The results were shocking.
It turns out that the child was being bullied by staff, who called him a “bastard,” among other things. The teacher has been reassigned to another school, but the child’s father is not backing down.
“I think there need to be offenses that teachers get fired for, regardless of tenure or not,” he said. “When you can prove bullying by a teacher, tenure should be meaningless.”
Click here to sign a petition to “pass legislation so that teachers who bully children are immediately fired.” Also, check out the video below:
And speaking of petitions, here’s another one—this one is to change the Boy Scouts’ homophobic and bigoted policy that bans homosexuals from being members. A woman in Ohio, Jennifer Tyrrell, was recently dismissed because she is a lesbian.
A spokesman for the Boy Scouts said, "Just look at these two. I mean, would you let them into YOUR club?"
Too bad for her and her 7-year-old son, right? “We were like a family, so in essence … we lost our scouting family, but they also lost two members of their scouting family,” she said. “The best time in our lives we’ve had in the last year, it’s gone … because we can’t be scouts any more. I can’t stop crying.”
Jesus God. Would this kind of shit be tolerated if the Boy Scouts didn’t allow blacks to join their ranks? Why is it that homosexuals are the only minorities left who have to put up with rampant and blatant discrimination?
In other news—and I didn’t lead with this because it’s no surprise—Newt Gingrich is dropping out of the presidential race. What’s funny is hearing him compared to Richard Nixon, which is perhaps as apt a description as any.
“I think there’s a little bit of Richard Nixon in Newt Gingrich. His political career was pronounced dead as many times as well,” said Craig Shirley, the GOP public affairs veteran with close ties to Gingrich. “He likes the high wire in the same way that Nixon did,” Shirley said of Gingrich. “They all like the high wire, but there’s some who handle it better than others.”
Indeed. There are many similarities, but poor old Newt will never be afforded the opportunity to resign in disgrace from the highest office in the land—the closest he’s ever come was when he resigned in disgrace from Congress.
But so what? Even now, with his career and finances in utter ruin, those who know the mean old bastard are convinced that he’ll rear his ugly head once more at some undetermined time in the future. Perhaps he’ll be mayor of Chicago, or governor of Illinois. Who knows.
“We had an avalanche fall on us, and Newt dug himself out. And that’s the story of his entire career,” said Rick Tyler, the spokesman for a pro-Gingrich super PAC.
Good grief.
Today was actually pretty slow as far as news is concerned. There’s interesting little tidbits here and there, like the mother who is outraged because her son, who has Down syndrome, had his picture flagged and removed from Facebook … and then there’s the teenaged girl who is suing her classmates for creating a fake page in her name on the social networking site. In fact, there’s all kinds of stories—more and more every day—about the Internet, our privacy, and what it all means.
Well … whatever. I just can’t get excited tonight—not even about Newt Gingrich, who is a veritable ball to kick around. No, my mind is elsewhere. For one thing, I’m hoping for a fire at the Social Distortion concert tonight; for another, I’m plotting my next novel. Perhaps politics and the real world are fucking with my senses; perhaps it’s time to get my head straightened out by diving back deep into fiction.
Maybe I just need a drink.
Here’s your wisdom:
John T. Schmitz
John T. Schmitz is the editor & publisher of Secret Laboratory; he is the founder of Maple Hills Press and has also freelanced as a writer and photographer, contributing to various local and international publications. Mr. Schmitz lives in Minnesota with his wife, Megan, and their two children; he is the author of five books.
E-mail Mr. Schmitz at editor@secretlaboratory.org.
