I question whether the teacher (Michael Frassetto) leading this movement himself has the emotional maturity to make this decision. On his Facebook page, he claims, "It's all love." What's so loving about trying to get a school superintendent fired? If "It's all love," why did he post a video containing the repeating lyrics "I don't give a fuck?"
A fellow named "Josh" posted this comment on Lehigh Valley Live:
The current budget for ASD for the 2015-16 school year is $269 million dollars. School enrollment is roughly 17,500 students, give or take. They also hired 30 more teachers for the school year. ASD is the fourth largest school district in PA.What do you think? Does this empower and educate high school students? Or is it just another holiday in a school district that already has a 40% droop out rate?
Mr. Frassetto went to Parkland. Parkland has 9,176 students in it's school district. It's operating budget for 2015-16 is $152.2 million dollars.
http://www.parklandsd.org/about/district-profile/
http://www.allentownsd.org/content/about-allentown-school-district
If you took the entire allowed budget for both districts and applied it per student you would find roughly a $2,000 dollar difference between the two. Parkland spending $2,000 more per student than ASD. Mr. Frassetto went to Parkland, and should know the answer to this: does $2,000 of a difference make up for the gigantic performance gap between the two districts? Does the superintendent foster all the blame for the poor performance? Why would having a student on council make a difference?
The difference doesn't lie with money, it doesn't lie with the budget. Allentown the city has real, tangible problems they need to improve before these students stand a chance. Poverty. Broken homes. Single mothers. Absent dads. Crime. Drugs and the society that breeds. All of that, is embracing these kids, whenever they leave the safety of the school zone; yet nothing is being said about it. No marches. No walk outs. No protests.
If Mr. Frassetto truly wants to "help the students", and he seems sincere, then "help" them at the family and community level. The schools aren't broken; everything else is.
72 comments:
You are correct poverty plays a big factor in the performance of students as does home environment. We at the Allentown Tenant Association seem to be one of the few bringing up these issues.
It seems if you want your children to have a better education, then move out to South Whitehall.
If you're a student and you decide to "strike", then you'll have unexcused absences on your record. Also if you're 16 or older, you may be subject to stronger disciplinary procedures by the ASD
Best idea is to attend classes and disregard this nonsense
If they would put as much effort into self improvement as they do making demands for entitlement,the success rate would be much higher.
Molovinsky had a great comment on this subject. Students interested in more education would be better served by a demonstration in support of arriving early and staying late. In contrast the walkout will likely be a lesson in victimhood and showing up for free food.
Walking out of school to protest a high dropout rate is like refusing a cure to protest a disease. It will only worsen the condition.
They must behave like compliment drones....or move to Parkland.
Anyone know if this Frassetto character is still employed by RCCS? When I went to their website he is not listed. Also his organization requests PayPal donations and he has a gofundme. Think he has also received grants in the past. Does he really have kids best interest in mind and where is the money going?
The ills of the ASD is an old story line. I suspect, in this case, one picked up by a disenfranchised individual taking advantaged of an underlying culture of discontent that surrounds the ASD.
There is little transformative vision in the leader of ASD. As well, the board is divided and impotent. But let's not forget about many of the players in the sociology of Allentown, that although well meaning, seem to have their own personal agendas. It seems to be, "it is my way or the highway" philosophy of social intervention.
Everyone has their part to play and in this case the students are more than likely being exploited (again) more than helped. And the beat goes on. If nothing changes nothing changes.
So what does all this go to prove? What do they want?
God forbid the students make a political statement.
Shut up or move to p.Parkland��❤️
https://www.facebook.com/100009450790091/videos/vb.100009450790091/1495773770747635/?type=2&theater
https://www.facebook.com/100009450790091/videos/vb.100009450790091/1495773770747635/?type=2&theater
Watched the video. Well if Nate Whips says you should walk out, then by all means walk out. Never mind the fact the Mr. Whips has the wrong date and seems to make stuff up. Know what I'm saying? No, Mt Whips, actually I don't.
Education advocate Ed White of Allentown has indicated on his Facebook page that he supports the walkout.
Josh is correct, 100%.
Good entry, O'Hare. I think "Josh" is more on the right track than those enabling these students. On the other hand, anything bringing attention to the issue may be positive in some way.
This is a good thing.
How many times in the past has it taken such an event to raise awareness for any social/political/economic unfairness? I am not sure if it is the best approach, but certainly something must be done, and it cannot just be blamed in a way that makes it "their" fault, no matter what side one is on.
"God forbid the students make a political statement."
The question in my mind is do they have the maturity to make a political statement? One of the ostensible reasons for this walkout, as I understand it, is to get a voting representative on the school board. Did they vote to have this walkout? How many students even know who Mayo is, let alone want him to be fired?
Bernie,
This so called protest is at best ill informed. The roots of the ASD's problems lie at the feet of the city and Harrisburg. The ASD does not have the tools, zoning, code enforcement, and planning (to name a few) to solve the city's annually rising poverty rate. Nor does it have the legislative power of our state capital's elected leaders to solve the state's badly broken and deeply in debt public employee pension crisis.
Allentown's school district has been dealing with the one, two punch of increasing poverty and rising obligatory expenses for several consecutive years. Because of rising PSER's payments(Pennsylvania's Public School Employee's Retirement System)the district has been forced in the last four years to raise taxes on the average homeowner $500.00 on average while reducing teaching staff by roughly 20% and administrative staff by 25%. This, combined with city hall's total ignorance or lack of interest in addressing the issues of spreading blight and rising poverty in Allentown, leave the district in a very precarious situation. None of this is of the district's own making.
The ASD has in the face of all this, with the help of local businesses, opened a new high school that many view as a/the solution to improve outcomes in public education in high poverty areas.
Scott Armstrong
......and yet upon graduation many will have the intellectual maturity to join the Armed Forces.
How does that work?
Ship these malcontent youngsters off to Parkland.
The American Revolution was ill advised, never enjoyed majority support, and most of the Continental Army was made up of individuals this age.
"and yet upon graduation many will have the intellectual maturity to join the Armed Forces.
How does that work?"
Iyt works as a function of age and it is emotional maturity, not intellectual maturity. That's my point. While there are probably many juniors and seniors who have the emotional maturity to make these decisions, that is simply untrue for many freshmen and sophomore. Telling these students that can't get in trouble is wrong, too. Even if there are no disciplinary reactions, many of them stuggle academically and need to be in school.
"The American Revolution was ill advised, never enjoyed majority support, and most of the Continental Army was made up of individuals this age."
Soldiers in the American revolution were young, as all soldiers are, but they weren't 13 and 14. As for your assertion that the war never had majority support, you really have no way of knowing.
If you are arguing that high school students should be able to walk out even though a majority of students oppose a walkout because the American majority opposed the revolutionary war, I suggest that both your facts and your logic are faulty. It's an absurd argument.
The majority of Colonial Americans were agnostic about the rebellion. A Tory minority oppossed the action and another minority actively supported it. This is a matter of historical record.
Virtually every movement for change, right or wrong, is a minority movement, particularly in its inception.
T'was ever thus.
IMHO the school board of ASD is short sighted and lacking in a true understanding of what children in Allentown go through daily, in their lives . Blaming ASD failure to adequately educate the children of Allentown on a lack of $ is a convenient excuse.
"The majority of Colonial Americans were agnostic about the rebellion. A Tory minority oppossed the action and another minority actively supported it. This is a matter of historical record."
My point is that it is NOT a matter of historical record. No one really knows that, and you are drifting afield on what already is a bad analogy. Use Vietnam instead.
The guy who goes by the name Nate Whips in these videos is no one to be advising these kids or to be listened to.
https://www.facebook.com/100009450790091/videos/vb.100009450790091/1495773770747635/?type=2&theater
https://www.facebook.com/100009450790091/videos/1497008643957481/
His real name is Nathan Albert Markham and has an extensive arrest record. Trying to rebrand himself as Nate Whips. Nit Whit is more like it.
Bernie, do you have any way to find out if the leader of the loonies, Michael Frassetto, is still employed by RCCS? He appears to have been scrubbed from the school website. I think someone is giving these youth bad advice.
Let the kids pretend they live in a democracy for a couple days. They will learn at least as much as they will in their mostly boring classes.
Can they be wrong more often than the so called adults?
Bad advise is part of the political equation.
When these young men and women enter the armed forces they immediately receive boundaries and a sense of familial unity. They don't get to go on strike. That sense of familial unity aids greatly in the maturation process.
At 14 I would have joined a student strike. At 18 in boot camp I knew better.
My high school had a Viet Nam moratorium day walk out and teach in.
The school administrator said we were too young to know what we were talking about, we were getting bad advice, and it was communist inspired.
Makes me miss Yogi Berra even more.
How much has building 21 cost the state and district per student? Did the DCED educational tax credits go to this building or general population?
The wealthiest corner of Allentown is in the Parkland SD. How the hell did that happen? Bethlehem SD benefits from tax bases in Hanover and Bethlehem Twps. If the ASD could only benefit from taxes from S. Whitehall.
At about the 45:00 mark or so, Allentown Council chamber got crowded. http://www.lehigh-valley-caffeinated.com
I have mixed feelings but Russian Mayo has been a disastrous and perfidious Superintendent with an obvious and harmful political agenda.
Sure, whatever.
Last Night's Meetin
A lesson in anger and fraud was on display at tonight’s school board meeting. District students, offered free food if they showed up, were then riled up by an adult charlatan protest leader and directed to focus their energy and anger on the supposed injustices perpetrated by the Allentown School District, its board, and superintendent. This, they proceeded to do with great dispatch, banging on the Administration building’s picture windows and chanting very loudly. It was real sound and fury. The press and police were there in force.
The leader of this group, who was clearly hoping to make a name for himself, was allowed to address the board. He used the opportunity to make thinly veiled threats and present himself as a great leader. I heard this from the hall as I was unwilling to be part of his audience. He is an opportunist, but the opportunity was created by Mayor Ed Pawlowski and his agents who discredited the district as part of their campaign to gain control of the board. With the FBI’s focus on the mayor, that plans seems to be in jeopardy, but the damage has been done to the district and yes, to the city itself. This protest is bad news for who, in the suburbs, will watch this and say, yes, let’s move our family to Allentown.
Well done, Ed Pawlowski and all those who participated in his scheme to selfishly besmirch the ASD. Tonight was the first fruit of that effort.
Scott Armstrong
It's not in Allentown's heart to riot, but they were making a point. This City is still not used to people NOT following the status quo, so when something like this happens they are unprepared. ASD has been bad for YEARS and the ones truly paying the price are the students and their futures. New Charter schools, new city infrastructure, and teens are still fodder for the prison system or the welfare line. As much as people may want to point the blame at everything and everyone else, I am unsure what they THOUGHT would eventually happen? It's been a "powder keg" situation for years now....
- Alfonso Todd
Have been following this story from afar, but have done some digging on the players "coaching" these students. The research isn't pretty.
Frassetto - Was let go by RCCS at the end of last year and is an embarrassment to his current employer (MACS). Believe I read he was let go by ASD, but I can't confirm this. If so, it could explain his beef against the district. Posted videos on his facebook of leading the kids in a rehearsal of protest chants. When one of the student protesters was asked by reporter if they were protesting against the ASD administration they replied "I guess". Sounds like that question wasn't on the prepared script. Impressionable kids are just lemmings in this situation.
Nate Whips - Nit Whit is more like it. Poses as a reputable young entrepreneur in the Allentown area when in fact his real name is Nathan Markham who has an extensive arrest record dating back more than 10 years and includes car jacking, drugs and violence. Posted several unintelligible facebook videos supporting the students "You know what I'm saying". No Mr. Whip's we don't.
EM3 - Frassetto also thanks EM3 for their support. This is Lo-ammi del Villar who was arrested last week for threatening to slit his co-workers throat.
Nice leadership team!
The goal of any protest is to bring attention to the issues, which is what they are doing. They may not be as articulate, educated, or clean cut as many would prefer, but the bottom line is they are bringing the issues in ASD to the forefront with the people who are being effected by it the most, the Students. We may not like HOW they are doing it or the individuals who are making it happen but they have REAL reasons to protest. People are quick to investigate the messengers but pay no attention to the message. It was done to me and will be done to any other person who dares to step out of line and galvanize others to do so. This is NOT a manipulated mob. These are parents, teachers, students, etc who have their futures at stake and if that is not reason enough to make noise and be counted I don't know what is...
- Alfonso Todd
Alphonso:
Get your head out of the sand. This is ABSOLUTELY a manipulated mob. See this photo with their marching orders
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=870140513040089&set=a.175954902458657.53127.100001324460207&type=3&theater
There used to be a video that accompanied it of them rehearsing their chants with Frassetto barking instructions but he wisely took it down.
I am less concerned about articulate, educated and clean cut if there was accuracy to the message. But to spread lies about the Mayo's annual salary (saying it is $800K when it is $175K) and a missing $20 million and the taxpayers paying for a pool and/or home theater at Mayo's house is just utter BS that is put out there to rile people up.
Frassetto is a clown. Eventually he will be an unemployed clown so he can devote all of his efforts to the UYP.
Was the promised free food actually provided?
The teacher leading the protest works at the Medical Arts Charter School. The executive director of that school has a personal vendetta against the Allentown School District and Dr. Mayo. Check it out and it become very clear.
Yes the food was there.
Well if I was a parent at MACS I would be concerned that Mr. Frassetto is taking educational time away from his students for this folly. Frassetto stated he would use personal days to support the ASD student on the first two days of the walkout and uncompensated time off for any subsequent days, as necessary. Not where you belong, dude, and not fair to your current students.
Additionally, a failing ASD system is a win for a charter school that gets most of its student body from Allentown, wouldn't you think?
Anyone have insight into why Frassetto was let go from the previous charter school (RCCS)?
Frassetto was let go because he is a dishonest punk???
On Frassetto's Facebook page he has several videos from a man called "Nate Whips". "Nate" is a huge supporter of this old thing... well a little research will tell you that "Nate Whips" real name is Nathan Markham..... Go ahead type that name into the PA Dockets website... you won't be surprised. Pages of criminal charges, including CORRUPTION OF MINORS!!! Shocking, I know!!!
What?
The heroic community activists are nothing more than common criminals who revel in the chaos and confusion???
Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.
It's ALL education.
At least some of the "offending" students might do something new, like try to read a newspaper and follow their exploits.
The kids got involved with an issue.
How they came to their conclusions and their actions is something they and we need to examine.
Are you folks so old that you don't smell a learning opportunity here.
It surely got a lot of people talking.
I love Nate Whip's commercial. Is the lady his parole officer or participating at gunpoint?
https://youtu.be/GKn1lRrvTYk
Would you buy a car from this man? A car salesman with a revoked license who also drives a limo without a license.
I smell BS in your response, 7:46
So Abe Atiyeh buys buildings no one else wants, and then helps start new charter schools that can pay him high rent. That happened with the Medical Arts Charter School that is the center of this protest movement.
http://articles.mcall.com/2014-05-17/news/mc-abe-atiyeh-charter-schools-20140517_1_developer-abe-atiyeh-academy-elementary-charter-school-thomas-lubben
That also happened with the Atiyeh-owned former fitness center that was made into an elementary arts charter school in Allentown, with the help of Mike Fleck. Atiyeh also tried to start a charter school in the building that later became the new Building 21 high school.
Is Atiyeh part of a conspiracy to make ASD look bad so he can fill up his buildings with more charter school students from Allentown. Even though it is Catty, reportedly the Medical Charter School mainly consists of ASD students. ASD pays millions each year for charter schools.
The Medical Charter School was almost shut down by the Catty School District because it failed to offer its promised curriculum. IN order to be approved, you must show you are offering something that the public schools did not. A couple years ago, Catty SD found that the school had not completed any of its promised parternships with health care
organizations.
http://articles.mcall.com/2013-01-12/news/mc-catty-medical-charter-school-20130112_1_medical-academy-charter-school-haytmanek-superintendent-robert-spengler
So the CEO of the Medical Charter School is Jose Rosado. The Morning Call describes him as a former ASD administrator, but doesn't print the most important part of the story.
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-allentown-student-walkouts-0925-20150925-story.html
Rosado was fired from ASD, and then sued ASD. He then dropped his lawsuit, resigned from the job he had been fired from, and said he would sue again.
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-jose-rosado-hearing-20141218-story.html
It is confusing because there is also "Jose Rosado Jr." who still works for ASD.
Nathan Albert Markham is described above by others.
http://articles.mcall.com/2005-12-16/news/3631636_1_gas-station-blue-car-officers-report
This person is the same age as the leader of the protests and also lives in Bethlehem, but the protest leader claims it was not him.
http://www.mcall.com/news/breaking/mc-c-allentown-carjacking-police-chase-20141121-story.html
More on Mr. Markham, one of the leaders of this protest:
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/bethlehem/index.ssf/2015/02/bethlehem_man_drinks_with_17-y.html
Recent Post from Nate Whips, aka Nate Markham, one of the leaders of the protests on his facebook page:
"Security guards at the schools will allow students to walkout. We have police recorded saying they will not arrest any students. We have hundreds of students walking out from: Allen, Dieruff, South Mountain, Trexler, Raub, Harrison Morton, and Vista. We are expecting 800-1000 students on the first day. We walk together...
Post and share EVERYTHING all day until Monday. Record yourself and use Kik, snapchat, Facebook, IG and Twitter!!! We got this!!!!"
As a parent I do support Michael Frassetto. It is about time that we raise awareness amongst our children not to just follow the status quote but to question everything. There are real fundamental problems in the city of Allentown and many parents don't feel empowered to speak up. These student need to know their rights and have the confidence to become leaders. The cycle of poverty and broken homes need to be broken. Many of the kids are not even aware of the school to prison pipeline culture and the trap that is set for them to fail. Mr. Fressetto is raising that kind of awareness and I as a parent are fully supporting him. Allentown has to get use to the idea of people exercising their rights and don't have to put up with the status quote.
It is time for change because the future belongs to our children.
Linda Moriah
Some of the comments are just attacking peoples character to discredit the movement. Our children have the right to arise from poverty, the right to be prepared for their future and we are responsible to give them the right tool. What we are giving them right now is not working. Some of the kids at Allen don't even know how to start a paragraph or have no clue about what's going on in the world. Some don't even know the process for applying to college. Some think playing basketball will get you a scholarship even if you don't have good grade. We build prisons instead of improving education and prepare them for a better future. The families are living in poverty with grant given to organization to uplift these families. The whole system is failing our children and families. Instead of coming op with solution, some continue to marginalize and stigmatizing our children and the ones that wants to raise awareness. I live in Allentown and many parents are not giving the tools to live themselves and families out of poverty. Mr. Fressetto is not only raising awareness , but is also teaching the children to think outside the box and use the tools that is given to them to better themselves.
The children are the future
Linda Moriah
the children are precisely that - children.They deserve an edecation and have a right to that, too. They don't get it with walkouts.
Linda, Given that two of the three leaders of this movement have a criminal history, this is something that needs to be brought out. These guys are not niee people, and parents who know this and allow their children around these guys are irresponsible. If you have a high school child and are encouraging this walk out, you are hurting your child and enabling demagogues.
In my heart I want to believe that Mr. Frassetto had good intentions when he started UYP in 2011. However, at some point he crossed lines and turned this into a militant organization. As a result, he lost his job at RCCS and in August RCCS sent out a memo informing everyone that UYP was no longer a club affiliated with the school.
This is a sad demise for a group that, in its infancy, received positive press and awards for its efforts. Unfortunately, it has morphed into a rogue group that has aligned itself with known criminals such as Nathan "Whips" Markham and Severin "Freeman" Johnson.
I can't believe that MACS allows this group to use its facilities to brainwash these kids as evidenced by the videos that still exist on social media.
Who is funding UYP and paying for the spiffy web page?
They have GoFundMe account and ask for PayPal donations. They may have also received some grant money over the years but I can't confirm that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ29ZpuRWXw
This set of videos is supposed to make you want to support the walkout. How many factural errors can you find in this set of videos?
https://www.facebook.com/idalys.nazario.79/videos/416446495214903/
More video of the leader of the walkouts, who is a teacher at the Medical Academy Charter School.
This is one of my favorites ... The chant rehearsals being conducted at MACS with Frassetto leading the way
https://instagram.com/p/8BrDCTS8ej/?taken-by=unitedyouthparty
Yes. i found that video a td disturbing.
I love how they show up at not a city council meeting, but a committee meeting, and demand to be heard. Did they not know where the school board meeting was?
How many factural errors can you find in this set of videos?
It would actually be easier to count the truthful statements. And that is not a joke. Almost everything Frassetto says is twisted or an outright lie.
In the first 90 seconds ...
(1) Frassetto has been a teacher in the ASD for the last six years. Never worked for ASD, he has been a charter school teacher.
(2) Students are leading this effort. Doesn't look like it to me.
(3) Allentown has the second fastest growing economy in the US. Doesn't appear on this top 10 list (http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/02/01/america-growing-shrinking-economies/5089373/).
And the lies just continue on and on and on.
The worst lie was "$20 million is missing." What? From where? The media reported that the School Board was angry last year when ASD had $10 million MORE than was expected.
How about $6 billion of downtown development? It actually is closer to $1 billion, if you include proposed projects.
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/allentown/mc-allentown-school-district-walkouts-20150928-story.html
...hmmmm... at the rally, someone named "Nate" (who wouldn't give his last name) was driving school students around in a stretch limo. Who could that be??
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