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Kudos to Southwest High Students on their Walkout!

As featured in Pioneer Press and Star Tribune reports, approximately 50% of Minneapolis Southwest High's junior class didn't show up on Wednesday, April 17, 2002 for the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment Math Test because they felt the tests were a waste of time--additionally, they are not tied to grades and are not required for graduation. The tests, which are used to determine how well schools are implementing graduation standards, were also quietly boycotted by students at other schools, including South. Though a SW PTA leader, Debi Weldele, characterizes the incident as merely spring fever, that doesn't make much sense, especially since most of the students who skipped the test also attended many of their classes that day. We congratulate the students who chose not to take this test. They understand the problem standardized testing has created in our schools, and are taking action to challenge it. Also, they understand how ridiculous it is to require another test of students when performance can easily be measured in other ways--such as grades, class tests, and of course, the intelligence to devise a protest such as this one. In a time of sick and pathetic behavior in many levels of government (especially in schools), students standing up for their beliefs renews our faith in humanity. (And it looks like they learned about their rights to peaceful protest--so they should pass the civics evaluation!)

Is there Racial Profiling in the Halls?

Some South students claim that the administration is profiling them in the halls of the school. Several students have contacted SouthHighSucks.com to tell us of incidents in which non-white students were harassed in the hallway even with a pass, while white students loitered in the hall for nearly half an hour without being spoken to by administrators. While the emails only bring up anecdotal evidence, it does seem to indicate a lingering problem. (We have seen this same kind of stuff happen as well...) We will continue to follow this story, but if you have any comments on this, we encourage you to post them in our message board, or send them to our staff confidentially, through the comment form in the right margin of this page. Thanks for your help.

Mens' Restroom Closure

March 19, 2002--Apparently, the administration wants all the dudes in the school to pee in the hallway, and in lockers, because the first floor restroom near Room 134 and a third floor restroom are locked up, presumably to be used as janitor lounges.

South Media Center Blocks SouthHighSucks.com

By Dr. Vinny & Mr. Tee Doff
March 19, 2002--The South High Media center blocks our website from being viewed. This is due to the fact that our URL (web address) contains the word "suck". Apparently, they are using some amateur filtering software that scans for letter strings in URLs--and they think by doing that, they will keep anything "bad" on the internet from getting to the school computers. Well, it may be effective in keeping our site away, but I can guarantee you it won't keep all the porno sites out!

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