Peninsula Prep Academy Charter Tosses 5-Year Old

[proud2BlibKansan]

This is happening all too often. Charter schools write their own rules and kids who don't succeed there are returned to public schools, who can't kick them out.

This child has not been expelled yet but when he is, he will likely return to his local public school, which is his only option.

Parent Charges School ‘Stigmatizes’ Son
By Howard Schwach
The Peninsula Preparatory Academy, a local charter school, is trying to expel a kindergarten student for bad behavior. The motto of the Peninsula Preparatory Academy charter school on Beach 111 Street is “The Future is Bright,” but for one little five-year-old kindergarten student, the future looks bleak.

The young boy, whose name is being withheld by The Wave because of his age, was suspended three times this school year by Principal Ericka Wala. His mother, Latesha Thompson is scheduled to face the school’s board of directors and an expulsion hearing later this month.

“They’ve provided my son with an unfair start to his school career,” Thompson told The Wave last week. “They have stigmatized him because the suspensions and the expulsion will be on his permanent school record forever. They have not given him a chance for a decent life.”

In a suspension letter dated March 2, Wala wrote, “We regret that we find it necessary to suspend your son for five days due to the following behavior: disrupting the educational process; being insubordinate; defying or disobeying the lawful authority of school personnel; using force against school personnel, hitting the teacher and engaging in an act of coercion or threatening violence, injury or harm to another.”

A reader left this comment blaming the parent which exposes the farce of the charter schools which are touted as part of the "no excuses" ed deform movement.

The child was not expelled
Submitted by thomaskerr@mind... on Fri, 04/08/2011 - 18:57.
The child was not expelled arbitrarily. It is in the interest of the school and the folks running it to keep the students there. When I child, even one of 5 years--becomes a problem, he takes educational opportunity and valuable time away from other students having to deal with unwanted behavior.

The school's mandate is not have to deal with poor parenting, but rather educating the boy. By the looks of the story, the school made a principled and correct decision in expelling this boy. It will benefit the others in his class and the boy himself, if allowed to learn from it by the parent. Looks like this is not the case.

Using the euphemism "strong minded" to frame, unruly, poorly disciplined and violent, is laughable. Instead of pointing an index finger at the school, perhaps this parent should take note of the other three pointing back at her. The trouble this boy had started at home and can only be solved there, but by the tone of her response, that does not seem likely. Poor kid, the biggest hurdle to his educational growth is his own parent.

This kid will end up in a local public school which cannot expel him and if he needs services, he will get them. And if he has issues, some teachers will go mad trying to deal with them. If he disrupts his class other parents will rail about how bad public education is and will consider moving their kid to a charter school. Thus the creaming process that over a decade will result in a desecrated public school system.
Charters claim to be public schools but act like private entities all the while using public tax dollars as part of a dual and dueling school systems.

http://ednotesonline.blogspot.com/2011/04/wave-reports-peninsula-prep-academy.html

[jody]

1. "he takes educational opportunity and valuable time away from other students having to deal with

unwanted behavior."

How will you prevent that?

[FBaggins]

3. I don't thInk that the point is that the kid is blameless...

... It's that public schools don't have the option of focusing on just the children who behave.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. Exactly

Thank you.

[jody]

13. In my state students who disrupt class are removed. I object to letting a single student destroy

the opportunity for other students to learn.

We can discuss what are society's obligations toward such students but I see no reason to harm the many while catering to a few.

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. We have that law in our state too; I believe it's in all 50 states.

Doesn't mean it's always followed.

[Rage for Order]

31. Kids get expelled from public schools all the time

The school system is actually doing this kid a favor by making the parent aware of the seriousness of the issue in kindergarten rather than turning a blind eye and letting the child continue to advance through grade levels without addressing his behavioral issues. There is still an opportunity for the parent to correct her child's behavior before it gets out of hand and adversely impacts his life. The kid won't miss much in the way of education at this point; counting to 100, learning the alphabet, colors, and shapes, and other basic knowledge.

Unfortunately for the child, it sounds as though his "parent" refuses to face reality; "They’ve provided my son with an unfair start to his school career” “They have stigmatized him because the suspensions and the expulsion will be on his permanent school record forever." Yeah, things that are permanent tend to be there forever "They have not given him a chance for a decent life." Sounds like projection on the part of the boy's mother. "My son is a strong-minded little boy who is learning new things every day and he is never aggressive or threatening.” Clearly.

[Honeycombe8]

22. Rules are rules. The parent knew what the rules were, before going in.

She should concentrate on getting her son to concentrate on his studies, not be disruptive of the other students' studies, and behave appropriately. Then he wouldn't be suspended.

There is no "right" to go to a charter or private school. If you don't abide by their rules, they will kick you out. The sooner the child learns this, the better off he will be. Otherwise, he'll never be able to hold a job. (My employer has rules; if I don't abide by them, they will kick me out. They won't tolerate me interfering with the business at hand or others trying to do their jobs.)

Besides...since when is going to a public school "holding" the child back for his future?

[jody]

25. RE "public school 'holding' the child back". Outstanding! Wish more joined you and I in that belief.

A BS degree, MS and two Ph.D.s in scientific fields, all through public schools and I continue to repay my debt to society for giving me an opportunity.

I've mentored several dozen Ph.D.s some of whom have asked me "How can I ever repay you?"

My reply, "Pass it on as did I for those who helped me along the way."

[Honeycombe8]

26. Wow...I love your Golden Rule sign there.

I'm going to copy it for future reference (but I won't use it on my posts or anything).

[jody]

27. Not mine, see link below.

http://www.jcu.edu/philosophy/gensler/goldrule.htm

[Angry Dragon]

2. Charter schools are factories to make some rich........

dumbing down of the youth of today and to provide an avenue of riches for the leaders of the schools.........

[Peregrine]

4. FL charters

can't expel students that are enrolled. Only the county school board can. If they do expel a student, the student can only attend the alternative school in the district or a private school. The home school does not get the student back. The charter can persuade the parents to remove the student. My charter doesn't get rid of any student because my company wants the $$$$ for the kid. We just had a 7th grade student hit and call the teacher a bitch. He was up for expulsion at the county board, but the company "changed" the principal's mind, he is back in class.

The principal has fought the company on classroom packing, but he is retiring after this year and will probably be replaced by a person who believes in the company's line and we will get packed. Even though FL has a class size limit for core classes and elementary classes, our charter successfully sued the state so that charters only have to use averages instead of actuals like the public schools. The state is also working on legislation trying to create a loophole in the constitution, one of which is changing what is a core class (dropping language arts).

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. It's scary how they play with rules and regs

But it does sound like you have better rules in Florida than most states?

[Smarmie Doofus]

5. I'm beginning to feel that no matter how much evidence...

... is amassed showing that charters rarely help and usually hurt, score same as or lower than reg. public schools, are breeding grounds for all kinds of deception, fraud and traditional school corruption WRIT EXPONENTIALLY LARGE, there will be no shaking Obama and the Obamacrats from their confidence that charter schools are a great idea.

Their allegiance to charter schools is more of an allegiance to an *idea* that they have about charters than to the actuality. It sounds somehow more..... middle class; suburban; white collar. They don't *want* to look too close.

I think that in their heads they think that they're being generous to blue collar families by allowing... or pretending to allow... access to the disadvantaged to schools that are superficially similar to the ones they themselves went to and to which they send their own kids.

But they're not. But the pretense that they are makes for a nice liberal feel-good buzz. And.... they get to triangulate around the issue. "See, Newt? We can be just like you! We're not socialist fanatics! We believe privatization can be good too. Just not privatization of everything."

But "everything" is coming. "All in good time, my little pretty; all in good time."

[proud2BlibKansan]

9. That would be a good sign for the march in July

:thumbsup:

Being a Kansan, I also highly approve of the sentiment, my pretty. :)

[abelenkpe]

7. Charter schools

"Charters claim to be public schools but act like private entities all the while using public tax dollars as part of a dual and dueling school systems."

That's pretty much how I view charter schools. I read recently that many are actually receiving more tax payer dollars than public schools.
Recently my sons school held a drive for book donations for a school in south LA. They collected over 500 books for the school. Turns out the school the books were going to is a charter school. If charter schools are an exclusive privately owned enterprise that undermine the public school system and operate like they don't owe anything to the community they serve then why do they need our taxpayer dollars or donations?

[proud2BlibKansan]

10. It varies from state to state

In the state where I teach, charters do a child count on one day in September and get their funding for the whole year based on that number. But the traditional public schools take attendance daily and report it to the state and their funding is based on those numbers.

[Exilednight]

11. This is how charter schools increase their success. It's easy when you can toss

out the "problem child". They're not held to account to providing education to those that most need it, they just get rid of the kids that require more time.

[proud2BlibKansan]

12. And the ironic part

is that when Al Shanker came up with the concept of charter schools, he was looking for alternative settings for kids like this one in the OP.

Al is spinning in his grave on a daily basis these days.

[zbdent]

14. is this a "voucher" school?

If so, then the school has their money ...

and the taxpayers will be paying twice for the kid ... the voucher, and then the $$$ used in a "public school education".

[proud2BlibKansan]

15. It's a charter

[starroute]

16. Being insubordinate? Disobeying lawful authority?

Is this kid in Kindergarten or in the US Army? There's an authoritarian strain running through out society these days that worries me even more than all the other issues with charter schools.

Would they expel a kid who wore a Resist Authority t-shirt to school? Very probably.

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. You skipped this part:

using force against school personnel, hitting the teacher and engaging in an act of coercion or threatening violence, injury or harm to another

[starroute]

28. I skipped it because violence and coercion are always unacceptable

But "insubordination" is a term generally applied to soldiers and servants and has no place in a learning environment.

[proud2BlibKansan]

29. Sadly, kids are very capable of being insubordinate

especially the ones who are violent.

[Taitertots]

17. "using force against school personnel, hitting the teacher".....

"and engaging in an act of coercion or threatening violence, injury or harm to another.”
Sounds like her little asshole is getting everything he deserves, being suspended and having it put on his permanent record. This parent needs to start being a parent and stop defending her child when he is committing egregious acts.


I don't support charter schools. They are private schools taking public money without public oversight.

[XemaSab]

20. That was my reaction

What's going on at home to make the kid act like this?

IMHO, no school should be forced to keep a student who is abusive to school personnel.

[Honeycombe8]

23. Touche. My thoughts exactly.

He may be a spoiled little kid. Imagine a mother's reaction to a child's hitting the teacher, smart mouthing, interfering with classmates' studies, and three suspensions, by getting mad at the school for expelling him? I'd be worried sick about what was making my child so anti-social, and do some serious soul searching about my parenting skills.

[WatsonT]

33. At this age though I'd still say it's the parents fault

the kid might have turned out fine with a different mom.

[Bozita]

21. Churn, baby, churn! The creaming process at work.

The charters only want the low-maintenance kids.

And they make it obvious.

[Jefferson23]

24. I find this infuriating, the scam continues for privatizing schools with

tax payer funds with control factors that do not exist for public schools. In the mean time, we have a society that
does not invest in their children's future. We spend trillions of dollars on war and have kept the wealthiest among us
from paying their share of taxes for years and years now.

There is so much we could do for public education if we had honest discussions along with substantial investments
addressing the obstacles more and more children appear to face. We are destroying any chance for success with both hands;
I say this because we now have a Democrat supporting this blatant theft of resources for future generations..not
just Republicans any longer.

An interesting study, too bad we waste money blaming teachers so we can destroy unions instead of investing in solutions:

* highlights the cumulative effect of multiple risk factors, documenting the independent and additive role of home aggression, child inattention, and classroom context in affecting child aggressive development at school. Future research may clarify additional
risk factors, as well as explore the specific mechanisms whereby these factors influence the early development of disruptiveness
and aggression in children during their initial years of formal schooling.

This would provide an enriched research base to guide preventive interventions at school to head off more serious, chronic
behavioral outcomes in subsequent school years and developmental stages.

in full: http://www.nasponline.org/publications/spr/pdf/spr374thomas.pdf

[Jefferson23]

30. kick n/t

[WatsonT]

32. Yeah pretty much if your kid doesn't have the finest kindergarten money can buy he's doomed

better start training him to flip burgers.

No one has ever succeeded with a less than stellar kindergarten diploma under their belt. No one.

Likewise your child is the only one that matters. None of the other kids deserve an education when yours decides to act up. So be sure to sue for this blatantly unfair discrimination against your precious and wonderful crotchfruit.

:sarcasm: