Senior prank day......

[Anonymous Poster]

Okee, it sounds like it's time to drop a dime on the nearest ACLU office.
My local SD specializes in covering up blatant criminal conduct by staff, and screwing students to the wall for minor infractions of unknown rules, unless they are Jocs or Preppies, to make an example. School district officials around here are petty tyrants, and it sounds like you've got a few too.
Some of this crap has gotten beyond rediculous between PC and Post Columbine "SECURITY", witch to all intents & purposes is nonexistant.
We now live in an insanasylum, masquerading as public education, where 8 year olds get suspended for pointing their index finger and saying bang, and 5 year olds get suspended for kissing another 5 year old. The absurdity is self evident, and yet the petty tyrants spend their day searching for another example of their ability to ferrit out impropriety. How many of these elitist "educators" could withstand community scrutiny of their personal lives? They have certainly demonstrated their inability to educate their charges, so they focus on demonstrating their ability to acheive compliance among the population of their fiefdoms.

 

[Egon]

Franz:
Ah--- for the days
When every young lad had a pocket knife in his possession and would use it to sharpen pencils at school. Nobody got stabbed. Cap guns were a regular item and Columbines were unheard off.
Then there are distant memories of walking about an airport with rifle slung over the shoulder and boarding the regular commercial flight with same in hand.

Times, they are achanging.

Egon

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Franz......WELL SAID! My son was almost suspended for having one of those keychain pocket knives. The ones they give out as promotional items and are so dull they wouldn't pop a balloon. One of my husbands freinds gave it to him and he dropped it in his back pack without thinking about it. Didn't even remember he had it until it spilled out of his backpack. The teacher went nuts and sent him to the office for possessing a weapon in school. It took me an hour to convivce the prinicipal that he didn't have it on him to 'do in' somebody.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( every young lad had a pocket knife )</font>

Ah, the memories you and Franz bring back. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif I have carried a small pocket knife since I was 6 years old; still do; never been without one. When I was in grade school, I didn't know of any boy who didn't have one in his pocket. And I never knew of anyone even thinking of using it for a weapon, even when fistfights broke out. I still have a tiny scar on my left wrist from where I ran around the corner of the building one day playing tag (I think I was in the second grade) and ran right into my best friend. He had his new switchblade in his hand showing it to someone else and I ran into it. The teachers would have never known about the accident if one hadn't followed the trail of blood down the hall to the boys' bathroom where I was washing off the blood. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif So they told us not to carry knives to school anymore. Of course no boy quit carrying his knife and no teacher ever checked to see whether we complied or not. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( 5 year olds get suspended for kissing another 5 year old )</font>

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gifMy first grade teacher, Mrs. Croom, sent me out of the room to sit in the hall awhile when she saw me kiss Sandra in the classroom one day. She scolded us and reminded us that colds could get passed around that way. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

But now we have "security???" everywhere. Last November my wife's 90 year old aunt (little lady's a retired second grade school teacher and weighs nearly 80 pounds) flew to Dallas from Los Angeles to spend Thanksgiving with us. When she went to board the plane at DFW to return to LA, they confiscated the little nail file she had in her purse (guess they missed it in LA when she got on the plane there). /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Franz, my first thought was legal aid from the teacher's union, but she's not a member...sigh...I don't like unions much and I guess I she took after me.

There's a couple of other factors involved - the trip was actually over about 2-1/2 weeks ago, but nobody had any complaints until after the band banquet this past weekend, where officers for the coming year are named; when apparently one of the parents whose kid didn't get the position they thought was warranted decided to "do something" about the director. They'd have a surprise; my daughter appoints band officers based on merit, and even if they had a new director, if the kid doesn't have the talent they still wouldn't get the position.

She's been in trouble before. This is a rural community with lots of migrants, and within a week of her taking the job (over 5 years ago), there was a rumor she didn't like Mexicans and she was reported. Not long after, she got in trouble with a different type because she had appointed a Mexican and a Black guy as the Drum Majors - but they could hardly report that. In both cases, she was puzzled because she saw them all only as band kids.

Small town life is great, but it has its drawbacks, as well. The current school superintendent married into one of the town's founding families (she has the same name as the hospital, the sherriff and other major institutions), and tends to support parents rather than her teachers, and my daughter is not exactly famous for either tact or being political.

I'm sure this will all blow over in a few days, until the next time some parent thinks their child was slighted in some way. Most of them play favorites or do things for personal reasons, and it's hard for them to understand a band director who doesn't. Feel sorry for them, not for Amy...

 

[mwechtal]

Franz,
Yep, about all I can say is you got it right.

Bird,
I also have carried a pocket knife since I was about oh, I guess 6 or 7. I feel naked without it. I left my house keys home today, but it doesn't bother me because I have my pocket knife! (actually 2 if you count my Swiss Army Knife money clip) Besides, my wife usually gets home before I do. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif I can't recall anyone in high school who didn't have a pocket knife. I also don't know of anyone who hurt someone with one.

I get the idea that we were more responsible at that age back then though. I'm talking 1970ish. We couldn't wait to get jobs. We have friends whose kids seem to think they don't need jobs because mom and dad will take care of them. One is out of the house, but working at crummy short term jobs while trying to be a professional student. The other will be going back to college in the fall, or moving out depending on what he decides.

Mike

 

[Ches]

Sounds like the child that didn't get the position (and whose parent made an issue of the competition trip) may be handicapped and entitled to the protections afforded by IDEA (Federal Law regarding educating the hadicapped) - just kidding. The hadicap is what I call "OIC". OIC = The Over-Indulged Child with an enabling parent.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( But now we have "security???" everywhere. Last November my wife's 90 year old aunt (little lady's a retired second grade school teacher and weighs nearly 80 pounds) flew to Dallas from Los Angeles to spend Thanksgiving with us. When she went to board the plane at DFW to return to LA, they confiscated the little nail file she had in her purse (guess they missed it in LA when she got on the plane there). )</font>


Don't get me started...they've taken nail clippers away from me and I've got a crash axe mounted behind my seat?!

 

[Anonymous Poster]

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif That is HILARIOUS............ /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gifThat sounds so funny.....
I am still laughing

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Don't get me started...they've taken nail clippers away from me and I've got a crash axe mounted behind my seat?! )</font>

Well, if you're flyin that big bird on 5 June, my wife, the terrorist, just might be behind you too. She must be a terrorist cause the Buford Pusser wannabee at Cincinatti hauled her out of a seat in the boarding area, and dumped her purse out on the table and then, figured he'd disassemble her cowgirl hat. In that instant, she grew from 5' even to 9' tall, and assured him, she would use all her medical expertise to preclude his ability to procreate should he mess with her hat.
I assure you, she has now been trained, by me, exactly how to use the Bic pen she carrys at all times, that the idiots at the security check see nothing wrong with, and should any passenger attempt to disrupt the flight, she will use her pen.