From this mornings Republican American ( no links were working to the story this morning, but the full stories are in this mornings edition of The Republican-American
1) Housatonic Valley Regional High School’s accreditation will continue, announced Principal Matthew Harnett at Monday’s meeting of the Board of Education.
He read from a letter from the New England Association of Schools & Colleges, saying it had voted to accept the submitted five-year progress report.
He recognized Assistant Principal Ian Strever for the numbers of hours he put into the project.
2) Housatonic Valley Regional High School will show students the documentary “Finding Kind,” which deals with bullying and harassment, on Sept. 26.
Sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders from the region’s six elementary schools will be invited to a showing that day.
Principal Matthew Harnett said he’s been approached by students “who really want to do something about this. This event will start the conversation.” An open showing will be offered Sept. 27 for community members. Harnett is hoping the students will find the film so interesting they’ll want their parents to view it.
He said he is working with other organizations in the community, including Women’s Support Services and the Housatonic Youth Service Bureau, on an anti-violence campaign that addresses such issues as domestic abuse and dating violence.
A series of events will be planned to discuss the climate and culture of such behavior.
Following the showing of “Finding Kind,” conversations can be facilitated.
It is good news and a progressive approach on Principal Harnett’s part to address the issue of bullying from the bottom up because, according to a number of students, bullying is an issue at the high school. But the problem is not confined to students. As we know from the Pingpank Report, bullying at Housy is also a top down problem centered in the so-called “central office” — the Regional School Services Center — and has spread to a small group of faculty members, a majority of the ABC Committee who are in a quid pro quo relationship with “central office,” and most visibly to some members of the Region 1 Board of Education. And while the administrators, the chairman of the Region 1 Board of Education and a few others on the board repeat over and over again that the Pingpank Report has been “addressed,” it has not. They are practicing what the Nazi Joseph Goebbels said: “If you repeat a lie often enough people will believe you.”
It’s time for taxpayers to reclaim our school.
— Gale Courey Toensing