Posted May 21, 2012 at 4:04 pm by IP staff

Are the Chicago Blackhawks racist? How about the Kansas City Chiefs?

According to the Oregon State Board of Education, the answer would likely be a resounding yes. They’ve been working for the past six years to pass a rule which bans the use of native American (or American Indian) mascots and logos at schools.

So, no “Chiefs”, “Indians”, “Redskins”, “Mohawks” etc. (Apparently “Warriors” is okay.)

The movement, supported by American Indian rights organizations, was spearheaded (yes, pun intended) by a former student of an Oregon school whose sports team was called the Molalla High Indians. He claims that a mascot wearing stereotypical Indian garb, complete with a head-dress and spear would dance around the school gym and he found it completely demeaning and offensive.

And the school board agreed. They said the long standing tradition of depicting Indians as savages and mocking their traditions, even if unintentional, is both racist and promotes bullying.

One parent who opposed the ban argued that schools cannot afford the mandated change and feels the action was taken by false outrage. The change will cost some schools hundreds of thousands of dollars according to Oregon Live. The added expense comes at a time in which school districts in Oregon and across the country are struggling with worrisome budget cuts and student funding.

So, what do you think? Is this redonk or is it justified?

Hey, we (the American settlers) did introduce smallpox to them. That is way, way, way shitty. How that translates to sports teams called the “Chiefs”, I don’t know, but I’m sure there’s some warranted resentment.

***

P.S. – throughout this entire post, I kept thinking of that song, Indian Reservation by Paul Revere and the Raiders. Anybody know that song? I used to love it as a kid…used to play it on my old ‘Annie’, plastic turntable. Great tune!

“They took the whole Cherokee Nation and put us on this reservation…Although I wear a shirt and tie, I’m still caught red man deep inside…”

Heavy stuff, man…

 

 

Posted February 18, 2010 at 1:20 pm by Kris

Yeah. The ‘Zero Tolerance Policy’ is working just fine….so fine in fact, that a twelve year old girl got arrested (arrested!!) for writing on her desk at school in New York. What she wrote wasn’t even remotely hateful or anything. Just professing her love for her friends and making it known that ‘Lex was here’. And-it’s not like she carved it in the desk-she used a marker, one that could easily have been washed off.

Still, she got arrested for it, taken out of the classroom in handcuffs and escorted by the police.

Now, hang on. What happened to a visit to the principal’s office? Detention? What has happened that doodling on your desk warrants handcuffs and a trip to jail for a 12-year-old?

….the case of the doodling preteen is raising concerns about the use of zero tolerance policies in schools.

Critics say schools and police have gone too far, overreacting and using well-intended rules for incidents involving nonviolent offenses such as drawing on desks, writing on other school property or talking back to teachers.

“We are arresting them at younger and younger ages [in cases] that used to be covered with a trip to the principal’s office, not sending children to jail,” said Emma Jordan-Simpson, executive director of the Children’s Defense Fund, a national children’s advocacy group.

Apparently, this isn’t the first case of arrest. There was another not too long ago in New York and one in Chicago:

One of the first cases to gain national notoriety was that of Chelsea Fraser. In 2007, the 13-year-old wrote “Okay” on her desk, and police handcuffed and arrested her. She was one of several students arrested in the class that day; the others were accused of plastering the walls with stickers.

At schools across the country, police are being asked to step in. In November, a food fight at a middle school in Chicago, Illinois, resulted in the arrests of 25 children, some as young as 11, according to the Chicago Police Department.

Really? You have to call in the police to stop a food fight? No, you (teachers, principal, etc.) step up and tell them to stop and move on. Throw in a detention if necessary, but not the handcuffs.

Is ‘Zero Tolerance’ giving schools an excuse to not take responsibility for their students? Just let someone else handle the situation?

Towards the end of the article, juvenile court judge Steven Teske is quoted as saying:

“There is zero intelligence when you start applying zero tolerance across the board,” he said. “Stupid and ridiculous things start happening.”

That’s the most sane thing I’ve heard about Zero Tolerance.

Posted April 20, 2009 at 5:29 pm by Jessica

In another effort to eliminate any kind of personal responsibility, NYC’s counsilman Eric Gioia is putting forth a vote for an ordinance that would prevent any fast food restaurants from opening within a tenth of a mile of a school. Berkeley and Columbia, the two universities that studied the fatso affect, must have received a grant that kept them occupied so they wouldn’t draw on the walls or stick their fingers in the electrical sockets or something. Because that’s all we need — another needless study that adds fuel to their “Big Corporate America preys on dumb people” cause or something.

Also in the study, an increase of weight in pregnant women living close to McDonalds or Burger King too. Shocking! So if a fast food restaurant is only within a few blocks, I might go there more often? You don’t say?

continue reading…