Day 17: Wednesday, 27 December 2006

The signs are pretty classic -- all I need to do is stand outside the gates with a big poster that proclaims "the end is near." (or "the end is nigh" for purists.)

Saw a couple people today who had interesting news to share. It is all hearsay, of course, but then most of our lives are made out of actions based on hearsay. The first bit of "intell" is the "official reason" why this web site is blocked at the school. Mr. Werner is quoted as saying that this site contains "libel." Let's hear from the Journalism students now!

Remember when we studied slander and libel?  News flash for Mr. Werner -- libel requires me to state a fact which is injurious to the reputation of person and can be proven to be false and that I knew it was false when I wrote it. This is my personal web site. It is not even a WWW site, it is an HTTP site and what I write is my opinion. Ya' can't claim libel from my opinion. Not being either a journalist or an attorney by profession -- perhaps Mr. Werner missed out on the nuance the term "libel" requires.  I'll be gracious though and not presume slander on his part directed at me -- ignorance is no excuse under the law, but it is hard to penalize someone for their lack of knowledge. I reckon the above was just his opinion! And he is entitled to it! But perhaps the libel he referred to was the injurious and false -- and he knew it when he wrote it! -- "reasons" for my termination.  That being the case, yes, Mr. Werner, there is libel on this site and you and Mr. Sennett are the authors -- just my opinion of course.

But there is bad news for the Advanced Placement class -- the Seniors who are hoping to get weighted credit for their work in English this year and who, when they take the AP test at the end of the year, could potentially get college credit for their efforts.  Without a qualified AP Literature & Composition trained teacher to replace me, the students will not be able to get the credit they have thus far worked very hard at gaining.  Instead, with a substitute who is a trained teacher -- in history, I am told -- they are reviewing worksheets on poetry. That will not give them the literary analysis background demanded on the AP exam. This situation makes it pretty clear that the administrators who dreamed up my termination certainly didn't have the best interests of the students in mind -- there is more than one "Victim" here.  I can go on to another job.  These students have only one crack at their Senior year in high school.

Next interesting intell piece. I'm being investigated by the Military Police for some potentially criminal act. No doubt I have violated some regulation somewhere that I am unaware anyone even thought about as a crime, let alone wrote up into statute. But, as I just lectured Mr. Werner, ignorance is no excuse under the law...

This does seem entirely Soviet-era-ish though doesn't it? First I'm identified as a threat to the good education of my students so I'm fired without any opportunity to address the issues, then, when I don't go quietly, I am unduly influencing the students and acting in some flagrant civil-tort manner that requires school sensorship to protect the students, and now Big Brother will pick through my every thought, word, and deed to find some criminal act to prosecute me.  That will certainly prove that I am a danger to the community and the minds of the students.  Give them some credit, will ya' boys?  These students are smart enough to see through your cover-your-backside act.  I may pay the price -- and have already -- but you are giving the kind of life-lesson they will never forget.  History does repeat itself -- if sometimes only in small ways, from small minds, and through acts of bullies.  It doesn't seem so much of a coincidence now, that I sent around that article on recognizing bullies in the workplace back in early November. I'll look up the article and link it for anyone who wants to see what Vilseck High School is in for under the coming reign of Mr. Werner, Principal-in-waiting.