News-Record.com

Bruce,

We hear calls for not killing the messenger.

In this case, please let Jennifer know that I want to THANK her for being the messenger.

As was reported in her article, "Schools request bigger budget" (May 13), the Guilford County School Board reinstated the middle schools' School Resource Officers (SROs) after cutting those positions on Tuesday.

These are my views on the subject: "Middle Schools Need Their School Resource Officers".

Sincerely,

Hardy

Seymour,

Great article you wrote. It was very informative and makes some excellent points.

I enjoy your website very much. It provides a lot of insight for those who have no idea what really goes on in our schools; what teachers must deal with many times.

It was definitely worth the time to read this.

If you get a chance to go to the meetings, don't forget to ask them about $500,000 still in the budget for Crossroads Ministries. N & R's article said for programs like that; but it is still in the budget by name.

For anyone who does not know about the ministry, PLEASE take time to do a google search.

After hearing from teachers who have attended, this confirms much of what their website "preaches". Much of it is scary stuff. Also it raises the question of church vs state by letting a "ministry" come in to "preach" this.

I had inquired about this still be in the budget for GCS. I had also inquired why it was just for the High Point teachers only. Their spokesperson was kind enough to get back to me on this in a speedy manner.

I was told that, "When the HP Choice Plan was being discussed, the City of HP recommended that it might be beneficial for the HP community and staff to take part in the Crossroads training (several city departments had gone through the training and felt it was helpful), so with that recommendation, it was built into the plan. While the program was primarily for HP school staff (as a starting point), it was open to HP community residents. Several central office staff members and some board members have also gone through this type of training."

Now I am wondering this. I didn't see any references to crossroads ministries workshops in the $12 million grant application last year. Maybe I missed that. It may be a moot point now because the grant was denied.

Nor did I hear it mentioned in the media or at any board/commissioners meeting when discussing FUNDING for the "Choice" Plan. I may have missed that too, but don't think so. I was very in tune to this.

My question is this, "Since when does GCS spend taxpayers dollars allocated for EDUCATION on RECOMMENDATIONS made by other "organizations", particularly HIGH POINT City should not be able to tell GCS where to spend their money. One is the city and a city at that whose representatives in the past have said they cannot get involved because that is "the COUNTY" and they build the schools and educate and we are the CITY.

The bottom line is GCS and the board made the decision to spend that money for those seminars and are now listing $500,000 for same. This is a lot of money that could be spent on teachers and in the classroom on education.

I do support teaching children about tolerance, respect, kindness, anti-bully, etc., but after researching this group and the press not being allowed in this "training", there are serious questions we all need to be asking ourselves. One of the most important ones is: WHAT ARE THEY TEACHING OUR KIDS WITH PUBLIC FUNDS?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Thank you Barbara Ann for alerting us about Crossroads Ministry. Their website tells me all I need to know. It features anti-Ameican, anti-war screeds. It also finds that Mel Gibson's movie " Passion Of Christ " is likely to increase tensions between blacks and jews. Geez ! The Schools should say no to this crackpot Rev Joe Brandt . I hope he doesn't dupe guilt ridden and naive school officials into paying him to spew out this racist garbage however neatly packaged.

I did as Barbara Ann suggested and googled Crossroad Ministries. I had a little trouble finding it but when I did find them , I have to agree that what it preaches is scary stuff.

Why not have Bill Cosby come down here and give his message of personal responsibility to the children in our community ? Cost = Zero $$.

Crossroads Ministry is at:

http://www.crossroadsministry.org/