School Year 2019-2020 - 9th Grade English
In 9th grade English class, there is a push to glorify a lifestyle that degrades and harms people in the name of identity politics. Through violence, drugs, degrading of women, gang lifestyle, imprisonment, and turf war, WCBOE promotes diversity by immortalizing a man who identified himself as a thug, who hid behind his art of rap and poetry in order to commit lawless acts of crime. He has a criminal rap sheet longer than his songs. His name is Tupac Shakur. See his body of decorated tattoos as presented in class, which displays some messages that WCBOE wants your child to see and embrace. This is the video documentary on Tupac shown in the class, as specified in the class agenda. School Year 2020-2021 - 10th Grade English The slides were presented above. A pattern is established, by mentioning and glorifying Tupac now 2 years in a row.
WCBOE employs activist teachers that glorify a thug who: • Hid behind his art to commit criminal acts. • Sold drugs to people and kids. • Did drugs himself.
• Went to jail for raping women. • Had “Thug Life” with a bullet tattooed to his abdomen. • Was anti-police. • Was in a violent gang, which lead to his death.
As a school system, WCBOE is teaching our kids that: • It’s okay to sell drugs if it means making a living the EASY WAY. • Tupac's songs are good and that we should listen to them (lyrics degrading women as hoes, degrading African Americans by referring to them as "niXXers," doing/selling drugs, turf war, and shooting people who oppose, lawlessness, and glorifying gangs). • Tupac’s life was “successful.” • Victimhood makes an excuse to do anything that you want. • It’s okay to behave like a criminal if it's about survival. • It’s cool to be like Tupac. • He is a role model. The "Change" that's being referred to in Tupac's song is not about changing from deviant behavior for the better, but accepting and embracing the behavior as the change, because that's just the way that it is.
"He will be remembered for both the criminal past that informed his creativity, as well as the celebrated body of work he left behind." I would not call him a hero. He did not overcome the life he chose or was assimilated into by his ethnicity and social status. He chose drugs, guns, criminal acts, He was above the law. Used his experiences to make money in which he sold music and other media. Economic success in this respect is acknowledged. Selling Heroin and Crack is not a crucial contribution to society. In 1992 (after a performance in Marin City, California), a confrontation occurred in which Shakur pulled out his registered Colt Mustang and then allegedly dropped it. When a member of his entourage picked the gun up, a bullet discharged. The stray bullet killed 6-year-old Qa'id Walker-Teal. Shakur and his stepbrother Maurice Harding were arrested, but the charges were later dismissed. It was reported that Shakur agreed to pay a settlement of between $300,000 and $500,000 to the parents of the slain child. April 5, 1993: Shakur spent 10 days in a Michigan prison for beating another rapper with a baseball bat. October 31, 1993: Shakur was arrested for a shooting incident in Atlanta involving two off-duty cops. According to witnesses, Mark Whitwell, a police officer in Clayton County, Georgia, and Whitwell's brother Scott, a police officer in nearby Henry County, and their wives were crossing the street when they were nearly hit by a car. The officers, who were in civilian clothing, got into a verbal altercation with the driver of the car and its passengers, as well as with the occupants of a second vehicle that stopped. The evidence regarding who fired the first shot or which car Shakur was in is not clear. However, as the fight escalated, Shakur shot one policeman in the leg and the other in the buttocks. (Some witnesses say Mark Whitwell pulled a gun first.) Charges were dropped when it was determined that the officers involved were intoxicated and carrying guns taken from the police evidence room. November 18, 1993: Shakur was arrested for sexually abusing a 19-year-old woman, whom he'd met at a New York nightclub. Shakur allegedly sodomized and sexually abused the woman along with three of his friends. There were additional weapons charges. The sodomy and weapons charges were dropped. Shakur was sentenced to 1.5 to 4.5 years in prison, for which he served nine months (beginning February 14, 1995) at the Clinton Correctional Facility. November 10, 1994: Shakur, slated to star in the movie "Menace II", punched the film's director Allen Hughes for which he spent 15 days in prison. Shakur was replaced in the movie by Larenz Tate. November 30, 1994: Shakur was ambushed by three black men in the lobby of a Times Square recording studio in New York City. The men robbed him of over $35,000 in cash and jewelry and shot him five times—wounding him in the head, groin, and hand. April 5, 1996: Shakur was sentenced to 130 days in jail for violating the terms of his bail release." (liveabout.com)
Some may like Tupac because he's popular. Whether you like him or not is irrelevant, since popularity is completely separate from ethics. Bonnie & Clyde were popular. However, they were criminals. Like Tupac, Ted Bundy also wrote poetry. Does that validate Ted Bundy's behavior as a serial killer?
When school officials were asked what they thought about this lesson, here was their response: "With regards to using Tupac as an example in an English class…his works are currently supported by MSDE. I am sure that if we dig deep enough into many people who we teach about and discuss (not just in English class, could be various other contents) we can all find something wrong with just about everyone. - Thanks, Mr. Briggs" (Vice Principal, Parkside High School).
WCBOE Selection and Review of Textbooks, Instructional Materials, and Media Materials Policy INS-SCH-PL-008 states: “WCBOE encourages the use of textbooks and materials which enlighten, inspire, encourage, instill hope and foster good decision-making, as in comparison to those which discourage, convey a sense of futility or affirm negative or destructive character traits. These materials should also support the mission, vision, educational philosophy, beliefs and values endorsed by the Wicomico County Board of Education. The Wicomico County Board of Education directs the Superintendent of Schools to create procedures to implement this policy.”
Not all of the materials used by WCBOE enlightens, inspires, encourages, instills hope and fosters good decision-making. In fact, there are many materials throughout the school system that discourage, convey a sense of futility or affirm negative or destructive character traits, including inappropriate, subversive materials that have been reported to WCBOE in the past. Two years in a row, Tupac Shakur was glorified and used in the classroom as a role model of success.
Why would the school system do this? They are trying to redefine social norms by making what is unacceptable to be acceptable in society (lawlessness). It's not going to work, and can only lead to the destruction of Wicomico County, the State of Maryland, and the USA.
This is not how to raise up students to be contributing members of society unless their sole purpose is to turn students into anarchists. We can come up with a whole list of amazing African-American artists that were influential and had positive, encouraging messages. However, it is clear that WCBOE's agenda is not about understanding and celebrating cultural differences, embracing diversity, and establishing unity with lessons like this.
This is not a pathway to equity and equality, but a dead end to inequity and inequality. Their overcompensation to have an appearance that they are attempting to do the right thing is backfiring and failing miserably. As a result, every student is disenfranchised, and minorities are categorized and placed into a box. What WCBOE is implementing is highly insulting and degrading to all of mankind. We did not ask the school system to gauge society and to show us the secret formula of what they think is best for us. We only ask them to teach our children basic English, Math, Science, and unaltered History, while treating students as human beings with dignity and respect. Is that too much to ask? Our tax dollars are being converted into funding political activism that's disconnected from reality.
We encourage you to contact the WCBOE board members to let them know how you feel on the state of the schools, which they oversee.
WCBOE Board Members
Donald Fitzgerald - dfitzger@wcboe.org
Gene Malone - gmalone@wcboe.org
Allen Brown - abrown@wcboe.org
John Palmer - jpalmer@wcboe.org
Tonya Lewis - tlewis@wcboe.org
Michael Murray - mmurray@wcboe.org
Ann Suthowski - asuthowsk@wcboe.org
Our view of school indoctrination
Fellows & Editors
November 6, 2020 Copyright DelmarvaPTC.org 2020
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References
1) Tupac Shakur: King of Hip-Hop Whose Legacy Will Never Die | Biography BIO.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHVQB6cIuMI
2) WCBOE slides from class"Changes By 2Pac (1992)"
3) WCBOE Class Agenda
4) Tupac's tattoos | Body Art Guru | https://bodyartguru.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/skull-tattoo-.jpg
5) The Life and Crimes of Tupac Shakur - liveabout https://www.liveabout.com/rap-hiphop-and-randb-stars-mugshots-4123000#:~:text=November%2018%2C%201993%3A%20Shakur%20was,and%20weapons%20charges%20were%20dropped
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