RSSMission Viejo Elementary in Aurora, Colorado School Bans White Students From After-School Tutoring Program … Only for Children of Color, Whites Need Not Apply (Update: School Apologizes)
WHAT PART ABOUT DISCIMINATION DOES THIS SCHOOL NOT UNDERSTAND?
Just when you thought you had heard it all when it came to public education in the United States, along comes to following. A school principal for the Mission Viejo Elementary in Aurora, Colorado has stated that NO WHITE CHILDREN were allowed in an after-school tutoring program. WHAT!!! A student of color only tutoring program? Really? So what part about segregation and discrimination doesn’t this principal quite understand? So it is ok for children of color to get special tutoring, but not white children? Imagine, just imagine if the story was reversed and the letter that went home to parents from the principal states that ‘children of color need not apply’? Ironically enough the sign outside of the Mission Viejo Elementary school states: “To inspire every student to think, to learn, to achieve, to care”. I guess some one needs to inform the principal of the elementary school’s mission statement? The Board of Education seems to be throwing the principal Andre Pearson under the bus and blaming him for this entire fiasco.
A school principal said no white children were allowed at an after-school tutoring program, and now some parents call it discrimination.
The principal at Mission Viejo Elementary in Aurora sent a letter telling parents the program is only for students of color. Parents CBS4 talked with said they were shocked to see, in this day and age, what they consider to be segregation.
“I was infuriated. I didn’t understand why they would include or exclude certain groups,” said parent Nicole Cox, who is white.
HOW DOES SOMETHING LIKE THIS HAPPEN IN AMERICA? Is this the principals way of getting even with “Whitey”? Making matters worse in this story of discrimination, guess what color principal Andre Pearson is? Yes, he would be an individual of color. I wonder how he would feel if the roles were reversed? It is truly sad and pathetic that a school administrator would actually think that any form of discrimination would be ok.
UPDATE I: as reported at The Daily Caller, the School district is in full scale damage control and apologizing for Principal Pearson’s actions. They claim his letter was a mistake. Um, this was no mistake on his part. He truly intended to go forward with the reverse-discrimination. AN APOLOGY IS NOT ENOUGH, PRINCIPAL PERSON NEEDS TO BE FIRED!!!
The district has since apologized for the error. A spokeswoman for the school district told KJCT that Pearson’s letter was a mistake and that white students can participate in the tutoring program.
“We deeply regret that they got that communication,” the spokeswoman added, according to notes CBS Denver.
UPDATE II: Letter to Parents ?February 12, 2013 … Principal André Pearson in full damage control mode.
Mission Viejo Parents,
I want to express my regret for the communication sent last Friday describing the PASS Tutoring program sponsored by our PASS parent committee (Partnership for Academically Successful Students). The PASS committee is focused on partnering with the principal to close the racial achievement gap; however the tutoring program is open for all students, regardless of race/ethnicity, and on a first come, first served basis. As your child’s principal, I am equally concerned about the success of all students who attend our wonderfully diverse school.
I have deep convictions and take my responsibility as a school principal very seriously. This situation has not deterred me in any way from continuing to do my job with a dedication to excellence. I am committed to ensuring every child in our school succeeds while closing the achievement gap…it is a moral imperative for me as a public educator. I will continue to do both of those things with great passion.
In alignment with our District Performance Plan, Mission Viejo has set goals to increase the achievement of all students while eliminating differences in academic performance and growth by race. I welcome input from any and all community members to help us achieve these goals. As a community we will continue to work hard to establish strong positive relationships with parents through PASS, PTCO and Accountability meetings.
In addition to the PASS Tutoring Program, we have many other programs that are intended to help students including, but not limited to, Reading Together, Saturday Academy, Math Club, and Reading Clubs, as well as teachers who make themselves available for afterschool tutoring. If you have concerns about your child’s academic progress, please notify your child’s teacher and they will give you guidance on what steps we can take, together, to ensure your child’s success.
If you have any questions regarding this matter, do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
André Pearson, Principal
Posted February 15, 2013 by Scared Monkeys Child Welfare, Discrimination, Education, Elementary School, Racism, WTF, You Tube - VIDEO | 13 comments |
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13 Responses to “Mission Viejo Elementary in Aurora, Colorado School Bans White Students From After-School Tutoring Program … Only for Children of Color, Whites Need Not Apply (Update: School Apologizes)”
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Well I suppose the scholl district got its collective head handed to themselves on a platter.
The people in this district need some new leadership. These idiots had every intention of doing just what the original plan called for except that the light of exposure made them change the story.
In such stories, I would appreciate having a link provided in the story at which readers could submit comments to the school or district, in this case.
_______________
SM: Here you go:
http://www.cherrycreekschools.org/Schools/MissionViejo/Pages/default.aspx
Uhmnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn..
OH HELL NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don’t even GET me started. This pisses me OFF
Really??
Are you a teacher? Its evident that you are not. Clearly you have misspelled the word ‘principal’ wrong multiple times.
Did you know that it was minority parents who run the group and tutoring these students? It was not a a school funded tutoring.. It clearly is volunteer work of parents. And as a person who leads a minority girls group, my target was to work with minority students not WHITE girls who have peers in their class that look like them.
As a someone who knows this district, and the shift in education, you must understand that minority students are UNDER PERFORMING white students daily. No, not because they are lazy or incompetent. Even the minority gifted and talented learners are not achieving the same academic level as white students.
If you would like your white child to participate in tutoring, thats called school. Your student has an advantage everyday when they walk into school. They have teachers that look like them, teach to them and value them off top. Read books that reflect their life style, appreciates their home life, culture and value, HELL… the whole education system is meant for WHITE students.
Before you go putting down this wonderful ‘principal’ whom I have met, you should look into the research and what the district is aiming to do. Look at the research on the achievement gap and Common Core standards… everything is aiming to reach our minority students. Look at the information that the district puts out, they are under educating MINORITY students. If you look deeper, you would find that Mission Viejo isn’t the only elementary school that focus of students of color. ALL of this district schools focuses on students of color, that’s their EQUITY movement. Go to DPS & APS, all school districts are focusing on minority students because they are doing a good job of educating them in a first place.
Before you jump to a conclusion on this school and principal, DO YOUR RESEARCH and become knowledgable on things before writing an article that clearly shows your level of education.
__________________
SM: Please, some teachers I have met in my lifetime are some of the worst spellers and could not string a sentence together if their career depended upon it. I guess you are just the most educated individual ever. Sorry to burst your bubble. but there is a difference between being in a rush writing a post so I could get to my real job vs. your pathetic “discriminatory” ranting’s.
What part about a PRINCIPAL of a tax payer funded, public elementary school using school supplies, stamps, envelops, stationary and time sending a letter out to parents that say only people of color could participate in the tutoring program don’t you quite get you ignoramus?
It is the very definition of discrimination.
If it was a volunteer program run by parents, the principal and the school should have played no part in any of this. PERIOD!
Who is jumping to conclusions you dim wit, I graduated Magna Cum Laude from college as a double major. Which is more than I can say for you who thinks its perfectly ok for discrimination to occur. I would just love to see your reaction if it were “people of color” were not allowed in the program. Then folks of your ilk would be clamoring for Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to protect the school. But because its the kind of discrimination you believe in, its ok.
A note to you, the truly most ignorant among us … DISCRIMINATION IS DISCRIMINATION, NO MATTER WHAT THE COLOR IS.
R
Was there any coverage of this in the MSM?
NY Times? Washington Post? MSNBC? CNN?
To #4 above who likes their kind of discrimination comes a letter from the back peddling Principal who is in full damage control trying to save his bacon.
Actually, if he were for all of the students, he would have never sent out the first letter to parents where “no whites need apply”.
Had the roles been reversed and a white Principal done the same, they would have been relieved of their duties immediately.
Letter to Parents
?February 12, 2013
Mission Viejo Parents,
I want to express my regret for the communication sent last Friday describing the PASS Tutoring program sponsored by our PASS parent committee (Partnership for Academically Successful Students). The PASS committee is focused on partnering with the principal to close the racial achievement gap; however the tutoring program is open for all students, regardless of race/ethnicity, and on a first come, first served basis. As your child’s principal, I am equally concerned about the success of all students who attend our wonderfully diverse school.
I have deep convictions and take my responsibility as a school principal very seriously. This situation has not deterred me in any way from continuing to do my job with a dedication to excellence. I am committed to ensuring every child in our school succeeds while closing the achievement gap…it is a moral imperative for me as a public educator. I will continue to do both of those things with great passion.
In alignment with our District Performance Plan, Mission Viejo has set goals to increase the achievement of all students while eliminating differences in academic performance and growth by race. I welcome input from any and all community members to help us achieve these goals. As a community we will continue to work hard to establish strong positive relationships with parents through PASS, PTCO and Accountability meetings.
In addition to the PASS Tutoring Program, we have many other programs that are intended to help students including, but not limited to, Reading Together, Saturday Academy, Math Club, and Reading Clubs, as well as teachers who make themselves available for afterschool tutoring. If you have concerns about your child’s academic progress, please notify your child’s teacher and they will give you guidance on what steps we can take, together, to ensure your child’s success.
If you have any questions regarding this matter, do not hesitate to contact me.
Sincerely,
André Pearson, Principal
I discussed this issue with a black comple who attends our church .. who have school aged children … who immigrated to Canada from Zimbabwa seven years ago. English is their native language. Their sentiments regarding the implications of the program. Either it is about “Black privilege” or Blacks are preceived as inferior intellectually.
This program should be offered to ALL students within the public school system … ALL children who require extra assistance with the curriculum.
Theodore Roosevelt – Immigration (1919)
“In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person’s becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American…There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag… We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language… and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”
PRIOR TO THE DAMAGE CONTROL LETTER TO PARENTS
Parents Complain About School Ad Excluding Whites From Tutoring Program
February 13, 2013 6:18 PM
Cox’s 10-year-old daughter needs tutoring. After receiving the notice, other parents complained to the school’s principal, Andre Pearson.
“We have come so far in all of these years to show everybody that everyone is equal, that everyone should be treated equally … this is a form of bullying,” Cox said.
Before Cox could complain to the school, Pearson contacted her directly. His voicemail only seemed to reinforce the segregated tutoring idea.
“This is Andre Pearson. It’s focused for and designed for children of color, but certainly, if we have space for other kids who have needs, we can definitely meet those needs,” Pearson told Cox in the voicemail.
http://denver.cbslocal.com/2013/02/13/parents-complain-mission-viejo-elementary-tutoring-program/
PASS? On the surface … the goals of PASS appears not to be limited to Academic Achievement.
Who/What determined that it was an exclusive private program at Mission Viejo Elementary in Aurora, Colorado…exclusive to those of Color? Is the PASS program exlusive for students of Color in other schools? Why is this private program affiliated with the public school system?
Could it be that the underlying agenda of PASS is to affirm behind closed doors the concept of “privilege” … not “equality” … among the students of color? Think about it. Would or would not that be the reversed mindset if the PASS program was exclusive to White students?
PASS – Partnership for Academically Successful Students
PASS Team members participate in training and professional learning activities designed to facilitate the development of inclusive school-community partnerships that promote the success of underachieving students by engaging their parents in meaningful, effective, and respectful ways. There are five essential PASS Team training and community goals:
1. Bridging the cultural gap between schools and parents/communities
2. Identifying community resources that can be used to support students’ academic success
3. Learning to make community partnerships and parent/teacher relationships a constitutive and intentional element of district/school equity transformation efforts
4. Involving community members in district/ school planning and advisory processes
5. Improving relationships between teachers, parents and families
http://www.pacificeducationalgroup.org/programs/PASS.html
White people arevgonna have to learn how to act like the minorities and start rioting and protesting in the streets, but do it with purpose and leave a lasting impression. But one problem, most white people work to support these minorities and this country so we don’t have time to act out like this. Wevshould be able to cut our funds to the worthless government as we see fit .
This ?man? is only sorry he was called out for his racist, discrimanitory action! THAT’S WHAT HE REGRETS… and while this is absolutely positively a misuse of HIS POWER, the authority he has over “his administration,” and “CHILDREN” DOES NOT allow HIM to be above the LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. I will be keeping “constant” tabs on HOW THE SCHOOL BOARD deals with his gross mis-use of power!
EVERYONE, regardless of skin color in America should do EXACTLY the same. Remember, “if it can happen to one, it can happen to EVERYONE!”
BECOME EAGLE EYES ON THE ENTIRE STATE OF COLORADO, folks… everything and that is EVERYTHING generally begins with a very small trickle!!!!
Let’s see if “they make an example out of him, as made an example out of the children which were banned!!!”
My prayers are for AMERICA… as a whole! Let’s wait and WATCH!!!!
Even in sports games… when you strike out, THAT MEANS YOU ARE O U T….His job should have been POSTED IMMEDIATELY, we shall continue to wait and WATCH the Higher Authority Figures, in COLORADO on this one!!!!
Red= Applause and standing O !,!!!
Way to state the case to the pompous ” Researcher”
Research, my Arse. Just another misinformed uber Lib spouting off and missing the entire point of the post. Duh!