School/Zero Tolerance nuts to parent: Stay the hell out of your son's class!

http://www.caledonianrecord.com/pages/local_news/story/fc344b1e9
 

WALDEN VT- Not often do you see a woman 8-1/2 months pregnant
handcuffed and forcibly removed from school, but that is exactly what
happened April 2 at 8:40 a.m.

Sgt. Robert Clark of the state police arrested Kimberly Vogan, 34, for
unlawful trespass at the request of Walden School Principal Martha
Dubuque. Vogan was cited into court April 28 and released on the
condition she not go near the school during school hours or events.

The case is pending.

The conflict culminated when Vogan went to the school April 2 to block
Dubuque from enforcing a disciplinary action against her oldest
daughter. Dubuque claims this action was necessary after months of
conflict over incidents involving two of Vogan's three school-age
children. School officials said it is unacceptable to interfere with
operation of the school, but Vogan said after months of conflict with
school officials, she felt she did not have any other recourse if she
disagreed with school procedures.

Dubuque said before calling the police she tried several times to get
Vogan to talk, but Vogan refused.

Vogan claims she had every right to be at the school, and was quietly
sitting in the class.

"The officer said I had to leave and I didn't leave. I didn't think I
had to leave for not causing a commotion," she said, adding the
principal's confrontation and the presence of a state trooper were
more disruptive.

Dubuque said calling authorities to remove Vogan was in line with
conversations she had with the school board about a series of
ever-escalating conflicts which began shortly after Vogan's son wrote
a story the school would not accept.

Vogan's son, 13-year-old Chip Chaffee, likes to read and write. In
November, when his teacher Kendra Armitage mentioned there would be a
narrative writing project due in the spring, Chip got started right
away.

He closed himself into a room over Thanksgiving vacation at his
father, Earl Chaffee's, house in Woodbury, and wrote a fictional war
story inspired by current events and his father and grandfather's
military experience. Chip's father served from 1986 until 1990 in the
U.S. Air Force, reaching the level of sergeant. Chip's grandfather saw
action in World War II.

Chip was also extremely concerned about the terrorist attacks of Sept.
11, 2001, Earl said.

Chip spent three days working on the tale which featured his father,
step-father, grandfather and himself as main characters involved in
military action in Afghanistan.

In the fictional narrative, Chip and his father become soldiers
stranded on the ground in enemy territory as his step-father, Gerry
Vogan, flies a rescue helicopter and grandfather oversees the whole
operation.

Chip's father, called Sgt. Chaffee, and "my Dad" in the story, is
Chip's fictional comrade in battle. Chip's grandfather is commanding
officer "General Popse."

In chapter five of Chip's story, he writes of Afghanis charging him
and his companions: "Bam, Bam, Bam, I blasted two of them down. Then
they started to close in on us. We were trying our best to keep them
out of our fort, but then they got in ..."

Later he writes of trying to save his fellow soldier, Capt. Nick: "Our
whole team started to run out of bullets, so we all threw our
grenades. Kaboom. The grenades pressed them back a little, but they
just came right back. They shot Captain Nick. I couldn't save him ..."

The story ends with the following moral: "We were all sad about Capt.
Nick's death, but we knew that he would make his family proud of what
he was -- a very brave soldier who put his life on the line almost
every day for all of us. He was always the one to do the job when no
one else dared to. He was always there to back us up. We will never
forget him or any of the things he did for us."

Chip said when he tried to turn the story in, his teacher refused to
accept it because it contained violence.

"I didn't get a chance to hand it in. She asked me what it was about,
and I told her it was about the war," he said, adding her refusal to
accept it made him mad because, "I wrote that whole story and worked
really hard and she told me I couldn't have violence in it."

Vogan was outraged when she learned Armitage would not accept the
story. Poised to get her degree in early childhood education later
this month, Vogan said her son's story meets state narrative standards
and should have been accepted.

Vogan joined forces with Chip's father, also her ex-husband, to
advocate for Chip's story with the administration.

Following school procedure to lodge a complaint, she wrote a letter to
Armitage dated Dec. 9, asking her to judge the story by quality rather
than content. She also asked Armitage to keep political beliefs out of
the classroom.

Armitage promptly responded on Walden School letterhead in a letter
dated Dec. 10, stating she would ask all students equally to refrain
from using violence in their stories.

Armitage stated Chip could turn the story in for extra credit, but not
to satisfy the narrative requirement which had not yet been assigned.

"The Walden School discourages students from violent acts, violent
language and playing violent games in school. I take these ideals and
use them in my curriculum in both language arts and life skills,"
Armitage stated.

Vogan and Earl Chaffee requested and obtained an executive session
with the school board Feb. 18 to discuss the matter further.

They were told by Robert Retchless, superintendent of Caledonia
Central Supervisory Union, the teacher has a right to request a
student keep violence out of a story.

The school board responded in a letter dated March 3 that complaints
from Chip's parents were unfounded and asked them to support the
board's decision not to accept the story.

In trying to get a written school policy on writing about violence, or
at least a reasonable justification for the school's refusal to accept
Chip's story for the narrative assignment, Vogan said she got
increasingly annoyed by the semantic song and dance from school
officials.

According to Vogan, she was first told writing about violence was
against policy. Then, two months later, the administration claimed
violence was not so much the issue as the fact the story didn't suit
this year's assignment to write a fable using animals as main
characters.

That animals were not the main characters was a key sticking point,
Dubuque said Wednesday. When reminded some people consider humans to
be animals, Dubuque just laughed, but a local scientist concurred.

"Some schools, with certain approaches to education and their beliefs,
feel humans are distinct from the animal kingdom, but scientifically
it doesn't hold up," said William Amos, a naturalist and science
columnist. "Technically we (humans) are members of the animal kingdom
and that is that ... we have the same kinds of muscles, nerve, liver
and gallbladder as any cat, dog or elephant."

The dictionary defines a fable as a fantastical story which uses a
tale to make a point or offer a moral, sometimes using animals.

Retchless said he read the story and it "sounded just like Vietnam" or
any other war scene, but was not appropriate to the assignment. School
administrators have to be able to direct children to learn what they
need to meet state guidelines, he said.

Dubuque claims it is her desire to get on speaking terms with Vogan to
work out any problems, but Vogan says she does not want any more talk.

Last month, Vogan and Earl Chaffee requested another executive session
to discuss concerns and were told one would be available June 5.

Meanwhile, Vogan faces misdemeanor charges and her oldest daughter and
Chip have transferred to another school.

Vogan appeared to be disappointed at how things have turned out, but
confident she is right.

And for now, she has other problems.

"He handcuffed her right in front of the class. She was 81/2 months
pregnant with triplets," Chaffee said. "As far as I am concerned you
should be allowed to go in a public school at any time."

He also would like to see his son's story in print which he says is an
excellent piece of writing.

"We are not accepting this," he added. "I am not going to let this
drop."



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