A bee hive of buzz words
Michael Johnson has been walking the hallways and sitting in the classrooms of Madison’s troubled public high schools, along with volunteers from his Boys & Girls Clubs of Dane County.
Speaking Monday via Zoom, Michael Johnson called on the Madison school board to restore school resource police officers that they had jettisoned in summer 2020. But the school board never got around to forming the ad hoc committee that it had advertised would study school safety. As if school safety needed more study. Here is Michael Johnson:
I firmly believe our schools need mental health officer, counsellors, parent outreach workers and school resource officers to keep schools safe and make sure our kids are learning in a safe environment. In an ideal it would be great not to have school resource officers but we don’t live in an ideal world. …
An argument for SROs is that, being embedded in their schools, they got to know the students and could anticipate trouble before it boiled over like the fights at East high school, when police had to be called in from outside. Johnson continued:
It is dangerous to have police officers who don’t have relationships with students responding to school-related incidents without having a group within the schools who can work with them prior to them entering into our buildings. I have learned many of the major incidents happening in our schools are issues arising from community-related events that sometimes spill into our schools.
Our schools need intel and community-related navigators who can work with law enforcement officials and school personnel to mitigate issues before they escalate in schools, especially in our middle and our high schools.
If our community ever experiences a shooting at one of our schools we will be pushing and begging to put police officers in our schools.
I know there are disparities around disciplinary issues and this should be monitored and addressed.
Reimagining safety
Otherwise, Monday’s school board meeting was a bee hive of Woke buzz words — a mutual exoneration society for the chaos these seven have wrought in our public schools.
“We’re in the middle of doing this work,” member Christina Gomez-Schmidt pleaded. “We have added a restorative justice coordinate for each high schools. There is a need for mental health support, counsellors, trusted adults …” But not school resource police officers, apparently.
Instead, the school board seemed to blame the Covid-19 pandemic. “What is safety after a global pandemic?” school board president Ali Muldrow asked. We’re surprised global climate change not indicted.
Member Savion Castro heard what he wanted to hear. “It suggests students take a health and safety approach to student violence rather than a law enforcement approach.”
Blaska’s Bottom Line: The school board repeated like a mantra that “It’s going to take everyone from the community to … to … do what??
Blaska Policy Werkes 
10 responses to “Michael Johnson calls for police in schools”
Unfortunately, it may take more mayhem and violence to woke the Madison Board of Education from their waywardness. They don’t care, though… the bruises and bloodshed will not come from their children.
Restorative justice, my butt.
Good for Michael Johnson, though.
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“They don’t care, though… the bruises and bloodshed will not come from their children.”
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Many on the school board are cultist ideologues and by definition refractory to any conflicting messages/ideas. Have you ever contradicted someone’s religion?
The cultist progs continually propose *very long-term* solutions of unknown efficacy to short-term problems happening today, now. Healing broken single parent families and a dysfunctional segment of the community takes years of committed effort on multiple fronts that may only show meaningful results in the next generation.
MJ says:
“I have learned many of the major incidents happening in our schools are issues arising from community-related events that sometimes spill into our schools.”
Translation: these are gang related conflicts that do not end at the school house door. If these school board cultists truly believe their warm fuzzies have any chance of quelling gang feuds, they should resign and allow tough love adults to intervene before another entire school year is lost.
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Batman,
“they should resign and allow tough love adults to intervene.”
Indeed, tough love applied judiciously is real love. Letting students flounder academically and emotionally and to be left vulnerable to attacks from other students just to fulfill some misguided sense of justice, is not love. It’s self-serving and cowardly.
“The cultist progs continually propose *very long-term* solutions of unknown efficacy to short-term problems happening today”
Their “solutions” are not grounded in realism and practicality. Real solutions are all so very simple, yet they continue to rely on needlessly complex multi-point “plans” and endless committees.
These very same people also think they’re our intellectual betters, that they’re smarter and more righteous than us simple plebes.
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“Reimagining safety” ? Reimagining police?
I read the latest sister study: Reimagining Chainsaw Justice by the Restorative Logger’s Union. Point was simple and clear. Errant cut? Blame the saw, not the logger. Just Gorilla-tape it back on and continue on with the dream.
Maybe the tribe of educrats should apply their intellectual tools across the behavioral universe. REIMAGINE — parenting, competency, manners, and responsibility. REIMAGINE the beauty of progressive behavioral modifications: liberal use of “the stocks” for those who fail to externalize the requisite cultural civic sensitivity. Embrace diversity. If the stocks fail, try cellphone deprivation or mandatory assignment to Lincoln Hills.
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Haha, true enough. It’s always someone else’s fault, isn’t it?
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Manwhilst…
DPI: Most school districts meet, exceed educational expectations
Dept. o’ Public Instruction reports that, “Across Wisconsin, 399 of the 421 public school districts were rated at three stars or higher on the report card’s five-star scale.”
Further: “DPI noted THIS YEAR’S report cards REPLACE the closing gaps priority of past years with the NEW TARGET priority, GROUP OUTCOMES.”
Problem solved… Simple as that!
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That’s what happens when the expectations were lowered and the grading system was changed because of covid. Looks good on paper. Reminds me of when Ms. Jen changed the discipline/suspension policy in the schools and 6 months later they were all patting themselves on the back because suspensions were down. Seriously???
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Listened to it for over an hour. Couple of takeaways from what I heard….found it interesting only nine speakers none of which were from Freedom Inc or Brandi Grayson’s Urban Triage which verifies they are in cahoots with the School Board and it’s a done deal no matter how bad it gets. Felt like they pretty much dismissed the Assistant Football coach from East who pretty much told it like it is. The icing on the cake was they felt like if the community gets together and walks around the parking lot and sidewalks at lunch and dismissal handing out “snacks” the problem is solved. About lost it when the one woman stated she could already see the difference and felt the “snacks”they were passing out was creating trust. No mention of the chaous in the hallways and how hard it is to learn when the teachers have no control. What a joke. Sadly someone will end up getting shot before they get their heads out of the sand. Michael Johnson was right on point but the board doesn’t much care for him. Sad Sad Sad.
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Loudoun County, VA parents obviously care more about their kids than Madison parents do. The Madison School Board will not make sensible changes unless *forced to* and it will require significant sustained pressure from parents which is also the only way to get the attention of Madtown’s cupcake press.
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This school board is brilliance in its inaction. There is no way they will reinstall the police.
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