My View
By Don Sorchych | November 25, 2009
Protest
I received a dozen e-mails carrying this child’s message.
“Please pass this along…
To whom it may concern,
I would like to take this moment to introduce myself. My name is A.J. Davis and I am a freshman at CSHS. I am composing this e-mail to ask for your support on an issue that I feel very passionate about.
I am aware that the editor of the Sonoran News has been publishing very critical and disapproving things about our school district. He seems to publish only the negative when it comes to CCUSD, and I feel that it is his duty to publish both sides of a story in his paper.
The bottom line in all of this was the failure of the K-3 override not passing! We will now be faced with more budget cuts, loss of vital programs, and cuts to teachers/staff members. Furthermore, this is a community newspaper and I feel it should support the Cave Creek/Carefree areas as well as our schools!
I am asking for your support and participation in the protest I am putting together that is to take place on Thursday, Nov. 19 from 3:30 – 5 p.m. in the lot across from the Sonoran News office on the south side of Cave Creek Road. It will begin at 3:30 p.m. and ending at 5:00 p.m.
I have received permission from the City of Cave Creek for this event to take place. I am sending this e-mail in hopes to get students, faculty, and parents aware of this protest and to get as many participants as possible.
I realize I cannot use school district e-mails to do so and thought this was my best option to get the word out. I was also hoping you could pass this information on to other people who might support this cause.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and if you have any questions or need more information, please don't hesitate to contact my parents or myself at the following:
Jody and Colleen Davis:
A.J. Davis: [email protected]
Sincerely,
A.J. Davis
Child or not, she and presumably her parents and maybe her teachers inadvertently show why overrides and bonds fail to pass. They don’t know what they are talking about.
The override failed because the school District isn’t trusted, has broken election laws numerous times and never once apologized. Child seems to think our job is to be a propaganda agent for CCUSD like the administration is. Our job is to reach under the curtain and publish what we can since CCUSD hides their warts. Parents and taxpayers have a right to know.
And even at her age someone, teacher, parents, whoever, should make her aware everyone is “faced with more budget cuts, loss of vital programs and cuts to teachers/ staff members.” In case she is living in Disney World, that is what is going on in the United States. Why should a tax supported institution expect people already in a financial quandary dig deeper because unpleasant things happen in times like these?
Did the pro-override people even offer a plan to reduce cost? Of course not. Schools argue, “It is for the kids.” Just bend over. Fortunately our voters recognize a con when they see one and respond at the ballot box in their own best interest. The people pushing the override are even more self-serving.
Even a freshman should know “failure of the K-3 override not passing” is a double negative which means the override passed, which of course it didn’t! But it does send a strong message about how shallow CCUSD teaching is.
She says we “should support the Cave Creek/Carefree areas as well as our schools!” We do in many important ways, including critiques when they screw up. If you only read the critiques, which apparently you and other pro-override people do, you will come to your incorrect conclusion.
Read the paper Dudette, if you can read.
Then she says she has received permission from the “City” of Cave Creek. Most educated people recognize that Cave Creek is a “town,” not a city. The woman that called Cave Creek Town Marshal Adam Stein and asked what permit she needed was told she didn’t need one, to stay off private property and not to impede anyone’s right of way. Since it wasn’t the freshman that called, who was doing her bidding? Mother? Teacher? Arizona Education Association (AEA) business agent? Superintendent?
Then ‘someone’ called the Buffalo Chip Saloon asking for permission to use their parking lot for the protest, but was refused. It probably wasn’t hard to get T.C. Thorstensen’s approval because we were editorially against his upzoning, his sycophantism for Adam Trenk and other issues. So the protest was held on T.C.’s property next to Foothills Granite.
For our part we would be delighted if it was true our coverage caused the loss of the override vote. We did receive a number of atta boys from readers about our coverage. Even though we received complaints about negativity and even claimed inaccuracies, no one challenged our statements, no one. We write facts and neither CCUSD nor students like truth.
I have an example of the thinking represented by the Davis child.
A number of years ago there was a scandal at CCUSD because boys, with cheerleaders aboard, were rumored to have masturbated in a school bus after an athletic event.
I tolerated another freshman who was president of the student council appearing before the school board to complain that we were wrong, a yellow rag, liars and worse.
Witnesses proved our stories were accurate.
I saw him again on Section 16, dirt biking and playing hooky. Later he was arrested for underage drinking.
But today he has a thriving business right here in Cave Creek. A CCUSD graduate, he doesn’t spell very well, but from the outside looking in, all seems well.
Maybe the Davis child will grow up too. I hope she shakes the influences surrounding her and gets a grasp on reality.
Although difficult, CCUSD can be fixed, or fixed as well as anything can be fixed that is controlled by Washington D.C. A competent school board and superintendent are desperately needed. The AEA union needs to be defanged and a true meritocracy is needed to reward performance. Understandable budgets and accounting must replace the deliberate obfuscation of finances. And budgets must be substantially reduced as the rest of the world has done.