School Locks out FIRST Team, Keeps Their Cash
In a time when some schools are trying to encourage science and
engineering education, Franklin High
School in Portland, OR not only
tried to shut down FIRST team 1432 but
is keeping their tools, equipment, and $7,500 the students raised for
their team. An
article in a local paper called The Bee quotes one of the team
members:
“We found ourselves standing outside the auto shop waiting to get in on
October 21st. Three times previously, Principal Shay James refused to
let us have our robot for the OMSI display on October 23. Finally, James
allowed us to remove the robot only. All of our computers, parts, and
tools are still locked in the auto shop.”
To get an idea of how the school's actions are affecting the team,
here's a quote from Team 1432's
website:
It appears we will lose $3,540 from Intel and another $3500 from the
grant money that came through FIRST – M.J. Murdock, Oregon Community
fund. <...> The school seized all of our property – 7 years of gathering
tools, equipment, building materials and computers and kept it from us
for the last 31 days. We find out on Monday what they will let us have
back. This has kept us from doing Girls Generation, Bunny Bots, and a
second regional. It has also cost us half of our new members because of
the instability and uncertainty.
The school claims none of its 100 staff members are willing to act as
"advisor" for the group. The principal declined to be interviewed for
The Bee's article and according to Rebecca LohKamp, "In all the years
we’ve been there, a Principal has never come to see us". This apparent
lack of interest was confirmed by the school's business manager who told
the paper that the robotics team would conflict with
plans for a more academic, classroom-based, "smaller scale" robotics
curriculum.
We'd bet if this were the football team rather than a club that
promotes educational activities, the school administration wouldn't have
any problem finding the resources to support them. But until Shay James
and the other bureaucrats get a clue, might we suggest
that local robot clubs around the country get in touch with Team 1432 and ask how they can help out?
One thing that might help is if a 501(c)(3) group could become their
fiscal sponsor and help them recover some of their funds from the
school. And it probably wouldn't hurt to let the Franklin
High School staff or the Portland
Public School system know what you think.
http://robots.net/article/3078.html
