BLACKBOARD JUNGLE?

To date, the Gazette created and has maintained its website for about 7 years. It has been a notably expensive undertaking. It has also been a valuable resource provided free of charge to our readers during that time.

As a way of providing news of Fillmore and the rest of the world it has been a remarkable success. In a town of about 14,000 residents the website welcomes from 25,000 to 32,000 “unique” visitors per month.

Those many photos, videos, stories, legal notices, and reports require time and expense to produce. As another example of that old saying (tongue-in-cheek) “No good deed goes unpunished” this internet expansion is hurting the print version of the Gazette. This is simply because many readers say “Why should I pay for the paper when I can get all of that information at fillmoregazette.com free of charge?”

Why indeed. From the mightiest daily newspapers (Wall Street Journal) to the most humble community weeklies, if the online products were to survive without eating away at the traditional printed product, a way had to be found to pay for the website version.

For this reason the Gazette has been diligently searching for a workable solution in the form of what is called a “pay wall”. Most recently, the Ventura Star has chosen a similar solution for its website.

So, in its 25 years of bringing news and information to the residents of Fillmore the Gazette will soon introduce a new format for accessing its website, fillmoregazette.com. It is hoped that this will facilitate another 25 years of service for the City of Fillmore. We will do our best to make the transition as quick and easy as possible.

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As we approach that happy time of graduation I regret to have to revisit some extremely important issues regarding delinquent behavior in our schools, our Middle School in particular.

I have received several thoughtful letters from parents and friends of Middle School students complaining about ongoing bullying, violence, and schoolyard intimidation. Reports continue to cite numerous fights on school grounds, threats of doing serious bodily harm, as well as documented death threats.

It would be no exaggeration to say that the repeated violent conduct of certain students have created an atmosphere of fear and intimidation on the Middle School grounds and in the classroom. School discipline is lacking and the situation appears to be out of control. This can only be attributed to administrative incompetence.

For one example, one female student was threatened and beaten (bloodied) by another female student several weeks ago. That aggressor later threatened to cut the throat of the victim as she returned home from school. This was reported, investigated, and the aggressor student is alleged to have been suspended for 5 days, returned to school where she quickly re-offended.

Chaos is alleged to reign in several classrooms, with foul language common, students disconnecting electrical equipment, students refusing to do their work, etc. Disrupting students are said to be sent to the principal’s office and routinely returned to the classroom. Fights in the school yard are said to be frequent.

The mother of the girl who was beaten and received a death threat, has referred these issues to the school board and reported these problems to every level of school administration without, it’s alleged, receiving necessary assistance. Although she asked to be on the agenda for the next board meeting this is presently uncertain. She also alleges that, although the girl who assaulted her daughter was arrested, and a “no contact order” was issued, the offending girl was merely cited and released, and the “order” is being ignored.

It seems clear that a lack of student discipline at our Middle School continues to create a state of disorder. As I’ve said before, who can be expected to teach anything under these circumstances – and who can expect normal students to learn anything.

For those who may care, very serious legal issues are arising from this Middle School chaos, especially for the alleged gross absence of due diligence. The repeat offender students must be removed for the sake of those students who are striving to educate themselves.

Hello! Is anybody there?