The Emporia Gazette

Vote for Karr

Jerry Karr has been the Democratic party leader for so long in this area that most us would just assume you already knew, Anyone who has volunteered to put their name on the ballot under the D ticket has benefited from his patience and experience in maneuvering through the obstacle course/endurance race called a campaign. A big thank you to all of the candidates and their families for putting their personal lives on hold to give us freedom of choice tomorrow!

November 1, 2010 at 2:24 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Never acceptable

Bullies select targets. The target has little to do with the choice, except being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Also, research has proven over and over that the bully on the morning bus is the target at morning recess and the bystander (or witness role) at lunch. The kids switch roles all day long - all very smoothly under the radar of the adults. There are excellent evidence-based programs for empowering the witness/bystander role which is the only hope for stopping the bullying. Even though witnesses rarely take action, when they do (and they have been taught the right action to take) they are 98% effective in stopping the bullying immediately. It's like a dance and relies on all three roles to be in place before the bully receives satisfaction.

October 25, 2010 at 6:05 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Fowler to run against Mast

There are Democrats who are fiscally conservative or socially conservative. Its so easy to put people in categories rather than seeing them across the spectrum of reality - most of us are all shades of gray in our social beliefs - depending on the topic, depending on the life experience, etc. Very few are at the ends of either black or white - yet those are the ones we see and hear most. It would be great if we could openly look for the shades of gray and expect them. The youngest voters "get it", so I remain hopeful.

September 22, 2010 at 10:50 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Leave Quonsets alone

Just thinking that I might be more willing to volunteer working at the fair booth for my organization if I don't have to mentally and physically prepare for the heat. Those who have worked the early evening shifts out there know what I mean. Like sitting in a hot car. Some of the best volunteers have health concerns that just won't allow them to take that kind of risk.

September 16, 2010 at 1:47 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

School officials: ‘no evidence’

By middle school age, bullying is very sophisticated. Those who are getting their kicks by hurting others are getting very good at it by then. And there are multiple bullying incidents as everyone gives it a try. By high school, there are just a few who keep bullying as their preferred power play but they have developed it to a high art form with those added years of experience.

My point is, unless we are talking about pre-schoolers or early grade schoolers, it is completely unrealistic to expect change by adding more adult supervision or more discipline measures. The only effective action is to train the kids in the situations to break the chain of events that is sucking them in. This builds, one-by-one, until the power is shifted. The targets of bullying been made to feel like they have no power (which is the number one goal of any bullying action). And the witnesses to the bullying events have the most power in any incident, but they don't have the tools.

This should be the adult's focus for stopping the bullying, but we rarely see it.

May 18, 2010 at 3:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

More Study

I live in North Lyon County and participated in many school board discussions a decade ago when my kids were that age. The piece I am not seeing discussed (at least online) is the ever present situation with Americus and Reading both being located at the far ends of this sparsely populated area. Many times the parents of children in Reading or Americus grade schools choose to send their children to Lebo or Emporia for high school because of the longs miles to NHHS - and that has been a pattern for decades. Admire Grade School kids go to their closest high school which is Northern Heights. Without Admire in the center to keep filling the pipeline for Northern Heights......will we be seeing Heights numbers dwindling over the next decade? I think its a very realistic expectation that Heights won't be able to draw enough students either as families adjust to grade schools near the edges of other districts.

January 18, 2010 at 10:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Superintendent: Close Admire School

It might be important for Kansans to get a better understanding of what is happening with their taxes. Its not possible for residents of the Admire area to agree to pay more taxes to keep their school. Those rights are very limited because we now all pay into one giant pool in Topeka and then hope each year that we are blessed with enough coming back to keep our local school running.

Everyone talks about the base money per student, but there is little talk of all of the other categories where money comes back to local schools - like to help with underachieving students, or students in poverty, or special needs, or living in sparsely populated areas. Those in political power have whittled those dollars down to nothing and now everyone is trying to operate with only the base dollars per student. This was done very purposefully over the past decade. In larger population areas, this works out great and you can see that those districts have increased their assets and wealth. Areas like North Lyon County and Chase County become like the wonderful, uniquely American, mom and pop retail businesses that were thriving before the Walmarts and Targets took over. They just get squeezed out no matter how efficient or effective they were with their business. This change in direction has mostly been called "fiscal responsibility" by those in power.

The problem is we are educating unique and individual rural children, our greatest asset - not producing tires or dvd players. I don't want to hire the "lowest bid" type employee in the future.

November 25, 2009 at 12:59 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

State studies passing on US 50

Fantastic! I've been nearly killed on that road twice in my life - vehicles in wrong lanes traveling at top speeds towards me - like freaky, bad dreams! Even though its better than it used to be, ask any EMT in Chase County about their experiences on highway 50 and you will know that it hasn't changed enough yet.

November 14, 2009 at 12:54 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Deserve protection

Someone I love very much spent a few nights in the Lyon County jail and I was so afraid of what might happen while he was there. Everything went well and he was treated with utmost respect and felt safe. In fact, in his stories he mentions meaningful conversations with the jailers that became part of his actions to clean up, take responsibility and fly right.

I so much appreciated that we had a local county jail staffed by neighbors just like us, who are doing the best job they can in difficult situations. It was exactly what he needed.

October 31, 2009 at 1:58 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )

Drug test your child at home

Not My Kid offers the first test free to communities who will arrange an event such as this. Then if the parents choose to buy more kits, they pay the $40.

Its sad to see so much stereotyping of what kind of family might have kids who use. It proves again that there is a huge generational and socio-economic communication gap in our country. Great parents with straight A students are just as likely to be dealing with abuse and addiction (whether or not they know it yet). If parents can know for sure what is happening with a quick and easy drug screen in the privacy of their home, they can better prepare themselves for any action - if necessary. If the result is clear, they can relax just a little and celebrate their hard work!

October 26, 2009 at 5:30 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )