Blood Drive at High School

La Vergne High School is sponsoring a blood drive and needs your help! They don't want to be "out-donated" by a certain other neighboring school, so adult volunteers are needed! Here's the snip from the LHS PTO Prez:

Recently Smyrna High School held a Blood Drive at their school. There was a write-up in the DNJ about what a great job donating blood the Smyrna High student body did. Well, we all know that our LHS Wolverines will not be out done. Parents please support your children in this effort.

The American Red Cross Blood Drive will be held at LHS on Wednesday April 11, 2007. Parents are needed between the hours of 8:00 am & 1:00 pm. If your schedule allows, we'd love to have your help for the entire Drive or an hour or two. Any amount of your time would be appreciated. If you have questions please contact Betty Gray @ 459-0349 or Pam Furlong @ 459-3370/268-5488.

Come on La Vergne! Go give some love - give your blood to a very worthy cause. And let's hope that it won't be someone we know and love who needs to use it (but be happy it's there if they do).

Lock Down Drill at LMS

LaVergne Middle School was one of the locations of readiness drills at Rutherford County Schools, as reported here in the Daily News Journal. My daughter said it wasn't scary at all since they knew in advance that a drill of some sort would be conducted. And kudos to the schools for sending parents notes home so no one would panic when they saw fire trucks and police cars at the school.

The drill occurred during her "core" class (aka study hall). According to her reports from school, everything went well so hopefully the school is ready!

LaVergne Teachers Honored

The "Well Done Award" this week recognizes outstanding teachers selected for "Teacher of the Year" at their respective schools. Congratulations to the following instructors whose students come (in part or in whole) from LaVergne:

Cedar Grove Elementary School
Lea Crockarell

LaVergne Middle School
Lori Scott

LaVergne Primary School
Tammy Houck

Rock Springs Elementary School
James Morris Hamby, III

Rock Springs Middle School
Richard Reed

Roy Waldron School
Melanie Jones

I haven't had the pleasure of meeting all these teachers, but I will say that Melanie Jones is OUTSTANDING. When I served as president of Roy Waldron Elementary School's PTO a couple of years ago, she and her family were there at every school-related event after the close of the school day. She has made countless bags of popcorn, served as teacher liaison on the PTO board, always has an amazing, cheerful attitude, and is well-loved by students and parents alike.

In addition, my daughter now has Lori Scott for reading and she adores the class. The amount of reading a child does seems directly proportionate with how well a child does in school, so parents please make your children read. If they don't like reading, then take 20 or 30 minutes every day to sit down and read with or to them. Ms. Scott is another teacher who deserves the accolades given through this honor.

Congratulations to all the teachers in LaVergne who were recognized! We're proud of you and we want you to know how much we appreciate your hard work with our children! If you personally know any of the teachers named above, please comment and we will update this post so they too can have a personal testament to their hard work.

Baggy Pants + MP3 Player = Gun Scare

An article was published today in the DNJ that the alleged gun students thought they saw at LaVergne High School this weekend was actually an MP3 player tucked in a student's pants. In his baggy pants. Read about the student's vindication here. I'm glad to read that the school does not now have to search him every day when he arrives, but do believe the school initially did the right thing in sending him home for the day. I know the parents must be terribly upset, but after reading about the incidents at Paducah, Columbine, and the kindergardeners slaughtered in Scotland, you just can't take chances like that with our kids.

Which brings us around to the whole baggy pants thing that we see kids wearing these days. I feel like such an old fuddy-duddy, but I HATE that look. I truly don't get it. It looks beyond ridiculous - it looks stupid, clownish, and is such a poor reflection about the intelligence of the dudes who wear them. Of course, this is my opinion and I'm completely uncool, not down with it, etc. I just want to run up behind the boys (and yes I mean boys because no man, no real man, would do this) and yank their pants down. Instead, I turn away laughing. Yes, laughing. And I sometimes say, "Your pants are falling down" and my daughters hide their faces embarrassed to be seen with me. But they can't explain the look either.

Are the baggy pants a "gang" thing? Is it a rap thing? Is it peer pressure? I guess I'm lucky to have daughters because I'm afraid I'd have to take away the right to choose from my son if I had one and he chose that look.

LHS Situation

LaVergne High School students experienced a lock-down yesterday morning when a handful of classmates reported that they had sighted another student with a gun. With a daughter at that school, I asked what happened. She told me the same thing that has been reported in the news, then handed me a letter from school officials explaining the same thing.

No gun was found on the student nor in his locker, and the school assures everyone that he and his locker will be searched daily until the end of the school year. If I were the student, I may be upset but as a parent I hope he understands that the safety of the entire school population must be paramount. I also wonder if the student is already at-risk for the school to announce that he will be searched daily.

I want to give "Well Done!" recognition to the school for quickly reacting to the potential situation, then clearly communicating to parents what had happened.