This and That

Today was one of the darkest days in American history - President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.


I was remiss in posting this but KUOW's Sami West did - November 8th was the sad one year anniversary of the shooting at Ingraham High School that took the life of student Ebenezer Haile. West's story is a follow-up to how students are doing one year later.

To that end, KUOW has another story on student mental health and the work of the Seattle Student Union.

The Seattle Student Union has been advocating for more mental health support in schools since a shooting at Ingraham last year left one student dead — and a school community continuing to grieve months later. The city responded with $4.5 million to pilot a mental health program in five schools.

But Makar-Wituki says more funding is needed to reach more students at more schools. And while the Seattle Student Union had wanted more — the group's initial proposal was for about $27 million — Makar-Wituki is glad the city has signaled its support for $20 million.

A story from the NY Times about a Florida school district that outlawed cellphones.

One afternoon last month, hundreds of students at Timber Creek High School in Orlando poured into the campus’s sprawling central courtyard to hang out and eat lunch. For members of an extremely online generation, their activities were decidedly analog.

Dozens sat in small groups, animatedly talking with one another. Others played pickleball on makeshift lunchtime courts. There was not a cellphone in sight — and that was no accident.

In May, Florida passed a law requiring public school districts to impose rules barring student cellphone use during class time. This fall, Orange County Public Schools — which includes Timber Creek High — went even further, barring students from using cellphones during the entire school day.

In interviews, a dozen Orange County parents and students all said they supported the no-phone rules during class. But they objected to their district’s stricter, daylong ban.

“Oh, I love it,” said Nikita McCaskill, a government teacher at Timber Creek. “Students are more talkative and more collaborative.”

“Now people can’t really be like: ‘Oh, look at me on Instagram. This is who I am,’” said Peyton Stanley, a 12th grader at Timber Creek. “It has helped people be who they are — instead of who they are online — in school.”

“Imagine that the device you use on a daily basis to communicate with other people is completely gone,” said Catalina, age 13, an eighth grader at a local middle school. (She and her mother asked that her last name not be used for privacy reasons.) “It feels completely isolating.”

The Portland teachers strike marches on into its third week (and temporarily blocks a bridge).

The union initially proposed caps on class sizes, but amid pushback from the district on how much that would cost, it is now asking instead for increased pay for teachers whose class sizes surpass certain thresholds.

I would venture most teachers would prefer the smaller class size. And this!

In recent days, questions over parent involvement in proposed committees to oversee class sizes have become a major sticking point. 

The union has proposed allowing parents to be a part of committees that would decide whether students could be added to a class that has already met the size threshold. The district said this would violate students’ privacy and that such decisions should be handled by teachers, principals and school administrators.

Well, good for the union to even think to ask parents/guardians.


Elsewhere The Stranger gets upset because the Seattle Times pointed out President Brandon Hersey unseemly behavior on election night. Plus, Hersey's double-sided "apology" wherein he didn't mean to offend but most of us are old people who just don't get today's language style.

Again, it was not about using a crude term - it was about Hersey making it sound like anyone who ran against his choices for the board made a bad mistake even running.

Most of the comments were against the column which I found surprising.

Rich Smith did reach out to me but used an old email that I don't use a lot and I didn't see his queries. But no, I did not see the original tweet; I learned about it from parents on Facebook. And no, I did NOT reach out to the Times; they may have seen my tweet about it and then someone contacted me.