Daily Kos diarist/teacher removed from classroom by police

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Tuesday April 30, 2013 · 6:27 PM PDT

2013/04/30 · 18:27

For the past three weeks, while my students have continued attending my classes and dealing with a substitute teacher, I have been sitting at home waiting for the hearing which may end my teaching career in Joplin, Missouri.

And it all started with this Daily Kos diary.

rturner229

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Friday March 29, 2013 · 8:54 AM PDT

2013/03/29 · 08:54

At numerous points in a definitive proxy statement filed March 22 by Gannett, it was mentioned that CEO Gracia Martore had voluntarily given up 10 percent of her salary, opting to take one for the team and receive only $900,000 instead of $1 million.

The sacrifice, however, was just a drop in the bucket since the SEC filing indicates Ms. Martore's pay package amounted to more than $8.4 million.

And while she has been at the helm during a time when thousands have lost their jobs due to her decisions and all Gannett employees have had to take one or two weeks of unpaid furloughs per year, if Ms. Martore ever loses her job because of a change in ownership, she will receive a termination package totaling more than $46 million.

rturner229

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Friday March 22, 2013 · 8:26 PM PDT

2013/03/22 · 20:26

An audit released today shows that special interests are footing the bill for booze, food, and parties for the Missouri Senate and the expenditures do not show up in the disclosure forms of any senator.

You won't find Senate leaders challenging Auditor Tom Schweich's findings- they claim they are saving the taxpayers money by having lobbyists take care of their party needs.

rturner229

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Tuesday March 12, 2013 · 5:41 AM PDT

2013/03/12 · 05:41

The students who have sat in my classrooms for the past two years have not looked any different from those in previous years.

The comments they make have not changed in any respect from those I have heard from students through the past 14 years.

But these students are different from any I have taught before.

Any of them who lived in Joplin on May 22, 2011, were deeply affected by the tornado that cut a swath through the city that day, killing 161 and destroying one-third of the city, including East Middle School, the school that had been their home.

For the past two years, these teenagers have attended school in a warehouse in an industrial park on the outskirts of the school district, directly across from a frequently aromatic dog food factory.

rturner229

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Sunday February 17, 2013 · 8:35 AM PST

2013/02/17 · 08:35

More than a decade ago, when I was teaching creative writing at Diamond Missouri Middle School, I came across an egregious example of cheating and it led to the accusation that I was a racist.

The eighth grade students in the trailer where I taught were taking an essay examination and I was circulating around the room checking on their progress. In the very back of the room, I noticed that two students, a white boy and a black girl, had exactly the same answers to a question, something which is extremely difficult to do on an essay test.

I quietly pulled the white boy aside and said, "You copied your answer off (the girl)."

I had tried to be as quiet as possible so no one could hear me, but the boy was having none of it. "I did not cheat," he shouted. "You're racist!"

I picked up his paper and read aloud what he had written. "Growing up as a black girl in Joplin..."

He quickly gave up the protest and he received a zero on his paper.

rturner229

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Tuesday February 12, 2013 · 5:56 AM PST

2013/02/12 · 05:56

For the most part, you won't see the wining and dining of Missouri GOP leaders by ALEC special interests spelled out in lobbying documents filed with the Missouri Ethics Commission.

The operation is much more sophisticated than that.

The expenses, and there are plenty, are buried in finance documents filed with the Commission.

rturner229

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Sunday February 10, 2013 · 4:55 PM PST

2013/02/10 · 16:55

Missouri Speaker of the House Tim Jones, battling back from the ridicule he received after telling St. Louis reporter Charles Jaco that a "very personal constituent" talked him into signing on to Orly Taitz' birther lawsuit against President Obama, send out a fundraising message earlier this week trying to capitalize on how the elite liberal media is picking on him.

rturner229

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Tuesday January 15, 2013 · 6:25 AM PST

2013/01/15 · 06:25

When I heard all of the snide remarks that were being made about the memo at a GateHouse Media newspaper that the freebie gravy train was being stopped, I had to find out just what was going on.

The memo, from Editor Chazy Dowaliby at the Patriot Ledger and Brockton Enterprise indicated that the GateHouse property was in dire financial shape.

It included the following:

We will no longer be able to supply coffee service in our newsrooms. We will use up whatever supplies are currently on hand. I suggest you bring in a mug or your own disposable cups. We do have a drip coffee machine available, if you wish to collect for, buy supplies and brew by the pot.

And this shocker:

We will not be replacing general office supplies in the short term. Please conserve use of paper for copy machines.

Rumors rapidly circulated that toilet paper was being rationed and that reporters were having to pay rent on their desks. Read More

Sponsor of "Don't Say Gay" bill to head Missouri House Education Committee

rturner229

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday January 10, 2013 · 10:20 PM PST

2013/01/10 · 22:20

It was a bill that would have deprived Missouri classroom teachers of their First Amendment right to freedom of speech and made the already serious problem of bullying in schools into an epidemic.

The so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill, sponsored by Rep. Steve Cookson, R-Fairdealing, during the 2012 session, would have prevented any discussion about gay issues, including gay marriage and bullying, in Missouri schools.

Usually, when you have a ludicrous bill, you don’t see any co-sponsors. Not in the Show-Me State, where more than 20 representatives battened down Cookson’s door for a chance to sign on. After all, in the Missouri Legislature, it’s not politically correct to target African Americans, Hispanics, or the poor (just eliminate funding for anything that helps them and cut taxes for anyone who won’t hire them) but you can still jump on the bandwagon for any anti-gay bill and be rewarded with a wider victory margin come next election time.

rturner229

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Wednesday January 09, 2013 · 10:17 PM PST

2013/01/09 · 22:17

Nearly half a century has passed since the U. S. Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling brought the hammer down forever on the fiction that was “separate but equal.”

Unfortunately, those who wanted to cling to the past, led the nation through a turbulent, and often violent, era that my students research every year during the third quarter.

After Brown v. Board of Education, the state of Mississippi fought federal civil rights laws and court rulings by forming the secretive Sovereignty Commission which declared its purpose to be to “protect the sovereignty of the state of Mississippi and her sister states from the federal government.”

The Sovereignty Commission worked to prevent civil rights activism in the South and did its best to preserve Jim Crow beneath the Mason-Dixon line.

It would be nice to think that in the enlightened era in which we live, this type of nonsense would be buried in the past.

Sadly, that is not the case.

rturner229

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday January 08, 2013 · 9:57 PM PST

2013/01/08 · 21:57

A video posted earlier today shows Missouri's Speaker of the House Tim Jones, R-Eureka, piously proclaiming that any bills that would reinstate campaign contribution limits are "non-starters" in this year's legislative session.

The most important thing with any ethics legislation, the speaker said, is "transparency." From Jones' way of thinking, it does not matter if someone contributes $100,000 to a politician as long as that contribution is recorded and openly available for the public to see.

Of course, that is assuming that the voting public has the time or the inclination to go to the Missouri Ethics Commission website and pore through the posted documents. It also assumes that there is a robust media willing to maintain their role of watchdog for the public and reveal these contributions from special interests and the gifts provided by lobbyists representing those special interests.

rturner229

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday January 07, 2013 · 9:18 PM PST

2013/01/07 · 21:18

When I made my mid-life change from being a newspaper reporter/editor to teaching, I received $21,450 a year teaching creative writing at Diamond Missouri Middle School for the 1999-2000 school year.

Apparently, I went into the wrong field. The new Missouri Senate President Pto Tem, Tom Dempsey, R-St. Charles County, has received more than that, $23,373.11, in lobbyists' gifts alone during his six years in the Senate.

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Daily Kos diarist/teacher removed from classroom by police

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Scars from the Tornado: One Year at Joplin East Middle School

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MO House Speaker, Congressman candidate bury ALEC connections in campaign finance documents

Mister Speaker, you are a joke

GateHouse Media and the high price of yacht maintenance

Sponsor of "Don't Say Gay" bill to head Missouri House Education Committee

Missouri bill invites return of Jim Crow era

Speaker: Missouri House will continue to be for sale to highest bidder

Lobbyists give $23K in gifts to Missouri GOP Senate leader