Whitman Shorts: Student Debtors posted

Whitman Shorts, the Walt Whitman High School student television news show, did a report on illegal curricular fees, the posting of student names on school walls when fees are owed, and the violation of the Maryland Open Meetings Act by the MCPS Board of Education.

*In the report, hear the Whitman Principal say that it is "unrealistic for the schools to be able to provide everything - it is far too expensive".

*On November 20, 2008, I gave testimony to the Montgomery County Delegation to Annapolis on the issue of illegal curricular fees. In that testimony, I stated that as punishment for not paying illegal curricular fees "students have their names posted on lists that are hung on the walls of some schools." Later that same evening, in an apparent attempt to refute my testimony, Delegate Brian Feldman questioned Board of Education President Shirley Brandman, asking;

"...I hope you say that this is actually not true, but this idea that if there's arrears for fees, that somehow they are posted on some school, I mean, is that true?"

Board of Education President, and Whitman High School parent, Shirley Brandman replied:

"I really don't know what that incident refers to."

Watch the Whitman Shorts report showing the lists of student debtors posted on the walls at President Brandman's own neighborhood high school.

The Whitman Shorts reporter is John Yarchoan. Watch the video here:


Thanks to Whitman Shorts for providing the Parents' Coalition of Montgomery County, Maryland with a copy of this report.
Janis Sartucci