My apologies for the lack of new content. My Lovely Wife and I have been moving our household into our new house over the past several days. As you can imagine, this took all of my available time and then some.
Normal posting should resume tomorrow. Thank you for your patience.
Rhyl High School has school uniforms. Make that “uniform”. Students attending summer school in winter uniforms had enough of the record heat and staged a spontaneous protest. The school may have overreacted a bit.
Police were called in to disperse the pupils because it was claimed they were blocking a nearby road.
Head teacher Mike Williams yesterday criticized the protesters for failing to take up the matter through the school’s council.
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Mr Williams said the protest was pre-planned, and some of those taking part were wearing shorts.
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The council said four teenagers have been excluded on a short-term basis and four more have long-term suspensions until September.
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The mother of a 13-year-old pupil who took part in the demonstration accused the head teacher of over-reacting.She said, … “From my point of view it wasn’t necessary to call the police and I don’t think it was necessary to call the parents of each child either. … “I think the school has over-reacted.”
According to the students it was a quiet and peaceful assembly. They were grouped off of the road on a grassy area and chanting slogans like “boys for shorts” and we shall not move”. Police were called in but no arrests were made. The definitive response of the school seems to be the typical bureaucratic withdrawal from reality.
A spokeswoman said, “Shorts are not part of the approved school uniform and to change the school policy requires a governors’ decision.”
In other words, protest all you want. Until the board of governors tells us to change our policy we are going to make sure you are wearing long pants and button down shirts regardless of whether such clothing is actually appropriate.
Outrage as molester keeps his council seat!
Councilman to plead guilty to assaulting girl while teaching
Councilman to plead guilty to enticing child
Councilman Pleads Guilty In Alleged ‘Sex With Students’ Case
In Jacinto City it’s apparently impossible to get said pedophile into prison, at least when he’s a city councilman.
Claudio “Clyde” Ochoa is a child abusing pervert who took two girls off campus from Galena Park High School for sex while working as a substitute teacher. He is also a city councilman in Jacinto City. Unfortunately, that will not change following his plea bargain on charges related to his sexual assault of these two girls.
In exchange for a guilty plea on a misdemeanor charge of “enticing a child,” Ochoa will do 45 days in the county lockup instead of doing 20 years in a state prison and paying a $10,000 fine. Ochoa will also be allowed to keep his council seat, since state law does not consider misdemeanor to be of sufficient gravity to require resignation.
SCLC backs woman upset over son’s strip search by coach
Clay County High School coach Jerry Weems allegedly strip searched Una Gutierrez’ 15 year-old son and she’s furious. Backed by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference she is demanding the coach’s suspension.
Weems could not be reached for comment. School Superintendent Gene Miller said he would not comment on the allegations because the board has been threatened with a lawsuit.
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Sheriff’s Lt. Steve Gotney said he investigated the allegations and found no evidence of a crime. “That does not mean there was not a strip search,” Gotney said.
In 1968 a teacher named Jane Elliot devised a sado-masochistic game called Brown Eyes / Blue Eyes. She divided her students by eye color and made the bright eyed kids slaves and the dark eyed kids masters. She took this program to the corporate world where it has become a favorite for companies who want “sensitive” employees.
Elliott once told an interviewer, “It was just horrifying how quickly they became what I told them they were.” She described how one of the blue-eyed girls changed from a “brilliant, self-confident carefree, excited little girl to a frightened, timid, uncertain little almost-person.”
You would think that any normal person would realize that she had just done an evil thing. But not Elliott. She repeated the abuse with subsequent classes, and finally turned it into a fully commercial enterprise, hawking workshops, lectures, books and videos.
Recently a 9th grade class at Peak to Peak Charter School in Lafayette was subjected to the Elliot treatment.
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Japanese boy writes apology in blood
A Japanese teen cut himself with a razor blade in order to write a missive in his own blood. He was ordered to do this by his teacher as penance for falling asleep in class.
[High school principal Hiroaki Dan] said the boy was taken to the staff room of the school in Fukuoka City, southern Japan, after being caught asleep during a lesson. The 40-year-old male teacher handed the boy a box-cutter and paper and told him to write an apology in blood.
The teacher left the student, who then cut his finger and began to write an apology using his own blood.
Other teachers in the staff room did not notice what was happening, Dan said.
“To ask a student to write in their own blood is something I just can’t imagine,” he said.
The big difference between Japan and America? Although principal Dan “can’t imagine” asking a student to write in his own blood, said teacher will be resuming classes in a few days. Neither the boy nor his parents have asked for a new teacher. That’s absolutely stunning.
(Tip credit to Bumper.)
Parents Sue Teacher Who Called Kids Gay
7th grade teacher William Sheehan referred to two boys in his class as homosexual lovers. Twice. He spoke with the girlfriend of one the boys, telling her why he thought the boy was gay. When the boys’ parents found out the principal tried to get the girl to lie about what the teacher had told her. There is now a lawsuit over the teacher’s and principal’s actions.
The parents, Stephen and Dawn Call and Nathan and Julie Cheney, said O’Neil and the school superintendent didn’t do anything to the teacher after receiving complaints.
The teacher’s lawyer says the school offered to have the teacher apologize in class, but the parents wanted a larger, multi-class assembly for the apology.
Lawyer Steven Sacks called the incident a lapse in judgment. He said Sheehan made one remark “in jest.”
Region 8 Student Challenges Graduation Dress Policy
Doniphan Jr. High has an unwritten dress policy for its graduation ceremonies. The dress for girls is dresses (or long skirts). No pants allowed to the female students. 8th grader heather Williams disagreed and did something about it.
“Girls should not have to wear dresses to be able to do something big,” said Williams.
…Williams’ mother Tracie Turner contacted the American Civil Liberties Union in St. Louis for help.
“The student was told that she would not be allowed to participate in any graduation activities unless she was wearing a dress. Not only would she not be able to walk in the processional, but she would not be able to sit with her fellow graduates and they would not even read her name at graduation. Essentially erasing her from the roll of graduates,” said Denise Lieberman of the ACLU.
Judge: School Officials Abused Discretion in Zero Tolerance Case
It took a court case but sanity has won out for a student who suffered zero tolerance madness in the city of Greeley, Colorado.
In 2002, thirteen-year-old Mitch Muller, then a seventh-grader at North Valley Middle School, was expelled for possession of what the school called a “firearm facsimile.” The school officials imposed this penalty because of the state’s zero tolerance policy, which bars any firearm or “firearm facsimile that could reasonably be mistaken for an actual firearm” on school grounds.
However, Weld District Court Judge Julie Hoskins decided that officials at North Valley Middle School had abused their discretion by labeling the minuscule laser pointer as a firearm facsimile. The judge ruled that a 2 and 1/2-inch toy gun that can be hidden in the palm of one’s hand could not reasonably be mistaken for an actual gun.
One beer causes hangover for school officials
A few parents who were chaperoning students on a trip to Washington DC had a drink with dinner. The kids were in a different area being supervised by other adults. Nothing bad happened. Okay, so one drink didn’t actually equal disaster as the title to this post sort of indicates. It’s hard to tell that from the reaction though!
When word of the drinking — which was limited to one beverage each to those three or four parents — got back to the school district, it created a stir. The Indiana Area school board investigated and found the parents had a “lapse in judgment,” said board President Jonathan Mack.
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Now, the school board is drafting a written policy that expressly prohibits alcohol consumption on school trips. It is expected to be implemented before the new school year begins, Mack said.
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But Robert Paskowski, who spoke to the school board about the issue Monday evening, thinks the board is taking the behavior too lightly.“There’s just some things you don’t do,” Paskowski read from a written statement.
He had previously spoken with Mack about the incident by phone and told him he thought the school board member involved should resign and the other parental chaperones should be forbidden from volunteering again, Mack said.