A Huntsville City Schools spokesman said they didn’t have time in their schedule to comment about the disciplinary report numbers and arrest numbers.

In the past 51 days of school, Huntsville Police Department School Resource Officers have made a total of 81 arrests according to a report yesterday, and updated today, on WAFF. While HPD Sgt. Bates states that this number is “pretty consistent with the first few months of school,” this number is twice as high as the reported arrests in the Birmingham district over the same period of time. (Birmingham has about 2,000 more students than Huntsville and has had a total of 39 arrests of students in school over the same period. Perhaps we should have begged the state to take over our schools, too. They seem to be doing a better job in Birmingham than our board is here.)

Propagandizing Student Discipline Problems

On September 20, 2012, Dr. Wardynski had Judy Rushton, the director of Pupil Services offer a report in support of the new digital initiative claiming that principals were saying to him, “Dr. Wardynski, we don’t have any discipline problems, anymore.”

Ms. Rushton went on to claim that for the first 20 days of school that the district’s in school suspension and out of school suspension rate had been cut by approximately 56% when compared to last year. She made no mention of the number of arrests made during that time.

Dr. Wardynski then went on to explain:

And I asked the principals why that would be. Three of them volunteered, right off the bat, the students are engaged. They are now engaged, and uh, we don’t have discipline problems anymore. That’s what we expected to see. What drove us in this direction was Project RED study which was done nationally, 2,000 observations across schools, school systems. And the key findings are when you take this [digital conversion] approach, not just one to one technology, but content, professional development, leadership, uh, the key pieces have to be in place, uh, the things you’re going to see, uh, dramatic decrease in student discipline problems, dramatic increases in student achievement.

In other words, he was specifically using the “dramatic decrease in student discipline problems” to support his unplanned and poorly implemented digital initiative that even has the Secretary of Education talking.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

As I pointed out about a month ago, it’s fairly easy to show a dramatic decrease in student discipline problems when you control the reporting of incidents.

And that is exactly what Dr. Wardynski and the district have done.

• He has hired consultants (despite falsely claiming that he hadn’t), who train teachers on the importance of reducing discipline referrals.
• He has engaged in a systematic attempt to blame the victim when someone is attacked and bullied while at school.
• He denies any responsibility, and the board ignores physical abuse of at least 5 Huntsville City School middle school students whom he placed at The Pinnacle Schools.
• And he has, as has been reported here and now on WAFF, ”told all principals and teachers to change the way they report incidents to the district to manipulate  discipline numbers.”

Putting Children At Risk

This man is systematically putting our children, your children, at risk so that he can brag that his digital conversion has resulted in a “dramatic decrease in student discipline problems.”

While he may control the teachers and principals in his schools through fear and intimidation, he does not control the Huntsville Police Department. He does not control their data and actions.

And their data unequivocally shows that there has not be a reduction in the number of student discipline problems as a result of the digital initiative. As Sargent Bates told WAFF, the 81 arrests is average:

“It’s pretty consistent with the first few months of school,” he said.  ”They haven’t spiked, they haven’t dropped. It’s right where we expected it to be.”

Arrests have not gone up. Arrests have not gone down. And they certainly haven’t been reduced by “nearly 60%” as Wardynski likes to claim.

So now we know that Dr. Wardynski has been manipulating the data to serve two purposes: to make himself look good and to make teachers jobs even harder so that record numbers of them quit or retire.

And The Board Ignores The Issues . . . Again

And still the board of education does nothing to address this problem. They do nothing, absolutely nothing (there has been no mention of the abuse at Pinnacle by the board at all), to hold Dr. Wardynski accountable. (Funny, over a year ago, I wrote a post asking for the same board to hold Dr. Moore accountable for her illegal plan to segregate special education children across our district. They didn’t hold her accountable for her actions. They’re not holding Wardynski accountable for his actions. I think we’ve found the problem.)

A Paucity of Leadership

Dr. Wardynski likes to call himself a strong leader.

Strong leaders don’t blame the victim.

Strong leaders don’t use fear and intimidation to run off amazing teachers.

Strong leaders don’t manipulate data to make themselves look better.

What a shame that he has no idea what leadership actually is.

Maybe then we would have someone who wouldn’t run from the press and parents who ask questions by claiming we don’t “have time in [our] schedule to comment.”

Strong leaders don’t run and hide like a frightened bully when those he has been abusing stand up to him and say, “Enough.” 

__________

If you want to be a part of a group that is working hard to stand up to bullying in our schools, please go like S.O.S. – Support Our Students and volunteer to help get the word out. When we work together, we can change the world. Changing this school system is easy by comparison. Especially when it’s being led by someone who is scared to answer questions. But then I guess tonight is Halloween.

Hey, Dr. Wardynski?

Boo.

The post District “Doesn’t Have Time” To Discuss Student Discipline appeared first on Geek Palaver.

We get to be a ripple in the water.

I was asked an important question yesterday by a good friend: “Do you ever worry that your activism will result in retribution against your kids?”

The short answer to that question is, simply, yes.

As a dad, I worry about that every single time I post anything. I worry about it every time I ask a question. I worry.

So, why do I do it? If I’m doing it for my kids as I claim, why take the risk?

The answer is just as simple as the question: my kids, especially my boy, are being put at risk by the decisions of the leadership of this school district. The risk is already there. I didn’t bring it. I didn’t create it. It wasn’t the result of my actions.

My kids, their education, their future, their lives, were at risk before I asked a single question. They were at risk before I wrote a single word.

That’s the system that we have now.

But still I worry.

I worry about collateral damage every time I post anything, and believe it or not, I think about every word I post in that light.

I worry that my actions might hurt another human being.

I even worry that my actions might hurt those whom I believe are seeking to hurt my kids.

While I realize that what I’m about to say is often considered heresy in this town, I am a pacifist. I don’t believe in war. I don’t believe that we can help perfect our world by fighting each other.

Yes, I’m that radical, liberal, hippy, freak that you’ve been warned about.

I think that change, true change, comes as a result of communication, connection, understanding and love.

But love is not the same thing as subservience. Love is not obsequiousness as the Huntsville City School board seems to believe.

Love means standing up when necessary.

Love is risk.

Love is speaking for those who don’t have a voice.

Our kids don’t have a voice in this system.

Our teachers don’t have a voice in this system.

Our instructional aides don’t have a voice in this system.

Even parents, tax-paying parents, don’t have a voice in this system.

Only those who fully and vocally agree with the superintendent’s actions and decisions have a voice.

I’m not conceited enough (I am conceited, though, just not enough) to believe that I can be a voice for all of those people.

But I can be a voice for my voiceless son who struggles to ask for juice when he’s thirsty.

I can be a voice for my daughter when she wonders why she’s having to spend so much time taking tests when she could be reading another book or writing another poem.

For those two, I can and should be a ripple in the water.

Despite the risk from those who might further threaten children (or teachers for that matter) when a dad dares to ask a question that the leadership of the district doesn’t like, we get to be a ripple in the water.

Making waves for the sole purpose of making waves is useless. In fact, it’s dangerous. As such, I try hard to avoid waves for their own purpose. (I’m sure there are many who disagree with me on this. This isn’t an exact science; that’s why I invite those who disagree with me to speak up. It helps me keep a sense of perspective.)

Our district, however, doesn’t value questions, challenges, or disagreement. Our superintendent values command and control above all things.

Command and Control aren’t words of praise. They aren’t words of love. Control is stagnation. When waters are controlled, they die, and all those living in those waters die as well.

But a ripple breathes life into stagnate waters. A ripple repudiates command and control.

And we get to be that ripple.

Yes, I do worry everyday about retribution. But I worry more about living in a world that threatens dissent.

And so I do my best to make specific and intentional ripples because with our “get to” comes responsibility.

So I’ll be that ripple. Despite the risk. Despite the threats.

Because I love my kids.

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads who aren’t afraid to make a ripple in this world as we try to perfect it.

The post A Ripple in the Water appeared first on Geek Palaver.

So there’s another board meeting tomorrow night at 5:30pm at the Merts Center, 200 White Street. I’ll be there, and supposing that there aren’t any technical issues that halt the broadcast as there was two weeks ago, you can watch it at home on ETV (Comcast 17, Knology 99), and at the Huntsville City Schools website. I’ll be whining away on Twitter @russwinn during the meeting. You can also catch my posts on the Geek Palaver Facebook Page. All of this supposes of course that I will be allowed to attend the meeting.

The agenda for tomorrow has been published, and they’re going to talk (again?!?) about evaluating the superintendent, the new school calendar,  and just how wonderful hiring countless numbers of consultants has been for the district.

So, again, while teachers salaries are still set at the state minimum, while teachers STEP raises are still frozen, on a night when they are going to discuss “Principals’ Terminations,” the superintendent will likely walk home with a $10,000 bonus in his pocket for successfully passing the test that the board specifically designed for him to be able to pass.

(One of the standards of evaluation that was placed upon Dr. Wardynski was to raise AP participation rates. As he himself indicated even before they voted to approve that as one of his goals, he had already accomplished that. It’s nice when your standard for success includes items that you’ve already completed.)

Yes, they will be discussing this bonus even before they discuss the new state assembly mandated school calendar.

Concerning the calendar: it seems that Dr. Wardynski and the board should actually thank the assembly for providing political cover for his decision to remove fall break from the calendar. Remember tomorrow night when Dr. Robinson calls for citizens to complain about their loss of a fall break to their representatives in Montgomery that she, along with every member of the board except Mr. Blair, had already approved a school calendar that removed fall break.

Here’s a listing of the significant dates including closed dates:

• August 20, 2012: First Day of School
• September 3, 2012: Labor Day
• No Fall Break (This was already gone in Dr. Wardynski’s original calendar for 2012-2013)
• November 12, 2012: Veterans Day
• November 21-23, 2012: Thanksgiving Break
• December 24-January 2: Christmas Break
• January 21, 2013: MLK Day
• March 25-29, 2013: Spring Break
• May 23, 2013: Last Day of School

There are no built-in weather days, but it is unclear at this time how weather days will be handled. It is at least possible by one interpretation of the “Beach Bill” that those days might be allowed to occur after May 23, 2013. Another interpretation would mean that the school day would be required to be extended until the hours are made up. I would be quite surprised if even our esteemed representatives know for sure.

It’s always nice when education suffers as a direct result of industry lobbying. I love the Alabama Gulf Coast, but this is an evil decision they have forced upon the state. It’s remarkably similar to Dr. Wardynski’s decisions to privatize so many of the district’s functions. Again, if it weren’t for the district taking his control, Dr. Wardynski would, I’m sure, love the sentiment behind the decision: namely that public education should be run by private organizations, industries, and businesses.

There will, after all, be at least four new contracts approved tomorrow night with private organizations.

After this discussion they will move on to an encomium of all the amazing, wonderful, fantastic, astonishing contractors who don’t cost us anything, they save us money. I’m sure it will sound nothing like a (warning: stereotype ahead) woman coming home from the store with three-hundred dollars on the credit card talking about all the money she “saved.” Verifiable evidence will be in short supply.

Oh, and there’s an ominously titled item called “Principals’ Terminations” under new business.

And finally, despite my best efforts to clear all of this mess up before tomorrow’s meeting, I still don’t know if the board or Dr. Wardynski will allow the public to video record the meeting tomorrow night.

Here’s the question I asked of Mrs. McCaulley as School Board President:

Will I be allowed to record future public board meetings in accordance with Alabama State Code 36-35A-6? [This section states: "A meeting of a governmental body, except while in executive session, may be openly recorded by any person in attendance by means of a tape recorder or any other means of sonic, photographic or video reproduction provided the recording does not disrupt the conduct of the meeting. The governmental body may adopt reasonable rules for the implementation of this section."].

To this question, Mrs. McCaulley responded on Sunday, May 13, 2012 at 9:28pm:

Response: As president of the board you have my permission to operate within the perimeters of the law. After I read the Alabama State Code Section 36-35A-6, you cited above, I noticed it used the term “may be openly recorded”   therefore one could interpret openly recording is not a mandate or requirement but optional.

You’ll note that she has not stated if I may actually record the meeting tomorrow night without being asked to leave the meeting again, and without being told I was “intimidating the board” as Mr. Lankford said, or called “intimidating and threatening” as Mrs. Anderson stated in an email to the Huntsville Times last Tuesday.

I followed up this non-response from the board President by asking:

“If on Thursday, May 17th, I attempt to record the board meeting in exactly the same manner as I did on Thursday, May 3rd, should I expect to be asked to leave the meeting?”

I have received no response to this question.

So, if I should attempt to record the meeting tomorrow night, I have no idea how the Superintendent will direct his staff to react.

Please note, it is not my intention to “intimidate,” “disrupt,” or “threaten” anyone or anything.

I am grateful to Mrs. McCaulley for saying that I have not intimidated her. I also appreciate the communications I received from Mrs. Morrison and Mr. Birney saying the same thing. Mr. Blair chose to state in the press that he had always found me “pleasant and cordial.”

So I’ve got that going for me.

I have not, however, heard anything at all from my board member Dr. Jennie Robinson. Neither have I heard anything from Dr. Wardynski.

I suppose that when Mr. Lankford said I was “intimidating the board” by recording them, and when Mrs. Anderson stated that I “had been described as intimidating and threatening” (that, by the way, was the first time that I’ve been informed that I was “threatening”) for doing so, that they were talking about how Dr. Robinson and Dr. Wardynski felt. They are, after all the only ones left.

I have asked for any specific documented evidence that I have intimidated, disrupted, or threatened anyone at the district level.

The only response I’ve received from Mrs. McCaulley is:

Again to your inquiry about any written incidents reports concerning you, to my knowledge there are none.

Thus there is, at least to Mrs. McCaulley’s knowledge, no documented evidence that I have done any of the things I’ve been accused of doing.

I have also, not received anything approaching an apology for the district staff’s response to me, but that’s okay. I’m not really sure that it would mean much at this point anyway.

And frankly, I’m certain that they were only following orders.

You see, I don’t actually care what they say about me. And truthfully, I don’t care if they allow me to record the meeting or not.

None of that is important to me.

What is important is that my children receive an appropriate education. I am convinced that cutting Special Education by seven million dollars (or the exact amount of surplus the district is anticipating at the end of the fiscal year) has kept my boy from having an appropriate education. I am convinced that merging my girl’s school without discussing it with parents first will keep my girl from having an appropriate education.

I am convinced that having a demoralized faculty and staff in our schools keeps my children from having an appropriate education.

I am convinced that having people who don’t want to be teachers, teach keeps my children from having an appropriate education.

I am convinced that having a CSFO who can spend $28,790 without documentation keeps my children from having an appropriate education.

I am convinced that having district leadership that attempts to intimidate parents and teachers for asking questions keeps my children from having an appropriate education. When people aren’t allowed to ask questions, education has been replaced by indoctrination.

This is what I’m concerned about. These are a few of the issues that really matter.

The post An Appropriate Education appeared first on Geek Palaver.

So, anyone read anything interesting in the paper today?

In case you missed it, here’s a link to Crystal Bonvillian’s article about the events at the board meeting last Thursday, May 3, 2012.

If you’ve missed my account of the evening, you can read about it here and here.

There are just a few follow up points that I would like to make.

__________

First, citizen comments are typically placed at the end of the meeting once all the business is completed. For some reason, I’ve been told it was an accident, the citizen comments portion of the meeting was not broadcasted this past Thursday. The last time citizen comments were broadcast was on April 19, 2012. That evening a teacher, who is well known by the board and Dr. Wardynski, Mrs. Pam Hill, stood to speak. She was frustrated at the way teachers had been treated that night.

This was not a typical comment by Mrs. Hill, but I fully understand her frustration. You see the board, last summer, voted to freeze teachers step raises and reduce teachers starting salaries to the state minimum. And yet at the meeting Dr. Wardynski, who was playing round robin with principals again, claimed that principals, and not teachers, would be rewarded for their teachers’ hard work during the year.

The interesting part was how Dr. Wardynski chose to respond to Mrs. Hill.

Here’s the clip.

Yes, rather than simply ignore her as he typically ignores me, Dr. Wardynski decided to “caution” her. He said:

Ms. Hill, you’re an employee of Huntsville City Schools. You do not represent Hampton Cove Elementary School. So that was a misrepresentation. Uh number two, you stood there the night I read the specifications against Principal McGhee. Uh, Principal McGhee was relieved for a whole host of reasons that where upheld in court. That had to do with poor leadership, ethical questions. And so we will relieve such leaders, we will relieve such teachers, and so I would caution you when talking to your employers to speak to them as your employers. The Board is your employer.

And that was the last time citizen comments were broadcast via eTV.

After I completed my comments on Thursday (which I began by saying thank you to Dr. Wardynski), I received several texts letting me know that the eTV broadcast had been turned off at the beginning of the citizen comments. Since Dr. Wardynski indicated that he wanted to respond to my comments, I decided to record his response so that I wouldn’t miss anything he had to say. (Normally, I record the broadcasts on TiVo, but since it wasn’t being broadcast that wasn’t possible.)

I was able to record approximately one minute and fifty-seconds of the remaining comments before I was asked to turn off the iPad.

The only reason I was attempting to record the rest of the meeting was because it wasn’t being broadcast.

__________

Second, I have written to Mrs. Laurie McCaulley to ask for permission to be allowed to record the board meetings in accord with Alabama State Code which states:

“A meeting of a governmental body, except while in executive session, may be openly recorded by any person in attendance by means of a tape recorder or any other means of sonic, photographic, or video reproduction provided the recording does not disrupt the conduct of the meeting. The governmental body may adopt reasonable rules for the implementation of this section.” Alabama Code Section 36-25A-6.

She has not yet responded to my request.

__________

Third, I have not as of this writing, heard from any of the Huntsville City Schools Board of Education members in response to the events on Thursday other than the brief conversation that I had with Mrs. Morrison following the meeting. As I wrote on Thursday, I offered her my apology if I had indeed intimidated her. Her response was to laugh at the unnecessary apology.

To date no one on the board has confirmed that I have the right to record the public portion of the board meetings.

__________

It’s been a busy day on the blog. For any new visitors, I’d like to say thanks for stopping by. I appreciate having the opportunity to be heard. If you have questions, or if you disagree with anything I’ve written here, please take a moment to ask them or raise your issues in the comments.

Alternately, you may email me at geeks@geekpalaver.com. Palaver means holding an in-depth conversation, in case you were wondering.

For all my regular readers: Thank you for taking the time to read my wordy posts. Believe it or not, I do actually trim them down!

Finally, if I may be so bold, I would ask that you remember this one thing:

My being asked to leave the board meeting for recording it is nothing, absolutely nothing, in comparison to the stress and pressure that our teachers, instructional assistants, therapists, staff, custodians, lunch staff, principals, administrators and our kids–especially our kids–have had to face this year, all year without relief.

My being asked to leave is nothing compared to the stress and pressure that our Special Education kids have had to deal with in the face of constant changes to their lives.

If you’ve had an employee of Huntsville City Schools behave in a way that was less supportive than you expected, keep in mind the amount of stress they’ve been under and respond by telling them how much you appreciate their service to our children. It is, after all Teacher (and all our other educators) Appreciation Week.

If you feel a need to do something about the events last Thursday, I would ask that you consider the following:

1. Thank a Teacher/Educator for her or his dedicated service to our kids.
2. Call your board member and ask them to make responding to the public a much higher priority than it’s been before.
3. Continue paying attention to the board meetings. Yes, they’re boring, but the decisions that Dr. Wardynski makes and that the board approves will impact your children’s education for a long time to come. At a minimum, you need to know what those decisions are.

The post Thank You Teachers Everywhere appeared first on Geek Palaver.

For some reason, I was told it was an accident, the broadcast of the board meeting tonight on eTV was cut off just as Citizen Comments were about to start. (And yes, for the record, I believe that it was an accident.)

There was little to no indication of this in the meeting, but I received many texts, tweets and Facebook comments concerning this. After I completed my comments, which I’ll post below, Dr. Wardynski indicated that he wanted to respond to my comments about spending more money on Instructional Assistants. He was asked to wait since there were other comments to follow mine.

Dr. Wardynski decided to wait to respond.

As my typical readers know, I like to make an attempt to capture Dr. Wardynski’s comments exactly as he shares them.

Knowing that the recording had been cut off, I decided to record the superintendent’s response. As my iPhone’s battery was running low, I got out my iPad to record it.

This is allowed under Alabama’s Sunshine Law:

“A meeting of a governmental body, except while in executive session, may be openly recorded by any person in attendance by means of a tape recorder or any other means of sonic, photographic, or video reproduction provided the recording does not disrupt the conduct of the meeting. The governmental body may adopt reasonable rules for the implementation of this section.” Alabama Code Section 36-25A-6.

I was not standing, moving, or blocking anyone’s view with my recording. I do not believe that I was disrupting the conduct of the meeting in anyway. I was not talking, and the video makes no sound. Furthermore, the meeting continued even while Mr. Lankford of security was asking that I turn off the recording and step outside to discuss it.

I complied with his requests.

I was told that I could not record the meeting because it was an intimidating action on my part. And since I had done other intimidating actions before, (referring to the time when I stood silently for about 80 seconds at the end of my comments waiting for an answer), I would not be allowed to record the meeting.

It seems that the board and the superintendent are intimidated by someone attempting to convey their thoughts and ideas to others.

{By the way, yes, those are cameras that you see in the background over Dr. Robinson’s right shoulder. I did not attempt to use them.)

__________

I spoke with Mrs. Morrison after the meeting was over. I told her what had happened, and I offered her my apology if my actions intimidated her.

The former principal laughed. Which was nice.

After the meeting I also ran into Mr. Brooks, the board attorney. He offered me his hand and said, “Good job.”

The school board attorney didn’t seem too intimidated by a parent in a purple tee-shirt.

Before the meeting began, and granted, before I recorded any portion of the meeting, Mr. Blair sat down beside me and asked how things were going with my family.

He and I had an extremely pleasant conversation in which I shared with him much of what I planned to say during the public comments. He was compassionate and sympathetic.

He was also friendly and funny.

I greatly appreciated his time and willingness to engage me in a conversation.

He did not seem to be intimidated. (I suspect that as Mrs. Morrison had done, he would have laughed if I had asked him if I was a intimidating him.)

Although I had spoken during the citizen comments, and yes, I did make eye contact with Dr. Wardynski while I was thanking him for coming to the Autism Awareness Month kickoff and the PTA Reflections Award Luncheon in Mobile, I don’t believe that I was threatening in any way in my comments. Feel free to judge for yourself. (Since the board broadcast was turned off, we don’t have a video recording of these comments.)

Dr. Warydnski, I want to thank you for your presence at the Autism Awareness Month kickoff at Hampton Cove Middle School on April 11th. I also want to thank you for your presence at the State PTA Reflections awards this past Saturday in Mobile. Your support of those of us with children on the spectrum and of the arts is greatly appreciated by myself and my family.

I’m here tonight to ask for a little more help.

At the January 19th board meeting, I shared with you and the board just a few of the never-ending changes in my son’s classroom at Challenger. That night I mentioned the revolving door of aides, Occupational Therapists, Speech Therapists, and even an entirely altered classroom.

As we saw with my son this weekend in Mobile, he doesn’t handle change well, and yet change seems to be forced upon him non-stop in his classroom.

Since I reported this to you in January, the rate of change has increased. In February, both of his aides, or two-thirds of the adults in the classroom were take out of his room. So the revolving door of aides continued into the second half of the year.

Then after a little more than a month another of his aides quit to take a better paying job. This isn’t at all surprising since EPSCO aides make approximately nine dollars an hour without benefits.

Honestly, a McDonalds employee has a better deal. McDonalds offers their employees health insurance and retirement.

Is it any wonder that the aides are so quick to leave?

It’s more surprising that so many of them returned from last year when they took about a $2.00 an hour pay cut to keep working with our kids.

We have to do better. Our kids deserve better. Change hurts everyone including those who aren’t on the spectrum.

For example, my daughter came home in tears on Monday because of the radical changes that are being planned for Mt. Gap Elementary. she’s losing “her” library, and that breaks her heart.

Dr. Wardynski, we need for these things to be resolved now. At the March meeting with the Mt. Gap PTA, you told us that you would be announcing who our new principal would be, and I quote, “in the middle of April.”

It’s now May 3rd, and we still don’t know. And our teachers still can’t plan for next year. And our little girls are still coming home in tears.These words don’t seem intimidating to me, but clearly I’m not a good judge of that.

So, as a public service, I would again like to offer my assurances to Dr. Wardynski, Mrs. McCaulley, Mr. Blair, Mrs. Morrison, Mr. Birney, and Dr. Robinson and anyone else who regularly attends board meetings that it is not my intention to make you feel intimidated.

I’ll fully own up to my intention to pay attention and to question what you do. I’ll also own up to my intention to speaking up for those who cannot speak for themselves. But it is not my intention to intimidate you in any way.

Fear and intimidation are a coward’s approach to getting what he wants. I’m attempting to reason with the district’s leadership. Nothing more.

The post Recording A Public Board Meeting is “Intimidating” appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Another Sunday, and another pep talk for our teachers from the Superintendent.

Well, I suppose you might find it motivational if you work for Teach for America.

If, however, you one of the thousands of traditionally trained teachers, fully certified teachers, highly-qualified teachers, who has dedicated your life to the children of our community, there’s not much there for you.

Sorry.

So, Dr. Wardynski has written an op-ed piece for the Huntsville Times this past Sunday singing, yet again, the praises of Teach for America as being far better suited to teach in “our lowest-income and highest-need schools” than “traditional measures” that have failed.

Just what are these “traditional measures?” It would be nice of him to explicate this for his readers, but that would simply take too much time. Just trust him. Traditional measures are failures.

So lets see if we can figure out what he means here by traditional measures. Well, since the non-traditional measure he’s pushing through is to pay Teach for America up to $1.9 million dollars for five years simply to recruit and train people who didn’t want to be teachers enough to receive that training on their own, I suppose that the traditional measures he’s talking about here are traditionally trained teachers.

(Since there often seems to still be confusion about this money, let me attempt to make it clear. New traditionally trained and certified teachers in Alabama and here in HCS will make $36,144 per year with a BS degree. New TFA trained and non-certified TFAers in Alabama and here in HCS will make $36,144 per year with a BS degree. They will both have exactly the same benefits package. The only difference here is that the non-certified TFAer who choose to go to college to get a degree in something other than Education, will cost the system an additional $5,000, per year for at least two years. So after two years a traditionally trained teacher will cost HCS $72,288. A TFAer will cost HCS $82,288. Teach for America “teachers” cost 13% more than traditionally trained teachers.)

Just in case you didn’t catch it: Traditional Measures=Traditionally Trained Teachers who have failed. Our Motivator in Chief has struck again.

He offers exactly no explanation for why traditionally trained teachers have failed, so I thought I would offer a few possibilities. Our nation, our state and our city have spent the last 30 years devaluing teachers, and devaluing education. Since “throwing money at the problem” won’t fix the problem, lets starve it to death instead. And so that’s been the traditional approach we’ve taken with education. Cut all resources for education to the bone, cut salaries and benefits of teachers, increase class sizes, increase the work load, increase the required reporting to district, state and federal officials, and decrease professional development. These are the “traditional measures” that have failed.

So we can’t “just throw money at the problem” that we’ve created for traditionally trained teachers (you know, teachers who actually wanted to be teachers), but we can just throw money–$1.9 million here in Huntsville–at a company to recruit people who didn’t want to teach and who don’t stay in education to come in and fix the problem for us.

And when they have at best exactly the same results as the teachers who didn’t cost us $1.9 million to recruit, well, we just need to spend even more, right? Cause giving public funds to a private organization with $309 million dollars in NET assets just makes us feel better than say spending $500 a year on professional development for our teachers in “our lowest-income and highest need schools.” Making the rich, richer isn’t throwing money at a problem, it’s a “good investment.”

I’m sure that “most” of our “highly effective teachers” will feel the love tomorrow as they drive to work for the start of another day of school.

One thing you can say about Dr. Wardynski: he’s consistent.

I noticed in his comments on Thursday night that he doesn’t like all the negative press that the system has gotten. He said:

Teachers are folks who are key to learning. They’re key to student growth, and there are many who are doing great jobs. And it’s no secret that this superintendent addresses those that we think are not doing great jobs. We continue to do so. But when that becomes the story for our school district, what we miss is the key teachers that are doing great work.

It truly is a terrible thing when one teacher’s actions reflect badly on all the other excellent teachers in our system. He’s right to say that when that happens, we do indeed miss the great work of our key teachers.

But what he’s not owning up to is that the reason that the story for our school district has become focused on teachers who are not doing their job is because that’s what he continually talks about. If he would stop saying that our traditionally trained teachers aren’t capable of teaching low-income students, the story would change. If he would deal with personnel matters without bragging about what he is or isn’t going to do to teachers who don’t meet his expectations, the story would change.

On August 11, 2011, there was a special board meeting at 12:00pm noon with a very brief agenda that included a discussion of the job description for the Director of Community Engagement and Partnership Development. After this meeting, Dr. Wardynski approached me to chat. (It was early. Before he started just shouting orders as he walked by.)

At the conclusion of our discussion, Dr. Wardynski said that he had to leave as he was going to go meet an AWOL teacher as she departed her plane at the airport. With glee in his voice, he was excited to tell me that he was going to catch her and hand deliver her termination. He evidently was saying the same thing to the Huntsville Times before the meeting that day.

It was as if he believed I would cheer him on. In fact, what I said to him was this, “Dr. Wardynski, I don’t believe you should be telling me this.” As he had already started turning away, I don’t believe he heard me.

The teacher whom he met at the airport was Jo Ann Thompson who found out today that she would be getting her job back at Davis Hills Middle School.

I haven’t written about her firing before. Since I’m not privy to her personnel records or even all the details of what actually happened, I thought that the best I could say about her firing would be, “We’ll see what happens.”

As the Times reported today, Dr. Wardynski did not give me the entire story when he claimed that Mrs. Thompson was AWOL, and as Dr. Wardynski now knows, the devil is in the details. It seems that she decided to leave after being told that her punishment for doing so would consist of being “written up” by her principal.

In other words, Judge Sandra H. Storm believed that Mrs. Thompson had been set up.

(For the record, I do not think that a teacher should miss the first week of class except in cases of extreme emergency. But I also am convinced that Mrs. Thompson was set up for the sole purpose of instilling fear in our teaching corps.)

So again we see that this superintendent is actively going out of his way to intimidate, demoralize, and frighten the teachers working in Huntsville.

All of them.

In other words, Dr. Robinson–who has said many times that the only teachers opposed to or afraid of Dr. Wardynski are those who aren’t doing their jobs–is wrong. She is as wrong as the Deputy Governor Danforth from The Crucible who claimed that, “them that fear not the light will surely praise it.”

Dr. Wardynski has regularly and consistently sought to create an environment in Huntsville City Schools of fear, uncertainty and doubt. And board members like Dr. Robinson have gone out of their way to help him.

Today, speaking of the decision, Dr. Wardynski said that the ruling was “entirely unacceptable.” He compared her disobedience to that of a student disobeying a teacher and claimed that the “student would face strict punishment.”

According to Policy Number 106-1: Student Discipline, a student may be punished for “1.10 Unauthorized absence from class (cutting class).” A student may also be punished for “1.14 Failure to follow instructions – examples: failure to carry correspondence home; failure to obey directions in the hallways, assemblies, etc. Both of these are listed as Class I – Minor Offenses. The disciplinary action for a Class I offense is to “Conference with student and reasonable effort to make parental contact.”

Perhaps we should have called Mrs. Thompson’s parents instead? It would have had the benefit of saving the district quite a bit of money.

Rather, Dr. Wardynski, what is actually “entirely unacceptable” is your desire to run off our excellent teachers and replace them with “alternatively certified” (not certified as he stated in his editorial) TFAers. Your approach of intimidation, demoralization and fear, sir, is what is entirely unacceptable.

The post Entirely Unacceptable: Morale Matters appeared first on Geek Palaver.

I knew I was in trouble from the moment I saw her face.

Just in case you ever wondered, kids hear everything. They seem to hear better when you are trying to speak in code.

So Laurel and I were having one of those hard talks one evening about the boy. Most of the time, both of us are convinced that he’s making sufficient progress that he’s going to be fine. But sometimes our worries overwhelm us.

A few days ago, we were having one of those days. So we were talking about it, and what we might be facing 15 years from now.

Thinking that Sponge Bob was holding the girl’s attention (typically we have to call her 9 times to override the joy that is the Squarepants), but, of course, speaking in code had the effect of riveting the girl’s attention.

After we talked, the girl came to see me. And I knew I was in trouble.

There she stood all seven years and eight months of her. Arms crossed. Eyebrows touching. Hip cocked (in so far as a seven year old has a hip, anyway). Foot tapping.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?”

It really is a good thing that I hadn’t looked directly into the stare and that my hearing is bad from too many years of listening to The Eagles on my Walkman. Otherwise I would have been stumbling around lost in the silent darkness for years to come.

Charlie, the demon dog, went running for cover.

The girl was furious.

Forget a woman scorned, it’s the big sister standing up for her little brother than you need to look out for.

She’s seven, so the anger quickly bled into tears.

After consoling her for the next hour, I finally pieced together the source of her fury. “You and mommy are going to make him live in an orphanage.”

She was convinced that we were segregating her little brother to an orphanage, and SHE. WAS. NOT. HAVING. IT.

She doesn’t put up with strangers hurting her brother, and she certainly doesn’t put up with her parents doing it.

After the tears dried and the explanations offered (we were talking about a group home setting for when he’s older), I took her in my arms and held her, held her, held her.

I have never been so proud of my little girl.

I get my tenacity honestly.

The post I Get It Honest appeared first on Geek Palaver.

On Monday, August 8, 2011, the children of Huntsville will report to school for the beginning of a new year. Last year, I had tears in my eyes as my daughter started First Grade and the boy began Kindergarten. It was a rough day emotionally; all those transitions are. But it isn’t going to hold a candle to what we’re facing five days from now.

On Monday, July 25th, Dr. Wardynski told me and others that he didn’t know if the system would be ready on August 8th to educate my son.

Because of decisions made by the former Superintendent, the Board, the Consultants, and yes even our current Superintendent (who has shown us that he knows how to quickly hire someone when he wants to–just not teachers, aides, or therapists), our schools are likely understaffed and unable to meet the requirements of the IEPs.

An understaffed classroom is an unsafe classroom.

__________

Insufficient staffing is the only logical reason why Wardynski could not or would not confirm for me that our schools would be ready to educate my son.

In many ways my son’s IEP is fairly typical. It doesn’t require a specialized setting (other than the resource room that is already available). It doesn’t require specialized technology. It doesn’t require that the school build him a pool even though his language dramatically increases while in one.

His individualized education program requires people to help teach him and the other children in the classroom with him.

For some reason, the superintendent has no problem hiring aides for himself (at $59,211 a year), but hiring aides for the classroom is just too expensive. Hiring a specialist to work with all of our children to improve their ability to communicate is just exorbitant.

All that my son’s IEP requires is two teachers (a special education teacher and a regular education teacher), an aide to help him transition and work, and access to Speech and Occupational therapy.

In other words, the obstacle that Huntsville City Schools is facing in meeting the requirements of my son’s IEP is basically one single aide to assist him when he is in the regular classroom.

You may find this to be exorbitant. (I, unlike Huntsville City Schools, believe that $10,000 is a lot of money.) But honestly, I don’t care. It’s the law.

Ten grand. My son’s education and safety are being put into question because of ten grand.

__________

So how did we get to the precipice we’re facing on August 8th?

As with all roads to hell, I hope that this one began with many good intentions. But I’m doubtful.

Cutting Special Education

This road started on February 10th when the board approved laying off 65 Instructional Assistants. Nearly half of the layoffs that day were cuts to special education.

We traveled further down this road on February 17th when the board cancelled the ONIN Contract. 53% of the staff provided by ONIN were, you guessed it, Instructional Assistants working in special education settings.

Hiring Consultants: Not Teachers/Aides/OTs/STs

But the board was just getting warmed up. Immediately after the firing of aides to work with our children, the board approved the contract for Dr. Ed Richardson at $600.00 a day. The average aide costs the system $53.00 per day. If they were paid Dr. Richardson’s salary, we would be paying them an average of $112,200 a year. We don’t pay them that much. We pay them right around $10,000 a year. Was Dr. Richardson’s advice worth 12 times the committed dedication and love my son received from just one aide last year?

I don’t think so.

But it seems the cuts to special education just weren’t happening fast enough, and the board needed that money to hire a consultant to do their jobs for them. (And provide political cover for unpopular decisions, of course.)

Funny. The board and the superintendents always seem to find money to hire people to help themselves. Helping children seems to be a much lower priority. At least twelve times lower in the case of Dr. Richardson.

After his hiring, things really started taking off.

The Special Needs Consolidation Plan

At some point in March when Ms. Sledge and Dr. Pruitt of the Special Education department in the central office decided (under orders, I’d bet) that it would be a good idea to move all the kids who spend a majority of their time in a resource room (as my son did last year) to the Academy for Academics and Arts.

I’m willing to assume that this plan was conceived with good intentions. I am hopeful that it was made with the best interests of the students in mind, but due to their refusal to actually discuss there plans and intentions, I have no reason to trust them now. If the plan were a good one, they would be thrilled to share it with the parents.

When this plan leaked out in March, special needs parents went to the board meeting on March 16th to find out more about it.

We were told that the plan was just a rumor. (Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.) But then immediately after the plan leaked, many parents were told that their child would be moved out of their home school or their child would not receive services.

Then Ms. Sledge and Dr. Pruitt called for a meeting with special needs parents on April 6th to discuss the consolidation plan. That night, Ms. Sledge claimed that students who lived south of Governors’ Drive would be consolidated at Challenger. Students north of Governors’ Drive would go to AAA.

Special Needs parents are not unreasonable. All we asked was to see a detailed description of the plan and the motivations behind it.

We were told we would have it that week. And I was foolish enough to believe it. To this date, the central office, Dr. Moore, Dr. Robinson, Mr. Birney, Mr. Blair, Mrs. McCaulley, Mrs. Morrison, and finally, Dr. Wardynski have all refused to discuss this plan with parents. I suppose that Dr. Wardynski’s promise to operate in a transparent manner, as he claimed he would on Monday, July 25th, doesn’t apply to consolidating special needs kids.

The simple truth is that they never intended to put the plan in writing. As Sledge said on April 6th, “I don’t want to put it in writing because then you’ll take it to Montgomery to complain about it.”

You see, even then, she was more worried about getting into trouble than serving students. And this is why five days before school starts we still don’t know if IEPs can be met: the leadership of our system, including it seems Dr. Wardynski, is more concerned about getting sued than doing their jobs the right way to begin with.

I suppose they fail to see the irony that if they simply did their jobs, the likelihood that they will be sued is dramatically decreased.

Cutting Special Education Again

On April 21st, the consultant recommended and the board approved firing an additional 36 Special Education personnel. 36 of the 45 Probationary Support Personnel fired that night were special education personnel.

When I asked Dr Richardson about this on June 9th at the School Closing meeting at Grissom High, he stated that “many of those support personnel will be re-hired.”

Somehow he managed to say this with a straight face.

Delayed Hiring for 2011-2012

The first job postings for teachers and aides were posted on the Huntsville City School website on July 14th. Seventeen working days before the first day of school.

They waited so long to start the process of getting ready for the new year that many Special Education Teachers, Aides, Occupational Therapists, Speech Therapists, and Physical Therapists who had worked in the system for years decided it was time to move on.

The postings, at that time, included exactly one instructional assistant position.

Step by step, the system, the board, the consultants, and the two superintendents have decimated an excellent special needs program to the point where we cannot even know five days before the start of school if the system is in a position to meet our IEPs.

__________

It was completely predictable that we were going to be understaffed and would therefore have safety issues at the start of school.  Every decision made by the central office, the board of education, the consultants they hired, and both of the superintendents who are currently working for Huntsville City Schools has lead us straight to this point.

I’ve asked Dr. Wardynski, via email as I suspect it will be a long time before he agrees to meet with me in person, about this three times since my meeting with him on Monday.

I have written to ask the following:

Dr. Wardynski,

Thank you again for meeting with me on Monday. Have you been able to determine yet if the system will be in a position to meet the IEPs starting on August 8th?

Also, if you are still uncertain about this, what specific and detailed assurances can you offer me as a parent, in an effort to demonstrate your commitment to transparency, that my son’s classroom will be sufficiently staffed to ensure a safe learning environment for him on August 8th?

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Russell

Russell Winn

2501 Glen Echo Circle, SE
Huntsville, AL 35803

On Wednesday, July 27th, at 7:01pm, just seven days before the start of school, I received the following response from Dr. Wardynski:

The post Parents Should Not Be Afraid To Send Their Kids To School appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Six years ago tomorrow, everything changed, as I got to hold my little boy for the first time ever.

For the longest time, I was completely convinced that I could never love anyone as much as I loved his big sister. It’s true what they say about little girls and their daddies: Dads are lost forever when their daughters are born.

And I was.

And I still am.

But there’s not a day gone by since in the last six years when I haven’t fallen in love all over again with this little guy.

I am amazed by the simple joy he finds in life: sliding, bouncing, holding extended conversations with the pine straw bunny rabbit, or seeing the blue sky as if for the first time.

I am in awe of his strength when he tears off the fridge door and bounces among the spilled milk and pickle juice, or when he squeezes my mouth into an O to get me to help him say, “O-Pen.”

I am broken by his grace when he walks among the eggs on the couch without a single misstep or crack.

I am in love with the boy when through his tears and stimming he manages to find a way through the noise, the confusion, and the fog to reach out and take my hand asking for big hugs to help soothe the raging within.

And when he looks me in the eye . . . everything changes–again.

Happy Birthday little guy. I love/hate that you’re growing up, but I can’t wait to see the man you become. I know you’re gonna change everything.

The post The Day Everything Changed–Again appeared first on Geek Palaver.

When you have an epiphany, it’s a good idea to write it down. I’ve long since been of the opinion that if you don’t write it down, it didn’t happen. So on those rare moments when a clear thought does wind it’s way up my spine to enlighten my darken mind, I have to put it down. Otherwise that light will go out. And if there’s anything that we must rage against, as Dylan Thomas said, it’s the dying of the light.

And so I write to rage against meaninglessness.

My insight tonight happened as a series of things came together. Thanks to a friend for kicking it off with your post earlier today. You wrote:

[The LEA] only wants to help those who are severe and not the ones who might fall through the cracks that have a chance to make it if they were given just a little bit of help.

While this wasn’t our experience, it did make me stop and ask of myself: Is it possible that my son’s severity is a gift?

It’s important to pay attention to that tickle as it moves up your spine.

When we speak of autism, we speak of it as a spectrum. There is a vast range of gift, talents, and abilities when it comes to the spectrum. There are those who are severely autistic. There are children and adults who’s autism is so severe that they will possibly never find a way to communicate with the world outside themselves. There are those who cannot speak, but learn other ways of communicating. There are people, who like our boy, don’t communicate clearly via speech at the beginning of their lives, but have the possibility of learning as they grow. And there are those who don’t seem to have a problem talking, but instead have difficulty recognizing non-verbal language or (well, this is the case with many who aren’t on the spectrum, too) nuance and sarcasm.

Frankly, I haven’t even begun to describe the range. Autism isn’t just a rainbow of visible light; it encompasses infrared and ultraviolet light as well. Sometimes you can see the disability. Sometimes you can’t.

And sometimes the disability that you can see is easier to deal with than the one you can’t.

We can see our boy’s disability and so can nearly everyone else who comes into contact with him. His disability is visible and audible; it isn’t hidden below the surface.

We don’t have to explain to those who interact with him that he isn’t being rude; he has an illness. We don’t have to defend his difficulty with making eye-contact, or his stimming, or his humming, or his bouncing. No one assumes that our boy is just misbehaving. And despite our struggles to understand him when he’s asking for things, or crying, or laughing, everyone knows that we’re telling the truth when we say that our child has a disability.

Sometimes severity drives a spike through my heart. When I know that my boy is screaming at me to get me to understand what he wants, what he needs, who he is, my life stops for a while.

But we find a way through. And the boy learns and talks, and life begins again.

But when I see my friends having to scream on behalf of their child, having to defend their child to others who think the kid is just bad, having to fight for just a little help with reading or writing or math; it’s then that I know, I see and I rage with them.

Sometimes severity is a gift.

The post Sometimes Severity is a Gift appeared first on Geek Palaver.

When the mist breaks, when the canopy opens to the stars, when the smoke is blown away by a cool breeze, that’s when life begins. Those are the fleeting minutes that I hope to find. Those are the times that I fight for with my boy.

It’s the connection that keeps me awake when he’s in a talkative mood in the darkest hours of the night. It’s that clarity that I, and every autism parent I know, fights for every minute of every day and night. That’s what I constantly watch for so I don’t miss them because I know that they don’t happen nearly often enough. They don’t last nearly long enough.

And so I watch, staring into the dark, straining my eyes, wishing my hearing were better, praying for connection, fighting against the fog.

You see more than I . . .

The post Fighting Against the Fog appeared first on Geek Palaver.

As I leave Savannah on Highway 80, I pass the paper mill on the left. Similar to Butchertown in Louisville, whose smell in the summer contributes to the marked rise of vegetarians, the International Paper Mill forces me to reconsider ever putting anything on paper. Even veganism seems wise:  If eggs can smell that bad when they rot, they can’t be good to begin with. While hydrogen sulfide may not be officially hazardous in low doses, it’s disturbing how quickly it overpowers the sense of smell. Stay in the area overnight and, in the morning you wouldn’t know that you stank.

The water takes on the same flavor. I never knew that plain water could taste sweet until I moved out of the Southeast. This is why all the tea is sweetened, and everyone drinks coke. Join the community for a short while and your taste buds forget what good water tastes like. The images of sulfur and eternal heat that street preachers invoke come alive to those living near a Southern paper mill. Only there, it’s a dry heat.

Thankfully, I’m driving into the wind on my way East. Once I’ve reached the bridge onto Tybee Island, nothing but dampness comes through the windows and sunroof. It’s strange having to run the wipers when it’s not raining: The humidity never drops below ninety percent, even in the driest summer. Tybee means salt in the Native American Euchee language. Salt can purify and preserve, but it can also burn. I once heard that even people who cannot swim can float in the Dead Sea because of the high concentration of salt and minerals. The air on the island feels that way except, instead of supporting you, it crushes you. The saltiness of the wet air surrounds, envelops, encloses the night around you. During the day, the sun burns off some of the moisture; at night, it folds in on you.

Blue sky reaches out to the horizon and touches blue-green water. Moonlight washes away the vivid color of the day. White sand becomes light gray. Sky and water meld into pitch.  I learn what it is to be color-blind like dad. At night the beach isn’t about seeing and being seen. No seeing; no touching; no talking; no hearing other than the rush of the wind past your ears. Only smell and taste remain; even they fade in repetition.

Turning into the public parking lot a little too sharply, I flash back to driving lessons with dad as I hear his dreaded command, “Easy. EASY!” echo in my head. Officially, the beach closes at midnight, but the police never enforce this rule. I watch for the watchers anyway; at three hours after mid-night, it’s better to go unnoticed. I need to be alone.

I park as far away from the streetlight as possible. “Night Swimming” by R.E.M. is fading into the background: “you I thought I knew you / you I cannot judge / you I thought you knew me / this one laughing quietly underneath my breath / night swimming / deserves a quiet night.”[i] Knowing, judging, being known, needing escape I close the door and step into the wind. It’s always strong, especially at night; but tonight, it seems as if it has somewhere to go, and it’s insistent on getting there early. Dad’s shouting, “Hurry up, you’re making us late!” is blown away. I hope the wind continues to do this work.

Alone.

I leave my shoes, wallet, shirt, and all but the door key in the trunk. No sense in tempting anyone to steal my last ten until the end of the month. If it weren’t for the gas card, I couldn’t be here and I’d likely starve. Dad shakes his head, “You need to learn to manage your money better, boy.”

The asphalt is still warm, but the sand is cool. It’s even cooler than the air—drier anyway. It’s like someone left the air conditioning on with the door open. Somewhere, dad is shouting, “Close the door!” I realize the wind is letting me down. Thoughts keep intruding.  I pick up the pace to get to the wet sand so the wind will stop sandblasting my ankles, but it’s difficult running on a surface that gives way under every step. I turn south so the wind’s at my back. My hair streams out in front of me, pointing the way, forming blinders to everything around me. “Get a hair cut!” I head into the darkest part of the beach on its southern edge. This must be what a sensory deprivation chamber feels like. I can hear only the gentle breaking of the waves on the rocks. I can see only a few stars through the clouds. I can feel only the warm water splashing against my shins. I can smell only the brine in the air. I can taste only the salt on my lips.

I climb over the break, take off my shorts, and wade into the Atlantic. Isolated. Separated. Alone. Silent. Safe.

An hour and a half up I-16, the cancer is spreading. Three years ago it invaded his colon. They tried to isolate it. To separate it. To convince it to leave him alone and safe. It didn’t work.

Within a year he was back at the hospital with a shortness of breath, silencing him. As if he were trapped under water, his lungs couldn’t hold enough oxygen. The x-rays showed some spots: Little dark spots that seemed to be joining together in places. Forming communities. Staking claim to their territory. Climbing on up. They try again to isolate it and separate it.

A few weeks ago the left side of his body felt numb, and he had trouble walking. Stumbling into the neurologist’s office, he sees an MRI of his brain. The communities have taken up residence there now. Overcrowding will soon be a problem. The population control techniques have failed, and there’s no place left to be alone. There’s no room left.

One month from now, during a night much like tonight, the growth would finally stop. Dad would simply stop breathing: merciful separation. Tonight though, breathing is still important to me; and as I float on my back underneath the clouds, I add a few extra ounces of saline to the sea.

I swim back to the breakers, pull on my shorts, and walk north toward the lot. I feel cold as the wind dries me. The wind and the surf drown out most sound, but then I notice a gull calling out the morning. The brine leaves my lips chapped and my tongue feeling swollen. My nose clears, and I smell the dry morning air blowing in from the west. My hair, no longer providing the blinders, flails about behind me. Color returns, and I can see the light of a red morning ahead. Mourning ahead.

Before I get into the car, I try and knock off as much of the white sand as possible, but my efforts are futile. I carry the beach back home with me: little communities, refusing to let go.

Today, twelve years later, I never go to the beach alone, and I haven’t been to Tybee since that night. The night swimming is past, “replaced by everyday.”[ii] Laurel and I often go out at night for a walk on the beach, together. She never knew dad, but she was there for the funeral: drove down from Louisville just to be with me. That was when I knew.

Leaving the babies with her mom, we walk east on Orange Beach before midnight. I stop and look at the horizon where water and sky meet and merge into one. Laurel reaches out, takes my hand, and we merge as well. Laughing quietly underneath my breath, I whisper, “Good night.” My community has found me, known me, and I am not alone. We walk back to the condo to check on the kids. The night air swirls around and between us. Safe.

[ii] Ibid.

The post Night Swimming appeared first on Geek Palaver.

Ghost stories around a campfire. It all started with ghost stories around a campfire.

We were young, so it was just easier to re-tell the scenes from Friday the 13th, but they were still effective. Most of us hadn’t even seen the movie, but there was always that one kid whose parents would take him to the R-raters. The one kid who could spread the thirteen different ways a psychotic could kill you in the woods; supposing, of course, that you needed killing. My favorite was the arm coming out from under the cot, holding the head of the guy who just had the misfortune of having had pre-marital sex.

What idiot came up with idea of bed skirts? Didn’t they understand (as Stephen King said once) that the skirt makes a perfect hiding place for the boogie man (and a child’s imagination)?

Eventually we moved away from retelling the movie to simply chanting “che he he, ha ha ha.” Fear is more contagious than the flu.

Which left us, alone, in our tents, with only our imaginations and the sounds of the living, breathing, thinking world around us.

A place to tell stories. A place to let the imagination run wild. A place to indulge that little boy who wants a new toy. A place to put away childish things and think like a man (“or a woman if you are one”). That’s what the campfire was for me. That’s what Geek Palaver is for me now.

Yes, I am a geek, and I want to talk. Sometimes it will be useless chatter. Occasionally our palaver will be interesting and helpful. Rarely, the counsel might be inspiring, but we will have a place to discuss our opinions. To see the world as it is, and as we hope it will be.

Perhaps to discover our destiny: our ka.

Join us around the campfire as we bring the 19th century into the 21st.

This has all happened before, for Ka, is a wheel.

The post Ka is a wheel . . . appeared first on Geek Palaver.