Is the International Baccalaureate Progam really good for children in Missoula and at MIssoula International School? The pit bull topic rages on and on...

Missoula School Watchdog was going through some newspapers the other day. Msw noticed an article that was missed when reading the daily newspaper at an earlier date.

The newspaper highlighted in this blog post is the April 4th, 2019 edition of the Missoulian, Missoula's daily newspaper.

On the editorial page is a guest column by a 14 year old. This 14 year old is a student at the private International Baccalaureate Spanish immersion school, Missoula International School and is in 8th grade. (See the sister blog of msw www.prescottschoolmissoula.blogspot.com for the corruption by Missoula County Public Schools in regard to the lease of the public school Prescott School to the private school Missoula International School)

The student, Camille Sherill, wrote a guest column as noted above titled "Help dogs with unfair reps".

The title is actually misleading in msw's view. The wording "unfair reps" does not really address the jist of the column. What the column is highlighting is pit bulls. There is no pit bull words in the title. This is really the newspapers doing, not the writers, however, msw thought that it is worth noting, because as mentioned above, the article escaped notice for many days.

Due to time constraints, msw at this time, cannot go into as much depth as wished. To make a long story short, the guest column by the student reveals a huge lack of information about the threat of pit bulls in our society. The student mentioned the city of Bozeman as it relates to pit bulls and does not even mention that fairly recently a woman was killed by a pit bull in Bozeman! How can one doing a guest column not mention this huge story?

Additionally, the MIS IB student did not look into pit bull information sites on the web such as www.dogsbite.org and it's FB page. Almost everyday or it seems like at least once a week or so msw gets a FB post about someone getting killed and/or maimed by a pit bull(s).

She, the writer, also most likely did not read the book by J. Thomas Beasley titled, "Misunderstood Nanny Dogs?" The book explains the history of pit bulls and how dangerous they are and gives so many statistics that after one reads the book one cannot reach any other conclusion that pit bulls are really not for use as an everyday pet.

The fact that this student's teachers and the school, Missoula International School, accepted this work without proper study and research speaks to the legitimacy of the private school. Would a parent really want their child not to be challenged in a very important community project paper? Would a school really want this reputation, that of not expecting it's students to back up their writing assignments?

Missoula School Watchdog is a pit bull attack survivor, and ironically this attack took place just blocks from Prescott School, the school which MIS is leasing. msw has always considered that if a child that attended MIS or any child in the neighborhood for that matter had been attacked rather than this adult the outcome could have been a death or even more tragic.

Does someone from MIS need to be attacked by a pit bull for the dangerousness of  pit bulls to sink in to students at MIS or indeed for others? I only wish it does not.

Don't let the door hit you on the way out - Superintendent Thane

Don't let the door hit you on the way out - Superintendent Thane.

Superintendent Mark Thane, and others, described himself as the "hometown superintendent". In trying to make this post short let's ask one simple question. Just exactly what did Mark Thane do that was so good for his hometown of Missoula? 

Did he work to re-establish a neighborhood school system that had been so badly desecrated by past superintendents and Missoula County Public Schools Trustees?

Did he work to lower administrative costs throughout the school district?

Did he work to eliminate the UN sponsored International Baccalaureate Program that has taken such a foothold in Missoula County Public Schools so much so that some schools are entirely IB. /Did he do what the nearby CoeurdA'lene, Id. school district and eliminate the IB program?

Did he work on transparency in all school related business, such a on the MCPS website and in conversations on radio programs and at civic events?

Did he seek to include the public in all open houses throughout the district when each school had finished it's renovation using the expensive bond funds? Etc. Etc.

No, no. and no....  Mark Thane,
Missoula hometown boy and now man, did not do a thing for his hometown in a positive manner.

Again, don't let the door hit you, Mr. Thane, on the way out!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK6PQsSqkaY



Above is a YouTube video on the origins of the saying:
"Don't let the door hit you on the way out".  Interesting. Maybe we need to use it more when a government official leaves, especially when they leave Missoula County Public Schools (for the most part MCPS officials are really not on board with the Missoula people).