Permanent link for article #0026:
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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