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What began as an innocent trip to a swimming pool on a hot Monday afternoon, turned into a Civil Rights lesson, for 65 African American kids who visited a private, read white, swimming pool.
From looking at the pictures of the children from the Philadelphia Creative Step Day Camp, most of them looked to be under 12 years old. These kids were told that they could come swim at the Valley Swim Club every Monday. Upon getting into the pool, most of the white kids either got out on their own, or were pulled out of the pool by their parents. Many of the Day Campers allege to have heard racial slurs aimed their way. They were then told by the lifeguards that they had to leave the pool IMMEDIATELY because “minorities aren’t allowed to swim there.”
When the president of the Valley Swim Club, John Duesler, was contacted, his initial statement was that “there was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club.” After that comment became public, Mr. Duesler and many of the parents who pulled their children from the pool are now saying that it was a “misunderstanding.” Even a child can recognize racism when he or she sees it!
By the next Friday, there was such an outrage about how these children were treated and how these white parents acted, that Mr. Duesler was compelled to speak out.
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Let me say this first. I have always loved school and loved, and still love, to learn new things. I’ve been fortunate in my life to have the ability to learn things fairly easily and the subjects that didn’t come naturally to me, the brains to figure it out. Why I am certainly no genius, I could have done whatever I wanted to do. While my father was DEFINITELY one of the biggest assholes god ever created, he was no dummy. Any my mother was one of the first African American women that I knew personally, who refused to “play dumb” to make anyone feel better about themselves. The second was a teacher that I had at Lemon Grove Junior High, named Mrs. Coleman, who was my English teacher. She would always tell me that I was being very “loquacious” today. Not knowing what that meant, she told me to look it up. It meant that I was talking to much. Go figure. Me talking too much! LOL The confidence that I acquired from these two women is immeasurable and I thank them both! While I certainly had teachers who had “been on the job too long“, I have been blessed to have sat in classrooms with teachers/professors who loved what they did and it showed. That, beginning in elementary and up through college, is the reason I have love school and respect teachers. So it pissed me off to no end that THREE IDIOT JUDGES in Washington State said that it was OK for a teacher to have sex with a student if that student is over 18 years old!! WTF!!
The teacher, Matthew Hirschfelder, YUP I have no problem calling his sorry, triflin ass out, was initially charged with First Degree Sexual Misconduct with a graduating senior in 2006. What was his explanations for his actions? Not that as a teacher, he had NO RIGHT to even go there. Not that he was in a position of power whether expressed or implied over her. Not that what he did was UNETHICAL and IMMORAL. His defense? She was over 18. At the time, he was 33 years old. Yeah, OK. What a loser! Oh, and did I mention that one of the judges is a woman????
My former high school, Helix High School in La Mesa, CA, has had at least four incidences of teachers or coaches who have had sexual relationships with students in the last two years alone! A kid who lives on my block and attended Helix in the last two years, a neighbor, and I were talking and he said that those four were just the “tip of the iceberg.” That many other teachers quit or moved before they could be charged for their actions. YIKES!! At Lemon Grove Junior High, a teacher was arrested for having Child Porn on his computer. My high school basketball coach was alleged to have had “relationships” with many of his players. While I have no proof of this, I did hang out with him and other teammates where alcohol was around. And he did eventually marry a former player after she graduated from high school. So how far of a leap does anyone need to take???