The nutjob is the one on the right!
Tyler Stoken was a well-behaved fourth grader who enjoyed school, earned A’s and B’s and performed well on standardized tests.
In May 2005, he’d completed five of the six days of the Washington State Assessment of Student Learning exam, called WASL, part of the state’s No Child Left Behind test.
Then Tyler came upon this question: “While looking out the window one day at school, you notice the principal flying in the air. In several paragraphs, write a story telling what happens.”
The nine-year-old was afraid to answer the question about his principal, Olivia McCarthy. “I didn’t want to make fun of her,” he says, explaining he was taught to write the first thing that entered his mind on the state writing test.
Because Tyler didn’t answer the question, McCarthy suspended him for five days. He recalls the principal reprimanding him by saying his test score could bring down the entire school’s performance.
“Good job, bud, you’ve ruined it for everyone in the school, the teachers and the school,” Tyler says McCarthy told him.
`He Cried’
You can see the principal’s website here.
Wow… that’s horrible. I cant believe there more worried about the “School performance” than his feelings and it was only one lousy question. Children do not deserve to be treated that way.
“We pride ourselves on our strong sense of community and our dedication to providing an optimal learning environment for our children.”
Sounds like bullshit to me.
Way to go, fat chick. Ruin it for all the other fat chicks, whydoncha.
Thanks for sharing. I sent her an email and shared my not so kind opinion of her action to suspend and stigmatize that boy.
You would think that child should be commended for NOT answering a question he objected to – at that young age. He might even make a great republican politician. Now she ruined it.
Thank God this wasn’t in my school district.
its all about test scores. They are teaching kis how to pass THE test. Forget cursive writing, thats not on THE test. Forget art and music because they aren’t on THE test. I bet half the kids in America can’t tell time on an analog clock because thats not on THE test either.
Kid does badly, punish them because it makes the school look bad. Got news for you, that school deserves to look bad.
In the letter, she accused Tyler of bringing down the average score of the other 10 students in his class.
The kid is an A and B student. Just how far down could not answering one question drop his score, let alone the class average? The principal is an idiot. Tyler’s reason for not answering the question? “He didn’t want them to know what he was thinking, that she was a witch on a broomstick,” says Tyler’s mother, Amanda Wolfe, …
He may have been more right that he realized.
If true she IS a nut job and should be fired – Period.
They are not even correct about the effect on scoring and class average.
Everyone world wide should be e-mailing the principal and the superintendant of that school district. There isn’t a place it todays school system for this kind of incompetence.
#3, Well put argument. I totally agree.
Performance is equal to pay and job security. Where was everyone when the pubic was shouting for accountability? The test scores are the goals now, not education.
Wow , that dude on the right is HUGE.
#4 – I went to the site but saw no way to send her an email. Got an address for her that works?
#12 Click the “staff” link on the web site.
I can finish the story. Once upon a time in a perfect world, a not too smart school official suspended a little kid for being confused. Since it was a perfect world, as soon as she did this, a giant magical boot sent by the “League of Don’t Be A Jackass” swooshed down from the sky and kicked her fat butt through the uprights on the football field next to the school. Everyone lived happily ever after, except the principal, who married an evangelical preacher who ran away to live in Costa Rica with Burt, the guy who installed his cable TV service.
14 I can finish the story….
Great! 🙂
I think of the movie “The Christmas Story”:
I see Ralphie’s dream of the Teacher grading his report on why he wants a Red Rider BB-gun for Christmas… “A -plus, plus, plus…”
That’s the grade I give your story!
I’m still chuckling over a giant magical boot sent by the “League of Don’t Be A Jackass”
Nicely done.
Did anyone read the school menu????? My God, they should be jailed for murder, because the fried food and Fat orgy they have everyday is going to kill those kids. Not one single day on the menu is without a high fat, high carb, high chlorestral meal, not one single day.
And cheese, the cheap, fake stuff is big there…..I guess they want the kids to grow up to look like the fat ass that is Principal.
At the bottom of the menu, it says any student without enough money to pay for lunch will be offered a **cheesestick and milk**….because we don’t *charge* meals. WTF
And a bunch of you wonder why people are Home Schooling their kids……this is what???…the 100th article showing how stupid and nonsensical public schools are.
Anyone know the area code for the number on the site?
area code “360”
what a pointless question. i wouldn’t have answered it either. he should have shoved that standardized test right up that principle’s fat butt.
What an infuriating story. More from the Bloomberg article:
” McCarthy’s May 6, 2005, letter to Tyler’s mother detailed her son’s suspension. “The fact that Tyler chose to simply refuse to work on the WASL after many reasonable requests is none other than blatant defiance and insubordination,” McCarthy wrote.
In the letter, she accused Tyler of bringing down the average score of the other 10 students in his class. “As we have worked so hard this year to improve our writing skills, this is a particularly egregious wound,” McCarthy wrote.
Her accusation was wrong, state regulations show. There is no averaging of the writing scores. Each student either meets or fails the state standard. ”
So, she suspends the kid AND THERE IS NO AVERAGING! What a fucking moron. Fire her immediately for (1) exceedingly poor judgment; and (2) having no idea what the hell she is talking about when it comes to standardized testing (a big deal for any district).
That said, this is one principal in one school district. There are thousands and thousands of good teachers and principals out there and I get a little sick and tired of these one off situations being used to paint the entire educational system as terrible.
#16 I agree the menu is bad. Then they wonder why everyone is getting so fat.
Ms McCarthy:
Perhaps a lack of creativity in crafting the question is the real culprit. What response did you expect to elicit from an inane inquiry? Next time, recuse your personage from the process as a start and to assure an even more inventive response, ask something a child is likely to care about passionately. You, in your wildest fantasy, are not on anyone’s radar but your own. I do give you credit for becoming the punchline to a national observation on America’s appalling educational system.
Thanks John.
Just left an angry message.
The problems in any society can be directly traced to the upbringing of it’s children, I hope this makes no scar on the boy. Now what is it that happened in the obese principals childhood to make her want to strike out at little boys? Fat girl who wasn’t popular in 4th grade? I don’t mean to be unkind, but if she is in charge of a whole school full of kids and shows her judgment errors so blatantly, it seems they have given the job to the wrong person.
Oh yes, lets forward the fat comments. That’s mature and ensures comments will be read. I doubt any of you pay this administrators salary, or votes for the local board. You have to understand in a profession were salaries are minimal, a 20 to 30% performance bonus means a lot. A lot of stress is put on administrators and teachers to teach these standardized test well. The scores are plastered in the papers, and low performance can mean careers. It’s the system that’s gotten out of hand.
This question is right up there with the one about football a year or so ago, in SC: A team is in the 20 yard line, they gain 3 yards, then 4, lose 8, gain 7, gain 8, then gain 3. What yard line are they on now?
Any kid that knows squat about football can tell you that on the 4th play they punted. 😉
“Oh yes, lets forward the fat comments”
And ugly. Don’t forget that. A cow’s ass comes to mind.
“You have to understand in a profession were salaries are minimal”
Principals make from 80 grand up. That’s hardly minimal.
He could have put i saw her riding around on a broom it fits well 🙂
I’m gonna tell my kids that these tests don’t mean crap, they can fill them out however they please, because it won’t affect their grades anyway.