns the old saying, “there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch” on its head. That is, qualifying Michigan school districts can participate in the pilot program where every kid gets a free lunch ….. and a free breakfast ….. and free snacks – and surely, it will be those nice, “healthy,” sugar-loaded snacks recommended by our friends at the ADA (American Disease Association). Here is the Detroit Free Press article:

The psychobabble behind this welfare gimmick is this: kids who get free breakfasts and lunches and wait in line with other kids who pay for meals are stigmatized by the fact that they are getting a freebie and therefore, all the others know they must be poor. And that horrible, horrible shame leads “the children” to skip meals (so they have room for McDonald’s and 7-11 Big Gulps on the way home). So in order to alleviate that humiliation, let’s just give them all free lunches so we can’t identify the parentally displaced children from the rest of the children!  Parents will be asked to fill out surveys:

that includes income analysis to ensure that children, schools and the district will continue to receive millions of dollars in benefits and resources from the state and federal governments, as well as private grants. Program funding dependent on the surveys includes tutoring, after-school programs, field trips, technology and equipment, DDOT bus cards, free college testing, enrichment activities and others.

That most certainly will bring out the survey-responding honesty in parents! Beginning in 2014, this wonderful program that eliminates the stigma by spreading the misery will be available in all states so all children can be non-stigmatized by the all-inclusive stigma approach. You just can’t make this crap up if you tried.

…the principal of West Sylvan Middle School, Allison Couch, issued the ban because the hugging was so disruptive that students could not pass each other in the hallway without a hug and were often late to classes because of a lengthy embrace.  Sometimes students would run down the hall to meet a friend and hug, an action that some found intolerable.  Additionally, there were reports of hugging being used as a form of mockery. In once instance, two eighth-grade girls hugged a seventh-grade boy, which was believed to be a mean-spirited way of hazing.

…It seems that it would be easier to enforce or perhaps modify “common sense” guidelines, including showing respect for classmates, teachers and staff while at school.  It is possible that the students’ rambunctious behavior, bullying, and insincere hugs could be curtailed with punishments, such as detention.

I agree that some ‘hugging’ can indeed be mean, and a form of mockery. From a libertarian, non-aggression perspective, the important question isn’t brought up: is the hug invited and/or approved on the part of the person being hugged? If so, it’s a voluntary action to accept the hug and its consequences, even if the intention is mockery. If the person wards off an attempted hug, that is a message to the hugger that the action is not invited, and a further attempt at hugging – or grabbing/holding on to another person – is an act of aggression. Yet the article only stresses the importance of emotional expressions, and what would make the students (collectively) feel best.

Public schooling always = no emphasis on the individual. And most certainly, all emphasis is on feeling, not thinking.

He also acknowledges he has difficulty composing a coherent English sentence. Here’s a sample from an e-mail he sent to friends and supporters on Sunday night, uncorrected for errors of spelling, grammar, punctuation and usage. It begins:

If you saw Sunday’s Free Press that shown Robert Bobb the emergency financial manager for Detroit Public Schools, move Mark Twain to Boynton which have three times the number seats then students and was one of the reason’s he gave for closing school to many empty seats.

It turns out he couldn’t even pass an English proficiency exam required to graduate from college. Here’s another one of his emails:

Do DPS control the Foundation or outside group? If an outside group control the foundation, then what is DPS Board row with selection of is director? Our we mixing DPS and None DPS row’s, and who is the watch dog?

He graduated from a Detroit high school with “a 1.8 grade-point average but was previously reported as a .98 average.” He used to be a substitute teacher. He calls himself a role model. But, in his defense …..

Dare I defend him, but anyone who works in a large corporate environment such as I do sees emails far worse than those above on a daily/hourly basis. Horrifying, incomprehensible emails all day long – even from managers, senior directors, and the like. For years this has baffled me. And before that I tutored college students (most of them from grad programs) in Business Communications. That was a major eye opener for me. For example, I was tutoring senior managers from Chrysler, GM, Ford, etc. who were in business school to get their grad degrees (mostly MBAs) for job advancement.

So the only difference is that Mr. Mathis actually leads those who teach at the lowest performing public schools in the nation.