Out of cryogenics

What it feels like getting a rejection email for a job application

Well done!

How to Cite Social Media in Scholarly Writing

Unknown (via Sage Connection). "How to Cite Social Media in Scholarly Writing." Memebase, Cheezburger Network, 3 October 2013, http://cheezburger.com/7831563264

[sources]

Awkward...

That awkward moment when you remember when you were a child, and your Year 7 class went to the cinema on the last day of school to see Return of The Jedi, then after it was over, all the boys were talking about how cool the speederbikes were, and you agree with them publicly to fit in, when all the time you were secretly pissed off about how Boba Fett dies, and you convince yourself that he does eventually escape the Sarlaac pit and all is fine and good in the galaxy once more then, thirty or more years later, you remember that moment again and it then further implants the suggestion that actually, it was Princess Leia in a metal bikini blowing the shit out of Jabba's ship, out in the middle of The Sea of Karkoon, that had the most "influence" on you. Then you think that you should probably make that part of a semi-amusing Facebook status, but realise it was too long to fit, so you write it in a blog post and when you proof-read it back, realise that it's only two sentences long.

Flogging a dead horse

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

School has student arrested for burping in class

via Daily What by Cheezburger Network

A lawsuit filed against Cleveland Middle School in Allbuquerque alleges that a 13 year old student was arrested and sent to a youth detention facility without due process for for “burping audibly” in class


The 13-year-old’s parents were not notified, according to the lawsuit, and he was also suspended for the rest of the school year without being given a chance to refute the allegations.

"Criminalizing of the burping of a thirteen-year-old boy serves no governmental purpose,” reads a passage from the suit. “Burping is not a serious disruption, a threat of danger was never an issue."

In fact, he was given a risk assessment test at the detention center and scored a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being “extremely dangerous."

he suit goes on to note a separate incident wherein the school accused the boy of selling marijuana to classmates because he had $200 in his pocket. The kid claimed he was going shopping after school, but was still forced to strip to his skivvies “while five adults watched."

He was not charged with a crime in either incident.

Aspokeswoman for  Albuquerque Public Schools declined to comment.


More: [abqjournal / cbs+ap

Breakfast Club Animated Gif

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.

Actual email received

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Who would be a teacher, hey?

Getting Older

UPDATE!!!!!

School suspends student for refusing to remove personal animation from YouTube, threatens other students for petitioning on his behalf

Jack Christie, is a grade 12 student at Donald A. Wilson Secondary School in Whitby, Ontario, who has been indefinitely suspended for posting surreal, crude, humorous videos to YouTube. The videos were first shown in his Economics and Politics classes, where they were thoroughly enjoyed, but when he posted them to YouTube, the school principal gave him a one-day suspension and ordered him to take the videos down. When he refused, he was given an indefinite suspension. Gavin Russell, the student government's prime minister and members of the school's student government took up a petition for Christie's reinstatement, but were ordered to stop collecting signatures or face punishment.

"They've unfairly judged me and judged my character based on something I made for entertainment," Christie said on Wednesday. "I have the right to post videos on the Internet on my own time." A spokeswoman for the Durham District School Board refused to discuss the case, citing confidentiality laws, but obliquely explained the school's actions: "If something is considered detrimental to the positive moral tone of the school, it doesn't necessarily have to happen inside the school [for us to get involved]," said Andrea Pidwerbecki.

Christie has made an appropriately funny and profane rebuttal to the student council, which I have embedded above for your viewing pleasure.

Student cites freedom of speech after suspension for online videos

Forget the resume, son.

IS TV too Gay?

Is TV Too Gay?: MyFoxHOUSTON.com

Questionable Question of the Day: Fox 26, a Houston-based TV station owned and operated by Fox, asks the question that’s on every homophobe’s mind: Is TV too gay?

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.]

How to get an extension on your assignments

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