The following message was sent on Monday from the private e-mail account of Harford County Board of Education Vice-President Rick Grambo to the following recipients: Maryland State Board of Education President Dr. Charlene M. Dukes, Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Dr. Lillian M. Lowery, Baltimore County Public Schools Board of Education President Lawrence E. Schmidt, Baltimore County Superintendent of Schools Dr. S. Dallas Dance, and the Maryland Association of Boards of Education. A copy was provided to The Dagger for publication:
Date: Mon, Sep 23, 2013 at 4:03 PM
Subject: Common Core Meeting Tyranny
I was deeply disturbed by the arrest of a citizen who dared to ask unscripted questions about Common Core at a meeting in Baltimore County last Thursday evening. As the former President of the Harford County Board of Education I myself have serious questions regarding Common Core and the accompanying PARCC assessment tests. It is frustrating and difficult for me to get answers about these sweeping changes and I can only imagine how difficult it is for a parent.
What is the point of holding public sessions if you have no real desire to listen to what the public has to say? One of my main concerns is that Common Core will eliminate parental input and control over their children’s education. Thursday’s events make it clear that my fears are not unfounded. Why are you so afraid of any unscripted public discussion regarding Common Core?
I understand that the Superintendent or one of his staff gave the orders to have this man removed. The [Baltimore County Public Schools Board of Education] should issue a statement condemning this action; silence will be interpreted as an indication that this was done at their direction. [The Maryland Association of Boards of Education] and the [Maryland State Department of Education] have a responsibility to issue similar statements. The tyrannical actions of a few public officials can seriously damage the credibility of all MD public school system officials. As an elected member of the Harford County Board of Education I call upon The BCPSBOE, MABE, and MSDE to publically apologize to the gentleman that was arrested, and to make a sincere effort to hold honest open public forums regarding the Common Core and PARCC assessment testing.
Sincerely,
Rick Grambo
I hope you go to court on behalf of that poor man who was wrongfully arrested. In fact, anyone can go on his trial date. I dont know his name otherwise I’d post the date time and location for his hearing.
His name is Robert Small from Howard County.
Its ironic that Mr. Small was arrested for “assaulting a police officer”. The only assaulting I saw was the punk cop pushing him around.
That cop was a little bitch.
I was there and the police officer was definitely pushing Mr. Small. Mr. Small never raised a hand to him and all of the chest bumping was coming from the police officer. MSDE can’t be trusted to uphold COMAR with disabled children, what makes anyone think they have any other children’s best interest at heart? I haven’t seen this much propaganda since watching videos of Hitler’s!
Janice – that officer needs a good ass beating…
I was there and while maybe the man should not have been arrested; I cannot say that the same thing might not have happened at an HCPS meeting had someone acted disorderly. You hold public comment sessions, but honestly I think most of the things you do are not open for honest input either. I give the school board credit for listening and not cutting off public comment, but I have not seen great action as a result. It certainly is not a time for engagement with the public. I have seen police security guards at your meetings, but fortunately have not seen them have to intervene.
I hope that HCPS tries to get a Common Core forum here in our county and that perhaps it is a more honest forum. I was at this forum where Mr. Small was arrested and I have to say that it was not a place for honest questioning. We were given question cards as we entered and told they would be collected, but the questions started before the cards were even collected. It was a very disappointing evening. I don’t condone the man’s rudeness, but I do get his frustration and think perhaps they went a little too far by arresting him.
There is a Common Core Curriculum meeting scheduled for this Thursday night (9/26) at 6:30 at Magnolia Middle School.
I hadn’t heard about this meeting. Maybe I’ll check HCPS’ website. Thanks for the update!
My wife teaches at that meeting. It is an RSVP event which they are putting on for their school population. I think they have 200+ responses she said. So many they have to have more rooms for each session.
There is good news. The charges have been dropped.
Follow the rules sure – but it seemed watching that the police hack was enjoying the part he was playing a little too much also.
I see, I suppose that would have to be the case.
So you have a public forum and don’t let people ask questions, or you select the ones that you feel are “ok” to ask. What type of meeting is this. I watched the video and where the heck are the panel members to let him ask his question. The security guard,”AKA police” is allowed to pull the parent out of the meeting and then charge him with assault, outside of camera view”. I am appalled at the actions of the board. The police officer was doing what he is trained to do, but was acting outside his responsibilities because the person was just asking questions and did not become violent. If you don’t want to hear questions, don’t have a public forum and expect people to sit there like robots and only make you look good. Again, the parent was asking some good questions, that the members didn’t like. I think that is history repeating itself.
You could ask questions….there was a procedure….he didn’t follow the procedure!
Cdev – Go XXXX yourself!
Why is it any of Grambros business what goes on in Baltimore county schools?
This was a Maryland forum held at a Baltimore County school. Affects all MD schools.
because this is not just a baltimore county issue – statewide implementation of policy started from a Bill Gates big money give away with strings – winfall for the Feds and states that participate. More Fed control less state control of what your/my kids learn and how.
He is a citizen and anything like what happened could spread and there is more than that going on, like suppressing free speech. It happened in Germany. As a volunteer Korea Veteran I am appalled. Are our past,present and future veterans all for nought?
When the federal government pushes a national revisionist history leftist curriculum onto every school it becomes everyone’s business.
Where are the revisionist standards in the curriculum?
Where do we start. Have you read any of them? Granted you are a lover of all things Marxist I would expect you to defend Common core till the last breath.
Boibeaux’s son is an eighth grader at Northeast Middle School. On Monday his social studies teacher gave students a worksheet titled, ‘The Second Amendment Today.’
“The courts have consistently determined that the Second Amendment does not ensure each individual the right to bear arms,” the worksheet states. “The courts have never found a law regulating the private ownership of weapons unconstitutional.
The worksheet, published by Instructional Fair, goes on to say that the Second Amendment is not incorporated against the states.
“This means that the rights of this amendment are not extended to the individual citizens of the states,” the worksheet reads. “So a person has no right to complain about a Second Amendment violation by state laws.”
According to the document, the Second Amendment “only provides the right of a state to keep an armed National Guard.”
Boibeaux said he discovered the worksheet as he was going over his son’s homework assignments.
See this is a prime example of misinformation….there is no common core for social studies.
Yes I have! You have not as you would know there are NO common core social studies standards. There are ones for math and language arts and NGSS for science!
UhOh, internet know it all chump gets busted. LULZ
Is that where we might learn that the civil war was fought over state’s rights as opposed to slavery or that the Native Americans were doing nothing with the land when the whites got here and it only made sense that Manifest Destiny should prevail? Perhaps they will learn that Jackson was fully justified in telling the Supreme Court Chief Justice that it was his law let him enforce it when he forcibly removed Cherokee from their land because the whites wanted it. Is that the revisionist history you are talking about? Exactly how pure and innocent is American History that you feel revisionism will improve on it?
No it is the one where we try to make Biology teachers teach that Men rode dinosaurs and the Earth is 6,000 years old.
The People’s Republic of Maryland has stepped to the next level , Removal Of The Freedom Of Speech. The next level will be thought police.
Comrades, don’t ask boss question.
Common Core is just like Obamacare. It came down from on high with no one understanding it, let alone what is in it. No wonder no one is allowed to ask questions of those who support and thrust it upon the masses without even knowing what its about. The ascendency of statism is an ugly thing, as Mr. Small found out. Q – What would happen if the teachers of Harford County simply ignored it across the board? The administration can’t write everyone up, let alone dismiss anyone.
Unfortuantley you have to pay your teachers better to make stands like that!
@Cdev
So if we increased salaries to what you think is a fair amount when do you expect we’d see the improvement?
Are you suggesting that teachers are not currently giving their students 100% of their effort?
No rather than raises they all wanted brand new schools. Commisar Burbey went to each town hall and demanded a new school be built. So there goes your raise. You can take a turd and put it in a nice fancy box, with a new state of the art bow. But its still a turd
Mr. Burbey has not been advocating to new school construction.
You do not speak the truth; get your facts straight before making false statements
No I am suggesting to get them to buck the system they need financial security. Something they don’t have!
@Cdev –
What evidence do you have that they’d work harder getting paid more.
What makes you think they don’t have job security?
And compared to the private sector these past 5 years teachers have enjoyed much more financial security.
None but that was not my point. Please read the post I replied too.
@Cdev –
I read it again.
So what?
Paying teachers more money will not change their behaviour.
Great article but it didn’t have everything-I didn’t find the kitchen sink!
More Democrat police state shenanigans. Can anyone say IRS, Fast and Furious, no 16oz soda for you, you peasant or Obama’s multitude of executive orders?. I can’t believe people vote for these socialists and expect anything more than we’re getting. Heil Democrats!!!
It’s the Salt Mines for you Hydesmann
I was at the meeting as well and I have to say that Mr. Small’s actions were disruptive. I do not agree with arresting him but the security guard was right in removing him from the crowd.
I don’t think the school board planned for this well with the comment cards. They started taking questions before a good part of the cards were collected and it did give the impression of a free for all.
Well those darn democracies are disruptive & messy with that pesky free speech thing in the constitution for citizens of our republic.
School boards want to control the dialogue so they can quash debate.
If you want no discussion back and forth make people write their questions down and the board can interpret the question to fit the answers they want to give absent challenge.
It’s a coward’s way to shut people down.
It’s not a matter of free speech, there was plenty of opportunity for people to speak. You can’t have everyone get up and start yelling at the administrators to no one would get their questions answered.
Dr. Dance has held lots of questions and answers sessions and there’s plenty of Common Core assemblies scheduled. No one is trying to shut anyone down.
Chris –
Requiring people to write their questions restricts the questioner’s ability to rebut or ask for clarification with a follow on question.
This strategy is designed to control the discussion and limit opposition.
Either way it was what was availible! Should I go to the HCPS BOE meeting and yell at Grambo?
Common-
That’s just not the case. Clearly the school board wants to control the discussion so that it doesn’t become a free for all, but there was plenty of back and forth.
They have faced plenty of opposition in regards to Common Core and still haven’t ran from it.
@Chris
So you say “there was plenty of back and forth”.
How did that work if the attendees were required to submit written questions.
Are you saying that some people in the audience could talk while others had to stick with pencil and 3X5 card submissions?
The reason you make people write questions is so you can screen them and answer them without rebuttal.
The board didn’t want a dialogue they wanted to have control of messaging and be able to say they listened to parents.
It would have been inconvenient for the board to engage in discussion. So they didn’t.
Chris M,
Are you really as dense as your comments suggest? You and Cdev should get a room…..
yet unions protestors, and idiots shouting down speakers at hundreds of events is ok. Wait, thats right, it was against conservatives so it doesn’t count.
The technically correct word for the people being shouted at was probably asocial misfits interested in their own importance at the expense of everyone else unfit to shine their boots or lick them.
Chris M, He was disruptive because he was not sitting their like Herded cattle right? Mr Small was 100% correct with that statement, he has balls and you don’t. I hope Mr. Small has an attorney who can look into this, maybe false arrest? maybe he was injured, If he was in Harford County he could have been shot even thou he was unarmed.
Fascinating position Hedley. If he was in Harford County he could have been shot…” Everyone of you is afraid of government indoctrination while we sit back and watch as other states introduce creationism into the curricula at the expense of science. You seem to enjoy raising the banner of a Christian Nation because you believe that is who founded us. Then you protest on this forum and elsewhere claiming your right to proselytize your religion on the rest of us is somehow protected by the Constitution as well as your gun rights and your right to hate anyone different from you. National Standards for education allow a child raised in South Carolina to migrate to Minnesota and be ready for entry into college or another school. If you are afraid of national Standards then perhaps you should go back to secession like your forefathers did in the 1800s and demand that your state’s rights be paramount to the exclusion of all others. You’re so proud of the public school here and how they teach, yet often students graduation must take remedial math classes just to continue on in college at the local community college. The truth is your ignorance of what is available to the rest of us in the way of education that you would seek to suppress does more to make you ignorant and ill informed. Should the man have been arrested? Probably not, anymore that the Westboro Baptist Church should be arrested. But to promote uncivil conduct when you have a choice to be civil only creates the impression that you are asocial and should be shunned by people you are trying to persuade.
Because is there a point to your rant?
Yes, He was clear. This guy should have followed the format given. All he was doing is looking for a soapbox!
Ah yes, but its ok for your kind to shout down politicians at town hall meetings, or congressional gatherings. They dont follow the format given. Again, one sided racist prick cdev is.
@dumb douche
This sort of thing happens with people from all political persuasions. Unfortunately, those that feel particularly aggrieved or have a cause they wish to promote too often feel it is their right to vent their frustrations and make their point of view at the expense of others in attendance. Not saying that Mr. Small should have been treated in the manner he was but he had no right to attempt to highjack the proceedings. As I said fingers should be pointed in all directions.
I dont shot at people. Most Independents/Moderates don’t!
correction shout
Are you a clown? No, seriously are you? You sound like you might be one. I’ve got a kids birthday party coming up and I need a clown.
Yup, I’m a clown, what’s your address, I’ll be there simp. Because says, I think you have been watching too much of Amish Mafia.
I believe Phil in Bel Air is correct. Common Core is something that the “Bill and whatever his wife’s name Gates Foundation” cooked up to ensure that every school kid in America has to buy a lap top computer. Harford has some of the best schools in the country. Detroit has some of the worst. Common Core brings the good schools down and the inept schools up, to a middle ground. Harford will go down to meet Detroit in the middle. Outrageous.
It really pushes an agenda on our kids. Promotes collectivism at almost every level. Educate, do not indoctrinate.
Yeah sure it is. My education was all about indoctrination from high school through college and even the New York State Regents tests I took to insure I understood what I was being taught. After all there is a lot of insidious collectivism hidden inside algebra and trigonometry and geometry. And English… geez it just evokes a sense of art and all that entails. And don’t get me started on social studies. This is sarcasm, and you are paranoid.
Because, You sure spent a lot of money on education. Too bad you didn’t get an education.
I do pretty well Alex. $100K a year and I get to fence with notables like yourself in an online forum about issues you prefer to be ignorant about.
Because, When you get to $300K and have more than 50 employees get back to me.
Is that what you do Alex? Then come in here and complain about others who are not self employed probably paying bare minimum wages and reaping that windfall that makes you so angry at taxes you have to pay for the infrastructure you have to support in this country you live in? Whining all they way how tough you have it?
Don’t kid yourself. Harford sucks at teaching your local rabble.
Harford schools has some of the best drugs and easiest to get in the country, that’s for sure.
Grambo should have been at the Board Meeting last Monday night instead of writing a self-serving press release and Liberty Pac fundraising email with Bd Of Ed position for RINO Liberty party.
Sniff sniff…. I smell a whiny unloved Cecil Teacrat.
So a nut gets arrested for disrupting a meeting and Grambo demands an apology?
I got thrown out of M&T stadium for being disruptive I want Harbaugh to personally apologize to me. Grambo stop grandstanding .
I’m sorry… perhaps there was a lesson here that you missed. I’m sure it’s not lost on the rest of us.
We already knew you were sorry.
We don’t apologize to asshole steeler fans.
Here is what Grambo doesn’t get…parents already have NO control over curriculum. Standards are set by MD not HCPS.
Anyone who supports common core is blind!!! It is so politically motivated it’s disgusting… We are basically selling public education. 99% of people in charge can’t tell you the basis of common core , how it works, or how the new evaluation system works. Pathetic
CDEV knows. Its is there way of indoctrinating the youth, collectivising the populous, and attempting to remove free will and independent thought. It is the only way they can eventually push their agendas into the mainstream. You all are letting it happen.
Find me a standard, objective or goal that does this.
Again find it in the the standards!
3 days….any standard yet?
The word you missed was “Their”
Of course they dropped the charges. When they have that on video especially with the police being knuckleheads they better drop the charges. That long line at Mr. Small’s door was made up of attorneys desperately wanting to take his case on a contingency fee basis.
@Alex R
Yes the security guard/police officer was intimidating Mr. Small in a big way.
It is amazing that so many of you can take something you know nothing about and make it political. The CommonCore is about scaffolding efucation and better preparing students for the workforce. Try researching it and learn what id really happening in hcps.
It’s as obvious as the nose on your face, you have no idea about CC! Cursive writing….gone! Personal information data mining. Math being taught by the lattice method. WTH? 3X4=11, doesn’t matter the answer is wrong, what matters is how the student arrived at it. Two progressive groups based in Washington DC came up with CC, not governors, not educators. Kentucky implemented CC and a year later test scores statewide dropped dramatically. Just like progressives, if it ain’t broke they’ll fix it anyway. If you feel comfortable not being a part of your child’s education, then Common Core is for you. Do you look at your child’s progress report with utter confusion? Thank Common Core!
Even if you do speak out against following proper procedure, those “opening minded’ will still shut you down.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013/09/26/school-board-member-calls-911-and-reportedly-has-deputy-throw-candidate-out-of-meeting-after-speaking-out-against-common-core/
The guy wanted a soap box. That is not speaking out it is making a fool out of yourself!
Common Core has nothing to do with your child’s progress report. Common Core was approved by governors, state legislators, and state level (not local level) education authorities. Common Core does not prescribe the elimination of cursive writing or a specific method/curriculum for math instruction. Indeed there are many issues with Common Core that need to be looked at and changed but please get your facts straight and stop the hysteria because it only helps to undermine the legitimate efforts to correct any real problems with Common Core.
Because leaving education topics up to the local masses would lead to the kind of ignorant invective you regularly see in the Dagger
Because leaving education directives and requirements with the Federal government has worked out so well.
I can see all the remarkable evidence of student performance results over the last 30 years.
Ok. So this meeting was set up where questions were to be submitted in writing before hand. Other people followed this protocol and submitted their questions. This guy does NOT follow the rules and instead tries to basically bully his way to the front of the line by talking out of order. Those who submitted questions should just have to sit there and give up their time to this guy? Why? is he SO AWESOME and IMPORTANT that he DESERVES to be heard over everyone else? Talk about an entitlement mindset. I for one am tired of the ones with the loudest mouths and the rudest demeanor drowning out the majority who could actually have a civil discussion and even get something constructive accomplished. This guy’s not a hero, he’s a troll.