SJHS Students to Appeal Expulsion Decision

MoonHowler

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On August 25, Anti-bvbl had a post on students who had spelled out racial slurs and statements using sod up at Sinclair Elementary School. (See Link) Since that day, the 6 students who were involved in this incident have been long term suspended or expelled for a calendar year. On Wednesday, 4 of these 6 students will appeal the decision of the School Board to have them removed from school for a year.

 

 According to the Washington Post:

Officials said that six boys used pieces of landscaping sod to form a swastika and spell out “KKK” and “white power” in a parking lot at Sinclair Elementary School in the Manassas area. They have been suspended from school since the Aug. 25 incident, said Roach, whose 14- and 16-year-old sons were among the group.

A committee of three school board members is to decide in a closed meeting Wednesday whether to follow the recommendation of another school system panel and expel them for the rest of the year, said Roach, who called that punishment “unjust.”

Four of the students were arrested and charged with vandalism, said Sgt. Kim Chinn, a Prince William police spokeswoman, but she couldn’t say which ones. Roach said she didn’t think any of the six had been charged

At some point, we have to ask ourselves what the point is of a year long expulsion. The students were not on school time. Sure they vandalized a school parking lot. If we look at time, cost and effort to repair their damages, unless the grass was killed, it was an easy fix. We also need to look at the impact of keeping 6 kids out of school for a year.

The words were stupid and inappropriate. Kids do things like that. They also say bad words and spell out countraband on calculators. Some even make Elmo say bad words. Are these things worth losing a year of education? I am not so sure PWC School Board isn’t on overkill on this one.

[UPDATE:   10/29/09  insidenova.com] 

Four Stonewall Jackson High School students who admitted to creating racist symbols with sod in the parking lot of a Manassas area middle school (sic) were expelled for at least the rest of this semester after their appeals were heard by the Prince William County School Board Disciplinary Committee on Wednesday.

Correction:  The incident took place at Sinclair Elementary School.

 

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Is It Ever OK to Call a Woman a Whore? NO

MoonHowler

Congressman Alan Grayson has been mouth-flashing again. 

Every video of this mouth flash has been disabled.  (in the place of the embed code: Embedding disabled by request) Here is a copy of the transcript:

REP. ALAN GRAYSON, D-FLA.: Here I am the only member of Congress who actually worked as an economist, and this lobbyist, this K Street whore, is trying to teach me about economics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXkqCjlnOmY

So many questions, so little time.

  1. Why is Rep. Grayson allowed to ‘take it back?’
  2. Why is he so special that a video of him being a rude ass has been ‘deleted’ for all practical purposes?
  3. How do these remarks differ from what Don Imus said?
  4. Will Grayson get the same treatment from his colleagues that Wilson was given?

Apparently Rep. Grayson was on a radio show and was speaking about Linda Robertson, a lobbyist and advisor for Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke.

According to Politico:

Republicans and Democrats slammed Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) for calling Linda Robertson, an adviser to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, a “K Street whore” in a month-old radio interview that circulated on Capitol Hill Monday night.

“There’s no call for that language. No call for it. That’s absurd. If he was standing here now, I’d say that to him,” said Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.)

“He’s out of control,” added Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who is vice chairwoman of the House Republican Conference.

The remarks are the latest to surface in a string of controversial statements by Grayson, who said on the Alex Jones radio show that he believes Robertson, a former Enron lobbyist, is not qualified to pass judgment on intricate financial matters.

It’s clear that his colleagues’ opinion of him has suffered.

“Is this news to you that this guy’s one fry short of a Happy Meal?” asked Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.)

House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer defended Robertson, whom he said he knows.

“I think it’s inappropriate and unfair,” the Maryland Democrat said. He decried the “heated rhetoric” that he said interferes with the ability solve problems.

 

Late last month, Grayson said Republicans’ health care plans were for Americans to “die quickly.”

 

Steny Hoyer needs to learn that there are just some things you don’t call women. ‘Whore’ is one of those things.

Grayson issued the following apology:

“I offer my sincere apology,” Grayson said in a statement, just hours after his spokesman defended his comments. “I did not intend to use a term that is often, and correctly, seen as disrespectful of women.”

Husband Joins Army To Ensure Cancer Stricken Wife Gets Insurance

Elena

Had the husband not lost  his job, would he have joined the armed forces?  I highly doubt it.  Apparently he had always wanted to join, so in some ways, this story is not necessarily an unhappy ending.  However,  there are THOUSANDS of Americans in just this dire predicament, uninsured, sick, and without health insurance, because they have been jobless for an extended period of time.  This couple has been married more than two decades and yet she will find herself, fighting this very deadly cancer, without her loving husband.