A Substitute Teacher's Ultimate Nightmare...

I can't even imagine how this COULD have happened...TWICE!
(At least it wasn't a substitute teacher in the class..)

"...A teacher at an East Oakland elementary school has been placed on leave as officials investigate accusations that two of his second-grade students engaged in oral sex in the classroom and that some ran around without their clothes on, a district spokesman said Friday."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/21/BALV1HCLA4.DTL#ixzz1BiqapyOG

Julie Amero Is Free At Last…

…but justice wasn’t served.

If you don’t remember the case of the substitute teacher Julie Amero and what “crime” she was convicted of take a look at the SunBelt Breaking News for a great summary of the case. I’ve also had a few things to say on the issue.

Short story:

Julie was substitute teaching in a class where an unsecured computer started showing porno popup ads after she tried to access her email account in class. This incident escalated into a criminal case against her which resulted in her conviction and sentencing of up to 40 yrs in prison.

With new evidence from computer professionals, the original case and verdict was overturned. I believe that the prosecutor was gunning for higher office and decided that losing this case would hurt his career so a new trial was ordered.

When it became evident that a retrial and conviction was going to be extremely hard to get in the face of “true expert” testimony, the court delayed any new trial date.

Instead of doing the right thing and dismissing the case outright in the face of overwhelming new evidence in Julie’s favor, the prosecutor still pressed for re-trial.

In the ultimate of arrogance and reluctance to admit that they were totally wrong, the prosecution and the court pressured Julie to plea bargain to a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct, revoked her substitute teaching license and fined her $100.

Even with the close of the case, the local paper reported:

“…The decision by both parties to resolve the matter with the plea arrangement is appropriate and just. Relinquishing her teaching license and paying a small fine for failing to safeguard students entrusted to her is a more just punishment than pursuing criminal charges and jail time.”

Appropriate and just? You gotta be kidding me!

What would have been “appropriate and just” would be exonerating Julie of all the charges, issuing Julie a public apology and having the school district pay any and all legal fees and fines for “not safeguarding students and employees” for lack of common sense.

...But that’s just me!

NY Kinders Taking 90min Tests...

From: http://wcbstv.com/cbs2crew/Testing.Youngest.Pupils.2.804505.html

"...The city is asking public school principals to consider giving math tests to kindergartners, a proposal that comes amid debate over the growing use of standardized tests nationwide.

The experiment could involve tests as long as 90 minutes and change reading assessments for kindergartners through second-graders in the nation's biggest school system, where Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration has enthusiastically embraced testing. The approach dismays some parents and educators who see it as mechanizing education.

The Department of Education unveiled the $400,000 program in an e-mail Monday inviting elementary school principals to participate. About 65 principals have expressed interest, and as many as 12,000 pupils may ultimately be involved, said James Liebman, the department's accountability chief.
..."

I find it interesting that they aren't inviting Kindergarten teachers to comment. The Kinders I come in contact with rarely have an attention span of more than about 15mins...MAX.

(Click the link above to read the whole story)

Glad I'm Not Subbing This Kid's School District...

Just another reason why some people shouldn't be allowed to breed

From FOX News (Click the link for the full story)
A couple can't agree on which gang their 4-year-old toddler should join

"...A fight about the decision led to a public disturbance with the father's arrest. Joseph Manzanares went to the video store where his girlfriend worked, threatened to kill her and knocked over several video displays, police told KMGH Denver.

Police arrested Manzanares at his home, Commerce City police Sgt. Joe Sandoval told KMGH Denver.

The girlfriend told authorities they were fighting over which gang their son should join. The girlfriend, who is black, is a member of the Crips while Manzanares, who is Hispanic, belongs to the Westside Ballers.

"They have different ideas on how the baby should be raised," Sandoval said. "Basically, she said they cannot agree on which gang the baby would 'claim.'"
...

March/2008 Stupid News...

From Yahoo News: Student sues after being awakened in class by a teacher

"...
DANBURY, Conn. - Danbury officials have been notified they are being sued by a student who was awakened in class by a teacher who made a loud noise.

Documents filed with the Town Clerk, a prelude to a lawsuit, claim that a sleeping student suffered hearing damage when his teacher woke him up by slamming her hand down on the boy's desk in December.

Attorney Alan Barry says 15-year-old Vinicios Robacher suffered pain and "very severe injuries to his left eardrum" when teacher Melissa Nadeau abruptly slammed the palm of her hand on his desk on Dec. 4.
...

...and...

From Yahoo news: Conn. student suspended for buying candy

...
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Contraband candy has led to big trouble for an eighth-grade honors student in Michael Sheridan was stripped of his title as class vice president, barred from attending an honors student dinner and suspended for a day after buying a bag of Skittles from a classmate.

School spokeswoman Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo says the New Haven school system banned candy sales in 2003 as part of a districtwide school wellness policy.

Michael's suspension has been reduced from three days to one, but he has not been reinstated as class vice president. Superintendent Reginald Mayo said Wednesday that the principal was just trying to keep students safe, but that he would review the decision to suspend Michael.

Michael says that he didn't realize his candy purchase was against the rules, but he did notice that the student selling the Skittles on Feb. 26 was being secretive
...

Well, I told you so...

Hopeful Alzheimer’s Treatment...

This comes several years too late for my Mom but if it's legit, this is BIG news...

Reversal Of Alzheimer's Symptoms Within Minutes In Human Study

“It is unprecedented that we can see cognitive and behavioral improvement in a patient with established dementia within minutes of therapeutic intervention,” said Griffin.

“It is imperative that the medical and scientific communities immediately undertake to further investigate and characterize the physiologic mechanisms involved. This gives all of us in Alzheimer’s research a tremendous new clue about new avenues of research, which is so exciting and so needed in the field of Alzheimer’s. Even though this report predominantly discusses a single patient, it is of significant scientific interest because of the potential insight it may give into the processes involved in the brain dysfunction of Alzheimer’s.”

While the article discusses one patient, many other patients with mild to severe Alzheimer’s received the treatment and all have shown sustained and marked improvement.

From: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0109091102.htm

Who Wants To This Job -- FOR FREE??

From: WTOV9

"...HARRISON COUNTY, Ohio -- Local parents said they were shocked and outraged to hear that a man who was acting as a substitute teacher during the Harrison Hills teacher strike was never hired by the district.

A school resource officer from the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department told NEWS9 that Frederick Saunders of Youngstown acted as a seventh-grade social studies substitute teacher for several days at Harrison Junior High.Saunders was charged with misdemeanor assault after police said he hit a picketer with his car on Tuesday, Oct. 2.

Then the school district made a big discovery; it says Saunders was never hired.Superintendent Jim Drexler released a statement to NEWS9; where said Saunders made it through security and apparently was working as a teacher, even though the district had never hired him.Many parents who talked to NEWS9 said they were shocked.“

How do they know there's not somebody else that's not supposed to be there, that wasn't hired?" said Cindy Sinquefield of Scio.
-----

Just why someone would WANT to fake being a substitute teacher is a mystery but the fact that someone could show up at a school posing as a substitute teacher isn't all that far fetched.

In the four years I've been walking into school offices, I've never had to actually show any identification to verify that I am who I say I am.

They might ask who I am to match with a list of who they are expecting. They might ask who I'm there for to match with someone who they know is out and has a sub coming in. There have been a few times that the phone system garbled the teacher's name bad enough that I could only identify the school and grade level I was assigned. Even in these instances, I've never had to actually show any actual identification to verify who I was.

But...the REAL question here is: Who would want to impersonate a substitute teacher for several days...in a middle school... and... not get paid for it?

That's just three times, plain insane!

CA Health Insurance Rant…

With the exception of government and some other highly unionized professions (education, auto makers, etc), the employer paid health insurance ends when you leave your employer (or your employer leaves you!).

The few times I found myself between jobs in my previous career, we had no problems signing up for a policy from one of the “Big Blue” named insurance carriers to protect us from a potential catastrophic health event.

That was before we got “old”.

After the last layoff, I found that being over the age of 55 was a definite problem for the “Big Blue” Insurance Co. who happily took our check just a few years earlier. After some negotiation and intervention by our insurance agent, they reluctantly accepted us back as an insured couple. We were, once again, covered for any catastrophic event over the first $5000.00 deductible.

Then the rates started going up like clockwork every six months. We countered by adjusting our definition of “catastrophic event” to mean anything over $7500.00 in the futile effort to just “maintain” the cost of insurance. For this coverage we paid “Big Blue” approx $6000.00/yr

If you do the math, you would see that we were spending $13k before we get any help to cover a major health problem.

One of the reasons I started substitute teaching was to cover insurance costs for just such an event. There are 180 teaching days in a year for a max potential income of about $18k (after taxes) per year.

Since subs on call rarely work all possible schools days, my experience these last four years has been that subbing will bring in approx $7k-$10k per year.

When the “Big Blue” insurance co. notified us late last year of yet another increase to $760/month, we started hunting for a more affordable alternative.

We found an insurance company located in the Mid-West, hence forth to be referred to as Crap Ass National, Inc.

The agent for CA described her company’s coverage as a $5000 deductible (per scheduled incident) policy for the same price as our “Big Blue” policy before the latest rate increase.

With over 30 years experience dealing with employer PPO plans and additional downtime years with “Big Blue”, I thought I knew how the system was supposed to and did work. In the four years since the layoff, we had no health issues that even came close to the deductible limits. Other than semi-yearly rate increases, there were no surprises.

The CA National plan sounded good to us, so we signed on the dotted line and felt we had an “ok” deal.

That was until we had our first major event covered under CA National.

I got a call, one day, last June that Claudette had fainted in the beauty salon and that the paramedics and ambulance had been called. By the time I got there, she had regained consciousness and was strapped to a gurney to be transported to the hospital for further tests.

The resulting diagnosis and cause was: vasovagal syncope. In layman’s terms: “fainted – no apparent reason”. Evidentially I also have vasovagal syncope because I sometimes faint when I get shots.

Three months later we get the bills.

Ambulance: $1,896.00

Hospital ER: $13,450.00

Ok, Ok, that’s a lot of money but we’re covered, right? This should cost me only my five grand deductible and the rest is up to CA National – Right??.

Not exactly!

It seems that the ambulance isn’t a network provider, therefore not covered. CA National doesn’t pay for anything not on their “schedule of allowed medical treatments” and only up to a company specified limit of the procedures that ARE allowed.

After the insurance PPO discounts, disallowed coverage and limits of the allowed stuff, CA National cut a check for exactly $1000.

CA National then sent us a notice of an insurance rate increase of $800/year and leaving me holding the remaining bills for $8800.00

I called CA National to ask what happened to my “five thousand deductible” limitation.

It seems that I hadn’t been diligent in reading and understanding all the fine print that the agent, selling me the policy, glossed over.

(I know this post is long and boring to most people, but it lets me blow off a little steam…)

But there IS some good news. After contacting the ambulance company and the hospital on my own, I was able to negotiate a 25% discount off both bills, just for asking!

I also discovered that the hospital offers an “uninsured patient” discount which happens to be just about the same amount that ALL the insurance companies get as a PPO discount. This means that had I not had insurance, I would be paying about the same amount as I am paying with CA National except that I wouldn’t have wasted thousands of dollars paying premiums.

Needless to say, we aren’t going to remain a client with CA National.

If “National Health Care” is going to be the driving issue in the next presidential election, I have a few ideas to propose.

It’s clear to me that what this country needs is LESS insurance industry involvement in our health care and more individual control on what we spend and how spend it.

I propose the following:

1. Allow anyone to establish a tax deductible Health Savings Account (HSA) without the requirement that it be tied to a health insurance company policy. Require that the money from the account can only be spent on health care or additional private health insurance only.

2. Have our benevolent government cover the costs of any catastrophic medical conditions in excess of some large deductible, like say $20k/year.

This should allow “we the people” the choice on how to save or spend our own resources for actual medical, dental and/or additional insurance to offset the huge government deductible.

I’d vote for a guy or harpy running for office with something like this idea in mind!!!

How To Lure Substitute Teachers...

From USA Today: Schools Lure Substitute Teachers

Excerpts:
...Richmond Heights School District near St. Louis, where subs get a free movie pass after 15 days of work, a $20 book store gift certificate after 20 days and a $100 bonus after 50 days. That's on top of a daily rate of $80 to $147, depending on experience.

...So, what do most substitutes want? Respect from teachers and principals and the sense they're appreciated, Smith said.

...Marcus Wolfe, 34, of Gurnee, Ill., has been a substitute teacher in six northern Illinois districts and worked about 165 of the school year's 180 days last year. He said the best incentive is a sub-friendly environment, including substitute handbooks, an expectation that teachers will provide lesson plans for subs and frequent interaction with administration and other faculty.

...Subs go through orientation, with lectures on successful classroom management, lesson plans and discipline, a "substitute appreciation week" and a competition for "guest teacher of the year."

..."I had one lady write to me she's been substituting for 15 years, and she said, 'This is the first time any official has thanked me for doing it,"' said program specialist Michael Ballard.

...Still, most principals don't have the resources to do too much hand-holding with subs, Erbach said. "It's unfortunate that we aren't able to do it on a more frequent basis. Day-to-day operations often supersede everything else," Erbach said.
----------------------------------------------

Interesting principal comment: Saying "Thank You" is considered "hand-holding"

Court of Common Sense…

Have you ever read the warning list of disclaimers on ladders, microwaves and anything else you’ve ever purchased? You just know that all the stupid things they warn against is the result of someone suing for doing something stupid.

For years I have felt there should be some way to reject all those groundless, baseless, obviously wrong, money and time wasting legal exercises of our sometimes peculiar legal system.

Anyone can sue for anything.

• Got fat while eating fast food? Sue!
• Got cancer after smoking for twenty years when common sense should tell you it’s not good for you? Sue!
• Got hurt on a ladder while standing in a pig pen full of slippery pig-poo? Sue!
• Tried to dry your cat in the microwave? Sue!
• Pick up an old computer in the trash and it doesn’t work right? Sue!
• I’m stupid so it's someone else’s fault?, Sue!

Winning or defending against a suit is a time consuming and expensive process. Most of the time it seems that whoever hired the better liar lawyer, is the one who comes out on top. Other times, jury selection seems less like a “jury of your peers” and more like a “jury of the most gullible and/or uninformed”.

I have long felt that there should be some process to weed out the obvious.

Maybe a “Court of Common Sense” whose job it is to pre-examine the facts and accusations of selected lawsuits to decide if it passes the smell test of “common sense” before allowing it to proceed farther up the legal food chain.

Possibility a panel of individuals, generally considered to be “rational and relatively intelligent”, would by majority vote decide if a legal filing is reasonable enough proceed or be rejected on the grounds as “just plain stupid”. I’ll forego any ideas, for the moment, of how the selection of “rational and relatively intelligent people” should be accomplished, but I’m not ready to give up on the idea.

In the case of Julie Amero and the recently announced third sentencing delay, it appears that there are so many things wrong with the original indictment that the D.A. and the court seem to be looking for ways to just make it all go away while saving as much face as possible.

I’m sure if my “Court of Common Sense” currently existed; the case would have been dispatched long before it ever reached the level a trial let alone the conviction and possible 40yr. jail sentence.

My “Court of Common Sense” would have surely concluded, before indictment, that computer porn pop-ups are a fact of life these days and Julie was just the innocent, victim bystander of the day.

My “Court of Common Sense” would have had the school “Say sorry” to Julie and maybe send her home with some instruction on what to do with the computer next time if it ever happened again.

My “Court of Common Sense” might also suggest the school remove the computer from the classroom until they get someone competent enough to maintain the computer with up-to-date software.

Case dismissed…

Let Teachers Carry Guns???

I found the following story in the news today: Nevada politician: Let teachers carry guns

"LAS VEGAS - A Nevada state senator and also-ran in this year's Republican primary for governor says the Legislature should consider letting teachers carry guns in classrooms to stem a rise in school violence.

'I would expect enough teachers would be interested so it would serve as a deterrent,' said Sen. Bob Beers, R-Las Vegas. He said he's preparing a bill to introduce when state lawmakers convene in February.
..."

I wonder when and where Sen. "Too Many Beers" got that bright idea?

Personally, if it ever got that bad in the schools around here, that's time to give up the substitute teaching job and stay home.

JMHO...