where do I begin?

I think it's only fair to give you an election update. After two days of discussions they are down to four slates that will be voted on tomorrow. One candidate did not make the cut. At first I was surprised because she seemed to connect well with the students and she has a nice way about her but now that I've thought about it a little more I can also see {a little insight into my blog process here, I really like this candidate personally and would hate for any criticism i aired to get back to her and hurt her feelings so I guess for once I will keep my opinion to myself} why it might be for the best.

3 of the 4 slates are mostly the same but the fourth also eliminates another staff member so I don't know how that will play out.

There has also been a discussion on the email list about drug use and how the younger kids interpret it. Well, that's how it started off. Now I feel the need to post a disclaimer here because, judging by some of the emails, people have a hard time differentiating between the theoretical and the actual. There is not a tremendous amount of drug use among the students at HVSS, in fact I think it might be less,proportionally, than what you see at other schools. The teenagers there are, for the most part kind and patient with the younger kids and the ones who aren't seem to be rude to everyone across the board. I like this school, I like the students, I feel good about sending my kids there.

That being said, I am a woman with many strong opinions and I like to debate. So I may play devil's advocate or propose hypothetical situations because I think it's good to look at all sides of a problem. I also don't think it's a good idea to say "Well, that really won't be an issue with us so why bother talking about it." I think you should be ready for anything!

The original email was about a philosophy discussion on saturday to talk about drug use and how the younger students see it. Then the parent of a student who was expelled chimed in about how it came a little late for her and what she thought was important. So of course big mouth here has to get her two cents in and I said something about there being a blind spot in the philosophy. then another Mom made a comment about how her kid was scared of some of the teenager and how her kid referred to them as troublemakers and also had some crazy ideas about drugs. then all hell broke loose. A few parents took offense that about the teenager comments and, I think blew that out of proportion, at the same time a teenager felt that the whole question of drug use was getting blown out of proportion. That is the problem with message boards and email conversations, things can get blown out of proportion. I think people also don't read very well. This mom was talking about the comments made by a 7 year old and that was met with responses like "You've been there and so will(the kid)." and "Let's try to teach tolerance." Hello, it was a 7 year old! My comments were about how to let parents in if the school thinks a kid is doing drugs. I mean I would lose it, totally lose it, if one of my kids were getting high and no one said anything to me because they were bound by the dictates of the sudbury philosophy. It has nothing to do with my personal feelings about drug use and everything to do with being able to make decisions concerning the health of my child.

the kicker was when the parent of a 17 year old made a comment that amounted to "protecting their rights is more important than making sure that the school is safe for the younger students". I was actually late getting the kids from school because I was typing my response to that. It is possible that she meant just not separating out the little kids from conversations about drugs. I had put out some ideas about when parents should be notified and ways to shield the younger kids to some extent. I thought I also gave reasons for my thinking but maybe not enough. I know that I affirmed my support for the school and staff a number of times too. What was unfortunate is it seemed like there was this us vs. them mentality developing which i would like to address with another email but maybe I've said enough.
Maybe I'll post excerpts from the emails. I wonder if I'm allowed to do that. It also will require a lot of cutting and pasting and I'm not sure if I can be bothered.


Nahh!