There's a frightening report on slashdot at the moment about a 13 year old boy who was jailed for a week for writing a story that got top marks from his teacher. Yes it's another bit of fallout from Columbine, yet another chance to punish people for being creative and intelligent.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=99/11/03/1117256&mode=nocomment
If you live in America, I suggest you be careful what you put in your Daria fanfics!
-Shez.
Shez said:
teacher.
This is very scary, a lot of ways.
<quoting the story from Slashdot>
============= "The teacher gave Beamon a score of 100 on the writing assignment, on which she also wrote "outstanding."
Then, perhaps remembering the ongoing post-Columbine assault in American education on young geeks, nerds, gamers, the weird and the non-normal, she thought better of the grade and his story, and turned Beamon in to the principal." =============
So basically, the teacher asked the kid to write a scary story. He wrote a scary story. The teacher admitted it was a VERY good story (by giving him a score of 100). The teacher then decided it was TOO good and that anyone with that kind of imagination was too dangerous to be allowed to roam about unchecked.
Now, at this point the principal should have patted the teacher on the shoulder, said "Gee, you're under a lot of strain, maybe you should relax a bit. But ... ============ "School officials contacted the local district attorney, Bruce Isaacks ... =============
Now, at THIS point, the District Attorney ... who presumably is well versed in the law ... should have explained to the principal that it isn't illegal to write a work of fiction ... about ANYTHING ... provided that it is not an EXPLICIT and BELIEVABLE threat (of some illegal action). However ...
============= "Beamon was taken into custody ... =============
On WHAT charge? I find it amazing that the local police were willing to arrest a 13 year old child on the grounds that he had written a scary story (it was probably described to them in the warrant ... one HOPES there WAS a warrant! ... as "menacing" or "threatening". But didn't it occur to them to investigate ... at ALL?).
Oh ... here's the charge .. "suspicion of making terroristic threats". Gee whiz, when are they going to get around to arresting really MAJOR terrorists like Dean Koontz, Ramsey Campbell, and Stephen King. The last-named man once threatened to have giant spiders from beyond space and time eat children, y'know!
============= "and brought before Denton County Juvenile Judge Court Darlene Whitten, who ordered the seventh-grader detained for 10 days." ==============
The scary part here is that the JUDGE went along with this nonsense. You would imagine a JUDGE would have heard of the First Amendment, and have considered its specific application to this case.
The judge SHOULD have dismissed the case instantly upon hearing its content, and delivered a stern lecture to the DA, police, and all concerned not to waste her time and bother innocent people with this crap. What the heck is going on here?
============== "The district attorney said - regretfully - that he couldn't find any grounds to prosecute Christopher" ==============
Do tell. Unfortunately for Bruce Isaacks and the Dishonorable Darlene Whitten, there's still something called "civil rights" in this country ... though not for much longer if imbeciles like this keep being appointed or elected to positions of responsibility in our criminal justice system.
==============
to write a scary story" said Isaacks,"but this child does appear to be a persistent discipline problem for this school, and the administrators were legitimately concerned." ==============
Um ... so does that mean they're going to arrest the teacher as a co-conspirator? Not bloody likely ...
"Legitimately concerned" because a kid came up with an imaginative paper in response to an assignment? Oh yeah, creativity. Never know when THAT'S gonna crop up. Gotta nip it in the bud.
============== Last year, in the wake of the Columbine killings, scores of schoolkids, many of them geeks, nerds, gamers, Goths and various assorted oddballs, reported a wave of suspensions, expulsions and forced counseling sessions after they were asked to speak openly about their feelings about school, classmates and cultural values. Many said they regretted speaking frankly about their feelings about school, and wouldn't do it again. They were wise. ===============
Well, at least they've learned a valuable lesson. "Don't trust authority". Of course, that's not what the school THOUGHT they were teaching them. Wonder how many of them will get pissed off enough now to translate their hatred of authority into action. Gee, I can't see anything dangerous in training a whole generation of writers and hackers to hate their own country, do you?
=============== "A number of kids who said they understand at least some of the rage that might have driven the Columbine killers were sent home or ordered into compulsory counseling and re-education sessions." ===============
Oh my, UNDERSTANDING. Can't have THAT in school ... Klebold and Harris were of course Ultimate Evil, and nobody good can by definition have ANY sympathy for them.
Hmm ... I'm a student of World War II ... one of the most fascinating characters in that war was Adolf Hitler. A very, VERY evil man ... but there are aspects of his character I understand, and even sympathize with. Does that mean that I must be a Nazi?
Of course not. It is possible to understand, and even to sympathize, with evil men, because no man is wholly evil. "I am human, and nothing human is alien to me". I'm glad Hitler failed and died ... had I been alive then I would have enthusiatically worked to bring him down ... but that doesn't mean that one can't understand him, or admre SOME aspects of his character.
But don't repeat that sort of subversive philosophy in school.
=============== "Isn't it better for kids to express their angry, even violent fantasies openly, where parents and educators can see and talk about them? Is it really safer if these feelings are hidden - the real legacy of Columbine and Christopher's nightmare." ===============
Indeed, by repressing them to the point of punishing kids even for EXPRESSING SYMPATHY, the danger is that these feelings will be pent up to the point of making future incidents like Columbine far, far, FAR more likely.
=============== "Judge Whitten defended her decision to the Dallas Morning News: "I do want people to understand that, just like making a threat at an airport, a threat in a school situation is very serious, even if it was in jest."" ===============
Except, of course, that there WAS no "threat". Writing a violent story, even about classmates, when a story is demanded as an assignment, hardly qualifies as a "threat", because it lacks a key element ... CREDIBILITY.
If I go "hee hee hee, I'm going to kill everyone on atd" this is NOT (legally speaking) a "credible threat". If, on the other hand, I got angry about a post and started posting a series of escalating rants, in the course of which I revealed that I know where (say) Dagny lives, and said that I was going to get on a bus, go to her town, and shoot her dead ... and I did nothing to indicate that I was only kidding ... this MIGHT be a credible threat (it would depend on a lot of other issues whether it was prosecutable). If I actually WENT to Dagny's town and made this threat to her, deadpan and personally ... and especially if I revealed that I actually had a firearm ... this would be "assault (with a deadly weapon!)" (no "battery", not unless I actually touched or otherwise harmed her).
These sound like niggling little points, but they are the difference between slavery and freedom. They preserve our right to vent our feelings without allowing us to GENUINELY threaten others.
It's obvious that the Dishonorable Whitten isn't quite up on the law. Maybe she should find a job better suited to her ... um ... "talents"?
Anyway, Christopher Beamon, if you're reading this, hope that your family sues everyone concerned, wins, and destroys them both financially and professionally. That's still not really compensation for what you've been through, but it's the most that you can get in a civilized fashion. Good luck.
Sincerely Yours, Jordan
"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)
this sounds a bit, errr.. Nazi.
apparently not.
It's what the Soviets used to do - they would lock up dissidents in mental hospitals on the grounds that if they disagreed with the system they must be insane and in need of corrective treatment.
Actually the thing I found disturbing about the story itself was the casual way in which it relates the characters trying to get high on drugs, as if it was an everyday thing that everyone did. Indeed the fact that none of the authority figures involved commented on this, but dwelt instead on the obviously fantastical gun bit, suggests that in that locality it *is* considered normal for kids to spend their time getting high on drugs.
I could understand them jailing him for a week for his poor grasp of grammar, but the reasons they actually gave were completely crazy, and the Borg-like way that they were all of one mind about it is positively scary. And their fall-back position, that there'd been discipline problems with him - since when were children jailed for being "difficult"? Not since the 1700's I thought!
-Shez.
Shez said:
Yes. I didn't comment on it, but it's obviously absurd to imagine the kid taking a shotgun to school anyway. How would he conceal the durn thing?
When I was a kid, I wrote a poem in school about a nuclear attack on a city and its interception by an ABM laser. Should the Soviets have demanded to know if I was secretly stockpiling strategic weapons systems?
ROFL!
The way in which they were all willing to arrest and try him without first establishing if they had ANY valid charges whatsoever? The way it never occurred to them that trying someone for making threats on the basis of a fictional story MIGHT run into a few teeny weeny First Amendment issues? The fact that even people who SHOULD have been trained in the LAW (the DA, the Dishonorable Judge) missed this point for a whole week, only realizing it when publicity started to descend upon them?
Yeah, I can just see that.
"All right, kid. You've talked back to your teacher one too many times. You're going up the river!"
There are witch-hunt like aspects to this whole case. The way in which the kid was supposed to have done something harmful by writing out a violent fantasy in particular smacks of a belief in sympathetic magic. The way in which the authorities all engaged in group think, ignoring the law as written in favor of their mass hysteria about violent children (and picked on a kid who, by writing out his fantasies in a public story, was unlikely to ever really ACT on them).
Stupid ... and scary.
Sincerely Yours, Jordan
"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)
[email] (Jordan S. Bassior) wrote:
I think that's the whole story in a nutshell. (And the prevailing attitude in the US educational system as well.)
Personally, I want to get in on the lawsuit against the school board and the principal. I smell a huge cash award here. (And I bet that that'll mean no new books for the kids, too.)
Yep, it's all stupid, and all scary.
rich.
"Unethical is only two letters away from ethical..." -- Paul Michael Mercurio
paperpusher wrote in message news:[email]...
Was it lawful for the judge to order this lad's detention? IANAL but I can't imagine this case meeting the conditions for the lawful detention of a juvenile here in the UK. I understand that things are different in the States, but not that different, I hope.
Was it lawful for the judge to take into account his school disciplinary record? Was it cogent to the alleged offence? Did it suggest that he might interfere with witnesses, commit further offences, or abscond if not placed in custody? And if he was likely to abscond or offend again, did she believe the alleged or likely offence grave enough to warrant custody?
Why did she name a period of custody? Surely she could only remand him in custody to await due process? If, as reported, she sent him down for ten days, she seems to have imposed a sentence on a person (a juvenile, moreover) not convicted of any offence. Is that *legal* in the USA?
Somebody in Sweden won damages against her local authority because they didn't do enough to prevent her fellow students picking on her for being different (she quitted high school because of it). [1]
Martin.
[1] http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/19991105/od/bully_1.html
Martin Sylvester said:
Probably not. Which is why she started backpedalling so rapidly when she got media attention. This is the sort of thing that she could theoretically be impeached on (though in practice that's unlikely to happen).
Or in America. Or an adult in either country, come to think of it.
Oh no, if anything it's *more* illegal here. First Amendment, remember?
Possibly yes, and almost certainly no. Unless he had previously been disciplined for trying to smuggle weapons into school, or injuiring another student. Which there was no mention of in any of the reports.
Probably not, save to the hopelessly paranoid.
Heh, there's the kicker. It is very difficult to come up with any sane law enforcement philosophy that would justify imprisoning someone for *writing a story!*
Reading the report, I can only assume that the Dishonorable Judge had learned the law from the back of a cereal box.
That's how the law is *supposed* to work, yes ...
Nope. Nor anywhere in the Free World, AFAIK. Even in "inquisitorial" rather than "adversarial" systems (such as the Code Napoleon), you still have to *convict* a suspect before you can *sentence* him.
Sincerely Yours, Jordan
"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)
[email] (Jordan S. Bassior) wrote:
Actually, since the kid's a juvenile, the rules are VERY different. Depending on the state, juvies can be held in protective custody without charge, but, well, this case flunks the "Smell Test." Again, if the kid was 18, this would never have happened, as it would've been a clear due process violation.
Actually, if you want to get technical, it's a Fourth, Fifth, and Eighth Amendment Issue. (Search and seizure; held w/o charge//due process of law; cruel and unusual punishment-- although that's a bit of a stretch.)
Again, since he was a juvie, the rules are very much different. Not that I'm saying that that's good, that's just the way it is.
rich.
Helen: Bureaucracy is the price we pay for impartiality.
Jake: Jefferson!
Helen: Stalin.
On 05 Nov 1999 21:28:43 GMT, [email] (Jordan S. Bassior) wrote:
You can be held for *suspicion* for up to 48 hours (I think... should be close at least.) At least in Canada. After that, formal charges have to be laid if you want to hold someone for longer.
Course, the judge bought into their paranoia...
There are 2 US Supreme Court cases (Gerstein v. Pugh; County of Riverside v. McLaughlin, if you care to look them up) that establish a maximum 48-hour holding rule for anyone taken into custody without a warrant. I'm still gleaning together the facts from this abominable story -- was the kid formally charged within 48 hours of his arrest? Was he _forced_ to read the Bible during his 6 days in custody (in an interview on the Today Show, the boy said that's what he was doing)? From what I gather, there was no probable cause to arrest this kid, even though he did use the names of actual people in the story -- was there ANY legitimate threat here?
And where, in the US Constitution or any Supreme Court cases does it even SUGGEST that due process does not apply to juveniles the way it applies to adults?
One thing for certain: I am definitely glad I'm not the attorney for this school board. I can see them getting completely plowed by a Section 1983 lawsuit in the very near future. And until adults wise up & see that they cannot dismiss or ignore the Bill of Rights b/c their charges aren't old enough to vote, this is going to happen more & more often. The next school board that tries something like this could wind up financially bankrupt (if they show themselves to be bankrupt in the area of common sense).
Cricket
Cricket said:
I suspect that the Dishonorable Whatsername issued a warrant at some point; certainly her ruling was tantamount to a court order that the kid be held in custody. What I'm not sure was if her ruling was *legal* or not.
I suspect he was bored and it was the only book available.
Not really, as far as I can see from reading the story. I suspect that if there had been any *real* threats made here, the Dishonorable Judge would have alluded to them when asked to explain her actions. "Disciplinary problems" is a vague term ... I got sent up to the principal's office myself a couple times for cracking wise in class, but nobody suspected me of trying to kill anyone.
adults?
You could make a case that a minor doesn't know his own best interest, but in that case he would be remanded to the custody of his guardians or be taken away from them. AFAIK the Dishonorable made no such claim here.
I really *hope* someone sues over this.
Sincerely Yours, Jordan
"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)
Kaos said:
Yes. Which I suspect they did in this case, at some point ... my point is that nobody questioned the base assumption behind what they were doing. They all just *assumed* there was evidence against this kid beyond the story ... or failed to realize just how laughable and grotesque the whole thing would seem from an objective point of view.
The scary part is that a whole *series* of authority figures, starting with the teacher and moving up through the principal, the arresting officer, the district attorney, and the judge *all* bought into the paranoia, even though all it would have taken was a single "no, this is ridiculous, let this kid go" *anywhere* along the chain to stop the process.
And it's even *more* scary that these persons, who are clearly guilty of serious malfeasance, are entirely unrepentant as to their actions.
Sincerely Yours, Jordan
"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)
On Fri, 5 Nov 1999 19:43:44 +0000, Shez wrote:
You mean, it's not?
All those years I avoided drugs as an exercise in non-conformity were based on an illusion?
And the sad part is, I'm being at *least* half-serious here. Stupid town I grew up in had more small-time dealers and runners per capita than your average prison.
[email] wrote:
nice. we do have 13 year olds taking drugs around where i live, but it's not considered *normal* or anything.. i mean most people don't. i've never taken drugs.
casual
if it
*is*
That freaked me out a bit, too, even though where I go to school apparently has this "really bad drugs problem". This is a total misnomer, I think, 'cos a bad drugs problem would mean a lot of addicts, and there aren't any, there's just a huge amount of dope sloshing around. Like, 80% of the top 3 years have tried it, 40% do it regularly. I'd never taken drugs until last year when I switched cliques from Geeks to Mogwai Fans. It's just a clique thing... some don't, some do.
I am so glad that I live in a democracy where there is no such thing as forced counselling sessions. MSB
Why is it always spoken in the same sentence :geeks, nerds, gamers, and various other oddballs....grrr....I was a "nerd" in high school just because I was an honor graduate and got some scholarships (academic) to college. I was also a "gamer"...but was an athlete, active in FCA (Fellowhip of Christian Athletes), in drama, pep club, etc...God I hate labels. It should be apparent in the wake of all of the school violence that labels themselves are what is hurting these kids. Being classed as a "geek", or "loner", does nothing for these kids self esteem. Maybe if some other kids showed a little kindness instead of selfishness and pettiness, then it'd be easier for all kids to fit in. <end of rant>
Lesley
"Every turkey dies, not every turkey truly lives." - Chef
In article , [email] (The troublesome one) wrote: Being classed as a "geek", or "loner", does nothing for these kids self
In my economics class, the day after the Littleton shootings, we decided to forego the lecture to discuss our feelings about what had happened. My favorite reaction: "Well, I know what I've learned. Be nice to freaks." Sadly, that's probably better than most attitudes towards nonconformity that we can expect for a while.
Shez wrote in message news:[email]...
old boy
his
chance to
Daria
I considered posting something about this story but I couldn't find it online where I could conveniently post a link. I found it on the Associated Press site, including the full text of his story but you have to search for it.
Once you read his original story you realize the real frightening thing isn't that he was arrested for writing a story about shooting people, but that such a mess would have garnered an "A" in class. I thought the Darianites would find the story amusing only if they could read the original text. Rush Limbaugh read the story on his radio show, taking care to emphasize the spelling and grammar errors. If you liked "imprisoners" you're gonna love this.
If someone has a direct link to a page that has the story with original article, please post it.
"R. K. Henry" wrote:
The complete story, from the article in the Dallas Morning News:
My flashlight went out and I heard someone right behind me and I turned in a very slowly scared way and boom the lights came on and the door bell rang. I walked very slowly and creepy and turned the knob ding dong the door bell went again. I said just a minute and I will be right there and I looked through the little hole in the door and Robin said Boo. I told him to come in and have a seat and we both wated and wated for Ismael because he was supposed to bring the ounce so we could get high but half an hour later still no Ismael so I got the idea of freeon and we grabbed a bag and a knife and ran out back to the airconditionar. We througth the bag over the nostle and covered it tightly and used the knife to press the volv. We started to hear something after we got high so we ditched everything we quickly run to the door to see who it was and there wasn�t anybody there then we heard someone at the back door to see who it was I thought it was a crook so I busted out with a 12 guage and Ismael busted out with 9 mm and we step off the porch and this bloody body droped down in front of us and scared us half to death and about 20 kids started cracking up and pissed me off so I shot Matt, Jake, and Ben started laughing so hard that I acssedently shot Mrs. Henry. Ismael saw somebody steeling antifreeze so Ismael shot over ther near the airconditonar and hit somebody [indecipherable word] also scattered out and went home and my mom drove up and everything was back to normal but they didn�t have any heads.
As Jane said: Condition people to expect nothing, and the least little something gets them all excited.
Boolean
On Fri, 05 Nov 1999 18:21:24 +1000, boolean wrote:
<snippage>
<snip horrible story>
What's scary is that I know people at the community college I go to that can't write any better than this nimrod. How old was he? :P
Damon Orca on #Stars!
R. K. Henry said:
They are BOTH frightening. The kid does need to improve his syntax a LOT ... then again, he's only 13. What's the excuse of the teacher, principal, DA, and Dishonorable Judge?
I'm curious ... what was the Doctor of Democracy's take on the arrest? Did he feel that it was a Good or a Bad Thing that the kid was imprisoned for writing this story?
Sincerely Yours, Jordan
"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)
Jordan S. Bassior wrote in message news:[email]...
thing
LOT ...
DA, and
There are denizens of this newsgroup near that age who could turn out considerably better work I suspect. But then the young Darianites are exceptionally intelligent.
Did he
writing
The MahaRushi hit both themes. Of late he frequently notes that it is appalling the way the schools have gone so nuts worrying about what kids are writing or thinking. But also he had a lot of fun reading the story and emphasizing the errors. The kids can't read, write, or think but the schools are turning themselves inside out over expression of ideas.
In an unrelated, or semi-related, point: My sister's kids had to go out and buy clear-plastic book bags as the schools now require them. No more opaque bags like Daria carries.
R. K. Henry said:
Yes. Of course, since the teacher gave him a 100, I don't think it was the quality of his work that was at issue for her. Nor do I think that making grammatical errors should be a criminal offfense. :)
Or like most people carry. Has it occurred to the brilliant school administration that they could still smuggle weapons in their CLOTHES? (ooh, better not tell them this or they'll make them come in nude!)
Sincerely Yours, Jordan
"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)
On 05 Nov 1999 21:11:09 GMT, [email] (Jordan S. Bassior) wrote:
You don't have to read all the fanfic that *I* do. If you did, you'd change your tune faster than you could say "Flack-Jacket Mafia." :-)
Martin (send all e-mail to "[email]") +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------+
Outpost Daria: Your Online Database for All Things Daria!
http://www.lawndale.net -OR- http://systech.simplenet.com/daria/Martin J. Pollard wrote:
Hm... I dunno, Jordan. I'd've been tempted to at least send him to the grammar version of "scared straight." At the end, he'd be swearing never to use an apostrophe to indicate the plural again, he'd never mistake "your" for "you're", "their, there, and they're", and "to, too, and two." Frankly, I think jailin' em is a bit extreme, but community service like, say, having to learn proper grammar and spelling, is more than justified. ;-)
As for Martin, well, I can sympathize with you, as I was an English major in college, and an Editor on a law journal. Blatant grammatical errors make me absolutely *cringe* in the same way that some folks cringe when a person scratches his nails on a chalkboard. (And, yes, you use "his" or "her" in this case, not "their." That's another pet peeve of mine: using the third-person plural when you should use the third-person singular. But I digress.)
rich.
Jane: You're a twisted little cruller, ain't'cha?
Rich wrote:
At a local school, they hang banners in the gym for each championship the school's athletic teams have won. Since 1996, the basketball banners read "Boy's" or "Girl's" (e.g. 1997 Boy's JV Basketball Section Champions). I saw the principal in the gym one day, and asked: "And to which boy did the 1997 JV champions belong?" She gave me a strange look. I explained the grammatical mistake. She said "Hmm. I never noticed that. The athletic association gets those." They're still there today.
If the principal can be so intelligent and perceptive, what more can you expect from the students?
Peace Kevin
On Sat, 06 Nov 1999 06:45:34 GMT, [email] (paperpusher) wrote:
Actually, for true Political Correctness, you either use the full "his or her," or re-write the sentence in such a way that it becomes plural (allowing the gender-nonspecific "their.")
If re-writing the sentence requires re-writing the entire paragraph, or even the entire document... oh well.
This is what I learned from... Technical Writing for Engineers.
I've read every post in this thread, and I still can't get my head around a couple of things. 1) Deep Blue sea is a PG-13, no? In that film, people die. There is blood, even. Now, if he wrote this, and got "corrected" for a week, what would he have got had he simply written the plot of a film he could see? Does anyone still beleive that 13 year olds believe the people live forever? 2) 100. 100%. What exactly are the kids who are getting 40% writing?
"Greg Pallis" wrote:
Trust me, you don't want to know.
rich.
Helen: Bureaucracy is the price we pay for impartiality.
Jake: Jefferson!
Helen: Stalin.
On Fri, 5 Nov 1999 21:32:29 -0000, "Greg Pallis" wrote:
An "F" for plagiarism.
Fashion reports?
This is the New Educational System. Children aren't marked for the technical quality of their work anymore, but for the effort made in producing the work.
If you do a math problem, using 10 full pages to show your work, and get the wrong answer - you can still get 4 out of 5 marks on the question...
On Sat, 06 Nov 1999 11:56:23 GMT, [email] wrote:
Yuck. I could see getting one or two points...possibly three if it was a *really* stupid mistake like reversing a sign...
Damon Orca on #Stars!
[email] wrote:
even if the working is wrong?
On Sat, 06 Nov 1999 17:54:32 +0000, "endless, nameless" wrote:
Depends on how wrong, I guess. No less than two marks for trying, though...
Back to the story, I don't suppose anyone's ever seen anything else written by this kid?
It occurred to me last night, that the poor quality *may* have been an attempt at 'literary technique.' If the kid *can* spell, and does understand propper grammar... Well, he's writing a story in first person, from the perspective of someone dumb enough to try getting high off freon. The writing style may have been an attempt to 'stay in character.'
I've done similar a few times, when posting anonymously to some web-based message boards. Probably the only reason I thought of that possibility.
On 05 Nov 1999 21:11:09 GMT, some letters randomly coalesced from individual pixels, claiming to be from [email] (Jordan S. Bassior), and it said:
Actually, I think I would've kinda enjoyed that when I was in high school... ;p
Due to his present occupation, the author doesn't often read messages. If you want him to actually see the reply, please e-mail it to him.
Jordan wrote:
That'd certainly make life more difficult for the Fashion Club.
Peace Kevin
That's what scruntchies are for =)
Lesley
"Every turkey dies, not every turkey truly lives." - Chef
On 05 Nov 1999 21:11:09 GMT, [email] (Jordan S. Bassior) wrote:
Nah. Just trenchcoats. Anything else is blatantly paranoid, and would get the various 'special interest' groups on your case - an obvious waste of funds which would be better spent on hidden metal detectors. But trenchcoats... well, anyone who's watched Highlander knows you can hide 6' long claymores in them...
(Yeah, I know neither Duncan nor Connor weilded a Claymore.)
i would call that invasion of privacy.. everyone can see what you've got inside, tampons and all. also plastic stuff like that breaks really easily.
endless, nameless wrote in message news:[email]...
out
more
That's the idea. They think they're going to see the guns you're carrying into the school. Did you think that Ms. Li's preoccupation with security at Lawndale High was merely amusing? It's satire. They're absolutely fixated on this issue these days. That might seem reasonable except that they fixate on every issue. A few years ago it was Beavis & Butthead and kids were disciplined for using the word "butt". (For benefit of non-U.S. readers, as nearly as I understand it that translates to "bum".) Naturally my nephew became fascinated with the word and used it as often as possible. "Educators" went ballistic when the Bart Simpson T-shirt came out with the caption: "Underachiever: And Proud of it Man!" and it was banned from the schools. They didn't seem to be particularly concerned that so many of the students WERE underachievers.
R. K. Henry said:
Because obviously JD criminals are too dumb to put the weapons in their pockets, or in opaque objects INSIDE the clear plastic bags.
Oh my. Do kids use such language these days? How shocking? Why in my day we ... hmm ... used WORSE language.
Well, it doesn't matter if they can't read, write, or do arithmetic ... just so long as they don't wear a T-shirt that SAYS so. After all, Bart Simpson is a major opinion leader in today's society, right after Jesus and Bill Clinton, right?
What a bunch of idiots. The administrations, I mean.
Sincerely Yours, Jordan
"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)
On Fri, 5 Nov 1999 11:31:58 -0500, "R. K. Henry" wrote:
You're shitting me, right?
Very glad he got out of high school when he did...
Damon Orca on #Stars!
I've heard some schools do that... luckily mine hasn't gone to that yet. While most people go their lockers between classes, I haven't yet, so I do carry a backpack. Opaque. Clear ones I think would look dorky and plastic would suck to put tons of pins and patches on, which mine has. Not that you'd see anything besides books, notebooks, Diet Coke cans, and candy wrappers...
Dagny
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Workshop/9441/
"This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper." -T.S. Eliot
Dagny said:
Absolutely.
It'd be impossible. It would rip.
Guns, pipe bombs, thermonuclear warheads ...
Sincerely Yours, Jordan
"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)
do you not have to take all your books home? when i was in year nine, my school bag weight 1st on most days... ie 1/6 of my weight. at around the same time there was some thing, about how bags weighing more than 1/10 of a person's weight were damaging. they wouldn't allow me to leave my enormous maths text book at home though.
agreed.
plastic splits easier than normal bag fabric, i'd imagine, so your pins would make big holes in your bag.
i have a crap but fairly practical Miss Selfridge denim bag. the only problem with it is the fact that it's designed in such a way that when it rains, there is nothing stopping the rain from getting in, so all my stuff gets wet.
A safety-minded school in London has just introduced purpose-made rucksacks for its pupils. Clear plastic to reveal concealed weapons? No, they've been designed to prevent back injuries by distributing the killer weight of all those school books more evenly.
-Shez.
On Fri, 12 Nov 1999 14:00:00 +0000, Shez wrote:
Now *that* is an idea worth applauding.
At least, that's what my back is telling me...
good. they probably look crap, but if they make them all have those bags, then *everyone* has a crap-looking bag, so nobody gets teased for having the ugliest bag, which is better than letting them all have different bags imo. and they don't hurt their backs.
I've got one, but the reason why I have it is to get around the Gestapo at Fry's Electronics.
If you walk in to Fry's with an opaque backpack, regardless of whether you use it as a purse or not (I use mine as a purse) the "loss prevention specialists" will swarm around you and ask you to open your backpack for an inspection.
I saw the clear backpacks at WalMart last year, and a light went off over my head.
Now, when I know I'm going into Fry's, I transfer everything that is normally in my regular backpack into my clear backpack. Now all I have to do is walk by the guards and tell them "if you want to search my backpack all you gotta do is look." They wave me off with a smile.
Plus, the clear backpacks look kewl in a "Blade Runner" kind of way. They're also cheap...$10.
--.\\<-H--
On Sun, 14 Nov 1999 08:32:04 -0800, [email] (Michelle Klein-Hass) wrote:
Hey, that idea isn't so stupid. Maybe I should see if I find one. It's really annoying that I always have to deposit all my stuff in the locker before entering our university's library. MSB
In article ,
whether you
for
I know...I used to work there. It was horrible.
Michelle Klein-Hass said:
That's so weird. In New York City, some stores demand that you put your bags behind their counter or in a locker or something; this is the first place I've ever seen them actually demand to *search* your bags. Doesn't that cut into their trade? I'd go to another store to avoid the inconvenience, personally, because I usually have a lot of stuff in my bag.
Sincerely Yours, Jordan
"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)
On Fri, 5 Nov 1999 02:25:27 -0500, "R. K. Henry" wrote:
Teachers are humans, too. I remember that in 10th grade we had an English teacher who seemed to be a big fan of the macabre. One of his favorite stories was "A Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl. He had us write a sequel to the story as a homework. One of my classmates (a big fan of the military, obsessed with WW2, one day he came to school his face all burned because he had experimented with gunpowder) turned it into a gore and splatter story. He had some kind of anti-terror squad raid the house and kill the woman. Of course he emphasized that the bullets killed her unborn child resting in the womb, too. This story was among the few that our teacher read to the class because of its originality. I bet in the US he would have lost his job just for reading such a violent story to minors. However here this didn't have any consequences whatsoever, neither for the teacher nor the writer of the story. Needless to say that I am very happy that I live in a country where students can write whatever they want without being prosecuted. I have written some rather cynical homework myself. Unlike people on Usenet, my teachers have never given me the feeling that I need to watch what I write. MSB
this is, frankly, appalling.
Yes, but let's get serious about this. I think we need to appoint someone to read all the Daria Fanfics on the net and report the authors of any disturbing ones to the police before they can do any harm. Meanwhile, someone else should search deja news and compile a list of everyone who has spoken favourably about trench coats or the virtues of independent thought. And no more of this cryptic Daria code stuff - it might be concealing communications between terrorists planning to blow up the Internet.
-Shez.
On Fri, 5 Nov 1999 19:51:11 +0000, some letters randomly coalesced from individual pixels, claiming to be from Shez , and it said:
I look forward to the day I write a Ramble that gets me arrested. ;)
Due to his present occupation, the author doesn't often read messages. If you want him to actually see the reply, please e-mail it to him.
I agree... this is bad
On Fri, 05 Nov 1999 14:40:08 +0000, some letters randomly coalesced from individual pixels, claiming to be from "endless, nameless" , and it said:
Not to mention it is completely counterproductive. Okay, we've got jocks persecuting wierdos, and the administration looking the other way. They got all they could take, and finally snapped. So here's a really good idea:
Let's persecute the wierdos some more!
Due to his present occupation, the author doesn't often read messages. If you want him to actually see the reply, please e-mail it to him.
In article ,
It's a damn shame. Really its just another American truth these days, though, we go after the minor problems and offenders instead of going directly to the source of the problem and eliminating it there. The other post about having to use clear backpacks, for example, just the American way of putting gum on a crack of a dam that is already broken. As an American I am very disappointed that our governments always try to find the simple solution of the problems instead of going out and doing something about the real causes. It sometimes makes me wonder about our system. I'm as avid a patriotic person in the US as you'll find, but sometimes I really, really wonder if its really, truly the best. Until someone implements a better way of doing things, however, it's the way we're stuck with. Things are bad enough in our schools now, after an incident like this, I don't see it getting better anytime soon:-(
A.J.
On Sat, 06 Nov 1999 06:48:45 GMT, [email] wrote:
It's not the government that is to blame. It's the people. The authorities just do what the public calls for. And that's a quick fix of the symptoms.
The real causes are out of the government's reach. The government doesn't raise the kids. Parents do (or rather they don't). MSB
In article , Shez wrote:
This is quite possibly one of the worst victim stories of the Columbine panic period, which is still going on.
Putting someone in a detention or correctional center simply because he wrote this story is AMAZINGLY unhealthy. I can't even begin to state how horribly WRONG this decision was in relation to this poor boy's mental health. This kind of action creates more friction and increases the chance that this young man could become even more violent and/or do something extremely irrational, make very bad desicions.. it shapes his whole being about the world around him... There are so many issues here, it's apalling.
Educators and government officials are doing the absolute worst things to children in the past few months because of Columbine. In Virginia (my home state), there are at least 3 occurances where kids with oddly colored hair or clad in black were suspended or something similar. One of the kids was an honor student who had previously won an award for being a good role model! Maybe they should take a lesson themselves in being good role models. Right now, all they are teaching kids is that the world is evil, teachers and educators are their enemy, and worst of all, that it is right to discriminate against you simply because of the way you look or think. That is precisely what these educators are doing, and they are setting a HORRIBLE example to youngsters. The outcome of all this absurd reactionary behavior might even create more school violence!!
The way to deal with this is to create a self awareness program. Kids need to be educated about themsleves, but not forced in any way to be subject to counseling, detention, etc... They have to be taught how to see problems arising within themselves and voluntarily ask for help. If help is asked for, they should be treated with utmost respect and with lots of love and understanding. NOT jail, suspension, and even more rejection. Sure, maybe they won't ask for help, maybe it won't be as effective as "scaring" a child into not killing using jail (as most adults tend to falsely believe would work), but it would send a positive message to kids that they ARE respected and that people do care about their existence. This is absolutely vital for kids to know if they are to lead healthy and non-violent lives. How many of you Daria fans would have liked to feel that just once during school?
I personally am so amazed at the poor behavior of our adults, that I have been making, for the past couple of weeks, a comic book that I will distribute on my web page for free to teachers and parents. I wanted to make something that everyone could read and understand and share. I haven't gotten it drawn yet, but I will fairly soon.
i find it very strange that oddly coloured hair is being taken as a sign that someone is about to shoot a load of people. 3 people in my year have dyed their hair funny colours, and having known all of them for 5+ years i can say they are among the least likely to shoot everyone. i think i'm the only person who regularly shows up to school dressed all in black, and while i may have a reputation for being weird i doubt anyone thinks i'm going to go kill everyone. :)
In article , [email] wrote:
Yup. One was a 12 or 13 year old girl who had pink hair. The other was a junior or senior who was perfectly normal looking except for a quarter of the front part of his hair was green. The principal, who's name was actually Sherlock Holmes, came on the news and said that this kid's strange hair color was "all the makin's of" a troublemaker. Other than this vile outbreak of social norms, I don't think this kid did anything else wrong. Ya think maybe popular kids at the same school were probably at a party making fun of this poor kid while smoking pot and knocking down mailboxes? Nah.
I work at a news station, so I end up seeing lots of news about columbine fallout.
Of course, my next thought was "what if some bastard decided to play a joke and threw bleach on some poor kid's hair, it turns a funny color and he goes to school and gets suspended?" I had a friend who's brother did that to him. Sounds like a Daria episode to me.
http://animation.acmecity.com/model/347/main.html
Buster Logan said:
Trollop! She should be publicly scourged in the stocks!
Obviously the greenness had only slightly absorbed his mind.
No s**t ... where'd he get the clue?
(Sorry, couldn't resist that)
Gad, I didn't know principals like that existed out of bad teen comedy movies.
Heck, what if some poor kid just happens to have funny-colored hair? Some naturally-occurring shades of red are fairly startling; and I've seen blondes so blond as to be white-haired.
Sincerely Yours, Jordan
"Man, as we know him, is a poor creature; but he is halfway between an ape and a god and he is travelling in the right direction." (Dean William R. Inge)
my hair goes orange if i stay in the sun for too long. when i was younger it would go blonde, but it's darker now. a friend of mine has dark brown hair with a streak of white-blonde at the front... naturally stripy hair. it's always looked like that.. odd.
I don't think there's any "might" about it. Your country is in a downward spiral here. Unless the clampdown really has succeeded in scaring all American schoolchildren witless, the only way out of this lose-lose situation is for the adults - both parents and teachers - to pull back from the brink and accept that kids are human beings and deserve to be treated with dignity, even if they do dye their hair or wear black or hate school. (Well except for the ones who wear shell suits - it's ok to ship those off to the death camps.)
-Shez.
On Fri, 5 Nov 1999 05:54:05 +0000, Shez wrote:
Got it in my local paper.
Line from the authorities: because he used actual classmate names for the victims, instead of fictional names, we thought there was a threat.