I expected noting more from you. How you managed to turn that 180 degrees is impressive, if ineffective. I didn't say they were bad parents because they don't think like me. In fact, my complaint was and is that they don't even want to listen to what I think, because it isn't the way they think. They marginalize, minimize, and in some cases even demonize anyone who doesn't go lockstep with what they want.
That teaches kids that kind of attitude is acceptable, even preferred, if it advances your position and gets what you want. That's the damage being done, and it's far greater damage than any damage being done by the schools, or those who "don"t care about the kids".
I suspect you know that already, though, and have just climbed on your spin machine in another vain attempt to silence any opinion that doesn't agree with yours - exactly what I was lamenting above. Here's a hint - give your bull$hit a rest. You may find more favorable outcomes that way, and you may want to pass that along to the rest of your cronies as well. You are really not fooling anybody.
Accusing you of destroying the credibility of the "No" proponents is laughable, really, when it's the "Yes" proponents who daily do enough of that to themselves to doom this ill-advised override attempt - again. I predict this latest override attempt will lose by an even bigger margin that the last one did, and a major reason for that is the attitudes of the proponents, and the fact they think misleading the public is okay if it gets you what you want. That to me is what's wrong with politics, both locally and nationally. Let me paraphrase an old pearl - one definition of stupidity is making the same mistake over and over again.
I agree and the YEs people go out every single day around the holidays asking for money and shouting in the streets. Unreal.. We need to get out there and SPEAK UP!
I agree and the YEs people go out every single day around the holidays asking for money and shouting in the streets. Unreal.. We need to get out there and SPEAK UP!
Yeah. Engaging actively in local politics and activism, trying to get the changes they'd like to see in their community passed. Monsters. Oh the horror! They should be ashamed of themselves, engaging in the political process.
Mass Law pertaining to Teacher Political Activity Relating to Town Budget Overrides:
Serving on a ballot question committee:
You may serve on or assist a ballot question committee about a tax limit override provided that you do so without pay, do not fundraise, and do not act as the agent for the campaign in any matter involving your town (such as filing required campaign finance reports). You may, outside of school and on your own time, distribute campaign literature, make get-out-the vote telephone calls, conduct campaign polls and research, drive voters to the polls, and display or hold signs as long as you do not do so on town time or by using town resources.
Private political activity:
Teachers and other public employees have most of the same rights as other citizens to engage in private political activity. A teacher may engage in private political activity using his own or other private resources, and when he is acting for himself and not as an agent or representative of anyone else. However, a public employee may not use his public position to engage in political activity. Section 23(b)(2)(ii) of the conflict of interest law prohibits the use of one's public position to engage in political activity, because a public employee who does so is using his official position to secure for himself or others (such as a candidate or a ballot question committee) unwarranted privileges of substantial value ($50 or more) not properly available to similarly situated persons.
It is certainly their right to campaign for it. However, I think it is a conflict of interest and may violate state ethics rules when they are openly campaigning for an override using school resources by being on School grounds as students are being dropped off. Parents of other children felt bullied by this. You cannot use city resources to campaign for the override. Campaigning on school grounds before school is using city resources. There are several pictures of this and this should be forward to the appropriate state officials .Perhaps the city solicitor should comment on their behavior.
RvC is the wind-up puppet of the administration, totally without ethics and very, very ignorant. He has made many costly errors costing Melrose taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars with his pompous and ignorant "legal opinions," starting with his stands re the OCR cases.
Standing on school property with their tee shirts and signs is not legal.
I will file complaint with state ethics commissions and forward the pictures to them. You can file the complaints online. Enough is enough!!
I'm no lawyer, but it seems to me that your ethics complaint will be met with a derisive scoff, and then they'll move onto important issues, because this hardly seems illegal.
It is certainly their right to campaign for it. However, I think it is a conflict of interest and may violate state ethics rules when they are openly campaigning for an override using school resources by being on School grounds as students are being dropped off. Parents of other children felt bullied by this. You cannot use city resources to campaign for the override. Campaigning on school grounds before school is using city resources. There are several pictures of this and this should be forward to the appropriate state officials .Perhaps the city solicitor should comment on their behavior.
In looking at the picture in the Weekly News, the majority of them are on the sidewalk, which is not school property. It does appear though that there are eight of them in the driveway, which is school property. I don't honestly know if it's prohibited or not, but if it's not it ought to be.
Look at the pics from The YEvwebsite it shows a whole group of them directly in front of the school. This is school property and against state law. Look at the pics from dec 12
Parents who cannot afford more taxes may feel intimidated or bullied by teachers outside schools. This Override has already become poisonously divisive!