Talk:Lexington Public Schools (Massachusetts)

Controversy

I've tried to make the discussion as neutral as possible. This section:

Ever since his arrest for trespassing, he and his family have been the victims of a pro-homosexual smear campaign in Lexington. In this latest attack, Parker’s first grader was assaulted on the playground by eight to ten children on the second anniversary of the imposition of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts by the Supreme Judicial Court.

These young hoodlums surrounded Parker’s son on the playground, threw him against a wall and began punching him in the chest, stomach, and genital area. As he fell to the ground, one of the thugs said, “Now you can finish him off.” Fortunately, one girl ran to get a playground aide to stop the beating.

I had to remove because it really needs to be sourced. If whoever wrote this has first-hand knowledge of the events, that unfortunately is not good enough for inclusion in wikipedia, which requires that content be verifiable and contain no original research.

I also removed this:

Lexington boasts that it is among the most "tolerant" and "welcoming" towns in Massachusetts, but a wave of intolerance and hostility met a group of parents who had peacefully assembled to air a grievance. At least 200 pro-gay counter-demonstrators supporting his ban from school property first gathered at the nearby Visitor's Center, and then lined Bedford Street (bordering the Battle Green) with anti-Parker signs and slogans. Participating in the counter-demonstration were Helen Cohen, Chairman of the Lexington School Committee, and Tom Griffiths, a School Committee member. Also identified in the crowd were Jeanne Krieger, member of the Lexington Board of Selectman, Rabbi Howard Jaffee of Temple Isaiah, Rev. Judy Brain, Pastor of Pilgrim Congregational Church, and Rev. Bill Clark, Senior Pastor of the First Unitarian Parish in Lexington.

Calling a demonstration "intolerant" is POV and needs to be done in a more objective way. Aren't all protests implicitly refusing to tolerate the opposing point of view? Also calling them "pro-gay" is helplessly simplistic and almost meaningless, I think. At the very least it needs to be clarified a lot. And I'm not sure what all that about the visitor's center is about... it's "nearby" to what? I know it's not near the school.

Naming names on the demonstrators is certainly not appropriate (I suppose their jobs might be, but I doubt it), as it could only possibly be relevant to locals. This is an encyclopedia for general consumption. Staecker 21:00, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

Those all seem like good removals. I reduced the amount of text given to Fred Phelp's group. Odious as Parker is, he's no Phelpsian, and the presence of Phelps and his eight or so worldwide followers was not contemplated or welcomed by Parker and wasn't a big part of the controversy. Herostratus 04:21, 12 July 2006 (UTC)

Those two sections appear to be copied directly from articles on the Traditional Values Coalition and Article 8 Alliance websites . . . which might explain the "nearby" thing. Good removal, especially because the playground incident turned out to have nothing to do with Parker's politics.

In 2006, David Parker, his wife, and another couple sued Lexington Public School officials over the book. - This isn't quite accurate. The other couple (the Wirthlins) actually sued over a different book that was read in their son's 2nd grade classroom. I'm not sure how much detail the article needs, though . . . White-hot-smoking-electric-fireworks-jellyfish 03:55, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

(Entire discussion copied over from Talk:Joseph Estabrook Elementary School. Tklalmighty (talk) 23:45, 1 September 2008 (UTC))

Controversy

I still think that this is a bit slanted. I would like to add this link:

www.davidparkerfund.org

This gives their side, including information regarding the lawsuit brought on by the Parkers and the Wirthlins. I feel that the information at the wikipedia site should be unbiased, which I feel is not. This information on the wikipedia site regarding this issue surely takes a liberal view.

(Entire discussion copied over from Talk:Joseph Estabrook Elementary School. Tklalmighty (talk) 23:45, 1 September 2008 (UTC))

Separate Articles for Jonas Clarke and Bridge

I think both Jonas Clarke Middle School and Bridge Elementary School should be split off into separate articles from the Lexington Public Schools article. Clarke has been awarded two blue ribbons, and Bridge has won one, so they are most likely notable. Eisenhower Middle School (Wyckoff) and Murdock Middle School are examples of other schools considered notable for their blue ribbon awards. Djkauffman (talk) 02:50, 20 November 2013 (UTC)

Disagree per WP:WHYN. The successes of either Diamond or Clarke are best described in the context of the entire public school system. In fact, looking at the current version of Jonas Clarke Middle School, there is virtually nothing on that page that does not: also apply to Diamond, or represent original research. Most of it wreaks of WP:POV and WP:NOT violations. The fact that the other two schools have Wikipedia pages does not mean that the precedent itself conforms to the notability guideline. I think a middle school having its own page requires much more than being one middle school out of almost 200 pages worth of names of schools that have ever been awarded a blue ribbon. That's why I merged Clarke into LPS in the first place, six years ago. Tklalmighty (talk) 12:58, 24 February 2014 (UTC)

References

Foreign Language Programs/Infobox

I think information about the foreign language programs under the Clarke section should be moved to the Middle Schools section, as the programs are likely the same between Clarke and Diamond. The infoboxes also need more citations. Djkauffman (talk) 03:51, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

I tend to concur on both counts. Make it happen! I would, but I'm not sure how accurate/current the information is, and I do know that what I have to contribute is likely out of date. (The Mandarin program hadn't even started when I was in middle school!) Tklalmighty (talk) 01:05, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Article Sections

I am not sure whether this is changeable, but I noticed that article section "Middle Schools" is the same size as "Jonas Clarke Middle School" and "William Diamond Middle School". I am not sure if Jonas Clarke Middle School and Diamond Middle School are supposed to be under the Middle School section or not, but when they are outside the Middle School section, the article looks messy. On the other hand, there are not many subheading sizes, so it will be hard to place the two middle schools into the middle school section. Hellojebediah (talk) 21:20, 26 February 2014 (UTC)

Certainly changeable. It would actually fit in line to be placed at the level of the elementary schools. That said, I expect that the bulk of the expansion of this article from here ad infinitum will be done to those three middle school sections. Perhaps for now it would look better as sections under Middle Schools, but I don't think it matters. Tklalmighty (talk) 01:25, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Use of "Mr." and "Ms.", etc., for Adults' Names

This article occasionally uses "Mr.", "Ms.", etc., to refer to various school staff.

While this is common usage in a school's own documents when referring to adult staff - (supposedly to differentiate them from students and encourage an air of respect), it has no place in Wikikpedia. I think we all know that the principal is an adult (and not a 14 yr. old), so the use of these titles is superfluous.

Also, if the President of the United States' name in Wikipedia is given as "Barack Obama" (and not "Mr. Barack Obama"), I think that the staff of the Lexington Public Schools can be listed without the "Mr." and "Ms." prefixes, as well.

I would like to see this page's editor remove them, please.

Mlavie (talk) 13:10, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

School district map

http://lps.lexingtonma.org/cms/lib2/MA01001631/Centricity/Domain/376/2010LPSchoolsdistricts.pdf - http://www.webcitation.org/6bPHNUiTp WhisperToMe (talk) 05:25, 9 September 2015 (UTC)