Protesters Are a No Show for Anti-Bullying Rally

The big story from last night's school board meeting is what didn't happen.

A "peaceful anti-bullying protest" announced last month on the front page of The Mercury in the wake of a West Street home being riddled with bullets did not happen.

A post on the Band Against Bullying Facebook page by rally organizer Monique Basile 90 minutes before the scheduled start indicated that the rain forecast for the evening was the cause for the cancellation.

Monique Basile organized a Band Against Bully protest at Thursday
night's school board meeting that didn't happen. She has posted on
the group's Facebook page that a rally planned for Sunday in
Smith Family Plaza will still go on as scheduled.

It also indicated that she would nevertheless be at the meeting "speaking up, and introducing our proposal contract. This contract I am asking to be imposed, will be an entry contract. One that every student and parent from elementary school up will have to sign... It will become a school standard and be part of their code of conduct... We can still show up in numbers and take a stand but it will be a quiet protest indoors."

But that didn't happen either.

The Band against Bullying rally on scheduled for Sunday, April 28, will still go on, according to the Facebook posts.

The rally, which will be held at Smith Family Plaza next to Pottstown Borough Hall, is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

(UPDATE: Basile posted at 5 a.m. that her children were sick and she forgot her phone in the rush to get to the doctor. "They both said the fruit tasted funny and their bellies hurt after... Took them both to the doctor and forgot my phone in such a rush to figure out what was wrong with them.... I am so sorry, however I have just sent an email to all members of the board with the contract and my proposal... Being a single mom, finding balance is life is no easy feat... Please accept my apologies for letting you down yesterday.")
No doubt, the WFMZ news crew that showed up Thursday expecting a protest were a bit disappointed.

As a consolation prize, they got to interview school board member John Armato, who is also the school district's unpaid director of community relations.

Although there were some community members in the audience, not one person stepped up to speak to the school board or express their concerns about the much-mentioned bullying problem in the middle school.

But the some school board members were not so silent.

"Our youth need adults telling them we need them," said Vice President Katina Bearden, who has helped to organize the popular Mother/Son and Father/Daughter Dances.

"They live in a culture of mixed mental issues, but most people in Pottstown are good and this rash of violence is not just in Pottstown, but all across the world. It is not unique to our area," she said.

"We are not accustomed to having such violence," she added, urging people to attend the community meeting scheduled by the Pottstown Police Department on May 2 at 7 p.m. in Borough Hall, as much "to let the police know we support them" as to get answers about the recent shootings.

"WFMZ was not here tonight to hear about the mother/son dance, or about the Foundation for Pottstown Education," board member Kurt Heidel said. "We know why they were here, and we need to get the good stuff out there too."

"It's a shame they were not here with their camera's for Rock the Block," said board member Bonita Barnhill. "Everyone was pitching in, it was a real sense of community."

But as former Sen. Claire McCaskill once said, "TV loves a ruckus."

But the ruckus was March 24, when the home of a Pottstown Middle School eighth grader who her mother says was the subject of constant bullying was riddled with bullets.

Police captured two suspects in the shooting, Makael Bevins, 19, and Ahnile Fountain, 19 on April 9 and the court records describe a "feud" between two groups that had resulted in several fights. One group was comprised of three girls, including Bevin's sister, and the other group, four adults and one juvenile girl.

Police also responded to a dispute in front of the house where the shooting occurred between these two factions. The Samba family, whose house was shot up, has engaged a lawyer and said it is considering suing the school district.

Pottstown Schools Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez discusses
the pros and cons of re-opening Edgewood during a town hall
meeting there in February.

All this occurs in the context of the school district very publicly exploring the option of moving the fifth grade out of the middle school to a re-opened Edgewood school while insisting no decision has been made, even though no other option is publicly acknowledged to be on the table.

If Edgewood is to be re-opened, the decision, which comes with a price tag as high as $6.5 million, has to be made by June, now barely two months away.

Here are the Tweets from the meeting:

No Protest, Just Another School Board Meeting