(no subject)

[theweaselking]

One down, 534 to go.

More cops:
Elementary school calls police because 6-year-old-boy accidentally brings a butter knife to school.

More cops:
Nurses at a home for the elderly indicted for feeding laxatives to patients right before they left for the day, to harass the next shift.

Guards, not cops:
The AP finally notices that US Army soldiers are trading pictures of dead and tortured Iraqis for porn.

[Edit: I missed a good one.]
Cops:
A woman was given a ticket for sitting on a park bench because she doesn't have children.

The Rivington Playground on Manhattan's East Side has a small sign at the entrance that says adults are prohibited unless they are accompanied by a child. Sandra Catena, 47, said she didn't see the sign when she sat down to wait for an arts festival to start.

Two New York City police officers asked her if she was with a child. When she said no, they gave her a ticket that could bring a $1,000 fine and 90 days in jail.

Comments

[missysedai.livejournal.com]

You missed one:

http://www.theomahachannel.com/news/5029825/detail.html

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I did. Thanks.

[gothpanda.livejournal.com]

So um, what I find really funny about the case with the boy with the butter knife is that his parents--afraid that he would be labelled the "kid who brought a weapon to school"--are engaging in a legal battle to prevent him from being suspended. One day. In-school suspension. Obviously the boy shouldn't be punished at all, but why involve your child (who will now be known as "that kid whose parents sued the school district over a one-day suspension") in a legal brawl over a trivial punishment that he would have forgotten by age eight?!

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

Forgotten by the other kids; not by the school system. They don't want it on record in his file. That is forever.

[gothpanda.livejournal.com]

The "permanent record" is a myth. Trust me, colleges and employers don't care about what you did when you were 6. And all this hooplah will damage the kid way more than the one day of in-school suspension.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Employers do not. Colleges and universities usually do not.

Your school board and your teachers do.

[gothpanda.livejournal.com]

As far as I know, teachers don't read students' permanent records before every new school year. And even if they did, it would be easy enough for the parents to simply call (or write) the teacher and let them know exactly what occurred. By middle school, it would be forgotten.

I just think everyone is making too big a deal out of this. There are hundreds, even thousands of kids who get in-school suspensions, detentions and even get expelled for stupid shit. (there was a kid at my highschool, a private school, who got expelled for stealing another guy's magic cards from his locker as a joke. He still managed to go to college and become a doctor, and that was a high school offense not something he did before he could write complete sentences!).

This kid would turn out just fine like all the others if his parents would just let it go. Which is worse, having a school board that gives your child an undeserving one-day suspension because they're a little too strict, or a school board that HATES your family (and will take it out on your child if they're as petty as they sound) because you sued them over a decision that was theirs to make?

It does way more damage to make a big deal out of it than to simply explain to the child that sometimes, life is not fair, rather than teaching him that, when something unfair happens to him (no matter how small) he should sue somebody. Don't accept that life sometimes gives you lemons and that you might even have to take responsibility for something you didn't do intentionally...Lord no, just BLAME SOMEONE ELSE and call the media!

[sivi-volk.livejournal.com]

Actually, many teachers read the records before each school year so they know what to expect from the kids.

[anivair.livejournal.com]

Seriously, though. What does "1 day suspension in Kindergarden; re: butterknife" say about a child?

Do you think that leaves a better or worse impression on a teacher than "parents suied school board for taing disciplinary action"?

[zenten.livejournal.com]

Why is it damaging to tell your kids that just because everyone else gets pushed around for something stupid, doesn't mean that you have to just sit and take it.

[anivair.livejournal.com]

I thinkt eh school board (and all future teachers) would prefer a 1 day suspention in kindergarden to his parents having sued the school board.

not that he deserves the suspension in any way, but seriously. it's become the new american way. Sue anyhting you don't like. And his freaking parents shoudl be shot for making such a big deal out of this. Now all hell is goign to break loose and the kid is going to be in the middle of it all rather than his just sitting in the library for a day and forgetting about it the next day.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Update!
http://www.theomahachannel.com/news/5031376/detail.html

The school came to their senses.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

Many have already responded to this, but I'm going to weigh in again. My wife is a teacher. She reads the files on every kid on her case load (she teaches spec. ed.), and will more than happily attest to every other teacher, general and spec. alike, doing the same. I'm aware your school records don't follow you past high school, but they do follow you through graduation, and you never know how any potential future teacher will take info found in that file.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

s/to every/to most every/

Damnit. I hate when the words in my head don't make it to my fingers.

[culfinriel.livejournal.com]

Um, since I gather the law was supposed to keep pedophiles out of the park, may I therefore assume someone has shown that a pedophile would never be accompanied by a child?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

The law is meant for middle-aged white housewives to *feel better about pedophiles*.

After all, pointing out that most assaults are committed by somebody with custody of the child just wouldn't do AT ALL, would it.