The Heroes Among Us: Will You Be One?

The rescue of the three women held captive in Cleveland is a horrible and fascinating story.  The hero of the story is Charles Ramsey who heard the screams and broke down the door to get Amanda Berry and her child out, which led to the rescue of Gina DeJesus and Michele Knight.  I absolutely love this man's honesty and unpretentious attitude:

Seriously, I want to have beers with this guy and listen to him tell stories.  What an incredible person! 

The interview that is also interesting is where Mr. Ramsey discusses how he had felt that "something was weird about that house," a year ago. (At about a 1:32 into the video.)

His friend told him he was being paranoid - I love that he said, "Had I known what was going on, I would have done all this heroic stuff a year ago!"

How often do we have gut feelings about something and ignore them as "being paranoid"? Or we're afraid of stepping on someone else's toes or offending someone? I know it happens to me sometimes, and later, I wish I had acted on the feeling.

Recently, a friend of mine, Southern HockeyMama (aka "SHockeyMama), had a chance to act on a feeling or walk away.  Like Mr. Ramsey, she decided to act.  In my eyes, she too, is a hero:

SHockeyMama loves kids and kids adore her (actually, you can't meet her and not like her or forget her - she's just that special kind of person who has such a good heart that it is impossible not to love her).  She loves to spend time with kids of all ages and will help out her friends with childcare when needed.  Last week, she was dropping off a little friend at a preschool when she was confronted with a sight that she couldn't believe was happening.  An assistant teacher had a little boy, about four years old, pinned onto the floor, holding him down with her knee and restraining his hands, while the head teacher sat and read the other children a story not two feet away from the crying boy.  The little boy was crying and begging for the teacher to let him go.  SHockeyMama was shocked to see this and asked the teacher, "What are you doing?" the teacher said, "He keeps bothering my little friends and he needs to stop." Under the pretense of taking a photo of the child she was dropping off, SHockeyMama took two photos of the situation, then said "Good-bye" to the child she dropped off and walked out of the room.  As she left, she mentioned what she had witnessed to the person working the front desk, noting that there were video monitors displaying the activity of the various classrooms near the front desk.  Then she left.

As she drove home, she contemplated her options: Should she wait until the school day was over and show the little boy's mama the photos and let her handle it?  Should she ignore what she witnessed and not make any waves - maybe there was a reason why the little boy was being restrained? Should she contact the preschool and let them know what had happened? Or should she contact her friend, MNHockeyMama, about the story and let her take put it out to the wide world and let the preschool be eviscerated by the media for allowing that behavior to go on at that location?

Ultimately, SHockeyMama decided to call the main 800 number for the preschool company and tell them what had occurred.  The person she spoke with was as shocked and appalled by what SHockeyMama had witnessed and gave her an email address to send the photos and her information to them, which SHockeyMama did immediately.  Within an hour she received a call back, informing her that the Minnesota office had been called and that the situation was being take care of.  Within an hour of that call, she received another call from the Minnesota Director, who informed her that she was on the way to the location and that SHockeyMama wouldn't be seeing that teacher in that preschool again.  All the people with whom she spoke thanked her for alerting them to the situation and assured her that they would see that this wouldn't happen again.

The next day, SHockeyMama went back to once again drop off the same child at the preschool.  Neither teacher was in the classroom that day.  On her way out, the facility's director called her into the office to tell her "Thank you" and "You did the right thing."

SHockeyMama saw a situation that shouldn't be happening.  She could have walked away and kept her mouth shut, but she didn't.  As she stated on her Facebook wall: 

The reason I'm sharing this because I wasn't going to, is because if you see, or know of a child being abused, or cared for inappropriately "STAND UP FOR THEM ." Sometime their voices are just too small to be heard.

 Both SHockeyMama and Charles Ramsey are heroes.  They didn't have to listen to their guts telling them what they should do - Mr. Ramsey could have ignored the screams and stayed home, and SHockeyMama could have walked out of that preschool and not said a word to anyone.  But they didn't.  They both saw or heard something disturbing and listened to their guts and did the right thing.

If only we all would be as brave as these two heroes, and stand up for those who can't speak and/or act even when we know there could be danger or others who might deride us for acting when they refuse to act, the world would be a much better and safer place for all.

More Questions re East Ridge High School Black Panther Announcement

Updated 5/6/2013 12:31pm
A new development on the East Ridge High School/Black Panther controversy.  According to Robert L. Stephens' blog, his mother, Marquita Stephens, was allowed to go into ERHS on March 21, 2013 and conduct a "training" for the teachers on how they're "processing" the controversy.  According to this infamous OWS protester, the teachers involved in the training had no problem with the Black Panther announcement on February 14, 2013.  This information was confirmed by the FOIA'd emails - it was discovered that there were a series of emails between Ms. Stephens (her information was redacted, but the email's content includes discussion about a presentation) and Principal Harper that included some sort of book, a teacher survey and a 25 minute presentation by Ms. Stephens.  The information referenced in the emails was not included in the FOIA'd emails (the link to the Google doc no longer works), so the concerned parents are very curious as to what was presented on the same day that Ms. Stephens went to the South Washington County School Board meeting and presented Robert L. Stephens' letter to the editor of the Woodbury Bulletin.

At the first school board meeting the concerned parents attended and presented their concerns to the board, Steve Ellenwood also offered to go into the school and discuss the history of the Black Panthers and the concerns of the parents to the teachers.  His offer was brushed aside by the board.  Why, then, was Ms. Stephens allowed to do a presentation? What are her qualifications for this honor?  She is a social worker working (or has worked) with a non-profit adoption agency; what part of that qualifies her to "train" teachers? What about the report by Robert L. Stephens regarding how the teachers expressed no issues with the announcement? Is it that they are all indoctrinated to believe that as long as it was done in the context of Black History month that honoring socialist, militant groups over the school PA system, without including any classroom discussion time, is the right thing to do? Or is it because they were afraid of being labeled "racists" if they spoke out as those concerned parents have been by the supporters of the announcement?  Isn't this a form of bullying by the administration? Or possibly the teachers were concerned about speaking out due to the fact that the district is planning to cut 22 teaching positions to save $1.6 million in the next budget?

There have been researchers investigating the Stephens' backgrounds over the last few days.  Some of what has been discovered requires further investigation, however, one discovery may explain how and why Robert L. Stephens is completely radicalized in his beliefs about America.  There has been some evidence discovered that seems to show that the late Reverend Dr. Robert L. Stephens, Sr. was a proponent of Black Liberation Theology - the same theology preached by Obama's controversial Reverend Wright.  More research is being conducted to verify this possibility, but from what has been unearthed so far it seems likely that it could be true.

So, how does that possibility relate to the ERHS Black Panther issue?  It would seem to make sense that if the Rev. Dr. Stephens ascribed to Black Liberation Theology, that his wife, Marquita, is also a proponent of the same belief system as would be their children.  In that belief system, the Black Panthers would not be viewed as the violent criminals they were, but as liberators of oppressed people.  Is that what Ms. Stephens "trained" the ERHS teachers to believe as well?

How are Marquita Stephens, Principal Harper and Tishanna Brown connected?  From Robert Stephens' LTE, it is known that he graduated not from East Ridge High School, since it was not open in 2006, but Woodbury High School.  Did his younger brother attend ERHS?  Or are the three mentioned above acquainted in another way?  It seems that according to the emails (see below) between Principal Harper and Ms. Stephens that they were working together on the teacher training presentation that Ms. Stephens performed on March 21, 2013.  What exactly was taught during that "training"?  Why weren't the concerned parents notified by the district that the "training" occurred or was planned?  If Ms. Stephens truly wants a "dialogue" between the various groups in the community, why was this training kept secret?  Why wouldn't the concerned parents also be invited to the "training"?

Last week, one of the concerned parents was strongly advised by a school board member (with witnesses) that the parents should remove their children from East Ridge High School due to the concerned parents' persistence in requesting that the school board investigate the Black Panther announcement.  The school board member obviously feels concern for the children, why doesn't it seem to concern the rest of the board?  Why isn't the board seeing the need to stand up and speak out about the possibility of harassment (or worse) of concerned parents' children at ERHS?  Is the school board afraid of the announcement supporters? And if so, why?  Is it the fear of being labeled, like the concerned parents have been, as "racist"? Or is there a more nefarious element at work? Are the administration and school board members being pressured to continue to try to sweep this issue under the rug and allow the concerned parents to receive the brunt of the accusations that their concerns are racially motivated? If that is the case, why are they caving to the pressure? Of what or whom might they be so afraid?

FOIA'd Emails