My thought thus far

As you can see, since 1997 there has been one continuous thing on the TPS BOE, and that is Mr. Sykes. Now, in fairness, over the years I have found many positive things about Mr. Sykes and things that he has done for the community. He stepped in and proposed that the BOE put up a reward to help solve the murder of Maurice Purifie. He spoke up about the city closing a bar where there were constant problems and a small child ended up being shot in their own home near the bar. I do feel that Mr. Sykes has done many good things for the community.

As with everything though, there is a "BUT" in this situation. The but is that Mr. Sykes always seems to have stepped in ONLY when the situation was racially motivated. Now, I am in no way, shape or form saying there is anything wrong with that, but I can't help but wonder if Mr. Sykes would have been as motivated in these situations if they would have involved children that were not African-American or inner city children.

Yes, the inner city of Toledo is in trouble. I know this from witnessing it first hand out my front window when I lived there for 2 years. I seen first hand how very quickly it is going down hill, and we left because my families lives were in danger after a shooting in our own front yard. My heart goes out to every person who unwillingly has to live their lives that way, no matter what their race is. NO ONE should have to live their life in fear! The period of time we spent living in the inner city was a life changing event for not only myself, but the rest of my family.

But my "problem" with Mr. Sykes is that he, as well as many other TPS administrators I have encounted in my years with TPS, seem only to be interested in stepping up to bat if it involves minority children or children from the inner city. Yes, TPS is roughly 50% minority children, but that only makes up half of the children. Yes, I do agree that history does show that minority children generall do have a more difficult life. But I feel that ALL children in TPS need to be treated equally. This does nothing more than incubate segregation in the schools, which then carries on with children throughout their lives.

The ONLY way our community and/or our country is going to change is if we start with the children. If we raise our children to believe that one race is superior to another they will then pass that on to their children, and their children will pass it on to theirs, and it will keep going on an on just like it is today.

It is our job as parents to teach our children to look beyond what is on the outside, whether that means skin color or something else. When people learn to look beyond what they see, that is when they learn. We, as a society, have become to obsessed with what is on the outside, whether its skin color, the kind of car you drive, the type of clothes you wear or many other things. It is that obsession, in my opinion, that has lead people to be too worried about what everyone else is doing instead of worrying about the important things.

Those important things are caring and concern. We need to learn to care about things, even though they may not seem important to us. We need to get involved and do what we can to change the things that are wrong, and help improve the things that are right. We need to teach our children love, not only to love others, but most importantly to love themselves. With that love will come respect, and when we respect ourselves, we learn to respect others. If we can all work on teaching our children that, imagine what the world will be like for them when they are parents and going through what we are currently going through.

We need to learn to be thankful for what we have been given and not take advantage of it or assume it will always be there. I've learned in life that what is with me one day may be gone the next. Sometimes that is a special person and sometimes it is a thing. What I hope is that while that person or thing was in my life that I appreciated them the way they should have been. When we learn to appreciate what we have, it makes life that much more meaningful, at least to me. The people and things I've lost along the path of life have either came back or been replaced, but what I've lost will always hold a treasured place in my heart and what I have today has even more meaning because of what I have lost.

In conclusion, I'm still not sure how I feel about TPS. Do I think I could do a better job than the current members of the BOE? No, I couldn't. They have more knowledge about the goings on than I have or care to. But I think that our BOE, as well as all of the TPS administrators, need to come together as one and support our children. The children in today's classrooms are the leaders of tomorrow and I don't think the example that is currently being shown to them is the right one. I think that if they were not board members and were sitting in our seats seeing things how we see them, they would be as angry and frustrated as we are, if not more so.

I can't help but wonder if Dr. Sanders is sitting back laughing at the mess that he left behind, or if this was his plan in the first place. He blamed his leaving on the new board members, but he was looking to leave well before they ever even decided to run for their seats. He left because he knew he wouldn't be able to continue to pull the wool over our eyes anymore. And if Mr. Sykes has an ounce of pride left in him, he will either step down soon, or apologize and stop acting like a child. (which I personally do NOT see happening) Someone needs to explain to our children how it is that in 1997 we had a SURPLUS of $6 million dollars, but now we have a deficit of $18 million after closing their schools, firing their teachers and making cut after cut after cut. Someone needs to explain where this money went rather than buying our children text books or keeping their schools open, or keeping GOOD teachers.

I do not fully blame the BOE, many things also point to the TFT Mrs. Lawrence in the articles I've read. I think that there are many things that could have been done differently over the years. BUT, those things are in the past, and there is nothing that can be done to change them. The only thing that we can do now is learn from the mistakes that EVERYONE made and change them so that they are not made again. I find it TOTALLY appalling that we elect these people to choose who gets mold and teach our children and have expectations from them, yet get angry at us because we, as parents, have seen the people in "power" not live up to what they have told us they will do.

We can only hope, for our childrens sakes, that this nonsense ends soon.

I may post articles from 2004-2006 in the future, but what I've done already has taken too much time away from my family, and has done nothing more than disgust me. I do not understand how this has gone on this long, or how it continues to be allowed to go on. But I know that as a wife and mother, I have to set my priorities. Anyone who can get online can find more information, and my hope is that you do. I hope that it's as much of an eye opening experience for you as it has been for me.

Thank you for reading!