Seattle Schools Community Forum

A couple of items came across my desk in the last 24 hours related to women, stereotypes and sexual assault.  One is a powerful video   from Tumwater High School , part of the No More campaign.  As Tumwater's counselor, Todd Caffey, explains, they used national statistics to extrapolate to THS' female student population as "actual data on THS is not available."  Meaning, the district either isn't keeping these stats (which I know cannot be true) or would not give them to Mr. Caffey.  That in itself is quite powerful - the district has to report these stats to the state and feds.  I know - from research I was doing just yesterday - that this data also goes to the federal Office of Civil Rights. The video is quite simple; there are boys, one-by-one, who hold up a sheet with a number and explain the number of girls in each class in the high school who will likely be sexually assaulted. One thing they leave out in their list of who these girls are - th...

The Times has two editorials from this weekend that leave a lot to be desired. One is about forced teacher placement at schools.  We get a story trotted out about what, yes, sounds like a terrible teacher.  The parents in one classroom at West Woodland kept their kids home for some number of days in 2011 because of her.  But what the editorial lacks is what happened from there.  What did the district do?  Did the principal really, in the face of what sounds like constant complaints, really sit back and do nothing?  That's on the principal who does have the power to exit a poor-performing teacher. The writer, Jonathan Martin, then pushes Senate Bill 5242 that the Senate Republican ed reformers (and our not-a Dem Senator Rodney Tom).  This bill would give principals the sole discretion over who gets into their building, no matter the teacher's background/skills.  That means HR could think a teacher could be a good fit but the principal could sa...