Posted 08:47 by Michael Lopez
WHAT'S LEFT? We know from long experience that any touching of students by staff is completely out of the question. Recently, I've read a number of articles like this one, filled with half-hearted apologies issued by chastened teachers and administrators, which suggest that children may not be humiliated either. Here's what happened:

Newton parents angry that a vice principal is disciplining their children by telling them to ``drag their bodies across the hallway'' are asking the Department of Education to investigate.

* * * *

Two sets of parents said their children were told to ``drag their bodies across the hallway'' in front of several onlookers after they were caught running in the halls of Oak Hill Middle School by Vice Principal Hank Van Putten.

Naturally, the parents side with the child. It seems to be all the rage these days. Result? One humiliated administrator obviously growling through is teeth while he tries to keep a smile on his face as the parents and his superiors force him to his metaphorical knees:

Van Putten said the so-called ``seal walk'' is a punishment he's used before when he's caught other students running, but he regrets using it this time.

``It's not something I do all the time,'' Van Putten said. ``And in this case it was a bad decision. It's something I regret, and I will not be using it with any children any more if it is going to elicit that type of response. I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable.''

A more appropriate thing to ask is how he intends to keep discipline if he's not allowed to make anyone 'uncomfortable'. Children who misbehave need to be punished, or else they quickly learn that there are no consequences in life. We aren't doing kids favors if we let them learn that sort of attitude. We aren't doing children any favors if they grow up to be contemptuous of authority figures. Do these parents really expect their children to respect them for what they've done?

Punishments aren't supposed to be comfortable. And if we take away any touching whatsoever, and we take away humiliation.... what's left? Fines?

Just what we need: Federally Mandated Reduced Price and Free Detention programs for the poor.

Posted 16:10 by Michael Lopez
IT'LL BE BACK: They "caught it early," but it'll be back eventually. Just like whipped cream highs, those silly jelly bracelets, pop-can-tab romances, and a whole host of other little rituals and experiments.

This fainting thing is just one more way that kids learn how their bodies work and feel -- remember, they haven't lived in their bodies for thirty years.

Didn't you ever run full tilt at a tree with a football helmet on, just to see what would happen? Well, I didn't either, but I know plenty of kids who did.

Frankly, I'm reassured by the casual tone of the article. The author doesn't seem to terribly concerned, and neither do the school officials. It's just kids being kids, and adults doing their best to make sure no one gets hurt.

It's life. Smile.

Posted 12:29 by Michael Lopez
EMPEROR MICHAEL E. LOPEZ I: What would I do if I were Emperor of Education? Jay Matthews prompts the question, and Chris O'Donnell urges bloggers to take up the inquiry.

So what would I do? The first thing I'd do is recognize that I was granted unquestioned legal authority, and not super-powers. I can't cause things to happen, I can only issue edicts and re-arrange things in a systemic fashion. I'm Emperor, not God. (My recent reading of I, Claudius notwithstanding). Jay's guest columnist recognizes this when he says that only his third edict could actually happen in the real world. (Actually, if he were EMPEROR he could probably accomplish the first as well.)

Armed with the knowledge of limitations, the abrogation of the Constitution with respect to my decrees, and the ability to deal out capital punishment to those who displease me on matters within my jurisdiction, I would issue the following proclomations:

(1) All federal programs, laws, rules, regulations, and mandates involving pre-college education are hereby revoked. All federal workers in the area of pre-college education are hereby terminated, and are to be given six month's pay as severance. All federal workers thus fired shall also be allowed a one-time opportunity to liquidate their retirement accounts without penalty upon termination.

(2) All monies currently appropriated by the federal government are to be used to fund the severance packages in proclomation (1). All laws allowing or requiring the appropriation of such funds (exclusive of those funds which come from the general fund) are hereby revoked.

(3) The Constitution of the United States is hereby amended. The new amendment shall read "Congress shall not pass any law respecting the education of the citizenry at any level (except where such education concerns nuclear physics or other areas directly affecting national security), jurisdiction over which issue and the powers therefore shall remain with the states. The explication of this restriction shall not be deemed to imply any power not specifically set forth in this Constitution."

(4) Under the authority of the Emeperor's Seal, Public Schooling of pre-college students that takes place in any of the several states shall be neither mandatory to the parents or to the states. Parents shall have the right to direct their child's education in such a way as they see fit, subject to restrictions issued by the state legislatures that do not call for mandatory public schooling. The states shall likewise have the unfettered right to dismiss any student from the system of public education for a period of any length, providing that the states adhere to the guidelines, regulations, and rules set forth in their rightfully passed laws.

(5) All states are officially reminded to bear in mind that the Emperor approves of "tracking", and are encouraged (but not required) to curry the Emperor's favor in organizing their curricula.

(6) No teacher of pre-college students within my jurisdiction shall be entitled to tenure or any similar program of systematic job security. All appointments of teachers of pre-college students shall be from year to year, and all such teachers shall be terminable at any time for cause, as defined in employment agreements and related documents such as collective bargaining agreements, after such procedures as set forth in those documents are followed. To the extent any existing contracts or regulations contradict this decree, they are voided.

(7) All teachers and school personnel are authorized to use physical force as necessary to protect themselves and their charges. Any civil cause of action brought in a court of law against a teacher for assault, battery, or related claim shall be dismissed upon a showing of self-defense or the defense of others. Any party bringing such a claim against a school or teacher unsuccessfully shall be liable for the costs of defense incurred by the school or teacher.

(8) All pre-college students enrolled in public school are required to engage in at least one hour of physical exercise (with appropriate breaks) each school day. Students with physical disabilities are to exercise as they are able. The states have the option to increase this amount, but in no case shall it be reduced below one hour.

(9) All parents shall be allowed to use corporal punishment with respect to their children, and to authorize public schools to do the same in accordance with state law, provided that such punishment does not cause permanent or lasting injury, lacerations of any kind, or broken bones.

(10) No student shall be punished by any pre-college public school for violence which is undertaken in defense of self or others while on the grounds of public schools. Furthermore, no public school shall exercise any authority over students' conduct which takes place while the student is both not on school grounds and not engaged in a school-related activity such as sports, field trips, or concerts.

(11) No student shall be subject to drug testing by any public employee except under such circumstances as the police might otherwise require a citizen to submit to drug testing.

(12) No person shall be appointed to be a teacher of students at a pre-college public school except upon a vote of the faculty of the same. The faculty may delegate this authority to committee as necessary.

To this decree I set my seal.

Michael E. Lopez I
Emperor

It's not much, but it's a start.

Posted 12:23 by Michael Lopez
RULES *ARE* RULES: Daryl links to (and reproduces) this story (second heading down) about two kids who decided it would be most excellent to wear their dress uniforms to their high school graduation.

As members in good standing of the United States military, these kids should have known that what they were doing was against the regulations. While I'm sympathetic to their desire to wear their dress uniforms, I rather think they should have sought permisison from their superiors before taking matters into their own hands.

Daryl seems to think this is a problem, and I'm sensing sarcasm in his heading (Rules are rules!). Frankly, I think he's got the short end of this issue -- and it's not often I disagree with him.

Posted 08:45 by William Moon
Can I get an AMEN!? No, I can't, because that would either be blasphemy (since I'm not a religious person, nor do I mean it in a religious context), or because I'm talking about the school system and there is a supposed separation of church and state to be concerned about.

Mike's post is one of my greatest complaints with the school system, as well. Not the separation thing, but because generally the teachers DON'T know the answers, and when they do, they are told not to tell them. Frankly, I'm sick of my son knowing more about his subjects than his teacher. I kid you not, he knows the difference between a crystallized rock and a volcanic rock (his teacher was asked by another student, and she referred the kid to my son). Granted, I didn't know the difference either, but I'm also not teaching the subject to where I'd be asked the question (it has something to do with one being based from a liquid substance and the other not). I'm sick of telling my 10 year old son that his teachers (too) often simplify (or over-simplify) things for the entirety of the class to be able to learn. This is where No Child Left Behind Act (AKA- The Lowering Our Standards Act) has gotten us. No child is left behind because no child is encouraged to get ahead either!

We are going to have ourselves another generation of under-achievers because that is what they are learning in school. It is ok to not excel, because we'll pass you anyway... worse, we'll dumb, excuse me, simplify things down for you so it is more easily understandable. Forget that the rest of the class is subject to this mindlessness too and they end up failing to see the nuances of the details because they aren't even presented! We just want to make sure that little Joey isn't left behind the other kids, so we'll make the whole class suffer, and then by extention, society as a whole.

The really sad thing is that my son isn't even at the head of is class. Sure, he's about in the top 5%, maybe even 10%, but he isn't the brainiest kid in there! Our kids are capable of so much more! When is our government and our school systems and our teachers (or maybe just the administrators) going to realize it?

Posted 08:20 by Michael Lopez
WHY I'M A LAWYER, NOT A TEACHER: Joanne Jacobs and the people over at REASON have nabbed an interesting story from a teacher that perfectly illustrates why I chose to become an evil, soulless, greedy, and conniving attorney rather than a good, selfless, generous, and beneficent member of the educating class.

I taught "Merchant of Venice" to seniors one year; in it there's a line where one character is insulting another, by saying something along the lines of "He damns the ears of all who hear him, by calling him 'fool.'" One of the kids asked me what that meant, so I explained that one of the lesser-known verses of the Book of Matthew has Jesus saying that anyone who calls another a fool will be damned. (I recited chapter and verse, though I can't remember it now.) I went on to talk about the very funny use Voltaire made of that in his essay "The Jesuit Berthier" (an angel tells a priest to stop giving his stupid, boring sermons, because instead of winning souls for God he's endangering the souls of all who hear him, because they all call him a fool), and explained also that this is why cartoony villians in movies developed the habit of using "Fool!" as their default insult; for people familiar with the Bible, the fact that the villian always says "Fool!" is just one more proof that this is an evil, evil dude.

"So anyway," I said to the class, "back in Shakespeare's day, when people were far more familiar with the Bible than they are now, instead of insulting someone by saying 'You are a fool,' you'd say 'You are a--well, I can't SAY what you are because then I'd go to hell.' That's what he's doing in the play."

All's well so far -- questioned asked and answered. Students educated.

Next day I get called into the principal's office; some parents were FURIOUS that I had told their kids that Jesus said anyone who says 'fool,' will go to Hell.

"But he did," I pointed out.

"It doesn't matter, Jennifer. You can't insult kids' religions."

"Well, the kid asked me what that line from the play meant! What was I supposed to do?"

"Just tell him you don't know."

I learned early that I would never survive in the public school system. As a librarian at an elementary school, I had teachers complain to the principal that I was teaching kids about Shakespeare and Wordsworth. The teacher's objection was that the material was too advanced for the kids, and that they shouldn't be reading so far ahead of their peers. (It was an after school class taught to kids who had signed up for my course voluntarily and with parental approval.) The Principal agreed. It was that episode that led to my resentment and ultimate non-cooperation that resulted in my departure and heading to law school.

The reason I'm not fit to be a teacher:

Next day I get called into the principal's office; some parents were FURIOUS that I had told their kids that Jesus said anyone who says 'fool,' will go to Hell.

"Their rancor doesn't change the text or the meaning," I pointed out with an annoyed tone.

"It doesn't matter, Michael. You can't insult kids' religions."

"All right. Please tell me what you would have done if a kid had asked you that question."

"I'd just tell him I didn't know."

"Let's assume for a moment, then" I said, "That you actually did know."

The Principal gave me an annoyed look, and repeated, "I'd just tell him I didn't know."

"So I should refrain from giving factual answers to questions asked about the material I'm teaching in my class if it could possibly offend some ecclesiastical illiterates who don't know their own religion?"

"Michael, you're not helping the situation. Just try to sidestep the..."

"F*** you. I quit."

Yup -- you can see how long someone with my anger management problems would last.

That's why I became a lawyer -- I want to be able to afford to open my own school someday. If I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it my way -- that's the American dream, after all.

Posted 09:15 by Michael Lopez
BY AND LARGE IT'S TRUE: People do get nicer as they get older, and the people you meet at your high school reunion who were completely unpalatable to you in high school (or to whom you were completely unpalatable)can be a joy to be around. Chris Colin invested a lot of effort into exploring his high school reunion, and wrote a book about it.

He found that "sitting down with a lot of people I couldn't stand in high school and vice versa, once you start interviewing someone, and you get to know that person, you just start to like them."

Writing the book, he says, helped him to believe that the cultural, political, racial, and religious divisions in America can be overcome.

In the end, however, Colin came to feel that high school reunions are largely about confrontation.

"But it's not so often between you and your ex or a bully," he says. "It's a confrontation between the new self and the old self. I think by and large there's been an incredibly high percentage of high achievers in my class. But there were also a lot of people who had to revise their idea of what was possible."

I feel it necessary to point out, however, that some people truly are rat bastards to the core, and that the great rain of redemption does not fall equally on all blighted pastures.

Just something to remember.

Posted 09:08 by Michael Lopez
LINE OF THE MONTH: It's only June first, and already I know what the best line I'll read this month is. The following is from a reader of Jay Nordlinger's Impromptus, a semi-regular column available on NRO. If you don't read it, you should -- even if you don't agree with his politics. The reader writes (doesn't that sound off?):

"Dear Jay: This is what Al Gore said in his [MoveOn.org] speech: 'Luckily, there was a high level of competence on the part of our soldiers, even though they were denied the tools and the numbers they needed for their mission. What a disgrace that their families have to hold bake sales to buy discarded Kevlar vests to stuff into the floorboards of the Humvees! Bake sales for body armor!' The funny part is that I thought it was the Left's dream to have the military resort to bake sales to raise funds for their equipment. Remember those bumper stickers? 'It will be a great day when the schools have all the money they need and the Pentagon has to hold a bake sale.'"

As always, one should be careful what one asks for.

Posted 10:40 by Michael Lopez
RULES IS RULES: This is a heartening news article. Imagine a kid, homeless and on his own. The kid keeps at school, despite a history of gang problems. The kid passes all his exit exams... and then eats it on the last semester and doesn't get enough credits to graduate. He's got a good attitude and works hard.

You're the principal. Do you fudge a little and let him graduate?

No way.

Justin Pineset, a Houston teen who triumphed over homelessness to become a star student at Lee High School, is still a hero to his classmates. But when his peers, many of them no strangers to hardship, marched across the stage Sunday to receive their hard-won diplomas, Pineset wasn't among them.

Instead, he was readying himself for summer school, which begins Thursday. If he graduates in August -- school officials say they're confident he will -- he will still have time to enroll in the fall semester at Texas Southern University.

Principal Steve Amstutz rules:

"Justin is still a role model," said Lee Principal Steve Amstutz. "That has not changed. He's still in the hunt. What this shows is that for students who have to struggle, the struggle doesn't really end. Justin isn't in any way diminished by not graduating in May. He is a success to make it this far, and he's not done. You fail when you quit, and Justin is not a quitter."

Putting asides any questions of whether a diploma at Amstutz' school is actually representative of academic worth (and I suspect that it is given his attitude!), I have to tip my hat to him for the simple, (should-be) unremarkable kindness of having standards and sticking with them.

Posted 00:08 by William Moon
RAISING THE BAR: For a few months now I've been batting around an idea I like to call Raising the Bar. This is my catch-phrase counter argument to No Child Left Behind.

Many have heard the arguments that No Child Left Behind creates a mandate without the financial backing to see the mandate to its successful resolution. Also, we can add to that the continual lowering the standards that are becoming applicable to all grades to ensure that no child gets left behind... We simply don't ask as much of them anymore. Add to this the recent controversy over 50% of teachers interviewed having assisted their students in the standardized testing in California, essentially cheating on the test, to ensure that their school and their own marks as teachers are not adversely affected.

We are decreasing the value of our society by decreasing the value of its education. College degrees are becoming a must in most jobs not because of what one learns in college, but because of what one no longer (necessarily) learns in High School. The college education is necessary to be certain that individuals are at least competent to function in a business environment.

So, I think that it is necessary to counter No Child Left Behind with Raising the Bar. Unfortunately, as I see it, this process might be a little too long-term and financially overwhelming. To quote a line from West Wing, "Education should be as expensive to the government as National Defense, and free to its taxpayers."

Initially the Raising the Bar for education comes from raising the expectations and benefits of the military. First the government must increase military pay. They should do this by creating two tiers of military service within the enlisted ranks. These, based on term of service, would provide the benefits of increased pay or education.

For both routes the current pay scale applies for enlistees of the program. Predominantly, enlistees in this program will rank no higher than E-4, with the majority ranking E-3 or below, even upon graduation. All enlistment periods should be for no less than 8 years, a 2 year (minimum) training period followed by a 6 year active period, plus 2 year inactive period.

Route 1: Extended Basic Training and Collegiate Preparation
· Enlistees in this program are those who have obtained low scores on the ASVAB, High School GPA, ACT, SAT, High School competency exam, or other college entrance exams.

This is a 2-year Basic Training program, which entails the current concepts of Basic such as combat, basic first-aid, simple military tactics, formations, and strategy. It would also include things that are currently included in the ROTC camp training programs and other educational curriculum like extended study of Military procedure, tactics, and history (much like the current ROTC training) and high school college-prep program level English and Mathematics, Critical Thinking and Economics, History and Government, and computer literacy. This ensures the level of education among basic enlistees at E-4, and anyone having gone through this program for transition into a more productive civilian life.
Upon completion of this program, the improved military pay scale should be implemented for the duration of the enlistees tour of duty.

Route 2: Basic Training and College Course of Study
· Those enlistees who have completed an Associates Degree and graduated this program fully should be elevated to the rank of E-4.
· Enlistees in this program are those who have obtained high scores on the ASVAB, High School GPA, ACT, SAT, High School competency exam, or other college entrance exams, similar to what is needed for admittance to university level colleges across the country.

This would be essentially a Basic Training similar to the current standards of Basic training and/or undergrad ROTC camp training, about 10 weeks in length. After which, the enlistees would be assigned housing (let's have the gov't make some money here in areas of high appreciation value near universities), each housing unit consisting of a squad of soldiers overseen by the local recruitment command. Classes will be set up for training in military tactics, procedure, and history by the recruiter if such classes are not offered locally (like in the case of ROTC classes). A group of squads will gather weekly for drill and ceremonies, obstacle/challenge course, and hand to hand training, and daily for physical training.

Each house is enrolled in the local college for the same class schedule for a General Education course of study. All colleges will give priority registration to these students. All classes will be paid for by the government, except when the student falls below acceptable marks, in which case he will be given the choice of general discharge or fall back into another house being set up for the next term, increasing his enlistement by the same period of time, or Extended Basic (as shown in route 1) restarting his enlistement period. This is a 2-year program for education.

Certainly, one could have a base built for these pruposes, or another academy for undergrad or Basic studies, but that runs the risk of being turned into something else later down the line. This method gives the students greater autonomy (which leaders need, since anyone above Corporal is at least a low-level leader, or manager of some type) and uses the school systems and educational accredidation that is alrady in place and accepted across the board.

There is more to it, but this is a short-version basic synopsis.

Once this is established, salaries for pay grades can be reestablished. Then we move on to the public education system.

The state governments have made a mess out of public education. From controversy over prayer in the classroom to state testing, to poor administration and teacher quality. As a side note that is one of the things that got me worked up to write this - my 10yo son's teacher told their class that the word monotonous is said mono-to-nous (short o, long o, long o), as opposed to mo-not-o-nous (long o, short o, long o); forgive the lack of phonetic punctuation, but I don't really know how to do it with the keyboard. This was in addition to a reference from her about an "inquisitive question" and not knowing what a 'declarative statement' was, defining it instead only as a 'statement'. But I digress.

The simplest way to define my goals here is to say that the plan would be to federalize the system of administration and budget funding as well as the baseline curriculum, while keeping the specifics of teaching said curriculum to the teachers and individual schools within the fleshing out of the lesson plan. I think the way in which we teach needs to possibly be uniform (a combination of phonetics and whole language together), but with the differing ways that children learn this might present a problem in and of itself, on a macro scale, and less of one at the classroom level.

The federal gov't (I'd like) to step in and find a way (executive order?) to break with the unions (as Mike says, treat teaching as a profession, not a trade). Then redesign the system from the ground up. Outside the schools, we start with a development of a President's Council on Education (or something) that groups teachers from a variety of ethnicities, religions, economies, cultures, and states. They develop a standard and fairly specific curriculum outline that teachers throughout the country can use to develop their lesson plans. Based on this, it should be possible for a teacher to pack up and leave Louisiana and move to Oregon and teach the same grade with only slight modifications to her lesson plan. I don't want to hear about differing issues for localities and language problems and cultural contrasts... You either live in America or you don't. You want to take advantage of our freedoms and education, then you do it by our rules and our culture and our society, as a nation, not as a group of states or counties or cities. You want to provide more for your local school by adding money or supplies to it, you may do so, but each school must have a minimum standard that is far above what we expect now.

I digressed again. The curriculum outline must include the basics such as Math, and Language (English). It should also include Social Studies (History), and Science, as well as art and music and foreign language (why are we the only nation that does not think this is important?). These need to include specific topics of study and quantifiable baseline points of learining from which the student will be tested on to complete the grade. To accomplish this goal of improved scholastics, we implement year-round schooling. I don't mean rotational, I mean year-round schooling. Kids get a couple weeks off for Winter, Spring, and Summer. No 3-month summer vacation, they currently spend the first 2-3 months of the next grade just catching up from the last 3-4 months of the previous grade! I want a longer day, but with more guided 'independant' study periods for students (I mean they get 3 play periods now, how hard could this be on them?). As for family vacations, the parents make arrangements with the teacher and school to pull the kid out for a time, and the teacher provides the family with the schoolwork for that period, which the student must do before returning (either on the vacation or before). This isn't that hard. I used to do this all the time in grade school as my family went to Yosemite every year in January for an extended family Xmas.

The redistricting of the schools should be based on a macro scale by sheer numbers. Districts = X schools = X administrators. This shouldn't be that hard to develop. Districts should be like regional corporate offices, with possibly Greater Districts (high population regional areas) governing multiple Districts, and so on up to state level. One state District Authority responsible for all under-districts responsible to the Governor of the State and the Presidential Council Administration (on the Federal level). Each district level shouldn't need to be overly large since they'll only be governing the next level down. The district administrators all have the same number of schools under their authority, so the pay scale shouldn't be that diverse (excluding for local economic standard of living issues). School Boards will be local oversight commitees designed to ensure the quality of education provided locally, and the reliability of info provided from their district level as well as a council to the districts on the desires of the community for their schools. The teachers need to be paid a lot more and have a lot more competition, as well as be expected to have higher education and/or life experience. We need to start having something to give to lure teachers away from corporate offices, or inspire our own teachers to better educate themselves. We want the most intelligent people from every generation teaching our youth, so that the next generation will be more intelligent as a group, and so on down the line.

In the schools themselves, I don't have much of a problem below 3rd grade, but 3rd grade is where students learn to be self-sufficient. Below 3rd grade, we leave the current pay scale and level of educational experience for the time being. It can be reveiwed and redetermined at a later time. It is in 3rd grade that we need to start.

Up to this point, I've got some more developed written material that I've used as a reference. I have to stop here, because I haven't developed the rest of the ideas as much. At this point, ideas include scaled salaries based on grade and local economics as a base point with a mandated level of education and life experience, then a greater leeway of the salary based on level of education and life experience above the already high mandate, possible half-grade development for advancement (in grade school), Principals being more like teacher recruiters and sales directors more than administrators, Corporate America funding, vetting, and hiring the cream of the crop for teachers in short-term contracts to teach with a longer term contract for employment in those companies and a tax break to those who provide this, etc. Those ideas need more work before I can post them.

Once again, my apologies for being so long-winded. I think the military value and the educational system in this country need complete overhauls, and from the federal level (since the state systems are already directed to do things at the federal level that interfere with and essentially negate their autonomy). I think the two things can nicely dovetail together, and should be 2 of the (maybe) 5 top things that are important to this country and it's leaders. I think the development of these 2 will assist the improvement of the rest of the top needs of this country.

Thanks for your time.

Posted 10:29 by Michael Lopez
THINGS YOU SHOULDN'T READ ABOUT: This isn't news. It's voyeurism. It has no business being in a newspaper. Listen to this:

Thomas stepped forward and hugged them like a man pulling a vision close. He buried his head in their hair.

For 10, 20, 30 seconds, the three stood close. No one spoke. A sniffle drifted out of the group embrace. For one short minute, all the trouble in the world dissolved and all its love beamed into the front room of a house in west St. Petersburg.

At last, her eyes shining, Bettina stepped back.

"Why are you home?" she asked her dad.

"I wanted to come for the graduation," he said.

Touching? Yes. But there's something profane about reading about this sort of stuff in such detail. If you look at the picture... either it was staged (which is just disgusting) or there was a photo crew there when Dad got home, which is just about as bad. It would be another thing if Mom took that picture, but she didn't.

Posted 10:08 by Michael Lopez
SCHOOL SECURITY: Four high school students were shot in Maryland. How did the shooter get a gun into the school?

He didn't.

Four high school students were wounded Friday when an automobile drove into a school parking lot and two of its occupants opened fire, authorities said.

The shooting occurred about 4:30 p.m. outside Randallstown High School in Baltimore County, where students were lingering after a charity basketball game between local politicians and school faculty members.

* * * *

Baltimore County police officials gave this account: A black BMW with four people inside -- all 17 to 25 years old -- pulled into the parking lot of the school, and the driver fired four or five shots from a handgun into the crowd. Police said the shots apparently were fired after the driver emerged from the vehicle, but some youths called the attack a drive-by. After firing, the driver handed the weapon to another person from the vehicle, who fired more shots.

Chele Mellerson said her son told her that "it just happened so fast. They just drove by and started shooting."

We need zero tolerance for people driving by schools with guns in their cars. We need to establish cordons half a mile in every direction from a school, and search every vehicle, backpack, and wallet. [But guns can't fit into wallets!] [Shut up.] Surely there must be some set of policies that can stop this sort of danger to our children.

Maybe we can have an assembly on how dangerous guns are... and how they are unacceptable on a high school campus.

Or maybe we need to just arrest these fuckers and throw them in jail for attempted murder, and stop arresting kids for bringing stage props and charm bracelets to school.