Save Our Sons

Here is a pamphlet from a group called Save Our Sons by new friends and supporters of mine, Craig and Monica Newman, and I support THEIR cause as well, having also had a girl and a boy in PISD before they both escaped, my daughter via Texas Academy of Math and Science, my son via a G.E.D. and spending what would have been his last two years in Community College - don't you wish Sam Johnson had voted to make things BETTER for boys by supporting Ron Paul's amendment instead of wanting to have MANDATORY PSYCH TESTING FOR KIDS WITH FORCED RITALIN? This is a perfect example of how a local issue where things are bad enough due to usual PISD baloney will get MAGNIFIED due to Bush's Leaving No Child Behind and other Federalization of Education programs. It's bad enough that they're using Leaving No Child Behind to get a draft list of our sons to get them slaughtered in Syria on which Sam Johnson and others have apparent designs, do they have to dumb them down and neuter them with rules, Ritalin, and Welbutrin as well? By the way, frustrated parents may find the Unnoficial PISD site helpful for information and commiseration. Sometimes I found PISD, paraphrasing Lenin, to be the Highest Stage of Bismarckian Socialism. What would YOU do if your daughter said at age nine, "Daddy, 2X3 is equal to 3X2 due to the commutative property, right? So why did they mark it wrong?" "WHAT? What do THEY say you should call it?" "The ORDER property..." "And what about associativity?" "Oh, that's GROUPING..." "And what about the distributive property?" Believe me, you don't even want to know the bizarre, non-intuitive version of THAT which they used - at least the other terms are intuitive, though highly non-standard. More Bismarckian Socialism probably. Anyway, without further ado, here's their pamphlet:

ATTENTION PARENTS! Your son is a second class citizen in his own public school, and his civil rights are being violated in direct contradiction to the PISD 2005-06 Student Parent Policy Guide, P.8, Student Rights, as well as the Plano ISD non discrimination policy itself.

Boys are much more liekly to be disciplined for first time offences without first recieving a warning. A record of good behavior may not even be considered. Boys are also punished for repeat and serious offences for which girls receive only repeated warnings. Of course some girls are disciplined, eventually, but more immediate and serious action is taken with boys.

When a boy is sexually harassed by a girl, he has no protection under the law. Title IX does not exist for him. When a boy is physically abused by a girl, the incident is often overlooked. A boy however can be accused of assault if he even acts to restrain her.

A boy can be demeaned and belittled by a female teacher in front of his classmates. Parents demanding disciplinary action will be told by administration that she can only be asked to apologize. If a male teacher injures teh feelings of a female student he may be dismissed. He will certainly be disciplined.

A boy requesting a transfer due to harassment by a female teacher may be told to work things out with her. A girl reporting harassment by a male teacher will be helped immediately. The teacher could face dismissal.

Boys who object to the above injustices are usually ignored. One administrator even refused our son's request that his father be contacted.

Parents objecting to the harassment of their sons by a female student or teacher risk being told they have not complained in a timely manner, whereas it is never too late for a girl to report harassment by a male student or teacher.

We write from personal experience, being the parents of two children, a boy and a girl, attending high schools in the Plano Independent School District.

Please do not assume simply because your son has not complained to you that he is not suffering. Ask him how he feels he is treated in school. If he admits to mistreatement, call his teachers and administrators and demand he be given the protection and respect to which every American citizen is entitled.

As author Christina Hoff-Sommers says in her book, The War Against Boys, "It is late, but not too late." If we act now, together, we can save our sons.

Sincerely,

Craig & Monica Newman

Save_Our_Sons@yahoo.com