Florida Again: Woman Has Gross Way Of Ruining Kid's Birthday Party

Heather Carpenter of Florida, naturally, is accused of spreading
crap all over tables and grills at a park because a school principal
she hates planned a birthday party for her daughter at the
park later that day. 

A now presumably former substitute teacher in, yes, Florida apparently really hates the principal at the school where she worked. 

This idiot, Heather Carpenter showed up at Urfer Park in Sarasota County, Florida at 6:30 a.m. on December 1 and spread feces all over the wooden tables and grills at the pavilion in the park, says Fox 13 News in Tampa. 

The alleged reason: The principal at the school where she worked planned a birthday party for her daughter at the park. All the kids in the class were invited, including Carpenter's kid. But Carpenter was having some sort of dispute with the principal, so she decided to act like the shitty person she is.

The party had to be canceled, and the county had to replace all the tables and grills. They were too far gone to be cleaned. In all this cost the county $2,310, including labor costs. And the principal's poor kid didn't have her birthday party.

Lots of people use parks in a busy place like Sarasota County, and there's people milling about, even at 6:30 in the morning. One of them was a guy named Mike Hutchinson, who caught Carpenter doing this, spreading the crap around while wearing a surgical mask and blue rubber gloves.

She fled, but police later figured out who she, in part because of Hutchinson's description of her, and they arrested her. She faces felony criminal mischief and properth damage charges, Fox 13 says.

On the bright side, of sorts, she upheld Florida's reputation as a place where people go to commit weird, weird, crimes.

Anti-Abortion Wackos Are Terrorizing School Children And Undermining Their Own Causes

 Very icky anti-abortion protestors in front
of a  Washington DC elementary school 

A group of anti-abortion zealots is severely harassing grade school kids because that school is near a proposed Planned Parenthood site.

I guess it's the kids' fault, I dunno.

The Two Rivers Public Charter School in Washington DC is a very good school. Much in demand by parents. It's also across the street from a proposed Planned Parenthood site.

Anti-abortion activists are not happy. They know Planned Parenthood performs some abortions, in addition to their wide variety of health care offerings for women.

That the activists hate abortions and make their feelings know publicly is fine. Yay First Amendment!

Here's the problem: They're basically torturing the kids going to and from the Two Rivers Public Charter School in - to put it extremely mildly - a horribly misguided effort to stop the proposed Planned Parenthood center, and to stop abortions altogether, reports Matt Ramos in Vice. 

The protestors wave giant pictures of aborted fetuses in childrens' faces. When teachers and parents started leading kids into and out of a side entrance to the school so they can avoid this sordid spectacle, some of the demonstrators followed the kids into the side entrance and shouting.

Shouting thing at the kids like, at them, demanding that they stop the "bloodbath that's coming across the street." and to "tell your parents that you don't want to go to school next to a baby killing center."

The mother of a student at Two Rivers said she is a pro-life Christian, but leave the kids alone, according to Vice:

"Challenge Roe v. Wade in the court system, find a way to create restrictions in the law, but going after kids is how you lose the value of what you're saying.......Heck at least do it where the kids need the message - go to a high school. But an elementary?"

Good luck getting rid of these zealots, though.

They're not protesting at the Planned Parenthood site because there's a court injunction against it. Demonstrators do have the right to occupy public sidewalks and such, so the group is being mean to the kids at the nearby school.

The school itself has not taken a position on whether it likes Planned Parenthood or not, apparently because they want to be even handed. Which is totally sensible.

But Two Rivers is fed up. Ramos reports that the school has filed for an injunction against the protestors, but a judge is not expected to rule on the  matter until March 11.

At least one of the protestors who occasionally shows up in front of the Two Rivers school is potentially dangerous, Ramos writes in Vice.

Robert Weiler Jr. was sentence in 2006 to five years in prison for plotting to shoot up a Maryland abortion clinic. He also had a pipe bomb with him at the time. Thankfully, the plot was thwarted when Weiler's parents narced on him.

I get it. If you have very strong beliefs, it's hard to contain yourself. But almost nothing turns a person into a villian faster than harassing and frightening little children.

I guess these anti-abortion zealots care deeply about children before they are born. But once they are out of the womb, screw 'em.

Let's Ruin A Kid's Life And Psyche Over A Fake, Malicious Marijuana Charge!

The kid didn't have pot, but
he was severely punished
anyway but dumb school.  

I've written about abusive so-called zero tolerance school punishments in the past, because I find them so fascinating in an awful way, like a tragic train wreck.

But the latest one takes the cake.

Some school administrators in Virginia suspended an 11-year-old kid from a school for gifted and talented students for a whole year.

Plus, they had criminal charges filed against him and sent him downward into a spiral of depression and anxiety which will take years of treatment.

Why? Because the kid had a lighter and a leaf in his backpack. The school said it was marijuana. Three separate field tests showed that the leaf was not marijuana. The school system basically tried to cover this fact up.

They also figured since the kids might or might not have told his friends the leaf was pot, that was also enough to justify punishing the boy as if he were a drug dealing street thug.

And with the truth out, school administrators still believe they did the right thing.

Here I was naive enough to think schools existed to educate children, but I guess they're there to ruin kids lives instead. At least at Bedford Middle School in Virginia.

The article about this idiocy, reported and written by Dan Casey in the Roanoke Times, is infuriating beyond belief.

It's murky as to whether the kid was pretend bragging that the leaf in his knapsake was marijuana, or whether it was planted there by bullies, or there was some other explanation.

However, even if this was marijuana, which it was not, the punishment meted out to this kid, and the obsfucation by school leaders and police, was itself bullying against the 11 year old. And like I said, these ostensible adults consider themselves fully justified about this.

Morons.

My guess is the kid probably did joke that the leaf was pot. If that's the case, the school would have been justified in giving the boy a good talking to. That drugs aren't to be taken lightly. Or at all, actually.

It could have been one of those zillions of teachable moments kids have. But nope. It's more fun to ruin a kid's life right?

The kid's parents, Bruce and Linda Bays, have understandably filed a lawsuit.

Casey's Roanoke Times article elaborates:

"It alleges Bedford Middle School Assistant Principal Brian Wilson and school operations chief Frederick 'Mac' Duis violated his due process rights under the U.S. Constitution.

It also accuses the Bedford County Sheriff's Office of malicious prosecution, because Deputy M.M. Calohan, a school resource officer, filed marijuana possession charges against the boy despite field tests that indicated otherwise.

'Essentially, they kicked him out of school for something they couldn't prove he did,' said Roanoke attorney Melvin Williams the Bays' lawyer.

'The field test came back not inconclusive, but negative,' Williams said. 'Yet she went to a magistrate and swore he possessed marijuana at school.'"

During a school hearing early on in this drama, the Bays asked to see the leaf, but the school wouldn't let them, saing it was evidence.

Again, from the Roanoke Times:

"Bruce Bays said, 'During the hearing, I asked Wilson, What about the field test on the marijuana leaf?'

The assistant principal hemmed and hawed and finally he got around to it and said 'I'm not qualified to interpret the results of the field test,' Bruce Bays said."

During a court hearing on the criminal charge, the sheriff's office asked for a continuance, claiming the leaf hadn't been to the state lab.

The Bays refused. Seeing a lame case, the judge dismissed the charges.

With the criminal charges gone, the Bays said they wanted another hearing at the school to clear their sons name and get him back into classes.

The school officials and the sheriff's office have dug in their heels.

The sheriff's attorney, Jim Guynn said they didn't pursue a malicious prosecution against the kid like his parents allege because the sheriff's deputy identified the leaf found in the boy's backpack as marijuana.

I guess to them it doesn't matter that the leaf wasn't marijuana. If the sheriff deputy decides it is, well, science and facts have nothing to do with anything.

The sheriff's office is also trying to claim the suit is filed in the wrong court, as if that would make it go away.

And under the school's silly zero tolerance policy, it doesn't matter if the leaf was marijuana or from some other plant, like a Japanese maple. If someone pretends it's pot, then it's pot, facts be damned.

I'm not sure why the lighter was in the backpack. Maybe the kid was pretending he had marijuana. Maybe he liked to play with fire like a lot of 11 year old kids do. Maybe some other student planted it there. But it seems the school isn't interested in getting to the bottom of that.

Because, DRUGS! DRUGS! DRUGS!  A Japanese maple leaf that looks vaguely like pot is DANGEROUS!!!!!!!!!!!

Under the school system's rules, the boy's parents were ordered to take the kid to a pediatric psychiatrist to be evaluated for substance abuse problems.

The psychiatrist found no such issues, but did find a lot of damage to the boy's mental health, and the school, and the sheriff's department are clearly to blame.

Writes Casey in the Roanoke Times:

"After the disciplinary hearing, 'he just broke down and said his life was over. He would never be able to get into college; he would never be able to get a job,' Linda Bays said. 

.....the events of the past six months have wreaked havoc on the formerly happy-go-lucky boy's psyche. His parents say he's withdrawn socially, and is now under the care for a pediatric psychiatrist for panic attacks and depression. "

Nice going, sheriff's department and Bedford Middle School administrators! You took what seemed to be a rather well adjusted kid and turned him into a wreck. You must be so proud!

You know what? There probably should have been a vigorous prosecution in this case. But not against the kid with the marijuana leaf that wasn't.

How about charging administrators at Bedford Middle School with child abuse and cruelty to a child?

Judging from the Roanoke Times article, if I was on a jury in such a case, I'd quickly vote to convict.

Stupid School News: School Finds Stupidest, Cruelest Possible Way To Punish Blind Kid

A school took away this blind kid needs to get
around and replaced it with a swimming pool noodle.
Just to be cruel, I think.  

Dakota Nafzinger, 8, of the Kansas City area is blind, and uses a cane to help him get around.

Like all eight year olds, he sometimes misbehaves. Though this isn't proven, school officials said he hit somebody with the cane.

If true, yeah, Dakota needed to be disciplined. But school officials decided on the most boneheaded solution possible: They took away his cane and gave him one of those swimming pool noodles to use as a substitute cane.

I guess the "logic," if you can call it that, is that if he hit somebody with a foam swimming pool noodle, he wouldn't hurt anyone since swimming pool noodles are in part design to hit other people with, I suppose.

Of course, a solid cane is how Dakota gets around, so giving him a humiliating noodle, and forcing him into danger and further humiliation from falls and other dangers is mystifying.

Did whoever decided to do this think whatever Dakota might have done wrong makes him deserve injury? Why are they setting up a situation where he might get bullied? Whatever happened to detention?

Of course, this pool noodle incident caused a big public outcry and the school hastily gave Dakota back his regular cane amid the horrible PR.

The North Kansas City School District issued a public apology.

My guess is the higher ups at the school were just as appalled by this as the general public was. It was likely some lower level employee who decided to impose his or her brand of "justice" discipline.

There's a minority of people in authority positions, be they teachers, cops, district attorneys, corporate bosses, politicians, who do this sort of thing. They're psychopaths, or maybe they were bullied as kids and this is their way of achieving vengeance, or they delight in being cruel.

Instead of meting out discipline as necessary and in appropriate dimensions, they think long and hard, it seems, on how best to endanger and humiliate others, just for the sport of it.

They're kind of like the mustache-twisting villains from bad melodramas. They'd be pathetically funny if they weren't so damaging to people.

It seems like schools attract psychopaths, judging from all the weird punishments and excessive discipline seen in some cases. Which must make it hard not only for the kids, but the vast majority of educators, who just want what's good for kids.

I hope the North Kansas City School District determines out who the psychopath was in Dakota's case and fire him or her.

The psychopathic minority among authority figures gives them all a bad name.  And nobody has quite figured out to deal with these awful people. Because if you punish them, they'll turn their wrath on you.

Apparently, it's not easy to deal with, or avoid or get around a psychopath. Which unfortunately means we're going to hear about more outrageous incidents, like the swimming pool noodle for the blind kid.

Will This Student's "Zero Tolerance" Case Finally Be The One That Ends the Insanity

A smart 16 year old girl in Bartow Florida named Kiera Wilmot did a dumb thing, as even the smartest teenagers sometimes do.

Kiera Wilmot's school is trying to ruin her
entire life because of her ill-conceived science
experiment which resulted in a tiny explosion and
no harm.  

Wilmot's a bit of a science geek so she mixed up some household chemicals in a bottle as a sort of ad hoc science experiment. It caused a really small explosion outside, away from everybody, and a little puff of smoke.

Nobody got hurt, and there was no property damage, and she didn't intend to cause any harm.

But, due to the school's zero tolerance laws,because of her actions, and she's as horrible a person as the Boston Marathon bomber, at least in the eyes of school administrators.

The promising student has been expelled, felony charges have been brought against her, which means Wilmot is probably going to basically lose her chance at a decent life if this sticks.

Yeah, go get her, school administrators. Kill that gnat with a nuclear bomb!

For its part, the Polk County School District is hiding behind the usual "rules are rules" line when zero tolerance punishments go over the top.

According to the Miami New Times:

"The letter of the law demanded the punishment, and school administrators believe kids should learn 'there are consequences to their actions.'

Yes, everybody should know there are consequences to their actions. But I suspect the school officials are too dumb to realize the consequences should match the crime. And if the school administration is dumb, I don't hold up much hope the students they are allegedly teaching are going to be that bright, either.

Following their reasoning to its logical conclusion, I guess I should get the death penalty if I get caught doing 80 mph in a 65 mph zone in my truck, rather than merely getting a ticket and paying a fine.

As Jesse Walker writes in Reason:

"No one was hurt. There's no sign that Wilmot was up to something malevolent. The kid's own principal thinks this wasn't anything more than an experiment, and he says she didn't try to cover up what she had done. What punishment do you think she received? A stern talking-to? A day or two of after-school detention? Maybe she'll have to help clean up the lab for a week?"

All of Walker's suggestions make sense. The girl broke the rules, and she does need to suffer some reasonable consequences.

But a felony, in which the intent of the school seems to be to ruin her life rather than guide her?  And exactly why is the school so intent on throwing this girl's life away?

This case might be an important step in finally eradicating the silliest, most stupid applications of zero tolerance that serves to ruin kids' lives rather than teach them the difference between right and wrong.

Why? Because scientists are pissed. 

Ashutosh Jogalekar, writing in Scientific American says:

When you arrest and expel students for slaking their scientific curiosity, whatever the other consequences of that action, be advised that you are almost certainly sacrificing a valuable scientist at the altar of arbitrarily wielded state and school power.

Jogelekar also says this, which makes total sense:

Yet we as a society are grabbing on to the Precautionary Principle at every opportunity. We seem to believe that ignorance is better than knowledge since ignorance involves doing nothing and always erring on the side of safety. We think this is ostensibly the safest state of affairs, but it is one which is very much illusory since it’s that same ignorance that unfavorably impacts our long-term security and progress. 

All this extreme discipline and extreme punishment is robbing our nation of future scientists. Here's another take on it, from Scientific American's Urban Scientist blog:

"I can't name a single scientist or engineer who hadn't blown up, ripped apart, disassembled something at home or otherwise cause a big ruckus at school all in the name of curiosity, myself included. Science is not clean. It is very messy and it is riddled with mistakes and mishaps.

I also love how a whole bunch of scientists are Tweeting about their youthful science mishaps, with the hashtag #KieraWilmot.

Let's hope she escapes this horrible school intact.