When You Teach Violence, Don't Be Surprised When You Get It

It's Friday, but it seems like it is Freaky Friday.  What is going on today?

More news reports...this time regarding a teacher who thinks it appropriate to make comments in reference to her students including:

• Wanting to stab them
• Having an itchy trigger finger
• Dousing them with hot coffee

Her tweets which have now gone viral have earned her a letter of reprimand, but not a termination.  What?

If a student had said any of these, they would have been on a suspension list if not an expulsion list in moments.  While I am not a fan of these standards, if a school is going to have them, they can not only apply to students.

From the Newark High School website, it's Discipline Policy:

The staff of Newark Memorial High School and the Newark Board of Education believes that one of the major functions of the public schools is the preparation of youth for responsible citizenship.  Newark Memorial High School shall foster a learning environment that reinforces the concepts of self-discipline and the acceptance of personal responsibility. 

How in the world is the Newark Unified School District supporting its own policies when it settles for a reprimand instead of a termination for a teacher who advocates violence against students?

Newark Unified School District on its own website talks about bullying:

Bully . . .

Since the inception of the one room schoolhouse in the 18^th Century, bullying has occurred on school campuses across our nation.

Lately, with increased cyber bullying, we have seen an increase of suicides related to bullying.  We can no longer remain on the sidelines holding the notion that, “kids will be kids”.

Laurie Massar wrote in Leadership 2011, “While most administrators and teachers understand the global realities of the problem, the larger problem lies in their ability to recognize bullying on their own campuses.

Congrats boys and girls.  You are the bullies.  Again, their web statement is correct: the larger problem lies in the ability to recognize bullying on their own campuses.  I would say this is the definition of a problem, but they are not turning a blind eye as Laurie Massar refers.  Instead they are acting out a charade of discipline against a teacher.

Mrs. Hodges who has a cute peace symbol on her Twitter byline seems to think it okay to talk about her summer ruined teaching.  Maybe you need a break in teaching Mrs. Hodges.  It is clearly too much for you and your itchy trigger finger.

Safety

News reports this afternoon tell the tale of a firearms instructor being shot by a student today.  I have few words to say on this one as I am in shock.

In this case, the shooter was nine and she was operating an Uzi Submachine Gun.  I believe that the firearm has a cyclic rate of 1200 rounds per minute.  I am having trouble computing how long it would have taken to run through a 32 round magazine.

Reports indicate that the child was handling the weapon after her father and it apparently did not have its safety engaged.  For those that argue that their finger is their safety...clearly not in this case.

Obviously this is going to start lots of conversations about guns in our society.  I still remain fervently opposed to government regulation, but...in this case the question has to be asked...why would this instructor pass a gun to a child with the safety disengaged?  Why did the parents even have her out to shoot an Uzi?

No, I don't want the government regulating who can and can not purchase a firearm, but it seems to me when you are trying to educate children about firearms, you start small.  Say a single shot .22 or single barrel shotgun.  Maybe I am wrong, but the results of this were self evidently disastrous to two families.  It makes me wonder who was considering safety.

God Knows?

Once again, I would have to say I am concerned, but not surprised.  Apparently in Tennessee it is a bad idea to say "bless you" after someone sneezes.  You may be suspended.

What?

The assistant principal of the school, Dyer County High School, says the incident had been blown out of proportion on social media.  He is quoted as saying: "In this case, this was not a religious issue at all, but more of an issue the teacher felt was a distraction in her class," he said.

Unfortunately, the situation was blown out of proportion when the teacher decided a student needed to be removed from the class for saying bless you.  The comment is hardly threatening and given the dangers that rock many school campus today, this should have been a welcome comment.

Since there are multiple students who say the teacher is the one with the problem...with faith, perhaps that is the real distraction and perhaps school administrators should focus on that issue.

Daddy Deals

Hmmm..ready for a deal?

I am not much into haggling as a parent.  I recently realized that offering choices as to where we go to eat was a disaster as two of three children old enough to verbally communicate would always come up with four options or there would be a lobbying effort intense enough by my sons on the eldest daughter that K Street would be proud.  That has caused the decision to return to mom and dad while they can still choose their menu items.

However, I recently came across another blog post about limiting screen time.  Limiting screen time?  Do I have to do this?  My oldest gets his school work done without complaint and without reminder.  My wife and I don't even ask anymore because we normally get a look back like don't I always have my work done.

His school work is good, his grades are As, he participates in baseball, he raises money for ALS research, and he serves at church.  Kind of hard for me to give him a hard time.

Little brother gets good grades too though getting him to do work under his own initiative has been a little bit harder, but the calendar still says summer.  Why am I messing with them?

That being the case, the writer of the aformentioned blog has a great idea.  Don't limit screen time.  Her answer is you can have all you want once your other stuff is done.  Her list is her list and I don't know that it could all be mine, but I am interested in seeing where this exercise may go.

While I have not ever been a huge fan of having to have beds made, I have found that when their beds are at least made they also have a clean floor.  When the covers and sheets have been kicked off and cover the floor, they are covering land mines of Legos, baseball cleats or other game paraphernalia, and every item we need at the last minute such as library books to return.  That is a good item to have on a list.

As for required reading....eh.  Both my sons read well on their own and took on the Harry Potter series entirely too young so it is a little hard for me to require them to do something they already do, i.e. it isn't a chore and I don't want reading to be a chore.


Like required reading, I am also not sure about required creative time.  Can you force creative time?  Isn't that why Lennon and McCartney were writing lyrics on restaurant napkins because inspiration hit there and not when they were sitting in a room forcing...."creativity."

They also have found themselves in some magical military academy at some point this summer as the "Yes Sirs" and "No Sirs" seem to be flying without request of late.  Moreover they are extending these courtesies much more liberally of late than I had previously noted.  This has even spread to knocking out chores so it is hard to say do a chore when they are already getting most stuff done.  This being the case, do I need to add this to the list if it is already happening?

As we get to the school year I am not sure how to address some rules for screen time, but since they are knocking stuff out anyway, I am not sure if I am going to haggle or not.  Maybe Daddy doesn't have a deal.

Our America?

Wow John Whitehead.  You might have hit the nail on the head with this post.

There's a lot to love about America and its people: their pioneering spirit, their entrepreneurship, their ability to think outside the box, their passion for the arts, etc.  Increasingly, however, as time goes by, I find the things I don't like about living in a nation that has long since ceased to be a sanctuary for freedom are beginning to outnumber the things I love.

Here's what I don't like about living in the American police state: I don't like being treated as if my only value to the government is as a source of labor and funds. I don't like being viewed as a consumer and bits of data. I don't like being spied on and treated as if I have no right to privacy, especially in my own home.

I don't like government officials who lobby for my vote only to ignore me once elected. I don't like having representatives incapable of and unwilling to represent me. I don't like taxation without representation.

I don't like being bullied by government bureaucrats, vigilantes masquerading as cops, or faceless technicians. I don't like being railroaded into financing government programs whose only purpose is to increase the power and wealth of the corporate elite. I don't like being forced to pay for wars abroad that serve no other purpose except to expand the reach of the military industrial complex.

I don't like being subjected to scans, searches, pat downs and other indignities by the TSA. I don't like VIPR raids on so-called "soft" targets like shopping malls and bus depots by black-clad, Darth Vader look-alikes. I don't like fusion centers, which represent the combined surveillance efforts of federal, state and local law enforcement.

I don't like being treated like an underling by government agents who are supposed to be working for me. I don't like being threatened, intimidated, bribed, beaten and robbed by individuals entrusted with safeguarding my rights. I don't like being silenced, censored and marginalized. I don't like my movements being tracked, my conversations being recorded, and my transactions being catalogued.

I don't like how the presidency has developed into a neo-monarchy replete with all the luxury and lasciviousness of the feudal lords of old.

I don't like politicians who spend most of their time running for office, fundraising and enjoying being feted by lobbyists and corporations alike. I don't like being kept at a distance from my elected representatives, including the president (a.k.a. the Emperor). I don't like free speech zones, roving bubble zones and trespass laws that restrict Americans' First Amendment rights.

I don't like laws that criminalize Americans for otherwise lawful activities such as holding religious studies at home, growing vegetables in their yard, and collecting rainwater. I don't like the NDAA, which allows the president and the military to arrest and detain American citizens indefinitely. I don't like the Patriot Act, which opened the door to all manner of government abuses and intrusions on our privacy.

I don't like the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has become America's standing army in direct opposition to the dire warnings of those who founded our country. I don't like military weapons such as armored vehicles, sound cannons and the like being used against the American citizens. I don't like government agencies such as the DHS, Post Office, Social Security Administration and Wildlife stocking up on hollow-point bullets. And I definitely don't like the implications of detention centers being built that could house American citizens.

I don't like the fact that since President Obama took office, police departments across the country "have received tens of thousands of machine guns; nearly 200,000 ammunition magazines; thousands of pieces of camouflage and night-vision equipment; and hundreds of silencers, armored cars and aircraft."

I don't like America's infatuation with locking people up for life for non-violent crimes. There are over 3,000 people in America serving life sentences for non-violent crimes, including theft of a jacket, siphoning gasoline from a truck, stealing tools, and attempting to cash a stolen check. I don't like paying roughly $29,000 a year per inmate just to keep these nonviolent offenders in prison.

I don't like having my hard-earned taxpayer dollars used against me.

I don't like the partisan nature of politics today, which has so polarized Americans that they are incapable of standing in unity against the government's abuses. I don't like the entertainment drivel that passes for news coverage today.

I don't like the fact that those within a 25-mile range of the border are getting a front row seat to the American police state, as Border Patrol agents are now allowed to search people's homes, intimately probe their bodies, and rifle through their belongings, all without a warrant.

I don't like public schools that treat students as if they were prison inmates. I don't like zero tolerance laws that criminalize childish behavior. I don't like a public educational system that emphasizes rote memorization and test-taking over learning, synthesizing and critical thinking.  

I don't like police precincts whose primary purpose—whether through the use of asset forfeiture laws, speed traps, or red light cameras—is making a profit at the expense of those they have sworn to protect. I don't like militarized police and their onerous SWAT team raids.

I don't like Department of Defense and DHS programs that transfer surplus military hardware to local and state police. I don't like government programs that reward cops for raiding homes and terrorizing homeowners. I don't like local police dressing and acting as if they were the military while viewing me as an enemy combatant.

I don't like being treated as if I have no rights.

I don't like cash-strapped states cutting deals with private corporations to run the prisons in exchange for maintaining 90% occupancy rates for at least 20 years. I don't like the fact that American prisons have become the source of cheap labor for Corporate America.

I don't like feeling as if we've come full circle back to a pre-Revolutionary era.  I don't like answering to an imperial president, who operates above the law. I don't like the injustice that passes for justice in the courts. I don't like prosecutors so hell bent on winning that they allow innocent people to suffer for crimes they didn't commit. 

I don't like the double standards that allow government officials to break laws with immunity, while average Americans get the book thrown at them. I don't like cops who shoot first and ask questions later. I don't like police dogs being treated with more respect and afforded more rights than American citizens. 

I don't like living in a suspect society. I don't like Americans being assumed guilty until they prove their innocence. I don't like the fact that 38 states require that a property owner prove his innocence when police have laid claim to it in a civil forfeiture proceeding, whether or not that individual has done anything wrong. 

I don't like technology being used as a double-edged sword against us. I don't like agencies like DARPA developing weapons for the battlefield that get used against Americans back at home. I don't like the fact that drones will be deployed domestically in 2015, yet the government has yet to establish any civil liberties protocols to prevent them from being used against the citizenry.

Most of all, I don't like feeling as if there's no hope for turning things around.  Now there are those who would suggest that if I don't like things about this country, I should leave and go elsewhere. And there are certainly those among my fellow citizens who are leaving for friendlier shores. However, I happen to come from a long line of people who believe in the virtue of hard work and perseverance and in the principle that nothing worthwhile comes without effort. 

So I'm not giving up, at least not anytime soon. But I'm also not waiting around for the government to clean up its act. I'm not making any deals with politicians who care nothing about me and mine. To quote Number Six, the character in the British television series The Prisoner: "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered! My life is my own!"

I plan to keep fighting, writing, speaking up, speaking out, shouting if necessary, filing lawsuits, challenging the status quo, writing letters to the editor, holding my representatives accountable, thinking nationally but acting locally, and generally raising a ruckus anytime the government attempts to undermine the Constitution and ride roughshod over the rights of the citizenry.

As I make clear in my book A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, we're at a crisis point in American history. If we don't get up off our duffs and get involved in the fight for freedom, then up ahead the graveyard beckons. As Martin Luther King Jr. warned, "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality."

I get that he seems mad, but if you haven't looked around, he is right throughout.  As ordinary Americans we have abdicated our responsibility to keep our government, ours.  The center of power needs to be restored to those governed.

Getting Educated

In an amazing turn of events, it appears California is now leading the way when it comes to school reform.  Okay, that is hyperbole, but a recent court decision ruled (for the kids...it's always about the kids, isn't it?) against the almighty teacher's unions of California.

In what truly has become a civil rights epidemic in the United States, the courts found that too many bad teachers were able to coast in a system designed ti protect incompetence at the real loss of students whose future earnings would be affected.  According to one expert in the case, students lost $50,000 in future earnings due to ineffective classroom teacher.

The case which was heralded by Education Secretary Arne Duncan is an interesting one if for no other reason, it may pit two Democratic groups against one another: teacher's unions and child advocates.  The dissension in those ranks should be interesting to watch over the coming months and years.

In any case, perhaps not all is lost in California, and perhaps in this case, it is the teachers who are getting educated.

Do You Hear The Cheers?

I wrote about this just over two months ago when problems were first reported, but I wonder if the Allen ISD School Board and voters are hearing the cheers?  I might be thinking of how Nefertiti hardened the heart of Pharaoh by asking if he heard the applause after Moses had freed the Israeli slaves.  Perhaps I should not harden the hearts of Allen voters who might vote to rebuild and create an even bigger monstrosity, but you have to continue to wonder what goes through people's minds when they approve a $60M football stadium.

It has become official that Allen ISD will need to find a new stadium the coming football season and will not be playing in their own stadium two years after construction.  Two years!

Again, I bring up the idea that couldn't that money have been more usefully spent....on science and lab equipment?  Information technology upgrades?  Almost anything?

Well, the voters of Allen disagreed and they bought a $60M joke.  Yes, you have a 5A State Championship football team.  Too bad you don't have 5A state championship architects and builders who put children's safety before dollars and cents.

Suspending Prom Requests

I guess it might have been easier in my day or maybe it was just the lack of social media, but why would you get suspended for asking Miss America to prom?

According to a recent USA Today article, an eighteen year old got three days on in school suspension for asking Miss America...to prom.  What?

Let me go ahead and offend a giant swatch of people and say, why not?

First off, he attends school in York, Pennsylvania so I hate to have a bit of a bias, but how many girls are there in York, Pennsylvania you would even want to take out?  If the choices are local pickings or Miss America, I might be with the kid.

Two, according to the article, school officials at Central York High School caught wind of the possibility this young man might pop the question ahead of time.  If the question was going to be that disruptive...why did they let him ask any questions?  Seems like if you were worried about disruption, you wouldn't open the door to the mouse's cage for the cat.

Finally, the kid asks the question, Miss America laughs it off, and you suspend the kid.  Who is making the bigger deal out of the situation...the kid, or the school?  Central York High School is now in USA Today for disciplining their student, but if they had laughed it off, he would have no coverage, and no one would have known the better anything happened that day.

Is it really that disruptive for Miss America to be asked to prom?  Was it disruptive for students to cheer on one of their own who had the courage to do something most grown ups wouldn't do?  I am guessing

Given the problems in American education and discipline I am a little shocked this is the way they school decided to go, but why worry about kids bringing guns and knives to school when we can worry about whether or not they ask out Miss America?  Why worry about whether or not high school graduates can read their diplomas, the much more disruptive force in the American economy is whether or not a kid asks Miss America to prom?

I am wondering who needs an education on self control and discipline here.  For some reason, I don't think it is the eighteen year old asking Miss America to his prom.

If You Like Your School Board, You Can Keep Your School Board

Do you remember the now famous words "You can keep your doctor if you like your doctor"?  How about "you have to pass the bill to find out what is in it?"  In 2010, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told us the Affordable Care Act would be a good thing even though no one knew any specifics.

No, I am not here to argue the merits of the Affordable Care Act.  I will argue that the same lack of transparency has invaded the discussion to reform DallasISD.

I am told over and over I should sign a petition started by a group that thinks we need school reform. This new group would reform the Dallas "Independent" School System to a system managed by unelected School Board members.   I am ready for reform, but I am not ready for fixes that don't fix.  Are you?

A few problems exist here with Mayor Rawlings and his crony capitalism friends who are pushing reform.  At public meetings, no one from the Support Our Public Schools coalition can describe what a new governing structure would solve that our current school board can not.

For instance, do you support ending counseling in schools or vocational education programs?  If so, 

you should sign onto the petition.

Do you believe that low student to teacher ratios are a thing of the past? Maybe five year old children don't need individualized attention?  If you sign onto the SOPS petition, you can get higher ratios.  Maybe we can warehouse forty kindergarteners into a room per teacher until we warehouse them in prison.  That is a reform option if we move away from state standards.  That's right.  This group seems to think that state standards on student to teacher ratios is inappropriate.

I note with interest that this is called a home rule effort.  Home rule meaning no state standards, but not real home rule.

An option should this come to the ballot is the removal of elected school board members.  Has Crimea come to Dallas?  Where in the world are people crying out take away my ability to vote?  According to Rawlings and Co. only in Dallas.

Who out there thinks they don't need to elect their representative to the school board?  I know Mike Morath thinks not electing school board members is a good idea.  This is the same school board member who was invited to give a commencement address.  He then invited a group of the students toauthorize him to sit down and skip an address.  This type sophomoric behavior is exactly the problem with those promoting "education reform."

Morath had no suggestions for graduating seniors.  His SOPS colleagues have no suggestions on reforming DISD.  He wasn't trying to guide the students to success, just smile for the cameras like a Ken doll.

Instead he and Mayor Rawlings suggest voters are unnecessary for the selection of a school board.  Maybe they have a short memory, but how long ago was it this city and state were disenfranchising voters based on the color of their skin?

That's right.  Our collective history is not all that impressive when it comes to who gets to vote.  History repeats and now it appears a group of white, upper class folks in the nice part of town want to choose who gets to pick the school board.

Well this is one program for which I don't need to see a rerun.  The school reform effort will be better off when the SOPS supporters realize that most of Dallas does not want to turn back the clock.  We want a program that is about us and not them.  Then we can start a real discussion of school reform.

EMS Dinosaurs

This morning a friend of mine told me he was headed over to a local college to do EMT testing and the his assignment was long backboard and spinal immobilization testing.

I found this funny because for years we’ve known that the routine immobilization of the spinal column by EMS has more dangers involved with it than positives in terms of preventing cervical spine injury.  It makes me wonder when the National Registry of EMTs will remove this testing station from their catalog of assessments?

While routine spinal mobilization was likely important 30 years ago when National Registry was formed, it has obviously fallen out of favor when you consider the NEXUS study and other data points that show in general we don’t need to be performing spinal mobilization.  Additionally, EMS generally considers this a low risk event because when we do spinally immobilize, we do it poorly.

It is interesting to me that we are teaching the EMS pops a skilled and belongs to the EMS dinosaurs.

Crimes Against Children, Not Parents

Recently I was harangued on Facebook about the utter injustice of a man sent to prison for overpaying his child support.  Incredulous I couldn’t believe that a father could be sent to prison for overpaying child-support.

However as you notice in the video that’s what happened except that isn’t what happened what really happened was the gentleman was late with child-support payments.  This of course is a crime in the State of Texas.  This gentleman is now paying a criminal penalty - he is serving time in prison not because he overpaid child support, but because he was late with the original payments.

For some reason local news stations seem to believe that it was a good story to focus on the gentleman's suffering for being sentenced to prison.  My question is where is the focus on the child when they needed assistance the previous several months and why are we concerned about a father who is responsibility to his children seems to be only when it’s convenient?

I get that the child support may have been paid up to the point, but the issue raised was that black men were being unfairly targeted.  This same race baiting discussion is part of the same one that has men thinking it is okay to father a child and then have no responsibility thereto.  That is a not a race based issue, but one of responsibility that no one seems comfortable bringing up.

It is time that children who are with single parents have the support they need.  That means single fathers caring for children should not be paying back social services for charges racked up by their errant ex-spouses who are kept away from children.  It means dads should be picking up the tab for the children they father and not running away.  It means perhaps we should be thinking about what marriage truly means and we consider the children who suffer their decisions.

Who Taught Winston Churchill Leadership?

In preparing the next generation of leaders whether it be in EMS, H/EMS, or any other industry it is interesting to me that we think there are systematic ways in which we can train leaders.

I should note first off I believe in education: i.e. new information which changes behavior.  I would also agree that there are programs to teach managers, but I am not so sure that leaders can be taught in quite the same way.

Sitting in a discussion with a dozen colleagues recently that was the assertion made by a very capable individual.  Still, I am not sure he understands the dynamics of leadership that requires individual attention to details, goal setting, being able to encourage others to follow those goals, and the required follow through that is essential to every leader.

From my experience, Winston Churchill was never sat down and told this is how you will be a leader.  He never used a committee approach to find success.  Rather he defined where his nation would go during a critical period of history and he went there.  He took his country from appeasement with the Nazis to outright war against them - a far greater opponent in terms of military size and capability.

Nonetheless the sheer willpower he exerted was clear to all as he brought Great Britain not only pride, but returned his national to an almost Elizabethan golden era.  He was one of the leaders who helped sweep the Nazi scourge to the ash heap of history where it belonged.

Again I don’t believe Winston Churchill had anyone sitting down tutoring him and how to be a leader just did it is most leader seem to do.  Now if I can find a way to do the same with this group, I might be lucky enough to be a footnote in the chronicles of leadership.

Questioning Education

Sports radio today had a question today: "Is it okay to let your kids skip school to go to Opening Day?"

I was astounded this was even a question.  Why not?

For me, there are lots of lessons at a baseball game.

First, there is the basic math of counting balls and strikes, counting pitches, and runs.  There is the physics of hitters versus pitchers for older kids and the more complex math of ERA, WHIP, OBP, OPS, etc.  If you can find a writer like George Will or a very few others you can find baseball as poetry.

Second, as I noted earlier today, given that education - even in college - and we know in high school will coddle athletes, why should I penalize a good student, by keeping him or her away from the ballpark?

Finally, beyond that, there are how many Opening Days in a lifetime?  Why not enjoy them while you are young?  I take my sons (and eventually daughters) to daytime baseball all the time during the work week so they understand the importance of enjoying our national past time...even during the work week.

We grind and fight our way through school weeks and work weeks and so many other times, it seems an easy decision to take your little ones to go to the ballpark.  What are you waiting for?