Friday, October 15, 2004

Fur Flies At School Board Meeting In Charles County, Maryland

Today's Washington Post is reporting that a contentious meeting of the Charles County Board Of Education was held last evening. As reported in an earlier WonkPost a variety of folks are "up in arms" about proposed changes in district policies.

Television cameras were on hand to record the the emotionally charged meeting, and capture for posterity any images of chairs being thrown across the room.

The Board had requested input from the public on how to improve educational programs. A number of controversial proposals were submitted for debate, including the censoring of classic American works of literature for "immorality" and "foul language."

Members of the Gideons International had petitioned the board to distribute copies of the Bible in schools.

Amid a chorus of shouts and yells, a series of speakers urged the board to not allow religious influences and the Board members own morality judgments to be adopted as policy.

The Board made no decisions, but said that it needed more time to receive additional input from the public. (EdWonk's Translation: We've gotta get these !!#&** cameras outta here, and let this whole thing die down.)

Even though the debate was passionate the EdWonk has not received any reports of serious casualties from local hospitals, though one Confidential Source did intimate that several "dirty looks" were exchanged, and a number of lewd suggestions were made.

Updates of this still-developing story will be published as circumstances warrant.