Tony, his blog and the KCMO School District

Tony at TKC does two things extremely well, at minimum.

First, the obvious, he gets out information that might otherwise be overlooked by the local media--most particularly the paper (for outsiders, that would be The Kansas City Star).  And let's face it, the local paper still does most of the hard research, interviews, stories and reporting in town.  KCUR does terrific interviews with and through the likes of Steve Kraske but his end result isn't usually the kind of ground-breaking news we need, usually, as a city and metropolitan area.  The local TV stations fall on a news nugget once in a while but usually it's the Star that breaks the big stories.

So for the things that they either can't touch--particularly if it's deemed too sensitive or racial, in particular--or don't get to, Tony's blog has become a place we can go to for 'behind the scenes' stories.  Some are purely accusational and sometimes even irresponsible in this vein but by and large, most of it has proven to be pretty good information.  You go here for the "indelicate" things you wouldn't find elsewhere.

The second thing Tony's blog does well is what I've longed for for quite a while, aloud, at home. 

I have friends who work for the Kansas City Missouri School District and I've heard plenty of stories about the fights and violence that too frequently occurred and occurs in the schools there, all over the district. 

Having heard about it, I repeatedly said it was a shame it could not or would not be on the evening news, so people could see what the teachers at these schools and the administration have to deal with.

It's simply not fair that teachers have to be expected to deal with so much, so frequently, again, repeatedly, day after day, sometimes by the same students, other times from other rowdy students.  It's nearly crazy.

How are you supposed to teach 20 to 30 students, day after day, and make progress when either right outside the classroom door or, in fact, possibly right in the classroom, you have either verbal or physical fights going on?  Good luck with that one.

And then people blame the teachers for the teaching and learning that isn't going on.

As I said above, it's just not right.

So here's where Tony has come in, of late.

Tony began, singularly, I believe, getting impromptu videos up on his blog of some of these fights at different schools.

The Star, in the past, wouldn't even refer to these fights.  Granted, the daily newspaper isn't the best venue for getting this story across but unless you were there or heard about these fights, it's as though they never existed or occurred.

So Tony, lately, is getting some videos of these fights and putting them up on his blog.

And I say kudos.  Good for you, Tony.

The only way to solve a problem is, first, to recognize it and this is a good way for the area to recognize what the situations are at these schools and what's going on.

Because of Tony's postings of these brief videos, I believe it has pushed the local TV stations to also post some of them and report on them, too.

So in his own way, Tony has been kind of ground-breaking in this area and I think good things will come of it.  We'll see.  Hopefully, one day soon, there will be fewer--or none--of these fights.

Now if he could just stop posting the "scantily-clad moon maidens."

Link:  http://www.tonyskansascity.com/