South Lyon Students fight the the School System!!

[CAT345C]

Okay so for anybody able to view the news in Detroit you saw how many schools were closed today, over 300 in Oakland, Livingston, Washtenaw, Wayne, Monroe, Macomb, St Clair, pretty much the entire area around Detroit and Ann Arbor. South Lyon was once again the only school open along with Brighton, I don't know what happened at Brighton but during first hour (7:25am to 8:25am) a class mate went to the bathroom and came back saying everybody was boycotting in the commons (Cafateria). So about 3/4th of my class walked out and went down to the commons, and boy was there a boycott! In a school of 2800 students I'd say 700 were in the commons with signs and shouting "Hell no we won't go". And the three assistant Principals, the 3 hall monitors, mechanical guys, and the parking lot people are standing on the parimeters watching us, and trying to hold back smiles. Our Principal I'll call him Larry Jackson, is frantically trying to break us up and send us back to class. Well if anybody has ever noticed that a mob of angry teens is more overpowering than 1 man, you should get the point. It eventually led to a few "cool" teachers bringing their classes down and joining in. Finally the super intendent showed up and they tried to shuffle us into the theatre, but we weren't budging, as it would mean that they are still in control. We had a talk about why we were angry and they treated it like it was a press conference, IT WAS NOT A PRESS CONFERENCE Every different question we asked we got a different form of the buses were started on time and were working in perfect condition. Then the news showed up and 3 cops two SLPD guys, and one guy in a suit with a badge. We were not broken up by the Police as Channel 7 WXYZ in Detroit broadcasted at the 6pm news. After the "conference" ended we stayed in the commons until they told us to leaver repeatedly. I'm pretty sure they broke the law since my largest class all day (only went to 1st, 5th, and 6th hours) was 10 people (of 29-31 students). This definetly demonstrated that the students have the power in the school and that the administration just walks around looking important with their walkie talkies.

We were on WWJ News Radio 950, Channel 955, Channel 7, Channel 2, Channel 4, and 89X Detroits New Rock Station.
And they all reported the wrong thing. There were even parents at an elementry school protesting.

So I can now look back when I'm 50 and say I was part of a riot at my high school, where the KIDS were in control.


They are doing a good job of keeping the media un-informed, as we have been in the news a lot in the last two years, under ground newspapers, fires, evacuations for gas leaks, 5 fights in one day, a racial 50 on 25 fight. My school is a bunch of Rednecks and I say that proudly!
Heres some links:
Channel 7 Channel 4 Channel 2 [url]http://www.my ... geId=3.1.1

[SDavey]

Man it must have been a slow news day for that to make it on the news in Detroit. I graduated from high school 4 1/2 years ago, and we went to class when it was cold, and because I lived about a mile from the HS, no bus. We had around 3 snow days per year, and that was only if ice storms or more than 6 inches of snow hit us the night before.

In my opinion protesting wasn't the proper thing to do. Everyone there should have been adults and just went to class like any other M-F. School superintendents are caving now because they don't want to have a bunch of angry parents calling them the next day. I'd rather go to class in February than in July, because thats how it will be from now on with all the snow days.

Just my two cents.

[Hogger1225]

Just think. In a few years these are the idiots that will be trying to run the country. That's what happens when parents aren't allowed to beat the s**t out of the kids when they really need it. God help us..........

[SD80MAC]

Holy crap, your school is full of morons. Haven't you ever heard of "respect your elders"? So what if you don't have a snow day? Wanna have one in June instead when it's nice out? The kids at your school are seriously messed up. As said above, God help us.......

[GreatLakesRailfan]

I see your point, Mike, but...once you're there, why not just stick around since it's one more you won't have to show up at the end of the year? If you want a day off, don't bother going in that day...

...although...every school in this area's been closed all week except the colleges...how many student demonstartions are there when the temperature is below zero?...at least they didn't [try] to kick the demonstrators outside the building..

[esprrfan]

Someday once they grow up they'll see actually how inmature this actually was. A better way for them (cool teacher) to react to would of taught the kids to use the proper way to address issues via the school board meetings. Instead now they demostarted that they ARE infact just UNRULELY children. Too bad, had they acted in more ADULT manner via the board meetings they would of GAINED respect instead of losing it. Someday when the are actually grown up's other than in their minds, they will understand.

As for the "cool" teacher the school board should send them packing.
The student "leaders" should sit out awhile too and if they are seniors and then can't graduate, oh well. Good lesson that "rioting" actually works against you.

[J T]

Is "the commons" outside?

This reminds me of when I was in 7th grade, my first year in junior high. To start the school year, the teachers had gone on strike for about two weeks. What did this mean? Well, at the end of the year, we'd have to be in school two weeks longer. When the first day of that two week period started in June, I remember marching down a VERY crowded hallway with hundreds of other students chanting "BULLS__T!" It was, indeed, B.S. at the time because the students had to stay in school until mid-June because of selfishness of some teachers at the beginning of the school year. We didn't get out of hand, we had no press conference, we had no news coverage.

The story Mike describes is a bit different, though. The school kids were simply unhappy that they had to attend school on a normal school day when they were SUPPOSED TO. Just because other school districts wimped out and told the kids to stay home because of some cold weather (boo hoo), that didn't give them the right to protest against the system. If the parents of South Lyon's school children thought their children shouldn't be going to school on an extremely cold day, then it was THEIR right to keep their children home. The fact that so many DID attend obviously means that the parents did in fact believe that was where their children were SUPPOSED to be.

This marching and assembly is nothing more than a bunch of undisciplined and spoiled school children who couldn't accept the fact that they didn't get to skip a day of school.

In the 70's and 80's, we never had schools close because of cold weather. If it was too cold, kids didn't show up because their parents kept them home. If attending school was important to them, then they'd find a way there. I don't recall ONE story of a child suffering or being injured from the cold weather while on the way TO or FROM school.

No offense to you, Mike, because you obviously didn't organize or start this protest. I probably would have been curious to see what all the excitement was about as well. Someday, however, you'll look back and see how silly it was.

[Justin]

I must say that I was unhappy everyday I had to go to school. You think I wanted to get up and go every morning that I had to? NO but I did anyway because that is an education and it pays off in the end. Just about every morning I would stumble out of bed in order to get ready for school. I was happy to have graduated in 2005 and be done with that. Of course then I moved out to GR to go to college and had to get a part time job. Now I have to get up to go to work. When I get done with school in September I will have another job and will have to get up to go to that as well. So yes I don't always want to get up early and go in, I would much rather stay home and sleep but I do it because that is life and it isn't always fun. Welcome to becoming older and I am only 20. But just remember that in school and in work you get vacations.

[AARR]

Commons are inside the building.

Does anyone else recall having school cancelled because it was "cold"? This seems to be a recent trend brought about by an overly legalistic culture. In my opinion they are not doing the students any favors and I support South Lyon School District.

[J T]

Commons are inside the building.

Ok, I was going to say...if the "Commons" were outside....oh, nevermind.

[AARR]

JT - My bosses kids go to South Lyon. She was telling me about the demonstration in the Commons and I had to ask her the same thing you did

[GreatLakesRailfan]

Does anyone else recall having school cancelled because it was "cold"? This seems to be a recent trend brought about by an overly legalistic culture. In my opinion they are not doing the students any favors and I support South Lyon School District.

I couldn't ever remember having a snow day for anything other than that the back roads were clogged with snow (or there were building problems, that might've happened once)...but I guess about 13 years ago (winter '93-'94) Sandusky had had some snow days due to extreme cold...at least when I checked with my parents about it last night that's what they said...but still...cancelling school due to cold weather just seems ridiculous, especially when it's not untypical for the state to have cold weather in the winter...and if it's a problem with the buses and buildings, shouldn't they have ensured when they bought the equipment that it would work in these temperatures?

[cnw8835]

Does anyone else recall having school cancelled because it was "cold"? This seems to be a recent trend brought about by an overly legalistic culture. In my opinion they are not doing the students any favors and I support South Lyon School District.

I couldn't ever remember having a snow day for anything other than that the back roads were clogged with snow (or there were building problems, that might've happened once)...but I guess about 13 years ago (winter '93-'94) Sandusky had had some snow days due to extreme cold...at least when I checked with my parents about it last night that's what they said...but still...cancelling school due to cold weather just seems ridiculous, especially when it's not untypical for the state to have cold weather in the winter...and if it's a problem with the buses and buildings, shouldn't they have ensured when they bought the equipment that it would work in these temperatures?

Agreed, agreed, agreed. I've been out of high school for 4 years now and I never recall having a "Cold Day". The only cold related thing that ever happened at school for me was that in elementary school we were not allowed to go outside for recess if the windchill was below zero. Its ridiculous to expect to have school canceled unless the temperature is down near 50 below in my opinion. "Oh, the temperature is 0, is work canceled today?" Are they going to ask that in the future too?!
I'll try to get off my soapbox now.

[CAT345C]

One of our "points" was that on Monday the sprinkler system in a wing broke, releasing water, the fire alarm was not properly working because of it, and it was a built up amount of anger with the staff and students agaisnt our super-intendent for a few prevous days. He even said it him self that he checks the roads once, at 4am and makes a call then, I dunno about other parts of the state, but where South Lyon is at, a good amount of snow can build up on our roads in a half hour or less.

[SD80MAC]

Well, for one, if the buses don't start, no school. Kalamazoo plugs their buses into engine block heaters at night, but we don't. I suppose they could have a couple guys just sit with them and keep them running all night, but "that wastes gas". I'm not saying I'm complaining.

The main reason schools were closed over here was the roads. Buses are terrible on ice.

[J T]

I dunno about other parts of the state, but where South Lyon is at, a good amount of snow can build up on our roads in a half hour or less.

Of course, because South Lyon is on the edge of a huge lake where lake effect is common.

[CAT345C]

JT the entire East Side is aware that they get a lot of snow, our superintendent thinks we are immune to large amounts of snow. You'd be out of a job, in South Lyon, the school canceled its plowing company, and only cleans the sidewalks with a gator rotary brush.

[J T]

I was being facetious, Mike. The snow is South Lyon doesn't pile up any quicker than any other part of the state during a snow storm, unless of course there is some scientific oddity in the area which pulls more moisture out of the air than anywhere else in the state. The last time I checked, that was a residual effect of being near the big lakes.

[gtw5812]

JT the entire East Side is aware that they get a lot of snow, our superintendent thinks we are immune to large amounts of snow. You'd be out of a job, in South Lyon, the school canceled its plowing company, and only cleans the sidewalks with a gator rotary brush.

The whole thing was uncalled for...snow piling up..heck, we haven't had a good blizzard in this state since the winter of 1977-78, when it shut this state and Buffalo down for two weeks..

Just admit it, you kids were upset, because you didn't get a snow day, and everyone else around there did. They officals should have taken attendence, and everyone not in class should have been cited for inciting a riot, or illegal congregation by the police. The day I see a teenager worried about "fire sprinkler" and "sidewalk" safety, is the day we will see them put down their cell phones, and drive properly on the interstates!

My 2 cents,

Galen

[J T]

The whole thing was uncalled for...snow piling up..heck, we haven't had a good blizzard in this state since the winter of 1977-78, when it shut this state and Buffalo down for two weeks..

Ahh, yes...that was a FANTASTIC blizzard. I think Lansing schools were closed for three days. IIRC, we got at least 24-30 inches of snow. My mom has a ton of pictures from then. I remember our street was barely passable for at least two days (and it was one of the main roads in my neighborhood). That was just one of the VERY few times we got a snow day when I was a kid.