Parents Not Happy With T.I. School Visit [Read for the principal's snarky response]

[NYC Liberal]

I wanted to post this pretty much because of the response.

Parents Not Happy With T.I. School Visit

HENRY COUNTY, GA -- Out of jail and doing community service, Clifford "T.I." Harris made a trip to Woodland Middle School in Henry County on March 5, an unwanted surprise for one family.

Tom Myers was surprised when his daughter came home and told him that T.I. had been the speaker at the assembly on anti bullying. Myers told 11Alive News that had he known T.I. was speaking, he would not have allowed his daughter to attend. So he wrote an e-mail to Woodland's principal, Dr. Terry Oatts.

...

Myers also wrote in the e-mail, "How about next time, let him mow the grass or pick up the trash around the school grounds? If the kids see that they might understand that what he did was wrong."

In e-mails obtained by 11Alive News, Oatts replied in his e-mail, "I thought about asking a guy who snorted cocaine and got arrested for DUI when he was 30 to come and speak to our kids, but President George W. Bush was not available."

http://www.11alive.com/news/news_story.aspx?storyid=143138&catid=40

[mzteris]

1. didn't know who you were talking about

(ok - old fogey here) so went looking for info and found this from the ever popular Wiki:

n addition to helping with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, T.I. worked with troubled youths at Paulding Detention Center in Atlanta, provided scholarships for single parent families at Boys and Girls Clubs, and headlined the Boost Mobile Rockcorps concert at New York's Radio City Music Hall, which featured such performers as Fat Joe, Slim Thug, and Kanye West, and was held exclusively for community service volunteers. As part of his community service time, T.I. has come to a number of middle-grade and high schools in Georgia, where he speaks with the students in an assembly holding a positive message, while maintaining a philathropic view about morals and growing up in the same areas as himself. In June 2005, The Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes Foundation, named for the deceased member of multi-platinum female group TLC, and Atlanta's V-103 honored T.I. with the 2005 Lisa Lopes Award for groundbreaking achievements in music and community service which was court ordered. With this steady list of growing accomplishments T.I. is being recognized as the "Jay-Z of the South," according to Pharrell Williams of multi-platinum production team The Neptunes.<55>



I dunno. Having a guy come and tell you to get your act together and stay out of prison isn't so bad, is it?

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

2. The principal really wrote that?

He's my new hero!

[tonysam]

4. That was a GREAT response by the principal. n/t

[frylock]

3. what kind of racist piece of shit is this myers prick?!

"How about next time, let him mow the grass or pick up the trash around the school grounds?

WTF is that supposed to mean?

[Huskerchub]

5. I think

that he's talking about "community service". Ya know, in lots of places you see inmates (city, county or state) walking along the side of the road etc picking up trash. My guess is that is what he was saying...not being racist. But feel free to jump to your own conclusions, as I have, since one very tiny quote taken out of context can mean just about anything you want to twist it to mean.