More “Sanity” from Public School Leadership
Seems as if a high school senior in Georgia decided to check up on his school’s Principal. You know, to see if the individual had really been a “goody two-shoes” back in the day, and still was. So this being 2013, he used the Internet.
Much to his delight, he found a mug shot of his Principal. So, this being 2013 – he posted the mug shot photo on Instagram, along with some later comments.
Seems the Principal found and didn’t like that. So the Principal called the young man into their office.
The Principal then told the young man that they “knew the law” and called police. When Police arrived, the Principal asked the Police to arrest the young man.
Apparently the Police didn’t “know the law” like the Principal did. They gave the Principal a “WTF?” look, refused to arrest anyone, and left.
The Principal nonetheless decided to suspend the student for “disrupting school” and being “belligerent”. The suspension letter further said student was suspended for “spreading misinformation”.
(In fairness, when questioned about the photo, the student posted on Instagram that he thought the mug shot was from a DUI arrest. However, his comment clearly stated that to be his opinion vice a documented fact. It turns out the arrest resulting in the mug shot was actually for missing a court date for a speeding ticket.)
The student’s suspension was originally for 4 days, but later was reduced to 2 days. It seems that “spreading misinformation” isn’t listed as a prohibited action in the school’s student handbook.
Looks like the Principal really “knows the rules”, too.
The Principal also reportedly threatened to suspend several other students for having a copy of the mug shot photo on their cell phones. I guess it must have been a “dirty” enough photo to qualify as pr0n.
No, I’m not kidding above. This lunacy actually happened.
The incident occurred at Riverdale High School, in Riverdale, Georgia. Per the linked article, the moron “esteemed and level-headed” Principal at that school appears to be a Ms. Jamille Miller Brown.
Frankly, it sounds more to me like Ms. Jamille Miller Brown is nothing more than a childish, petty tyrant and control freak who’s now butt-hurt. I think her “widdle feewings” were hurt when her past record of misconduct was made known, and she’s now just desperately trying to limit the spread of information about same. But I could be wrong.
IMO she’s also a freaking idiot who deserves and needs to be fired for terminally bad judgement and abuse of authority. Then she could move to NYC, get a job in city government, and work for a like-minded control-freak. But maybe that’s just me.
Riverdale High School seems to be part of the Clayton County School System. The contact information for the Clayton County Board of Education seems to be available here. According to their map, Riverdale seems to be in District 3.
Contact information for the Superintendent of Education for Clayton County can be found here.
Perhaps the Board of Education President and members would be interested in hearing what others think about this matter. Ditto the Superintendent of Education.
Category: "Teh Stoopid", "Your Tax Dollars At Work", Dumbass Bullshit, Society
Are puBlik shcoool Administrators lobotomized in college, or just before they get hired?
Mr. Waldo Weatherbee has a mug shot? Which episode of Archie comics does this happen?
If this young man plays his cards right, they’ll have to rename the high school after him, and his college and life will be expense-free.
UpNorth: regrettably, probably not. Dating back to Vietnam, the Federal courts have consistently ruled that school administrators have broad leeway to impose restrictions on the freedom of speech/action of secondary school students in compulsory public education that would not pass muster if enacted as laws regulating the general public. I’m guessing that this idiotic move falls within the scope of what’s legally permissible regarding restrictions on student conduct.
IMO this incident was manifestly stupid, shows appalling judgement, and was a clear abuse of authority. But IMO it’s also probably completely legal. If the parents don’t complain loud and clear to the school board, this idiot Principal will get away with this without any consequences. And given how well teachers’ unions close ranks and protect idiots who are members, she might well get away with it even then.
After 15 years as a high school teacher, far too many petty tyrants get to be public school administrators. If they were really good “educators”, they would’ve remained in the classroom.
However, the majority of administrators got out of the classroom as quickly as they could via the administrators/counselors route with bogus degrees in something called “Educational Leadership”. Whatever in the Hell that is.
MAJMike: it think it translates as “protect my iron rice bowl”, or “self-licking ice cream cone”. Or maybe as “How to say, ‘Respect mah authoritah!’ ”
But I might be mistranslating the term.
I’m wondering if the REAL reason behind the principal’s outrageous behaviour might be because she may have “forgotten” to include her arrest record in her employment application?
If so, it may well be grounds for dismissal. In these litigious times, schools won’t tolerate that sort of thing, as even the slightest hint of impropriety can result in lawsuits and financial payouts.
But otherwise, I agree with MajMike. With three kids having been in the public school system, I’ve grown pretty jaded and cynical about the way they are run and “bossed”.
Apparently said Principal is one who could and would play the race card, here’s what they had on Drudge:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57583839-93/principal-suspends-teen-for-instagramming-her-mug-shot/
Agreed, Hondo (in #2) but rather doubt that they may exercise their absolute control arbitrarily with no basis in some rule or another in some handbook or another. “Make it up as you go” is probably not actually itemized as a guiding principle.
This is just a heaping pile of crappola. With a cherry on top.
And we are to ignore her arrogance, incompetence, or whatever defect caused her to behave badly when she was arrested and again when she did this to a child in her care because of her ethnicity? Nope. Too many people of all genders and races are good school principles. Most of us, of all genders and ethnicities, would not be good school principles. Apparently this one is about as capable as the majority of us for that job.
Proud Infidel: damn, that article looks familiar. I’d swear I’ve seen that one before . . . .
(Psst – check out the first link in the article above, at “This lunacy actually happened.” [smile])
— break —
OWB: agreed. And I’m guessing that’s why the student’s suspension was cut from 4 days to 2. They realized that the “spreading misinformation” stuff was BS and cut the suspension in half to preempt that argument. But absent a recording, the argument that the student was “belligerent” likely is unimpeachable. Ditto the contention that the act was “disruptive”.
Unless the kid really got belligerent, any suspension is IMO still a gross abuse of power as well as manifestly stupid. But it’s also probably completely within legal bounds.
Whether it should be or not is a different discussion.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the principal and the school board got a sound drubbing from the parents in the district, all carrying pitchforks, lit torches and nooses.
If that doesn’t happen, then the students and parents get exactly what they deserve, a Marxist system of man (not law), “do what I say, not what I do.”
Civilians are so touchy and fragile. When I was in the Army if late afternoon rolled around and I hadn’t been critisized or blamed for something, I would hunt down the 1SG and announce I haven’t had my daily ass chewing yet. He would usually fix that.
Civilians are so sensitive and fragile. When I was in the Army. If late afternoon rolled around and I hadn’t been criticized or blamed for something; I would hunt down the 1SG and announce that I had not had my daily ass chewing; he would usually fix that.
OOPa
This type of BS is the norm in Clayton County. The entire school system is a local and statewide disgrace. They only recently(in 2010)re-gained their accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) which they had lost in 2008.
Apparently, things are not yet better. In October 2012 “the Clayton County School board received a letter that outlined problems with school board infighting, micromanaging and other issues that SACS said would not only jeopardize the districts’ efforts to search for a new school superintendent, but negatively impact its accreditation.”
http://www.examiner.com/article/clayton-county-schools-under-the-sacs-spotlight-this-week
Riverdale is only oh-so-slightly better than the hood. I was a cop in the area for a couple of decades. What a mess; many many years ago it was a great place to live and raise kids; now it needs to be leveled.
The kid should have not said it was a DUI, albeit truth is he defense of the righteous. Principal just should have did her own post coming clean and ignored it.
If a parent or citizen had put it out she couldnt have did that. power trip.
Here comes the Streisand affect…
We are talking about the same Clayton County, Ga that re-elected a man for county sheriff that has a few “technical glitches” going against him right now. Correct?
@18 Yep. Good catch. Same one. Sheriff Victor Hill. The guy that deployed snipers on his jail roof to protect himself from his own personnel.
http://www.myajc.com/news/news/local/040913hill_fires_dozens/nXG9g/
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/local-govt-politics/clayton-county-sheriff-takes-office-despite-charge/nTj4D/
The whole county government is jacked up. The way things work there, this principal will be probably be nominated Educator of the Year for this stunt.
Are school staff allowed to search cell phones? How else could she know other students had the picture? 4th Amendment violation?
Well, if they cannot search lockers looking for drugs (or even have a drug sniffing dog walk casually by the lockers), then how could they possibly justify looking at a student’s cell phone?
Great point, PavePusher!
Those who can, DO. Those who can’t get promoted and make life miserable for those who DO…
I “think” this is the same area of GA that voted to have Creationism taught along side Evolution in science class. What more do you expect?
#10, Hondo, Yeah! *Facepalm* saw it after I made that post!
Really Valkyrie? I completely fail to see what possible connection you are trying to make. Care to enlighten us?
these indoctrination facilities (aka) public schools
are so outta control it’s frightning.
with this new common core crap well into implementation,,your kids will be screwed.
I agree with Jacobite. What possible connection is there between teaching Creationism along side Science Theory, and the senseless acts of a depraved, unelected school bureacrat?
In fact, I’d be willing to bet that the administrator in question is a leftist hack who’d be fighting tooth and nail to KEEP any form of non-humanist education OUT of whatever unfortunate school she’s associated with.
Look at the picture of her.
Tells the tale.
I grew up in the general area of Clayton County. They lost their school accreditation in 2008, regained it, and are now under threat of losing it again. Given the apparent capability of the administrators based on this, I’m not surprised that the school system is beyond subpar.
I was appalled and ashamed upon reading the article, but not surprised. I grew up in Riverdale, was in the first graduating class of (then) Riverdale Senior High, lived all but about 3.5 years of my life there till Summer 2011, and sent my oldest child to the same schools I’d gone to from first through 7th grade. I was one of the kids raised there many years ago when it was a great place to do so, as Doc said. But three years ago we began homeschooling my oldest and two years ago I got my wife and children the hell out of the place. The main reason is that if you lack sufficient melanin the powers that be in Clayton County don’t give a damn about you, nor do more than a bare handful of the residents. A secondary one is they don’t give much of a damn about anyone but themselves, to boot. But if you’re black, well, accommodations can be arranged and excuses made for *anything*. All that needs be said about the place is what streetsweeper and Doc brought out – Victor Hill stole from the taxpayers directly and cost us a hell of a lot more by his actions, was voted out of office because of both and indicted for the former, and was re-elected while under indictment. To call him a POS is to insult turds the world over. And Valkyrie, not that your question was relevant but no, Riverdale isn’t in “…the same area of GA that voted to have Creationism taught along side Evolution in science class.” And as for “hat more do you expect?”, I dunno about anyone else but I expect people to have a clue when they weigh in on a subject, (I know, I’m asking way too much of my fellow man but I can’t help it.) Did you not have time or just weren’t inclined to flesh out your post with a sneer or three about rednecks, Bible-thumpers, Georgia, and the South in general? If you haven’t figured it out from my post, Clayton County’s population… Read more »