American Public Schools: Like a rock!
A counterstrike map of your own school? When I was in high school, we would have called that awesome. What's more fun that fraggin yer friends by Mrs. Boringspeak's class? These days:
"Members of the area Chinese community have rallied behind a ClementsHigh School senior who was removed from the campus and sent to M.R.Wood Alternative Education Center after parents complained he’d createda computer game map of Clements...police [arrested him]...The Lin family consented to [a] search, and a hammer was found in the boy’s room,which he used to fix his bed, because it wasn’t in good shape, Chen said. He indicated police seized the hammer as a potential weapon."
Think it helped that he was Asian? Hard to say. Over-reacting though, yeah. You shouldn't get arrested for making a mod. I always wish there was some sort of punishment you could take on people who go too far with the "justice." No payment for lost time while apprehended, and in this case, no public apology or admitting you screwed up from the management.
In sepereate but sort of related news, last week I'd heard there was a guy at Steven's high school in San Antonio who posted some names in the bathroom. I had to dig four pages into google and follow and outdated blog cache to confirm this one:
"April 26th, a Stevens High School studentposted a hit list at his school. While Cho's media release may not haveinfluenced him, his posthumous infamous stardom was not the kind ofencouragement that our society needs."
So on Friday, everyone finds out. School's are chatty. The fallout occurs on Monday:
" Gonzalez said 1,300 students were absent Monday. Stevens' enrollment is 2,900, andthe average number of absences for a Monday is about 200, Gonzalez said."
The story doesn't report that Northside delcared the day a bad weather make-up day, excusing all of the absences. So if you ever want a mass day off, pay some stupid kid to write some names in the bathroom.
It's been my experience that school districts are the first to roll when it comes to principles. These entities are the first major American institutions to over-react. The most exploitable in their paranoia. Remember columbine? My friends bragged about what threat number they were on an official list of who was gonna shoot us up next. It was rediculous. Maybe it's because at this level there's a dearth of clever, principled leaders. More likely? You're playing with the saftey of kids. Other people's kids. I guess no one wants to end up on the short end of that sort of news interview. So principles that we're supposed to be teaching our little helpless sheep? To quote a clever old friend of mine...
Out the window
the window
the second story window
Path
(just for evidence)
http://www.fortbendnow.com/news/2847/chinese-community-rallies-behind-student-removed-from-clements-over-pc-game-map
http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/teenteam/archives/2007/04/posthumous_infl.html
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA050207.03B.stevens.threat.34fea5d.html
"Members of the area Chinese community have rallied behind a ClementsHigh School senior who was removed from the campus and sent to M.R.Wood Alternative Education Center after parents complained he’d createda computer game map of Clements...police [arrested him]...The Lin family consented to [a] search, and a hammer was found in the boy’s room,which he used to fix his bed, because it wasn’t in good shape, Chen said. He indicated police seized the hammer as a potential weapon."
Think it helped that he was Asian? Hard to say. Over-reacting though, yeah. You shouldn't get arrested for making a mod. I always wish there was some sort of punishment you could take on people who go too far with the "justice." No payment for lost time while apprehended, and in this case, no public apology or admitting you screwed up from the management.
In sepereate but sort of related news, last week I'd heard there was a guy at Steven's high school in San Antonio who posted some names in the bathroom. I had to dig four pages into google and follow and outdated blog cache to confirm this one:
"April 26th, a Stevens High School studentposted a hit list at his school. While Cho's media release may not haveinfluenced him, his posthumous infamous stardom was not the kind ofencouragement that our society needs."
So on Friday, everyone finds out. School's are chatty. The fallout occurs on Monday:
" Gonzalez said 1,300 students were absent Monday. Stevens' enrollment is 2,900, andthe average number of absences for a Monday is about 200, Gonzalez said."
The story doesn't report that Northside delcared the day a bad weather make-up day, excusing all of the absences. So if you ever want a mass day off, pay some stupid kid to write some names in the bathroom.
It's been my experience that school districts are the first to roll when it comes to principles. These entities are the first major American institutions to over-react. The most exploitable in their paranoia. Remember columbine? My friends bragged about what threat number they were on an official list of who was gonna shoot us up next. It was rediculous. Maybe it's because at this level there's a dearth of clever, principled leaders. More likely? You're playing with the saftey of kids. Other people's kids. I guess no one wants to end up on the short end of that sort of news interview. So principles that we're supposed to be teaching our little helpless sheep? To quote a clever old friend of mine...
Out the window
the window
the second story window
Path
(just for evidence)
http://www.fortbendnow.com/news/2847/chinese-community-rallies-behind-student-removed-from-clements-over-pc-game-map
http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/teenteam/archives/2007/04/posthumous_infl.html
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA050207.03B.stevens.threat.34fea5d.html