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National Do A Grouch A Favor Day is a call to kindness on February 16th. Everyone knows a grouch, and some of us may even be guilty of being one. On February 16th, maybe you can be the one to find the sweeter side of a grouch.

For some, it’s in their nature to be grouches all of the time; while others may just be having a rough day or two. On National Do a Grouch a Favor Day, we have an opportunity to turn the grouches frown upside down!

Today is also Fat Tuesday and Paczki Day!!!!

Feb. 16, 1857 - Frederick Douglass was elected President of Freeman Bank and Trust.

Frederick Douglass was born into Maryland slavery in 1817 to a slave mother and a slave master father. Young Douglass toiled on a rural plantation and later in Baltimore’s shipyards as a caulker. Douglass, however, learned to read and soon sought out abolitionist literature that alleviated what he termed the graveyard of his mind. He eventually escaped to New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1838, and took the surname Douglass, which he borrowed from the Scottish romance novel, Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott. Douglass’s wife, Anna, followed with their five children.

Douglass published his slave experiences in 1845 entitled Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave: Written by Himself. Having publicly declared himself a fugitive slave, Douglass fled to the British Isles to continue his outspoken campaign against American slavery. After two years of lecturing in England, Scotland, and Ireland, Douglass’s freedom was purchased by abolitionist friends and he returned to the United States a free man. Upon his return in 1847, Douglass began his first newspaper, The North Star which later became Frederick Douglass’ Paper.

Douglass’s life spanned important decades of American history in which the contradictions of race, class, and gender were debated. Douglass played a crucial role in those debates. He spoke out against Northern race prejudice as well as Southern slavery. Douglass once remarked that his son could more easily become an apprentice in a Boston law firm than in any workingman’s organization. Even while realizing this fact, Douglass became a strong advocate of industrial trade school education for the black workingman.

Douglass gave arguably his most famous oration, “What, to the Slave, Is the Fourth of July?” in Rochester, New York, on July 5, 1852. His theme was that American liberty was a fraud replete with thinly veiled crimes that would embarrass “a nation of savages.”

As the United States rushed toward the Civil War, Douglass was forced to choose sides between African Americans who wanted to return to Africa and those who wanted to remain in the land of their birth. Douglass advocated remaining and fighting to change the United States. ...With the passage of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850, even Douglass began to entertain radical and violent solutions that would help blacks gain their freedom and, at the same time, destroy American slavery.

With the outbreak of the Civil War, Douglass urged black men to support the war effort and specifically to join the Union Army with essays such as “Men of Color, To Arms.” Two of his sons were among those men who joined the all-black Fifty-fourth Massachusetts regiment. After the war, Douglass served as President of the Freedman’s Bank. He recognized the failure of Reconstruction in an 1888 speech entitled “I Denounce the So-Called Emancipation as a Stupendous Fraud.”

In the remaining years of his life, Douglass served in a variety of federal positions which included America’s consul-general to Haiti (1889-1891), a post he held simultaneously with the position of charge d’affaires to Santo Domingo (now the Dominican Republic). His activism continued even into the last few years of his life.

Douglass died in Washington, D.C. in 1895. An essay written in 1857 captured his unrelenting zeal to fight against injustice when he said: “Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning, they want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters.”

Remember to check out KM's Unity Club’s posting about past and present black leaders on their Instagram story! Follow @kmhs_unity_club on Instagram.

Calling all community members and students! Unity Club is throwing a virtual movie night on February 21 at 6:00 pm to watch The Hate U Give. The Hate U Give is a movie that looks at police brutality in America through a Black teen, Starr Carter, eyes. Unity Club will also be having a discussion night on February 24th at 6:00 pm to have a group conversation about the movie. You can also watch the movie on your own and join the discussion if you prefer. If you're interested, sign up here.

Lasers, does KM got talent? This year’s Variety Show is looking for talent to compete in a fully virtual event! Singing? Dancing? Yodeling? All skills are welcome and the 1st-3rd place winners will receive cash prizes!

If you are interested in being a talent act, contact Linnea Hietala (hietlin@kmsd.edu) or Sylvia LaGalbo (lagasyl@kmsd.edu) with your name, grade, and a short description of your talent.

Talent acts will be pre-recorded and the event will premiere on Friday, March 5th!

KM Interact/Global is doing a hygiene drive until March 13th. Items collected will be donated to St. Ben’s Homeless Shelter in Milwaukee. Please donate unopened: lotion, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss, hairbrushes, combs, soap, hand sanitizer, wipes, masks, or any other hygiene products you may have! Those hotel soaps and shampoos that you have in your linen closet piling up are perfect. 

 

Donation boxes can be found in Global or donations can be dropped off at the front office.

 

Please reach out to Mrs. Weber weberms@kmsd.edu in Global if you have any questions. 

Freshmen, Sophomores, and Juniors: Reminder that the portal to enter 2021-2022 course requests will close at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, February 21. All selections must be finalized by this date. School counselors will be available for you if you have any questions. You can book an appointment or email them.

Mrs. Kopidlansky is celebrating her birthday today. Happy birthday!

No events

Hold the delivered pickles, hold the lettuce, anything outside the school cafeteria or your home-prepared meal does upset us.

Parents/guardians and students are asked not to bring/deliver food or beverages from any outside commercially prepared eating establishments to school to be consumed by students during their regular mealtimes, or any school hours.

It is noted in the student handbook that food from area restaurants will not be accepted during the school day. In addition, in our August 14, 2020 campus welcome back letter, we mentioned “Special food deliveries will not be allowed during the school day. Special deliveries sent to the school will be sent back with the person delivering the food, and will not be accepted or delivered to the student. When a parent/guardian needs to drop off a delivery for a student, the parent/guardian must communicate that to the student. Students will not be called down to the office to pick up their delivery. They will be required to pick it up during passing time or during their lunch break. Students will be required to turn the product over to office staff for disposal upon entering the building and will then be sent to class.

Please make sure you are bringing your own masks to school, and wearing them properly!

Be sure to follow your classroom cleaning expectations to help us all stay as safe as possible!

Our bubblers are turned off, but the refill stations are still on. Remember to bring your reusable water bottles to stay hydrated!

Please remember to wear your student ID every day, and at all times while you are in school. It is very important that you use those IDs (examples: lunchroom, signing in and out, etc.) so we reduce any unnecessary contact.

Please stay 6 feet or more apart, and do NOT leave your Advisory to seek face-to-face help, instead, use google meet to work with your teachers.