AURORA PONCE, A 12 TH GRADE VALEDICTORIAN, SPEAKS OUT VEHEMENTLY AGAINT THE OPPRESSIVE BUREAUCRACIES OF THE LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT AND THE SO-CALLED TAS -THE ACCELERATED SCHOOL IN LOS ANGELES, whose former teacher, COREY LAY, was previously mired by accusations of inappropriate/illegal child pornography in August of 2004. Please review the LA Times article below AND the Google link.SHE WAS PREVENTED FROM SPEAKING AS THE SCHOOL VALEDICTORIAN BECAUSE SHE UTILIZED HER FREEDOM OF SPEECH TO CRITICIZE THE ULTRA-CORRUPT CUTBACKS/POLICIES FROM THE GRUBENATOR AND THE LAZY CALIFORNIA STATE SO-CALLED ELECTED LEGISLATORS IN SACRAMENTO AND THE CAPRICIOUS SCHOOL BOARD FROM THE LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT...
SHAME ON YOU, LAUSD'S CORTINEZ AND THE GRUBENATOR, FOR BULLYING THIS COURAGEOUS YOUNG WOMAN AND PICKING ON HER!
VERGONIA!
WHAT YOU ARE DOING TO OUR CHILDREN IS WRONG.
WHAT YOU ARE DOING TO OUR CHILDREN IS ILLEGAL.
WHAT YOU ARE DOING TO OUR CHILDREN IS HIGHLY IMMORAL.
ALL STUDENTS HAVE INALIENABLE RIGHTS TO FREE SPEECH AS GUARANTEED BY OUR UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION -IT IS FEDERAL LAW AND STATUTE AND CODE.
Wayne Dennis Kurtz.
http://web.mac.com/videopalitalia/iWeb/Site/Photos.html
NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD PEOPLE TO COME TO THE AID OF THEIR COUNTRY!
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Valedictorian says Accelerated School barred her from making speech
Christina House / For The Times
Aurora Ponce, 18, speaks about being barred from making her valedictory speech after participating in a student sit-in protesting increased class sizes and teacher layoffs as Arcelia Diaz, an Accelerated School parent, holds an inquiring sign.
Aurora Ponce says she was also deprived of a tutoring job she was counting on to help with coming college expenses after she took part in a protest over school cuts. Officials aren't talking.
Aurora Ponce is senior class president, boasts a near-perfect A average and is UC-bound with plans to study engineering.
But according to the 18-year-old and her supporters, officials at the Accelerated School, a collection of South Los Angeles charter schools, have barred Ponce from making her valedictory speech at Saturday's graduation as punishment for participating in a student sit-in to protest increased class sizes and the elimination of college prep classes. They have also taken away a summer tutoring job and other honors, she said.
But according to the 18-year-old and her supporters, officials at the Accelerated School, a collection of South Los Angeles charter schools, have barred Ponce from making her valedictory speech at Saturday's graduation as punishment for participating in a student sit-in to protest increased class sizes and the elimination of college prep classes. They have also taken away a summer tutoring job and other honors, she said.
"I see it as retaliation," said the South Los Angeles teen. "I just want to speak during graduation."
Officials involved in the actions regarding Ponce did not return calls seeking comment. They include Patrick Judd, who is in charge of the umbrella organization that oversees the Accelerated Schools; Elizabeth Oberreiter, principal of the Wallis Annenberg High School, Ponce's campus; and Sandra Phillips, principal of the Accelerated School's K-8 school. At least one referred questions to school co-founder Johnathan Williams, who said he was not familiar with the matter and would not release student information to the media in any event.
"All I'll say is this school is doing wonderfully by the children and the families and all the rest," he said. "There's no story here. Everyone is treated fairly here at the Accelerated School and Wallis Annenberg High School."
Officials involved in the actions regarding Ponce did not return calls seeking comment. They include Patrick Judd, who is in charge of the umbrella organization that oversees the Accelerated Schools; Elizabeth Oberreiter, principal of the Wallis Annenberg High School, Ponce's campus; and Sandra Phillips, principal of the Accelerated School's K-8 school. At least one referred questions to school co-founder Johnathan Williams, who said he was not familiar with the matter and would not release student information to the media in any event.
"All I'll say is this school is doing wonderfully by the children and the families and all the rest," he said. "There's no story here. Everyone is treated fairly here at the Accelerated School and Wallis Annenberg High School."
Dozens of parents and students who protested outside the school Wednesday, many carrying posters calling for Judd's firing, disagreed.
"I'm so angry because they are abusing our kids and the parents and the teachers," said Aurelia Teodoro, whose three children attend the schools. Teodoro said one of her children, an eighth-grader, was suspended for two days for participating in the sit-in.
The Accelerated School's family of schools serves more than 1,300 students from preschool to 12th grade. They are charters, public schools that are run independently of a school district and free from some rules that govern traditional schools. Accelerated's students perform better on state standardized tests than those of many other schools with similar demographics, but they are still well below the state average.
The schools are popular, with long waiting lists for admission, but critics charge that in recent years, what was once a collaborative environment rich with teacher and parent input has given way to top-heavy management that is not responsive to parents and students and is no longer transparent in its decision-making.
These concerns, along with class sizes increasing, popular teachers departing and some college-prep offerings being eliminated, led scores of students to stage a silent sit-in May 15 outside the Annenberg auditorium.
"We, as students, we feel like we are not being heard," Ponce said. "The administration treats us like we're ignorant."
It's unclear how many students were punished, but Ponce said she was immediately escorted off campus without her parents being notified and was suspended for two days.
Other punishments have dribbled out since. She said she was not allowed to attend grad night with her classmates at Disneyland. On Wednesday, she was scheduled to give a speech at the sixth-grade commencement ceremony. Her name and her title of senior class valedictorian were printed on the program, but the administrators running the program declined to recognize her, she said.
Before heading to UC Davis in August, Ponce had planned to spend the summer tutoring students at the Jaime Escalante Tutoring Program, which will be housed on the Accelerated School campus.
She volunteered with the program last year, and now that she has taken nearly a dozen college-level courses, she said she would have been paid to tutor 25 hours a week. But Ponce said a school official recently told her the job was no longer hers.
"I'm going to college, I'm going to be broke," she said. "I was going to save that money for books. It's going to be hard."
seema.mehta@latimes.com
"I'm so angry because they are abusing our kids and the parents and the teachers," said Aurelia Teodoro, whose three children attend the schools. Teodoro said one of her children, an eighth-grader, was suspended for two days for participating in the sit-in.
The Accelerated School's family of schools serves more than 1,300 students from preschool to 12th grade. They are charters, public schools that are run independently of a school district and free from some rules that govern traditional schools. Accelerated's students perform better on state standardized tests than those of many other schools with similar demographics, but they are still well below the state average.
The schools are popular, with long waiting lists for admission, but critics charge that in recent years, what was once a collaborative environment rich with teacher and parent input has given way to top-heavy management that is not responsive to parents and students and is no longer transparent in its decision-making.
These concerns, along with class sizes increasing, popular teachers departing and some college-prep offerings being eliminated, led scores of students to stage a silent sit-in May 15 outside the Annenberg auditorium.
"We, as students, we feel like we are not being heard," Ponce said. "The administration treats us like we're ignorant."
It's unclear how many students were punished, but Ponce said she was immediately escorted off campus without her parents being notified and was suspended for two days.
Other punishments have dribbled out since. She said she was not allowed to attend grad night with her classmates at Disneyland. On Wednesday, she was scheduled to give a speech at the sixth-grade commencement ceremony. Her name and her title of senior class valedictorian were printed on the program, but the administrators running the program declined to recognize her, she said.
Before heading to UC Davis in August, Ponce had planned to spend the summer tutoring students at the Jaime Escalante Tutoring Program, which will be housed on the Accelerated School campus.
She volunteered with the program last year, and now that she has taken nearly a dozen college-level courses, she said she would have been paid to tutor 25 hours a week. But Ponce said a school official recently told her the job was no longer hers.
"I'm going to college, I'm going to be broke," she said. "I was going to save that money for books. It's going to be hard."
seema.mehta@latimes.com
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