The old timers who held off the British Invasion

Bobby Vinton was on a roll during the early 1960s.

His success, like the success of many in the music industry was a combination of talent and pure luck.

Though Vinton is known now as a singer, he was under contract to a record company as a bandleader, but the contract had not worked out well for either side. Vinton had no chart success and was about to be let go by the company when he took a chance on doing a song no one else wanted to perform.

"Roses Are Red," was a top 10 hit and began a string of chart successes like Vinton, with hits such as "Blue Velvet," "Blue on Blue," and the one that reached number one on the charts for four weeks right at the beginning of 1964.







Vinton, who had several hits digging into songs from previous decades, took a 1945 Vaughn Monroe song, "There I've Said It Again," and made it my own. "There I've Said It Again" was always my favorite Vinton song and also holds a significant place in rock history.

It was the last number one song before the British Invasion.

Vinton's song was knocked out of the number one slot the following week by "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by the Beatles and after that it was hard to find a week when the charts were not dominated by British groups with everyone from the ones with staying power like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks and the Hollies to steadily reliable groups like the Dave Clark Five, Herman's Hermits, Gerry and the Pacemakers and the Searchers.

Many of those who had hits in the early 60s vanished from the charts. No more hits from Chubby Checker, Bobby Vee, Bobby Rydell, Neil Sedaka and the many child actors who recorded hits like Annette Funicello, Paul Peterson, Johnny Crawford and Shelley Fabares.

The idea that the Beatles and the British acts ran everyone else off the charts is fiction, however.

Some of the groups and performers that were having hits before the British invasion continued to crack the top 10 every time out.

The Beach Boys released their first number one hit, "I Get Around" and also charted with "Don't Worry Baby" in 1964, while the Four Seasons continued to ride high with "Rag Doll" and "Dawn (Go Away). All of the Motown performers were successful, including the Supremes who reached number one five straight times.

Bobby Vinton also continued to have success in 1964 with "My Heart Belongs to Only You" reaching number nine and "Mr. Lonely" taking him back to the top of the charts.

Two legends of early rock and roll also held their own with the British groups.

Though he was in the middle of his movie star phase, Elvis Presley charted with a number of songs, including "Such a Night" and "Kissin' Cousins," and the St. Louis' Chuck Berry had two hits, "No Particular Place to Go" and "You Never Can Tell."

Some of those who had great success during the British Invasion era were great talents of an earlier era who may have seemed a bit old fashioned but unexpectedly had success in 1964 and 1965, simply by turning out great songs.

Here's a look at three of those legends.

Louis Armstrong

After the Beatles knocked Bobby Vinton's "There I've Said It Again" out of number one, the Fab Four held the spot for the next three months with their first three singles, until an unlikely artist knocked them out of the top spot.

Louis Armstrong was the greatest jazz musician in history and was no stranger to success in the music industry, but his hits were in the '20s and '30s. His rendition of the song "Hello Dolly" from the Broadway musical of the same name made him the oldest performer to ever hit number one on the Billboard charts at age 63.




Dean Martin

The Beatles continued to dominate the charts later in 1964, with their number one hits including the title song from their movie "A Hard Day's Night."

Its reign at number one ended thanks to another oldtimer, though not quite as old as Louis Armstrong.

Dean Martin had not had a Top 10 hit since "Return to Me" in 1957 and it had been even longer since he reached number one in 1956 with "Memories Are Made of This." He had spent more time as an actor, but his return to the recording studio not only landed him an unexpected success with "Everybody Loves Somebody," but launched a string of hits and helped him land a spot as the host of the highly successful "Dean Martin Show" on NBC.

Martin, like Armstrong, was a major musical talent, though his seemingly carefree attitude caused a lot of his musical work to be overlooked.





Frank Sinatra

Unlike Martin, Sinatra had never left the charts, having been a fixture since the early '40s, but he, like Martin, had not been in the top 10 since 1957 when he reached number two with "All the Way" and his last number one was "Learnin' the Blues" in 1955.

While Sinatra continued to reach the top 40 the first and second years of the British Invasion, it wasn't until 1966 when "Ol' Blue Eyes' broke through, scoring with "That's Life" and then his number one hit "Strangers in the Night."

He was 50 at the time.

After that, he continued to chart into the 1980s, including recording such classics as "It Was a Very Good Year," "My Way," and "New York, New York."

***
Three interesting tidbits about "Strangers in the Night."

1. Sinatra hated the song.

2. Glen Campbell played rhythm guitar.

3. The scat phrase Sinatra used in the song, "dooby dooby doo," inspired the name of the cartoon dog Scooby Doo.

These famous country singers got their starts in other kinds of music

If there is one certainly about country music it is that every few years a controversy will pop up about some artist on the country charts not being "real country."

Of course, anyone who watched the recent Ken Burns' documentary knows that many influences go into the making of country music, everything from gospel to jazz and even rock.

In the mid-1970s, Conway Twitty was upset that Olivia Newton-John and Charlie Rich been nominated for Country Music Association awards. They weren't "real country."

As someone who was a big fan, then and now, '50s and '60s rock, I was amused by Twitty's remarks since he launched his career with a string of rock hits, including "It's Only Make Believe" and "Lonely Blue Boy."







I am not going to get into any argument over who is country and who is not, but I thought it would be fun to recall a few songs from famous country artists who had their beginnings recording songs in the pop and rock genre.

Some of them older readers will remember, but I am betting there may be a couple here that will surprise you.

Lonely Blue Boy- Conway Twitty 1959

Conway Twitty broke onto the rockabilly scene in a big way in 1959, reaching the Top 10 twice, with his signature song "It's Only Make Believe" and this one.



Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition was In)- Kenny Rogers and the First Edition 1967

Kenny Rogers made the jump from this song, a remnant of the psychedelic rock era. Rogers was no newcomer to music when this song was released. He had minor hits dating back into the 1950s, but this one put him on the map and on the charts and led to a string of hits including "But You Know I Love You" and the more country-oriented "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town" and "Reuben James."



Not Too Long Ago- The Uniques 1965

I loved this song when it came out, and they played it all on the time on WHB in Kansas City, but sadly, it was never more than a regional hit.

It did introduce the world to the Uniques' lead singer- the talented Joe Stampley, though.

Stampley had a string of top 10 country songs in the '70s, including two number ones, "Roll On, Big Mama" in 1974 and "All These Things," in 1975, which was actually a remake of a regional hit he had with the Uniques.

Stampley also teamed with Moe Bandy for some novelty hits, including the number one hit, "Just Good Ole Boys" in 1979.



Lonely Weekends- Charlie Rich 1960

During the 1950s and 1960s, Charlie Rich was a much-admired performer who had a pair of decent hits in "Lonely Weekends" and "Mohair Sam," but never reached the stardom his talent indicated he would have.

Rich finally broke through in 1973 with "Behind Closed Doors" and followed with a string of hits that lasted through the decade.

Once he hit the big time on the country charts (despite Conway Twitty's disapproval), with "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl," Rich was also able to have hits with some of the songs he had originally released a decade earlier, including "There Won't Be Anymore."



Wanda Jackson- Let's Have a Party 1960

When Wanda Jackson's legendary career started, she was a rockabilly singer who had a string of minor hits, then broke into the top 40 with this one.

When rock music dried up, Jackson moved into country, recording the classic "Right or Wrong" and "In the Middle of a Heartache," both in 1961 and continued having hits through the '60s.

When she stopped making the country charts, Jackson remade herself many times over the next several decades, first as a gospel singer, then returning to her rockabilly routes in the '90s. She was elected to the Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame in 2009 and finally "retired" at age 82 last year.

Even in her retirement from performing she is continuing to record, however.

She has lasted the whole rock 'n roll era, from dating a pre-stardom Elvis Presley in 1955 to making a rock album with Joan Jett today. (The video was removed from YouTube.)

Say- Mel Tillis 1960

Mel Tillis had far more success as a songwriters during the '60s penning such hits as "Detroit City" for Bobby Bare, "Ruby, Don't Take Your Love to Town," for Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, and "Emotions" for Brenda Lee.

This one from 1960 is less like his country hits of the 1970s, including "Coca Cola Cowboy" and "Send Me Down to Tucson" both in 1978, and more like the songs released by artists like Steve Lawrence and Bobby Rydell.

If you have never heard this one, you are in for a treat. (The video was removed from YouTube.)

Three great cover songs you may have never heard

For nearly 11 years, I was lucky enough to sing with the local band Natural Disaster in the Joplin/Neosho area of southwest Missouri and all we did was covers.

It was not that none of us could write songs- our group leader Richard Taylor is an excellent songwriter and I could crank out a novelty song every once in a while, but Natural Disaster did not perform those songs. Our play list consisted of covers of rock and country songs from the '50s through the '80s.

We loved the music.

Cover songs get a bad reputation, especially when the covers are a note-for-note recreation of the original, but there are great cover versions that dwarf the original versions.

As good as the Isley Brothers' "Twist and Shout" was, and it was good, that the world at large that is a Beatles song and a classic.

I enjoy Otis Redding's version of "Respect," but once Aretha Franklin decided to sing that song it was hers forever.

Thanks to YouTube, music fans have been introduced to cover versions of nearly every song ever created and just as in the cases of the Beatles and Aretha Franklin.

Here are three I discovered that resonated with me and a few comments for each of them. I hope you enjoy these selections.

Bridge Over Troubled Water- Roy Orbison

I might as well get over with right at the beginning of this one. I am going to tick off a lot of people.

I never liked the original version of the song. I enjoy Simon and Garfunkel's music, but this one just seemed to last forever.

And to heap even more abuse on those who love the original- Roy Orbison's version is better.

Art Garfunkel's vocal were pure, clear, antiseptic and never had a hint of any real feeling. There is a reason why Paul Simon succeeded after splitting with Garfunkel and Garfunkel faded into obscurity.

Orbison, on the other hand, had one of the great voices of rock history and you can feel his pain when he sings. Though he wrote most of his songs, when he did a cover,  he owned it.

Judge for yourself.
.
Positively 4th Street- Johnny Rivers

Johnny Rivers has never received the respect he deserves.

How in the world is this man not in the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. Rivers had a string of hits that lasted approximately 15 years, a lifetime in pop music and it appears he has been penalized for being great at what he does- he offers fresh interpretations of older songs and he doesn't write his own.

For the most part, it is Rivers' cover version of many songs that we remember. When you think of "Mountain of Love," you don't think of Harold Dorman,  when you think of "Seventh Son," you don't think of Willie Mahon, and when you think of Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu, you don't think of Huey "Piano" Smith and the Clowns.

Once his versions were released, Johnny Rivers owned those songs.

And he didn't just do it with songs originally done by lesser obscure acts. Rivers' cover of Motown hits "Baby I Need Your Loving" and "The Tracks of My Tears" did not surpass the originals, but they held their own with the Four Tops and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.

To give you an idea of how good Rivers is as what he does, he even outdid the master on "Memphis," one of his signature tunes. Who thinks of "Memphis" as a Chuck Berry song?

When the song is played by cover bands, and it is a staple among oldie cover bands and country performers, it is arranged and performed the way Rivers did it.

Rivers' cover of Bob Dylan's "Positively 4th Street" was not a hit, but it was something even better- it was Dylan's favorite version of the song. He liked Rivers' version better than his own.




Suzi Quatro- Does Your Mother Know?

Fans of the Ron Howard-Henry Winkler Happy Days series in the 1970s and early '80s, may remember Suzi Quatro from her handful of appearances as rock singer Leather Tuscadero.

She had hit, "Stumblin' In," a duet with Chris Norman that reached number four on the Billboard chart in 1978, but that bouncy pop song was not the kind of music she liked to do. Quatro was a rocker and though she never had the success here that was expected for her, she became a superstar in Europe and has been a major influence on many female rock performers for the past four decades.

I stumbled across this performance of Abba's song "Does Your Mother Know?" several months back and loved it.

In this 2014 clip, she is 63 or 64 years old and she is still going strong.

Simon and Garfunkel and the jam session in the driver's ed room

(Today's Trivia Question: What do these five songs have in common? Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer," from 1968, Tom and Jerry's "Hey School Girl," from 1957, Tico and the Triumphs' "Motorcycle" from 1961, Edie Brickell's "Good Times" from 1994, and "We Are the World" from 1985. The answer and videos for each song are below the post.)

The last week of classes at East Newton High School usually did not see much education taking place, at least not in the early 1970s when I was a student there.

It was senior week back in those days and unless a senior had work to complete before graduation, he or she could take the week off.

That made it particularly fun during the last week of the 1972-73 school year when I was a junior at East Newton and was mostly taking classes that were filled with seniors.

Several of the students, mostly juniors, had concocted a plan to avoid not only work, but class. We devised a series of excuses to use on the teachers, with some of us telling a teacher that another teacher wanted us to help with some project in her class and others telling that teacher they were needed in his class.

Then we all met up in the small driver's education room in the corner of the library. That was where some of our more musically inclined students had stashed their guitars planning on having a jam session every hour they could get away with it. Since it was the last week of the school year, not much was going on in the library, so no one was paying any attention and you could barely hear what was going on in the driver's ed room.

My second hour class was sociology taught by Mr. Russell Wilkie. Mr. Wilkie was a nice man, but was always deadly serious and often seemed ill at ease in front of a class. Once a year, he let his "wild side" show, doing a brief, unexpected imitation of Elvis. The time for that imitation had passed a few weeks earlier, so Mr. Wilkie was back to being all business.

Since there were only three people left in the class that day, including me and Richard Taylor, the young man who later became the leader of our group Natural Disaster, Mr. Wilkie decided it was an excellent time to do some paperwork, make copies,and take care of grades in a front office and when Richard and I asked if we could help another teacher, he gladly gave us permission, and the other person in the room, and after 43 years I can't remember who it was, tagged along with us as we made a beeline toward the driver's ed room.

I didn't play guitar, so I listened as Richard, Bill Lemaster, Raymond Lambert, and others who did played whatever songs came to mind.

After four decades, I can't remember which songs were played that day, except for one. Richard and Raymond were singing Simon and Garfunkel's 1968 song, "The Boxer," and were doing a great job on it, when the door to the driver's ed room flew open and Mr. Wilkie entered.

The music stopped. Mr. Wilkie stood there and we were all envisioning a trip to Principal Don Johnston's office. "Boys," he said, then he paused for what seemed to be minutes, then added, "That sounded pretty good." He clapped his hand, made a dancing motion, and walked out of the room.

We spent most of that day going in and out of the driver's ed room, depending on which teachers we could fool into letting us roam the halls. Looking back, I am almost certain we didn't put anything over on any of them.

The wonderful thing about songs is that they make up the soundtrack of our lives. We always associate certain songs with certain memories. Every time I hear "The Boxer," I remember Mr. Wilkie and that driver's ed room jam session.

(Answer to today's trivia question. Each song is connected in some way to Paul Simon. Simon and Garfunkel hit the charts for the first time in 1957 as Tom and Jerry with the Everly Brothers imitation, "Hey School Girl," reaching number 49.  Paul made it back to the charts in 1961, writing "Motorcycle," which barely cracked the Billboard Hot 100 at 99. Edie Brickell, who sings "Good Times" is Mrs. Paul Simon, while Paul is one of the classic collection of musical giants who combined to make the fundraising hit "We Are the World" in 1985.)

Welcome to Jukebox Oldies

I keep trying new things with this blog, which was originally Room 210 Discussion and was set up at the urging of some of my former students who wanted to continue discussions about the kinds of topics they had written papers on when they were in my class.

For a time, it was used as part of a class called Encore at East Middle School, and had articles and practice essay tests over those articles to help students prepare for the annual MAP tests.

The last time it was used for any classroom purpose was 2010. After that, I used the blog, plus other blogs I had started and seldom updated, to promote my books and signings.

Unfortunately, I failed to remove the message at the top of the page that said the site was for East Middle School students. As far as I know, none of them even knew it existed by 2013 when my promotion of my book No Child Left Alive gave Joplin R-8 Superintendent C. J. Huff the pretext to fire me saying I was promoting and assigning obscene material to my students.

Since then I briefly tried turning the blog into Inside Viral News and Inside Politics, but I wasn't really much into viral news and most of my writing on politics stayed on the Turner Report.

At the same time, I wanted to keep this blog alive because of the connection it has to my personal history.

So I am ready to try something new. As some of you are aware, from the beginning of 2002 through December 2012, I was a member of the band Natural Disaster, which played oldies, primarily those from the late 1950s through the 1970s.

I have always loved the music from that era, rock and country, and in the new blog I plan to write about that music, telling personal stories, plus sharing videos, trivia and occasionally, news about the musicians and songs of that era.

I hope you enjoy it.,

Are school dress codes too strict?

Violence, statistics, and American education

No phrase irritates me as much as "data-driven education."

As someone who has dealt with educational data for the past 35 years, first as a reporter and now as a classroom teacher, I have learned that statistics should never be taken at face value.

From my discussions with teachers across the United States, I have seen many of my thoughts confirmed and many of them in a way that scares me, especially when it comes to statistics on violence in our schools.

I have heard one story after another of how school administrators, seeking to climb up the organizational ladder, report declining statistics on violent incidents and referrals, often by categorizing them differently, or by adding a separate layer of reports that are then not included in those that go to the state or federal governments.

I also hear from teachers who suffer the consequences when their building administrators, often following edicts from top administration, send those who commit classroom disruptions back into the same classrooms without any type of meaningful consequence. This has led to an increasing feeling of isolation among teachers, and in fact, has led many of them to leave for other, less stressful, better-paying jobs.

That lack of discipline has led, despite "statistics" from many school districts showing that the number of such "incidents" is on the decline, to an increased amount of bullying, which always leaves the door open to the sort of violent incident that happened April 20, 1999, at Columbine, and has been repeated since then across the country.

Education, in a frenzy brought on, in part, by No Child Left Behind, perhaps just as much as a reaction to the so-called "reformers" who are looking for ways to profit from public education or want to destroy it so they do not have to pay taxes (since they are sending their own children to private schools, anyway), has jumped on the bandwagon of one fad after another, often with sketchy, sometimes non-existent statistical backing.

And let's face it, it is hard for school boards and administrators to make names for themselves, unless they are trying the latest "innovative" methods of teaching, even as they discard those two years later for the next round of can't miss, cutting edge, state-of-the-art advancements.

All of these factors increasingly leave classroom teachers in a struggle to separate the wheat from the chaff among these educational ideas, and being forced often to make "innovations" work even when common sense says they won't.

Teachers' struggles to cope with all of these outside forces are the focus of my novel, No Child Left Alive. I had initially planned a Christmas promotion for the e-book this weekend, but I do not intend to try to make a profit from a book with that title and with the tagline "If the shooter doesn't get them, the system will," in the wake of Friday's shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut,

At the same time, I firmly believe that the issues brought up in the book are worthy of discussion, so I am offering free downloads of No Child Left Alive today (Sunday, December 16) and tomorrow.

Buzzwords like "data-driven education" and "best practices" are often the enemy of real education and rely on statistics and personal ambition that have nothing to do with the reality our nation's teachers see in the classroom every day.

Please feel free to download the book today or tomorrow and let's start a discussion.

New Illinois law prohibits students from making online threats

The problem of students threatening each other online has been a major problem in schools across the nation. The biggest dilemma facing school officials is the question of what can they do when the students making these threats are doing them on their own time. A new law in Illinois addresses the problem, according to an article in today's Chicago Sun-Times:

While examples of abusive behavior by students have multiplied across the nation and studies suggest half of all teens have been victimized by cyber-bullies, the law’s impetus came from an incident at Oswego High School six years ago, Illinois House minority leader Tom Cross said.


When an Oswego student posted an online diatribe against his teachers in 2005, vowing “I’m so angry I could kill,” leaders at School District 308 weren’t sure what they could do, SD 308 spokeswoman Kristine Liptrot said.



Since the threat was made outside school hours, away from school grounds from a private computer, they were concerned about interfering with the boy’s First Amendment rights and felt unable to suspend or expel the boy, who refused to take down the message until his parents intervened, Liptrot said, describing the experience as “upsetting and frightening” for the staff members and their families.

Cross said he’d tried repeatedly to change the law to strengthen school administrators’ hands in similar situations, but added that it’s taken a while for legislators to come to grips with Internet issues. “I don’t think kids are getting any meaner,” he said, “30 years ago, a bully might have said something in class — now they’ll say it on the Internet.”

The law allows administrators to discipline students who make any online threat that “could be reasonably interpreted as threatening to the safety and security” of another student or staff member.

It was needed because existing laws “weren’t specific enough,” bill sponsor state Rep. Sidney Matthias said. “We’re making it clear to students that this is unacceptable behavior,” he added.

Teenager sneaks off to Iraq

Students, please read the following story and then answer the questions at the bottom on Microsoft Word.

By Jamie Malernee, Kevin Smith and Karla Shores

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

January 1, 2006

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.-  He was born into money and privilege, the son of immigrants who came to this country from Iraq looking for freedom and a better life.

They found it, amassing wealth that gave him a home overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, tuition to a prestigious prep school, and a $50,000 Infiniti for his 16th birthday.

But Farris Hassan, a lanky, 6-foot-2 straight-A student who loves to debate world politics and shuns typical teenage hangouts, didn't want it.

He left his bedroom unadorned, kept his friends few and, two weeks ago, stunned those who knew him by walking away from his life here. The teen boarded a plane to the Middle East alone, knowing the journey might kill him. His ultimate destination: Baghdad. His plan: to stand with those struggling for democracy in Iraq.

As family and schoolmates awaited his safe return from Baghdad this weekend, they described a young man who feels guilty about the comfort he enjoys, who is brilliant but foolhardy, a boy brimming with idealism and the desire to make a difference.

His father, Redha Hassan, an anesthesiologist, said Farris spent two weeks traveling from Kuwait City to Beirut to Baghdad. He interviewed soldiers and everyday citizens to understand their plight before walking into a war-zone office of Associated Press. The news agency called the U.S. Embassy, which was already on the lookout for Farris.

Officials took him into custody Wednesday and put him on a plane to begin the long trip home Friday. The U.S. State Department warns Americans against traveling to Iraq, although it is legal.

"He wouldn't take it from anyone else. He had to see for himself," said his mother, Shatha Atiya, a therapist, who said she was furious and terrified when she learned where her son was headed.

Members of the media gathered outside Atiya's home hoping for interviews with the family. The BBC, FOX News, ABC World News Tonight and Teen People all wanted to know who this young man was.

Family and classmates said Farris was a junior at Pine Crest School, a Fort Lauderdale prep school that is often a gateway to the Ivy League. He is enrolled in several Advanced Placement classes, is a member of the debate team and the Renaissance Club, and is a vocal Republican.

"He was kind of unusual," said Chris Rudolf, 17, who eats lunch with Farris. "He wasn't really popular, but everyone knew him. He was shy about most things until you started talking about something he was passionate about. He was very passionate about the war in Iraq."

After leaving for the Middle East, Farris sent an e-mail in opposition of terrorism, saying more people needed to get involved in the Iraqi struggle for democracy, people like him. He wrote:

"To love is a not a passive thing; When I love, I do something, I function, I give myself. When I do that, I am freed from guilt. Love and kindness are never wasted. They always make a difference. I want to experience during my Christmas the same hardships ordinary Iraqis experience every day."

Farris is a Muslim, and his interest in Iraq grew from his family background; his parents were born there; and his voracious appetite for books and current events. The only reason he joined the football team his sophomore year, his uncle said, was to round out his college resume.

"He's not your typical teenager," Ahmad Hassan said.

The youngest of four children, Farris is unusually independent, said his eldest brother, Hayder Hassan. His siblings went off to college; his parents divorced.

"Basically, he grew up doing everything for himself, and I think this was all to show us he could do this too," Hayder Hassan said. "It was to prove something to us; that he's not a little kid."

Former football teammate Michael Matthews recalled that before Farris got his driver's license, he would take taxis to practice. Matthews said the teen's parents were frequently working or traveling. Farris' parents also gave him money to trade stocks, which he did successfully. He had his own credit cards.

"He's very much independent and on his own and self-confident," Matthews said.

When rumors about his trip began to spread at school, Farris skipped a week of classes before winter break started; classmates were dubious.

"We thought it was a little joke. I mean, we get in trouble for sneaking out of our house to go to the movies," said Anjali Sharma, who had classes with Farris last year.

When students realized the story was true, some said they didn't know whether to think Farris was extremely brave or extremely stupid. Earlier this year, schoolmates said, he was assigned to write an essay on something he felt strongly about, and he also learned about immersion journalism. That's what he was doing in Iraq, they said.

"Some people thought it was just so cool that he wanted to get involved, and others were scared because it was such a dangerous trip," student Tulsie Patel said.

Farris' father said Pine Crest in no way encouraged his son to go to Iraq. Redha Hassan said that he had planned to take his son there this summer as an extension of a school project, but that his son was too impatient and took off on his own.

Once Farris arrived in Kuwait City, Kuwait, he tried to cross into Iraq by taxi, his father said. When Farris found the border closed, he called his father, who says now that he was furious but gave his son the option of coming home or staying with family friends in Beirut for a week until the border opened and private security could be arranged.

Redha Hassan said he was lenient because of the boy's passion and his own past, which could not be verified independently. The elder Hassan said that when he was 14 and living in Iraq, he became active in a resistance movement against Saddam Hussein, including an assassination attempt on the now deposed leader.

Records show that in 1985, Redha Hassan, living in South Florida, was charged in connection with a scheme to print false Iraqi passports and military identification cards. A judge later dropped the charges. At the time, Hassan told the Sun-Sentinel that his brother had been executed and family members were kicked out of Iraq without papers, and that he wanted to help others similarly dispossessed.

Redha Hassan said he didn't want to kill his son's passion to help the democracy movement. "He wanted to show he was braver than me," Hassan said.

Once he learned of Farris' plans, Hassan said, he arranged for the boy to fly into Baghdad and be met by private security and taken to a local hotel so he could fulfill his quest. But when the boy entered the Associated Press office Tuesday, he was alone and said his parents did not know where he was, the news agency reported.

In contrast to Hassan's story, a U.S. government official speaking on the condition of anonymity to Associated Press said it was the U.S. military who kept Farris safe.

The teen left Baghdad on Friday, said Navy Commander Robert Mulac, who works in the Multi-National Force Iraq Press Office in Baghdad.

When the boy arrives in South Florida, he will face a media circus and punishment for his unapproved trip. His mother said she was going to ground him and take away his passport and credit cards. He also faces a disciplinary hearing at Pine Crest for missing school, though he won't be expelled.

"Obviously there have to be consequences," school President Lourdes Cowgill said. "He could have gotten himself killed."

1. What best explains why Farris went to Iraq?

A. Farris wanted to join the insurgency and battle against Americans.

B. Farris felt guilty because he was comfortable in American while his fellow Iraqis were suffering.

C. Farris won a trip to Baghdad on a game show.

D. Farris was bored and learned about the situation in Iraq by reading an article on the Internet.

2.  Describe how Farris' father found out about his son's trip and what his reaction was to it.

A. Farris' father took away his son's cellphone and MP3 player.

B. Farris' father joined Farris in Iraq where they could both fight alongside their countrymen.

C. Farris' father was proud of his son because his son was fighting against Saddam Hussein just like he did.

D. Farris called his father from Kuwait, and his father was furious.

3. What phrase best characterizes the students who attend Farris' high school?

A. The students are wealthy with parents who tend to be conservative.

B. The students care deeply about each other, and would do anything for their friends.

C. The students tend to get deeply involved in school projects, sometimes going a little overboard.

D. The students are rich and spend most of their time in malls and movie theaters.

4. In the first sentence, it says "he was born into money and privilege." Which of the following best explains what that means?

A. He had his own bedroom and Nintendo.

B. His family had money and a good life.

C. He lost his privileges by being grounded.

D. He was born in an expensive hospital.

White bus driver suspended for putting black students at the back of the bus

Each year in third quarter in communication arts in Room 210 we research the American civil rights movement, including such important developments as the Brown v. Board of Education decision and the Freedom Riders.
One event many have researched is the Montgomery Bus Boycott, led by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and started by Rosa Parks' refusal to move to the back of a bus.
Apparently, the kind of racism that required Mrs. Parks to give up her seat at the front of a bus to an able-bodied white male still exists. Associated Press reports a white school bus driver ordered nine African American students to move to the back of the bus:

One of her children, Jarvonica Williams, 16, said the bus driver allowed many white students to have seats all to themselves while some blacks were forced to stand or sit in others' laps.

Iva Richmond, whose 14- and 15-year-old children were on the bus, said Thursday that they previously had a black bus driver, but their bus assignment changed this year. When school started this month, the white driver told them she had assigned them seats, with the black children at the back of the bus.

(Photo information: Janice Williams, left, was one of the mothers who complained to school leaders about the bus driver. Photo by Associated Press)

Massachusetts school eliminates dances due to alcohol problems

By KEITH O'BRIEN
Boston Globe

BELMONT - Of the dozen or so students who had to be pulled off the dance floor for being intoxicated at the Belmont High School's Hoedown last March, principal Mike Harvey recalls one 18-year-old senior in particular.

Unable to reach his parents, administrators placed the wobbly student in police custody - not to be charged, just to be watched until his parents could be located. But once at the police station, according to authorities, the student made a clumsy effort to escape, pushing an officer, garnering criminal charges, and ultimately influencing Harvey to make a bold, if disappointing, decision.

Dances this fall are canceled in Belmont. Harvey, a square-jawed wall of a man, said he had no choice but to take drastic measures. In doing so he joined a growing number of school administrators who are cracking down on the state's pervasive culture of underage drinking.

Following recent incidents at football games at Westwood High School and Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, administrators at those schools have not only suspended students but changed school policies, restricting what students can bring to games and even requiring them, on one occasion, to be accompanied by chaperones.

A growing number of high schools are now using breathalyzers at school events, testing students they believe to be intoxicated or sometimes testing every single student to make sure no one has been drinking. At Winchester High School dances, parents are required to sign in their students at the door. And many schools have adopted zero-tolerance policies.

If you're a senior at Woburn High School, for example, and you get caught drinking at the prom, you can forget about collecting your diploma on time.

"You're cooked for graduation," said Woburn High School principal Bob Norton, noting that violators must enroll in a counseling program that lasts about two months. "We don't put anybody on a fast track. If you get caught at senior prom, you don't graduate."

Even though Massachusetts' rates of underage drinking overall have fallen in recent years, state and local officials are troubled by what they're seeing. The state still has one of the highest rates of underage binge drinking in the country, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

In 2006, more than 11 percent of Massachusetts youths ages 12 to 17 reported binge drinking - defined as consuming five or more drinks in one sitting - during the prior month, according to the survey. For underage drinkers age 12 to 20, the rate was more than double: 23 percent. And the number of high school students reporting any drinking in the previous month, according to 2007 state data, is even higher.

"It's 46 percent," said Michael Botticelli, director of the state Bureau of Substance Abuse Services. "Forty-six percent of high school students have drunk alcohol in the past month. That's not reassuring data to me."

What's troubling, Botticelli said, is the impact that alcohol can have on a young person's life. Research has shown that adolescent alcohol use can have long-term effects on the brain and lead to higher rates of alcoholism. And according to a 2007 report from the US surgeon general, alcohol is a leading contributor to death from injuries - the main killer of people under 21. Annually, the surgeon general said, about 5,000 people under 21 die from alcohol-related injuries, including 1,900 in car crashes.

Such statistics often aren't persuasive enough to keep youths from drinking. But they're enough to keep parents up at night, wondering if their children will make it home safe. And the numbers - as well as the mounting incidents of drinking on school grounds in Massachusetts - are certainly getting the attention of administrators.

Last spring, after what happened at Belmont High's Hoedown, Harvey said he knew it was time to make a change.

"I was sitting there thinking, 'What am I doing here?' Really questioning why we do dances in general," he said.

"We've been very lucky that nobody's been seriously hurt, I think. We've had a lot of luck. And I don't want to be around when the luck runs out."

Concerned about underage drinking, high schools, including Newton, Wellesley, Westwood, and others, started turning to breathalyzers several years ago. A majority of high schools now use the devices in some way, according to Noel Pixley, president of the Massachusetts Secondary School Administrators' Association.

Principals say they just work.

"How many schools can tell you they've had 18 consecutive proms - junior and senior proms - and haven't had a single issue with any students in possession, any bottles, any kids smelling of booze? None?" said John Brucato, the principal of Milford High School who began using breathalyzers at school events nine years ago. "We just haven't had issues."

Such testimonials are just one reason why Reading Memorial High School is considering using breathalyzers. In the next month, principal Joe Finigan hopes to present a breathalyzer proposal to the School Committee. Other schools, meanwhile, are stiffening breathalyzer policies already in place.

Unhappy that more than a dozen students showed up drunk at the junior prom last spring, Whitman-Hanson Regional High School administrators, who already owned a breathalyzer to be used just in case, purchased more devices and will be testing every student who attends a dance.

"My feeling was if I could keep students from drinking alcohol until 11:30 or until the end of the program, they would be inherently safer for the rest of the evening," said Whitman-Hanson principal Ed Lee.

But some school administrators say breathalyzers - while legal to use in schools - offer a false sense of security. They can drive some students away from dances; that only means, critics argue, that students prone to drinking could be drunk elsewhere. And some school administrators are just philosophically opposed to using breathalyzers.

"If that's the route you go, you're kind of admitting defeat," said John Ritchie, the principal of Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, where alcohol tainted the school's first football game of the season this month, leaving at least one student hospitalized, four cited by police, and seven suspended.

"If that's all you're doing, you're not dealing with the problem. That's like saying, 'People in prison are well-behaved.' "

Ritchie hopes to convene a meeting of Lincoln-Sudbury's school council this week to discuss adopting stiffer penalties for alcohol use, including, possibly, banning violators from the prom and other dances for the rest of the year.

Action is necessary, he said, given what he has learned in recent weeks students at his school: Drinking is far more widespread than he ever knew; water bottles don't always contain water; and students have traditionally seen the first football game of the fall, as well as other occasions, as a chance to get "juiced up."

Ritchie said he is intent not just on cracking down, but on changing the school's culture. And with his cancellation of dances in Belmont, Harvey hopes to do the same. For years, Belmont High School students say, there's been a tradition of drinking at the school, at least among some.

"I don't drink personally," said junior soccer player Josh Nelson. "But if you come back after the weekend, on a Monday, you hear stories about parties that happened and what people did. And if parents aren't going to be home the next weekend, people start planning then. You hear it."

In the spring of 2005, five students had to be hospitalized after showing up drunk to a dance. Harvey, who became principal the following fall, soon enacted a policy requiring students to sign a pledge not to drink before dances - and that worked for a while, he said. But with the Hoedown last spring and the arrest of one student, whose charges were later dismissed, it became clear, Harvey said, that something more needed to be done.

News that Belmont will have only two dances this year - the semiformal in the winter and the prom next spring - shocked students when Harvey announced it this month. Katie Christensen, a junior, called it "a wake-up call." And though many students were disappointed, they also understood.

Senior class president Deana DiSalvio said she supports Harvey's decision. It's time for students to understand that they can't drink and expect that the tragedies will always happen to someone else, she said.

"Thank God "we haven't had an accident."

Strip search of girl tests limits of school policy

Follow this link to New York Times story. When you have finished the story, return and answer the following questions on paper.

1. Which of the following best describes Savanah Redding's days at the school immediately following the strip search?

A. Students made fun of her

B. Cyberbullies created a website about her.

C. She was called into the office several more times.

D. She did not return to the school.

2. What caused school officials to conduct the search?

A. Savanah had been suspected of serving alcohol to other students.

B. She had been caught with drugs on an earlier occasion.

C. It was a random search and she was the one who was picked.

D. She won a contest.

3. In what way did Judge Wardlaw disagree with the other judges?

A. He believed school officials had no right to search Savanah.

B. He believed school officials had a good reason to conduct the search.

C. He thought school officials should have obtained a search warrant.

D. He could see both sides of the issue.

4. What does the word "inebriation" mean as it is used in the article?

A. bad behavior

B. getting carried away

C. being rowdy

4. being drunk

Massachusetts school eliminates dances due to alcohol problems

A Massachusetts high school has taken action against teen drinking by eliminating dances, according to an article in the September 28, 2008, Boston Globe.

By KEITH O'BRIEN
Boston Globe

BELMONT - Of the dozen or so students who had to be pulled off the dance floor for being intoxicated at the Belmont High School's Hoedown last March, principal Mike Harvey recalls one 18-year-old senior in particular.

Unable to reach his parents, administrators placed the wobbly student in police custody - not to be charged, just to be watched until his parents could be located. But once at the police station, according to authorities, the student made a clumsy effort to escape, pushing an officer, garnering criminal charges, and ultimately influencing Harvey to make a bold, if disappointing, decision.

Dances this fall are canceled in Belmont. Harvey, a square-jawed wall of a man, said he had no choice but to take drastic measures. In doing so he joined a growing number of school administrators who are cracking down on the state's pervasive culture of underage drinking.

Following recent incidents at football games at Westwood High School and Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, administrators at those schools have not only suspended students but changed school policies, restricting what students can bring to games and even requiring them, on one occasion, to be accompanied by chaperones.

A growing number of high schools are now using breathalyzers at school events, testing students they believe to be intoxicated or sometimes testing every single student to make sure no one has been drinking. At Winchester High School dances, parents are required to sign in their students at the door. And many schools have adopted zero-tolerance policies.

If you're a senior at Woburn High School, for example, and you get caught drinking at the prom, you can forget about collecting your diploma on time.

"You're cooked for graduation," said Woburn High School principal Bob Norton, noting that violators must enroll in a counseling program that lasts about two months. "We don't put anybody on a fast track. If you get caught at senior prom, you don't graduate."

Even though Massachusetts' rates of underage drinking overall have fallen in recent years, state and local officials are troubled by what they're seeing. The state still has one of the highest rates of underage binge drinking in the country, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

In 2006, more than 11 percent of Massachusetts youths ages 12 to 17 reported binge drinking - defined as consuming five or more drinks in one sitting - during the prior month, according to the survey. For underage drinkers age 12 to 20, the rate was more than double: 23 percent. And the number of high school students reporting any drinking in the previous month, according to 2007 state data, is even higher.

"It's 46 percent," said Michael Botticelli, director of the state Bureau of Substance Abuse Services. "Forty-six percent of high school students have drunk alcohol in the past month. That's not reassuring data to me."

What's troubling, Botticelli said, is the impact that alcohol can have on a young person's life. Research has shown that adolescent alcohol use can have long-term effects on the brain and lead to higher rates of alcoholism. And according to a 2007 report from the US surgeon general, alcohol is a leading contributor to death from injuries - the main killer of people under 21. Annually, the surgeon general said, about 5,000 people under 21 die from alcohol-related injuries, including 1,900 in car crashes.

Such statistics often aren't persuasive enough to keep youths from drinking. But they're enough to keep parents up at night, wondering if their children will make it home safe. And the numbers - as well as the mounting incidents of drinking on school grounds in Massachusetts - are certainly getting the attention of administrators.

Last spring, after what happened at Belmont High's Hoedown, Harvey said he knew it was time to make a change.

"I was sitting there thinking, 'What am I doing here?' Really questioning why we do dances in general," he said.

"We've been very lucky that nobody's been seriously hurt, I think. We've had a lot of luck. And I don't want to be around when the luck runs out."

Concerned about underage drinking, high schools, including Newton, Wellesley, Westwood, and others, started turning to breathalyzers several years ago. A majority of high schools now use the devices in some way, according to Noel Pixley, president of the Massachusetts Secondary School Administrators' Association.

Principals say they just work.

"How many schools can tell you they've had 18 consecutive proms - junior and senior proms - and haven't had a single issue with any students in possession, any bottles, any kids smelling of booze? None?" said John Brucato, the principal of Milford High School who began using breathalyzers at school events nine years ago. "We just haven't had issues."

Such testimonials are just one reason why Reading Memorial High School is considering using breathalyzers. In the next month, principal Joe Finigan hopes to present a breathalyzer proposal to the School Committee. Other schools, meanwhile, are stiffening breathalyzer policies already in place.

Unhappy that more than a dozen students showed up drunk at the junior prom last spring, Whitman-Hanson Regional High School administrators, who already owned a breathalyzer to be used just in case, purchased more devices and will be testing every student who attends a dance.

"My feeling was if I could keep students from drinking alcohol until 11:30 or until the end of the program, they would be inherently safer for the rest of the evening," said Whitman-Hanson principal Ed Lee.

But some school administrators say breathalyzers - while legal to use in schools - offer a false sense of security. They can drive some students away from dances; that only means, critics argue, that students prone to drinking could be drunk elsewhere. And some school administrators are just philosophically opposed to using breathalyzers.

"If that's the route you go, you're kind of admitting defeat," said John Ritchie, the principal of Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, where alcohol tainted the school's first football game of the season this month, leaving at least one student hospitalized, four cited by police, and seven suspended.

"If that's all you're doing, you're not dealing with the problem. That's like saying, 'People in prison are well-behaved.' "

Ritchie hopes to convene a meeting of Lincoln-Sudbury's school council this week to discuss adopting stiffer penalties for alcohol use, including, possibly, banning violators from the prom and other dances for the rest of the year.

Action is necessary, he said, given what he has learned in recent weeks students at his school: Drinking is far more widespread than he ever knew; water bottles don't always contain water; and students have traditionally seen the first football game of the fall, as well as other occasions, as a chance to get "juiced up."

Ritchie said he is intent not just on cracking down, but on changing the school's culture. And with his cancellation of dances in Belmont, Harvey hopes to do the same. For years, Belmont High School students say, there's been a tradition of drinking at the school, at least among some.

"I don't drink personally," said junior soccer player Josh Nelson. "But if you come back after the weekend, on a Monday, you hear stories about parties that happened and what people did. And if parents aren't going to be home the next weekend, people start planning then. You hear it."

In the spring of 2005, five students had to be hospitalized after showing up drunk to a dance. Harvey, who became principal the following fall, soon enacted a policy requiring students to sign a pledge not to drink before dances - and that worked for a while, he said. But with the Hoedown last spring and the arrest of one student, whose charges were later dismissed, it became clear, Harvey said, that something more needed to be done.

News that Belmont will have only two dances this year - the semiformal in the winter and the prom next spring - shocked students when Harvey announced it this month. Katie Christensen, a junior, called it "a wake-up call." And though many students were disappointed, they also understood.

Senior class president Deana DiSalvio said she supports Harvey's decision. It's time for students to understand that they can't drink and expect that the tragedies will always happen to someone else, she said.

"Thank God "we haven't had an accident."


1. Using examples from the article describe the tactics being used by school administrators to handle alcohol problems at dances.


2. Can crackdowns such as the ones described in this article actually change the habits of teen drinkers?

Principal shuts down student newspaper

A Redding, Calif. principal has shut down the high school newspaper for the upcoming school year after publication of a flag-burning photo.


The following article is from the Redding Record Searchlight:
By Rob Rogers Tuesday, June 10, 2008 
The adviser calls it sabotage, the principal finds it embarrassing and the superintendent is offended. The students see it all as a matter of freedom of speech.


Shasta High published its last issue of the Volcano, the student newspaper, before the end of classes last week with an image on the front page of a student burning the American flag and an editorial inside defending the practice. 


"The paper's done," said Milan Woollard, Shasta High principal. "There is not going to be a school newspaper next year." Shasta had been looking at cutting the paper already -- funds are tight as the school anticipates receiving fewer state dollars from Sacramento this fall, Woollard said. 


"This cements that decision," he said. Judy Champagne, the Volcano's faculty adviser, is upset that some of the students decided to use the newspaper as a platform to engender controversy during the last week of school. Planned for the paper was coverage of Shasta's prom and announcements of scholarship recipients and other news. 


Those items made the paper, she said. The editorial and image of flag burning were added at the last minute. "I think that the students were sabotaging what should have been a positive last issue," shesaid. "I think it's very sad that we're not going to have a paper." 


Upsetting to Champagne, who's been the newspaper's adviser for years, is what she called a lack of news judgment from some of the students on staff. While flag burning may be a salient national issue, nothing has happened in the north state to make it a current, local issue. Until now. "I thought it was bad journalism," she said. 


The editorial, written by Connor Kennedy, who graduated Friday, explained that a person has the right to burn the flag, that it's protected speech under the first amendment. Kennedy did not return a phone call made to his home Monday. Administrators at the school and district level said students have a right to run the photo and print the editorial under the same right. But all of them called it poor judgment. 


"I think that they misused it (their freedom of speech)," Champagne said. "I think this was a game for them." Mike Stuart, Shasta Union High School superintendent -- a U.S. Army veteran and paratrooper -- said just because the students have a right to defend and run the image doesn't mean the administration has to approve of it.  


"Personally I find it offensive," he said. "Especially the last newspaper of the year. It's like a parting shot." Stuart said it showed the students' immaturity. "I think it was especially self-indulgent," he said. "I don't like it at all."


Kennedy, who won an award from the local chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution earlier this year for an essay he wrote, was president of Shasta's student union and helped organize a demonstration on campus last fall to protest the high school's decision to combine its junior and senior prom and the vote that led to the decision. 


He and other students successfully argued the matter in front of the school board and forced Shasta administrators to hold a campuswide revote on the issue. Woollard said he believes Kennedy and other students placed the photo and editorial in the paper simply to get a reaction. And it's what they've got, he said. "I'm just embarrassed that the thing was ever done," he said.


1. Using examples from the article, tell why the flag burning article was so controversial.


2. Was the principal right in his decision to close down the student newspaper?