IEPs And Perverted Principals Topic Of Educational Town Hall — A town hall, last night, Sept. 23, sponsored by congressional candidate Alfe Goodwin addressed Pennsylvania’s crisis in education. It was held at the Media VFW and drew an active and diverse crowd.
By diverse, we don’t just mean Black and White — although it applies. We mean Republican and Democrat, and city and suburb.
The room was full despite attempts by social media censors to hide the event’s promotion.
Alfe is seeking to unseat the wife of the CEO of high-powered law firm Ballard Spahr to represent Pennsylvania’s 5th District. The district is all of Delaware County along with parts of Montgomery, Philadelphia and Chester counties.
Speakers were NaDerah Griffin, and Sharon Devaney. Ms. Griffin is a former Philadelphia School District educator, who is a mental health specialist, and Sharon M. Devaney is a single mom who described her tribulations with the Haverford School District.
Moderator was Joy Schwartz, a retired Penn Wood teacher who still occasionally substitutes.
Many in the audience also shared their experiences with public education along with other institutions in obvious decline such as the military.
Ms. Griffin noted how the misuse of individual education plans (IEPs) has resulted in numerous children being placed on life-long paths of despair.
“When you pull children out they feel they are dumb,” she says.
She said IEPs can be beneficial. The shortage of teachers, however, in the city schools along with the lack of training for them results in children being diagnosed improperly.
She said situations such as trauma and poverty are incorrectly diagnosed as intellectual problems.
Ms. Devaney described the battles she fought with her district to keep her children from being drugged and bullied.
She said Haverford sought to put her son on an IEP but she fought them and won.
She noted the administration’s indifference, if not actual defense, of high ranking officials who should have been dismissed for extremely inappropriate behavior.
Shelia Armstrong, a North Philadelphia parent-teacher advocate, spoke from the audience. She described how she won a lawsuit against the educational establishment’s failure to uphold the General Assembly’s constitutional obligation to provide a “thorough and efficient” system of public education.
Ms. Armstrong also noted that the teachers unions are blocking needed reform. She cited their refusal to allow cameras in the classroom.
“I’m just so tired of the union right now,” she said. “. . .It’s promoting everything else but education.”
She expressed strong support for school choice.
She said progress is being made, however. Ms. Armstrong pointed out that if a child attacks a school employee, the employee can sue the parents.
Alfe Goodwin is a veteran and a retired Philadelphia police officer, who now teaches in Chester at the Edgmont Scholars Academy.
About 180 students at the school now have IEPs, she said.
Del Vann Inspired Media broadcast the event live and is expected to post a video of it.
Alfe’s opponent has cancelled debates with her, apparently out of fear that she can win.
Panelists NaDerah Griffin and Sharon Devaney
