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Fox News: Common Core's rollout rocky in New York
Seirra Olivero, a 13-year-old student at Orange-Ulster BOCES, claims she was suspended from school last week after telling classmates they could opt out of taking the Common Core English test -- a decision few students and parents in the area knew was possible, according to the girl's mother.
The eighth-grader was suspended for two days for "insubordination," following the April 1 incident, in which she informed her friends they had a choice whether or not to take the exam on the day of the test. According to Seirra, she had just stepped off the school bus when she encountered a fellow classmate who was "anxious" about taking the test.
"I told my friend he didn’t have to take the test and then a teacher who overheard me told me to shut my mouth and keep walking," Seirra told FoxNews.com. Once inside the school, Seirra told another friend the test was not mandatory, she says, prompting that same teacher to usher her into the principal's office. After walking out of the principal's office following an argument and then threatening to sue an administrator over his handling of the matter, Seirra was given a two-day suspension.
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In Arkport, N.Y., meanwhile, parents are complaining over a decision by school officials to reward students who took the Common Core English test with ice cream, while denying it to those children who opted out of the exam.
Julianne Merry, a mother of three who is staunchly opposed to the Common Core curriculum, said students in third through sixth grades who took the test last week at Arkport Central School were given ice cream afterward.
While Merry's children were not directly affected, she said she thought the decision was a poor one. "Some say 'bribery,' but it was never offered beforehand. I don't think it was done to reward to those children who took the test. I think it was done as a slap on the hand to those of us who refused," she told FoxNews.com. Click to expand...
The principal who suspended Sierra claims he can't discuss student discipline, but tried to say that "nine other students didn't take the test and weren't suspended," but none of them told other students they didn't have to take the test.
This program is a joke. It needs to be chucked.