Be Cruel to Your School

By Robert MacMillan
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 14, 2005 10:08 AM

The nation's public school systems are working overtime to equip students with modern technology, installing high-tech computer labs and even issuing a laptop to every student. But two recent incidents in New England show that seasoned bureaucratic thinking can derail even the most well-intentioned acts.

Take the case of Paloma Stanley. The 18-year-old student at Boston Community Leadership Academy is set to graduate tonight, but the principal threatened to keep her from walking after Stanley lost her school-issued laptop.

"Now, unless she makes a down payment of $300 on the $700 computer, she cannot join her classmates when they graduate tonight at John Hancock Hall," the Boston Globe reported. "[Stanley] said she lives on her own and works 20 hours a week at a movie theater. Earning a diploma, she said, was a huge personal achievement and was her ticket to college. 'Technically I am responsible, but cut me some slack,' she said yesterday, as she turned to the media after unsuccessfully lobbying the principal. 'I've done everything I could.'"

Here was principal Nicole Bahnam's response to the Globe: "'Those are the tough lessons in life. ... Nothing comes for free. Hello. We all work very hard."

Tell Paloma Stanley something she doesn't know.

I can't say for sure whether Stanley really is an emancipated student working her way through high school; I couldn't get her on the phone. Whatever the case, she will graduate after all, Bahnam told me when I called the academy this morning.

According to Bahnam, a "good Samaritan" called at 7:20 a.m. this morning and donated a laptop to replace the one that Stanley lost. Another one called 20 minutes later to donate a replacement for a laptop that another student lost. Both students will be allowed to join their classmates tonight, Bahnam said. "This shows how good people are," she said.

True, I said, but I asked whether she realized that the reason the donors called was because they probably felt that Bahnam was acting like a heartless functionary? No, she replied: "I don't look at it as bad press. I look at it as a lesson in life."

Bahnam went on to say that she would talk about this affair in her graduation speech tonight. But is this really a lesson that Paloma Stanley failed to learn already? "I think she's resilient," Bahnam said. "But she needed another push."

Somebody needs a push, all right, but it's not Stanley. Working 20 hours a week on top of a full courseload -- not to mention the 7-mile commute from Dorchester to Brighton -- can teach even the most spoiled student a few lessons about responsibility. Add to that rent, utilities and food, and you have responsibilities that plenty of adults can't handle.

Besides, lost laptops happen. From Alexandria, Va., to Maine to Georgia, students lug around thousand-dollar-plus machines as a basic part of the curriculum, and some of those silicon tools will disappear in buses, closets, taxis and all the other places where all of us have lost items to the mysterious ether.

This is something that school systems, which are handing out more technology to their charges than ever before, should have realized by now. Michael Contompasis, chief operating officer for Boston Public Schools, told the Globe that the city's policy says "students must return school materials by the end of the year or pay for them. Each year a handful of students are threatened with not being able to attend graduation ceremonies because materials are missing. ... 'These kids usually settle these things before it gets this far,' he said."

Denying students this hard-earned privilege because of drinking, drug busts, criminal acts and all sorts of other bad behavior would be one thing. An honest mistake that a student could account for after graduation is quite another.

Perhaps Bahnam and school officials should focus on more urgent tasks at hand. The Globe also reported that black and Hispanic third-graders keep producing "stubbornly low" scores on a key standardized test, even as results rise for others.

"The statewide scores are identical to those from the previous three years, and they showed that the achievement gap persists along racial and ethnic lines," the paper said. "Most white and Asian third-graders are strong readers, the scores showed, compared with just 39 percent of black students and barely a third of Hispanic students. Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll said that reading scores are good overall but that he is concerned about the gap between the highest- and lowest-scoring groups."

Maybe things would be different if they'd just learn a few life lessons, such as not losing their laptops.

Rules Set in Granite

Today's other example of bureaucracy gone silly is set 134 miles to the north in Tamworth, N.H., where the school board axed K.A. Brett Middle School librarian John Perkins.

Perkins, the Conway Daily Sun reported, is "indispensable, inspirational and computer savvy," according to his fans who testified last Tuesday at a hearing to save his position. Problem is, the 17-year-veteran of the school will be replaced as part of a bid to bring the school into line with the state's computer curriculum standards, the Sun said.

"A plan drafted by school officials will cut Perkins's job next year and replace it with two new positions, a library aide and a computer teacher -- a shift outlined in a curriculum approval request sent recently to the N.H. Department of Education for review," the Sun quoted Superintendent Gwen Poirier as saying.

Perkins told me in an interview this morning that he and five other candidates applied for the computer teaching position, and he received a letter from the school saying he is still under consideration. He is supposed to meet Poirier for an interview on Wednesday.

It's hard to say what sparked this sudden decision to drop Perkins and make him reapply for a lower-paying job. The school, according to the Sun, has been operating outside the computer curriculum guidelines for two years under a "conditional state approval."

It could be the old story that it's time for the school system to find cheaper help. Perkins started as a part-timer making $10,000 a year, and has reached the top of the full-time pay scale at $47,000. I tried to reach principal Noel DeSousa this morning to ask about this but had to leave a message.

Either way, the school system should go through its "competitive" hiring process and strongly consider keeping Perkins. It's not easy to find computer specialists who can help take care of a schoolwide computer network, work a library and teach -- these are all things that the Sun reported among Perkins's qualifications.

Not only that, he is the kind of hands-on instructor who on at least one occasion took his kids beyond the traditional "learning" role and turned them into junior researchers. Consider the book on 19th-century president Franklin Pierce that Perkins published with the children's help. According to the Franklin Pierce Bicentennial Web site (there really is one), proceeds from sales of the book go toward a scholarship fund for the students who worked on the project.

This is the kind of educator the school system is dropping to satisfy some bureaucratic personnel requirement? Well, at least they have their standards.

One housekeeping footnote: We try to provide links to the stories that we find online, but the Conway Daily Sun is available on a subscription basis only. For the rest of you, see the Associated Press's writeup of the story on its New Hampshire wire.

Big Brother, the Man, E-Mail and You

Here are a couple of noteworthy items culled from all the news RSS feeds I subscribe to:

* The Austin American-Statesman reported that more than one-third of companies with 1,000 or more employees have staff that specialize in monitoring workers' messages for offensive content and corporate secrets, and another 25 percent plan to hire someone soon for that job. That's according to Proofpoint Inc., an e-mail security company based in Cupertino, Calif., washingtonpost.com's Brian Krebs noted the same study last week in the blog he writes about computer security.

* Connecticut legislators might not have to submit to such undignified monitoring. The Connecticut Post reported that the legislature passed an amendment that would make state employees' and lawmakers' e-mail messages exempt from the state's Freedom of Information Act.

One of its opponents was state Sen. Ernest E. Newton II (D). Here's a little note on him from the Post: "Newton, the target of a federal corruption investigation, had his legislative computer records seized on Good Friday, when the Capitol was closed. Lawrence Cook, Newton's Senate spokesman, said Friday that Newton voted against it. 'I'm already under scrutiny,' Cook quoted Newton as saying. 'I wouldn't touch that amendment with a 10-foot pole.'"

The Return of Junk Mail

We're talking about the kind that you get in your mailbox, that lonely metal thing that sits at the end of your driveway. The Boston Globe said that companies are facing so many restrictions on their use of telemarketing and unsolicited e-mail that they're rediscovering the joys of murdering trees for advertising purposes.

Well, that's not how the Globe put it. Here's is reporter Jenn Abelson in her own words: "Direct mail, or so-called junk mail, is on the rise. With hundreds of television channels and dwindling newspaper circulations, marketers say snail mail is one of the last frontiers where they know they can find consumers in an increasingly fragmented media market. ... In 2004, companies and other groups sent out 96 billion pieces of direct mail -- up 12 percent from 86 billion pieces in 1999, according to the United States Postal Service. 'Companies are trying to utilize mail as opposed to telephone and the largest areas of growth are in credit card mailings and mortgages,' said Mark Aguinaldo, an analyst with the marketing research firm Mintel International Group Ltd. in Chicago."

Companies touting C-i-/@Al*i-s, ba*r*e*ly legal tieen g$ur!ls and German Nazi spam probably will stick to e-mail, however.

Send links and comments to robertDOTmacmillanATwashingtonpost.com.