Fourth graders suspended because of slingshots

Five fourth graders in Pennsylvania were suspended for having weapons at school after they made slingshots out of pencils, rubber bands and paper clips.

This was not a weapon to them. This was a toy," said Melanie Chelko. Chelko is the parent of one of the suspended students.

“Everyone uses pencils while in school, but you would never think someone would use them to create a weapon, but that's exactly how the district sees it," said principal Kathi Shirey.

Shirey said the accused students bound two pencils together with tape and tied rubber bands around them to make their own sling shots and used them with paper clips, hitting a teacher and three other students.

"It’s an object that could have caused serious injury," Shirey said.“They were seeing who could flip the paper clip the furthest. They weren't maliciously using it,” Chelko said.

Shirey said the boys faced expulsion for a year, but considering their age, she said the district decided to be lenient. It suspended the students for a day and took away one of their scheduled field trips.

“We took a lot of time to come to that decision and we really felt it was appropriate," Shirey said.

Seems harsh to me. A weapons charge? Really? What's next, expelling kids for paper balls?

School official convicted of Ketchup theft

A California school official has been convicted of petty theft after stealing a half bottle of ketchup.

Steve Rocco, an ex-Orange Unified School District trustee was convicted of misdemeanor petty theft for taking the bottle of ketchup from Chapman University last September.

The jury's vote was unanimous.

Rocco, who became known for railing about conspiracies against him by a group he called the Partnership during his single term on the school board,
testified that he was set up by political enemies.

He insisted that witnesses against him, including campus police officers, lied.

In earlier court papers, he told police he took the bottle to simply recycle it. But jurors didn't think that explanation cut the mustard. (Sorry!)

Deputy Public Defender Erica Gambale said Rocco picked up the bottle of
ketchup which was left out at an outdoor eating area on campus. She argued that its worth was "zero dollars and zero cents," which meant no crime was committed because nothing of real value was stolen.

Prosecutors can now slap Rocco's Hein-z (ouch!) behind bars for six months, but they said he most likely would face a small fine and probation. (And, no doubt, a restraining order against using any more condiments.)

Susan Schroeder of the Orange County District Attorney's Office said previously that she also expected prosecutors to seek an order barring Rocco from the Chapman campus.

During the trial, there were various estimates of the worth of the ketchup, with school officials reporting that they pay $1.20 per bottle.

There was also dispute as to how much ketchup was actually left inside the bottle, with one campus officer saying the bottle was three-quarters full. There was also some indication that the bottle had to be shaken in order to detect some liquid inside.

Really, was it worth the tax dollars that go into a jury trial for Ketchup? Ketchup? Both of those lawyers and the judge should get pelted with ketchup after that waste of time.

Teacher's job at risk after sex-ed talk

Parents are calling for an Italian teacher to loose her job after she discussed genital piercing, handcuffs and whips with her sixth grade students.

Parents of the children in the fifth and final year of an elementary school in this northwestern Italian city have asked the school to keep her away from their children.

The headmaster of the elementary school, Vincenzo Guarino, said the teacher was guilty of ''serious naivety'' in not realising that ''certain subjects and language can be used in a class of 15-year-olds, but not 11-year-olds''.

''It's true that she was only answering questions but there are ways of discussing these things''.

Parents say the unidentified teacher went into detail about bondage and S&M after an initial discussion on masturbation led to oral sex and further afield.

The teacher has defended herself by saying she was only doing what she had been told in a training course for teaching children about sex, which emphasised the importance of speaking frankly in order ''to clear things up''.

Not really sure how a teacher could think that was appropriate for sixth graders. However, it seems like her training course wasn't appropriate either.

What do you think? Should she be fired? Disciplined? Transferred to another school?

Principal issues statement: No vampires on campus

The principal at a fancy prep school in Boston has released a statement denying the existence of vampires at his school after a group of students were convinced that a vampire attack had happened on campus.

Students at the school, which was founded in 1635, began e-mailing news organizations Wednesday night with the strange story of vampires roaming the halls.

"Supposedly 3 students believe that they are vampires and today when a student was bitten the police were informed," wrote one student in a message to TheBostonChannel.com. "I heard that one girl was arrested another suspended."

Police, however, denied reports that anyone at the school was bitten.

The rumors were strong enough to cause anxiety among the student body and disrupt classes on Thursday.

"I seek your cooperation in redirecting your energy toward the learning objectives of the day. Please do not sensationalize or discuss these rumors,"

Teta wrote in a notice obtained by the Boston Globe and sent to faculty, students and parents.Teta said she was concerned that some students' safety might be jeopardized because of the rumors."At no time was anyone's safety in jeopardy," she wrote.

In its long, rich history the school's students have included revolutionary firebrands Ben Franklin, Sam Adams, John Hancock, but likely never vampires.

Boston police acknowledged visiting the school Wednesday after learning about the rumors."We did go over there and speak to some of the students and quelled the rumors that were going and kind of told them the effect those rumors could have on the rest of the student population," spokesman Eddy Chrispin said.

At least that's what they want them to think. . . . Perhaps it's really like the school in the book Evernight that's been a haven for vampires for years and this is just a big coverup.

Boy obsessed with twilight bites his classmates

A thirteen year old in Iowa was disciplined for biting eleven of his classmates.

According to the report, the boy bit a 13-year-old female student on the right hand at a track meet on March 13. McCombs Vice Principal Connie Sloan investigated the incident and found that the boy had bitten 10 other students.

When police contacted the boy's father, he said that his son didn't mean to hurt anyone and that he was biting other students because of the movie "Twilight."

The film "Twilight" is based on a series of novels by Stephenie Meyer about a teenage girl's love affair with a vampire. The film, popular with tweens and teens, has grossed more than $191 million in box office receipts in the United States since its November release.

I think what the boy missed about the book is that the vampires don't actually bite people.

Third grader brings grenade to school for show and tell

A third grade student caused quite a scare in his elementary classroom when he brought a grenade to school.

The grenade brought in by a third grader turned out to be a simple paperweight, although Columbus police had to be called to make certain.

"It wasn't anything secretive; the student didn't try to sneak it in," said district spokesman Lee Cole. "It's a teachable moment to make sure parents know what their kids are bringing to school."

The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch said Thursday the student brought the paperweight in because his class was studying World War II, and won't be punished for the uproar.

I guess it's too much for us to say that parents should know what their kids are doing.

Scientists figure out how to write really really small

Scientists in California have figured out how to write really really small.

Two Stanford University physicists have succeeded in writing two letters -- an "S" and a "U," in honor of their employer -- small enough that if used to print out the 32-volume set of Encyclopedia Britannica 2,000 times, the contents would fit on the head of a pin, the San Jose Mercury News reported Sunday.

The nanoscribes, Hari Manoharan and Chris Moon, say the accomplishment, in which they used electron beam lithography, has no practical purpose but proves that information can be stored at small sizes below the level of the atom, giving theoretical backing to continued efforts to reduce the amount of time and space necessary for computers to store and retrieve data, the newspaper said.

Attention Stanford Students and Donors: Your money is going to pay for things that have no practical purpose. Why create new technology or find cures to medical problems when you can create something with no practical purpose.

Record snowball fight failed

A group of college students in Wisconsin failed in their attempt to have the worlds largest snowball fight.

Freshman organizer Mike Basak had hoped the epic snowball fight would break a 2006 record set by 3,700 students at Michigan Technological University, but acknowledged Saturday that the turnout at his school was disappointing.

Basak guessed that 2,000 or more students showed up, but other observers put the total at hundreds of students, not thousands.

"It was definitely huge and it was a great event," he said.

In advance of the fight, more than 4,000 people had joined the event's Facebook group, and word continued to spread as rival dormitories got ready to rumble in the center of campus.

School officials also prepared, recruiting a student group of volunteer emergency medical technicians to be on the scene.

Basak said no one was hurt in the melee, although "there were a few bumps and scrapes."

It is thought that the chilly temperatures and a basketball game caused the numbers to be reduced. The organizer said that he will try again next year.

Perhaps he should offer free hot chocolate to the participants.

School bus driver in trouble for liquor stop

A school bus driver is in hot water after making an unscheduled stop at a liquor store. The driver then asked one of the students to help him hide the liquor.

Copps said someone spotted the bus at the liquor store on Dec. 12 and called authorities. No students were on the bus at the time, he said.

By the time officers caught up with the bus, the driver had picked up some middle school students and allegedly asked one student to hide a paper bag with bottles of alcohol near the back of the bus, Copps said.

Luckily the driver has been fired, no word as to if charges were filed.

We have a winner for worst boyfriend

By a small margin the man who threw McDonalds at his girlfriend beat out the lady who made up the fake kidnapped baby.

Our new poll will be for the school policy that's the most idiotic.

First we have the new policy in England that tells teachers that they can be disciplined for out of classroom behavior (like being drunk and disorderly) even if there are no students present.

Second we have teachers in Australia who have been told not to mark up student papers with red pen because it will make them sad.

Third we have the teacher in the UK that was suspended for making his students do pushups as punishment.

Last, it's not a school. It's a "place for learning"

No drunkenness for teachers in Britian

A new teacher code in Britian could give teachers disciplinary action for being drunk and disorderly on their own time.

A new code of conduct, published in draft form yesterday, says teachers could face sanctions if they damage "public trust and confidence" in their profession.

Keith Bartley, chief executive of the General Teaching Council for England (GTC), the profession's watchdog, said teachers needed to "consider their place in society", and act as role models.

When asked what the watchdog would do if teachers were drunk and rowdy at the weekend, Bartley said the GTC would look at the individual circumstances before deciding if they should face disciplinary tribunals.

Teachers didn't have to be exemplary citizens every second, Bartley said. Nevertheless, their behaviour could be "lawful but not acceptable".

This is just absurd. I'm all for encouraging teachers to act nicely but what does it matter if there are no students around? No teacher should lose their job because of somthing they did legally on the weekend away from kids. Teachers have as much right to get drunk as everyone else.

The code also insists that teachers report suspected abuse and from using school computers for non-school interests.

Next lesson: Witchcraft

Schoolchildren in India will now be learning about witchcraft (and the superstitions and untruths about it) to try and prevent the murder of hundreds (mostly elderly grandmotherly types) of suspected witches.

In one the most horrific recent cases, a family of four of the Santhal tribe in Assam were stoned and buried alive for allegedly cursing a relative of the village chief. At least one attack in Assam culminated in the severed heads of two “witches” being taken as trophies and paraded in the streets.

The program is being instituted by people who believe that if attitudes and beliefs are changed then these women can be saved. That the way to change is to squelch a belief in black magic. If the community does not believe in black magic then the problem won't exist.

Sounds logical.

However, some academics feel that giving these women pensions would do a better job at getting rid of this problem. They point twards evidence that shows that more people are accused of witchcraft and killed for it in times of hardship.

Raymond Fisman, a professor at Columbia University, told a recent seminar: “In Meatu, there are veritable witch epidemics now and again – certainly any time there is a bad crop year. Witches are the scapegoat of first resort. He suggested that “witches” were killed to make resources stretch farther. “Who are you going to knock off? You want the person who is the greatest consumer of household resources relative to that which they produce . . . it turns out that it’s grandma.”

Thus, the quickest way to eradicate witch-hunts is to introduce pensions for elderly women – to transform grandma from an economic burden to a wealth generator.

Don't kill Grandma!! She's not a Witch, she's old.

Education seems to me to be a good option, but telling someone that something they've always believed is wrong doesn't always work. There are well educated Americans that would tell you that evil things happen because of "dark forces" at work,

This test is brought to you by. . . .

A teacher in California has been selling advertising on his tests to pay for paper to print the tests on. Most of the advertising has come from parents of students in his class who send their kids inspirational messages.

"Tom Farber, a teacher at a Rancho Bernardo high school, said the district cut his annual copying budget to $316 when he needs more than $500 to print enough tests to ensure students receive adequate practice for tough tests they'll take in the future."

Now most teachers as badly paid as they are would just buy the paper themselves. Is there any other job where employees buy their own office supplies?

Mr Farber seems to be a very imaginative teacher when it comes to funding. It's just sad that the state of funding for education is so bad that a teacher has to fundraise for paper.