Great News PSD, it's a Blue Light Special!

Attention K-Mart Shoppers.
Attention K-Mart Shoppers.


We have a special going on right now in school supplies. A ten pack of red pens for only 28 cents!

Oooh... smoother ink! Sounds fancy!

If you aren't already laughing, allow me to let you in on a little joke.  A major concern of teachers that has been highlighted during recent contract negotiations, has been the lack of adequate supplies.  PSD claimed teachers had everything they needed; teachers claimed they were spending hundreds of dollars out of their own pockets to supply their classrooms with basic essentials.

As the two sides worked to find a reasonable compromise, one of the proposals that PSD put forth to the teachers union outlined exactly what supplies PSD was willing to buy for teachers.  On the list of supplies the district promised to teachers were red pens. But, they didn't just say they would provide teachers with red pens. They were actually quite specific about how many red pens each teacher would receive.  How many you ask?

Bob, tell them what they've won!

This pen and a whole, fabulous eraser could be yours!

Congratulations teachers, you've just won a year's supply of red pens! That's right each of you will receive one full red pen to use any way you like, all year long. This prize package is valued at 2.8 cents! Congratulations!!!!!

So our ever generous district administrators were willing to give each teacher one red pen. One. I know money is tight, and we shouldn't waste, but c'mon! One? Take a peek back at the picture above. Target is currently selling ten packs of red pens for 28 cents. That means you could go today and buy what the district claims is a year's supply of red pens for EVERY teacher in the district (all 1,100 of them) for about $30.00.

Unfortunately nobody is buying these pens. Teachers still don't have a contract (despite countless promises, and despite teachers returning to work in good faith). So no one knows who's job it is to buy red pens. Teachers are trapped in limbo waiting to know what supplies will be provided. They could go out and buy their own (like they do most years), but they been told for weeks that they would get a list of available supplies soon. So it would be irresponsible to spend money on something they are about to get anyway. It makes more sense to save their money and use it for things they can't get through the district. But without a contract, no one knows what those things are. And so we wait. Once again our children's education is on hold while we wait for the district to step up and do what's right.  

Want to help your teachers out? Email them today and ask what they need.  I hear there's a sale at Target.   ;) 
 

Is it time to start cleaning house yet?

PSD is like my kids' bathroom.  No, not because it's full of crap. And not because people keep peeing all over it.
 
PSD reminds me of my bathroom, because it's been a long time since it had a good cleaning.

Nobody wants to go in there.

Unfortunately it's quite common for me to go too long between deep cleaning my kids' bathroom. With how busy life is, I will just do a quick clean up, wipe down counters, scrub the toilet and call it good.  That's how things are in PSD right now. See a problem? Sweep it under the rug. Need to look like you're taking care of things? Just invent another administrative position. Schools are failing left and right? PSD wants to do a quick-fix cleanup and move on.

Today I did a real deep clean of my kids' bathroom. Yep even Alice has to clean bathrooms once in a while.  It had that awful little boy pee smell (sorry is that TMI?) that is hard to get rid of, and I knew it had to be really scrubbed down and bleach the heck out of everything because it was getting out of control. I confess, I was starting to get use to the smell. It was becoming our new norm. Thankfully though it got bad enough that I knew I had to get in there and do the hard work of cleaning things out and not just cover things up.

When you go that long between really deep down cleaning it makes it THAT much harder to get the smells out and make it look really good again. And while you're down on your knees scrubbing up the urine, you see things you didn't even realize were there. You start noticing all the stuff that's been ignored. It's gross and NOT pretty, and soon nobody wants to use that bathroom anymore. You can't just hide everything in the drawers, you have to take the trash out, wash the rugs, and scrub the hair gel off the counter. When you get down and really scrub the floor you notice all the stuff that was easily ignored when you were standing up.

Saundra's Throne

PSD is a really stinky bathroom. Everyone knew there were problems, but when we took a minute to look at the issues, we saw the dirt went a whole lot deeper. There is grime here that may never come out. We may need a complete remodel. Now I'm not saying there is nothing good here. The shower still works. There is a functioning toilet (sure you have to jiggle the handle a little, but it's livable). And there's this amazing contraption called a "sink" where fresh water magically pours out any time of day and any temperature you want! It's pretty cool. Most of the world doesn't have one of those! But the truth is, it still stinks. And not just a little. It stinks so much that some people don't want to go in there anymore. They are going over to Richland and Kennewick to use the bathroom. And that's just sad.

So before we have to call in a Haz-Mat team, can we just get in there and start cleaning? Can we just fix it? Can we stop making excuses for how it got so stinky and just accept that it stinks and clean it up?  Can we be honest and say how much it stinks without hurting each other's feelings? Can we not argue about "Why didn't teachers tell us how stinky this bathroom was sooner?"

When my little boys pee all over the bathroom floor (and believe me, they do!), I don't blame my little girls for not telling me sooner. When my little girls complain about the pee on the floor, I don't tell them to just step over it. And I certainly don't make them clean it up. You know who I make clean it up?  The little boys who did all the peeing in the first place, the little people who have stunk up the place!

In summation:
PSD = my boys' stinky pee bathroom that you have to keep clean daily.

Now let's get busy.

The Amazing Alice, Public Relations C.R.A.P. Consultant

Hello, Hello all! I’ve missed you, my darlings. After the strike ended, I had to take a long vacation in the Caymans just to unwind, which is why I’ve been incommunicado for a bit.

Just kidding, that’s not true unless “in the Caymans” is a good word approximation of “cleaning my toilets.”

Anyway!

These happy clients could be YOU, PSD.

I’m here now to offer my vast experience and overwhelming credentials to the Pasco School District in their PR campaign aimed at “healing” the community after all this nasty business of the nasty strike. Just to be clear, I am assuming that “experience” means “stuff I’m thinking” and “credentials” means “Opinions”. I hear the job of a consultant pays pretty well, so I figure it’s worth a shot. Consider this my resume and feel free to contact my assistant to offer me a contractor’s slot in your payroll as soon as you’re done reading my outstanding plan. I swear my assistant is not imaginary.

PSD, you need a whole lot of C.R.A.P.

C.R.A.P. stands for Credibility, Rapport, Accountability and Personable Persona. Yes, I know that’s two letter Ps there in a row but I’m not changing the acronym. You don’t pay me enough.

Let's start out this presentation with the very first letter, Credibility

First, imagine this highly probable scenario playing out in the near future.

Pasco School District 1’s Q&As for Maytember 33rd:

Question: What color is the sky?

Answer: It is PSD’s belief that the sky is blue

After reading this on Facebook, instead of nodding their heads, most residents and employees would narrow their eyes, get up from their computers to check the color of the sky personally, and then wonder if they were seeing things when you were actually proven correct.

What do PSD and this woman have in common? Great hair?

Let’s face it, my darlings of PSD administration. The majority of the people of Pasco have a hard time believing everything you say right now. They actually have a hard time believing anything you say right now. Because of certain tendencies recently displayed in your Q&As, press releases and official policies, people have a hard time trusting you. Don’t get huffy about it, just accept it. You can't change what you don't admit, so for the sake of everyone please hear and understand that  you currently have a credibility score of negative twenty-five on a scale of one to ten. You have asked the city to suspend their disbelief for your narrative above and beyond Michael Bay Blockbuster level, but you have no entertaining robots to make up for it.

Optimus says,"If you cannot be credible, you must be made of metal and willing to punch Decepticons."

For this reason, and as part of the CRAP strategy I propose, I highly advise you as your highly paid adviser, to stop using phraseology such as “things like this just take time” and “have faith in us” and “that is slated to be worked on in the near future”. You don’t have enough C to make those phrases fly for now. Do not issue “answers” that do not answer questions, and do not make any assertions in your publications that don’t have cited references. Then provide the references.

Soon, Fitbit will be able to
track the number of Uptown
Funk parodies you've seen.

That’s the Don’ts. The billion dollar question then, is, how DO you rebuild your credibility and regain the trust of the community? DO EVERYTHING YOU SAY YOU WILL DO. I know, this is hard but trust me on this, it’s the only way to get the C back in your life. If you say you’re implementing a program on October 10th, do it on October 10th, don’t provide an excuse why it wasn’t done. If you say you’re looking into issues with the stickiness of the post-it notes at Livingston, do so and then prepare a report on adhesives and paper products of the Livingston Leopards. If you say you’re taking 10,000 steps each day as part of a district wide fitness program, take 10,001 steps and then submit your Fitbit report online where everyone can see it. Bottom line: DO IT and PROVE IT.

The second part of CRAP Model ®  is Rapport.

Rapport

Consultant in French is actually
"Moi More Monette"

This is a French word that means “awesome person with the sweet rhythms and rhymes,” but colloquially in English it means empathy, sympathy and connection. If you and I have rapport, we have things in common, you understand how I feel and I understand your feelings in a similar way. Just to be clear, you and I do not have rapport right now as I am a highly credible public relations consultant and you are a school district. But you still need rapport with your community.

That means you talk about the stuff you have in common and the concerns you’ve all got, the worries you all feel and the s’mores you all eat. One of the quickest ways to build rapport with your community, or with anyone really, is to acknowledge the validity of their feelings. Tempers have been running hot lately, and people often say things in anger that they regret later. However, just because something is said with passion or even anger doesn’t mean it’s not true. An experience presented with barely concealed fury isn’t invalid simply because of the emotional presentation. I can probably sound almost livid while reciting the capitals of each of of the United States but that doesn’t mean those cities don’t exist, it just means I have a real beef with geography.

Oh honey, it's okay that you're unhappy about your kids
having to go to school with rats. You're allowed to have mild
irritation for that one, actually!

So, saying something like “Your emotions are preventing us from communicating” or “I don’t share your concerns” is going to be a big no-no in the highly respected CRAP ® model. Another big oopsie would be only listening to or referencing the one person in the proverbial room who vocally does agree with you. Bros, if ninety-nine people in the room are upset and one person isn’t, it’s not your job to make us all listen to the one person, it’s your job as a top-notch rapport-building-kingpin to accept the sentiment of the other ninety-nine and let us know you feel us. You say “Yeah, man. If I was in your shoes, I think I’d be pretty cheesed, too.” This doesn’t mean you let mob-mentality rule the day, it just means you know it’s okay for people to have feelings and you let them know it’s okay, too. Since. You know. They’re people, not robots. ...unless they are robots….

The third part of CRAP Model ® for Peace and Public Happiness is Accountability

Despite many rumors to the contrary, Accountability is not a reference to the abilities of accountants. So what does accountability mean? Hey, I’m a highly paid friendship campaign manager, not a dictionary writer. So let’s find out what the dictionary does say.

noun

1. the state of being accountable, liable, or answerable.

So, accountability is being answerable and responsible for the stuff you’re supposed to do, no matter what venue it’s in. If you’re accountable for shining those pleather boots at the Spice Girls Tribute Band Review those platforms and heels better be glowing. Responsibility and accountability go hand in hand, you pretty much can’t be responsible if you’re not also accountable. CRAP ®© says they can pretty much be used interchangeably and since that’s the gold standard for today, we’re going with it.

So if someone says “I take responsibility” for something, people generally think that person is going to be accountable or answerable for that thing. If Tim the security guard says, “I take responsibility for turning off the alarms at the spatula museum before the place got robbed blind,” you wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Tim has resigned or been fired. Or assigned to the back room to think about what he’s done. No, Tim is fired. The country will feel this loss for years.

I personally think it’s awfully brave of Saundra Hill to publicly state that she takes responsibility for the lack of curriculum in Pasco. However, if she’s not also submitting herself as accountable for this, claiming responsibility is as empty as half the bags of cereal in my cupboard. They look like they’ve got a lot to them, but when you lift them up, it’s almost all air. Taking responsibility means nothing if there is no penalty for messing up. You are not responsible if there are no repercussions for dropping the ball. Coincidentally, mentioning you take responsibility for something and then blaming someone else for the problem in the very next breath is a no-no under the CRAP®© plan. Might be a no-no all over the place. I’ll have my copyright lawyers look into that one.

™CRAP®© says you must have accountability. So what should you do, PSD, if you want to be true to yourself and your consultant’s valuable (in a real, monetary sense) advice? Have real, measurable accountability. And do it top-down, so the janitorial staff doesn’t feel picked on. Picking on Janitors is not cool, this is not an eighties teen movie.

This man never failed to
provide curriculum for
public schools again. 

You don’t have to air everyone’s dirty laundry for the whole city to see. Let’s face it, some socks should never see the light of day. Simply make sure that if your peeps have publicly and royally let the souffle fall, they are not allowed to go on their merry way as though nothing has happened. I’m not suggesting specific penalties because I don’t think Pasco even has public stocks (but if I were to make a suggestion, I would suggest that stocks are always a good idea). I do suggest that seeing some kind of reprimand, either professional or financial, would go a long way to restoring public trust. I am a highly paid specialist so you can trust me on this.

Last but not least in the highly acclaimed, New York Times Bestselling ™CRAP ®© Model for restoring public trust is Personable Persona.

When I was a little Alice and my brothers, sisters and I broke Mama Alice’s prize vase by playing rugby on the piano, it was hard to decide who to send to her to let her know. Just kidding, it was totally easy, we sent little Jason. Jason was a 3 year old, angelic boy with large, heartrendingly beautiful brown eyes and a mop of unruly, curly black hair. He was like a not-creepy Precious Moments figurine. Looking at him would cause most adults to spontaneously put candy in his hands, even those who have not picked up candy in years. He had this indefinable quality that just made him easy to get along with. Easy to sympathize with. And easy to not kill. He had a Personable Persona.

And so, PSD administration, my highly respected and generous employers, I must advise you, as the totally credibly, completely qualified and worth-every-penny consultant/advisor/self-declared expert that I am, find yourself a little Jason to talk to the people for you. Truth be told, I believe you already have one on staff, besides myself, of course. Shall we examine our ranks?

Saundra Hill is an incredibly cunning and intelligent woman, but she lacks a certain softness that makes people want to agree with her. Glenda Cloud is a sweet Grandma-type but she doesn’t have that star quality you need. Sarah Thornton is probably too busy with legal stuff, Randy Nunamaker would inspire too much jealousy and Carla Lobos already has a night gig superheroing in Seattle. No, I’m not going to go through all Twenty-Four main Administrators you have on tap because we all know it’s not necessary.

Jack was powerful...

Michelle Whitney, Pasco School District’s Superintendent-in-waiting, would be my first choice. Should be yours, too. I mean, have you seen her hair? Studio 1 out in Kennewick might be expensive, but they do some FINE work. Clearly the exquisite taste was already there, though. This is a woman with a fashion sense and poise the likes of which I’ve not seen since Twiggy. And that’s not all, my friends. Teachers like her. Students like her. Small animals like her. My 70 year old next-door neighbor likes her and he hasn’t had a K-12 aged student for a quarter-century. Yet for some unfathomable reason, she never really steps out into the limelight of our hearts.

...but I'd rather talk with Rita.

With the big P in the ™CRAP ®© (patent pending) Model, you do NOT hide your glittering starlet behind the wall when the press is around. Don’t leave your on-air “statements” to other “official spokespeople” when you have a Camera Ready Face the likes of which we’ve yet to see in the public education system right here. You don’t leave others to make comments and answers questions when you have this up and coming diva card already in your hand. People like this woman so much, it makes me wonder if she’s either casting spells with her pumps or is some type of sociopath/siren. 

I suppose, PSD, you might be saving your big guns for a rainy day but I gotta tell you, from a PR standpoint, it’s Hurricane season right now. Bring the lady out, already. Let her speak to the people, let her answer the press’s questions, let her coffee and croissant with the parents. If you plan on making good on a “healing” campaign, you need a Personable Persona that is far more likable that what you’re utilizing right now.  

Well, Pasco School District, I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief foray into my ™CRAP ®© (patent pending) Model, soon to be a major motion picture. I will expect a phone call from your fiscal service department setting me up as a consultant some time in the next twenty-four hours. I keep normal banking hours, so please no calls after 5 p.m. or texts after 6.

*             *              *

Alice in Pascoland!

As a final, exciting announcement, I’ve just learned that Universal Studios has just signed Amber Heard to play me in the official motion picture of the ™CRAP ®© (patent pending) Model! Additionally, Chris Hemsworth, Justin Clynes and and Chris Pine have all submitted head-shots and are currently auditioning for the coveted role of Randy Nunamaker.

Worth Fighting For!

It is a really great day today in Pascoland!

After two weeks on strike, teachers are finally back in the classroom with the children they love! (and mom's are home with a few hours of peace!!!).   More important than just being back in school, things have changed in Pasco.  An entire community of parents, teachers, students, friends, neighbors all came together and said Enough! We're tired of being the red-headed step-child of Pasco! Our kids deserve better!

And better is what we are getting. Better books. Better supplies. Better classes. Better teachers. Better schools. Better at voicing our opinions. Better at working together. Better at standing up for one-another. Better blogs (okay, that one was a little self-serving).

We have won a great battle in the war for our children's futures. And that my friends is something #worthfightingfor

Can you hear me now?

Ya know that feeling you get when someone yells at you and it makes you totally want to help them?

Or what about those times when you make a mistake and everyone belittles you and it makes you really want to be friends with them?

NO.

Nobody feels this way.

Imagine what it must be like to be on a school board.

They volunteered for this because they want to help kids. This isn't their real job. They don't get paid for the hundreds of hours they spend working for our schools. Education is not typically their chosen profession. They really have no idea how a school district is suppose to be run. They are put in charge of keeping the superintendent and district in check, and yet all the information they are given in order to do their job comes strait from the district.When something goes wrong, they get all the blame. Angry citizens pack the board room and take their two minute turns to complain and express frustration. They get emailed all day long about every problem big and small. When they don't respond people get mad. When they do respond, people get even madder. They can't win.

Now imagine you're a member of Pasco's school board.

It must really suck to be them right now, right?

So let's just give them a break. They are trying their best, so let's just leave them alone and move on.

Just kidding!

They signed up for this, and volunteers or not, they have a job to do and it's our job to make sure they do it! We've already agreed, however, that yelling at people and belittling them isn't the way to win friends and influence people. So how do we make friends with the school board in order to gain their trust and help? I'm glad you asked.

Let's take take a look at a few simple steps to improving our communication with the school board.  WARNING: it's not always easy to do things the right way.
 
Step 1.
Remember the school board are all volunteers. So like it or not they need to be appreciated. They are taking time away from their families so we need to show them we are grateful for their efforts.  Treat others the way you would like to be treated.

Step 2.
Nobody likes to be yelled at. Ever. So stop it. No matter what.
You catch more flies with honey, so try saying something nice. Perhaps serve them up a nice compliment sandwich:  compliment/criticism/compliment.
It goes like this, "I appreciate the time you have volunteered to serve our community/ but I don't think you are doing the right thing by refusing to participate in contract negotiations/ and I believe you have the integrity to make a better choice in the future." See, wasn't that fun? Now you try.

Step 3.
Keep in mind that this isn't their area of expertise (but they may not know that), so instead of criticizing their mistakes, use it as a teaching moment. Assume that they just don't know why their choices are wrong, and use your knowledge to help them understand the situation better.

Step 4.
Just like candy, nobody feels good taking advice from strangers (unless you are taking advice from me, that is okay to do). So if you aren't already on a first name basis with the board members, this may not be the best time for you to be trying to call in a personal favor. But it's never too late to try, so start today to get to know them. Email them, tell them who you are and what you  would like to see for the district.

Step 5.
Be patient. As someone who gets a lot of fan mail (and a smidgen of hate mail too), I can tell you that it is impossible to respond to every email I receive. So if you email a board member and they don't respond, that doesn't mean they didn't read it. And if they do respond and it looks like a form letter, don't take it personally.  Go back to step 4 and keep building that relationship.

Step 6. The board members are real people with real families. If you see them in real life, be nice. Ask how they are doing. Treat them like a human.  People will usually live up to your expectations (unless they are psychopaths or evil geniuses), so treat them how you want them to be.


The school board has to meet inside that awful bastion of doom we call the Booth Building. It must be horrible for them to be in that dark place for hours at a time. And while they are in there, they are getting their heads filled with whatever half-truths and misdirections the district sees fit to feed them. Speaking of feeding, they also get a lot of cake!


Picture for a moment two scenarios:

Scenario ONE: You are in a room full of women (group one) who feed you cake, tell you you're awesome, and then ask you to autograph a bunch of papers that have no real meaning to you. Group one tells you a bunch of "facts" including telling you that group two is just angry and uniformed.

Scenario TWO: You are in a room full of angry citizens (group two) telling you how wrong you are and demanding that you answer a bunch of questions for which you have no answer. Group two also tells you a bunch of facts including telling you that group one is made up of people who are either completely incompetent or evil geniuses.

Group two might be telling you the truth, but if they do it in a loud and angry way it might be a hard truth to hear. Group one might be telling you a lie, but they are saying it with cake and that is hard to argue against.

It would be nice if we could just snap our fingers and get the cake-eating zombies to wake up, but that isn't going to happen.

The point here is that if we are ever going to convince the board that the thousands of us are telling the truth and that a few in the Booth are lying, we are going to have to say it nicer than that.

Is it easy? No. Being a grown up rarely is.
But it is the right thing to do. And we are right, so let's act like it.

Injunction junction, what's your function?

Last week PSD filed an injunction against its teachers, but what does that really mean?


Basically an injunction is a legal way for one party to complain about another. And then Mommy (or the court) in this case gets to decide if they want to step in and punish the offender.  Now you have all seen kids fight. It can play out in a million different ways, with varying degrees of fault. Often with our own kids we try to determine not just if a child's actions are right or wrong, but if they were justified or provoked as well. We look at both children and all actions to see the whole picture and not just pass judgement on a single action.

Unfortunately the court has a lot less freedom than we do as parents. The court can only look at the circumstances brought before them and specific precedents in the law related to the case. In most people's minds the fact that the district is breaking the law by not having a comprehensive curriculum is enough to justify the teachers decision to break the law against teacher strikes.  But the law doesn't allow one crime to justify another.  In this case the judge can only rule on one matter of law: is the strike legal? Or must teachers go back to work?

Technically the strike is illegal. However lots of other districts have done it, and plenty of other judges have looked the other way opting not to get involved. The judge in Pasco has decided that it is his place to step in. He has ruled that teachers must come to an agreement or the teachers' bargaining team will be fined.  It's legally fair, but not really fair. If you had two kids fighting, and you turned to one of them and said, "If both of you don't behave I'm going to just spank one of you," how do you think that would turn out? That is essentially what is happening. The court is deciding to spank one side if both sides don't cooperate. In the words of every seven year old on the planet, "That's not fair!!!!" The district still has no motivation to cooperate or play nice. But Courts are not playground and the judge is not a parent. That is just life.

So if the judge can't force the district to cooperate in this situation, who can? The district is breaking the law by not having curriculum. Any citizen of Pasco can file a law suit against the district. It won't speed up the bargaining process but it will at least make things a little more "fair."

The school board members could choose to come in and assist with bargaining. Right now they have decided as a group to stay out of this issue. But they have every legal right to decide to join the proceedings as witnesses if they want to.

The time may soon come when teachers are forced to go back to class without a contract. At that point it will be up to us, the citizens of Pasco, to continue to put pressure on Saundra Hill and her friends to do what's right for our kids.

in·junc·tion

inˈjəNG(k)SH(ə)n/

noun

noun: injunction; plural noun: injunctions

1. an authoritative warning or order.

   synonyms:

   order, ruling, directive, command, instruction; More decree, edict, dictum, dictate, fiat, mandate, writ; warning, caution, admonition "the injunction prevents Sunday trading"

   • Law

     a judicial order that restrains a person from beginning or continuing an action threatening or invading the legal right of another, or that compels a person to carry out a certain act, e.g., to make restitution to an injured party.

Why Pasco is really Ant Island

When life gets confusing, I often turn to Uncle Walt to help me sort out the facts.  Today the story of A Bugs Life speaks to me.

In the movie, Flik is a regular ant who just wants to help out.  Flik is you and me.

On Ant Island, all the ants work hard gathering food for the winter. The ants are all the parents and teachers of our great community.

Occasionally a few grasshoppers (who are much much bigger than the ants) come to ant island, bully the ants, and take their food. The grasshoppers claim they are doing this to "help" the ants.   The grasshoppers are the Booth building administrators.

The ants have leaders who try to help, but in the end they are scared of the grasshoppers too, and feel they have not power. These ant leaders are Pasco's principals.

Eventually Flick gets the idea to go find bigger bugs to help the ants fight back against the grasshoppers.  He goes to the big city and finds a group of warrior bugs to help.  These new bugs are the school board.

Unfortunately we soon learn that the warrior bugs are actually circus bugs, and they do not feel like there is anything they can do to stop the grasshoppers.


All hope seems lost. How can tiny little ants stand up to a group of giant grass hoppers?

Then something wonderful happens. The ants decide to fight anyway. They decide to stand up for each other even at the risk of being hurt by the grasshoppers. They realize they may not have much power individually, but they are very powerful together.

The ants fight the grasshoppers and win. Even the little baby ants do their part to stop the grasshoppers. The circus bugs who thought they had no power fight along side the ants and a new trust and alliance is formed.

The moral of the story?   We don't have to tolerate bullies. There is strength in numbers. We can win.
Parents and teachers of Pasco. Keep up the fight. We are right. We are many. And we will win.