Worst Vacation Ever II

After 18 days in a Las Vegas hospital Joe was finally well enough to fly home to North Texas.

A day later he found himself in a North Texas hospital. His Pneumococcal Meningitis has been harder to defeat than any of us had expected. Joe desperately looks forward to returning home to me and our children, and of course his radio show and his blog.

Thank you for your patience. Joe sends his warmest regards.

- Mrs. Sake of Argument

Worst Vacation Ever

Two days into Joe's family vacation to Las Vegas (6/29), he was hospitalized with pneumonia and spinal meningitis.

He remains hospitalized and looks forward to returning home to Texas and blogging and hosting his talk radio show.

Your prayers are welcomed.

Nicole Kelley
Mrs. The Sake of Argument

No Posting

It probably would have been polite to point out that I'm on vacation from work and blogging until the end of June.

Have a great week!

Sympathy Yes, But No Leniency

REPORT:
The bizarre death of a Chicago father and his two sons is being viewed as a murder-suicide.

A father believed to be depressed over financial ills apparently drowned his two sons along with himself in Lake Michigan, authorities said Monday.

The three bodies were bound together with rope and tied to bags filled with sand when a resident spotted them washed up on the beach Saturday in this community just north of the Illinois state line. They had been missing almost six weeks.

“None of the three had any kind of physical trauma outside of drowning,” Kenosha County Deputy Medical Examiner Rick Berg said, citing preliminary autopsy findings.

Kevin Amde, 45, and his sons, Tesla Amde, 3, and Davinci Amde, 6, were last seen May 6, when the father and younger son picked up the older boy from his Chicago school, Pleasant Prairie Police Chief Brian Wagner said. Veronica Amde, Kevin Amde’s wife and the children’s mother, reported them missing to Chicago police May 11.

Wagner said the bodies were tied together with nylon rope, either through belt loops, a belt or around one child’s waist. Also tied to the bodies were two nylon book bags, each containing personal belongings and two plastic bags filled with sand.

One of the children also had pants pockets filled with sand, which had been zipped closed, Wagner said.

Berg said the children’s deaths were ruled as homicides, and the cause and manner of the father’s death will be held open until the results of further toxicology tests and the investigation are completed.

“Everything is pointing toward a suicide-homicide manner, but again that is not going to be finalized until we are sure everything is covered,” Berg said.

Police said investigators learned Kevin Amde was depressed in the days before the disappearance, apparently over financial problems and his family’s imminent eviction.

FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT:
There is another similar story this week out of Chicago with a 23-year-old mom – Abby Grason - (who appears to be ‘psycho-killer-mom-hot’) that has confessed to drowning her 2 and 4-year-old children because she felt she couldn’t provide them with a good life.

I’m reminded of the Andrea Yates murder trial from Houston. Yates, as you may recall, drowned her five kids while her husband was at work at NASA. Feeling sympathy for Yates’ purported post-partum depression and apparent mental illness, Today hostess Katie Couric actively promoted Yates’ legal defense fund on network TV.

Having been stung by blow-back from rational people, I doubt that Couric will likewise promote a legal defense fund for the Chicago murderess.

It’s Couric’s sympathy for Yates that I wish to address in this argument; specifically, the issue of sympathy versus leniency.

I agree with Couric that Yates was mentally ill. Likewise with the two cases cited above. No mentally stable person could take their own children’s lives. But, Couric channeled her sympathy into a desire for leniency.

This is where I depart with Couric and others like her.

Anyone who’d murder their own children, whether sane or not, has very clearly proven themselves to be a danger to society. If they’ll kill their own blood, they’ll surely have little problem killing strangers.

They must be treated for their mental illness, yes, but it must be done behind bars during what should be a very long-term incarceration. A long-term incarceration has the added benefit of preventing them (whether male or female) from further reproducing.

I do feel sorry for Andrea Yates, Abby Grason and the despondent Chicago dad who drowned his two kids in Lake Michigan. These parents were clearly suffering a great pain that I cannot imagine. But, I am adamant that leniency not be afforded Grason during her prosecution, like it wasn’t for Yates.

Unfortunately, not enough people in our society are comfortable with feeling sad for someone behind bars, while simultaneously insisting that they remain there.

Teacher Bullies Students

REPORT:
With the first day of Summer this week, I thought we were through with school-related controversies for a few months.

I was wrong.

BARNSTEAD, N.H. -- The parents of two seventh-grade boys are suing the school district after a teacher allegedly called the boys homosexual lovers.

The suit alleges teacher William Sheehan referred to the boys as homosexual lovers twice in class and told the girlfriend of one of the boys why he thought the boy was gay. Further, the parents allege the school principal, Stephen O'Neil, tried to get the girl to change her story about the conversation with the teacher.

The parents, Stephen and Dawn Call and Nathan and Julie Cheney, said O'Neil and the school superintendent didn't do anything to the teacher after receiving complaints.

The teacher's lawyer says the school offered to have the teacher apologize in class, but the parents wanted a larger, multi-class assembly for the apology.

Lawyer Steven Sacks called the incident a lapse in judgment. He said Sheehan made one remark "in jest."

"It was not meant as an accusation," he told the Concord Monitor.

But Lester Firstenberger, who is representing the parents, said the teacher made comments several times and hurt the boys emotionally and educationally.

"It has devastated one boy," he said. "He went from doing well to failing classes."

He said the boys are best friends, who sit together and talk to each other in class. "They were told not to sit together, and they were sitting together, and the teacher made the comments then," he said.

Both sides had hoped to settle the dispute out of court, but they couldn't agree on an appropriate apology.

Firstenberger said the parents wanted an assembly of seventh and eighth graders. Sacks said school officials disagreed because they feared a large assembly would just make matters worse for the boys.

FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT:
I was under the impression that public school teachers were to protect students from bullies, not become bullies themselves.

In jest or not, what the teacher did was deplorable and nothing short of immediate dismissal is acceptable.

Young boys at that age are extraordinarily sensitive about their sexuality. Being called a homosexual by your peers is tough enough. But, when it’s a teacher bullying you about being gay, it can cut to the bone.

Word of this gay-taunting surely circulated the school quickly and I can understand why the parents would seek to have the teacher address the entire student body rather than just the classroom. Yet, I’m afraid the parents might be doing further damage to the boys by making too big an issue out of this in too public of a forum.

This report makes no mention of the teacher being disciplined by the school. Whether this is an journalistic oversight or a there was no discipline handed down, I’m appalled.

As the teacher has admitted his behavior, I think the parents should seek the teacher’s dismissal rather than a public assembly that might further identify their children with homosexuality. I’m sure the firing of a teacher for inappropriate behavior would send a positive message to the student body that bullying will not be tolerated.

Hmmmm...

If you were doing 5G returning from your first trip in outer space, would you want an entire bag of candy-coated chocolate projectiles loose in the cabin?

Teacher Threatens Death

REPORT:
A Missouri school board is surely getting an earful from an angry mom whose daughter was the subject of a death threat from a teacher.

The Liberty School Board is scheduled to meet privately next week with the family of a student who allegedly was the target of a death threat from a teacher.

Tiffhanie Gentry said a junior high school study hall teacher screamed to office administrators that they had better get Gentry's 14-year-old daughter out of her class. Or, the teacher allegedly continued, “I swear I'm going to kill her.”

The incident occurred in May. Superintendent Scott Taveau confirmed Monday that the teacher did say something to that effect to the student, Amanda L. Smith.

The incident occurred, Amanda said in a recent interview, after the teacher had repeatedly denied her request to go to the bathroom. Amanda said she told the teacher it was an emergency.

The teacher finally ordered her to the office, Amanda said, and then allegedly yelled the threat into an intercom as Amanda was leaving the room.

Gentry said the teacher, who sent Amanda and her mother a written apology, should be fired. She is going to make that argument at the meeting with the board Monday evening.

After investigating the incident, Taveau said, the district took “very appropriate” disciplinary action against the teacher. He declined to elaborate.

He said, however, if he thought the teacher was a threat to students, she would not remain in the district.

Taveau said the board could overrule his disciplinary action against the teacher.

The teacher made a mistake, Taveau said, especially given the increased sensitivity within schools about threats and bullying after high-profile school shootings across the country.

FOR THE SAKE OF ARGUMENT:
Without even knowing the players involved, I am quite certain that the teacher didn’t actually have any intent to murder the student in question.

But, she clearly illustrated a horrendous lack of judgment in her comments and demonstrated an anger-control issue in letting a 14-year-old student get the better of her. Both of those lapses disqualify the teacher for a leadership position with the children of any community.

Plus, if the roles were reversed, and the student said of the teacher, “If I don’t get out of this class, I swear I’m gonna kill her,” the student would surely not be allowed back into the class (or the school). In fact, in a similar situation with the roles reversed, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the student charged with a criminal offense (making terroristic threats).

Is employment termination too severe?

It may be.

But, aren't zero-tolerance punishments always too severe?

Goose, meet gander.

The board meeting was to have taken place last night, so I look forward to reading a follow up.