Alaska Governor Sarah Palin hasn't yet said anything publicly about her 4-day-old grandson, Tripp, but she does want people to know that Tripp's parents – her eldest daughter Bristol and her fiancé Levi Johnston – are hard at work and keeping up with school.
"You need to know that both Levi and Bristol are working their butts off to parent and going to school and working at the same time," Palin told PEOPLE in a phone message Wednesday. "They are certainly not high school dropouts."
The former vice presidential candidate said she wanted to be clear about their continuing work toward high school degrees because any suggestion otherwise "harms Bristol's reputation and Levi's reputation and their chances for good work opportunities."
Hmm so let me get this straight.
Both Bristol and Levi have been out of school since some time last year. But that DOES NOT make them high school dropouts. Really ? So are they going back to high school? Are they working on their GED's? Because even if they are working on getting the GED they are still HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS!
That is what the term means. There are two ways to leave high school. You either earn all of your credits and graduate, or you don't and DROP OUT!
And I have news for you, just because your mother is the Governor does not mean she gets to change the goddamn definitions!
So why did Palin call to make this clarification?
....because any suggestion otherwise "harms Bristol's reputation and Levi's reputation and their chances for good work opportunities."
Well I have more news for you Mrs. Palin, they are going to ask Bristol and Levi if they graduated from high school on their job applications. Are you encouraging them to lie on those applications? Is that why you don't want the media to report that they dropped out? So that their future employers will be easy to fool?
And besides if they get their GED before they apply for a job it will not make one bit of difference to ANYBODY if they did not finish high school or not. It will not have the slightest impact on their ability to get a job or go to college. That is the very point of the GED program!
Do you know why I really think this is an issue to Sarah Palin? Because she is afraid that it makes her look bad. Her teenage daughter has a baby out of wedlock, the mother of that baby's father just got arrested for selling drugs, they are both high school dropouts, and the Governor is afraid that people will judge her based on those facts.
And you know what? She is probably right.
But have no fear Governor I will not judge you based on the choices that your daughter, her boyfriend, or her boyfriend's mother have made. Oh no, I am judging you based on the bad choices YOU made. Like firing Walt Monegan for not having your ex-brother-in-law fired. Like repeating hateful lies about our President-elect. Like saying you will cooperate with an ethics investigation and then going back on that word the minute you realized it was not going in your favor. Like making Alaska the laughingstock of the world based on your interviews with the press. Those are the things I hold against you Governor, not the choices made by your family.
Feel better now?
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Just a couple quick questions - how do you know they've been out of school since last year? Also, how do you know they didn't take a leave of absence and intend to go back? That's actually common for teen mothers.
ReplyDeleteI just saw a report on my local news where she said the father would soon "receive his high school diploma." She didn't mention a GED. She also clearly said her daughter "is going to high school."
I have plenty of questions about Sarah Palin's qualifications, but I think she'd know more about her family's high school status than anyone else.
Why does People magazine need to call them high school dropouts? Do they refer to all the child actors and musicians as high school dropouts? I haven't heard of the Jonas brothers or Miley Cyrus called dropouts, but I am pretty sure they don't attend high school. I guess people just hate Palin and her family that much.
ReplyDeleteMaria and ANON...when Levi was interviewed in his driveway back in October by the Associated Press, he said himdelf that he dropped out of high school! Can you read?
ReplyDeleteSomeone who is not actively attending classes in school or in an accredited home schooling curriculum is a "dropout" until they get their GED. That is the whole point!Read Gryphen's post.
As far as Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Bros...as much as they all annoy me, it has been widely circulated in press articles and interviews that they are/were home schooled and tutored, suggesting that they never had a significant lapse in their educations.
Jamie Lynn Spears on the other hand, was a dropout and got her GED. She lapsed in her high school education, then studied and passed the GED exam.
You can read Palin's statement yourself...neither Bristol nor Levi have attended high school since March of 2008, and only now are supposedly completing some type of correspondence courses to get their GED's. Although now Sarah is caught in another lie because last year she claimed Bristol completed all her course early which was why she did not attend school, but concurrently claimed Bristol also had mono.
The lies/double talk/conflicting stories keep on piling up...I think the tower of bullshit Sarah has contructed is going to topple soon!
I guess my point is why do they need to call them dropouts? Was there a point to doing that other than to make them seems bad? What did it add to the article? I haven't read it, and probably never will. Just seems like the journalist taking a cheap shot at someone.
ReplyDeleteYou are still missing the point. It wasn't the jounalist...it was LEVI himself that stated he had dropped out.
ReplyDeleteThis entire mess is just that... a mess. There are so many stories out now none of it makes any sense. Differing times, differing days on the birth, the Aunt who reported the birth hasn't even talked to anyone, she just got an email. Now Palin is calling and leaving phone messages for everyone, after McAllister saying they would have no statement, not a state matter...and still just says they are happy as clams. Weird people. The spin goes on...lol
I think the point in calling them "drop outs" is to describe what is so common among teens who become parents- the difficulty in keeping their future options open, their ability to choose whatever careers to which they may have earlier aspired, the limited opportunties this baby may have, etc. The drop out rate in this country is appalling and we generally think it is only an issue in lower economic circles, but this points out that having a baby presents challenges to those teens for whom the economics are not a factor. I applaud People (a magazine which I have never read) for stating what seems to be the obvious. Palin obviously subscribes to the current administrations philosophy that one can simply alter reality by making a statment that is at odds with the facts.
ReplyDeleteOf interest in this discussion is Sarah Palin's offer to all Alaska students contemplating "dropping out" of high school. [Alaska has a disturbingly high drop out rate.]Soon after taking over as Governor, she said her telephone line would always be open to any high school student planning to drop out. Presumably, she intended to convince the student to stay in school and graduate. I'm not sure whether she made good on her offer (you know, she eventually decided to pursue a lot more important activities), but we should wonder about the conversations she had with Bristol and Levi in about March 2008. Did that work for you or them, Gov?
ReplyDeleteWhere are the pictures of the baby? How come they are not public? Are there ongoing negotiations with People Mag. for exclusive photos?
ReplyDeleteWHEN was the baby actually born? Saturday, Sunday? and WHERE? Are you sure the baby has been born YET?
Just cause Sarah says it don't make it so. THAT is one thing we have all learned.
Wow, so much hatred and self-rightousness. It must be special to be some of you perfect people.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I most certainly can read. But, I didn't see any quote from Levi. In fact, I did a bit of research. I located the AP story from October 15. The stAtement is: "Mr Johnston has dropped out of high school to take a job on the North Slope oil fields as an apprentice electrician." No quote from Levi.
According to Palin's interview, Levi left his school in order to begin studying for his diploma "online," which is possible - it's another variation of home schooling.
It's entirely possible, when asked about his school, Levi said something like "I'm not going there any more. I'm working on the North Slope." Does that mean he couldn't be continuing his education? Nope. heck, maybe at the time he wasn't, but decided to in the end. Regardless, we don't have a quote - we have what very well could be an assumption. "What are you doing now, levi? I'm working on the North slope." then, the assumption.
Also, no it is not correct to say you either go to high school or you drop out. You can be home schooled. You can work through an online program. You can take a year off and go back. It's the same system in that respect as in college. I took a small leave of absence from college and didn't attend classes for a semester. But I certainly wasn't a drop out. I finished. That is, I suspect, Palin's point.
Anyway, the fact that so many people are so upset about this suggests more about the people who are upset than about Palin and her family.
Yeah Bristol is a drop out. She probably didn't need to drop out because she was pregnant with Tripp -- she could still have attended classes. But apparently Sarah needed her to stand on stages across the lower 48 holding Trig. So as any good mother would, Sarah had Bristol drop out of school.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea why Levi had to drop out of high school because Bristol was pregnant. Certainly he could have continued to attend classes and graduate. Maybe he needed the new clothes. Maybe he wanted to get away from his drug-dealing mother.
Whatever the reasons, both of them stopped going to high school, and that makes them DROP OUTS.