28 March 2015

Has Zephyrhills High School become a correctional institution? Or a mini-North Korea?

Previously I have covered numerous topics regarding school principals who trump parental rights with all the power at their disposal, the most noteworthy being Virgil Mills Elementary School and their anti-parental rights policy which can turn parents into criminals by the mere issuance of a trespass warning.  Now our public schools are getting much more like a closed neverworld akin to a correctional facility or even a mini-North Korea.

Of recently, high school principals are pushing all their power over their students to a new level.  A great example can be found at Zephyrhills High School in Zephyrhills, which is 20 miles northeast of Tampa.  On the edict of Zephyrhills High School's principal, Andrew Frelick, he has ordered that all students needing to use the restroom be under a strict staff escort at all times, according to Bay News 9 and WTSP 10 News.

What?  Bathroom escort at all times?  Has Zephyrhills High School become a state correctional facility?  Or, better yet, has Zephyrhills High School seceded from the United States?  To me, this is absurd.

Unfortunately, principal Andrew Frelick's edict turned the entire Zephyrhills High School student body of 1,500 into state correctional institution inmates.  Let's make that better:  Principal Andrew Frelick decided to let Zephyrhills High School secede from the United States and become a territory of the repressive Democratic People's Republic of Korea, which we also know as North Korea.  I would be sure that North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un, would like administering an American high school from Pyongyang.

After all, if you happen to travel to North Korea - which the U.S. State Department considers non-routine for American citizens - you will be under escort at all times by your tour guide who is an agent of the North Korean government from the time you step off the plane at Pyongyang and your passport and visa are checked to the time you get back on the plane to head to Beijing to catch your return flight home.  While you are in North Korea, the threat of detention (not the detention you see in an American public school for minor transgressions of school rules) and imprisonment looms over your head at all times, even if you have the proper paperwork to enter North Korea.

Besides, having to be escorted to the restroom at Zephyrhills High School - or anywhere else on campus - is demeaning to students.  That's like treating students like state prison inmates, only without the handcuffs and leg irons that are applied by the correctional officers prior to moving a prisoner from a cell.

Perhaps Dr. Kurt Browning, the Pasco County Superintendent of Schools, needs to overrule principal Andrew Frelick's authority and do away with this draconian treatment of students who need to use the restroom.  If a school principal is concerned about abuse of restroom privileges, there are other ways to address the issue.

After all, Dr. Browning, as superintendent of schools for Pasco County, is the head principal in charge.

Parents of students in Zephyrhills High School, you have a voice.  Voice your displeasure to Zephyrhills High School principal Andrew Frelick.  Voice your displeasure to Pasco County Schools Superintendent Dr. Kurt Browning as well as to the Pasco County School Board in Land o' Lakes.

Believe me, if I had any children attending Zephyrhills High School, they would be immediately pulled out of that school and either sent to private school or homeschool.  Students are people, not prison inmates nor North Korean citizens.

Besides, Dr. Browning needs to replace Andrew Frelick as principal of Zephyrhills High School with another principal that cares not only about students but their parents as well.  By enacting this draconian bathroom escort policy and treating students like prison inmates or North Korean citizens, Principal Andrew Frelick does not care one bit about his students.

That's my opinion.

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