Mike Falick's Blog

KFDA TV Reporting on the "Ten Second Fight Game" - A Dangerous Game Being Played At Local Schools

KFDA, a television station in Amarillo, is reporting today on a new "game" being played at local schools in Amarillo.  The "ten second fight game" involves students "doing as much damage to another student as possible in ten seconds.

The video of the report is available on teh KFDA website. The transcript of the report appears below.

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Dangerous Game Being Played At Local Schools

Parents are being alerted about a dangerous game students are playing in local schools. Newschannel 10's Stephanae Benson spoke with a parent who son was a victim of this game and warns other parents to talk to their kids and look out for signs of violence like unusual bruising on their body. 

It's a dangerous game being played at local schools and it could harm your child.

"They tell me there's a ten second fight game where you do as much as you can within ten seconds to the other kid."  said concerned parent Tamara Brock whose son was a victim of this violent horseplay. 

"I got a phone call to go to the school and when I got here his mouth was busted open, it was butterflied shut and I had to take him to get stitches."

After receiving 8 stitches, Brock was told a fight started in the cafeteria, that ended in the boys bathroom at Canyon Intermediate. We're told its a popular place to keep fights out of the view of teachers and staff. Now that the school is aware, they say they are taking actions to stop the dangerous game. 

"We're gonna monitor the halls, we're gonna monitor the restrooms, we also have cameras positioned that see the restrooms, we have a camera pointed towards the restroom, not in the restrooms, so we'll know who goes in and out." That's according to Alan Cornelius, a Student Services at Canyon Independent School District.

Both boys involved in the fight received in school suspension, but Brock says the police should have been involved because bodily harm was done to her son, but Cornelius says Texas law says something else.

"The penal code describes an assault as knowingly or recklessly or intentionally involving a student in a fight and we have to determine if they were knowingly or recklessly involved in the fight."
   
Cornelius adds anyone who comes forward with information about a fight will remain anonymous and protected. Brock says she grounded her son for a month with no TV or music and wants to alert other parents about the violence they're kids could be facing at school.

"We need to stop this, they have the right to an education and they have the right to be safe at school."

Brock has two sons at Canyon Intermediate and says her sons are not allowed to go into the bathrooms anymore, she has asked permission that they only go in the nurses restroom. 

"When I was in sixth grade i took part in bullying  a girl and I pray every day that her life turned out okay because she ended up leaving the school."

Death is Nothing at All

Death is nothing at all.
Whatever we were to each other we still are.
Call me by my only familiar name.
Talk to me in the same easy way you always have.
Laugh as we always laughed.
Play, smile, think of me.  Pray for me.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is as it always was.
There is absolute unbroken continuity.
Why should I be out of your mind because I am out of your sight?
I am but waiting for you, for an interval, somewhere very near, just around the corner.
All is well.
Nothing is past.
Nothing has been lost.
One brief moment and all will be
as it was before
only better.
Infinitely happier.
We will be one, together, forever.

- Anonymous


Melissa Christopher Crawford

April 3, 1967 - May 20, 2000

My Testimony Today before the House Higher & Public Education Finance Select Committee

Regular readers of this blog know that school districts in Texas are facing a significant funding crisis as a result of the limitations imposed in 2006 by House Bill 1.

Today, the House Select Committee on Higher & Public Education Finance held a meeting here in Houston.  I provided testimony to this Committee regarding the challenges that continue to face Spring Branch as a result of Robin Hood (Chapter 41) and House Bill 1.  You can read the testimony I provided here or by clicking the image below.

Additional information can be found in these prior posts here, here, here, and here.

Stratford and Memorial Students Win 2nd Place in the National Business Professionals of America Contest!

Students from Stratford and Memorial High Schools took 2nd place in a recent national competition at the Business Professionals of America 2008 National Leadership Conference in Reno, Nevada, May 7-11.

From the  Stratford website:

Students from Stratford and Memorial High Schools attended the Business Professionals of America 2008 National Leadership Conference in Reno, Nevada, May 7-11. Seniors Michelle Mandell, Eric Johnson, Ben Halliday and Steven Pham from Stratford High School competed in the Small Business Management Team Event, freshman, Anne Alexander also from Stratford competed in Entrepreneurship and senior, Young Kim from Memorial competed in Fundamentals of Accounting.

The Small Business Management Team took 2^nd in the nation for their project. They are all members of the Stratford Academy of Finance Program. Young Kim placed 6^th in Fundamentals of Accounting.

Business Professionals of America is a national organization for high school students preparing for careers in business and information technology. Congratulations to these students!

Recap of Tonight's Board Workshop

Our Board held its monthly workshop meeting tonight.  Here's a recap of the issues discussed and actions taken on tonight's Agenda.

Our first agenda item was a discussion of the District's FY 2009 Budget.  We have had 4 meetings on the Budget, so this discussion was very short.  The Board will have a second public hearing on the Budget on May 19 at 7:00p.  For more information the FY 2009 Budget, see these prior posts here and here.

Our next discussion item involved a presentation by the Homework Task Force that included their recommendations for modifications to the District's homework policy.  The Board will continue to discuss this issue at our next several meetings with an eye toward approval of a new policy no later than our July Board meeting.

Next we discussed the District's new staff appraisal system.  Significant effort has been made to make the appraisal system uniform and more robust.

We then concluded our meeting with a lengthy conversation on the second readings on the following Board policies:

BQA (Local) Planning and Decision Making Process: District Level
BQB (Local) Planning and Decision Making Process: Campus Level
CDA (Local) Other Revenues: Investments
EHAC (Local) Basic Instructional Program: Required Instruction (Secondary)
FD (Local) Admissions
TASB Policy Update 82

Numerous amendments were offered, and final approval of these policies will occur at our Board meeting on May 19.

Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express News Article on the Crisis in School Finance Funding

I was quoted in a front page article by Gary Scharrer that appeared in today's Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express News.  My quote:

Take the Houston-area Spring Branch Independent School District. Its budget projections show the district's current $58 million reserve fund will slide $68 million into the red within four years.

Unless a fix is enacted during next year's legislative session, school districts will be faced with difficult choices, including closing campuses and firing teachers, said Mike Falick, president of the Spring Branch school board.

"It's an untenable system. No business in the world would be able to survive with fuel, health insurance and salary increases and a flat revenue source," Falick said. "It's not sustainable.

Some school districts eventually will face "insolvency, some in a shorter time than others," he said.

The entire article appears below after the jump and can be found in the Houston Chronicle here and in the San Antonio Express News here.

Spring Branch Election Results: Wayne Schaper and Mary Grace Landrum Win Decisively

In today's Spring Branch School Board election, Wayne Schaper and Mary Grace Landrum each won decisive victories over their challengers.

Here are the election results, broken down by voting precinct (click the image to enlarge or click here to download the results):

Yahoo! For Teachers: Here's a Great Collaborative Tool for Teachers

I just signed up for a new service from Yahoo! called Yahoo! For Teachers that provides an ever-expanding repository of teacher generated resources, projects, and lessons.  From the Yahoo! For Teachers website:

Yahoo! For Teachers is the product of Yahoo! listening to teachers and delivering what they wanted - access to more resources and the ability to connect with other educators.

Teachers partnered with Yahoo! every step of the way to develop this new resource that empowers teachers to create, modify and share curriculum materials that meets state education standards.

Yahoo! also created the Gobbler, a unique collection tool that allows teachers to easily find and gather images, text and other information on the Internet and incorporate it into their own portfolio of curriculum materials.

Combining teachers’ input and leading technology, Yahoo! For Teachers is the ideal resource for the 21st Century Classroom.

   

Flyp: The Future of "Old" Media

Flyp is a new (or at least new to me) website that combines text, video, and audio to rewrite the rules for online magazines.  It's interface is a friendly, page-turn style.  While the site is decidedly Democrat-friendly in its politics, the interaction of video, audio, and traditional text presents a compelling layout.  In addition to the political articles, there are other articles on a broad range of issues.

From the Flyp website:

Flyp is about what moves America and Americans, covering everything from politics to lifestyles; social issues to cultural developments; war to peace; music to movies. Our goal is to connect the dots in ways that both inform and entertain.

Flyp combines video, text, animation, high-quality design and interactivity in a new kind of storytelling that blends the best from the world of print with the latest from the Web.

What Do You Think About Students Using Cellphones in Class?

I read a lot about 21st Century education and reaching today's students.  One of the sites I read often, Teach42, has an interesting post regarding cellphone use by students in class.  The post makes the following suggestions for possible positive use of cellphones by students:

• Check the spelling/definition of a word
• Research a topic
• Look up reference images
• Pull up maps (even with satellite imagery)
• Document a science lab with built in digital camera/video
• Fact check on the fly
• Mail questions to the teacher that they might be embarrassed to ask
• Classroom response system
• Take quizzes
• Record and/or listen to podcasts

Thoughts?