or no reason other than overdoing political correctness, and worry about lawsuits, most schools of public education have become practically insane, in terms of the rules and regulations they create, and then feel bound to strictly enforce, no matter what.  I read about this sort of thing all the time, when some kid gets suspended for taking an aspirin or bringing a deadly weapon such as a compass to class, and seldom fail to comment on it.  Usually with disgust.

This page also houses wacky stories about the dirty little whores that most school girls have become in the last 10 years, and the joy with which schoolboys greet their transformation.

More recent additions are added on top of this page.

September 1, 2003

One of those articles that makes you thank God (or whoever) that you aren't in high school anymore. Some kid writes a two page story about a terrorist attack on his school one boring day in Web Design class, and may end up going to prison for it.

When Robertson finished the piece, he printed it out and saved a copy in an obscure folder on the hard drive. He says he then promptly forgot about it—until a few weeks later, when police detectives showed up at his house to search for weapons.

Prosecutors concede there’s no evidence that Robertson’s work was anything but a disturbing burst of creativity. But they say criminal intent isn’t required to prosecute someone under the “planning a violent act” law

So "thought police" basically.  Yikes. And this is not an isolated incident.

Oklahoma isn’t the only place where authorities have started scrutinizing students’ writing for signs of trouble. In the past four years, juveniles have been suspended, expelled and arrested—though not prosecuted—in Virginia, Wyoming, Arkansas, California and Texas, among other states, for penning dark poems, short stories and essays. School administrators say they’re simply trying to prevent a repeat of the Columbine scenario. But civil-liberties advocates say such restrictions on speech are egregious—and, in the case of the Oklahoma law, clearly in violation of the First Amendment. “The fact that they’re trying to criminalize speech—to make expression subject to time in the penitentiary—is outrageous,” says Mark Henricksen, general counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma. Even Richard Sitzman, the prosecutor in the Robertson case, told NEWSWEEK that the Oklahoma law has problems—mainly that it’s too vague and overly broad.

I think the kid and his family have a decent lawsuit, if they choose to pursue it.  He's clearly suffered damages, mostly due to the sensationalism-seeking media.

His arrest led to a flurry of local media coverage. (Initially, many reporters got the story wrong, saying that Robertson had sent an e-mail with instructions for a terrorist plot.) He lost his job at Taco Bell, which he’d held for two years. He lost many of his friends, after parents warned them to stay away from Robertson. And he was suspended from school, forced to finish his final semester through correspondence classes. The family’s legal bills are already “tens of thousands of dollars”—all, his mother says, because of an exercise in creative writing.

I think that quite a few kids have incubated similar day dreams about their school; I certainly dreamed of sudden outbursts of murderous violence directed towards other students that I didn't like, teachers, or just the other idiots there in general.  I think most people engage in that sort of thinking from time to time, even if it's just of the "What would I do if a bomb went off over there?" sort of pondering.  And I bet if you wrote that down and saved it on your school computer, you'd get in a hell of a lot of trouble from the no-common sense, lawsuit-fearing, paranoid school administrators.

In their defense, it's not as if there haven't been numerous deadly school events in recent years, so they are right to be a bit gun-shy.  No pun intended.  But in this case the DA actually trying to prosecute the kid for what was very obviously a fantasy tale he tapped out during a boring class is just ridiculous.  Why wouldn't 90% of the thrillers or spy novels in the school library be illegal?  Of James Bond movies? They have plots for killing presidents, blowing up the world, and so on.  If a student typed out such a story and changed the location from Zurich to his home town, would he get arrested and expelled for it?

And obviously that's a ridiculous example, but is it any more ridiculous than trying to put this kid into prison for writing a silly short story when it's very clear that it was nothing more than a story and in no way, shape, or form any sort of actual threat or plot of violence?

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Email today from Josh, commenting on the news story I ran yesterday about the kid in Oklahoma who was suspended from high school and all but crucified for writing a bit of terrorist-style fiction set in his high school.

Regarding that article about the kid facing prison time for the story he wrote: I faced the same kind of thing around '99. We had to write a lot of short stories in my Writing class. My writings usually have a very dark humor to them. My writing teacher always complimented me on my writings... until Columbine. Then the teacher started saying stuff like "Your stories are way too violent. This isn't healthy, I need to show this to the principal. I would suggest going into therapy." Mind you, this was all very mild stuff, especially compared to some of the books and movies out. In fact, they were much tamer than the stuff she complimented before. I actually ended up getting kicked out of school for two weeks and being forced to take therapy before I could come back. Then the therapist started suggesting hospitals and stuff, and he hadn't even seen the writings! A writing about a serial killer(pretty cliché horror movie stuff, actually) turns into me, apparently, planning on shooting up the school.

It was probably the stupidest thing I have ever experienced. Most of the stories didn't even have killing in them! They were basically just cliché suspense/horror stories.

I guess it's just a classic example of how paranoid people can get.

I guess the moral of the story is that if you are in school, don't write anything set in a school, or involving anyone from your school.  Especially not one with action or horror or suspense or violence.  School administrators aren't real bright, and they are extremely paranoid of looking complicit if they don't take heavy-handed action on any student who might possibly be in any way subversive.  They'd rather kick your ass out and worry about maybe a lawsuit from your parents than do nothing and be left holding the bag if you turn out to be that .001% who really is a psycho.

One of the sad lessons of life is that you simply can not count on people with power over you to have a goddamned clue, or for them to appreciate subtlety and nuance or use any common sense.  I speak from sad experience.

February 14, 2003

Talk about a dirty old man.

LINCOLN - Metro Conference athletic directors and the Nebraska School Activities Association will be watching their high school basketball sidelines more closely after Omaha police detained a 74-year-old man for training a camera on high school cheerleaders.

Omaha Marian Athletic Director Jim Miller said Wednesday that cheerleaders from his school became uncomfortable because of the man's apparent picture-taking at a Jan. 30 girls basketball game at Omaha South.

Miller said the girls alerted Marian's dean of students, who told South administrators. School officials called police, who interviewed the man. The man told authorities that he was a fan of Omaha Marian and Omaha Creighton Prep and was just there to observe the game.

The girls later told Miller they had seen the man at other games.

The article talks about their worries that the photos might end up on porn sites.  Yeah, blame the Internet for everything!

So um, are high school cheerleaders actually showing so much skin that it's appropriate for a porn site?  Damn I went to school ten years too early.

January 29, 2003

Article about an easily-criticized school decision; to stop using red ink to mark mistakes on student's papers. 

Teachers at a primary school have been told not to mark children's work in red ink because it encourages a "negative approach".

In future, pupils at Uplands Manor Primary School in Smethwick, West Midlands, will see their mistakes struck through with a green pen.

Penny Penn-Howard, head of school improvement for Sandwell Council, said: "The colour of the pen used for marking is not greatly significant except that the red pen has negative connotations and can be seen as a negative approach to improving pupils' work.

Yes, yes.  Political correctness, overly sensitive bullshit, etc, etc.  Whatever.  The key to this whole thing is her name.  The woman's maiden name was "Penny Penn"?  What the hell were her parents thinking?  Did she have a nickname?  Like say, "Penny"?  Was is possible that kids in school didn't call her "PP" for short?

When her mom and dad are senile and locked up in a nursing home eating Alpo, I think we'll all know why.

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