Jeff Allen says he just wanted to protect his son’s right to a proper education when he contacted a conservative columnist about a school lecture his son recorded that they believed crossed the line.
In Westminster last week, a parent galvanized more than 100 military veterans and parents to protest a principal’s ban on patriotic clothing.
And across the metro area, tech-savvy students have used text messages and cellphones to plan rallies on immigration issues.
Whether the issue is speech rights in the classroom, immigration reform or academic freedom, students and parents in Colorado’s public schools appear more willing to take sides in the culture wars.
The adult anger spilling into classrooms is part of a dramatic polarization taking place nationwide, said Norman Provizer, a political science professor at Metropolitan State College of Denver.
“While you can talk about each of these individual things, they are all taking place in a polarized context,” Provizer said. “It does not create a common ground where we can discuss solutions.”
As a result, leaders – superintendents, principals or legislators – often make quick decisions or policy changes without thinking, Provizer said.
“They feel like they have to do something right now, because everything is happening right now,” he said, noting that banning flags in school doesn’t solve anything. “It puts pressure on people.”
Eric Golgart, the father of two Shaw Heights Middle School students and who organized last Friday’s rally at the school despite its having lifted the ban on patriotic clothing, has appeared on several talk shows with his daughter Kirsten.
Golgart said he “was just standing up for the rights of every American.”
The school’s principal, Myla Shepherd, said she was trying to keep students safe after racial tensions resulted from students taunting one other with American and Mexican flags.
Afloat in political stew
“Students aren’t complete blank slates; they see this stuff everywhere, and they want to be a part of it.”
Craig Silverman, a Denver lawyer and co-host of KHOW-AM 630’s “Caplis & Silverman” show, said he sees advances in technology, questions about the quality of public schools and the immigration debate coming together.
“These are really interesting times where everything is coming to a head,” Silverman said.
Advances in technology have helped students communicate. Sean Allen taped his teacher’s lecture on an MP3 player.
Sean’s father, Jeff, said he didn’t believe school administrators would have responded to the now-infamous 20-minute recording in which Overland High School teacher Jay Bennish compares President Bush to Hitler and criticizes U.S. foreign policies. So he contacted a conservative columnist who wrote an online indictment of the teacher.
High school students across the country have used cellphone text-messaging and e-mail chains to coordinate walkouts on immigration issues.
Technology and information is “surrounding” students, Provizer said.
“There are probably some students who are caught in a culture promoting a certain thing,” he said. “But students aren’t complete blank slates; they see this stuff everywhere, and they want to be a part of it.”
To conservative radio host Mike Rosen, the politics of public education have been a theme in conservative circles for quite some time. What’s changing is that “some of these people have access to new media” and they’re using it, said Rosen, host of “The Mike Rosen Show” on 850 KOA-AM.
Ricardo Martinez, co-director of Padres Unidos, a parent advocacy group based in northwest Denver, said people often underestimate students’ capacity to organize and be impassioned.
Last week, Martinez helped students at Montbello High School walk out to protest a U.S. House bill that would make being in the country without proper documentation a felony.
Martinez said the idea came from students; he just made sure they were safe while marching.
“This is not being led by adults,” Martinez said.
“It (the House bill) could make their parents felons, it could make their grandma and grandpa felons, it could make them felons,” he said. “Students have a real sense of right and wrong, and I think there is a tipping point.”
