What Went Wrong?

I have been thinking a great deal about the recent shootings at Oxford High School in Michigan that saw four students killed and seven injured, including one teacher. Despite very troubling behaviour, which included an in-class online search for ammunition via his phone, and some very disturbing drawings, 15-year-old Nathan Crumbley was allegedly able to go on a spree of death and mayhem with no difficulty.

What went wrong?

Based on my own years in the classroom, I have a theory. The first thing we have to understand is that there is a chasm between what institutions of education claim to be and what they really are. Cut through all the proclamations of progressivity and inclusiveness, and you will find for the most part they are conservative bastions. And why they are that way has little to do with the teachers, who, for the most part, teach with real heart and the best of intentions. Their nemesis resides within the school and within the board/division: administrators.

The thing to understand about them is that, because so many of them aspire to even greater supervisory heights, they are risk-averse. Anything that might reflect badly on them, like upset, complaining parents, can impede their upward trajectory. I will draw upon but one of many personal experiences to illustrate this before I get back to the Michigan shooting.

Many years ago, I had a student enter my Grade 11 English class three weeks into the semester. The story was that she had been bullied in one of her other classes, and so her entire schedule was revamped. When I asked one of the vice-principals why this girl was being further victimized rather than sanctioning the bullies, she told me that they didn't know who the bullies were.

My spider-sense tingling, I went to see the head of guidance to ask her to look into this. About a day later, she confirmed what I had suspected: the identities of the bullies were in fact known. Why, then, was the victim further punished? The most logical conclusion I could draw was that punishing the bullies would have raised the ire of their parents. Serving a relatively affluent community, our school's parents were not loathe to lodge complaints to superintendents, and even the director, if things didn't go their way. Hence, the path of least resistance was followed by upending the victim's schedule. (The victim and her mother had recently moved to the area from France, and were likely not yet enculturated into the prevailing ethos).

There are additional illustrations I could give here, but in the interest of conciseness, I have provided just the one. Which brings us back to Nathan Crumbley and his parents. Despite the above-described disturbing behaviour, when they were all called into the office, his backpack was not searched and the parents refused the school's desire to send him home, i.e., suspend him. Now, unless things are radically different in American schools, there is no way someone can refuse to be suspended.

Clearly, the school administration didn't press the issue, and again, as in my personal example, I suspect they chose the path of least resistance in the face of defiant parents who are now, thankfully, facing four charges each of involuntary manslaughter.

This should never have happened, but that it did neither shocks nor surprises me. When administrators fail to do their jobs, when they put their career advancement above the safety and well-being of the students and parents they are supposed to serve, something is indeed rotten in the state of education.

Let Those With Eyes See

This was posted by a FB friend. Its purpose, I hope, is self-evident.

copied from another group I thought it was hilarious

I refuse to put on winter tires because:

This is my car, my choice, my freedom.

The effectiveness of winter tires isn't proven, unless it's from studies conducted by the manufacturers (you're surprised).

My neighbor Fernande was in an accident after putting her winter tires on.

Some are already at their 3rd game of tires, this proves their inefficiency.

We don't know what they are made of.

Tire giants scare us with winter just to get rich.

Btw, it was the tire giants who invented snow and spread it at night when you sleep.

If I have tires the government can follow me in the snow.

Educate yourself, open your eyes, stop being a sheep!

This year winter tires I say no!

Disabled Man With A Knife Tries To Enter A Walmart

 The following occurred in Tucson. It contains graphic content.

H/t Michael Mc

Just one of a multitude of reasons to boycott travel to the U.S.

UPDATED: To The Willfully Benighted

 

Ah, if only the willfully stupid among us could be ridiculed and that would be the end of it. Unfortunately, those errant souls persist in trying to shove their ignorance down the throats of others.

Last weekend anti-vaccine demonstrators gathered outside a clinic in North Bay called One Kids Place and tried to intimidate a mother taking her 7-year-old son to get his first shot.

Abby Blaszczyk says she had to endure a torrent of abuse as she escorted her son Nolan, who had just become eligible for a COVID vaccine.

“They told me I … was murdering my son, I was committing genocide, stuff like that,” she told CBC News. “And then, just misinformation about the vaccine itself.”

Like the infection they are, the anti-vaxxers insist on spreading their benightedness.

...  in Windsor last week anti-vaxxers picketed another clinic that was offering vaccines to kids between 5 and 11. They carried signs with slogans like, “It’s not a vaccine. It’s a bioweapon.”

Some may wonder why I have such an obvious and deep antipathy towards these people. Part of the reason, of course is that, as a teacher for 30 years, my career revolved around critical thinking. To see that abandoned so wholeheartedly by some is disheartening. But my larger contempt is for the motivation of these people, their insistence that they are right, and the damage they seek to do to their fellow citizens by their obdurate refusal to think of society as a whole and get vaccinated to afford the best protection possible for all.

Parse it any way you want, but their egocentric selfishness more than merits society's widespread condemnation. 

UPDATE: Just in time for the season of giving, Pastor Kent Christmas shares the gift of his 'thoughts':

Gone To Glory

Somehow, my heart, which should be heavy, feels gratitude at the news that this crazed evangelical, who urged his followers not to get vaccinated, is no longer with us. 

Daystar Television

@Daystar

It’s with a heavy heart we announce that Marcus Lamb, president and founder of Daystar Television Network, went home to be with the Lord this morning. The family asks that their privacy be respected as they grieve this difficult loss. Please continue to lift them up in prayer.

What the bereaved family does not reveal is this little nugget:

Marcus Lamb Cause Of Death – Anti-Vax Televangelist Marcus Lamb has passed away from Covid-19 on Tuesday, 30, November 2021. Lamb’s passing was confirmed by Mark Lowry on his Facebook page. Lamb died  Tuesday morning, November 30,  2021 leaving his loved ones devastated and broken.

Truly, the Lord works in mysterious yet productive ways.

It's All A Matter Of Perspective, I Guess

Some people are losing good union jobs because of their 'beliefs'. No doubt those being fired from well-paid positions at Toronto's TTC, from various hospitals, etc. see themselves as principled martyrs for refusing vaccine mandates. 

Others, however, see them in a different light.

H/t Patrick Corrigan

It's all a matter of perspective, I guess.

A Peek Inside The House Of Ford

Although the newspapers are apparently shying away from this, there is strong evidence of a breach in the dyke of official solidarity in Doug Ford's family. And that breach is his daughter Krysta, who, it seems, is unhappy with current societal regulations regarding Covid-19.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford's eldest daughter Krista has a bit of a history with anti-vax rants, voicing her vaccine skepticism, love of poppies over masks, dislike of vaccine passports, and steadfast support for fringe conspiracy theories.

The former football-playing 30-year-old — whose private Instagram profile refers to her as a 'police wife' — got heated on social media in both the figurative and literal sense this week, going on a sweaty cardio rant after her Toronto cop/bodybuilder husband was sent home on unpaid leave for failing to comply with the police service's vaccination mandate.

Sergeant Dave 'Juggernaut' Haynes (really, that's his actual nickname) of 31 Division has served on the force for 20 years, and wife Krista is furious about his suspension, a move which applies to all Toronto Police Service employees who refuse to get vaccinated or disclose their status.

Her fury is being vented via social media: 

H/t Caryma Sa'd

But wait! Justice is coming:

One ardently hopes that given all her furious spinning, some much-needed oxygen will make its way to her brain.