Newspapers / The Kings Mountain Herald … / Oct. 21, 1999, edition 1 / Page 4
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It’s time to talk seriously about student PINION Student attendance is serious matter dance but to an excessively large number of tardies and ear- ly sign-outs. - s Herald/Times tional opportunity. Obviously, several of these will seldom come in play. Illness or injury is Herald/Times they are seniors. That always amazes me. Wake up out there - there is no such thing as a October 21, 1999 Section A, Page 4 there is only one vital factor, and that is an expectation from parents that children will be in October 21, 1999 Editor: Gary Stewart 739-7496 a much better option than us having to punish those who don’t for something that should attendance in Three of our schools - East, the most common legitimate school approved Senior Skip school on a regular basis. We not be happening. If you choose our school sys- | North and West - have atten- reason for absence. We do not Day. will never conquer this problem not to support us, please don’t tem. Clearly, ; dance percentages which are want students to come to school I am especially frustrated by without full support from par- expect us to stand idly by and (nTegular atten- 2 ;dance at school is related to better achieve- Ae ment. We seem Gy nerintendent to have a rela- tively large number of fam- ilies who don’t seem as con- y cerned about regular atten- “dance as I would hope they would be. In my next two columns I want to look at the "attendance challenge we have and solicit your support in im- #proving our record. State law references the re- <sponsibility of parents who “have children in school to be sure they attend “continuously” during the time of their enroll- ment. What this really means is that children should go to school regularly, on time, and KM Schools gnot only relate to daily atten- Bob McRae for the entire day. Our problems quite good, each ranking in the upper 22% of all schools in North Carolina. From there the marks fall off rather quickly. Grover, Kings Mountain Middle School, Kings Mountain High School, and Davidson School all rank in the lower half of the state’s schools in regards to at- tendance. However, even at our other four schools we experi- ence problems with tardies and early sign-outs, Incidentally, for the last school year, our sys- tem’s attendance ranked a pal- try 101st out of 117 school sys- tems in the state. First, let’s consider general school attendance. There are seven lawful reasons for ab- sence from school: illness or in- jury, quarantine, death in the immediate family, medical or dental appointments, court or administrative proceedings, re- ligious observance, and educa- if to do so would put them or others in attendance at risk. However, some absences for ill- ness reasons are simply con- trived. It’s easy to claim being sick. One should not miss school for this reason unless there is a legitimate sickness. Many of our students take school attendance too casually. Apparently, so do their parents. We experience situations where parents cover for the absences of their children. At times, par- ents have students run errands for them instead of sending them to school. Some parents do not even know when their children are absent from school. Also very frustrating is the KMHS tradition of “Senior Skip Day.” Apparently, some parents actually believe we would tell students they could have a day off from school occasionally during the year just because parents who do cover for their children’s absences. When the parent knows his or her child has been caught truant and lies about the absence just to keep the child from being held ac- countable, it not only frustrates our efforts at good attendance, but it also teaches the child a lasting lesson about what character traits are important to the parent. Doesn't responsibili- ty imply accountability? Because attendance concerns are so frustrating, we do have limits beyond which students my not go and still receive cred- it for their grade or courses. In elementary school the limit is 20 days; in middle school it is 18, and at the high school it is 8 per course. If attendance does not improve, the limits may well be tightened up. What does it take to have good attendance? Actually, ents. I hope parents who have been guilty of condoning ab- sences will consider reversing that stance. Expect your chil- dren to go to school regularly and to only miss for legitimate reasons. Don’t take advantage of the system. Don’t use your children to do things during school time which you should be doing yourself or which can be done outside school time. Plan recreational activities around school schedules rather than allowing them to take pri- ority over school. The list goes on, and I think you get the idea. ‘I'am stressing to our princi- pals to really focus on good at- tendance this year and to track down those students who abuse the system and to hold them ac- countable for the abuse. I hope you will help us by helping en- sure that students under your control attend regularly. That's SIDEWALK SURVEY ssesscsccscssesssssnsscnsnnessns By ALAN HODGE Herald/Times Why does Kings ~ Mountain \ needa new i fi We don’t have We need a new a8 2iisW The current senior The current senior not react by holding your chil- dren accountable. Potential em- ployers in our community tell us that we are doing a disser- vice to them if we allow poor attendance habits as they will almost always result in poor workplace attendance habits later on. I'll continue this conversation in my next column by dis- cussing the tardy and early sign-out problem which is also very discouraging. I regret hav- ing to devote so much column space to this issue, but it really has gotten very troublesome for our schools. Our community expects us to treat our students fairly - that’s appropriate - but I also think it is appropriate for us to expect the same thing in ~ return. Help us out! Clinton’s legacy? Divided country To the editor: Ever since the impeachment trial of President Clinton, there has been lots of talk in the me- dia about what his legacy, will be. I believe that Mr. Clinton's legacy will be a bitterly divided country. : Ever since his election in Senior center is crowded. enough room in the senior center so that ~~ center has become center is interesting 1992, Mr. Clinton and the Center? We need more old center. services can be obsolete. historically, but too Democrats have taken advan- space for activities. expanded. small. tage of every opportunity to “get even” with conservatives. ; Boots Osborne Dot Spake Everette Waters Carol Lewis Everette Osborne ae Kings Mountain Grover Shelby Kings Mountain Shelby against one another. Wherever T en there are two diametrically op- posite groups in this country, pro-gun/anti-gun, pro-abor- tion/anti-abortion, black/white, homosexual/het- erosexual, rich/poor, old/young, you name it, Mr. =a ne ere A en. 2 i St AM radio Mark Baron's : Clinton and the Democrats NY o have always sided with one SCARECROW 2D 1S t he p ause group and blamed that group's “Na problems on the other group. PE} This country has not been this divided since the Vietnam War, or may even the Civil War. If Mr. Clinton and the Democrats are taking sides with certain groups in this country Ld A ty, 7 7 3 PE SIAN F Y Selah 2 1 EVER AS Ea ; 4 that refreshes Recently I have discovered the radio. Not that it Al RE was lost, or that I am taking credit for its inven- an NS =x o A = # SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30 NOON - 4:00p.M. AT CENTER STAGE Stuff’em, tie’em, hug’em, name’em, and take’em home! Come see for yourself what a hootin’ hollerin’ time scarecrow makin’ can be! Bring the family to Cleveland Mall for some wild and wacky fun! We'll provide all the supplies you need to make your very own scarecrow pal...all you need to bring is your imagination! FREE EVENT...but only while supplies last! CANDY GIVEAWAY AT PARTICIPATING STORES BEGINNING AT 5P.M. FOR CHILDREN AGES 12 YEARS AND UNDER, WHILE SUPPLIES LAST. Belk * Goody's * JCPenney ° Sears and over 30 Specialty Shops Cleveland Mall | 2001 East Dixon Bivd. - Shelby, N.C. + (704) 484-2001 (tain tion, but I became reacquainted with late night CLEVELAND MALL radio after growing weary of the junk on TV. A few weeks ago I bought a Walkman AM/FM Hodge cassette player with headphones. Instead of listen- Staff Writer ing to the senseless drone of the boob tube, I now retire to the cocoon of bed and begin roaming the dial and often the globe with it. Many evenings I skip the FM band and start slowly dialing the AM airwaves. I don’t know exactly why, but on AM you can get ra- dio stations from places really far away. On cloudy evenings I have heard football games from several states away, hillbilly music from Tennessee, and country fried preaching from places far out in the heartland. Maybe the best part about the AM radio band is the fact that if atmospheric conditions are just right, you can hear foreign radio stations going full blast. A lot of the stations you pick up must be coming from Mexico. Folks, the Spanish language they teach kids in school is a pale shadow of what the announcers and guests on these south of the border stations speak. Not only that, but I am here to inform you that the Baja marimba band has not been re- placed by the electric guitar in many Mexican towns. Sometimes surfing the AM band, you can pick up stations broad- casting in the Unknown Tongue. Listening to these broadcasts,which by the way are usually as full of static as pair of nylon socks fresh from a clothes dryer, it’s really hard to tell exactly what language they're speaking. Just guessing, I think I've heard Chinese and Russian on a couple of occasions. Though surfing the AM band is somewhat new to me, it used to be a way of life for families. Stop for a moment to reflect on how many nights across the decades people from nations around the globe have huddled near their AM radios and heard of wars start- ed, won, or lost. Think how many. pairs of socks were knitted to the tunes warbling out of an old AM radio. Contemplate how many pipes full of tobacco have been puffed in the comfort of a little bun- galow while the AM radio played ball games of all types. There is something soothing about the AM band of the radio, even if the broadcast is someone preaching hellfire and brimstone from the backwoods. There's also something miraculous in being able to stretch out in the dark and listen to the voices and songs of people in other lands. Here's to the AM band on your dial, the pause that refreshes. Vv All letters to the editor must be signed in ink and include the full name, address and telephone number of the author. Mail letters to The Editor, P.O. Box 769, Kings Mountain, NC 28086. and trying to champion them, just what do they have in mind for those they do not side with? I cringe at the thought. The di- visions in this country are run- ning so deep, that I have even read and heard several respect- ed commentators actually talk about the rights of states to se- cede from the union. Since winning the White House in 1992, Mr. Clinton and the Democrats have demonized and maligned their opponents and critics in truly horrid fash- ions. They have called conser- vatives Nazis who want to kill elderly people and starve chil- dren, oppress minorities, and return women to second-class citizenship, They have misused their power to harass and in- timidate law-abiding gun own- - ers, and used the IRS to target and audit their opponents, for example. They have also slan- dered and maligned private cit- izens like Linda Tripp, whose only crime was exposing wrong-doing in the highest of- fice in the land. It appalls me that fairly intelligent people in this country have fallen for the lies and supported the deeds of this President. Of course, judging by the be- havior of Mr. Clinton, the Democrats in Congress, and their supporters among the ~ electorate, I don’t think it’s a co- incidence that the symbol for the Democratic Party is a jack- ass. John Scott Hardin
The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
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Oct. 21, 1999, edition 1
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