John Sez: Although the title above sounds silly, it briefly sums up a situation which has been brewing in Danvers High School in Massachusetts.

Apparently, the story goes something like this:

School principal, Thomas Murray, came across some information on Facebook which led him to believe that his students had planned a conspiracy to ‘mass-meep’ in one part of the school building. Murray seemed to think that such an action could be a huge detriment to his school (wars have been started for less, right?), so he took immediate and decisive action and notified the parents (via automated phone message)of all students who attend his school that the punishment for uttering the dreaded syllable would be grounds for an immediate suspension.

In an interview with the Salem News, Murray said the matter should be a ‘wake-up call’ to parents about what their kids are up to on social networking sites; to that end he is planning a school forum for parents on the pitfalls of face book.

But wait, there’s more.

New York based attorney, Theodora Michaels, got wind of the story and sent the following letter to administrators at the school:

An open letter to Principal Murray of Danvers High School (MA):

Meep.

Sincerely,
Theodora Michaels

The response from the school was fast and furious. According to Ms. Michaels, she received a reply from Assistant principal Mark Strout which informed her that her ‘meep-mail’ had been forwarded to the Danvers Police Department. In an excerpt from an article about the meeping situation posted on her site, she mused:

“LOLwut? That simultaneously annoyed and amused me enough to write this article. (Plus, my train was late.)

First, apparently this school doesn't know how email works. If they don't like getting emails that say "meep" -- and I'm assuming they got others before they got mine -- it should be a simple matter for the school's IT person to set their email program to filter all external emails that say meep and send them straight into the trash. Then there'd be no need to even look at them, let alone reply to or forward them.

Second, apparently they don't know how the law works. I haven't researched Massachusetts law, but I'm assuming there's no law that would prevent me from sending a single, non-commercial email, containing a single nonsense "word" (but impliedly relating to their work as school officials) to adults at their publicly-posted work emails. And if there were such a law, it would not survive a constitutional challenge. So I don't understand the point of Mr. Strout's email, unless he's hoping to scare me into -- what, not emailing "meep" ever again? Or more generally not criticizing his performance as a school official?

Gee, I'm scared -- maybe the Danvers police will come to NYC to arrest me! I guess they'll also try to extradite people who (I'm guessing) sent emails from other countries. We can be charged with . . . what, first degree meeping? Yeah, good luck with that.

Third, and most important, Messrs. Murray and Strout don't understand human nature. People -- especially teenagers -- don't like following pointless rules. To the point where they'll go out of their way to rebel against them (and I took five seconds out of my busy day), even if said rebellion itself is rather pointless. I get nothing out of saying meep. But I will vigorously defend my -- and others' -- right to say it.”

To say that the whole thing seems absolutely and childishly ludicrous on its face would be an extreme understatement.

I fully understand that school administrators face a great many challenges on a daily basis, ranging from finances, human resource issues, academic issues, and so on. It’s not an easy ship to run, so to speak, and any successful school owes a great debt of gratitude not only to the teachers but to the administrators who oversee the process of education as well. I am also fully aware that sometimes a principal is required to make some decision which may proove unpopular with the student body; the principal is well within his bailiwick to do what is necessary to both protect his students (and teachers) as well as make sure that there is no disruption in the educational process.

With that being said, I am hard pressed to find any grounds to agree with the administrators of Danvers High School. With all the problems that a school can have – drugs, violence, academic underachieving, and so on – this apparently harmless high school prank has been blown way out of proportion. What this principal (who appears to be more than a tad over his head in his position or has a severe case of little-man syndrome, in my opinion) is doing is showing the students that the law of the land is made up of nothing more than arbitrary decisions by men in suits and ties with no questioning or recourse for any decisions made. That’s simply not the way it is or should be, both in or out of school.

And if the principal thinks that this conspiracy to meep is worthy of a lesson to parents on the pitfalls of their children’s use of social networking sites, then my reply is that the principals understanding of the possible dangers of the internet in general are woefully shallow and inadequate for him to make such a broad assumption. While I applaud the fact that he has taken it upon himself to utilize the same technology as his students in order to keep abreast of what is going on with the student body, I have to say that his conclusions are clearly indicative of someone who has only a slim grasp of real and serious concerns over teenagers and the web. And if he is using this argument simply to cover his ass, then he is intentionally marginalizing a subject which should be take very seriously by educators, school administrators, parents as well as students.

Additionally, concerning the threat of ‘law enforcement action’ against Ms. Michaels, this is a clear indication that the administrators are themselves hard pressed to defend their actions  and have to rely on an legally empty threats in order to cajole or frighten someone who decided to let them know that their heavy handed approach is more than a little uncalled for. Additionally, by sending this e-mail on to the local PD, time that could have been spent going after people who have actually broken a law is instead spent on, well, foolishness.

In the future the principal (and his staff) need to take a closer look at the potential aftereffects of their actions. While I don’t expect that a school administrator make all of their decisions with one eye behind them watching their own backs, this napoleon-like posturing (which seems to be little more than an exercise in “Look at me, look at me – I am in charge, look at me!”) has done nothing more than disrupt the student body, made the administrators involved look more like major power-mongering fools concerned with enforcing the respect of their station and less like serious minded educators who have the best interest of the school as their first priority, and have clearly set the stage for an adversarial ‘us vs. them’ attitude between the staff and the students – something that can only become a detriment to the education process for all concerned.

(Thanks to Constitutional Law Scholar, Jonathan Turley, for bringing attention to this story)
 
 
John Sez: I’m so incensed about this story, I ‘m not even sure where to begin. These deputies stepped WAY over the line holding down a child who was scared of getting a shot. It was not their place to do so and it was way beyond their job description.

 Some might say that the kid was over reacting to getting a shot…maybe so. But let me ask: how would YOU feel if 2 armed and uniformed thugs held down YOUR frightened child for a vaccination?

Story from the Intellengencer:


Deputies Hold Boy Who Fled Flu ShotStudent refused; was held down for vaccination

By SHELLEY HANSON Staff Writer

WHEELING - It took the strength of two sheriff's deputies to keep a middle schooler still enough to receive a shot of the swine flu, or H1N1, vaccine at a recent clinic.

During a regular Wheeling-Ohio County Health Board meeting Tuesday, health department Administrator Howard Gamble told board members about the student's attempt to flee Wheeling Middle School during a vaccination clinic held there last Friday.

He noted the boy's mother could not bear to watch the scene and left the gymnasium. Out of apparent fear of receiving the injection, the student ran out of the building. The school's resource officer, Ohio County Sheriff's Deputy John Haglock, coaxed the boy back inside. Once at the shot station, however, Haglock apparently needed some help keeping the boy still, and another deputy assisted.

"He tried to run. I looked over and saw two sheriff's deputies holding a kid down," Gamble said. "Mom took off, she couldn't take it. You had one nurse with the needle, two deputies holding him, one nurse is grabbing hands - because that's what they want to do, to go after the needle. And that's the last thing you want."

READ MORE

 
 
John Sez: I completely understand that schools, now more than ever, have to be very creative in finding ways to fund their programs (so much for the various lotteries whose takes are supposed to go to schools, as well as the train-wreck that is ‘No Child Left Behind’) given that there seems to be very little money in the coffer marked ‘education’ (but, apparently, lots of cash in the bins marked ‘for the bankers’ and  “lets bomb the brown people’). But this one school went way, way over the line.

Think about the message this sends to the students: as long as you have money, you can buy your way into or out of anything. The parent’s advisory board that was involved in this fiasco needs to be disbanded, and the principal should never be allowed to work in the education field again. 

 Story from newsobserver:

District nixes cash-for-grades fundraiser

Selling candy didn't raise much money last year, so a Goldsboro middle school tried selling grades.

However, the fundraiser came to an abrupt halt today after a story in The News & Observer raised concerns about the practice of selling grades.

Wayne County school administrators stopped the fundraiser, issuing a statement this morning.

"Yesterday afternoon, the district administration met with [Rosewood Middle School principal] Mrs. Shepherd and directed the the following actions be taken: (1) the fundraiser will be immediately stopped; (2) no extra grade credit will be issued that may have resulted from donations; and (3) beginning Novermber 12, all donations will be returned."


A $20 donation to Rosewood Middle School would have gotten a student 20 test points - 10 extra points on two tests of the student's choosing. That could raise a B to an A, or a failing grade to a D.

Susie Shepherd, the principal, said a parent advisory council came up with the idea, and she endorsed it. She said the council was looking for a new way to raise money.

"Last year they did chocolates, and it didn't generate anything," Shepherd said.

READ MORE

 
 
John Sez: This is a disgusting abuse of power by this psycho with a badge. This jerk should not be patrolling inside a school…or still be a cop…or should be in jail or out on bond for assault with intent (like the rest of us uniform-less cretins would be if that were us slamming some poor brain damaged kid into a wall).

My guess is, based on how many times bad cops have simply walked away from crap like this, is that this maroon will have a commendation and a merit based raise within a year.

Story from CBS (thanks to Jonathan Turley for the original post):