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.

I Wish Mr. Reed Was My Fourth Grade Teacher

Teacher Dwayne Reed welcomes his fourth grade
students with his awesome viral video.
The kids will be alright in Reed's hands. 

There's a guy named Dwayne Reed in Chicago who is a first year teacher, presiding over a fourth grade class.

To break the ice with his students,  he came up with a song and a music video to greet his students and happily establish the ground rules.

The whole thing makes me happy that there are teachers like Reed out there.

As Slate notes:

"His enthusiasm is a good reminder of how important good teachers are to our kids, and how important it is that we support them. 'Have respect for each other and don't forget me,' he raps, also putting in a good word for the staff and the school. Reed packs in all the usual warnings and rules, but so sweetly you barely notice."

Below is the awesome viral video for his students. I think Reed's fourth graders will do just fine:

Teacher Loses Job Because Creepy Kid Stole Her Phone, Photos

This teacher was forced to resign because a student
swiped her phone, and distributed photos of her
he found in one of the phone's apps.  

Picture this scenario: A female high school teacher momentarily leaves her cell phone on a classroom desk to  deal with a brief issue.

A male high school student steals the phone and discovers the teacher had taken a couple of racy photos of herself, partly undressed, which were intended to turn her husband on around Valentine's Day.

Until the student swiped the phone, the only people who saw the photos were the teacher and her husband.

The teacher, named Leigh Anne Arthur had no intention of showing them to anyone else. She had simply forgotten to delete the photos.

The creepy high school boy decides it would be fun to spread the photos far and wide to his friends.

"He told the whole class that he would send them to whoever wanted them," Arhur said, according to television station WSPA in Spartanburg, South Carolina. "Your day of reckoning is coming," he also said to the teacher.

So: In this scenario, who gets punished: The student, for stealing the phone and invading the teacher's privacy, or the teacher, for setting her phone down on a desk.

By the way, the 16 year old had to go through the trouble of opening the phone's apps to get at the pics, so it took a little effort It's not like Arhur left printouts of the photos on the desk for anyone who wandered by to see.

This is America, so of course the teacher gets punished. She was told by her school district to resign or get fired, so she resigned.

The school superintendent, David Eubanks, also said he figured Arhur was contributing to the delinquency of a minor. I guess to school official's minds, there's nothing wrong with stealing the phone and invading privacy. Especially since it appears the student has gone unpunished.

The school district claims that the student will be punished, probably, and that Arthur was not where she should have been when she left her phone. (She says she had to attend to a problem in the hallway) and that she let students use her phone, which Arthur denies. And even if she did let them use her phone, does that give students the right to distribute her private photos far and wide?

We'll see if the teen actually gets punished.

This happened in small town South Carolina, and I kinda get how things sometimes work in small towns.  The kid is probably the offspring of some big fish in that small pond town, so the adults tread lightly.

The kid knows he can get away with anything because of this, so he does anything. I suspect that's why the stupid teen gave his little "day of reckoning" speech to the teacher.

Arthur was a rather popular teacher and at least 11,000 high school students, mostly in South Carolina, signed a petition asking that she be reinstated, says television station WLFF in Greenville, South Carolina.

But Arthur, understandably, isn't sure she wants to go back to her job teaching electrical engineering and computer programming in the school district.

Mostly because she doesn't want to work at a school where the students are running the show, and not the educators.

As for the 16 year old, Arthur is considering pressing charges, so maybe he'll get his "day of reckoning,"  too.

We can only hope.

It's Valentines Weekend, So All SORTS Of Love Reigns

The love of my life, Jeff Modereger. 

Valentines Day to me is all about love, and not just romantic love.

So, in that spirit, we'll give you a couple nice examples of all that, in the spirit of the day.

Though I won't ignore romantic love. Right now, I'll give a shout out to my husband Jeff Modereger, who, naturally is the best person in the world.

On the day I married him three and a half years ago, I didn't think I could possibly love another person more than that.

I was wrong. I love him even more now.

Anyway, let's see......other kinds of love.

Oh, yeah there was that recent incident with a teacher in Texas.  It's really sweet, and it's a sign the kids are alright, at least at this Texas high school.

Kyle Simpler is an English teacher at Burleson High School in Texas, says Mashable. He remarked offhandedly to his class that he hadn't had a birthday cake in ten years.

So, thanks to the kids, the start of English class one day this week did not involve lessons in the English language. But it was a valuable lesson in love and respect:

Here's the video of the teacher's birthday surprise,  then scroll down below this video for more:



This next one, admittably, is an advertisement for Honey Maid snack products, but they do stike just the right tone, as they have in the past, too.

It's  clips of various people, a gay teen, adopted kids, a transgender youth, a young lesbian. And it's about the ones closest to them accepting them and loving them unconditionally, as it should be.

Honey Maid has gotten into "trouble" with some religious conservatives in the past, because Honey Maid has done other ads and videos featuring nice people from the LGBTQ community.

Honey Maid just responded with kindness to the negative words, which goes a long way for both civility and people wanting to buy Honey Maid products, so there.

They'll probably get in "trouble" with this clip, too, but for most of us, the ad is just a nice antidote to the hate and bitterness that seems to swirl around us way too much.

Here's the ad:

A New Low: Teacher Bullies Kid In Classroom

This 15 year old kid was bullied by a substitute
teacher in an Illinois classroom. The kid was smart
enough to film it on his phone. We're hoping authorities
go after the teacher big time.  

You'll see the outrage meter building today.

Over the weekend, news was spreading about a bullying case in Illinois. It's exploding in the news as I write this early Monday morning.

This wasn't standard issue bullying, the kind we are simultaneously frustrated by and weary of. It wasn't student on student.

It was teacher on student, says the Daily Herald, a newspaper in suburban Chicago.  It was a substitute teacher, and what was this guy thinking?

The bullied student was smart enough to film the incident on his phone, so we have proof. Bullies are often victimized a second time when they are not believed by adult figures when they report the bullying.

This is all on film. The kid's parents uploaded it onto YouTube for the world to see.

In the Streamwood High School classroom in Illinois, a student bully drew a crude drawing on a computerized board of the kid, and labeled it "Stephen," but mispelled it.

The annoyed victim said it was spelled wrong.

The scummy substitute teacher, who hasn't been publicly named yet, wrote on the board "Stephen's ugly ass."

Stephen says he's been picked on by students for a long time, because he's a big dude. He tries to shrug that off.

But a teacher going after him is a new low. "He should not be allowed around children if he's going to do that to someone," Stephen told the Daily Herald.

The school said it is investigating and has suspended the substitute teacher. The evidence seems pretty obvious, so I don't know what there is to investigate. But I understand schools have to go by the rules, and the process takes time.

I also hope the substitute teacher is criminally prosecuted, too. This is child abuse. I can't wait for the teacher's explanation as to why he did this.

On the bright side, I do see there is a big wave of support for Steven. The Daily Herald's comment/Facebook page with the article is filled with messages supporting the kid.

That the kid is being so graceful and so resourceful over this incident tells me he's going to be a very successful adult.

That's a LOT more than I can say for the dufus substitute teacher.

Here's the horrible video Stephen took in the classroom: