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Monday, November 2, 2009
Boomer with Attitude / News McGarry's fave candidates wrong about bullying policy
Posted By John Grooms on Mon, Nov 2, 2009 at 1:37 PM
Election Day is tomorrow and will include elections for School Board district races. Current board member Kaye McGarry, whose anti-gay rants while arguing against a new anti-bullying policy won her Creative Loafing Best of Charlotte’s Worst Member of Local Government award, endorsed certain candidates in tomorrow’s election. McGarry and other board members objected to the new anti-bullying policy because it included a list of differences for which students may not be bullied or harassed, which would need to be considered equally with bullying that didn’t result from any of those differences. The policy makes it clear, however, that CMS outlaws bullying against anyone, period, not just students whose “differentness” would place them on the list.
I e-mailed two of the candidates Ms. McGarry endorsed, Susan Walker in District 5 and District 1’s Rhonda Lennon, to see how they feel about combating bullying in CMS schools, and noting that Ms. McGarry had voted against the new policy.
Rhonda Lennon, who, like McGarry, has been very active in the north county’s efforts for less-crowded schools, at first replied that she wasn’t sure why McGarry voted against the bullying policy (despite the issue having dominated school board news for a couple of weeks), and would get back to me. Later that day, she replied that she had “concerns that the only ones protected in the official bullying policy are the protected classes and the policy doesn’t cover the ENTIRE population ... I would have worked hard to make sure that our policy protect all students and not just the protected classes. I have witnessed bullying between 2 students of the exact same race, religion, and socioeconomic status — but under this policy the victim would not be protected. That is a great concern to me.”
These are similar arguments to those made by board members who opposed the policy, and they are equally inaccurate. Here is the entire policy, which specifically states, “The Board prohibits any and all forms of harassment or bullying on Board property or at Board-sanctioned events" (our emphasis); and specifies that freedom from harassment or bullying "includes, but is not limited to, freedom from harassment or bullying based on. . .[the list begins]” (again, our emphasis).
District 5 candidate Susan Walker answered our e-mail, saying she “would hope to eradicate bullying from our schools,” and that “I am not necessarily offended by the expansion but do have to question just how expansive the list needs to be. It could go on forever. At some point, common sense needs to prevail and administrators need to forbid any human vs human disrespect.” Which, if the candidates will read the actual policy, they will see is exactly what it was set up to do.
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