Postcards from the Funny Farm

I usually don’t get confrontational on my blog. After all, it’s just my online diary. However, today I am on a mission to expose local newspaper, Victorville Daily Press, employee named KATHERINE ROSENBERG (I won’t call her a reporter). You see, she said things about my school, and the staff I work with, that are slanted (to put it lightly) and ridiculous. The press should not be able to defame and lie and just get away with it. I hope to give her back own albatross. While she is claiming “freedom of the press,” I am claiming “freedom of my WordPress blog.”

If you are just a mild mannered passerby, I apologize for this heated post . . . check back later for more of the good old Riley Central postings as normally found here!

Before I start my rebuttal to her grouping of words in a printed source (I won’t call it an article), let me encourage you first to read it so you can decide if you agree that it is wrong, irresponsible, and that it should never have been published.

My Synopsis (I will try and be as “unbiased” as possible which is more than she did for my school):

A photographer came to my school, Westside Park School in Adelanto, CA, and set his camera up to the side of our marquee aimed at kids sitting against a wall, playing, and otherwise . . . just being kids. He says now after the incident is over that he was there to do a story on our school. My Principal was made aware of him and the mysterious camera through concerned students and parents who said he was taking pictures of the kids. My Principal went out and no one was at the camera. She picked it up and walked around. Not finding anyone walked it back into the office. If any of you know the corner of Adelanto we are on you can I am sure assume that this COULD have been a very bad person doing very twisted things. The man who brought the camera to our school (again I will not call him a reporter) stormed my Principal with a loud voice and started going on and on about his first amendment rights to be there.

Then he deviously filmed a video happening at the school of a hysterical parent whose child didn’t get on the bus that day to attempt to portray that the principal and the school are negligent towards children. People who work in schools will know that upset parent situations sometimes occur. He saw it as fuel for his fire. A very biased “editorial” posing as a newspaper article was “written” by KATHERINE ROSENBERG, published and as a result thousands of readers who have never heard of our school, now have a negative impression. I’d be surprised to find that either of these people have college degrees and yet the photographer calls my Principal “uneducated.” Does he know the requirements to become a Principal? One I know is a mandatory class in the US constitution (which as of last check includes the 1st Amendment) . Is that a requirement to work at the Daily Press? What loyalty this reporting woman has. What my Principal did was done to protect children, I have no clue what the Daily Press’ motive was other than to slake their thirst for vengeance at her and my school.

The fact of the matter is that my school is an extraordinary example of what teachers and Principals can do when child achievement becomes a priority. The Academic Performance Index (API) of Westside Park School, a High Desert ‘inner city’ type demographic school with 90+% of its students on free lunch programs, was In 2003 “560.” The latest official data from the California Department of Education attests to astronomical growth now in 2007, Westsdie’s API sits at 755. The Daily Press put us in an article stating this days earlier but the title unflatteringly reads adroitly: “Two Adelanto schools get out of the Hole.” They pair us with George School which, although I am very happy for and proud of George teachers, is at the rock bottom of the District. Westside has worked HARD (students, parents, and teachers) for years incorporating state of the art technology and strategies such as “Explicit Direct Instruction” (EDI) and even now serves as a model training school for the District. You won’t find that in the Daily Press. We will continue this trend regardless of what the daily Press “reports.”

In my opinion every parent (and while a teacher myself, I am also a parent of a 9 year old in the district and two other young babies at home) should want a Principal to go out across the street from the school (and ED Code permits this) to seize something that might be harmful to students. I say: this person should have come into the office and said: “Hi I am from the Daily Press and I am going to be taking a few pictures for an article on your school.” That would have solved everything. Instead, he was devious and later chose to get KATHERINE ROSENBERG to publish a smearing article that has very very little truth in it if any. He should have come in in respect for kids, parents, and education, if not for HIS own safety.

Please let me know what you think of what he did. I need to understand if I am off-base here. KATHERINE ROSENBERG is invited to as well.

While I’m mentioning KATHERINE ROSENBERG, I think she owes Westside Kids Another Article. You may contact me for an interview Katherine. Make it right.

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