Guilty even when not guilty: Sean Lanigan

MoonHowler

 

 Last year Sean Lanigan was accused of molesting one of his students. After 47 minutes of deliberation, a jury of his peers acquitted him. Not guilty. They felt there was no evidence.

His accuser has been using her patrol position to bully other students. Lanigan corrected her and warned her that she could lose her position. That was it. The patrol decided that Lanigan had to pay. And pay he did. The story of the downfall of this Fairfax PE teacher can be found in the Washington Post. Sean Lanegan was set up. There were missteps made by Fairfax County Schools and by the Fairfax County police.

Once acquitted, Sean Lanigan’s life still hasn’t gone back to normal. He has over $100,000 worth of legal fees and he isn’t in his old school. He works 5 days out of 10 but is paid for 10. Fairfax County still appears to want him removed. By all accounts an excellent teacher, this man has been victimized by a vengeful student. It can happen to anyone.

Read More

After the Sesquicentennial?

MoonHowler

Jennifer Buske has written an article about the area plans for the Sesquicentennial for the Washington Post entitled “As Civil War anniversary nears, Manassas sees a historic opportunity.”   In the Friday the 13th  article she writes what begins as an ode to deceased event planner Creston Owen and takes us though the history of the arriving at the Sesquicentennial.  Included in the article is a comparison between the Manassas Battlefield and Gettysburg.

Any attempts to compare the two battlefields ended about the time of the battles themselves.  Manassas is not Gettysburg and never will be, based pretty much on location, location, location, both then and now.  Gettysburg pretty much is a dedicated battlefield.  Manassas is a suburb of D.C.  And here is the gist of the problem.

According to the Washington Post:

Playing off the excitement of the sesquicentennial, Corey A. Stewart, the Board of County Supervisors chairman, said he wants to begin branding Prince William as a military history corridor where people can stop at the battlefield, the National Museum of the Marine Corps and the future American Wartime Museum. That attraction is scheduled to open in 2014 and cover every era of war from World War I to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Read More