This has been going on for years, or at least it was accepted practice when my daughter attended South. Anna graduated in 2001. When I asked about this, I was told that school officials decided it was better to let the kids smoke on the lawn than to insist on making them cross the street and smoke, drop their cigarette butts on neighbors' lawns, generally irritate the neighbors. The only time I shot off my mouth was when, as I was passing, one of the cops hawked and spat on the sidewalk. I laced into him in front of a whole bunch of kids, reminding him that he was there partly to be a role model. Spitting is still illegal in Minneapolis, and he was leading the kids in the wrong direction. He did not ignore me. He did not spit again. He did not apologize. And I doubt from here to Christmas that I made one microdot of difference. Incidently, my daughter attended school there through three changes of administration in the principal's office. I never noticed that school officials at South paid a whole lot of attention to public opinion, student opinion, parent opinion or any other opinion. I got an assistant principal's attention just one time, whichwas when I informed her that if the school aide ever, again, under any provocation, grabbed my daughter's wallet out of her back pack, I would be seeing a lawyer with the sole intention of totally embarrassing school administration. She protested and I asked if I could quote her. That kind of turned the conversation.
(I should point out that I use a TTY for most phone calls. I happened to be using the TTY that gives me a transcript of the call. Deafness is definitely a mixed blessing.) Emilie Quast SE Como REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
