[Vision2020] Not a city resident

[Tbertruss at aol.com]

Donovan et. al.

You did not answer the question I asked.

This is the question I asked:

"Does someone who lives in the Moscow School District,
with children or grandchildren attending Moscow public
schools, have any valid reasons to be concerned about
the affairs of the city where their children attend
school?"

Please consider this is from the point of view of a parent who may have 
concerns about the city in which their children attend school, in other words, the 
question should be addressed with specifics about concerns parents have, such 
as: traffic safety, safety from theft, violence or hateful harassment, or city 
code that their child should follow on or off school grounds, or city code 
that the parent may think is somehow amiss, etc.

And you answered:

First, the City of Moscow does not have, or control,
any public schools. 

Are "any valid reasons for a parent to be concerned about the affairs of a 
city where their children attend school" addressed in this point?  No.  And 
furthermore, I think you are wrong to state the City of Moscow has no control over 
MSD.  A Moscow Police officer cannot ticket a MSD school bus driver for 
speeding inside the city limits?  A Moscow Police officer will not arrest MSD 
students breaking city law, or other law, on MSD property?  If this is true, please 
provide the details of the legal restrictions that stop the MPD from 
arresting MSD students who might, for example, bring illegal drugs on school grounds?  
These laws may be state laws, but the way in which they are enforced on MSD 
property is the province of the MPD, unless you can prove me wrong.  I believe 
that MSD does follow, and is expected to follow, many laws from city code, 
which contradicts the thread running through your argument that somehow MSD is 
some sort of legal island separate from the City of Moscow.

Second, the public schools that are located inside
Moscow are controlled by the Idaho State School
District 281, not the city.

Are "any valid reasons for a parent to be concerned about the affairs of a 
city where their children attend school" addressed in this point?  No.

So, logically, it would not follow that the parent be
given control of a government that does not control
the school when it is the school they want control
over. They need control of the school district.

So, logically, yes, I support a legal guardian being
able to vote and have some say in the school district.

Are "valid reasons for a parent to be concerned about the affairs of a city 
where their children attend school" addressed in this point?  No.

If a parent has children attending school within a
city, the parent has a right and say of how the school
operates and functions. But if the parent does not
live in the city, the parent does not have a say in
how the city operates and functions.

Are "any valid reasons for a parent to be concerned about the affairs of a 
city where their children attend school" addressed in this point?  No.  Again, 
you cannot accurately and factually make this clear and precise a separation 
between the City of Moscow and MSD regarding the valid concerns a parent may 
have when their child is attending MSD in the City of Moscow.

If a parent that does not like the way a city operates
and functions, lives outside the city, and has their
child is in a school in the city, they can vote to
move the school outside the jurisdiction of the city. 

Are "valid reasons for a parent to be concerned about the affairs of a city 
where their children attend school" addressed in this point?  No.  And Donovan 
must know of course that this is a ridiculous idea to move MSD outside Moscow 
City limits... 

Might I also be so bold, Ted, as to point out that the
person complaining about city law was not complaining
about schools, but about city code, and not for
allowing schools, but getting rid of them.  

Are "valid reasons for a parent to be concerned about the affairs of a city 
where their children attend school" addressed in this point?  No.  And your 
description of the intentions of Rose regarding her activism in Moscow are unfair 
and inaccurate, in the extreme. 

You win today's award for political spin in the great tradition of 
politicians everywhere who make answering questions without really answering them an art 
form of elegant deception.

Now, to address my own question, since it is obvious you want to avoid it, 
consider student X, a 15 year old attending Moscow High School, crossing 
crosswalks with no crossing guards on Washington St. by the Federal Building, 
crosswalks that I regard as truly hazardous, based on vast personal experience, as 
she/he takes their lunch hour.  Some parents with a high level of concern for 
the well being of their child might wish to address the MOSCOW CITY TRAFFIC 
LAWS, AND/OR MOSCOW POLICE ENFORCEMENT OF PEDESTRIAN SAFETY, but alas, one local 
outspoken activist insists they have no right to comment to the Chief of Police 
that the MPD focus more on crosswalk safety, because the parent in question 
lives one nanometer outside the city limits.  

And student X, who happens to be outspokenly Gay, has been approached by 
other youth in downtown Moscow, youth who informed student X that they are being 
led into grievous sin by being Gay, for which the penalties will be severe, if 
not on earth then in the afterlife, as they surround and intimidate, pushing 
and shoving. After hearing of this incident, the parent of student X decides to 
approach the MOSCOW CITY COUNCIL to encourage a more explicit and clear hate 
crimes statement, or even new city code addressing hate crimes, to prevent the 
harassment of their child and/or to educate the public more explicitly that 
such behavior is reprehensible.  But again, the same outspoken local activist 
declares that because the parent involved in this incident lives one nanometer 
outside the city limits, they have no business speaking before the MOSCOW CITY 
COUNCIL, regarding hate crimes against their child.

Yes, I recall you insisting that the above examples should be handled as 
merely a Moscow School District problem, so perhaps you think either student X 
should not leave the school grounds for lunch in downtown Moscow, or be 
accompanied by crosswalk guards, etc., supplied by the Moscow School District, or other 
guards to stop personal harassment.

But these examples just scratch the surface of the various circumstances 
where the behavior of a minor in the Moscow School District may involve the legal 
apparatus of the City of Moscow, that may thus involve the parent of this 
minor attending school in Moscow, a parent who in this example lives outside the 
city limits.

How about city code regarding bicycle safety in bike lanes, Moscow's silly 
"boob" ordinance, or how the MPD might deal with the theft of a students 
property on school grounds?

So now are you going to insist that if a students property is stolen on 
school grounds that it is solely the actions of MSD that deal with this situation?  
The Moscow Police Dept. is never called?  There is never any legal action 
taken by the city legal apparatus to charge a minor in MSD with any crime 
committed on MSD property?  And of course, if a parent who lives one nanometer 
outside the city limits has concerns about how the theft of their child's property 
on MSD school grounds is being handled, they have no business commenting on 
this to the Moscow Chief of Police, now do they?

The Moscow School District must follow the city code that the City of Moscow 
has established in many ways, from speed limits applying to school buses, to 
laws regarding what sorts of running outfits the students may wear as they 
train running on Moscow City streets, under school sponsored coaching for cross 
country, so that they conform to city "decency" code.

Your insistence that the Moscow School District exists as some sort of legal 
island that does not intersect with the city, or its laws, in which MSD 
exists, does not fit the facts.  Nor does your insistence that a parent who lives in 
MSD, but outside the city limits, should not be involved in city affairs, fit 
the facts regarding the numerous issues any parent sensibly involved with 
their child's well being might wish to influence regarding Moscow City code, or 
those seeking power in Moscow who happen to think they are above the law.

QED

Ted Moffett
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