Grand Field Teacher 02

LOCAL

GRANDFIELD: Superintendent defends actions MARCH 15, 2009

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harshest criticism of the dissenting students — two of them went on the record as saying Turlington ranted vocally against homosexuality in front of the English class. He denied the accusations. “If I hated gays, I wouldn’t tell kids,” Turlington said. The students said other teachers and the principal are remanding and intimidating them for even discussing the topic. “I think because our school is little, some teachers think they can get away with things,” said Misti Jackson, a 17-year-old senior, during a meeting Friday. “There’s a few people that have power, and they can just do what they want.” Jackson and three other students — plus a fifth on speaker phone — spent a couple hours at the Squires’ residence in Grandfield on

Beauchamp named to position with Impact Aid

Lawton Public Schools Superintendent Barry Beauchamp is the new president of the National Association of Federally Impacted Schools. Beauchamp was elected to the position — which he will hold until March 2011 — on Monday during the organization’s annual conference in Washington, D.C. NAFIS is a non-profit and non-partisan organization of school districts and boards of education from across the U.S. that works to educate Congress on the importance of Impact Aid. Founded in 1973, it represents children living on Indian land, military BEAUCHAMP children, children in low-rent housing projects, and children whose parents are civilian, but work or live on federal property. Impact Aid consists of federal funds given to school districts to compensate them for local tax funding they lose when U.S. Governmentowned land — such as Indian land, military bases and lowrent housing — is removed from tax roles. These districts face special challenges as they continue to provide a quality education to children living on those lands while operating with less revenue than is available to other school districts. “Impact Aid is currently funded at 62 percent of its congressionally authorized level,” Beauchamp noted. “We must continue to push Congress to fund Impact Aid fully, given the strain that the current war has placed on military families. Just as importantly, many Native American students are in districts that are struggling because of economic hardship. We must not forget that they, too, need the support that Impact Aid supplies.” Beauchamp has been involved in NAFIS and the Impact Aid community for nearly 25 years, gaining his experience under the tutelage of longtime LPS assistant superintendent Ed Hennessee. As president of NAFIS, Beauchamp leads a board of directors elected from a membership comprised of more than 350 school districts and boards of education from across the U.S. Twenty-one Oklahoma school districts are members of NAFIS, including Lawton, Altus and Navajo in the southwest part of the state.

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Friday explaining what’s made them so upset. Taylor said her former students have spent two weeks trying to get a grip on the actions of their superintendent, the alleged oral epithets and condemnation from the students, parents and community members who support Turlington.

‘Harshness of contrast’ She said it is the “harshness of the contrast” between the lessons learned in ethics class and the ideas of their disciplinarians that is making this difficult for the students. “They saw their project being canceled because of Turlington’s personal feelings (and) suddenly he exhibited the behaviors of a very prejudice person,” she said. “In their teen mind, prejudiced people stop plays about gays.”

ZEKE CAMPFIELD/STAFF

From left, Matt Ebner, 18; Misti Jackson, 17; and Amber Squires, 15; lead a group of Grandfield students upset with school administrators for shutting down a controversial in-class project. Taylor said it was one thing for the students to experience their project getting shut down, “but then they see these demonstrations of exactly what they were learning

not to do. I was teaching them to be compassionate, to be tolerant, and most of all I was teaching them that hate words are the seeds of violence.”

Squires said she is disappointed with the administration because she feels like her 15-year-old daughter’s education is being sidelined for morality issues. She and her daughter, Amber, a sophomore, moved to Grandfield from Lawton about 2½ years ago and claim Taylor was one of a few teachers at the school who challenged and pushed Amber to be analytical. “They’re getting rid of Mrs. Taylor so they can get in who they want to teach what they want and to say what they want,” Squires said. “But what are they going to do when they go to college if they don’t have teachers that make them actually think?”

Discipline key to education The school has been in trouble in past years for low test scores, Turlington said, but a strong program

of discipline since he took the superintendent job four years ago has changed all that. “Discipline is the key to education, and without it you have no classroom, you have no learning, you have nothing,” he said. Turlington adopted an elective course on the Bible as a piece of literature this year, and started to push for a school uniform policy in Grandfield last fall before he realized it would be an undue financial burden for the many impoverished families in the district. He said he sees his No. 1 duty to prepare the students for college or work. “And I know that that language is not acceptable in a business of any kind,” he said of the play. “We have a handbook — and when they get in college, they can express themselves more.”

In Loving Memory of

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LPS observes spring break Lawton Public Schools students will get this week off as the school district observes spring break. Classes will be dismissed from Monday through Friday and administrative offices at individual school sites and the Shoemaker Education Center will be closed. Classes resume March 23.

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