Sunday, December 30, 2012

There are lots of things in the world to be really concerned about… The fiscal cliff isn’t one of them.


Onward! 4LAKids
4LAKids: Sunday 30•Dec•2012
In This Issue:
 •  YOUNG CHILDREN ARE OFTEN VICTIMS OF GUNFIRE IN U.S.
 •  The Attack on Adult Ed Continues: AIRCRAFT MECHANICS SCHOOL AT VAN NUYS AIRPORT THREATENED BY LAUSD BUDGET CUTS; GARCETTI PLEDGES TO HELP
 •  CALIFORNIA OFFICIAL SAYS NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND LAW 'NULL AND DEFUNCT'
 •  LAUSD HONOR BAND PUTS IT ALL TOGETHER FOR ROSE PARADE
 •  HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
 •  EVENTS: Coming up next week...
 •  What can YOU do?


Featured Links:
 •  OUR CHILDREN, OUR FUTURE: What will California schoolchildren, your school district and YOUR School get when the initiative passes?
 •  Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting
 •  4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved!
 •  4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc.
The title to this issue of 4LAKids  is not an original thought. I was multitasking the other day, the radio droning in the background while I was answering emails, talking on the phone, surfing the web, etc – saving the world with a keyboard and a mouse – when someone said it in the background. I wrote it down and then promptly forgot who it was or even what show it was. But truer words….

WE SHOULD BE CONCERNED that twenty children and six teachers were gunned down at school. And that while Sandy Hook was an aberration – numbers of children dying by gunfire isn’t. See the article following: Young Children Are Often Victims Of Gunfire In US.

WE SHOULD BE WORRIED. As the article reports, children tend to be safer when they are in school (because schools are essentially gun-free) but the NRA would like to reverse that by arming principals, teachers and volunteers. (A LA Times Op-ed, http://lat.ms/Vse9RG dripping in sarcasm, suggests arming kids.) Never mind that the worst school killing in US history – at Bath Township Michigan in 1927, 38 elementary kid and 6 adults dead plus at least fifty wounded was perpetrated by a school board member …or that the South Pasadena Junior High School Principal shot his way through that district, shooting seven and killing five (all adults) in 1940

The NRA is the lobbying arm of the firearms industry. They wrap themselves in the flag and the second amendment and insist on the right to manufacture and sell “civilianized” military assault rifles with thirty-shot clips as sporting arms and home defense weapons. Because being able to kill a man 300 yards away is a home defense requirement.

Isn’t it interesting that the whack job who shot up the elementary school and the whack job who gunned down the volunteer firemen both favored the Bushmaster .223 AR-15? The Bushmaster is the favorite weapon of whack jobs everywhere – and is a killing machine every bit as effective as a Trident Submarine.

I can enumerate 29 people the Bushmaster has killed in the last two weeks.
Q: How many people have been killed by Trident missiles since the first sub was launched in 1981?
A: Zero.

Wanna be scared? Go here: http://bit.ly/ZKVqs5 It’s a how-to video to convert a Russian-made semiautomatic shotgun to a fully automatic AK 47 12 gauge with a twenty round drum magazine – essentially by modifying the stock so the recoil makes it continually fire when you hold the trigger down. It’s the perfect weapon if you’re ever attacked by a rabid Broad-Side-of-a-Barn. Or, as the video proposes: by zombie watermelons.

WE SHOULD BE CONCERNED that teachers in Utah are arming themselves after school district sponsored gun-training Professional Development. Maybe the front desk clerk should have that fully auto AK-47 12 gauge?

WE SHOULD BE CONCERNED about the situation in Syria. And North Korea. And Iran.

WE SHOULD BE CONCERNED about the gang rape and murder of the medical student on a bus in India. India: Birthplace of Gandhi.

WE SHOULD BE CONCERNED about the genocides and brutal wars in East Africa. And The Horn of Africa. That the Arab Spring becomes a winter of discontent.

WE SHOULD BE CONCERNED about assassination attempts on fifteen-year-olds by Pakistani Taliban for advocating education of girls.

THE FISCAL CLIFF is a piece of Political Theater with a script written by Congress itself in the Budget Control Act of 2011 (the same wonderful law that brought us The Super Committee!) The Sequester and Sovereign Debt (Ceiling) meets the Filibuster in the last gasp of the 112th Congress. Luckily, right out of Greek Drama (not to be confused with the Greek Drachma) the solution lies in a Deus ex Machina: With the tick of a clock and the dropping of a ball in Times Square at zero-dark-zero Tuesday morning the dreaded tax hike becomes a welcome tax cut. We can party like it’s 2013! The Republicans and Democrats in Congress are playing the parts they wrote themselves while pretending to understand the economics and imagining their understanding can be distilled into sound bites and name calling, And Grover Norquist can slink back to whence he hath emerged – all obeisance made.

Total compromise: No promises broken/no promises kept. Would you like some tea with that?

WE SHOULD BE CONCERNED that the attack on Adult Ed continues. LAUSD’s popular and successful Aircraft Mechanics Training Program is on the chopping block – much like the celebrated/successful nurse training program that was tossed under the bus in the previous regime. Read the story below: AIRCRAFT MECHANICS SCHOOL AT VAN NUYS AIRPORT THREATENED BY LAUSD BUDGET CUTS. Note how the school principal as been told that LAUSD is investigating a reduction in the lease rate …and how the L.A. Dept. of Airports is unaware of any such thing.

Thankfully mayoral candidate/city councilman/friend of adult ed Eric Garcetti is engaged. Note that Mayor Tony is not… he is busy breaking a city lease for workforce development programs made with the community college district at the Van de Kamps site in Glassell Park. [http://bit.ly/TAwYTY]

The current leadership at LAUSD Beaudry is totally committed to K-12 as measured by standardized tests to the exclusion of everything else -- including adult ed, early childhood ed, school libraries, arts and music and after school programs. Tablets-and-laptop-computers-for-all – the test platforms for the new Common Core Standardized Tests – seem to be attractive shiny/sparkly things on the Toys R LAUSD wish list. Much like the fiscal cliff argument, restoring what was been cut …whether programs/jobs/days/hours (or gosh-forbid: Employee morale) is called “raising employees salaries” by the powers that (shouldn’t ought to) be.

THERE IS AN INTERESTING REVIEW of a biz book I intend to read in today’s L.A. Times (lifted from the Financial Times of London) called THE PIRATE ORGANIZATION: Lessons from the Fringes of Capitalism [http://lat.ms/YDhNcT]

The book points out that we are in love with pirate culture. Pirate DJs in the fifties spread the gospel of Chuck and Elvis. (It’s no mistake that Keith Richard IS Captain Jack Sparrow’s father!) What goes around comes around/No good deed goes unpunished: Pirate music downloaders undid the music industry. Apple founders Jobs+Wozniak started by building+selling black boxes to pirate phone calls.

Current charter school operators are much the same as earlier century privateers – using their charters as letters of Marque to raid traditional public education. The difference being that these freebooters prey on the very governments that grant their charters.

The entire State of California seems a bit of a pirate, ignoring the Feds mandate to access teacher performance based on test scores … and then pretty much stating the obvious in pooh-poohing No Child Left Behind. CALIFORNIA OFFICIAL SAYS NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND LAW 'NULL AND DEFUNCT'


CONCERNS FOR THE NEW YEAR: Keep kids safe and clean and healthy; make schools safer, cleaner and healthier. Identify, Retain and Maintain successful programs. Honor and Respect the folks who make it happen: Employees / Parents / The Community.

¡Onward/Adelante to 2013! - smf


YOUNG CHILDREN ARE OFTEN VICTIMS OF GUNFIRE IN U.S.

by The Associated Press | http://n.pr/12PkmgU

December 24, 2012 7:16 PM :: WASHINGTON (AP) — Before 20 first-graders were massacred at school by a gunman in Newtown, Conn., first-grader Luke Schuster, 6, was shot to death in New Town, N.D. Six-year-olds John Devine Jr. and Jayden Thompson were similarly killed in Kentucky and Texas.

Veronica Moser-Sullivan, 6, died in a mass shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., while 6-year-old Kammia Perry was slain by her father outside her Cleveland home, according to an Associated Press review of 2012 media reports.

Yet there was no gunman on the loose when Julio Segura-McIntosh died in Tacoma, Wash. The 3-year-old accidentally shot himself in the head while playing with a gun he found inside a car.

As he mourned with the families of Newtown, President Barack Obama said the nation cannot accept such violent deaths of children as routine. But hundreds of young child deaths by gunfire — whether intentional or accidental — suggest it might already have.

Between 2006 and 2010, 561 children age 12 and under were killed by firearms, according to the FBI's most recent Uniform Crime Reports. The numbers each year are consistent: 120 in 2006; 115 in 2007; 116 in 2008, 114 in 2009 and 96 in 2010. The FBI's count does not include gun-related child deaths that authorities have ruled accidental.

"This happens on way too regular a basis and it affects families and communities — not at once, so we don't see it and we don't understand it as part of our national experience," said Daniel Webster, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research.

The true number of small children who died by gunfire in 2012 won't be known for a couple of years, when official reports are collected and dumped into a database and analyzed. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects to release its 2011 count in the spring.

In response to what happened in Newtown, the National Rifle Association, the nation's largest gun lobby, suggested shielding children from gun violence by putting an armed police officer in every school by the time classes resume in January.

"Politicians pass laws for gun-free school zones ... They post signs advertising them and in doing so they tell every insane killer in America that schools are the safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk," said NRA executive vice president Wayne LaPierre.

Webster said children are more likely to die by gunfire at home or in the street. They tend to be safer when they are in school, he said.



None of the 61 deaths reviewed by The Associated Press happened at school.

Children die by many other methods as well: violent stabbings or throat slashings, drowning, beating and strangulation. But the gruesome recounts of gun deaths, sometimes just a few paragraphs in a newspaper or on a website, a few minutes on television or radio, bear witness that firearms too, are cutting short many youngsters' lives.

One week before the Newtown slayings, Alyssa Celaya, 8, bled to death after being shot by her father with a .38-caliber gun at the Tule River Indian Reservation in California. Her grandmother and two brothers also were killed, a younger sister and brother were shot and wounded. The father shot and killed himself amid a hail of gunfire from officers.

Delric Miller's life ended at 9 months and Angel Mauro Cortez Nava's at 14 months.

Delric was in the living room of a home on Detroit's west side Feb. 20 when someone sprayed it with gunfire from an AK-47. Other children in the home at the time were not injured.

Angel was cradled in his father's arms on a sidewalk near their home in Los Angeles when a bicyclist rode by on June 4 and opened fire, killing the infant.

Most media reports don't include information on the type of gun used, sometimes because police withhold it for investigation purposes.

Gun violence and the toll it is taking on children has been an issue raised for years in minority communities.

The NAACP failed in its attempt to hold gun makers accountable through a lawsuit filed in 1999. Some in the community raised the issue during the campaign and asked Obama after he was re-elected to make reducing gun violence, particularly as a cause of death for young children, part of his second-term agenda.

"Now that it's clear that no community in this country is invulnerable from gun violence, from its children being stolen ... we can finally have the national conversation we all need to have," said Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP.

This year's gun deaths reviewed by the AP show the problem is not confined to the inner city or is simply the result of gang or drug violence, as often is the perception.

Faith Ehlen, 22 months, Autumn Cochran, 10, and Alyssa Cochran, 11, all died Sept. 6. Their mother killed them with the shotgun before turning it on herself. Police said she had written a goodbye email to her boyfriend before killing the children in DeSoto, Mo., a community of about 6,300.

In Dundee, Ore., Randall Engels used a gun to kill his estranged wife Amy Engels and son Jackson, 11, as they ate pizza on the Fourth of July. An older sibling of Jackson's also was killed. Engels then committed suicide. The town of more than 5,000 people boasts on its website that it is a semirural town with "the cultural panache of a big city."

Many of the children who died in 2012 were shot with guns that belonged to their parents, relatives or baby sitters, or were simply in the home. Webster said children's accidental deaths by guns have fallen since states passed laws requiring that guns be locked away from youths or have safeties to keep them from firing.

But even people trained in gun use slip up — and the mistakes are costly.

A Springville, Utah, police officer had a non-service gun in his home that officials said did not have external safeties. His 2-year-old son found the gun and shot himself on Sept. 11. The names of the father and son were not released at the time of the shooting.

Obama has tapped Vice President Joe Biden to shape the administration's response to the Newtown massacre. The administration will push to tighten gun laws, many that have faced resistance in Congress for years. The solutions may include reinstating a ban on assault-style rifles, closing gun buying background check loopholes and restricting high-capacity magazines.

Those may have limited effect for children like Amari Markel-Purrel Perkins, of Clinton, Md. He shot himself in the chest on April 9 with a gun that an adult had stashed inside a Spiderman backpack.

Like most of the child victims at Newtown, Amari was 6.


The Attack on Adult Ed Continues: AIRCRAFT MECHANICS SCHOOL AT VAN NUYS AIRPORT THREATENED BY LAUSD BUDGET CUTS; GARCETTI PLEDGES TO HELP
L.A. UNIFIED MAY CLOSE OR MOVE THE VOCATIONAL FACILITY. LOSS OF THE PROGRAM WOULD BE A BLOW TO THOSE SEEKING TECHNICAL CAREERS IN THE AVIATION INDUSTRY.

By Dan Weikel, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/12K9CjK

December 27, 2012 :: A popular vocational center at Van Nuys Airport that has trained thousands of aviation mechanics during its 40-year history faces closure or relocation next year if the Los Angeles Unified School District can no longer afford to keep the facility open.

Educators, students, national organizations and business owners at the airport say the loss of the program would be a blow to those seeking technical careers in the aviation industry, which is already suffering a shortage of qualified entry-level mechanics.

"Many businesses hire our graduates, from small engine shops to major aerospace firms," said Michael Phillips, a senior instructor at the school. "It would be devastating to our program if we had to close or move."

The North Valley Occupational Center-Aviation Center is housed off Hayvenhurst Avenue in a hangar with adjoining workshops and classrooms. The facility is filled with more than a dozen aircraft, including helicopters and a U.S. Air Force T-33 jet trainer from the 1950s.

The setting is ideal. Van Nuys is one of the busiest general aviation airports in the world and home to hundreds of aircraft. Scores of aviation businesses surround the runways. There are engine shops, airframe shops, flight schools and fixed-base operators that offer an array of services including charter aircraft.

"It's an inspiration," said Matthew Dods, a 24-year-old student from Thousand Oaks who left a retail job to pursue an aviation career. "Closing the school just doesn't make sense when so many people are looking to hire fresh air-frame and power plant mechanics."

The center, which opened in 1971, offers a two-year program that prepares students for certification by the Federal Aviation Administration. About 100 students attend per semester and the total cost of tuition is $2,400, far cheaper than at private technical colleges.

Carlynn Huddleston, the school's principal, said the district's budget problems are continuing to threaten the program, which has already cut its staff and canceled evening classes.

The school might be relocated to another North Valley Occupational facility in Mission Hills, but there would be less space and students would have to share workshops with other trades.

"We would be squeezed into some rooms. There is no hangar," Huddleston said. "The program would become second rate."

If closed or relocated, the center would join other aviation programs that have been shut down or scaled back at school districts and community colleges across the region.

The situation has attracted the attention of the Van Nuys Airport Assn. and major organizations, such as the National Business Aviation Assn., the National Air Transportation Assn. and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn. All have urged LAUSD Supt. John Deasy to keep the school at the airport.

"This is a huge asset for the city," said Curt Castagna, president of the Van Nuys association. "A couple hundred students from the school have been hired at the airport. These are good-paying jobs, and they have provided economic value locally and to the industry."

Bill Dunn, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn.'s vice president of airport advocacy, reminded Deasy in a letter that the mechanics school has gained national recognition. Closing it, he wrote, would only aggravate a growing shortage of aviation mechanics.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the need for aircraft mechanics and service technicians will increase 11% annually at least until 2016. Industry analysts say the number of graduates will not keep pace with retirements and those leaving the trade, let alone the projected need.

Huddleston is looking into whether Los Angeles World Airports, the operator of Van Nuys Airport, would be willing to lower or virtually eliminate the school's rent, which, she says, is about $12,000 a month. She added that she is also working with the district to see if the lease can be extended for a year to buy some time.

Though the FAA requires airports to charge tenants a fair rent, agency policy allows reduced or nominal rents for nonprofit, accredited education programs that benefit aviation.

Diana Sanchez, a spokeswoman for Van Nuys Airport, said that Los Angeles World Airports has long supported the mechanics program but that the school district faces financial challenges beyond rental expenses.

Though there have been tentative discussions, she said, district officials have not formally approached the airport department about a new rental agreement. She added that Los Angeles World Airports is willing to work with the aviation center and the FAA if a proposal is made.


GARCETTI URGES EFFORT TO SAVE AVIATION MECHANICS SCHOOL: The councilman says he will ask the city airport agency and L.A. Unified to explore ways to keep the program running at Van Nuys Airport.

By Dan Weikel, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/VnB8R5

December 29, 2012 :: Los Angeles City Councilman Eric Garcetti on Friday called for measures to keep a highly regarded aviation mechanics school at Van Nuys Airport from shutting down or being moved to smaller facilities elsewhere.

Garcetti said he will request at the Jan. 4 council meeting that Los Angeles World Airports, the operator of Van Nuys, and the Los Angeles Unified School District explore ways to ensure the continued operation of the vocational school, which has produced thousands of mechanics during its 40-year history. Because of tight budgets, the district might close or relocate the school.

"The aviation training program at Van Nuys Airport is a critical asset for Los Angeles," Garcetti said. "I am deeply concerned that it could close."

The North Valley Occupational Center-Aviation Center, which opened in 1971, is located off Hayvenhurst Avenue in a hangar filled with more than a dozen aircraft, including helicopters and an old U.S. Air Force jet trainer.

The two-year course at one of the busiest general aviation airports in the world prepares students for certification by the Federal Aviation Administration and potential employment with aircraft maintenance shops, commercial carriers and aerospace firms.

Center officials say, however, that budget problems could force the LAUSD to close the school next year or move it to smaller facilities at another vocational center unless Los Angeles World Airports can lower the rent, which has been about $12,000 a month.

There have been some tentative discussions so far, but nothing formal has been proposed.

David Bowerman, an instructor at the center, called Garcetti's effort to get substantive talks going "a good idea." He said the school now has about 100 students per semester and provides technical training to those who don't want to go to college.

The situation has attracted the attention of the Van Nuys Airport Assn. and major organizations such as the National Business Aviation Assn., the National Air Transportation Assn. and the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn. All have urged LAUSD Supt. John Deasy to keep the school at the airport.

Garcetti, who cited an article about the aviation center's plight in The Times this week, said that saving the program would help address a growing shortage of entry-level mechanics in the aircraft industry and continue to offer Los Angeles area residents a career path if they are interested in aviation.

"In setting priorities during tough budget times, the school district must focus on education programs that lead directly to industries that are hiring now and in the future," Garcetti said. "A trained aviation workforce in Los Angeles is critical to the competitiveness of our airports, our aerospace industry, our trade sector and our overall economy."

•• smf NOTES: The L.A. Times story carries the following online paid advertisement as for a private for-profit aviation maintenance school: Ads by Google

Aircraft Maintenance Acquire Proper Knowledge & Skill Levels To Get An A&P Mechanic Job! FixJets.com



CALIFORNIA OFFICIAL SAYS NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND LAW 'NULL AND DEFUNCT'

Adolfo Guzman-Lopez | Pass / Fail : 89.3 KPCC | http://bit.ly/VNMxWb

December 29th, 2012, 12:58pm :: One of California’s top education officials said the federal No Child Left Behind law is no longer credible or legitimate because too many states have been given a waiver.

“They have already disowned the program in terms of the U.S. Department of Education by the secretary already declaring it null and defunct in effect in 33 states," said Michael Kirst, President of California’s State Board of Education. "I don’t see that it has any credibility or legitimacy left.”

His board sets policy for the most public school children of any state in the nation.

President George W. Bush signed the law in 2001, setting 2014 as the year that every student, including those whose first language isn’t English, will be proficient in English and math.

“It’s turned out to be illusory and not attainable by any state,” Krist said.

The Obama administration has been exempting states from the 100 percent proficiency goal and other key provisions — but only if they meet a list of reforms.

Krist said Federal officials told him California's waiver application is about to be denied, likely because California has not agreed to use student test scores in teacher and principal evaluations.

California’s teachers union opposed doing that.

Former Long Beach Unified superintendent Carl Cohn doesn’t think it’s necessary, either. He says students were doing fine even before No Child Left Behind and don’t need more rules from the federal government.

“Some of us are saying, you know what, in the real world of urban school districts for ten years we actually made gains in student performance without beating up on teachers and without tying evaluations to student test scores,” Cohn said.

Joanne Fawley, president of the Anaheim Secondary Teachers Association, said No Child Left Behind has done more harm than good by focusing learning only on what’s going to be on the test.

“English teachers have been told in many schools not to teach novels or literature because they take too much time and are not tested,” she said.

Despite the waivers, it remains the law of the land, said USC education scholar Katharine Strunk. She credits the law with improving student achievement nationwide and slimming the achievement gap between students of different races.

“I don’t think it’s a failure of a policy, I think that there are parts of NCLB that no longer make sense or perhaps never made sense,” she said--specifically the 100 percent proficiency requirement.

By one estimate 80 percent of California schools will fail to meet that requirement in 2014. Observers say that may be the impetus for federal lawmakers to overhaul the education law.


Download Audio | [2 min 41 sec]



LAUSD HONOR BAND PUTS IT ALL TOGETHER FOR ROSE PARADE

By Barbara Jones, Staff Writer, LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/VrQktk

12/28/2012 08:27:41 PM PST :: The sounds of the brass and drums soared over Chavez Ravine on Friday as the columns of student musicians, their sneaker-clad feet churning, marched up and down the rolling hills of the Dodger Stadium parking lots.

They were practicing the music and memorizing the choreography, but the 350-plus members of Los Angeles Unified's All-District High School Honor Band were also training for the 5 1/2-mile Tournament of Roses Parade route they'll tackle on New Year's Day.

"Marching is even harder than playing," said Khuyen Nguyen, an accomplished flute player from Cleveland High, who took up the 10-pound baritone just two months ago so she could participate in the brass- and percussion-only group.

Now in its 41st year, the Honor Band draws musicians from high schools around the district. Horn players -- trumpet, trombone, baritone, mellophone and sousaphone -- are recommended by their music teachers, while auditions are held for drummers, the flag and shield teams, and the drum majors who lead the band.

The musicians rehearse every Saturday beginning in the fall, then every day of winter break -- forgoing vacations, hanging out with classmates or just sleeping in for the rigorous practice sessions.

They're booked this weekend, too, performing today at Disneyland and on Sunday at Bandfest, a showcase of Tournament of Roses musicians.

"We get to play with so many people and make so many new friends," said Keira Fernandez, a 17-year-old drummer at North Hollywood High School who marches with a 40-pound quad set braced against her 110-pound frame. "It's so worth it."

The kids' enthusiasm is matched -- if not exceeded -- by band director Tony White, who, 28 years ago, played cymbals with the group as a senior at Narbonne High.

"The band represents not only LAUSD, but all of Los Angeles," said White, now the performing arts coordinator for LAUSD's Beyond the Bell Branch.

"It gets youths involved, and gives them a sense of belonging, a positive experience ... For some of these kids, this will change their lives."

Verdugo High senior Dorian Lopez picked up a trumpet for the first time this year at the urging of his campus mentor, music teacher Victoria Lopez. She recommended him for the Honor Band despite his inexperience, and Dorian thrived under the discipline that White demands.

"It's been such a fun experience -- the energy, the music," said Lopez, who plans to enlist in the Marines and audition for the Corps' prestigious band.

Many of the band members are veterans, returning year after year for the connection they make with other young musicians and the chance to march in the nationally televised Rose Parade.

They'll have to arrive well before dawn for Tuesday's parade, which starts at 8 a.m., marching 58th in the 92-entry lineup of floats, equestrian groups and other marching bands.

"It's really, really cold, especially your toes and nose," said Jetzell Verduzco from Southeast High, returning for the second year as a member of the flag team that performs at the rear of the band.

"But it's a fun experience getting to bond with other students and go from being from different schools into performing as one group."

Wilson High senior Jerry Pulido also is back for his second year, this time as head drum major, leading the columns of musicians as they perform a rotation of six songs.

"Running the whole band - the respect you get as a drum major - is really, really incredible," said Pulido, wiping the sweat from his forehead during a break from Friday's rehearsal.

Retired Lincoln High Principal Art Duardo, a longtime volunteer for the band, knows that training and adrenaline will take the musicians only so far. The drummers' arms will be aching, the horn players' lips will be burning and everyone's feet will be throbbing before they reach the end of the two-hour trek down Colorado Boulevard.

"At one point, there's nothing left," Duardo said. "All they'll have is heart."

On the web
http://www.laallcityband.com
http://www.tonywhiteinc.com


HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
IN-SHAPE STUDENTS OUTSCORE HEAVY PEERS ACADEMICALLY, STUDY FINDS: By Nirvi Shah, Ed Week Rules for Engagement bl... http://bit.ly/Z1OO7x

NAEP DATA ON VOCABULARY ACHIEVEMENT SHOW SAME GAPS: By Erik W. Robelen, Ed Week | http://bit.ly/VQevRe

KPFK - Politics or Pedagogy: Recap of Broadcasts about Charter Schools – Today @ 11AM: KPFK 90.7 FM |... http://bit.ly/TNUwbL


EVENTS: Coming up next week...


*Dates and times subject to change. ________________________________________
• SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BOND OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE:
http://www.laschools.org/bond/
Phone: 213-241-5183
____________________________________________________
• LAUSD FACILITIES COMMUNITY OUTREACH CALENDAR:
http://www.laschools.org/happenings/
Phone: 213-241.8700


• LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR



What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Nury.Martinez@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • Find your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• Call or e-mail Governor Brown: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
• Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school.
• Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it!
• Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE.
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!.


Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them?




Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for ten years. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
• FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 4LAKids makes such material available in an effort to advance understanding of education issues vital to parents, teachers, students and community members in a democracy. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
• To SUBSCRIBE e-mail: 4LAKids-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com - or -TO ADD YOUR OR ANOTHER'S NAME TO THE 4LAKids SUBSCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.


Tuesday, December 25, 2012

THE 12 DAYS: Production Notes


Tuesday 25•Dec•2012 ¡Happy Christmas!
12 Days Art
12 Days o' Christmas: Production Notes
A Holiday Production
Featuring a cast of 50,
….plus 23 birds,
5 props and set in a pear tree in December.

(You just know the director is going to want a real tree with pears and leaves!)

Production requirements, cast and etc.:


● A Partridge, perched
● Turtledoves (get a room you two!)
● Hens, au Francais
● Birds, sharing a calling plan
● Rings, Yellow Metal (5)
● Geese, Canadian by the looks of 'em.
● Swans, swimming
● Maids, milking
● Dancers, doing as they will
● Lords, leaping (to impress the dancers & milkmaids)
● Pipers, piping
● Drummers, drumming

AND IT CAME TO PASS IN THOSE DAYS and the angel said unto them: "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For thou art not the stage manager of this particular pageant!"

....the Producers girlfriend is a dancer …the bird wrangler’s car is broken down in Palmdale, ....the director will settle for an artificial tree, but the rings MUST be gold …and the business agent for the Amalgamated Milkmaids is on the line…

It can only get better – Happy 2013!

¡EverOnward/SiempreAdelante! - smf
Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and was Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for ten years. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
• FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 4LAKids makes such material available in an effort to advance understanding of education issues vital to parents, teachers, students and community members in a democracy. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
• To SUBSCRIBE e-mail: 4LAKids-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com - or -TO ADD YOUR OR ANOTHER'S NAME TO THE 4LAKids SUBSCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.


Sunday, December 23, 2012

What about 'No man with a gun'?


Onward! 4LAKids
4LAKids: Sunday 23•Dec•2012
In This Issue:
 •  NATIONAL RESPONSE NEEDED TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM GUN VIOLENCE
 •  SCHOOLS OFTEN FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE IN IDENTIFYING, TREATING KIDS WITH MENTAL ILLNESS
 •  SCHOOLS FACE MORE PENALTIES AS FEDS REJECT CALIFORNIA WAIVER
 •  BATTLING OVER SCHOOL GRANTS: Another tussle between the teachers union and the school reform movement, this time over grant applications + smf's 2¢
 •  ROCK ME, MERCY: a poem written in mourning
 •  HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
 •  What can YOU do?


Featured Links:
 •  OUR CHILDREN, OUR FUTURE: What will California schoolchildren, your school district and YOUR School get when the initiative passes?
 •  Follow 4 LAKids on Twitter - or get instant updates via text message by texting
 •  4LAKids Anthology: All the Past Issues, solved, resolved and unsolved!
 •  4LAKidsNews: a compendium of recent items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, rants and amusing anecdotes, etc.
In the aftermath of Sandy Hook there were some solutions offered, as the week rolled on the solutions got comparatively and superlatively worse and worst.

The best thinking actually came locally, from LAPD Chief Charlie Beck, who announced that LAPD officers – uniform and plain clothes – would visit and engage with every school in LAUSD every school day. Sherriff Baca and local law enforcement in many of the twenty-some odd jurisdictions LAUSD operates in followed suit.

This creates a strong partnership between the schools and the police and the community – it is community policing at it’s best – and it creates a deterrent effect for those intent on creating mayhem on a school campus. It’s imperfect – because school shooters generally don’t act rationally – and self destruction is part+parcel of their scenario (see Remembering Elementary School Shootings of the Past, following). If police officers are to be frequent guests or partners on school campuses everyone must be careful that they do not become part of the schools disciple policy – one doesn’t want the visiting officer enforcing tardy sweeps or misbehavior issues.

The plans espoused later in the week swiftly go from good the bad thinking and then escalate from worse to worst.

Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA [Marin County]) suggested on Wednesday that the National Guard patrol school campuses – beginning in January! The last time National Guard troops occupied a U.S. public school under arms was at Little Rock Central High School in 1957. I think this is the same Senator Boxer who had reservations about ROTC on college campuses and military recruiters at high schools. Having the military occupy our schools seems pretty bizarre – especially having it done by reservists who actually have other jobs. I’m unclear if the senator is proposing a federal call-up – and whether troops returning from Kandahar Province will be directly redeployed to PS 137 in the Bronx …or Carpenter Avenue in Studio City. National Guardsmen, unlike policemen, work in units rather than individually. Can a fireteam secure an elementary school? …a squad a middle school? …a platoon at a high school? There are schools in LAUSD where Seal Team Six might be challenged.

Compared to the above the NRA’s Wayne LaPierre’s suggestion that a police officer at every school all day long every day seems dimly enlightened (“The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun”*) A dedicated school policeman at every school with the specialized training to work around kids and school staff seems like great thinking – especially if the feds are going to pay for it.

EXCEPT:

1. With what money? The feds are about to plunge off the fiscal cliff like lemmings, Democrats+ Republicans alike, in a crisis of their own making per a deadline of their own device.
2. There are an estimated 132,656 public schools in the US – and only 30% of them have a dedicated security officer present on campus at least once a week.
3. Because LaPierre proposes to NOT take assault weapons off the street each school police officer would need to be armed to that level at the very least.
4. But if you drill down into LaPierres proposal you will see that he is really proposing NRA trained volunteers to perform this function. There is a name for armed volunteer law enforcers: They are called “vigilantes”.
* In a disappointing nod to gender equality, two recent school shooters were women. Or, to fit LaPierre’s Twitterpated bromide: “Gals”!


As I mentioned last week – and is stated below in Remembering Elementary School Shootings of the Past - the worst mass murder of students on a campus in US. History was the elaborately premeditated bombing of the Bath Consolidated School in Bath Township, MI in 1927 by a deranged school board member who had been defeated in a local election. He purchased dynamite and blasting caps and a WWI military surplus explosive product called Pyrotol on the open market.

After the Bath School Disaster the federal government banned the sale of Pyrotol and regulated the sale of dynamite – passing the legislation in record time! Assault weapons are essentially military surplus technology – they may not be actual former surplus weapons – but they are made to the specifications and design of the military. (AR-15s , the weapon used at Sandy Hook is a design for the M-16 made for the US government by Colt, ironically in Connecticut. The ubiquitous AK-47 is the same thing made for the Soviet government by Kalashnikov.) These are not target or sporting arms – there are far more accurate and better suited weapons for target shooting and hunting. They were designed to effectively, systematically and reliably kill human beings – and they are very effective.

Joe Biden has his work cut out for him.

RETURNING TO A THEME: It would be nice to have tablets and iPads and laptops for all students. But it would be better to have all the workers back or made whole who were RIFed, reduced in hours or had their bases changed. Librarians, nurses, assistant principals, psychologists. It would be better to have strong after school and early childhood ed; adult ed and arts and music programs. It would be better to adequate counselors. It would be far, far better to have safe and healthy and clean schools.

That is something worth wanting for Christmas.

¡Onward/Adelante! - smf



NATIONAL RESPONSE NEEDED TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM GUN VIOLENCE
“TEACHERS, PTAS AND ALL OTHERS WHO WORK IN OUR SCHOOLS WILL HAVE TO COME TOGETHER TO PUSH CONGRESS TO APPROVE LEGISLATION THAT CREATES SAFER ENVIRONMENTS FOR OUR CHILDREN – AND PEOPLE OF ALL AGES.”

By Louis Freedberg, EdSource Today | http://bit.ly/TemOcR

December 16th, 2012 | When will we ever learn?

Almost a quarter century ago, California experienced the horror of an elementary school massacre when five children were killed at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton. (see following)

In that traumatic January 1989 event, barely remembered except among those whose lives were directly touched by the tragedy, Patrick Purdy, a so-called “drifter” with a long criminal record and a history of mental disturbance, entered the school grounds during recess and shot to death five children from Southeast Asian refugee families – Rathanar Or, 9; Ram Chun, 8; Sokhim An, 6; Oeun Lim, 8; and Thuy Tran, 6 – injured 29 others, and then killed himself.

Sound familiar?

The shootings triggered the usual outpouring of outrage – and the California Legislature actually responded. It passed the Roberti-Roos Assault Weapons Control Act of 1989, the first state-level law to ban the possession, sale and manufacture of a long list of assault weapons in California. It was signed into law by Republican Governor George Deukmejian.

Over the years, California has passed numerous other bills, and today it is the only state to get a 4-star rating for its gun control laws from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

Not surprisingly, the Roberti-Roos bill was challenged in court, resulting in a set of prohibitions that are exceedingly complex to follow, as a review of the California Department of Justice’s webpage shows, raising questions about its effectiveness. (For details on the Roberti-Roos legislation, go here: http://bit.ly/TgqARC)

The DOJ site declares that as a result of the legislation “AK and AR-15 series weapons are unlawful for sale after August 16, 2000, even if their assault weapon characteristics are removed.”

Yet an online ad for a Sacramento gun shop with the chillingly coincidental name Newtown Firearms describes itself as ” Sacramento’s premiere AR-15 and tactical semi auto rifle dealer.” It shows that things are not as clear cut as state authorities claim. “If you are trying to buy an AR-15 in California, you have come to the right place,” the gun shop tells prospective customers. (In fact, the Internet is filled with sites like this one [http://bit.ly/12Hwkbl] providing advice on how to get around California’s ban on the weapon.)

And despite California’s top ranking for its gun control laws, the state’s experience underscores the limited potential of states to protect children – and adults – from the deadly impact of firearms. Just this year, another deadly attack in an education institution occurred in Oakland when a former student at a small Korean Christian university killed seven people and injured three more.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 138 children under the age of 18 were murdered in California in 2010, the last year for which figures have been compiled. Fourteen of those homicides were of children under the age of 12. Those figures don’t include the many more wounded as a result of intentional gunfire – or the 11,078 people of all ages killed nationally in 2010 by assailants wielding guns.

It is also notable that when it comes to efforts to regulate weaponry, Connecticut is not far behind California. Ranked 5th in the nation, it is one of only four states to get a 3-star rating from the Brady Center. Yet the Sandy Hook Elementary massacre took place there – in a school that had rigorous security measures in place, probably more than in most schools. As of this writing, reports say that Adam Lanza carried out his killings with weapons, including an AR-15 rifle, which appear to have been purchased legally – just as those used in the Stockton killings were in 1989.

Clearly what is needed is a national response, not a piecemeal state-by-state approach. Whatever is done has to go far beyond just reinstatement of the long-expired federal assault weapons ban that California Senator Dianne Feinstein is championing, although that would be a good start.

President Obama’s emotional speech in Newtown last night could well signal the start of a serious attempt to regulate weapons that can take the lives of 20 first graders in minutes. “We can’t tolerate this anymore,” he said. “The tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change.”

With two young children of his own, and ensconced in the White House for a second term, Obama must now make this a central cause of his presidency. So far, he has fallen terribly short on the issue.

Getting a 60-vote majority in the Senate, and majority support in the House of Representatives, for any meaningful reforms will be extraordinarily difficult. Teachers, PTAs and all others who work in our schools will have to come together to push Congress to approve legislation that creates safer environments for our children – and people of all ages.

“No single law, no set of laws can eliminate evil from the world or prevent every senseless act of violence in our society, but that can’t be an excuse for inaction,” President Obama said last night. “Surely we can do better than this.”

Surely we can. Whether we will is another question altogether.
Louis Freedberg is executive director of EdSource

________________________________________

REMEMBERING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTINGS OF THE PAST

by James Swift, The Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (JJIE.org ) | http://bit.ly/RLLb3x

Dec 16, 2012 | The Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre Dec. 14 constitutes the second deadliest mass school shooting incident in American history, second only to the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre in which a single assailant murdered 32 individuals and injured 17 others.

With an estimated 26 victims dead — 20 of whom are children — the recent massacre is far and away the deadliest shooting incident to ever occur in one of the nation’s elementary schools.

Although mass shooting incidents in university and high school settings have occurred in the past, the Newtown, Conn. massacre serves as a rare instance of a perpetrator targeting elementary school students. But similar shootings have taken place.

• On Oct. 20, 2006, Charles Carl Roberts IV entered the West Nickel Mines School in Bart Township, Penn. and killed five young girls – ranging in ages from 7 to 13 – while additionally wounding five others before committing suicide.

• On Jan. 17, 1989, Patrick Purdy opened fire on a playground filled with children at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, Calif. In the three-minute rampage, Purdy killed five students and wounded an additional 29 children before turning the gun on himself.

• On Sept. 26, 1988, James William Wilson, Jr. killed two eight-year-old children and wounded seven others with a .22-caliber pistol at Oakland Elementary School in Greenwood, S.C. Wilson was sentenced to death for the attack.

• On May 20, 1988, Laurie Dann shot and killed an eight-year-old boy and wounded five other individuals in an attack that took place at Hubbard Woods Elementary School in Winnetka, Ill. She later committed suicide.

• On Feb. 24, 1984, Tyrone Mitchell killed a 10-year-old girl and wounded 11 other children when he opened fire on students exiting 49th Street Elementary School in Los Angeles. The perpetrator than killed himself with a shotgun.

• On Jan. 29, 1979, 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer injured eight children and killed two adults when she opened fire at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, Calif. She was tried as an adult and is serving a sentence of 25 years to life at the California Institute for Women.

Historically, the single deadliest attack on elementary students to ever take place in the United States occurred in Bath Township, Mich., when Andrew Kehoe — a school board treasurer alleged to have been spurred by foreclosure proceedings on his farm — killed 38 children and wounded more than 50 others in a bombing that transpired on May 18, 1927.

Tabulating school-related violent deaths, the National School Safety Center reported that from 1992 until 2010, an estimated 52 homicides occurred within the nation’s elementary schools.

The Sandy Hook shooting increased that statistic by 50 percent.


SCHOOLS OFTEN FIRST LINE OF DEFENSE IN IDENTIFYING, TREATING KIDS WITH MENTAL ILLNESS

By Barbara Jones Staff Writer, LA Daily News | http://bit.ly/VdsDIm

12/22/2012 03:44:22 PM PST :: They teach kids to read, write and solve math problems, and to work and play well with others.

And along with those lessons, educators are increasingly being trained to spot depression, anxiety and other troubling behaviors in their students, with administrators and teachers forming the first line of defense against mental illness.

"We provide psychiatric first aid," said Ailleth Tom, who coordinates crisis counseling and mental health services for the Los Angeles Unified School District. "We really listen, protect and connect students with services.

"We don't ask, `What's wrong with you?"' she said. "We ask, `What's happened to you?"'

Speculation about the mental health of the 20-year-old gunman in the Connecticut school shootings has focused attention on the need for the early treatment of troubling behavior in the nation's adolescents and teens.

Los Angeles Unified has long partnered with local law enforcement agencies and mental health experts in Los Angeles County, where crisis- and threat-assessment teams evaluate student activity that could potentially lead to violence.

Within Los Angeles Unified, experts train principals and faculty to watch for early warning signs so kids can get help before more serious conditions develop. Any new insights that develop from the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy will be incorporated into future professional development sessions, officials say.

"We all are very aware
Advertisement
of the school's role in identifying problems a student may be having. We do feel that responsibility," said Judith Perez, president of Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, which represents about 3,000 principals and assistants principals in LAUSD.

With 600,000 students, LAUSD has a cadre of 300 psychiatric social workers who refer students to mental health professionals or, in some cases, hold group or individual therapy sessions on campus for kids struggling with emotional traumas like divorce, death, illness or abuse.

"They're completely busy all of the time," Superintendent John Deasy said. "There are not enough of them to deal with the problems."

Mental health services are also offered at eight clinics operated jointly by LAUSD and Los Angeles County. Sites include clinics next to Daniel Pearl High School in Lake Balboa, and at Cabrillo Elementary in San Pedro.

Christine MacInnis, a counselor at North High in the Torrance Unified School District, said counselors do not wait for students in distress to come to them.

"Half come to me on their own, and the other half are referred through a parent, teacher, coach or administrator," she said. "Teachers are probably our first line of defense, because they are the ones with them all day."

The most common warning signs are sudden changes in behavior or appearance. A strong student may lose interest in his studies, for instance, or a snappy dresser may start coming to school looking disheveled.

If Torrance High counselors suspect that a student is a danger to himself or others, they call in a Los Angeles County psychiatric evaluation team. In the extremely rare event that a child is perceived to be a threat to others, law enforcement is also notified.

In 2011-12, the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health conducted more than 4,200 threat assessments involving the region's school districts, a spokeswoman said. The agency's Emergency Outreach Bureau also held some five dozen training sessions for educators, law-enforcement, parents and students.

The Sandy Hook tragedy unfolded as many school districts were preparing for winter break. Nevertheless, officials began reviewing their own operations to determine whether they needed to do more to keep campuses safe.

San Bernardino City Unified, for instance, formed a task force that includes officers from the San Bernardino and Cal State San Bernardino police forces, along with members of local churches and service clubs. They'll be looking at all aspects of student safety, including support for youngsters with mental health issues.

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, more than 20 percent of U.S. kids ages 9-17 are struggling with a mental disorder that disrupts their lives, with symptoms appearing by age 14 in half of those cases.

However, only 20 percent of these youngsters begin treatment each year.

Experts say parents may be reluctant to seek treatment for their child because of the long-held stigma about mental disorders. Others may be in denial about troubling changes in their child's behavior, dismissing extreme mood swings, or episodes of panic, defiance or excessive hostility as just a passing phase.

This may create a delay that experts say could allow the disorder to worsen and become more difficult to treat.

"Adolescents and teens are in the midst of achieving their education, making friends and developing their identity," said Dr. Daniel Grosz, director of adolescent psychiatry at Northridge Hospital Medical Center's Behavioral Health Unit.

"If their mental illness started early in life, it's harder for them to achieve these goals. The longer we delay, the more resistant these conditions become."

Researchers from the National Institute of Mental Health studied more than 10,000 kids with mental disorders and found that panic and anxiety were the most prevalent issues, followed by ADHD, depression and drug or alcohol abuse.

Grosz said youngsters coping with these kinds of issues may display flashes of anger or aggressive behavior, but not the type of violence unleashed at Sandy Hook Elementary, where 20 children and six adults were gunned down.

"It's important after a tragedy like this to strike the right balance between investing in awareness and resources and referrals without going to the other extreme of suspecting any kind of unusual behavior," he said.

Nevertheless, he advised against keeping guns in a home where there are concerns about the mental health of anyone - adult or child.

While the Sandy Hook shootings shook the entire nation, they had an even stronger impact on the parents of children with mental and behavioral disorders.

Rosa Morales, who lives in San Bernardino County, has sought psychological help through the school system for her 10-year-old son because of the sudden, angry outbursts that seem to come out of nowhere.

"Once he had a screaming fit when he couldn't pass a level in a reading computer game," she said. "He yelled and screamed that he was a dummy, that all the kids in his class had already passed the level and that he was too dumb to get it right," she said.

Morales fears that her son's tantrums may one day escalate to violence.

Administrators said schools can play an important role beyond recognizing students in distress. They can help parents find low-cost counseling, support groups and other services.

In the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy, school districts in the Southland and around the U.S. have been reviewing security procedures and looking for ways to improve student safety.

However, Las Virgenes Superintendent Dan Stepenosky, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on the gunmen in two high-profile school shootings, said the best way to protect students is to get to know them well and to address their mental health issues as soon as they surface.

• Staff Writers Rob Kuznia and Beatriz E. Valenzuela contributed to this report.

___________________

WARNING SIGNS OF MENTAL ILLNESS (smf: Warning signs + bullet points are not the same as a psychological evaluation!)

Each mental illness has its own symptoms, although there are some general signs that might alert you that someone needs professional help. These include:

• Marked personality change
• Inability to cope with problems and daily activities
• Excessive anxiety
• Prolonged depression and apathy
• Marked changes in eating or sleeping patterns
• Thinking or talking about suicide or harming oneself
• Extreme mood swings - high or low
• Strange or grandiose ideas
• Abuse of alcohol or drugs
• Excessive anger, hostility, or violent behavior.

Source: National Institute of Mental Health


SCHOOLS FACE MORE PENALTIES AS FEDS REJECT CALIFORNIA WAIVER

By Howard Blume, LA Times/LA Now | http://lat.ms/VlUjGp

December 21, 2012 | 7:53 pm :: Federal officials have rejected California’s request for exemption from rules that penalize low-performing schools and school districts, state officials announced Friday.

The state’s failure to win a “waiver” from the No Child Left Behind law was not entirely a surprise, but was still unwelcome news to officials.

“It is disappointing that our state’s request—which enjoyed such strong support from parents, teachers, administrators and education advocates across California — has apparently been rejected,” said state Supt. of Instruction Tom Torlakson in a statement. “California made a good-faith effort to seek relief from requirements that even federal officials have acknowledged time and again are deeply flawed.”

Under federal rules, more than 6,000 California schools have been labeled as failing. In many cases, these schools are improving, sometimes rapidly. Besides enduring a stigma of failure, these schools must also set aside as much as 20% of their federal funds to transport students to “non-failing” schools and to set up tutoring services with outside vendors. The outside tutoring has been inconsistent and frequently ineffective, according to some experts.

“At a time when resources for schools are so scarce, schools and districts should be able to focus their resources on delivering services they believe will actually improve student performance — a waiver would have provided that flexibility,” said Paul Hefner, a spokesman for the California Department of Education.

The U.S. Department of Education said it would not comment until California has been officially notified of its waiver status, but a department spokesman did not contest the state’s announcement.

The state has engaged in a series of high-profile tiffs with federal officials over school reform—and the waiver application was one of them.

Waivers were offered to spare states from a mandate requiring nearly all students to be academically proficient by 2014. But in exchange, states were expected to develop teacher and principal evaluations that rely substantially on student data, such as standardized test scores, among other requirements.

Teacher unions and other critics, including California Gov. Jerry Brown, have faulted the U.S. Department of Education for taking this position on evaluations.

While most states sought waivers, California may have been the only one to do so while choosing which federal directives to follow in its application, state officials said. To do otherwise, they said, would have cost California an estimated $2 billion in new expenses for unproven reforms.

The federal decision was defended by StudentsFirst, a Sacramento-based advocacy group.

“By submitting an inadequate application, California has precluded the ability of school districts and schools to be flexible and innovative with millions in federal funds,” said spokeswoman Erin Shaw. “It’s time to change the system that rejects accountability and continually risks classroom resources that rightfully belong to students.”


BATTLING OVER SCHOOL GRANTS: Another tussle between the teachers union and the school reform movement, this time over grant applications + smf's 2¢
LA Times Editorial | http://lat.ms/U4Yk2X

December 23, 2012 :: In yet another tussle between the teachers union and the school reform movement, the Los Angeles Unified school board decreed last week that district administrators must obtain board approval before applying for any grants of more than $1 million, in order to ensure that they don't seek out grants that come with problematic strings. The idea is reasonable enough, but the way the new policy is written, it unnecessarily ties the hands of staff without necessarily protecting the district.

During the meeting, board member Richard Vladovic referred to a $50-million grant the district received requiring recipients to institute some form of merit pay and to include student test scores in teacher evaluations — two sore points with the union. Neither policy was in place when the district applied, and Vladovic's concern was that the grant might lead the district to make policy changes that hadn't been approved by the board. The 4-3 vote split along union-friendly versus reform-minded lines.

Supt. John Deasy, who clearly resents this intrusion into his autonomy, says the district doesn't have to change any policies because of the federal grant, though he acknowledges that it would have to give back some or all of the money if it eventually failed to meet the requirements. Deasy complains that the board's action makes the district look hostile to reform-minded grantors and might kill L.A. Unified's chances at future largesse. In any given year, the district generally has billions of dollars of grant money that would be affected by the new policy, most of it for construction.

Deasy's argument goes too far. It's fairly common for school boards to exert their authority over grant applications to avoid conflicts of interest or a move in a dubious direction. We don't particularly favor anti-reform actions by the board, but there's no question that it has the right and responsibility to oversee any promises the district is making through its grant applications.

There are some practical concerns, though. L.A. Unified has no grant-writing department; this supplemental money comes from the efforts of staff who put in extra time and initiative on grants. In August, the school board decided to start meeting half as often — just once a month. But some grants have 45- to 60-day turnarounds, making it hard to get permission in time to write a good proposal. That puts quite a burden on the grant writers. The board should agree to hold emergency meetings when tight deadlines are involved. If the board wants to exercise this level of control, it should be willing to put in the work involved.

Meanwhile, why set the amount at $1 million? If a grant commits the district to an unacceptable promise, it's just as bad whether the amount is $10,000 or $10 million. The board should narrow the kinds of grants affected by this policy based not on the dollar amount but on the issues involved. For instance, it might choose to review all grants that could affect labor contracts, curriculum or school discipline. Chances are the board doesn't need to get involved in most of the construction grants, by far the bigger source of funding.

•• smf’s 2¢: “In August, the school board decided to start meeting half as often — just once a month.”

I think The Times may be onto the biggest part of the problem here. The board members – for all the self-congratulation they award themselves for the time+work they put into running “their schools” – are paid for attending board meetings. They have eliminated half the board meetings. Did they cut their pay for this reduction in basis? …for all those furlough days? When Superintendent Deasy spoke to the amount of grants the District receives he disclosed almost two billion dollars a year – and now balks at disclosing to the board and therefore to the public the sources and terms of this largesse. It’s called transparency and accountability. It’s a good thing.


ROCK ME, MERCY: a poem written in mourning
from npr/ read aloud at http://n.pr/TU38rZ

The river stones are listening because we have something to say.
The trees lean closer today.
The singing in the electrical woods has gone down.
It looks like rain, because it is too warm to snow.
Guardian angels, wherever you're hiding,
we know you can't be everywhere at once.
Have you corralled all the pretty wild horses?
The memory of ants asleep and day lilies, roses, holly and larkspur?
The magpies gaze at us, still waiting.
River stones are listening.
But all we can say now is mercy, please rock me
- Yusef Komunyakaa :: 12/14/2012
poet & distinguished professor of English at NYU

HIGHLIGHTS, LOWLIGHTS & THE NEWS THAT DOESN'T FIT: The Rest (but not necessarily the best) of the Stories from Other Sources
NRA’s IDEA TO MILITARIZE OUR SCHOOLS WON’T MAKE US SAFER + smf’s 2¢
Editorial by LA Daily News/LA Newspaper Group Opinion staff | http://bit.ly/107jRPv

THE NRA & THE SCHOOL ARMS RACE: Why deescalate when you can escalate?:
"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."
- NRA honcho Wayne LaPierre
“The only thing that stops a really bad idea is the combination of truth and education.”
- smf http://bit.ly/UQWEej

CLAIM OF FUNNY BUSINESS ON SCHOOL BOARD CANDIDATE PETITIONS + smf’s 2¢: by Hillel Aron in LA Schools Report |... http://bit.ly/WEgFtH

MONICA GARCIA, LAUSD BOARD PRESIDENT, ON UTLA, PROP 30 & BOARD POLITICS: By Hillel Aron, Huffington Post courtes... http://bit.ly/YxNmcD

SEN. BOXER PROPOSES DEPLOYING NATIONAL GUARD AT SCHOOLS: By Richard Simon, LA Times | http://bit.ly/UN7Pok

$6.9 Million Queen Anne Elementary Student Molestation Verdict: A HARBINGER FOR MIRAMONTE + TELFAIR?: LAUSD must... http://bit.ly/XUfG44

A Lesson Plan for the Teachable Moment: THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS AND PASCAL’S TRIANGLE: Created by: Judy Ann... http://bit.ly/WyVAkk

DISTRICTS FACE QUESTIONS IN SPENDING LONG-TERM BONDS FOR SHORT-LIVED TECHNOLOGY: By John Fensterwald, eDsOURCE t... http://bit.ly/Wobv4R

DEASY PLEDGES SAFETY REVIEW OF L.A. SCHOOLS AFTER CONN. SHOOTING: -- Howard Blume, LA TIMES/LA Now | http://lat.... http://bit.ly/V0X0NF

GUN VIOLENCE MUST STOP: Here’s What We Can Do to Prevent More Deaths: by e-mail to 4LAKids from the Prevention I... http://bit.ly/WlspkG

L.A. POLICE, COUNTY SHERIFFS, OTHER CITIES ANNOUNCE ADDED SCHOOL PATROLS, “GUN BUYBACK” PROGRAM: Chief Beck: “We... http://bit.ly/UG6Vck

LAPD CHIEF CHARLIE BACK ANNOUNCES A PLAN TO HAVE OFFICERS PATROL KINDERGARTEN-THROUGH-8th GRADE SCHOOLS IN L.A.:... http://bit.ly/UG6XkF

ROCK ME, MERCY: a poem written in mourning: from npr/ read aloud at http://n.pr/TU38rZ The river stones are... http://bit.ly/ZHbTw9
View summary
17 Dec Scott Folsom Scott Folsom ‏@4LAKids

Deasy: "District has never cutback on security even though the LAUSD has experienced devastating budget cuts." Let 4LAKids know otherwise!


• LAUSD BOARD OF EDUCATION & COMMITTEES MEETING CALENDAR



What can YOU do?
• E-mail, call or write your school board member:
Tamar.Galatzan@lausd.net • 213-241-6386
Monica.Garcia@lausd.net • 213-241-6180
Bennett.Kayser@lausd.net • 213-241-5555
Marguerite.LaMotte@lausd.net • 213-241-6382
Nury.Martinez@lausd.net • 213-241-6388
Richard.Vladovic@lausd.net • 213-241-6385
Steve.Zimmer@lausd.net • 213-241-6387
...or your city councilperson, mayor, the governor, member of congress, senator - or the president. Tell them what you really think! • Find your state legislator based on your home address. Just go to: http://bit.ly/dqFdq2 • There are 26 mayors and five county supervisors representing jurisdictions within LAUSD, the mayor of LA can be reached at mayor@lacity.org • 213.978.0600
• Call or e-mail Governor Brown: 213-897-0322 e-mail: http://www.govmail.ca.gov/
• Open the dialogue. Write a letter to the editor. Circulate these thoughts. Talk to the principal and teachers at your local school.
• Speak with your friends, neighbors and coworkers. Stay on top of education issues. Don't take my word for it!
• Get involved at your neighborhood school. Join your PTA. Serve on a School Site Council. Be there for a child.
• If you are eligible to become a citizen, BECOME ONE.
• If you a a citizen, REGISTER TO VOTE.
• If you are registered, VOTE LIKE THE FUTURE DEPENDS ON IT. THEY DO!.


Who are your elected federal & state representatives? How do you contact them?




Scott Folsom is a parent leader in LAUSD and is Parent/Volunteer of the Year for 2010-11 for Los Angeles County. • He is Past President of Los Angeles Tenth District PTSA and represented PTA on the LAUSD Construction Bond Citizen's Oversight Committee for ten years. He is a Health Commissioner, Legislation Team member and a member of the Board of Managers of the California State PTA. He serves on numerous school district advisory and policy committees and has served as a PTA officer and governance council member at three LAUSD schools. He is the recipient of the UTLA/AFT 2009 "WHO" Gold Award for his support of education and public schools - an honor he hopes to someday deserve. • In this forum his opinions are his own and your opinions and feedback are invited. Quoted and/or cited content copyright © the original author and/or publisher. All other material copyright © 4LAKids.
• FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. 4LAKids makes such material available in an effort to advance understanding of education issues vital to parents, teachers, students and community members in a democracy. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
• To SUBSCRIBE e-mail: 4LAKids-subscribe@topica.email-publisher.com - or -TO ADD YOUR OR ANOTHER'S NAME TO THE 4LAKids SUBSCRIPTION LIST E-MAIL smfolsom@aol.com with "SUBSCRIBE" AS THE SUBJECT. Thank you.