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09-29-2009

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Subject: Lockport Township, IL High School Moves Towards Mandatory Community Service

As reported today in The Homer Horizon:
    The Lockport Township High School District 205 Board of Education on Monday, Sept. 22, moved a step closer to adding community service as a curriculum requirement for students.

    Board members voted 5 to 2 to approve the first of two steps that would enact the policy to require community service hours of students, with a final vote on the matter scheduled to take place at the next board meeting on Monday, Oct. 19.

    Under the policy, the mandated service hours would be phased-in to all classes beginning in the fall of 2010. Seniors (Class of 2011) would be required to complete 10 hours of service, juniors 20 hours, sophomores 30 hours and freshmen 40 hours. [...]

    Michael Lewandowski and John Lukasik voted against the policy, with Lewandowski speaking out against the proposal during discussion at the Sept. 22 meeting.

    "Should we encourage our students to help the community? Yes. Should we force them to help the community? No." Lewandowski said. "Doing this voluntary is one thing but forcing them to do it is another.

    "We shouldn't force our students to do something against their will in order to graduate."

    Lewandowski worried the policy would provoke "incrementalism."

    "We've all seen how the government can creep into our lives," he said after reading to the board the 13th Amendment. "I don't want the federal, state or local government to say, 'well, the school district have approved this, so we can, too.'"

    Board member Angela Kamely responded to Lewandowski's statements.

    "We're doing this as a graduation requirement, not as a right to live," she said. "I support helping make a more well-rounded student."

And with that mere flourish, Ms. Kamely brushes away the 13th Amendment and the rights of the students. Hey, it's only their education, not their lives!

And just as a reminder: The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution states:
    Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Oh well, it's just a technicality. What's more important is to shape a "more well-rounded student" — in Angela Kamely's image.
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