Parental Guidence

[via Dorkly]

Spoil Dad this Father's Day

Open letter to my year 9 class

Recently, my school closed down. This was upsetting to everyone concerned, most of all to my students. I gave a little speech to my year 9 homegroup - kids that I had looked after for 2 1/2 years and was looking forward to seeing them graduate in 3 1/2 more - and this is how it went.

Hi guys, I’m sorry it had to end this way, but none of us here had any say in the matter. The one thing that we do have control of is how we deal with things. No matter what you are feeling, it’s right. Cry if you have too. I have. Just don’t ever give up. Make this the moment in your life when you realise that life isn’t fair, we don’t get what we want sometimes, but how we deal with things is how we live our life.

Remember Mowbray’s motto: We learn and we grow. Think about that. Learn from your and others mistakes. Grow from them. Don’t be afraid to fail or make mistakes. Be afraid not to try. Don’t try to be the best. Be the best that you can. If you don’t succeed, try again or learn what you did wrong.

Don’t be afraid to learn new things. Knowledge is power. Knowledge is sexy. Long after you’ve grown old, grey and ugly, (like me) your brain and what you know is what people will find attractive.

Now here are a few things that I wanted to say to you when you got older, but I guess I won’t get that chance.

Girls don’t try and be stupid for a boy. Boys actually like smart girls and you’ll get better, kinder more loyal boys that way. If a boy only likes you for what you look like, they’ll leave you for someone better looking when you get old.

Boys go up and talk to girls, they like that. Make them feel special and unique and wonderful. Ask them about them selves and what they like. Listen to them and look them in their eyes when you talk to them.

The worst thing in life is regrets for something that you were too scared to do. I’ve made mistakes – lots of them and the biggest regrets that I have are the things that I never did. Go up to that person that you like and talk to them, ask them out. What’s the worst that can happen? They might say no or say something horrible. If they’re rude or horrible to you at least you’ve learnt that they weren’t worth it. I can’t imagine anything worse than lying down and dying and saying “I wish I had do this or that” Just go out and do. It’ll probably turn out better than expected.

There’s always going to be someone who wants to put you down, tell you that you can’t do something because you’re stupid, worthless or a worst of all because girls can’t do that. You can do anything you want. You have the potential to be anything that you want to be. The only thing that can stop you is not trying and giving up because it’s too hard or you don’t think that you’re good enough.

Be faithful to whoever you’re with. Don’t cheat on somebody. It’s the worst thing that you could ever do. And no one deserves it.

Keep learning. Don’t ever stop learning. Read books, watch films and TV from other countries. I know you might not like subtitles, but other cultures are interesting and you can understand people better if you know what they believe in or like.

Stop listening to top 40 music. It’s horrible. It always has been from before you were born until you die. Pop music is the lowest form of culture. Don’t listen to music because it’s popular’ listen to it because it’s good. There is so much music out there and it’s fun to find it. Go see as many live bands as possible. Find out about old music. Remember the bands that you like listened to old music before they recorded their songs. Nothing in music is new; it all goes back to some caveman banging rocks together.

Go overseas. Travel as much as you can. It’s a big, wide world and no one that’s ever existed has ever seen it all. You learn more about yourself than you can ever imagine when you have to buy food in a place where no one understands a word your saying.

Don’t judge people on what they look like, what they wear, whether their straight or gay, Christian or Muslim or ugly or attractive. Judge them on what they say or do. The tone of someone’s skin or their accent or their boyfriend never made anyone a better person. It’s their personality and their actions. Good people do good things. Arseholes are just arseholes, no matter where they were born.

Don’t be stupid. Don’t get into fights – especially with drunk people. Apologise even if you’re right and walk away. It’s better to do that then get yourself beaten up by some drunken idiot.

Think before you act. What are the consequences of your actions? Who’s going to get hurt? Why would you say that? What would Nigel do?

Dance. Dance and laugh and have fun. Dance like no one’s watching. Laugh like no one cares. Live like your grandmother is in the room.

Be strong. Never give up. Never give in. Don’t do something that you know is wrong just because somebody told you. Do something because it’s the right thing to do.

Think for yourselves. Act for others. Smile at strangers. Help lost tourists with maps. Help people with luggage get off trams. Let people out before you push in. Stand on the left of escalators, walk on the right. Join the queue and don’t push in. Be kind and polite. People remember that and will help you. No one likes a bastard.

Above all just be yourself. You are beautiful and amazing. I know I’ve seen it.

Thank you for putting up with me. I know I’m moody and forgetful and yell at you for no reason sometimes. But I love you all and I’m grateful for every single day that I had with you.

Look me up when you’re 18. We’ll go get a beer together.

6-Year-Old Handcuffed After Throwing Tantrum

Updated: Tuesday, 17 Apr 2012, 10:18 AM EDT

Published : Monday, 16 Apr 2012, 9:47 PM EDT

By MYFOXATLANTA STAFF/myfoxatlanta

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. - Police in Georgia handcuffed a kindergartner after the girl threw a tantrum and the police chief defended the action. The girl's family demanded Tuesday that this central Georgia city change policy so that other children aren't treated the same way. They say the child was shaken up by being put in a cell at the police station. 

Salecia Johnson, 6, was accused of tearing items off the walls and throwing furniture in an outburst Friday at Creekside Elementary School, Macon television station WMAZ-TV ( http://on.wmaz.com/HPb7nr ) reported. Police said the girl knocked over a shelf that injured the principal.  The school called police. The police report says when an officer tried to calm the child in the principal's office, she resisted and was handcuffed. The girl was charged with simple assault and damage to property. 

Police Chief Dray Swicord says the department's policy is to handcuff people in certain situations. "Our policy states that any detainee transported to our station in a patrol vehicle is to be handcuffed in the back and there is no age discrimination on that rule," Milledgeville Police Chief Dray Swicord told WMAZ. 

The girl's aunt, Candace Ruff, went with the child's mother to pick her up from the police station. She Salecia was by herself in a holding cell and complained about the handcuffs.  "She said they were really tight. She said they really hurt her wrists," Ruff told the Associated Press. "She was so shaken up when we went there to pick her up."  Officials at Creekside Elementary did not immediately return calls Tuesday.  "We would not like to see this happen to another child, because it's horrifying. It's devastating," Ruff said.

Information from: WMAZ-TV, http://www.wmaz.com/

The F word

[via channelate]

Student suspended indefinitely for "Billie Jean" dance

By Amy Pearson | amy.pearson@winonadailynews.com | Posted: Saturday, February 4, 2012 12:00

A 9-year-old boy at St. Stanislaus was immediately and indefinitely suspended Thursday night at a school lip-sync fundraiser after mimicking Michael Jackson’s famous groin grab during a rendition of “Billie Jean.”

Mindy Boberg said St. Stan’s principal Pat Bowlin approached her and her son, Lenny, during the event and told her the performance — specifically the handful of times Lenny reached for his groin area to imitate Jackson’s notorious dance move — constituted gross misconduct and that Lenny was suspended.

Bowlin declined to comment Friday, saying the situation was an internal issue.

He said he plans to meet with the Boberg family Monday morning to discuss the suspension.

Boberg said Lenny has performed similar Michael Jackson routines the past two years without incident at the St. Stan’s event, and that the Winona Area Catholic Schools’ Parent-Teacher-Partnership approved all event performances during a Tuesday rehearsal.

Boberg said she is upset with how Bowlin handled the situation and doesn’t understand why her son was singled out, particularly because some students at the fundraiser performed acts wearing boxer underwear and others shook their “tail feathers.”

At about 10:30 p.m. Thursday, Bowlin sent an email to all WACS faculty, staff and families titled “Thank you/ apology.” It read:

“On behalf of the Winona Area Catholic Schools, I would like to thank all the students, teachers, parents, and friends of our school for your support of our Lip Sync contest. So many people worked incredibly hard to make it a great event. We did have one act that was clearly inappropriate. I want to extend my apology for that situation.”

The WACS student/parent handbook states that a school principal may immediately suspend a student for gross misconduct. It defines gross misconduct as an action that “creates a substantial and unjustifiable risk of harm to another person or serious damage to the property of the school or another person, or conduct which substantially impairs the discipline and order of the school environment.”

Read more: http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/local/article_5c29e9b4-4ee6-11e1-ad1f-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz1lTLOlgAX

See the video:http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/local/video_60e7dbdc-4edc-11e1-8b51-001871e3ce6c.html

Officials Use Ruse At Wolcott High To Clear Halls For Drug Search Say There's An Intruder In Building, But It's Just A Drill

By Mark Frauenfelder at 1:30 pm Monday, Oct 24 via boingboing.net

[Video Link] Police and school administrators Wolcott High School in Connecticut tricked students and teachers into believing a dangerous intruder had come into the school building and ordered a lockdown. It was a ruse for a drug sweep of the lockers. No drugs were found. In the video, the police and Wolcott school superintendent Joseph Macary serve a large pile of steaming horseshit to defend their reckless stunt. As kehfysik says in the comments: "The teaching point here is that they can not trust the people into whose care they are given. The authorities will lie to you and try to use fear to control you. I hope the kids learn this."

At Wolcott High School one morning this week, an urgent announcement crackled over the intercom: a threatening intruder was in the building and students were told to immediately take refuge in classrooms. Doors were locked and police, with dogs, moved in. Students stayed huddled in classrooms where they were told to stay away from the windows.

But what sounded like a frightening situation was just a search for narcotics. Drug-sniffing dogs combed the school while students stayed in locked classrooms, believing that an attacker was roaming the halls.

Officials Use Ruse At Wolcott High To Clear Halls For Drug Search (Via The Agitator)

Here's another version:

Officials Use Ruse At Wolcott High To Clear Halls For Drug Search

Say There's An Intruder In Building, But It's Just A Drill

October 22, 2011|Rick Green articles.courant.com

At Wolcott High School one morning this week, an urgent announcement crackled over the intercom: a threatening intruder was in the building and students were told to immediately take refuge in classrooms. Doors were locked and police, with dogs, moved in. Students stayed huddled in classrooms where they were told to stay away from the windows. But what sounded like a frightening situation was just a search for narcotics. Drug-sniffing dogs combed the school while students stayed in locked classrooms, believing that an attacker was roaming the halls. Drug-free schools are an admirable goal but I wonder when we reached the point where the war on drugs justifies police searches under the ruse of a Virginia Tech-style attack. What on earth could authorities in Wolcott be thinking?

School officials told me it was a routine lockdown drill, the kind that schools are required to do. "We wanted to practice,'' said Superintendent of Schools Joseph McCary. "We said there was a lockdown with an intruder inside. Doors are locked, shades are drawn and the lights are turned off and students are told to move to a corner of the room." "After 10 minutes we say this is a drill and at that point we started a search for drugs,'' McCary said. "We are providing a safe and secure nurturing environment." [my emphasis] No drugs turned up in the search. An email from the high school to parents explained the event, without mentioning the intruder story. It was described as a "lockdown intervention drill" where "two police dogs swept the hallway lockers, locker rooms and the student parking lot.''

Bringing in police dogs to search for drugs in student lockers, while not common, isn't the real outrage here. It's understandable why adults feel they must do something about drug abuse. It's the trickery and tactics that seem more suited to a police sting operation than a public school. "I don't think the school administration and police department have any right to mislead these kids, under any circumstances, to conduct a public safety drill," said Carl Glendening, a parent of two high school students. "The kids are told there is an intruder and there is a lockdown and then they see cops coming in with dogs." "Some kids were freaked out by it. The notion of Columbine was in the back of their minds,'' Glendening said. "We didn't think this through clearly." "They are kids. They are students. They are not there to be used."

Andrew Schneider, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, called it a "terrible policy. It will cause more trouble in the long run. Young people will learn not to trust the police." "It's a terrible civics lesson." While state law requires schools to have regular emergency drills, drug-sniffing-dog searches are up to the individual school district. Canton schools recently attracted attention for surprise drug searches using dogs. "The whole issue of search and seizure, you have to have reasonable suspicion, such as if they have had other issues in where the administration feels there's a drug problem in the school,'' said Vincent Mustaro of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education. "This is one of those policies we consider optional."

School officials say it's not as if they think there's a drug problem in Wolcott. Bringing the dogs in "is precautionary," said school board Chairwoman Patricia Najarian, who added that she didn't see a problem with the fake intruder story. "Maybe there's a few people who get nervous. When we say it's a surprise drill, it's a surprise drill,'' she said. "We have a very active group of citizens against substance abuse." The drug search is "something that is good to do periodically. It says we don't have drugs in the school,'' she said. "Either way it's a win-win. I know people get concerned … there seems to be an overreaction." McCary, the Wolcott superintendent, said they want to teach students to take their safety seriously, so making them think it was real was essential. "If you say it's just a drill, would you move as quickly?" He makes a point, except that we don't set fires to get students to take fire drills more seriously. There's also another issue. If you say something important to teenagers and you want them to trust you, it's better not to lie.

Hair Coloring of the Day

The mother of an East Texas junior high school student is furious after Marshall Junior High administrators “corrected” her son’s haircut with a permanent marker. Sheldon Williams says he was told that the school’s dress code only allowed for a single part and that the second part would have to go. An administrator then took a Sharpie and colored in the offending part.

“If a parent gives you permission then, ok, do that,” says Sheldon’s mom Philleniea. “But to just take the initiative and say, ‘I’m just going to color in his hair with permanent marker?’ Very disrespectful.”

CBS19 says Marshall’s “dress and grooming” code doesn’t expressly prohibit Sheldon’s haircut, and the school’s principal told the station this was her first time dealing with this issue — although similar action had been taken in the past.

[via cbs19.]  

Kids These Days...

A band of 8-10-year-olds performing Metallica's Enter Sandman: The Mini Band, with Zoe Thomson and Harry Jackson on lead guitars, Kieran Fell on Rhythm, Harrison Read on lead vocals, Archie on bass and Charlie Emmons on drums.

[via]

Getting Older

UPDATE!!!!!

Velocisitters

Stupid School Decision of the Week

Say What Now of the Day: Wasilla High School’s symphonic jazz choir was all set to perform Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” at their graduation ceremony, when Principal Dwight Probasco abruptly put the kibosh on the arrangement citing complaints for “at least one parent” who deemed the song inappropriate due to Queen frontman Freddie Mercury’s sexual orientation.

Choir member Casey Hight reached out to a gay and lesbian support organization in Anchorage for advice and was directed to the ACLU. Shortly thereafter, principal Probasco had a sudden change of heart, deciding to allow the song to be performed, minus the lyrics “about killing a man.”

[frontiersman / gawker / photo: flickr.]

5 out of 6 kids love Sackraces

The wisdom of Frank Zappa

[via] snsfw

Luke, I am your...

[via]

iTest

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Should you accept your parent's facebook friend request

Don't SuperSize me, Bro!

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Via: Registered Nurse

US toymaker Hasbro scraps plan to launch Spastic Transformer

US toymaker Hasbro will not launch its latest Transformers model in the UK because of outrage over it being named "Spastic". The company was reportedly shocked at the outcry in Britain after revealing the name online, the Daily Mail said.

The term "spastic" is widely-used in the US as a casual word for clumsiness or to describe someone who is overexcited - but is seen as derogatory and politically incorrect in Britain and Australia. The company said it "intended no offence by the use of the name 'Spastic'" and added that "it will not be available via traditional retail channels in Europe, including the UK."

"Our goal is to have all families who enjoy our brands feel good about their purchases and experiences," Hasbro added. The toy will still go on sale with its original name in the US as planned in January. Transformers is a toy line centred on two factions of warring alien robots. In a 26-year history, it has expanded to encompass comic books, animation, video games and movies.

Read more and see a picture at the Daily Mail.

Via ABC News Online