Shit that Pissed me Off – 1/26/18
School System Blames Late Busses on a Weather Report They Already Knew About
OK, so a little perspective.
Last year, my band had a holiday show scheduled on a day that was forecast to have a horrible snow storm. Even though we didn’t know how bad the story would end up being, we chose to cancel the show and refund the tickets because driving was supposed to be dangerous. The snow happened but it wasn’t nearly as bad as predicted and we could have done the show.
Earlier this week, a gigantic storm was predicted by every weather service. The local school systems opted to close school slightly early and the result was a lot of busses trying to get kids home in the midst of the worst of it. Some children were stuck on busses until past midnight.
That, my friends, is a logistical failure.
Who (aside from every meteorologist in the country) could have predicted this would happen?
Now far be it from me to add to the outrage culture in a weekly blog entitled “Shit that Pissed me Off” but the problem here is the fact the school system then blamed the weather forecast with the implication they never could have known how bad it was going to be. This ignores from the fact they were told how bad it was going to be.
It wasn’t snowing in the morning. I know because I dropped my kid off at school and it wasn’t snowing. By noon, it was horrible. Again, I know because I drive for a living and I was driving in it.
The issue here isn’t the fact kids got stuck on school busses. It’s easy to say “they should have known because they literally did know” but when do you cancel school? Before the storm hits? What if we only get an inch? So they tried to send kids home early once it was clear the storm was going to be as bad as predicted but the end result was they waited too long and some kids (and their parents) had a really shitty night.
Where they screwed up was in blaming the weather report rather than saying “we screwed up.”
The weather report was right. They didn’t act fast enough. They should simply blame themselves.*
*Note: Later in the week, the Superintendent of the St. Paul Schools sent out a very well worded apology that blamed their own shortcomings. So good for him.
Shit that Pissed me Off – 9/18
A 9th Grader was Cuffed and Arrested Because he Made a Clock Was Muslim
I’m sure you’ve read about Ahmed Mohamed this week. He built his own clock and made the mistake of bringing it to school and showing his teachers. He was proud of himself because he made something cool.
His teachers were concerned he’d built a bomb.
Because, you know, most kids who want to blow up their school show the bomb off to their teachers first.
One more thing: REAL BOMBS DON’T LOOK LIKE THIS!
So this kid was cuffed and interrogated by police and then suspended for three days. Because he built a clock.
Now if Ahmed had been white, I somehow think this situation would have turned out differently. Strange given that most of the school shooters I know of were white. Maybe school bombers are different.
As of right now, two important things have happened. On the positive side, President Obama invited Ahmed to the White House, MIT invited him to their campus, and about five dozen tech companies already want to hire him. Because fuck the people who got scared by a Muslim kid with mechanical skills.
On the negative side, he says he has learned his lesson and he won’t bring his inventions to school any longer.
Which is precisely the lesson he shouldn’t have been taught.
Grail Diary 