The Clover Park school board voted to reprimand a board member Monday night after racist comments he made in an email became public.
Read more at The News Tribune.
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Was he wrong?
I recommend reading the comments that are attached to the TNT article, while considering Kerpal’s question.
There is more to think about here, and it does feel that there is a group agenda concerning Mr Wageman.
The tragedy throughout the whole, long running CPSD Board drama is that the welfare of all the students is being lost on the adults. Sad!
I guess the First Amendment no longer applies.
And 50% of the District’s citizens’ opinion doesn’t matter. Just take a look at the current election for percentages. Yet Wagemann is just 1 of 5 (20%) on the Board who represents that 50% opinion. Now if “diversity” and “equity” really mattered the representation on the Board would be 50/50! It isn’t and hasn’t been for years. Time for a change.
Chris: The U.S. Supreme Court appeared inclined on Tuesday to rule that a school board’s censure of one of its members over speech that violates board rules does not give rise to a First Amendment case.
https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/in-censure-of-school-board-member-u-s-supreme-court-skeptical-of-first-amendment-claim/2021/11
Ruling isn’t expected until June 2022. Let’s wait and see. The Supreme Court has gotten it wrong (over ruled decision) 233 times. They are not infallible.
I know Paul Wagemann to be a thoughtful advocate for the parents and families of the CPSD, as corroborated by a good majority of his constituents’ votes two years ago. Apparently, Paul’s crimes include performing his duty to advocate for the CPSD community and seeking a positive academic outcome for ALL students. Make no mistake, this is a slippery slope; a US citizen’s personal emails acquired to censure this duly-elected citizen school board member. I am grateful that Paul Wagemann remains a CPSD Board member that parents and taxpayers can contact with their concerns, and that he will continue to be their advocate on the Board
The U.S. Supreme Court appeared inclined on Tuesday to rule that a school board’s censure of one of its members over speech that violates board rules does not give rise to a First Amendment case.
https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/in-censure-of-school-board-member-u-s-supreme-court-skeptical-of-first-amendment-claim/2021/11
the link implies that the defendant’s censure was based on his speech in meetings, and not his personal emails. I might coin an old commercial: what is in “the other CP School Directors’ personal emails?”(substituted for YOUR WALLET). It might be educational to discover the answer.
A few things I find odd … … …
First, The Tribune had no interest in publishing a “Letter to the Editor” when the Levy was being voted on last year as to the reasons it should be voted down. NOW however, the Tribune feels they need to report on CPSD? Maybe, they should do some real reporting about the abysmal test scores, even though voters have FULLY funded the District with levies for over 20 years.
Second, anytime I see Malcolm Russell comments I wonder if those are his or is he the proxy for his Brother-in-Law James “Marty” Schafer?
Lastly, is the following statement racist? … “An emphasis was placed on gathering input from historically over-represented communities, such as affluent families who live on the lakes, and the traditionally Caucasian colonizers who founded the Lakes Region which became Lakewood, as to how the schools should be run.”
Marty Schafer is not my brother-in-law, makes people have wonder what other ad-hoc facts, assumptions and mistaken info you’re choosing to spout off.
Well fill us in… Whats the relation?
Marty is married to Malcolm’s cousin. So they are family, just not BIL’s.
Note how the first line of The News Tribune (TNT) article judges Director Wagemann, as the four school board directors did in their censure, by stating “…after racist comments he made in an email became public.” As demonstrated in comments to this Suburban Times article and to the TNT piece, many citizens are thoughtfully evaluating the validity of that statement. A more objective lead statement by reporter Josephine Peterson would have been “alleged racist statements”. I, like Frank who commented above, recommend reading the comments attached to the TNT article.
Current levels of FRUSTRATION with Board activities needs to immediately move to positive Board actions to actually deal with problems that have led to all this frustration. As a life-time educator, certified superintendent/teacher with a Ph.D. in educational administration. I have been appalled at the lack of Board leadership. The Board needs to adopt/implement best practices itself and implement positive educational outcomes by actually discussing these issues at board meetings.
Listening to members waste voter time describing their anecdotal external community attendance narratives/stories as their ONLY input at meetings RATHER THAN working on actual parent and voter concerns is one thing. Hearing NOTHING about improving actual student learning by discussing board requested data based reports aggregated and disaggregated by school and teacher MAKES ME HOPEFUL that the Board can begin to actually address some commmunity issues such as actual measured student educational attainment pre AND post!
Let’s see transparency once the Board begins to address identified educational goals with measurable objectives and demand reports from our administrative/educational staff. TIME ON TASK by the Board would end citizen frustration.
Mr. Arbeeny your use of an over 100-year old quote from Booker T Washington in his declining years as somehow relevant to modern-day equality/equity policy is seriously flawed and problematic for you to use Mr. Arbeeny
A ) The NY Times piece here below does a good job dismantling your use and repeated citation to it.
You and Mr. anti-equity ‘Crack the Whip’ Paul Wagemann and his endorsement of his protégé Mr. anti-equality ‘Monkey-Morality’ author, and school board candidate David Anderson should try to check your unfortunate use and misappropriation of outdated quotes and your current and continued poor-choice of language in your contemporary communications to others.
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/20/opinion/20blow.html
I’d suggest that Booker T. Washington at any time in his lifetime has more credibility than you will ever have when it comes to recognizing and defeated racism. Born a slave and rose to the height of recognition by the Nation. That’s noteworthy in anyone’s opinion. What’s your bona fides Russell to dismiss anything Booker T. Washington had to say? Truth doesn’t have an expiration date nor is it confined to youthful exuberance.
Looks like you failed to read the New York Times piece by Charles Blow, that was included here already …because it answers your question, and contradicts you, and makes the similar argument that I am making to you plain, evident and clear.
So Mr. ‘Bad-Cop’ Arbeeny, try putting your glasses on and actually reading it:
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/20/opinion/20blow.html
(…Bottom-line: You and Mr. anti-equity ‘Crack the Whip’ Paul Wagemann and his endorsement of his protégé Mr. anti-equality ‘Monkey-Morality’ author, and school board candidate David Anderson should try to check your unfortunate use and misappropriation of outdated quotes and your current and continued poor-choice of language in your contemporary communications to others.)
Thank you MM Russell
The NYT is your trusted source for news? Probably CNN and MSNBC too? A sad decline for what once was the “nations newspaper”. So left leaning it’s about to fall over!
There is a difference between “opinion” as expressed in the “opinion piece” (it’s in the URL title) and fact. For someone today with a leftist leaning to read the tea leaves of what a remarkable man, “Up from Slavery” said a century ago is nothing more than a manifestation of cancel culture which you apparently endorse: destroy anything that disputes your supported narrative.
All the pejoratives you pile onto myself or David Anderson are taken as “badges of courage” and do not detract from the reality that Board President Marty Schafer was deposed in this election and nothing you have to say can change that. Get over it.
Meow, Mr. Arbeeny, the claws come out when you get defensive. Please, please, embrace your ‘badges of courage’, …and enjoy your maybe won a battle (by a microscopic squeaker) …but reality is you still completely lost the war… sadly enough with a no-leadership, no-experience, no-vision, just a negative, deceitful and misleading campaign against the award-winning board incumbents coming from the “Bad-Cop” team. Plus the true-colors of you, Wagemann and Anderson etc are exposed and revealed … and that is an extra bonus win 🙂