DIXFIELD, Maine — An activity on name calling at Dirigo Middle School on Tuesday turned to shock and anger from parents after vandals wrote obscenities on hallway posters after school.
RSU 10 Superintendent Tom Ward and Principal Celena Ranger said Wednesday that the activity was part of an assembly Monday featuring Brandon Baldwin, a member for the Civil Rights Team Project for the Maine Office of the Attorney General, speaking on name calling.
Blank posters were hung in hallways Tuesday so students on Wednesday could write names they had been called, although some had done so Tuesday, the two administrators said. They believe students hanging around after school added obscenities to the posters, even while teachers and coaches were in the building.
Parents who brought elementary and middle school students to youth wrestling practice Tuesday night, as well as students themselves, were shocked and outraged to see the posters.
Tanya Ellis, mother of a seventh-grader, said she learned about the posters when her child came home from practice and posted her outrage on Facebook. After talking with teachers, she learned what had happened but still questioned the method for the activity.
“Parents should have been told about this,” she said.
She said teachers should have been aware that some students would take advantage of the opportunity to add obscene words.
“Now, unfortunately, something that was well-intended went bad and parents are angry,” Ellis said.
Ward agreed, saying in hindsight that the posters should have either been taken down when classes were over or put up Wednesday. He said the activity would be changed.
“Instead, students will be writing down names on a piece of paper and handing them to teachers,” he said.
Michael Ferris, who has a daughter in seventh grade, said the activity should not have focused on individual words but suggested to Ranger that it focus on the emotions name calling causes and how to deal with them.
Ranger said the activity was intended to have teachers and staff be aware of the words being used and to make a plan of action so students could be safe at school.
Ward and Ranger said they didn’t know who wrote the obscenities but are hoping someone will come forward with names.
Ranger said nothing was said to students about what happened or the possible repercussions.
“We didn’t want to make all the students feel guilty for something a few had done,” Ward said.
To see more from the Sun Journal, visit sunjournal.com.
The kids that do this have parents that think it is okay to do this.
Bingo….
you are absolutely correct……and therein lies the REAL problem
So, good parents can’t have children with behavior problems?
Only the parents who know and approve of everything their children do, and I don’t think there are many parents like that.
Since when isn’t it OK for a young person to express their true feelings, particularly when you ask them too? They do it with their art, their music, their poetry, their abstinence. Get real.
And this post is proof of what I said.
Not a very well thought out plan.
.. it may well be unintended, but this exposes much that should be talked about.
Sticks and stones may break my bones, but DISQUS can never hurt me.
Truth to the matter is this is stuff the kids hear on a daily basis and for any parent to think otherwise need to open their eyes.
exactly. makes you wonder if the ‘complaining’ parent volunteers in the classroom or with the PTA/PTO. if she did, she might have ‘been informed’.
parents who complain are generally the same ones who don’t check their kids’ backpacks and do all the other things that you need to do to be informed.
the way i’m reading the article, the posters were vandalized. how is that the teachers’ fault? it isn’t.
The young people were asked to express their thoughts and feelings. They did just that. Sometimes you get what you asked for. Deal with it!
they were asked to express themselves on Wednesday, during school hours. The teacher hung the blank paper in the hallway for that purpose.
vandals vandalized the project.
re: your exclamatory ‘deal with it’. i find it interesting that you are not capable (apparently) of expressing your views without insulting, aggressive language. why is that?
I have some theories:
1. in general, you have difficulty expressing complex ideas and so you default to aggression.
2. you are a follower and think its engenders you to your peers by being insulting
3. you’re just angry in general and speak to everyone like that
4. you have little sense of nuance, see things in terms of strictly ‘right and wrong’ therefore undermining your ability to discuss ideas.
poor tom.
I find this very funny coming from a school who just had an adult worker there attack a 15 year old boy at another school during a basketball game when the 15 year old child asked the parents to please watch thier mouths because the parents were being so disrespectful with thier words… I think maybe that these kids are probally learning from thier parents actions over there….. Maybe people should start looking at the parents for answers and holding them responsible because it is obvious they are learning it from the parents over there…….
I find this another aspect where you can look at the parents over there as needing to be held responsible for thier ways of acting and teaching these kids to behave….. This is at where a school where one of thier employees attacked a 15 year old child during a basketball game after the 15 year old child had to ask the parents to please stop being so disrespectful to his school players and friends….. When the parents were asked they were then even more disrespectful and louder name callers so as you can see this is a learned pattern from the kids parents and that is who needs to be held responsible for thier actions is parents because we teach our kids how to act and behave……
Another”well intended” progressive school program that didn’t quite have the results intended. As well as wasting the time of students.
so, if your home is vandalized with graffiti, and your neighbor is offended, does that make you progressive, or a victim of property damage?
To make the analogy closer to the facts:
If a progressive encouraged the graffiti “artist” to express themselves then I would be a victim of the progressive.
Exactly. Thank you for drawing the distinction that should be obvious.
Discussing graffiti in the Bangor Daily News is equivalent to discussing water in the middle of the Sahara. I’ve seen some very good non-profane graffiti in some of our large cities. Some wall-owners even commission this type of art. Frankly I think much of it is better than Picasso. It is hip, and often speaks to today’s reality.
I consider myself a conservative, but modern art is not a conservative venue.
:) that is so cool. i love tags…especially on the trains. the point of tagging is to have your anonymous message seen by as many people as possible. love it. so urban. so cool. and so pretty, too.
Your thinking is a little “off track” singletrackgirl.
they were vandals, doing this after school. to take my above analogy one step further, does painting your house white encourage graffiti?
come on. the kids who did this are responsible. no one else.
Bull! The young people were asked to express their opinions, thoughts, and feelings and they did. Who if anyone set the parameters? If they did, would it have been “responsible?” I think not.
please read the article. there was an assembly on Monday whereby the students were given the parameters of the project, namely to wait until Wednesday, during school hours. IF the students were instructed to write on the paper after school, then I assume that all the participating students would have been there.
you are very rude. (bull?) why do you find it necessary to start your discussion like that?
I think he meant the activity was progressive, not the after the fact vandalism; this was proposed in our school and the staff was so against the idea the activity was cancelled – out of concern for the very reasons this school experienced with the activity – there is enough drama in schools without adding fuel to the fire so to speak and disrupting the educational process.
If they’re going to allow the MCLU reps in the school to give speeches, then they should allow any Christian group in Maine to come and lecture on their beliefs. The MCLU would love to continuet to socialize out children.
Sure, because religion and civil rights are the same thing and deserve the same attention in public schools…
The rep at the school was not from the MCLU, but was “a member for the Civil Rights Team Project for the Maine Office of the Attorney General”. Last time I checked, the AG was a Republican and a conservative. Not in any way a “socialist”. Why don’t you hate on that for a while?
http://www.maine.gov/ag/crime/crimes_we_prosecute/civil_rights/in_schools/civil_rights_teams.shtml
Actually, I agree to a point. Have an assembly every Friday and let groups speak to the students. I like the National Rifle Association, the Libertarian party, and Zero population growth, but there is NO GROUP I personally would deny. All information should be discussed after the presentation.
Hiding stuff (Nazism, religion, criminal statistics by race) is not education.
Contrary to your suggestion that this was a waste, it clearly demonstrates how far we have to go as a people to rise up out of the muck….. please see my recent post….
Bigotry and hatred are very much alive in Maine and it shows during events like this… one could not have asked for a better demonstration of how far we have to go and and how backward we still are….
You mean the muck created in the first place by liberal progressives like you and your permissive teachings. When I was in school 40 years ago this sort of activity was not encouraged or put up with.
Are the kids that wrote these things racists or bigots? Or are they stupid kids writing something that they thought was funny? Of course it is not funny and is damaging and those kids need to be told why what they did was wrong. In my opinion the teachers should have known that something like this was going to happen.
A teacher friend of mine said that she was conducting a sexual ed class for 6th grade girls. Part of the class was Q and A in which the girls had written down questions and submittef them for the teacher to answer allowed. Well this friend of mine said that kids took oppourtunity at this and asked extremely filthy questions or ones that were designed to get everyone laughing in class.
Hatred and Bigotry are alive and should be stomped out. But I think in this situation we are dealing with some kids who were tyring to be funny. They should definately be told why it is not funny.
……..meanwhile, in China, the kids were doing math
heh, heh, heh…how true is that?
NO, the Chinese are doing math at Washington Academy in East Machias, and other US schools so they can learn how to undermine us and take that information back to their communist country which we use as our banker.
Wow, I used to not agree with much of your posting but these past few weeks I have been in total agreement with you!
One of us must have changed…….. Not it!
Sal’s a good listener. I don’t always agree with him, but he will engage in conversation without insulting.
kudos to sal.
Well I dont know about either of us changing. Perhaps it is more that even people who disagree mostly can find a few things they agree on.
you’re pretty open minded, sal. it takes a big person to find areas of agreement and to then say it.
good for you.
Good one, best post on here.
you do realize that the group that sponsored the activity is from the Maine Attorney Gen. office? who is their boss? a Republican.
not really ‘progressive’.
And we wonder why our society is uncivilized. School officials need to crack down and hold kids accountable for in-appropriate behavior. I’m glad my kids are out of school.
When I was in school and someone called me a name (not in a playful way), I punched him in the nose. That was the end of that. All this sissy stuff that’s being taught in schools is just that.
That’s great if you are bigger and more powerful but how about those who aren’t?
I wasn’t and I made it just fine. Actually if the truth be known, most of the “bullying” done in my 1950’s elementary classroom was the teacher bullying students.
Funny thing about children, if left alone they work out stuff. The children they associate with will be their world after we are gone. Best let them learn how to deal with it now.
Well said Harry. What we have today is bullying by the state so no matter if you are right or wrong, a penalty is imposed. Self defense is not allowed and the lawyers are thriving. The weak are in charge until the get in over their heads. Then its call a cop. Backbones today are wet noodles, (unless you have a lawyer to hide behind).
That was in the “Good Old Days”, when things were simple.
Now if you did that,they would call the cops, you’d be charged with assault and have a juvenile record, even if you were in the right.
And expelled from school because of a “0” tolerance for violence policy. Counseling would be required before you could return.
Oh yes your right and of course if the one that started it had counseling the counselor would convince him/her that it is everyone else’s fault and they are the poor victim.
Ah yes, the good ol’ days, when kids went to school to learn, not to be raised.
Bingo… Just punch people that are evil… that helps!! Sets a great example of how to solve a problem, and typifies some of the problems with this State and country… The ignorant use brute force to pick on those they feel are different from them, so when you use that same tactic to combat them, guess what?
Survival of the fittest.
Bingo… Just yell at people that are evil…that helps!! Sets a great example of how to solve a problem, and typifies some of the problems with this State and country… The ignorant use of language to pick on those they feel are different from them, so when you use that same tactic to combat them, guess what?
That’s the way we operated as kids. What’s different today is that all of this migrates onto the various social medias.Kids are exposed to a lot more negativity than we were years ago.It’s all over TV and the internet, and in some cases at home.What is directly spoken to our kids is a fraction of what some of them have to deal with online. In my day you could punch someone on Monday and be best pals on Tuesday. We spent all of our time not wanting anyone to know what we were up to. These kids sneeze and it goes online. This was an honest effort at squashing some of this bad behavior that was not very well thought out. Give the school some credit for trying.
Amen brother. You talk trash your better be ready for the reply. These days the kids are taught feelings and grow up both with no spine and no respect for others. The teachers tell them not to defend themselves.
Isn’t that the truth! Not my kid…we’ve already told him that NO ONE has a right to treat you badly and if they will not stop, you give them what they deserve! However, we also told him if we ever find out he has treated someone that way, the punishment will be severe.
bet you didn’t spend too much time in school .
You are so right, AdamWorld. Children will hold court amongst themselves and deal with issues in their own way. Why do we as adults, always need to get involved? We never allow them to face or do the hard things in life and then we’re shocked when kids want to live in their parents basement until they’re 30!
“We never allow them to face or do the hard things in life…”
…or live in the Blaine House and work at a “Daddy-supplied” job.
These “kids” need to be taught independence!
Geez, building Obama’s utopia isn’t as easy as they said it would be?
True.. the staggering power of ignorance is sometimes hard to combat.
Unfortunately bullying will always be a part of growing up. If you educate children to report bullying the same way as they should report molestation………that is the best that one can hop for.
What a ridiculous activity. What a ridiculous article.
What a ridiculous response.
What the…? The parents are mad that the children are talking about and exposing the names they’ve been called? Shouldn’t they be upset about the fact that their children are being called obscenities in the first place?
I think some kids might have taken the opportunity to write down names like f—t or use the ni word in an effort to be funny or show off. They did it to try to get a rise out of people so to speak.
I dont think anyone is mortified or angry about words like dumb, fat or stupid being written down.
My thought exactly. Wasn’t the purpose to write down what you’ve been called? I assume, having teenagers myself, the names are not on the level of “fatty cakes” or silly butt”, but are, rather, obsceneties. If the school did not want to see the N word or the F bomb in print, they shouldn’t have asked the kids to be honest. Like it or not – those words are being used FREQUENTLY in our schools. As a parent, I educate my children not to use them (and hope for the best), but its apparent that others are not doing so. Maybe seeing it in plain view IS what is needed, obscene or not.
While it is true that most kids and adults are battered with foul words and obscenities on a daily basis from radio, TV, public places, and even the statehouse, it doesn’t make that right. Schools, above all other forums in our society, should maintain the high ground when it comes to these words If we aim high and fall short, it is still far above the gutter. Exemplo Duco.
True. People who are in a public forum whether it be a political office, a cop, a fireman, a librarian or be it television should set an example for children. I’m sometimes appalled at situation comedies and the filth they spew or refer to. Disgusting.
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And the other way around.
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Unsupervised children will do this sort of stuff. Still a better outcome here than in “Lord of the Flies”.
What did the “Civil Rights Team” and the school administration expect, and why is anyone outraged when children wrote obscenities? They invited it when they launched this really stupid activity. Name calling by youngsters usually includes obscenities.
That may be true of your kids but not all kids. HOw about accepting some responsibility for the actions of your own kids instead of defending such trash.
Amen Misty2222!
Amen? These young people were INVITED to express themselves honestly.
Trash? Since when is freedom of expression trash? You are offended by words apparently, me and my children are offended by oppressive thought.
I’m not defending it. I’m just pointing out what happens when school administrators do stupid things. The consequences were entirely foreseeable; they asked for it, and they got it.
One other thing: If you reply to my postings in the future, don’t be so patronizing and sanctimonious, and don’t use phrases like “accepting some responsibility for the actions of your own kids instead of defending such trash.” You don’t know anything about me, or my family situation. You don’t know anything about the children who wrote on the posters either, certainly not enough to call them trash. The BDN lets you get away with it. They deleted my earlier reply, and I suppose they’ll delete this one, too. But at least some of the readers will see it before it goes.
Usually?
Fair enough. “Always”, “usually”, “frequently”, “sometimes”, “occasionally” – take your pick. The point is that whoever ordered this poster name-writing activity should have anticipated what would happen.
Why the assumption that students did this, and more than one of them at that? Yes, it sounds like a dumb kid stunt, but teachers and staff have also been known to do dumb things.
At any rate: “Parents … as well as students themselves, were shocked and outraged to see the posters” is maybe a little overwritten, unless the parents and students described are incredible wusses.
As a parent, I have lost count of how many times other parents have been “shocked and outraged.” This is a non-story. This is a teachable moment for parents. Teach your kids what you want them to get out of it. Stop with the drama.
AMEN!
There are always people that look for every opportunity to be “shocked and outraged”. I’m with you BB.
I am “shocked and outraged” that young people were asked to express their thoughts, opinions, and feelings honestly and they did just that ! Go figure! I like the exercise and I like the results. Now they can learn something about truth and consequences.
They said they wanted the names that the kids had been called. Why then were they shocked when the got them. Vulgarity is part of the name calling and vocabulary of a bully. If faced and called on the behavior, they usually turn out to be a sissy.
Gotta love the parent. Instead of calling the school to see what was going on, she ran to her computer to post her outrage on Facebook. I also love blaming the teachers, “She said teachers should have been aware that some students would take advantage of the opportunity to add obscene words”
And it is probably her kid calling other kids those obscene words.
Actually, the child came home and posted her outrage on Facebook. Then the mother had to become outraged and call the paper, rather than the school.
College educations, PhD’s, tenure, & Government Agencies and high salaries do not equal—- smart.
Now the teachers are going to sensor the words? Just right it down on this piece of paper little johnnie and will decide if it can be used.
The same as censoring books and outlawing them in school libraries!!!
And this is another example of why they should pass anti-bullying legislation. This is a different world where the words of a child can easily push another child to suicide. With the extreme expansion of social media, it is much more difficult for children to escape bullying. Unfortunately, we can no longer depend on parents to be the solution. In many cases, parents have actually contributed to the bullying. Unfortunately today, bullying has become more like harassment than just pushing the small kid around, on the playground.
“Unfortunately, we can no longer depend on parents to be the solution.”
Yikes!! I shiver at the thought of the alternative…particularly reading this response for ciccho…
Unfortunately no, I don’t believe you can completely depend on parents to solve a problem that has gotten out of control on a national scale. When you read articles of parents contributing to facebook posts, taunting young girls, and suggesting they commit suicide, it really opens your eyes to what some parents are incapable of doing.
I agree, cicchino. The more help, the better in some situations.
….
It’s not always true, my Mother never used the kind of language I used in school. What we need to do is stop empowering these ‘bad’ words by giving them the attention they don’t deserve. A word only has as much power as you give it.
….
If obsenities are the worst thing that happened to your child, then you’ve had a pretty good day, so stop complaining. Adulthood is only a few short yrs away and its obvious your cant wont be able to handle it. “I’m entitled to a fair and perferct world” said the soon to be college freshman droupout.
At least the kids had the decency to keep it on the posters..
The activity was to list inappropriate names kids call each other, but then we’re “shocked and outraged” to learn that kids call each other inappropriate names. Huh? So… in hind site leaving the posters hanging in the hall might have been dumb. These kind of “tolerance” building activities need to be tackled pretty carefully. The “making a list of naughty words to discourage their use” activity has a tendency to backfire.
This is what can happen when the Civil Rights Team and school administrators brainstorm ideas to combat school bullying. It looks to me like the students, some of whom are now called vandals, did what they were asked to do and the imagination-machines who dreamed up this activity have come to realize how stupid it was. Not only that, but now they want names (“Ranger and Ward said they didn’t know who wrote the obscenities but are hoping someone will come forward with names.”). It would be bad enough if all they intended to do was stifle creativity and participation in school activities, but even worse if they try to punish students for the foreseeable consequences of their own (the administrators) stupidity.
Let’s hope this doesn’t turn into an exercise in snitching on other students. If you are a student at the Dirigo Middle School, don’t rat out your classmates for the poster activity.
…
the point is they should have thought this through before starting their little exercise.
….
I have a problem with the Civil Rights Team and anyone else who comes up with stupid exercises.
For crying out loud. A parent “posted her outrage” on facebook?
Grow up and call the school to find out the story before contributing to teen ‘drama’ for heaven’s sake. Is it really any wonder some kids act as ridiculous as they seem to?
A bunch of punks wrote nasty words on a poster after school. Why were they hanging around after school anyway?
Kids are notorious blabbermouths. The simple solution woud be to shut up and wait for who did it to come around (because it absolutely will) and then make an example out of them via punishment.
They were hanging out for extra curricular activities and practice on their respective sports teams. That’s what young people hang out after school for unless on detention. If on detention they are pretty much on lockdown so that eliminates them for the most part. The “punks” are the “cream of the crop” going the “extra mile.” They have honest thoughts and expressions too, which for the most part would not fit your defintion of “punk”
Then they’ve crossed the line from being the “cream of the crop” to “punk” by their actions.
My definition of punk is not the typical one. My definition includes kids that make poor, impulsive choices. If they were doing extracurricular activities, then they shouldn’t be hanging around the halls writing obscene words on posters meant to help others. Make it a teachable moment.
What the hell were you thinking ? ” Go ahead and vent children on the posters so your stress can be releived. ” Folks, the good fairy ain’t comin to fix things. If you get an unruly customer, throw em’ out. If they break the law, throw them in jail. If they don’t smarten up, then maybe you’ve just got a broken one.
The Bangor Daily News is for news, not propaganda.
Teacher – ” Write the names you have been called when you are bullied”
Student – Takes marker and writes *********** and ********* and ***********!
Teacher – has no choice but to issue an A for the grade. Instructions were followed, work was done.
Student- did NOT write it on the bathroom stall, the bathroom wall, or any other place at all. Student – did NOT call another student ************ or ********* or ***********!
Student – did the work assigned and that is all.
Teacher should be finding out WHO called him *********** and ********* and *********. And there lies the one that should be punished!
There are some models for activities to educate students about bullying that don’t make it so easy for students to turn it into a game in this way. One excellent one is to bring members of an older class of students in to describe bullying events that they had been involved in when they were younger. Most people, if they’re being honest, seem to have stories from both sides- bully and bullied. Hearing an older student talk about ways they were mean to their peers in the past and why they regret it now seems much more civil and more educational than this sort of insult brain storming activity. Writing insults on posters really does seem more inflammatory than helpful to me.
There’s some fairly recent work at University of Maine by Dorothy Foote, who is awesome, that I think focuses on that sort of paradigm. If people trying to organize activities about bullying are reading this forum, I’d really encourage them to check it out.
Schools should just stop trying – see how parents like that. They’re damned either way.
OMG kids using obscenities seriously. Come on There are jerks in the world and we have to deal with them. Period. By making an issue we are giving them the attention they want. They should have rewarded all those who did the right thing and ignored those who did the wrong. Make an outcast of them instead of giving them a news article. Look Billy Bob we made the papers.
Do you seriously thing “outcasting” is the answer? Heard of teen suicide lately? That is the result of “outcasting”
Yea, must be boring over there! This is not news. Good kids being good, bad kids being bad.
Why can’t the special ed (speds) get in on any of these activities? adurrhurrhurr
Cosmic panda is sad.
I am confused. Who are the good kids and who are the bad kids by definition? Are the good kids the ones who wrote down what they thought the facilitators wanted to hear? The bad kids who wrote down what they actually thought, felt, and perceived? Who are you to define by the way? Are you part of the problem I wonder?
I was a fat kid in elementary school. A couple of the kids called me Pregnant; my skinny friend was Half-pregnant. I can laugh about it now and those “bullies” are some of my best friends to this day. And yes, I did eventually lose the weight.
And just where did thes students learn all those words?? P-A-R-E-N-T-S!!
It wouldn’t have happened if teachers hang around after school anymore. With a few exceptions, they’re out of there ASAP. A coach is busy, he can’t be a hall monitor.
Kids wrote on the wall names they have been called and parents are “shocked and angered “! LOLOL What world are those parents living in ? …Have they listened to the music their child is listening to , the movies , tv shows , etc.etc. it’s all there ..all the time ….but the teachers are to blame ??? Reality check : Assignment was given …assignment was completed . You shocked and angered parents need a reality check ….Focus on the REAL problem and it is NOT the teachers !!! It is PARENTS who do NOT care what their child watches or listens to and PARENTS who refuse to instill values and morals in their children .PARENTS that call their kids these names AND Parents who are letting MEDIA raise their kids because they are too busy catering to their own selfish, egotistical “needs” .
Its sad. The kids pick up a lot of that on the school bus ride.
Thats how I learned.
Now it is on TV, radio, and the school walls…
Good thing the Constitution allows “FREE SPEECH AS LONG AS ONLY APPROVED WORDS ARE USED.”
Note to the powers that be: Dont ask kids too express their honest opinions unless you’re prepared to hear it! Duh!
Not a smart activity. Not a smart reaction on anybody’s part. Teaching and learning should involve more reflection and analysis instead of repeating the behavior and creating a forum for continuing it. This does not mean preventing expression of sentiments, but rather really getting to the causes of anger and rejection of others. This is a very violent society, egged on by competitiveness in sports, war in/on other countries, video games, the need to get good grades to get into college, lack of in-depth thinking and reading, and more. Students are learning less and less, and reacting more and more. A dangerous formula, locally and globally. Ignorance is not bliss, and it can be fatal.
“Tanya Ellis, mother of a seventh-grader, said she learned about the posters when her child came home from practice and posted her outrage on Facebook” at of the whole article I found this the most “interesting” part.
They are kids! What else do you expect?