Vandalism in Singapore does not carry a sentence of caning, only the crime Michael Fay was charged with carries such a penalty. According to the Straits Times, a Singapore newspaper, he was charged with a political crime using a spray can. How could a government that has little respect for the human rights America holds so dear, be so applauded by American society? Because he is a young male accused of being a criminal. In today's America that is all it seems to take to inspire our anger toward him. Many in America abandoned him as they had so many other young males before him. Even Rush Limbaugh and his audience mocked Michael Fay and championed the Singapore government, rather than defend him, on two separate occasions.
He is often abandoned in the media, in the courts, in government, and now even in
our schools. It was Robert Bly who first named the forgotten male in his book
"Runner." His friends call him that. It's a name that carries a great deal of respect in
his neighborhood. He was born and raised in a section of New York City deep in
the South Bronx. As his name implies, he is a survivor. First he survived ten years
of abuse at the hands of his mother, his father having been killed in the same streets
that gave him his name.
I helped rescue Runner after being called to his home during one hot and steamy
summer's night last July. After we took him to the hospital and filed a complaint of
suspected child abuse against his mother, he told my partner and I that a fat lip and
a black eye were nothing new to him, he had worn them both before. What was
different this time was that he had called 911. He had never done that before. Since
then he has lived in a group home for abused children. He sees his mother once a
week under supervised visitations.
Runner called me some days ago wondering why his friend died. Young children
have a very difficult time understanding death, especially when it happens to a
friend. He wanted to talk to me about the death of his friend, a young man named
Daniel Maracallo. Runner simply couldn't understand how his young friend could
have gone on a school outing that day expecting to have a great time and return
with a story to tell, only to never return.
On June 15, 1994, Daniel Maracallo, a 14-year-old student at Intermediate School
166 drowned during a class outing to Wildwater Kingdom at Dorney Park in
South Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania. Assistant Principal Winsome Naylor
was the chief chaperone for the day. She had five other teachers along for the trip
to help her take care of the children entrusted to her. Ms. Naylor learned that
Daniel was missing at 5p.m. when students were scheduled to leave the park. Ms.
Naylor did not notify the principal of the school that Daniel was missing until she
returned to the city at approximately 9p.m. Daniel's body was discovered in the
park's pool at 1a.m. the following morning -- over four hours after the rented
school buses carrying the remaining children and Ms. Naylor arrived home.
Students said they saw Daniel having trouble in the "wave" pool and alerted
lifeguards. The lifeguards did nothing to investigate and none of the school
chaperones intervened.
More to boy's death than meets the eye
Daniel Maracallo's death is just one example of the high death and injury rate for
young men entrusted to our New York City school system. Most of these deaths
and injuries could be avoided if young men were not abandoned as they often are
in a school system entrusted with their safety.
On April 28, 1994, a program resulting in the physical and emotional abandonment
of boys between the ages of eight and fifteen years old took place throughout the
New York City School system. Thousands of boys were refused passes to be with
their parents for the day or allowed on excursions for a fun day in the work place
as were girls. To make matters worse, teachers assigned to these young men
throughout the school year left their male students in favor of leading hundreds of
female students on excursions to city hall, municipal institutions and private
corporate work sites.
Unlike any of the other few school systems in the country that participated in
"Take Our Daughters to Work Day," the New York City School System
participated in this program in such a way that it virtually imprisoned young boys
between the ages of eight and fifteen years old and further relegated them to
auditoriums and overcrowded classrooms where they were forcibly indoctrinated
with feminist speeches and curricula that essentially made many feel angry and
punished. The underlying message conveyed the idea that these boys were being
treated differently because they hadn't treated girls better, and that is why they must
remain in school while their sisters went into the work place for a fun day with
parents and teachers. The program was sponsored by the Ms. Foundation and Ms.
Magazine.
The Ms. Foundation's response to this was one that conveyed deliberate knowledge
of the feelings of rejection and abandonment that thousands of young boys, many
of whom are victims of sexual and physical abuse, would certainly feel.
According to the "Take Our Daughters to Work Day - Parents Guide," published
by the Ms. Foundation, "Last year, a number of boys felt slighted because they
were not allowed to go to work, yet these feelings of rejection proved an important
component in educating boys about the realities of girls' and women's lives."
Obviously, a vindictive act of emotional abuse was lodged against young boys
under the auspices, the approval, and the guidance of the New York City Board of
Education. At taxpayer expense, the plan was carried out by staffers of the New
York City Board of Education. This program only took the approval of two people
within the entire bureaucracy of the New York City Board of Education. They are,
the Schools Chancellor Ramon Cortines, and the Chief Executive for Instructional
and Student Support Programs, Beverly Hall, Ed.D. Dr. Hall was later promoted
by Mr. Cortines.
If men will not protect these young men and boys, who will? An organization I
helped found called the United Men's Coalition is an organization that dedicates
itself to rescuing and recovering abused boys. We have since been "adopted" by the
National Coalition of Free Men. NCFM is now our parent organization, and
together we are righting this wrong.
The "Take Our Daughters to Work Day" program is nothing less than a form of
civil child abuse. It is not a matter of affirmative action, but oppressive action
committed by a select group of people who have far too much power and influence
over our school system. Jane Pauley's personal defense on "Dateline" of the
American Association of University Women's report, which argued that young
girls were being cheated in schools, has succeeded, also under the guise of
affirmative action, in justifying the abandonment of thousands of young boys in the
classroom. We call this elitist faction in the media and in education the "affirmative
faction."
The Federal Attorney's Office, at our request, has consented to investigate the way
the "Take Our Daughters to Work Day" program was carried out in the school
system. A class action law suit on behalf of the young men in the New York City
school system is being constructed, and the Board of Education has been denied
the right to continue its existence under its current mandate.
Under the auspices of the NCFM, UMC has lobbied the state legisla