‘You wanted this, liberals … you got it. Good and hard.’ 

About the fallout at troubled Sherman Middle School, the irony is that whistle blower Karen Vieth is a Madison teachers union rep. A liberal in good standing in the Peoples Republic. Member of the Madison Teachers Inc. team that picks which Democrats to endorse for elective office.

But she is reaping the bitter fruit of liberal policies. Criticize the teaching environment in a school for 12 to 14-year-olds where the “positive behavior support coach” is hospitalized breaking up student fights? Blame the principal for disappearing into her office even after three years of coaching? The school district hierarchy race-shames you.

The greater irony is that it was President Barack Obama’s administration that forced districts to set what amounts to racial quotas in school discipline. Thankfully, a Wisconsin-based conservative action group is moving to restore order in the classroom so that children of all colors can succeed.

‘You blame the principal; I blame your politics’

Ms. Vieth’s seismic cri du coeur, “Closing the Door on the Madison Metropolitan School District,” had attracted 96 comments as of 9:30 this morning (06-16-18), with few repeaters and only two dissenters. Most are deeply sympathetic but some are pointing fingers at Madison’s guilty-liberal culture. A commenter named “The Barber” posts:

As a Union teacher rep I imagine that you likely voted for the liberal policies you have now had the opportunity to experience. … Your silly notions about punishment and corrective action are part and parcel of why the school has turned into a free-for-all. You blame the principal for all of this insanity. I blame your politics and those of your colleagues. You wanted this, you got it. Good and hard.

Another named “Mike” piles on: 

I have sympathy for the children but none for the teachers involved in this. You have voted and lobbied for a consequence-free environment for decades and now you have it. You have voted and lobbied for race to be the deciding factor in employment and now you have it.

‘The race card will be played’

Presumably signing his real name, Ed Olson demands:

People … need to ask themselves why this type of stupidity can possibly happen. Who can put someone like this in charge and continue to ignore incompetence? You can go up the ladder in administration and eventually land at [Superintendent Jennifer] Cheatham. Who hired and appointed Cheatham? Who continues to enable this?

The answer of course is the school board. The board is completely populated by “progressives” endorsed (ironically) by the teacher’s union. … If anyone runs for the school board with a message of accountability and discipline, they will immediately run into the same problem as Ms. Vieth. The race card will be played.

Ed, Mike, and The Barber are correct. The school district’s race-based Behavior Education Plan is the bitter fruit of the Obama administration’s “Dear Colleague” directive giving school administrators “guidance” on how to comply with federal law in maintaining school discipline.

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Tell the Madison school board that discipline is Life’s Lesson #1.

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Obama forced racial quotas in school discipline

National Review magazine elucidates: 

Threatening lawsuits if the administrators didn’t comply with the “guidance,” the January 2014 letter coerced many school systems into adopting illegal racial quotas in their disciplinary decision-making.

The Obama letter utilized the “disparate impact” approach to civil-rights enforcement, whereby a policy that does not discriminate on its face, in its intent, or in its application is nonetheless deemed illegal if it has “disproportionate” statistical effects among different racial and ethnic groups.

… There is overwhelming evidence that Obama-era policies culminating in this “Dear Colleague” letter pushed schools to avoid disciplining students who needed to be disciplined. It made avoiding politically incorrect numbers more important than maintaining school safety.

MMSD is trying to make the numbers work by reducing school suspensions of students of color. Improving behavior and … you know, actually teaching, is secondary. Even so, the racial disparity continues virtually unchanged. African-Americans are 19% of enrollment but continue to be 62% of all suspensions. More here.

Who suffers? The kids

National Review continues:

The victims of this unfair and unlawful policy are most likely to be well-behaving, minority students — and their teachers — whose classrooms become disrupted and dangerous. And it doesn’t do misbehaving students any favors either, since a lack of early corrective action may only encourage even more disruptive and potentially dangerous behavior. This is what some refer to as the school-to-prison pipeline.

Fortuitously, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), this week urged the secretary of education to toss the Obama administration’s “Dear Colleague” letter into the circular file. We close with one more comment from Karen Vieth’s blog:

Todd Kasper says: “All in favor of voting for Karen for school board say yes.”

Blaska’s Bottom Line: Notice something, Dave Zweifel? Act 10 is not the issue here. Meanwhile, the school board’s Cops Out of Our Schools committee meets next Wednesday, June 20, at 4 p.m. in the MMSD admin bldg at 545 W. Dayton Street. Priorities, people!