Update On School Strip-Searching

[Solid Snake]

Bah, stop making me feel so terrible about my decision to go to Law School. >.>

[Lumenskir]

Bah, stop making me feel so terrible about my decision to go to Law School. >.>

As I'm in it, I can't really say that it's stupid to be in it, just that it's currently pretty stupid to want to focus on Con Law.

I mean, I harbored dreams of taking some free speech case through harrowing appeal after appeal, engendering supports and cascades of amicus curiae for my side, but after reading cases like this one I realized that if I ever did get to the Supreme Court the transcript would be something like.
Lumenskir: Your Justices, as you can see in my notes, we have this Bill of Rights-
Justice: Lemme just cut you off real quick, where does it say the Constitution we can't make teenage girls strip down naked in front of leering adults without parental n-OHMYGODMYNECKYOU'RECHOKINGMYNECKWITHYOURHANDS!

I mean, at least in contracts I have the option of working at some soulless corporate megalith for enough 170 hour work weeks that they eventually take pity on me and give me a window office from which to assign all of my work to lesser law school graduates whilst I snort coke off Thai hookers's secondary sex characteristics.

EDIT: To get somewhat more Discussion-y, the makeup of the Supreme Court has recently morphed into this group of people who don't decide things in terms of individual interpretations of the law but rather two diametrically opposed blobs fighting over the last remaining blob. I mean, sure, it's always been like that minus the periods where a bunch of Justices croaked during one lucky guy's presidency run, but the Court gets built up into this shining beacon of non-partisanship that's supposed to keep the other two idiot branches in check that when you enter one of these dark periods of ultra judicial party fighting it's sort of depressing...

[P-Sleazy]

Originally Posted by Marc v1.0

It's a little disgusting when you have to start teaching your children that, no, you can't really trust teachers to have your interests anymore. I can remember all those cartoony PSAs on Saturday morning tell us if someone was hurting us or touching us inappropriatly that we need to tell a teacher or parent.

Not anymore, not when a school official can be allowed, maybe even legally privledged, to strip a child naked on the shittiest of unreasonable suspicion. These people aren't the parents, they aren't legal guardians.

We take people to trial and lock them up as sexual offenders when they touch little kids or make them get naked for their pleasure, but we're gonna let strangers that our children are FORCED to interact with decide at their discretion to make our kids strip down nude? WITHOUT even making sure the parents are there!? We might even give them a big goverment "GO!" pass on it if things go their way in Court? That's all we need, closet pedos getting their rocks off legally to our children.

Well, Fuck That. It'll be one of the first things I teach my children before they start going to school to NEVER allow anyone to do this to them, and if they have to kick and fight and scream and run that I won't care.

Okay, first thing, in defense of teachers. Its not the teachers who are performing the strip searches. Many of the things teachers have to do that we don't like, they don't like either. And they do them because the higher ups (school administration, state officials, etc) told them they have to. Like Standardized testing. Most teachers (if not all) will tell you they hate having to give up class time to administer these tests.

Second thing. As for the people who actually are performing the search, it isn't the teacher. They just report what they have to. The people who do perform the search is usually someone very high up in the schools administration or the School police officer, or the school nurse/doctor. So two of the three professions already do this as part of thier career (albeit, one does it to willing patients who want to know if everything is right down there, and the other does it to people who are in official police custody) and the third is probably handling confidential information on the student.

[Eldezar]

My school district wasn't near as bad as Blue's, but still pretty shitty. I was personally framed for having a hit-list in the 8th grade, and the Dean searched my locker, my bag empty my pockets and had me take my socks and shoes off. didn't go any further. Luckily, I think my Dean understood I was being harassed, as I was literally the least popular kid in my class, and I think he only went that far to say that he did in case it came up. Granted, I never realized at the time that I could have done more against the students picking on me.

However, the same thing with no pills of any kind at my school without permission and in nurse's office. No food or drink that wasn't from the school vending machines or cafeteria, and a few other things. They never went as far as to forbid someone their insulin or inhaler.

I could go on and on about other crap, but you get the idea. Basically, though, unless a major overhaul is done to the school system, or I end up in a district that I am positive won't screw up my kid, then their getting home schooled.

[Rymramoch]

If you home-school your kid, just make sure to socialize them. Without regular interaction with people their age, kids can grow up kinda weird and without any real idea of what can/cannot be appropriate. I saw a couple home-schooled kids at my college who started out as straight-arrows, and then dove head first into booze etc. so hard that they were expelled by the end of freshman year.

[Marelo]

Just want to reiterate that socialization is a must for homeschooling.

Also, by all freakin' means, unless you are a professional teacher, do not actually try to teach them yourself. That's how you end up with 11 year old kids who can't read at a second grade level, with siblings entering 8th grade who can't find North America on a map or figure out fractions (true story, I'm a family friend). There are plenty of programs, a lot of them through actual schools, which can do a much better job than an amateur.

[pochercoaster]

I would think that if you homeschooled your kids they'd have more time to be socialized- i.e. it doesn't take 6 hours to teach a single child what the curriculum dictates they must learn in a single day, but it does take 6 hours to teach 30 of them. Additionally, you can spend extra time on whatever subjects they're having difficulty in, and also move on to more advanced material in the subjects they grasp easily. Any leftover time you have can be spent taking them to the park/swimming lessons/playdates/whatever.

Course when people hear "homeschooled" a lot of them think of kids raised by crazy overprotective parents or evangelists, but that's certainly not always the case. And judging by some of the rules schools are implementing lately, I'd say they're being overprotective at times.

[Lady Cygnet]

Originally Posted by Runswithnopants

Also, by all freakin' means, unless you are a professional teacher, do not actually try to teach them yourself. That's how you end up with 11 year old kids who can't read at a second grade level, with siblings entering 8th grade who can't find North America on a map or figure out fractions (true story, I'm a family friend). There are plenty of programs, a lot of them through actual schools, which can do a much better job than an amateur.

Ironically, I've worked with kids who have been taught in public schools in Illinois, Indiana, and Missouri, and they have those exact same problems: they cannot read at the level for their age group, they cannot do simple math, and God help you if you ask them to identify any countries, states, or state capitals on a map.

Ignorant people shouldn't be teaching, true, but not everyone has to be a professional teacher to do a good job of homeschooling their children, especially when the public schools are such a mess.

[krogothwolf]

I'm a little glad Canada isn't that bad in teaching the youngens. At least it wasn't when I went through our schooling system. I have noticed Americans coming to canada from was Texas and Arkansa i believe and being about 2 or 3 grades behind us in math and such. You guys have some of the Greatest Universities in the world it always boggled my mind when kids coming here couldn't do basic math in grade 7 so I always thought Americans were just idiots. Of course I have since been proven wrong on that.

Canadian home school is actually usually worse then our public schooling as parents skip out on to much crap that they don't know themselves. One person would be hard pressed teach a kid all 4 major subjects

[Marelo]

That's kind of what I was trying to get at. Too many people think they can teach their kids, when they don't know what they're supposed to be teaching.