Douglas County, Georiga

December 14, 2003

School
District Yanks Channel One

From Jim Metrock:

Channel One would have called
Josh Buice a "Channel
One student" who attended a "Channel One school", but
Buice never considered himself owned by Channel One and he didn’t consider
his school the property of Channel One.

Buice graduated from the Douglas County school district
several years ago and this year he decided to help free the county’s
students from Channel One’s contract. He had to sit and watch Channel
One and he did think it was right to continue to waste so much school
time.

Last week, because of Mr. Buice’s hard work and the hard
work of scores of other Douglas County citizens, the county school
board suspended the showing of Channel One News until an investigation
of the program and its web site can be completed.

Mr. Buice could not have done it better. This summer,
he did not seek publicity, but instead went to the Superintendent and
Board to quietly solve the Channel One problem. He presented them information
without drawing unnecessary public attention to the school district.
When action wasn’t taken, he took measured steps to secure public support
for commercial-free classrooms.

Buice is a calm young man.
He is passionate about the need for integrity in public schools and
the need for commercial-free
classrooms. Sometimes people who are passionate about a cause act boldly
and get angry. Buice is too cool for that. He is, as attorneys like
to say, a "reasonable and prudent" person. That makes him
even more effective. Getting angry can make one "step on your
issue" and Buice never came close to doing that. The children
of the county could not have had a better person to calmly present
the case for better use of their school time.

He asked for help from Obligation and we gave what we
could. The help of Buice’s church and pastor was crucial.

 

Josh Buice

An incredible fighter for other people’s
children.

"First they ignore you, then they laugh
at you, then they fight you, then you win." Gandhi

Josh Buice probably feels more comfortable quoting
Jesus or Paul than Gandhi, but this quote should give great
encouragement to those who want to take on big corporations
that exploit children.

There is nothing more powerful than one person
who won’t give up until what is wrong is made right. The people
of Douglas County owe this young man a lot of thanks. He has
made education more effective for the 7,000 students who now
have one extra hour a week of potential learning time and he
has saved taxpayers potentially millions of dollars. And he
did it all in his spare time.

The Douglas County Board of Education inherited the Channel
One controversy and they have taken appropriate action to protect the
students and taxpayers. Obligation will be providing information to
their board attorney to help them make a decision about the appropriateness
of advertising sexy and violent movies, candy and other junk during
school time.

I have been honored to know Josh Buice and his equally
courageous wife. Both of them have family members who helped with this
effort.

There is now a good possibility that Channel One removal
will happen in several other Georgia school districts in the next few
months. The dominoes are beginning to fall in the Greater Atlanta area.