Thanks to Sharkblog for his roundup of (among other things) educational crimes and misdemeanors in his home state.
First, a child who's obviously read Sleeping Beauty - or the story of Velma Barfield - one too many times:
A sixth-grader was expelled from school yesterday after she allegedly gave a cookie tainted with dog repellent to her teacher.
The pupil, from Elizabeth Blackwell Elementary School in Sammamish, sprayed the store-bought cookie with dog repellent at home before school, and then replaced it in the box before giving it to the teacher yesterday afternoon, said Peter Daniels, spokesman for the Lake Washington School District.
The girl was immediately expelled, though she can appeal the expulsion if she chooses, Daniels said.
Other students nibbled on the cookies as well, though no one has been harmed by the poison. Was this malicious, or perhaps just a scientific project gone wrong?
Next, we have a very young "sex offender":
An 8-year-old boy accused of fondling four female classmates will be the youngest participant in Wayne County's sex offender rehabilitation program, prosecutors said...The boy will receive individual counseling because the group sessions for teenagers are not age-appropriate, prosecutors said. The judge also sentenced him to two years probation.
Authorities said the boy fondled a 7-year-old girl and touched three other 7-year-old girls inappropriately outside their clothing while the children watched "Mary Poppins" at a Mount Clemens school in May.
These charges include one felony, by the way. How does an 8-year-old legitimately plead "No contest" to a felony assualt charge? And is there age-appropriate counseling for sex offenders so young that it's hard to believe they know what sex is?
This guy, on the other hand, doesn't have age as an excuse. What was he thinking, begging for a chance to take a subordinate to Hawaii with him? And would the educators' unions have demanded trips to Hawaii for all assistant principals, not just the ones unlucky enough to be stalked by their bosses?
Finally, these school counselors poo-poo the notion that they did anything wrong by changing hundreds of grades for seniors who were close to the 2.0 average required for graduation:
Three Franklin High School counselors disciplined for how they changed student grades maintained yesterday that they did nothing wrong and criticized the way Seattle Public Schools administrators handled their cases.
"I felt like I was working my tail off to make the system work equitably for kids," former Franklin head counselor Jolyon Raymond said at the office of the Seattle Education Association, the labor union that represents teachers and counselors...
Raymond and fellow counselors Acie DuBose and Kory Kumasaka, who also return to Franklin today, were placed on paid leave Sept. 18, the day Superintendent Raj Manhas announced an investigation into the apparently improper alteration of hundreds of student grades in the 2002-03 school year. The changes seemed to benefit primarily seniors with grade-point averages close to the 2.0 threshold for a diploma, administrators said.
Yup, I'd say that's making the system "work" for kids. Thanks to the Shark for collecting this pile of Washington follies.
Posted by kswygert at December 9, 2003 03:04 PM