We have been discussing the over-reaction officials in past cases where police have been called to address pranks or controversies once handled internally in schools. A news story near Houston only serves to capture this absurdity. It began when Danesiah Neal, an eighth grader at Fort Bend Independent School District’s Christa McAuliffe Middle School, attempted to pay for lunch with a $2 bill given to her by her grandmother, Sharon Kay Joseph. The lunch personnel had never seen a $2 bill and the reaction is truly absurd overreaction involving banks and police.
Category: Academia
We have another example of school officials and prosecutors criminalizing a school prank this week to an absurd degree. Authorities in Arizona have charged Hunter Osborn, 19, with 69 counts of indecent exposure when, on a dare from a friend, he exposed himself during a football team picture. No one noticed and it was published in the yearbook. The response is to hit this kid with dozens of criminal counts in a matter that would have previously been dealt with a suspension or inner school sanction.
There is a deeply disturbing controversy out of one of South Africa. Ntokozo Qwabe is an Oxford student who has received incredible privileges as a Rhodes Scholar and looking at virtually limitless opportunities. However, when he and a friend went to eat recently, they refused to leave a tip for a waitress because she was white and instead left a note that reduced Ashleigh Schultz, 24, in tears. Qwabe, who has led a campaign to remove a Cecil Rhodes statue at Oxford, displayed not only his own racism but lack of humanity in the treatment of Schultz, particularly in posting a gleeful account of who he made Schultz cry “typical white tears.” He celebrated on line that he and his friend were “unable to stop smiling because something so black and wonderful had happened.”
Hope Sanchez, 38, (right below), an adjunct psychology professor at McHenry County College, is at the center new case out of Illinois with a rather bizarre twist. She reportedly told her class about her finding an abandoned boxer puppy inside a duct-taped pillowcase. The incident was ultimately reported it to the police and the police determined that the story was untrue. Police charged her with filing a false report even though it does not appear that she went to the police.
In Italy, there is a term “bamboccioni” or chubby child or big babies to refer to children who are staying with their parents for longer and longer periods into their adult years. One decision however has shocked many Italians in Modena in Northern Italy where a court ordered a middle-aged father to keep supporting his 28-year-old son financially. The son wants another academic degree and the court held that the father remains liable for the costs.
There are Oxford dons and then there are Oxford cons. Nicola Boardman, 34, was the latter after bilking her parents of more than £250,000 by convincing them she was a student at Oxford University. She continued to hit them up for money for research and travel that prosecutors allege was used for drugs, holidays and a secret wedding. Adding insult to injury, her parents, Frank and Marilyn, were not even invited to the wedding.
I am not sure how my testimony went over with the Senators, but I am claiming the support of one familiar face. I found George waiting for me outside of the Dirksen Senate Office Building after the hearing. As a GW professor, this can only be viewed as a good omen. He no doubt wanted to remind the Congress that GW (as opposed to that other local institution) is the only school that was founded on a charter paid for by our first president. George made no comment on the Administrative State but his appearance (in my view) spoke volumes. Sure, Bernie Sanders has that bird that landed on the podium, but I had the ultimate Founding Father appear after testifying on the need to remain faithful to their original constitutional design.
Continue reading “George Washington Appears After Turley Testimony”
I will be testifying this morning at 10 am before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs in SD-342, Dirksen Senate Office Building . The hearing, entitled “The Administrative State: An Examination of Federal Rulemaking” will look at the role of agencies in rulemaking in the federal system.
Continue reading “Turley to Testify On The “Administrative State” In Senate Hearing”
There is another controversy over the punishment of a teacher for statements made on his private time on social media. In this case, University of Sydney tutor Wu Wei, the business school’s head corporate finance tutor, used the pseudonym Pekojima and did not speak at a faculty member. However, his students found him out and exposed such statements like Wu calling Chinese students “pigs” (using the symbol “tun”) and accusing them of cheating “due to low IQs.” The comments appeared on the Chinese micro-blogging site Weibo and caused a firestorm.
There is an intense controversy at Tulane University (where I began my teaching career) in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Kappa Alpha fraternity members built a wall made of sandbags with the message “Make America Great Again” and “Trump” plastered across it on their off-campus house. What is astonishing is that university groups and members have rallied to support alleged members of the football team who tore down the wall in a denial of free speech and an act of trespass.
There is a surprising report out of California that UC Davis contracted with consultants for at least $175,000 to”scrub the Internet of negative online postings following the November 2011 pepper-spraying of students. Equally disconcerting is that UC Davis paid to have these consultants improve the reputation of Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi (right). I consider giving state money to consultants to improve your image as Chancellor to be a shocking misuse of money that should go to educational programs and expenses.
A toy dog named Sam has been sent into the Earth’s atmosphere by schoolchildren in Lancashire, England. The videotape of Sam’s wild ride is below. He returned safely and the world’s coolest stuffed toy.
Prescott College, a private college in Arizona, has caused a firestorm of controversy over the creation of a fee to fund a scholarship for illegal immigrants. Students can decline the $30 annual fee but must do so affirmatively — otherwise it is automatically added to their $28,000 tuition.
We have been following how universities across the country have seen an increase in claims of “micro aggressions” and impermissible “cultural appropriation” (here and here). Now that tension has become physical at San Francisco State University after student Bonita Tindle reportedly attacked a white student named Cory Goldstein for wearing dreadlocks. The claim seems to capture the race to bottom on campuses where an ever widening array of words or symbols are declared racially or culturally insensitive. However, this was so bizarre, I checked to confirm that it was not an early April Fool’s joke. Yet, various news organizations are reporting it and a YouTube video shows the attack.
By Darren Smith, Weekend Contributor
Proving once again that no occupation or level of society is immune from intrigue and bizarre behavior a Port Townsend, Washington high school principal was arrested for Burglary and Harassment for an incident in which he allegedly made threats to kill the school’s principal.
I have to admit that since a case involving two dentists fighting each other in their dental office years ago, not much surprises me. But the type of attitude allegedly demonstrated by this teacher makes me wonder how perplexed the faculty must have felt when it was the students, who are usually the ones to be treated as criminals in today’s zero tolerance schools, were not the culprit and instead it was one of their own–who was arrested for an real violation of the law.
Continue reading “High School Teacher Arrested After Allegedly Threatening To Murder Principal”