Dennis Taylor, in his column of Nov. 19, claims that I have
duped him and the readers of The Dispatch. Baloney!
Dennis Taylor, in his column of Nov. 19, claims that I have duped him and the readers of The Dispatch. Baloney!
Facts: Kim Lemos was laid off and not rehired. Students who donned vests protesting this lay-off were told not to wear them. Some of these vests were taken away. Students circulated a petition. The petition was confiscated, and the students were warned that they would face suspension if they did not desist.
In Mr. Taylor’s column of Nov. 12, he wrote in his usual slap-dash, careless fashion that Kim Lemos was fired and students were prohibited from wearing T-shirts. I just rolled my eyes. It was obvious that Mr. Taylor had taken his usual care (none), that he had not even bothered to go back and re-read my column. T-shirts, forsooth!
Mr. Taylor’s column of Nov. 19 was a different piece of work altogether. He had by this time spoken with Bob Bravo, Greg Camacho-Light, and Elizabeth Dirks at GHS. He wrote, with uncharacteristic care: “No official at the high school, specifically principal Robert Bravo, vice-principal Greg Camacho-Light or anyone in the administration ever directed a student to stop wearing a protest T-shirt, nor did they direct ever any faculty member to do so.”
Well, no, Mr. Taylor. They were vests. Did Bravo and Camacho-Light look you in the eye when they made that statement? Who is duping whom?
Mr. Taylor also wrote: “Another Walker fable had officials confiscating a petition.” It is no fable, Mr. Taylor, that 1,200 students signed a petition, nor that it was confiscated. I don’t know what the official definition of “official” is.
I hope we find out soon. I hope that students who remember signing the petition last year will write in to The Dispatch to say so. I hope that the student who had the petitions taken away will write in to say so, and if she remembers who confiscated them, will name names.
It will take courage to write in. Students are afraid that they will be called in to the principal’s office, that their teachers will give them a hard time or bad grades. Parents are afraid that their kids will be harassed, that they won’t get the letters of recommendation they need, that the school officials will obstruct the parents‚ attempts to get better curriculum for their kids.
Some teachers are fuming over the injustice, but not speaking out. They are still in their probationary period and don’t want to be laid off for mysterious, unstated reasons. Or they just want to teach math or English or history or PE, not anger their co-workers and their boss over some ridiculous, pointless political battle.
Except that it is not pointless, or minor. Truth and justice are never pointless. Freedom is never minor. And all that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
Another point to bear in mind is that there is safety in numbers. One student standing up for truth and justice can be jerked out of class repeatedly, called to the principal’s office, harassed for hours. Fifty students can’t be. Twelve parents can be marginalized, called elitists. Two hundred parents can’t.
This Thanksgiving, I am more thankful than ever to be homeschooling. I am thankful that my kids can’t be threatened with vague threats, nor promised vague rewards for silence. I am thankful that they are learning to be free citizens, not “Don’t rock the boat.” I am thankful that Gilroy High School cannot bribe me with an honors class nor threaten my livelihood.
I think I will sing along with my old Arlo Guthrie LP.
“This song is called ‘Alice’s Restaurant.’ … It all started two Thanksgivings ago… And if you’re in a situation like that, there’s only one thing you can do, and that’s walk into the shrink wherever you are, just walk in and sing, ‘You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant’ and walk out.
“You know, if one person, just one person does it, they think he’s really sick and they won’t take him … And can you imagine 50 people a day, I said 50 people a day walking in, singing a bar of ‘Alice’s Restaurant,’ and walking out? They may think it’s a movement …”
