MMSD ‘took the progressive approach’
It is fair to ask, if a school resource police officer had been patrolling the halls at Madison East high school would the school have erupted into yet another episode of rolling brawls? The latest, Monday 11-08-21 required a dozen police squad cars, two ambulances, a fire truck and pepper spray. Five kids taken to hospital. Two charged with misdemeanors. More fair questions:
- How many of the combatants will be disciplined?
- What will those disciplines entail?
- How many have been involved in the earlier fights?
- What is the district doing to stop them and make our schools safe?
“My school. It’s not a safe place for a lot of people.”
— WI State Journal quotes student.
Calling all police cars
Madison Police have been called Madison’s four main high schools 185 times between September 1 and October 21. (The complete list here.) It’s not just East High. A teacher at Sennett middle school reached out to Blaska to report:
“I’ve been teaching in Madison for 23 years and have seen the steady decline of hallway and classroom behaviors and the increasing tolerance for bullying by students … at the expense of the victim’s rights to a safe and sane learning environment. … The staff that I work with, a strong majority who feel the same as myself, need an alternative voice to bring change to our “woke” school board.”
→ Three of seven school board seats are up for election next April. Candidates must file by January 4. (Here’s how.)
Expelling police in summer 2020 was only the most recent and visible trophy in the Madison school district’s campaign to abolish discipline, itself.
The district behavior plan adopted six years ago actively discourages out-of-school suspensions. The school board this autumn outright banned suspensions through fifth grade. Result? Fewer suspensions but more behavior incidents. Should that surprise anyone?
- Out-of-school suspensions dropped from 2,905 in 2013-14 to 2,521 in 2017-18, the last year we were able to find. (Which is telling in itself!)
- Behavior incidents nearly doubled from 35,460 in the 2013-14 school year — the year before the BEP went into effect — to 69,279 in 2017-18.
MMSD Behavior Education Plan 2020-21:
“Six years ago we made a major shift. Our community consensus was a zero policy toward discipline wasn’t working, that it was having a disproportionate and negative effect on students of color. … We took a step into uncharted territory — to embrace a restorative and progressive approach, one that aims to keep students in school.”
Time and again, the school district has pulled the rug out from under disciplinarians. The most tragic example is the “positive behavior coach” at Whitehorse middle school in 2018 who did everything by the book and still got the hook. As it did the principal at East High.
In Madison’s public schools, principals no more control their schools than teachers rule their classrooms. It’s all done by remote control from Doyle admin. Which is to say, it is not done at all.
It’s not just Madisons schools. Katoine Richardson walks free today after causing the shooting of a Madison police officer on State Street. Afer blowing ridiculously low bail three times earlier. Madison as a whole practices critical race theory — the myth that America is institutionally racist, white people are guilty of unconscious bias, that gang bangers are actually victims dating from 1619.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: The odd thing is that the East high school brawls were not Jets versus the Sharks. Which suggest the problem isn’t race, it is behavior — because discipline has been outlawed.
Blaska Policy Werkes 
14 responses to “Ambulances respond to school yard brawls because Madison outlawed discipline”
Why bother? You’re asking for a revolution in values, attitude, and social norms. Opponents will merely scream “discipline is White supremacy.” The visible minorities will support “no discipline” philosophy while demanding their graduates be offered scholarships for med school, computer programming, banking, finance, and engineering. To demonstrate prowess, they’ve created a hand-carved solar powered challenge to Boeing.
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Teachers can fix this with the help of strong principles like Milt Mcpike and Bruce Dahmen. All sadly gone! Has to come from within the rank and file!
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Completely agreed! This is a fight for teachers and parents.
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That press conference yesterday was some of the biggest piles of crap I’ve seen since I last visited the elephant exhibit at Vilas Zoo. And that included EVERYBODY including the Chief, the superintendent, and especially Savion Castro, who became agitated with somebody’s question. By the way, where were the other 6 board members? We’re they concerned?
“Do Your Job”.
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Yep…Lemonds as usual outdid himself getting Shon Barnes there, who cares not about crime, only keeping social justice warriors mollified. Then the usual long-winded yet meaningless speech w/ add-ons from sycophants. Useless and non-informative to say the least.
And yet no qualms now about steppin’ up MPD presence at East High.
Yoiks ! Crazy times but we’re gettin’ used to it. And the kids’ education continues to be at the bottom of priorities.
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Yes!
“outdid himself getting Shon Barnes there, who cares not about crime, only keeping social justice warriors mollified.”
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Barnes cares about elevating his career. Madison is but a stepping stone. Prove us wrong.
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All that was missing (besides the school board flunkies) was the Mayor, spouting her usual nonsense.
In fact, why was she AWOL from the actual fighting? She should’ve been there posing for pictures with “The Babies” (aka fight combatants) and gushing “thank you for your anger, rage, and violence!” like she did to the rioters last summer.
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How many of the combatants will be disciplined? if they white they will be disciplined cuz they racist.
What will those disciplines entail? if they are white they will be get the harshest punishment cuz they are racist,
How many have been involved in the earlier fights? Only matters if white kids were involved, all other colors get a pass because they are victims of racism.
What is the district doing to stop them and make our schools safe? If continues they will segregate white kids from rest of student populations because they were born racists
There I answered your questions per the progressive mindset. It is only about racism.
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The worst part? As we know, over time these miscreants join the “Outta-High-School” throng and we read about ’em everyday in the Chief’s Blog as well as occasionally in the local news. By that time, most are incorrigibly reluctant to work, what w/ no reading or math skills, but plenty o’ freebies. So no incentive to become productive over what they DO know: That MDSN is THE place to be for revolving jail doors, and access to “Social Services”. …Sigh…
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I feel awful for the teachers and kids who are victims of the chaos and political pandering. Their futures are being compromised, and all the idiots in charge are worried about are woke platitudes.
DB, I admire what you want to do for these kids. Your heart is in the right place. That said, I believe this fight belongs to the parents and teachers. They could very well organize if they wanted to, just as they organized during Act 10. It isn’t up to anyone to pick up their pieces.
It’s similar to how I keep reading articles and hearing podcasts with anonymous Madison police officers sounding off about how bad conditions are. It’s their job and their unions to fight for themselves, not random members of the public.
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Wait for it, their heads will explode after a student gets shot, color won’t matter. Oh, maybe it was a mistake to remove resource officers? Ya think? Any day now. Georgessson is absolutely correct with chiefs reports of daily teens out of control. Makes for good reading during cold weather. Keeps you informed more than local medias joke reports. Their usual: nice day in Madison for a bike ride.
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I know! Let’s put a slave catcher INSIDE each school. That way he can patrol the hall between classes, deter criminal or violent behavior (by their mere presence,) and even get to know the little victims of systemic racism. Yeah, maybe even make sure the slave catcher is also a minority so that he can relate. It seems so obvious, why didn’t they think of this before?
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[…] School District began dismantling discipline well before booting the police, as we related in a recent thrilling episode. It is a school board that kowtows to the BLM, Freedom Inc., and Progressive Dane instead of […]
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