As you can see, a citizen showed up to protest the naming, and explained quite nicely why using Cavalier is not a good idea. He gave the history of the term and it’s meaning to the English and King Charles the 1st. Not only were Cavaliers English and from a different time period of the revolutionary war, it goes in the face of what Thomas Jefferson and our founding fathers stood for. That’s why when I was researching the mascot I rejected using Cavalier and Renegade instead.

What makes this even more troubling and ironic is that school districts across the state said that they didn’t think graduating seniors should have to take a civics/citizenship test because civics were taught throughout K-12. Really? Didn’t anyone in administration or the teacher faculty have the common sense to tell the students that ‘Cavalier’ was probably inappropriate due to it’s ties to the British and they should come up with another mascot? If we are teaching civics, wouldn’t these students, teachers and administrators know enough not to use ‘cavalier’ as a mascot for a school named after a revolutionary man?

From the very first task force meeting, to the bond elections (counted by district finance employees) to the purchase of the land and hiring of architects, this entire process has been a sh*t show of the highest level, it shouldn’t surprise us that they continue to ignore reason. This is what happens when governmental decisions are made behind closed doors by a select group of ‘Know-It-Alls.’

This is why they had to hire a former shoe salesperson as an administrator to manage a whopping 24 students at the Avera Academy. The more ‘Know-It-Alls’ the better education our kids are getting, yeah right.

Thanks for your litter Shantel

Well, I have known for a long time that SOS Shantel Krebs has no clue how to run her office, except she did it better than that last guy and his knuckle-head friend. Yeah, I know, that bar wasn’t real high.

But I would think Shantel and her campaign crew would know it is pointless to leave lit in the door of a registered Independent (over a decade – and never a Republican).

If Tapio or Johnson did this, I wouldn’t have blinked an eye, BUT THE SECRETARY OF THE STATE!

Shantel best find a new source for a clean list besides her front drawer. Hilarious.

Shantel, I know a guy, but he charges a pretty penny.

I never expected SOS Shantel Krebs to take down the photo of a Mobridge student sporting a traitor’s shirt or another student sporting gang symbols. But she did, good for her. Even though she said it was ‘out of respect to the faculty and students’. Not even sure what heck that means, but nice try Shantel.

What worries me more about this situation is that schools don’t teach government or civics anymore. Some would say this is a 1st Amendment issue, I would agree. So let’s have that important discussion. What if the shirt was a Swastica or a image of Satan? What if it was of a nude girl? History tells us that we fought a bloody civil war to defeat the traitors of the South, just like we fought another bloody war to defeat facism in WWII. While I will defend anyone’s right to express themselves, there is a fine line when you are doing it on school time funded by taxpayers. I got into this same debate with the SF school district when teachers were advocating for the school start date on the taxpayers time and dime. Or when a private HS painted Christian religious symbols on taxpayer funded snowplows. There is a time and place (even legally) when it is appropriate to express your 1st amendment rights. Disrupting other students when taxpayers are paying to educate these kids is not appropriate, Mobridge faculty should have known better. Placing this photo on a taxpayer funded website for over a year is also not appropriate. Krebs and her staff should have known better, and should apologize out of respect to her fellow taxpayers who fund her salary and office.

Free speech is a wonderful thing, but when you are using my tax dollars to force your opinion on me, I take issue with this. If you want to look or talk or act like a jackass, you have that right under the 1st Amendment, you lose those rights when you use my taxdollars to do so. Maybe if schools would get back to teaching history and civics we wouldn’t have to see this stupidity anymore. It makes you wonder if our elected government officials understand the government they are in charge of running.