P E Y T O N W O L C O T T |
| h o w w e t a k e b a c k o u r c h i l d r e n ' s e d u c a t i o n -- o n e p e r s o n , o n e q u e s t i o n , o n e s c h o o l a t a t i m e . Copyright 1999-2006 Peyton Wolcott |
| Modern Minutemen: Mary Dombrowski & James Olsen |
| Mary Dombrowski, a local historian, became concerned when their schools tried to rewrite World War II history in favor of the Japanese, ignoring conditions behind FDR's Executive Order 9066 establishing among other things the internment camps. Then when she and her Coast Guardsman husband Jim Olsen spoke up, he was barred from their daughter's middle school, and all other district schools. The revisionist curriculum among other things called the internment camps "concentration camps." They weren't. |
| James Olsen at Sakai Middle School Bainbridge Island, Washington |
| Open records search: Bainbridge Schools produce no real reason to bar Olsen |
| Background Excerpted from the Bremerton Sun (08/31/04) A special social studies program for Sakai Intermediate School sixth-graders called "Leaving Our Island" is missing context and rises to the level of "propaganda," some parents say. Their complaints will result in changes to the curriculum, but the class won't back away from its central idea that Japanese-American internment was a mistake. The internment of Japanese-Americans, about two-thirds of whom were born in the United States, has generally become regarded as a U.S. overreaction to wartime hysteria, but there are notable dissenters from that belief. Newspaper columnist Michelle Malkin recently wrote "In Defense of Internment," a book that collects some of the reasons the internment decision was made. Bainbridge Island's historic significance as the first place Japanese-Americans left their homes on their way to internment camps makes it a logical place to draw upon the event to teach history. Social studies teacher Marie Marrs developed the curriculum and netted a $17,000 grant from the Washington Civil Liberties Education Program to offer the program to Sakai sixth-graders. It was taught during February as part of a U.S. history curriculum. On Thursday, the Bainbridge Island School District's board of commissioners met to discuss the internment curriculum after parents complained about how it was being taught. Mary Dombrowski, an island resident, shared letters she exchanged with Superintendent Ken Crawford and Sakai Principal Jo Vander Stoep. She argued the curriculum didn't provide the historical context surrounding President Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066, which resulted in a war zone with a boundary line running through the middle of Washington and Oregon, along California's eastern boundary and into the southern part of Arizona.... Dombrowski took issue with the curriculum's attempt to link Japanese internment with today's Patriot Act, saying it "rises to the level of propaganda." |
| Mary Dombrowski's April 19, 2006 request to Bainbridge Island School District No. 303: "To view public records involving or reflecting Superintendent Crawford's asserton that in February of 2005, James M. Olsen posed a threat sufficient to require issuance of a no-trespass order." |
| What Superintendent Crawford produced: Some letters. Some emails. Copies of board policies. Copies of Public Information Act requests submitted by Jim in January 2005. Samples of what in these documents BISD apparently found worthy of barring Olsen from his daughter's campus: o After asking for costs for a trip to L.A., Olsen closes, "If you refuse to produce this document, then pursuant to the Washington Public Records Act, please promptly give your reasons for that refusal in writing. I will promptly remit, upon receiving your statement for reasonable costs incurred in complying with this request." o A request for a copy of board minutes from Olsen ends with, "Thank you for sending me a copy of the minutes when approved." o Olsen points out to supe Crawford that he has "broken the law in failing to honor the policy on teaching of controversial subjects. This has been written about and much discussed and frankly it has demeaned your office." o Mary's letter asking that their daughter be allowed to simply read a book rather than be excused from the controversial curriculum closes with, "I thank you most kindly for your cooperation." Supe Crawford ramps up his concerns o On Feb. 7, 2005 BISD rescinds Mary and Jim's participation as volunteers at Sakai Intermediate School. o On Feb. 8, 2005, supe Crawford writes Jim that "I do regret having to give you notice that you will not be permitted onto the campus of Sakai Intermediate School or other properties of the Bainbridge Island School District, except in the event of a family emergency, until otherwise notified. It is my sincere hope that you might eventually reconcile your relationship with the school and be able to participate in school activities without their fear of threat, intimidation, or the district's perception thereof. Until such time, it is imperative that you respect my request." This is apparently based on two circumstances: 1. Jim's use of an email list of volunteers provided by the school to all volunteers, of which he was one until Feb. 7, to "communicate [his] criticisms of the program to other volunteer parents. This violates the basic trusts a school must maintain to preserve the integrity of the volunteer program." 2. Supe Crawford finds "greatest" concern in Jim's written statement that, "This matter is not closed and you will see evidence shortly." Crawford responds, "Stated within an agry context, I can only interpret this as a threat, the specifics of which are unstated. It is my responsibility to protect students and staff against purposefully disruptive behavior and we cannot risk their exposure to whatever 'evidence shortly' you might have planned.' " Supe Crawford serves Olsen with a NO TRESPASS letter & agreement to prosecute o On Feb. 9, 2005, Jim was presented with this letter after he emailed their daughter's Social Studies teacher that he would attend that day's special curriculum as a parent observer. The "No Trespass" letter was necessitated, Crawford said, by Olsen's "threat of disruption to the educational mission of the school district and by behavior the professional school personnel have found intimidating and harassing." Crawford copies the Bainbridge Island Police Department. What had Olsen done to provoke the supe's wrath? He had arrived "with a tape recorder and microphone with an expressed intent to sit in during...classroom presentations." March 7, 2005: Supe Crawford rescinds the no-trespass "request" previously issued. However, unlike the Feb. 9 "no trespass" letter, the Bainbridge Island Police Department is not copied on this one. |
| Mary & Jim and their children on their front porch on an earlier 4th of July |
| In Mary's Own Words: From her blog http://maryvdombrowski.blogspot.com |
How we take back our children's education: one person, one question, one school at a time. |
AASA - American Association of School Administrators ASA - Association of School Administrators CSD - Consolidated School District DOE - Department of Education ES - Elementary School HS - High School ISD - Independent School District JHS - Junior High School MS - Middle School MSM - Mainstream media NSBA - National School Boards Association NSPRA - National School Public Relations Association PS - Public School(s) SBEC - State Board for Educator Certification SD - School District Sup't - Superintendent TAKS - Texas Assessment of Knowledge & Skills TASA - Texas Association of School Administrators TASB - Texas Association of School Boards TASBO - Texas Association of School Business Officials TEA - Texas Education Agency TEKS - Texas Essential Knowledge & Skills USD - UnifiedUnited School District |
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| QUOTES |
Separatists in India's north-eastern state of Manipur have shot six male teachers in the leg for allegedly helping students cheat in exams. Two women teachers were beaten with sticks for the same offence, the rebels of the Kanglei Yana Kan Lup group said. The teachers were abducted from their homes after an exam on Thursday. The rebels said the teachers took up to 5,000 rupees ($110) for helping students cheat and warned of further punishment if the cheating continued. The Kanglei Yana Kan Lup (KYKL) is one of many separatist groups fighting Indian administration in Manipur. It said it abducted the eight teachers from their homes in and around the state capital, Imphal, because of reports they had taken bribes. --By Subir Bhaumik - BBC |
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| Copyright 1999-2006 Peyton Wolcott |
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