The District Weekly - Latest Comments in UP IN SMOKESCREEN

Re: UP IN SMOKESCREEN

Bob Roney — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 14:25:48 -0000

It saddens me to hear that camp Hi Hill has been abandoned by the school district. I went there in 1959-60 then again the following summer for 10 days. My memories of Hi Hill are still vivid after 50 years - the bear head in the dining hall, the drinking fountain we discovered we could talk through from the drain pipe and scare the girls, the flying hammer-head snakes on the night hike. The Hi Hill experience played a major roll in my career path as a National Park Service ranger in Yosemite. Now that I think of it, I began my work in Yosemite (where I still live and work) just eight years after my Hi Hill experience.

Re: UP IN SMOKESCREEN

Paul — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 18:04:01 -0000

Just open up the borders. It won't hurt anything. I love Mexico, South and Central America.

Re: UP IN SMOKESCREEN

I_Come_In_Peace — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 02:37:25 -0000

OK Jason,

If I may, let me momentarily take a page out of your playbook, aka. "Let's take great liberties in logic and common sense in order to sway the undecided folks."

According to our hereby ordained "Border Czar Jason", if you're poor, you're here illegally. If your folks cannot afford an apartment other than in the LB-DMZ, well, shucks, they must have walked here from El Salvador.

BCJ -- I'm abbreviating -- is that how it works?

If they (ie. inner city kids, regardless of their status) have a right to a publicly funded education, shouldn't they also have an equal right to have that education include a field trip to Camp Hi-Hill?

I'm thinking not, from a LBUSD perspective. I'm thinking that those underpriviliged folks have bigger fish to fry than to vent on websites or complain at Board of Education meetings.

Gee, I wonder whether the LBUSD Administrators know that all too well......

Re: UP IN SMOKESCREEN

Diana Bosetti — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:43:19 -0000

Jason:
Wow, touche. I must admit that I like your wit. I do agree with you that illegal immigration has, and continues to create problems in myriad areas of our day to day living. However, I don't necessarily make the leap that all underprivileged kids are here illegally, nor do I believe that the school district can't afford to send kids to camp because of potential illegal immigrants. From what I can tell from previous posts, you appear to have almost a knee-jerk reaction to blame so-called "anchor babies" for every social ill, which makes me nervous. I start to wonder, then, what your possible solution might be: that ICE go into every elementary school classroom, hog-tie the kids and throw them into detention camps? My point is that there are other ways to tackle illegal immigration -- such as through tougher sanctions, beefed-up border control, etc. Also, it's critically important that we not forget that our elected officials and school district officials were major contributors to getting us in this financial mess in the first place. Why is it that enrollment keeps declining, yet they keep asking for more and more money? Might they need to do some serious cost cutting at the top? I only ask that you not give our elected officials and school administrators such an easy scapegoat.

Also, if 5th grade camp has been shortened due to budgetary issues and failed lease negotiations, then give it to us straight. I find that the whole truth is always better than putting forward a feel-good message that's only partly true. School district officials love to appear as if they are making every decision "for the kids.' But unfortunately, I don't believe that is always their primary motive.

By the way, my grandmother tried to teach me to needlepoint, and I was terrible at it. So, I'm afraid you're stuck with me.

Re: UP IN SMOKESCREEN

Jason — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:58:55 -0000

Diana, your casual dismissal of an important element in our economy is the only nonsensical and shallow rhetoric I can perceive, but I can understand your method of reasoning:
If Diana can't see it, if Diana cannot understand it, it JUST CAN'T BE!
The negative economic outcome of our open border policy, I'm afraid, goes beyond the abstractions for your political beliefs, and carries into the real world of our overwhelmed educational system, and if that's boring to you, perhaps you should abstain from reading the comments section, and take up needlepoint.
It's very relaxing for certain kinds of people, I am told.

Re: UP IN SMOKESCREEN

Diana Bosetti — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 19:26:11 -0000

Jason: Is it really necessary to continually revert to this shallow and nonsensical "anchor baby" argument? I would have thought you would have grown tired of that by now -- particularly after going that route in regards to the Robert Garcia story. This story is more about disclosure, or lack thereof, by the Long Beach Unified School District. True, I do raise the question in the story about whether some kids might have received first priority in going to camp, but that's because I think most people would agree that all 5th grade students, regardless of their immigration status, should be treated equally. There are forums for debating the effects of immigration in the U.S., but this is hardly one of them.

Re: UP IN SMOKESCREEN

Jason — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 17:38:42 -0000

Multiple anchor babies eventually grow up, and they don't pay for themselves, people!

Re: UP IN SMOKESCREEN

What's_in_a _name? — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 10:11:49 -0000

Our school announced last spring that we probably wouldn't be getting Camp Hi Hill in the future, or if we did it would be several hundred dollars per student, instead of just the $75 for food.
Personally, I'd pay the increased cost for my remaining student to have the Camp Hi Hill experience.

Re: UP IN SMOKESCREEN

Casey — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 20:01:47 -0000

Aw, bummer! Camp Hi Hill is where I learned to be a man!