Jun 14 2009
Virginia Department of Education – Common Sense?
As a parent and an educator, I am outraged at the lack of common sense exhibited by the Virginia Department of Education in its refusal to grant a waiver to the SOL requirements to Ms. Lauren Cootes at Frank W. Cox High School in Virginia Beach. Please read the following article if you are unaware of the situation involving her illness and inability to take an SOL test. “Give the girl her diploma.” Does anyone at VDOE have any common sense? Is there no compassion in Richmond? What in the world is wrong with educated people in power that they have no ability to use common sense in an exceptional situation?
Congratulations to Kerry Dougherty of the Virginian-Pilot for shedding light on this travesty. SOL standards have been established to ensure that our graduating seniors have a minimum amount of knowledge as they leave our high schools; certainly this is not the case here. I have asked the governor to please “use [his] influence to overturn the decision made by some idiot in the Virginia Department of Education. Failure to graduate Lauren Cootes from Frank W. Cox High School would be a mockery of what we in education expect of our students.”
