Interesting

I had a somewhat surreal talk with one of the dozen or school psychologists for our district.

She was observing one of my emotionally disturbed students as he attempted to again run my class in circles.

The school has already attempted to expel him once, but because one of the necessary papers wasn’t signed, he’s back in school for another 60 days until another hearing can be convened. Problem is, the kid keeps skipping school, so he’s never IN school for 60 days. So it goes.

The poor kid can barely read, and is prone to violence, what he needs to have any chance of a normal life is for someone to work with him one-on-one. That’s the one thing that’s never going to happen.

The source of many of the academic and behavioral problems at my school comes from children who don’t want to be there, combined with parents who don’t make their children’s education a priority.

Those two together are a deadly combination, and are the source of a vastly disproportionate amount of problems at my and most other schools.

Any school that requires a time or money commitment from parents (private, charter, competitive public, etc) is comparatively free from the problems caused by such children, because they do not exist. In such schools there’s something for the families to lose, and so there is in turn a greater commitment to the children’s education. This is not so at an inner city public school, which often becomes the dumping ground for the kids that no one else wants.

A quick recap of the end of my week.

My emotionally disturbed student got into a fist-fight with another one of my students during class on Thursday, and third student brought a knife to class.

The knife-bringer, let’s call him Mack, was one of my biggest behavior problems this year (not disrespectful, just a very short attention span and in need of constant supervision), and now it looks like he’s going to be expelled.

Funny thing is had this happened a week later, Mack would still be here, regardless of the knife. See, he’s got an IEP (individualized education plan), and Mack’s mother was refusing to sign it. Had his previous one expired, before the mother signed the new one, it would not have mattered if he’d brought an assault weapon into school, he could NOT have been expelled. It’s not the nature or gravity of the offense that matters, but rather whether the paperwork is in order. -D

I’ve been looking for Christmas MySpace layouts, but so far not found one I like.

If any readers have found some good Christmas MySpace layouts please comment below.

An online friend of mine is going to be short changed by an unfair bankruptcy settlement. He pointed me to a recent article about it-

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – A Louisville lawyer whose firm filed bankruptcy with $16.6 million in debt would pay most of his creditors less than 2 cents on the dollar, under a proposed settlement.

Federal regulators said in court records that the $394,583 settlement would allow Ron Sheffer to “purchase” a discharge.

People work hard only to be screwed over by low life’s that run up unbelievable debts like this and then only have to pay a pittance back. It’s not right!!