Everett Middle School in San Francisco’s Mission District is teaching its students a thing or two about democracy . . . or the lack of it. Parents were informed by Principal Lena Van Haren (left) that the winners of the recent student elections would not be announced (or possibly honored) after the election failed to produce a sufficiently diverse selection. The school is composed of 80 percent students of color and 20 percent white students. The students however appeared to pick their representatives based on their individual qualifications rather than their race and that was a problem for Van Haren who told parents that the results were “concerning to me because as principal I want to make sure all voices are heard from all backgrounds.”
The school is now reportedly moving to changing the make up of the school representatives to satisfy its diversity expectations. Van Haren called a meeting with all the student candidates and administration to talk about the best way to move forward. Here’s one suggestion: honor the results of the election and stop using race to penalize certain students based on the color of their skin. These kids campaigned and received the support of the majority of their classmates, who were not as preoccupied with race and de facto quotas as the school.
However, Van Haren refused to budge on the demand that representatives first and foremost must satisfy a racial quota. Yet, she insisted that “We’re not nullifying the election, we’re not cancelling the election and we’re not saying this didn’t count.” No, you are just refusing to announce the winners and changing the results.
In a truly chilling spin, Van Haren insisted “I’m very hopeful this can be a learning experience and actually be something that embodied our vision which is to help students make positive change.” Well, it is a learning experience . . . just not a good one. You are teaching students that race does matter and that it is not enough to simply secure the trust and support of your fellow students. You are teaching them that the color of their skin is the predominant criteria and, if the student body does not produce a representative body, the school will impose its own selection.
After an outcry, Van Haren back pedaled:
Everett Middle School is honoring the results of the Associated Student Body (ASB) elections. This is our first student council at Everett Middle School in recent history and we started up a student council because we want our students to have several ways to develop their leadership skills and be a part of shaping our school. We want a student leadership body that includes the range of perspectives and experiences of our students and we believe a representative body is an important part of democracy.
When we reviewed the results of our Associated Student Body (ASB) elections on Friday, October 9th, we saw that it was not fully representative of our school population. I made the decision to pause on sharing the results with the students in order to capitalize on a teachable moment. I wanted to have a conversation with all of the candidates and ask for their ideas to make sure that all voices and groups are represented in our ASB. In retrospect, I understand how this decision to pause created concerns. Today I visited classrooms to announce the winners of the elections.
There are many challenges and opportunities that this situation surfaces. Especially now, at a time when our school and community’s population is undergoing demographic change, I believe that we have a responsibility to take these conversations seriously, appreciating both their complexity and their urgency. There are no easy answers, so I am looking forward to talking as a community about how we can grow and get better at this for the rest of the year and into next year.
It is certainly good to see why Van Heran understands now why her decision “create concern” but she clearly does not view her initial action (or the suggestion of dictating representatives on the basis of race) as wrong. Instead, she still wants the students to reexamine their decision (which she continues to view as problematic) based solely on the race of the winners. These is in fact an “easy answer.” Let the children select their representatives and stop imposing race quotas or criteria. Try teaching that students should be seen for their individual worth and not counted on the basis of their skin color. The simple answer to is stop imposing race-based rules or values on students who appear to be voting on the basis of individual merit. They do not need to “grow and get better at this.” The need for growth is clearly found with Van Haren and some of her colleagues in the San Francisco school system.
It now appears that the solution to democracy is that the school intends to simply add more positions that will be given to minority students to meet the de facto quota based on race.
I’m just hoping now that we, the enlightened, can “self select” from among the many “false constructs” of gender and race, the whole AA thing will ride the jumped shark into the sunset, Nick.
calypso, Female, transgender, gay are also what counts. Straight is so 1950’s.
This woman is an idiot and should be removed from her post.
The election is a PERFECT education in affirmative action BS for these kids. Skin tone is the only diversity that counts in narrow minds.
This dangerous “educator” is what the engine of the Education Industry, schools of education, produce. She’ll be a superintendent soon.
The winners of elections are a reflection of the culture. To artificially change the “winners” doesn’t change the culture. Prohibitions on special political favors to the already wealthy and offering better environments and better education to the under-privileged could honestly change the election outcome as well as the culture.
Max,
She’s more like George Bush: Keep doing it ’til they get it right.
I love the look on that kid’s face…he’s thinking, “crazy white b!@#%”.
“When we reviewed the results …we saw that it was not fully representative of our school population.”
The kids chose representatives, but she did not believe that they were representative in the way she thought most important: race and gender..
She exhibits and promotes the hatred of whites and asians, especially males.
There will be no “talking as a community about how we can grow and get better at this”, which is just typical leftist educrat meaningless babble.
Indeed, there is no such thing as “talking as a community.”
Can someone explain that horrible piece of English drivel to me?
Use small words so I understand.
The principal must have heard of Bertolt Brecht:
“But wouldn’t it be
Simpler if the Government
Simply dissolved the People
And elected another?“
It follows a troubling pattern where the U.S. Constitution and the voters are NOT the rulers in America under our so-called “constitutional democratic republic”.
In real elections only a handful of candidates view themselves as “servants” to the people within constitutional legal boundaries, they are allowing voters to participate.
This teacher in the photo does not appear to be 80 percent minority. Therefore she must go. Out the door cause she sounds like a whore. When London Bridge is falling down, she can move to Arizona. Only minority lives matter. Where da Blue women at? Dis is a Blue state.
In the book, The Three Pound Universe, they authors, a woman and two men, discovered that women have more cells between the hemisphere, thus have a tendency to mixed their emotions and logic during their thought processes. Unless the children rigged the election, what other excuse can be considered from such a decision. Women’s intuition? I think it is also one of the reasons why women have a tendency to be more socialistically oriented from a political standpoint than men.
The election results should be honoured. It’s quite clear.
The Science Geek
http://www.thesciencegeek.org
“We’re not nullifying the election, we’re not cancelling the election and we’re not saying this didn’t count.”
~+~
Rubbish.
I remember back when I attended college, long ago, and now that I remember also with high school that I refused to participate or vote in school government because it was a sham that would be vetoed by the faculty whenever they disagreed. I didn’t expect it would devolve to this level however.
Golly gee-wiz Jon…
… For such a Liberal city you just had to find the one Republican and feature her?
/snarc
So the teacher is like the Supreme Court…
… We/I’ll decide when to stop counting votes.
Ahhh… history in the making. Or is it by design?
http://www.moldea.com/GOP.jpg
1. Tom Pyle, policy analyst, office of House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.).
2. Garry Malphrus, majority chief counsel and staff director, House Judiciary subcommittee on criminal justice.
3. Rory Cooper, political division staff member at the National Republican Congressional Committee.
4. Kevin Smith, former House Republican conference analyst and more recently of Voter.com.
5. Steven Brophy, former aide to Sen. Fred D. Thompson (R-Tenn.), now working at the consulting firm KPMG.
6. Matt Schlapp, former chief of staff for Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kan.), now on the Bush campaign staff in Austin.
7. Roger Morse, aide to Rep. Van Hilleary (R-Tenn.).
8. Duane Gibson, aide to Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) of the House Resources Committee.
9. Chuck Royal, legislative assistant to Rep. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).
10. Layna McConkey, former legislative assistant to former Rep. Jim Ross Lightfoot (R-Iowa), now at Steelman Health Strategies.
If you still demanded absolute proof that your over lords are degenerate scum lacking any reason for respect and admiration, I give you this principal. They have such iron grip on citizen’s minds that they don’t even attempt to hide it. And to say they lack shame is egregious understatement.
Di-worse-ity played no part in generating America’s greatness.
It has contributed to its demise.
America is learning, to its chagrin, of the wisdom of its Founders who presciently established a severely limited (emphasis on limited), restricted-vote republic, distinctly not a one man, one vote “democracy.”
“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the people discover they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the canidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over a loose fiscal policy–to be followed by a dictatorship.”
― Alexander Fraser Tytler
__________
Ben Franklin, 1789, we gave you “…a republic, if you can keep it.”
Ben Franklin, 2015, we gave you “…a republic, if you can take it back.”
I don’t know what’s worse not honoring the vote or no vote to begin with. At root its the same problem the representatives weren’t picked by those they “work for”….. Or were they? A couple yrs ago one of my kids was elected by her peers to student council…when her sibling got to that grade her teacher “selected” her to student council….no class votes. I suppose they aim to prepare them for college where there are no elections but a previous stdent board and faculty pick the next “representatives” …. Pisspoor way to prepare society for representative govt…..but awesome route if you are the elite and don’t trust the peeps.
Yep, just what young children need a lesson in how the powerful overlord will tell them who they should vote for!