Mayor Cindy Lerner has established a great working relationship with
the Pinecrest Public Schools. Check out the latest Pinecrest
E-News. Pinecrest kicked-off the No
Place for Hate program, an anti-bullying initiative, for the coming year in
collaboration with five public schools. As part of the initiative, Pinecrest held a
community event on September 21st celebrating International Day of Peace at
Pinecrest Gardens.
Pinecrest’s goal is to become eligible to be designated a Community of
Respect by the Anti-Defamation League. The Peace Day Celebration was a very
special evening made possible by a committee chaired by Kathy Hersh, an
anti-bully expert, and Julie Ascuto, guidance counselor at Palmetto Elementary
School. The Melissa Institute, Youth Crime Watch and Anti-Defamation League, as
well as several Girl Scout troops participated as well.
Perhaps some of this could rub off on the Palmetto Bay council, who despite
now reading the decorum ordinance for every meeting, still suffers from
a lake of peace and honest idea exchange at meetings where the current Mayor and other from the council continue to interrupt
and bully unpopular speakers.
I once hoped that drawing attention to this situation would lead to a change in behavior, see a prior post of 7/19/2012: Anotherexample of bad leadership: Shelley Stanczyk and her bizarro world of one-sided decorum in Palmetto Bay. Unfortunately it still continues, and is perhaps even amping up, as evidenced in South Dade
Matters on 10/2/2012: PB:Stanczyk calls a resident a liar; Lindsay’s disgrace. This is a real shame for the Palmetto Bay community as the mayor and certain council members should be working hard to set proper standards of behavior for our youth. Palmetto Bay deserves better.
Perhaps the youth, the participants and sponsors at the Pinecrest program can come south and help
calm the Palmetto Bay Council meetings and create a community of respect here in Palmetto Bay.
What a great initiative! I sit on the Board of The Melissa Institute so I want to take the opportunity to brag a little about them and the work they have done in our community.
ReplyDeleteThe Melissa Institute is a non-profit organization dedicated to the study and prevention of violence through education, community service, research support and consultation. Their mission is to prevent violence and promote safer communities through education and application of research-based knowledge. They are very active in community service and outreach to our parents, students, teachers and health care professionals. They have programs for parents on raising healthy children in a violent world and on the factors that contribute to aggressive and violent behavior. The Institute also participates in numerous health and safety fairs. It distributes thousands of free gun locks as well as gun safety bookmarks and other materials.
The Melissa Institute has also created several web sites that serve as online centers for violence prevention information. Most recently, the Melissa Institute launched another powerful resource for teachers. www.readingteacher.net Evidence shows that students who do not learn to read on level by 3rd grade are much more likely to develop low self-esteem, drop out of school, and engage in antisocial and aggressive behavior. To help prevent this spiral of failure The Melissa Institute has introduced The Balanced Literacy Diet website to support educators in developing effective and engaging literacy programs across the elementary grades.
To learn more about the organization, visit their website at www.melissainstitute.org
Why doesn't Palmetto Bay participate anymore? These are quality programs that are good for the community.
ReplyDeletePalmetto Bay = the Village of bullying
ReplyDeleteMayor Stanczyk, Joan Lindsay and Brian Pariser have to start showing speakers some respect if they want to be respected. This is a very ugly council and it is starting to spill out into the rest of the community.
ReplyDelete