A 13 year old girl at Orange-Ulster BOCES was recently suspended from school for two days for what she believes was being against the Common Core.
Officially, the school’s stance is that she was suspended for insubordination – a charge the
student rightfully accepts – it’s the circumstances of the suspension with which she disagrees. The school says that she was not punished for opting out of the test, which is her right, but for disobeying her administrators.
But 8th grader Seirra Olivero says it all happened much differently from the official school policy.
In her complaint, Seirra says that on Tuesday morning, the day of the test, she told a student he didn't have to take the test if he didn't want to. A teacher told her to "shut my mouth and keep walking."
She later told other friends they weren't required to take the test, telling one that "the test is set up for the kids to fail."
Still later that morning, she was summoned to the principal's office where she says she was asked rudely "why she was telling students they didn't have to take the test."
"I replied and said, 'I did some research and it said they don't have to.'" The principal then asked if she'd researched "both sides" of the issue.
The girl said in her statement that she grew increasingly upset with the principal but when she asked to call her mother, the principal refused.
"Then she started to ask other questions and that's when she started to interrogate me and I felt like I was being treated like a criminal."
The girl stalked out of the office, slamming the door behind her. Walking quickly down a hall, she said she refused to stop when another administrator demanded that she do so "four or six times."
That administrator, she said, told her "I had no business telling the kids that they don't have to take the test and if I wanted to tell them I (could) out of school."
"(T)hen I said, 'I can tell them whatever I want (and) to mind his business' and he said 'No, it is his business.' "
The school has admitted that she had every right to opt out of the test, and she obviously had the right to tell her fellow students about this fact. So if things truly transpired the way she says they did… the school has a lot explaining to do.
In either case it seems very likely that the student did not feel safe, and keeping the child safe should always be the first function of the school. If she felt bullied and/or threatened by the staff at her school, then they broke one of the cardinal rules of the public school system.
More and more stories like these seem to be escaping our public schools as the government and the teacher’s unions close ranks to protect the common core. Have you called your representatives to complain about the Common Core yet? If not, do it soon… time is running out.
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