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Chris Knight's avatar

I’d planned on attending Monday night’s meeting of the Rockingham County Board of Education, and would have been there had some things not arisen on this end. So there’s no first-hand account this month. But the Reidsville Review already has up a story about some of what went down this time.

The board voted 8-4 to impose a time limit of 5 minutes per each person who addresses the board during the public comments portion of the meetings. Which is considerably more than the limit of 3 minutes that the board was originally considering. Elaine McCollum, Reida Drum, Nell Rose, and Nell Rose voted against the limit. Voting for it were Celeste DePriest, Ron Price, Lori McKinney, Amanda Bell, Jim Austin, Wayne Kirkman, Herman Hines and John Smith.

I suppose that 5 minutes does seem pretty reasonable. This however is not: that in addition to the 5 minutes per person, ...

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Here’s the report that I filed a few days ago about the meeting of the Rockingham County Board of Education this past Monday night, during which the board voted 7-3 (with 2 abstaining) to rescind their vote in April that would have mandated school uniforms at Reidsville Middle and Reidsville High schools. Richard Moore has posted some audio clips – including one that encompasses ALL of the public comments – on his site. Here are the links to the clips, in Windows Media format…

– Opponents of Standard Mode Of Dress speak out against the policy and urge the board to rescind the vote

– Board member Ron Price berates POTSMOD (People Opposed To Standard Mode Of Dress) and TV station WGSR as being “bad for the community” and blames them for changing people’s minds

– Board member Herman Hines shares his thoughts about school dress policy

...
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Chris Knight's avatar

As was reported here a few days ago, the Rockingham County Board of Education voted to rescind its vote in April to implement mandatory school uniforms at Reidsville Middle and Reidsville High schools beginning this coming year. Members of P.O.T.S.M.O.D. (People Opposed To Standard Mode Of Dress) fought hard and with heart to get the board to overturn its decision ever since the April vote that initially required it.

I got something in my e-mail and I’m gonna post it here, because I think this is one of the bigger reasons why school uniforms in Rockingham County is a bad idea. This is from Nashville, Tennessee, from an organization called Safe Haven Family Shelter…

Safe Haven and Metro Nashville Public School Children Need Our Help

We need school uniform clothing donations to help our kids!
As many of you know, Metro Nashville Public Schools have implemented a school

...
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Chris Knight's avatar

Last night the Rockingham County Board of Education, after months of outright frustration on the part of parents, students and other citizens, voted 7 to 3 – and with 2 abstentions – to rescind its April vote to implement Standard Mode Of Dress (the euphemism for school uniforms) at Reidsville Middle and Reidsville High schools starting with this upcoming academic year.

Now for the full skinny on what went down, at least from the vantage point of one of the members of P.O.T.S.M.O.D. (People Opposed To Standard Mode Of Dress) …

After last month’s meeting, when members of the board refused to acknowledge citizens’ concerns about the uniforms and the legitimacy of the initial vote, I had vowed to show up at the July meeting dressed in my Jedi Knight costume: admittedly, and I even said this last night, as an “attention-getting device”. And that’s exactly what I did. ...

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Am still working on getting the full report about last night’s meeting up. It’s written, but it’s taking a bit to encode the video of the news clips that I want to include with the report. That should be done in the next hour or so.

In the meantime, here is the full text of the remarks that I made – while wearing my full Jedi Knight costume – before the Rockingham County Board of Education last night.

Good evening. My name is Chris Knight, I reside at 1516 Sherwood Drive in Reidsville, and since most of us came here to discuss uniforms, tonight I’ve chosen to wear my own.

Your purpose, as part of this democratically elected republic, is to present a bulwark against the citizenry becoming overwhelmed by its own appetites. That your particular task involves the education of the next generation gives your charge considerably more crucial ...

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I just got home. I am feeling quite rank after wearing a full Jedi Knight costume since 4 this afternoon.

Here’s the quick tally: with 7 “yes” votes, 3 “no” votes and 2 abstaining, the Rockingham County Board of Education rescinded the Standard Mode Of Dress – the euphemism for mandatory uniforms – at Reidsville Middle School and Reidsville High School this coming school year.

Sometimes, the good guys do win one.

More later. First I’ve got to eat and shower and probably go to Wal-Mart to pick up some Gatorade so I can restore some electrolytes 🙂

Full report, including lots of pics, real real soon!

EDIT 07-10-2007 4:30 a.m. EST: The report isn’t quite finished. Part of it is capturing/encoding video of the news coverage that this got, so it can be embedded as YouTube clips. I’m going to get a few hours sleep, and then come back ...

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Here’s the story that’ll be running in tomorrow’s Reidsville Review about the meeting this coming Monday night of the Rockingham County Board of Education. It’s widely expected that the public comments portion of the night will be dominated by P.O.T.S.M.O.D.: People Opposed To Standard Mode Of Dress, the group that’s fighting the mandatory uniforms at Reidsville Middle and Reidsville High schools this coming school year.

Here’s part of the story…

Monday, POTSMOD plans to attend wearing costumes and black armbands to show its opposition to school uniforms. Former school board candidate Chris Knight said he will attend the meeting dressed as a Jedi knight to get the board’s attention.

“It’s a result of this past meeting where the public comments section was dominated by opposition to uniforms,” Knight said. “But the board ignored our concerns.”

Samantha Fettig, a parent involved with POTSMOD, said she felt the board scoffed at people’s

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Chris Knight's avatar

There’s apparently starting to be some interest in the stating of my intentions a few days ago that I would address the Rockingham County Board of Education at its July 9th meeting… fully costumed as a Jedi Knight. The only thing that I am leaving off the ensemble is my lightsaber. For one thing, I am being extremely cautious in adhering to the school system’s weapons policy: even though this is not a functional weapon by any means, I’m not taking chances. For all intents and purposes, this is simply a “different” mode of attire than what you usually see at a school board meeting. As it is, I don’t see this being construed as a special circumstance, and I’m not going to intentionally make it one, either.

Besides, I have something much better than a lightsaber that I intend to take with me. You could say that I will ...

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And I invite anyone else who wants to protest the board’s indifference toward us on the school uniforms issue to likewise come dressed as outrageously as they wanna be (within reason of course).

I had originally thought to come to the meeting wearing V’s costume from V for Vendetta, but won’t do that out of respect for public safety concerns. That, and because it would be really hard to speak to the board from behind a Guy Fawkes mask.

Please, if you want to join along with this protest, do not wear something that has a full-face mask.

The board – for the most part anyway – is not listening to us. They apparently paid not one whit of attention to what we had to say to them when we spoke during public comments at Monday night’s meeting.

Even if they refuse to pay attention to our words, we ...

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