Backlash over cell phone sting
Many schools have rules against students bringing cell phones to schools. Some allow it as long as the phone is off during school hours. It can be an idiotic and indefensible rule, but adults have to feel as if they're in charge. If this makes them feels as if they're in control, well, then so be it. That idiocy is a story for another time, though. This is about a teacher and a vice-principal who took it upon themselves to not only confiscate a cell phone, but then to misrepresent themselves in their zeal to enforce their precious rule. Imagine, if you will, the Keystone Kops worked in a public school....
Christopher Klump brings his cell phone to school. That's okay as long as it's kept put away and turned off. Christopher has a bad habit of not following that particular restriction. ON March 17, teacher Shawn Kimberly Kocher saw him with the phone and confiscated it. She then helped Assistant Vice Principal Marge Grube commit identity theft....
Grube's excuse for the sting was a suspicion of drug activity based on a text message that came to the phone from Christopher's girlfriend saying that she needed a tampon. "Tampon" is slang for a fat marijuana joint. It's also common parlance for a feminine hygiene product. In this case the actual usage was for the hygiene product (Christopher was able to procure one for her - now that's a boyfriend). The message had also been received the day before the confiscation, not while it was in Grube's possession. Grube and Kocher encountered that message only by rifling through the phone....
The school system refuses to admit that Grube and Kocher committed any wrongdoing. The Klumps have decided to sue the school district.
This is a perfect example of why I love public education. They will happily teach our children about the Bill of Rights and the Constitution and the rights contained within, all the while denying those same rights to those same students. Adults have the benefit of being presumed innocent until proven guilty, but for students in our public school system, it's like Bizarro World. Everything is exactly the opposite as it is in the outside world. Students have no rights, and they are under the complete and total control of teachers and administrators- who can act like prison wardens if they so desire.
Anyone who has had any experience at all in dealing with the Clear Creek Independent School District will understand where I am coming from. CCISD is a law unto itself, and woe betide any parent who bucks the system. I'm willing to bet that CCISD is hardly an isolated example. The truly sad thing about this is the message that we are sending to our children...not that administrators are really all that concerned about that, I suppose. If you're a narrow-minded, power-hungry martinet, you may just have a brilliant career ahead of you as an administrator in our public school system. (I used to be a teacher, so, yes, I CAN say this....)
Kocher and Gruber are hardly isolated examples of the concentration camp mentality prevalent in too many teachers and administrators. Clearly, detective work is just a bit more than they were able to handle. It would be nice if the school district could step up and admit that mistakes were made. Then again, students have no rights, remember?
Your tax dollars at work, y'all...or not....
