Eightball #22: Trainwreck of Teacher Abuse

The citizens of Guilford, CT have been played for a bunch of rubes. In a town that rewards school administrators with whopping salary increases at the expense of school crossing guards, one has to ask if what's best for children is truly a top priority.

Friday Rick Green updated us on the Nathan Fisher case in Town Loses a Good Teacher.

Wednesday night, the Guilford Board of Education accepted Fisher's resignation. Willie Dow, his lawyer, told me there was little alternative in a community inflamed over allegations about a teacher, a young female student and a comic book erroneously labeled as pornography.

Honestly, I really don't know whether the superintendent, the police or the poor girl's amped-up parents caused this, but it didn't have to happen. A valued, popular teacher was sacrificed because a few people freaked.

And guess what. Investigations by police and the DCF found nothing. In all of this, no responsible educator in town tried to understand what happened.

Green's column concludes, "Guilford handled it shamefully. A promising teacher was thrown to the wolves."

As in the Amero case, an innocent person is surrounded by no one but self-serving cowards. To say that these people are shameful is to be embarrassingly generous.

The threat of investigations, the humiliation of investigations, the inhumanity of sham investigations all amounted to plenty. The extortion of a resignation by Fisher was a howling success. Ushered into a tiny administrative office - surrounded by a none-too-subtle principal, superintendent, and a police officer (maybe the accuser's brother!), Nate was given the same choice we reserve for Guantanamo detainees - you're in a game you can't win, sign this or else (and btw, screw you - you lose).

And no sooner than the ink had dried did a tsunami of lies, disingenuous "facts", and hate crime innuendo creep into the public discourse. The pretense of ""protecting"
Polly Pureheart's parents "right" to defame, destroy, and endanger the life of Nathan Fisher seemingly became the media's crusade. After all, "good" parents can take the law into their own hands, organize vigilante mobs, and do as they damned well please. Why not? Hardly anybody cares, right? Patrick J. Lyons in a NYTimes blog writes in Strange Headlines About Parental Involvement

Beyond the hot-button social issues that figure in these cases — guns and abortion — which will no doubt bring out the familiar political reactions from all sides, The Lede is struck by the light these very different episodes shine on the permeable boundaries between parents and childrens’ lives and the way they can refract people’s perceptions of right and wrong.

Highly questionable though their judgment may have been, in each case the parents appear to have started, at least, with a protective impulse: the Pennsylvania boy had been bullied, we are told, and the Massachusetts parents claim to have been trying to spare their daughter heartache.

Parents often say, “I’d do anything for my kid.” Should they?

Good question. In Nathan Fisher's case the DCF investigation considered the charges "unsubstantiated". Similarly, the police investigation failed to get the eightball in the corner pocket. Never mind - heh, heh.

In America - IN AMERICA, MY COUNTRY TIS OF THEE! - in America, when you make a mistake you should apologize. And so, on the weeknight Guilford's Board of Education should have heard the apologies of the anonymous parents and the recommendation of the Superintendent and Principal to reject Nathan's coerced resignation. Instead, quietly, shamefully, cowardly, Fisher's resignation was accepted without a peep. No teachers stood up, no parents, no students, NO, uh-uh.

In fact, now that Nate's been exposed to the world as an innocent man shouldn't the anonymity of the parents be exposed as well?

I hope the teenagers of Guilford do not grow up to be their parents and guardians. Aim higher. When adults complain about the youth of America, you can always respond with, "Look who's talking" with devastating effect.

Like trained seals, teachers, parents, and the public have been conditioned to accept the human sacrifices offered by teacher's unions, administrators, and timid politicians who insist "there are no winners here", "it's too late to make it right", "too bad", "what a shame", and the cacophony of weasel word excuses used to rationalize the barbarism of petty tyrannies. It's all a nod and wink game.

In response to Rick Green's column, Pulitzer Prize winning author Art Spiegelman wrote,

Seems I ought to have put in my two cents earlier, when I first read reports of this sad comedy of errors, but I was paralyzed with the fascination that can come when witnessing a train-wreck. So, though it may be too late, My hat is off to Nathan Fisher for offering one of Dan Clowes' best works to a ninth-grade student. It's a work richer, more complex and far less licentious than many on the school's approved reading list and a book, coincidentally, that I'd passed to my own daughter when she was in ninth grade (she's at Yale now) with no obvious ill-effects from that reading experience. Clearly, the comic book format brought out atavistic tendencies in the authorities concerned who have damaged Guilford's reputation and all the parties concerned.....If Nathan Fisher needs a letter of recommendation for his next teaching gig, I volunteer my services.

Oh for a few more sparks of courage. If this country is to survive and prosper and overcome the 9/11 lack of vision the previous generation had then courage is the first step.

Toward that end, let's clarify a number of additional facts about this incident for the record. The family of the girl are long-time Guilford residents, the girl was not new to town or the school system. The girl had spent a year in Florida living with an aunt and apparently the parents made no effort to contact the school about high school preparation (like -cough- reading).

The father's brother is affiliated with the police which may explain the implicit, arrogant sense of entitlement to berate this teacher with impunity by the family and family supporters.

The girl stopped after a class to get the assignment and chose a book. Numerous (quite disingenuous commentators describe this as "creepy" or signifying nefarious intent and so on - all fabulist horseshit - Fisher let a new student choose a book - it is what it is, a gateway behavior leading to... -gasp- uh, READING).

Thomas Forcella's letter to parents states, "It is important for parents to know that the material in question rose to a level of unacceptability that is far beyond that of materials normally questioned in educational circles." Even Big Bird would call this sugar-coated propaganda, bullshit.

Finally, the dispproportionate volume of predator hysteria heaped upon males attempting to offer care-taker or teacher functions is reaching epidemic and crisis tipping points. A minivan-diaries blog entry called, The Victimization of Nate Fisher is a must read.

Search my blog for Fisher for more information on this case.

Porn in Guilford Located, but...

Yes, found it. But I strongly urge that only local authorities visit the site. My unwitting visit was one of utter shock and if the women depicted in various acts of sex are Guilford residents then Guilford may in fact have a cottage industry growing in their back yard.

But first, let's talk about Nate Fisher who has been mistreated throughout the coverage of this case by the statements of the parents who under the cover of anonymity continued to smear Nathan Fisher's name by playing a victim card at every turn.

Let's start examining more of the facts surrounding this case. Unknown to most media outlets, reporters initially covering this case were reported to the police as potential trespassers by an unnamed school official (Jason Marchi - Guilford Courier - 9/27 - police incident report).

News media people covering a story about a teacher’s resignation were reported outside Guilford High School, 4:14 p.m. A school administrator asked police to check into whether the media members were trespassing.

One might think that the school official have the courtesy to simply address the press instead of set them up for a tazer shower.

The school it seems has had a truth problem all along. It was widely reported that Nate Fisher resigned before the school's investigation was able to conclude. Here's, for example, is WNBC30's report,

Fisher was placed on leave when administrators learned of the issue. The district said they had not begun the investigation when Fisher resigned.

Police also received a complaint about the incident.

Yet, The Shoreline Times quotes Superintendent Forcella as saying, "Mr. Fisher resigned just after our investigation was over. The book he gave to a student was extremely inappropriate and showed very poor judgment. It contained partial nudity and had sexual content.".

In fact, Shore Publishing's Pam Johnson reports Forcella saying, "“It was his decision to resign…I completed the investigation, and we met to discuss it, and at that meeting he brought forward a letter,” of resignation, said Forcella. The meeting was to discuss the administration’s investigation of a family’s report that Fisher gave a freshman Clowe’s graphic novel, Eightball #22, in early September."

So contrary to popular belief an investigation was conducted and I would love to receive a copy of the content. The reason is obvious. Forcella, in his public comments, not only allows blatant lies to go uncorrected about Nate Fisher's narrative by the parents and his own just-covering-my-ass double-talk.

Forcella and the media covering the incident allow the parents who are made uncomfortable by Fisher supporters to use that support against Fisher as though the well-wishers were proof of a criminal element.

The parents contribute to the fabulism that Fisher was doing something profoundly disturbing by asking English 101 questions like, "How did you feel about this book?" Or by inferring that an after class discussion is a secret, shadowy, sinister opportunity to assign make-up work (which is what actually happened) or to seduce a 14 year old who he had met exactly, um, once (which is hysterical in more ways than one).

The voices of Fisher's supporters have been largely censored everywhere in this smear campaign because of the assertion a death threat was made on Facebook toward the family. Given their uncanny ability to exaggerate simple teacher-student conversations into soap opera slaeze plots, I suspect this assertion is equally dubious. Dubious but useful in silencing any questions about their motives.

Here, from Robert C. Pollack's article Students Defend Teacher is what enlightened parents had to say about Nate Fisher's gift and integrity,

But Loren Sterman, a licensed, clinical social worker for a New London Private school, whose daughter, Amanda, was in Fisher's freshman English class last year, had a different story to tell.
"I met with Mr. Fisher during a parent-teacher conference last year and was concerned because Amanda was not an inspired reader," she said. "I talked with him about how he could help her to read and become interested in reading and to develop her writing skills as well.
"He did all three. He listened to her and was sensitive to her needs. It didn't faze him when she said she didn't like to read. He just kept at it and kept looking for books she would like to read until he found them.
"What troubles me most of all about this is students have to read and teachers have to find a way to get them to do so. I went on line and looked at the book - Eightball #22 by Daniel Clowes. It's one of a series of books about a mythical town and the town's kooky characters, done in comic strip style. Daniel Clowes is a highly respected, award winning author.
"Clearly, Mr. Fisher made a mistake in that it was not an appropriate referral for this ninth grader. But it was not a malicious or lascivious one and should not have led to his suspension and subsequent resignation. In my view, he is a gifted teacher and our students are poorer for his departure. He was Amanda's favorite teacher."
She went on to say she is not being critical of the school administration, but added: "I think there has been a lack of communication and am convinced a horrible mistake has been made."
She pointed out that kids are exposed to "disgusting images" on the Internet, on television and in the movies all the time.
"This was an honest mistake Mr. Fisher is willing to take full responsibility for. I would like to see him reinstated, with some other appropriate penalty. And hope a number of other parents feel the same way. To me, this is clearly a case of overkill."
Her daughter, Amy, agreed. She said Fisher had not only inspired her but had helped her reach the point where she really likes to read.
"He gave, me 'The Lovely Bones' by Alice Sebold and I loved it. And in class, he got all of us to read aloud the parts in Romeo and Juliet and made us relate to it and appreciate it.
"As to talk that he is some kind of a sleaze, that is absolutely ridiculous. He would never do anything inappropriate with us. He just made a mistake in that case and should not have been forced to resign."
Rachele Black, 15, who was also member of Fisher's English class last year, said much the same thing. She said of course Fisher would ask any student to tell him how they feel about a book he gave them to read. "He is an English teacher, so of course he would want to know that."
Black added that "giving this girl this particular book was clearly a mistake, but not one that should take him away from his students.
"Why should this one particular incident overshadow his one year of teaching when he had done nothing wrong until then and was clearly a gifted teacher? I think his permanent departure would a very big loss and I would hate to see him leave the teaching profession."

In contrast and aside from the parents (to the degree this is knowable), an online poster has spammed comics forums with vile insinuations that Fisher's actions are enough to pronounce him guilty of being a sexual predator.

This person uses the internet alias of usrngrx and made the mistake of leaving a profile at bakerradio.com. It identifies the poster as

Male
35 years old
Guilford
United States, Connecticut

Someone responding to his post in Mother Jones mistakenly thinks the person is female.

USRNGRX is someone who maybe an authority figure close to the school or within the police ranks based on the comments scattered around the internet. I tried to no avail to get a more specific profile of the individual.

The person is of interest because he lists links to sex offenders as if Fisher is one. The problem is USRNGRX's own fascinations with pornography at bakerradio, howard stern's blog, and a third site that is shockingly pornographic in nature. I will not link it here but a search of this alias yields a very, very disturbing hit on Yahoo ("suck" being a prominent word in the URL). I urge the general public NOT to go there - but someone needs to.

If the women on that site are Guilford girls then Guilford indeed has a pornography problem.

And some English teachers have the audacity to think irony is dead.

Shock and Law

The hate crime being perpetrated in Guilford against Nathan Fisher is incredibly simple to deconstruct once you begin to sort out the sequence of events and eliminate the one-sided treatment of Fisher by both WTNH and the print media in New Haven.

First, by visiting the Guilford High School web site, you can access the Student/Parent handbook. The make-up homework section reads as follows;

MAKEUP
WORK: ACADEMIC
All makeup work is the responsibility of the student. Arrangements should be made with individual teachers, however the teacher and the student are mutually responsible for communicating what work needs to be completed. Work missed because of an unverified absence or "cut" may not be made up for credit.
All absences from school must be verified by a parental telephone call or note. Students will have at least one day to make up missed assignments or to prepare for tests, quizzes, and projects for each verified absence. (Tests, quizzes, and major projects may require multiple days.) This deadline can be extended if mutually agreed upon by both the teacher and the student.

Numerous reports, blogs and commentary fail to get this simple fact straight. Nathan Fisher had no responsibility to bring the make-up work to anyone. He broke no rules or protocol. None.

As we know from a previous post, the summer reading list that all other students chose from was simply a recommended list. Nate was kind enough to offer make-up choices that could be quickly finished (say, over the Labor Day weekend)so as not to punish the new student for a missed assignment she had no knowledge of.

In a comics blog called The Beat, the mother of this teen claims to give us the facts and all of the quotes from the mother originate in her correspondences there.

The mother tells us "Her brand new English teacher asked her to stay after class so he could give her an assignment to read over the labor day long weekend"... "on the second day of school". It is important to note this because on the following Tuesday, the THIRD day of school, our mom who expects immediate gratification claims her complaint falls on deaf ears. My guess is that the THIRD day of school's morning after a long holiday weekend is chaotically hectic. The mother claims she "was brushed off" by the school.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves here. Sequentially, the next set of claims concern the "discovery" of the book assignment. This event has two different explanations but first let's talk about what most kids do when they bring homework home.

If my teens come home with a book my wife and I both know it. We ask, "Do you have any homework" and reading always yields a set of moans that means they have something to do and we find out what it is.

Privately, this is what the teen says happened in her household as well. Comments left here previously claim, "The girl showed her parents the book, her mom didn't "discover" it. I know. I heard her telling people."

But that's not mom's story. Mom claims she "discovers" the book on Saturday because her daughter, having been warned that the book contained mature themes decides that sharing these mature themes with her younger siblings is the thing to do. Mom claims to be shocked, "So I said to the group of children - “what’s so funny you guys!” So the kids reply - We are laughing at the reading assignment from her teacher - “The two kids are doing it” - So I said - Give me that!"

This ambiguity is striking because if the daughter told the parents about her homework assignment and showed it to them as the daughter claims, the parents had numerous ways to resolve the issue.

First, "I don't want you reading this book."

Second, notify the teacher why you object. Guilford's high school web site offers an email complaint line, phone numbers where messages can be left, and the student/Parent handbook describes the complaint process; 1. notify the school then, if not satisfied, 2. notify the district, 3. superintendent 4. Board of Education.

What is doubly disingenuous about the mother's account is the inclusion of the younger children in the claim. It's a surefire tear-jerker. But if they knew about the book's contents and allowed it to happen then shame on them.

One also has to wonder if the family "picnic" she refers to was a meeting with the family relative who is a "police detective in another town". If so, it may indicate a deliberate deception. The dad, later interviewed by the New Haven Register, seems like a seething character needing sedation or and anger counselor and this is days later.

If this book was the topic of discussion at the family picnic one can imagine dad being fit to be tied. The decision to escalate the book incident to a police matter had to be a consideration on Saturday. But, let's face it, complaining about a book is not enough. The family would have to think of an angle to make this teacher pay. It takes no stretch of the imagination to speculate that someone said, "Hey, what if the guy is a pervert - we could fix him good if that were the case." Indeed.

The mother, in disclosing the "facts" is careful to point out such details. "Why would this teacher think my 13 year old would want to read this! I could not imagine what this teacher had in mind with my daughter by giving her this comic. I was fearful that I knew what might be on his mind!" She says this in reference to first seeing "the fluffy blue bunny page" on Saturday.

In other words, the mother believes the teacher has made an untoward advance on her daughter because of a dialog a fluffy blue bunny character in a book has. Let's assume she really believes her own imaginings. One would think that she would not only say, "you aren't reading this book" but "AND we're changing teachers on Tuesday". Nothing of the sort happens.

Nor does either parent research the book or author. Nor do they ask their daughter why she might have chosen the book. The mother offers a lame explanation that her daughter thought it was about shooting pool which makes no sense at all. The book is obviously not a book about playing pool and cracking the book randomly would yield this information.

The mother also goes to great lengths to frame the idea that "I showed the school and the resource officer what was given to my daughter and they were very surprised, this is not part of the allowed reading material for teachers to give." Yet as you can see the curriculum is rich with sophisticated reading material and teachers and students negotiate appropriate assignments.

What transpires on Tuesday can have many contexts. The mother's explanation cleverly sidesteps the seething anger of a father who even most recently swears to see to it that Nathan Fisher "never teaches again" and threatens Fisher with legal action.

At face value, one has to wonder if, during the family picnic, it was decided to frame Fisher as a sexual predator. The family police insider could easily call in some favors and set the stage. Or, mom, knowing that this insider was in her back pocket could play a handful of Aces and Jokers.

In other words, the school and its administration would be hit with such an immediate and unrelenting bursts of claims and counter-claims that Nate Fisher would be unemployed and legal jail-bait before anyone could react - a shock and awe offensive.

Tuesday morning.

Mom claims, "when I went to the police and the school, we were not on a witch-hunt - we weren’t out to get anyone fired and we were really hoping this was all a big mistake. We thought possibly that maybe some kid stuck this in his classroom as a joke and that happened to be the one she picked up thinking it was about playing pool."

Really? Why would she think so. Her daughter chose the book and told her parents so. Here the explantions start to unravel. The mother first claims "One book was about shooting pool, or so she thought - This would be Eightball (issue #22)." Her claim is implausible. She knew and admits to what she knew about her daughter's choice yet claims she hoped it was all a big mistake. What field of magic would intervene?

In actuality, we know from dad's media exposure that they had and have every intention of not only getting Fisher fired but claiming sexual deviancy in his actions and threatening lawsuits on these claims.

Her revised explanation of this same event claims, "on Tuesday morning I called the school and requested to speak with someone about it. I was brushed off. Apparently, the administration felt that I was what almost everyone who doesn’t have the facts think I am, a crazy overprotective mother who has a religious or other agenda.

At this point, I spoke with family members, one of which is a police detective in another town in CT. He, and all of my family members advised me to bring the matter to the attention of the police department. I went there Tuesday morning, and they referred me to the school resource officer, who is a police officer who is stationed at the high school."

This second explanation contradicts the first. Seeking immediate gratification, she claims getting brushed off in a phone call on one of the most hectic and busy days of the school year. She leaves no message?

And, she claims that she immediately calls all family members on Tuesday morning and they insist this (what?) is a police matter. Why are the police needed to switch homework assignments or switch teachers? And why, if she believes the teacher is a predator, allow her daughter to go back to class? Again, this is implausible and inconsistent.

After that (same morning) she drives to the school. "I went there Tuesday morning, and they referred me to the school resource officer, who is a police officer who is stationed at the high school.

I showed the comic, and asked for advice on what I should do. He immediately brought me to see the principal, and an investigation was started through the school administration."

Her actions are frantic, calculated, she touches all the bases required to set the teacher up if that is an intention and touches none of the procedures needed for due process. The steps she describes are almost orchestrated for dramatic effect and plausible deniability. She has set all the wheels in motion to frame the teacher yet never says, "I don't want my daughter reading this book and I want her class reassigned."

Her daughter attends class that day and the mother says, "She told him that she really thought it was disgusting and inappropriate and he said yes, I told you it might be a little bit mature." The mother offers no more of the conversation. Did Fisher apologize? What happened?

She describes her reaction, "Well when I heard this, I was really disgusted. What can I assume in this day and age was this teachers motives?? I put her back in the car and I went back down to the school. I asked to see the principal again and I told him what was said to her after class."

Disgusted by what? What motive could be implied except something manufactured? Why didn't mom go and talk to Fisher after class with her daughter?

Could the answer be that the whole thing was staged? Choreographed using insider information to deny Fisher due process, the ability to understand or respond to the unspoken concerns of the parents, or to defend his integrity due to an overload of the due process by aggressive, disingenuous police activity instigated not by any real crime but by family connection?

Is it possible that the family has suffered stock market or hedge fund losses and created a perfect storm scenario for a civil suit to restore lost assets?

In region 19, teachers have a classroom phone that they can be called on and email addresses to be contacted off-hours with. Why didn't the police allow the school investigation to complete before strong arming the administration to laying out an ultimatum with Fisher that amounts to little more than institutional blackmail and a fate of personal humiliation for Fisher?

If I were a heads-up insurance fraud investigator I would look at a case like this and salivate at the opportunity to question witnesses, examine phone records, time-date stamps, family relationships, due process violations, and so on. Fisher never knew what hit him nor did the school but we're much closer to knowing that now and it isn't pretty.

The Revenge of the Blue Bunny Campaign

Nathan Fisher has committed no crime. Yet, we find out today that he resigned under duress (see the comments of Imprint of Fear). According to a source within the JulieGroup, the choice is reserved for teachers who are perceived to be sex offenders. There's a laissez-faire nod and wink from the teachers unions that this is okay. Or, at least it was prior to the internet age.

The Nate Fisher case has broken the pattern. You see, Nate Fisher is not a sex offender. In fact, after hours of reading it becomes clear that Nate Fisher is a rock-star in the world of high school English teachers. I have yet to read or hear a bad word said about this guy by anyone who's been exposed to him for more than a few days.

Teacher popularity ratings never impress me but the students at Guilford were sticking up for this guy before they were silenced. And what they were saying about Nate would make his parents proud.

Nate was being set up by extremely disingenuous parties and I'll blog on some possible reasons tomorrow. Nor could Nate have known he was being put in double-jeopardy by resigning.

If yelling "Fire!" in a packed theater is not protected free speech then pronouncing a fellow citizen a sexual predator, pervert, or deviant is not either. This is hate speech and a hate crime. This is worse than calling a black - nigger, a jew a kike, or a chinese citizen a koolie.

Yet Nate Fisher has been called these things because of strongly worded suggestions from the accuser's family. A family who includes a conspiring police detective.

We need to know who filed the criminal complaint against Nathan Fisher. The family claims it wasn't one of them. Yet the rabid stalking of Nate Fisher continues in blog after blog.

We know what happens to people accused of these crimes. They fall victim to depression - they may commit suicide, they may be entrapped by out-of-control, self-appointed morality police who invent ah-ha scenarios to flog them even more, or maybe he's just jailed and found hanging from the cell one day - oops!

We know too well what false allegations can mean. Yes we do.

Nate Fisher has committed no crime nor was his judgment suspect. Tomorrow we'll talk about this parental exploit more.

But today, we need to insist that Nate Fisher's resignation is rejected not only because it is systematic extortion of his reputation but because the school did not have the facts that we're beginning to compile.

To this end and to the proposition that teenagers have an inalienable right to free speech I'm proposing a children's campaign to start immediately. Let's model it after the 'V' is for Vendetta fictional social protest.

This is an open letter to Daniel Clowes offer to open source the Blue Bunny and allow graphics novel artists and writers invent T-shirt designs that promote the rehiring of Nate Fisher or the free speech of teenagers (see Avery Doniger). We need to have students across the country wear these shirts to school until Nate is rehired.

Furthermore, I am asking Halloween mask companies to likewise produce Blue Bunny masks to endorse free speech for all teens. Let's make this conviction unanimous across the country.

Oh, I almost forgot. Open source Blue Bunny as long as the proceeds go to the Julie Amero Defense Fund, Avery Doninger Defense Fund, ACLU, Nathan Fisher defense team, Anti-Defamation League or other legal defense fund.

This can happen if you want it to.

The Imprint of Fear

This country is failing our teachers and the national dialog about schools sounds as though its been scripted by Fox TV News.

Nathan Fisher resigned because he's a rookie easily intimidated by loudmouths to whom a fearful Board and administration cower with resignation. The lawyers advising school boards are near worthless clerks who earn their money by changing the grammar of school policy manuals every few years without the aid of an automated find/replace function key (cha-ching!) but they will tell everyone in listening distance not to say a word. Don't speak. Board members can't converse via email. No. Shut up and be scared like everyone else.

Some Educators simply sleep-walk through the nightmare of Bush America.

Elaine Cunningham's blog is the most affecting testament to how pathetically treated teachers are in this country. They talk about fear of teaching the subjects they love. Of having to rename famous art so as to slip in some culture. Fear, stress, and anxiety that they might easily be the next Nate Fisher.

One of my high school English teachers was a young woman, probably just out of college. I wasn't happy with everything she did--such as leaving my test scores out of the bell curve--but I appreciated the fact that she tried to expose us to new ideas and forms of expression. One evening she invited several girls from the class over for homemade root beer, an interesting apple cobbler with peanut butter in the biscuit topping, and recorded folk music. I remember Odetta in particular, and I remember privately acknowledging that even though I didn't understand or even particularly enjoy the music--bluesy folk was a bit too far outside my experience at the time--it was undeniably powerful. Since this teacher knew I liked to read, she lent me books from her own library. I zipped through War and Peace and asked for other Russian writers. She happily handed me a collection of Chekov short stories.

One of these tales puzzled and troubled me. The narrator was a young sailor who, along with a grizzled, dissolute old wretch, drew the lucky straw for the two peepholes into a passenger cabin belonging to a pair of newlyweds. As they watched, an older, powerful-looking man entered the room. There was an argument between him and the bridegroom, but after a while the young man left the room. As the older man advanced on the horror-struck young bride, the old sailor bid the younger peeking tom to come away, as there were some things unfit even for the likes of them.

I had a general idea, of course, but I wasn't quite sure what was going on in this story, and why. So after class, I handed the book to the teacher and told her I was missing the subtext. She leafed through the story. Her face began to flame. She closed the book and quietly said, "I shouldn't have given you this. It was a mistake. I'm very sorry."

Much later, it occurred to me that if I'd brought that story to the attention of the school administration and made a sufficient fuss, she very likely would have lost her job. And let me tell you, it's fairly easy to make a fuss among Seventh-day Adventists. My mother taught in the local two-room school house for years, but as I recall, there was some concern about her losing her job when complaints were sent to the school board and the church conference about the pendant watch she wore. Strict Adventists didn't wear jewelry at the time. (Not sure if this is still the case.) Watches were fine, even pins were considered okay, but absolutely NO rings (including wedding rings), necklaces, or ear rings. This was Worldliness. It was a transgression of scriptural admonition to--and I'm paraphrasing from memory here--"Let not your adornment be gold and silver, but a meek and quiet spirit." (Come to think of it, I suspect that the complaints might have had as much to do with the lack of meek and quiet as it did the presence of gold....) The thing is, Mom can't wear watches. She puts them on, they stop. She takes them off, they'll start up again. No one knows why. She needed some way to carry a timepiece, especially during outdoor recess, so she wore a simple pendant watch along with her other "ornament:" a whistle on a chain. (And FWIW, no one bitched about the whistle.)

The comments Elaine received on her additional observations I will only blockquote in snippets and I'll defer to Elaine's blog for author references.

One of the reasons I've never given teaching in the public school system serious consideration is because of how politicized the administrative landscape is. As a result, you get kneejerk reactions when parents threaten legal action.

I was once caught in a similar situation. A parent believed that I had made a sexual advance towards a student (some rumor was circulated somehow). (this was a private school) and I was forced to apologize to each class I taught, with the principal looking on to ensure I did it. If I hadn't apologized I would have been fired (I tried to resist, but I as in my first year of teaching) and it wouldn't have done any good anyway. I was never told the student's name no even really told the situation in which I had said the thing (I had no memory of it), or what I said.

it's not worth the risk. In fact, I read a projection somewhere that by 2020 or so there will be virtually no male elementary-school teachers. That's sad, because it's probably one of the things that will contribute to long-term societal collapse. But it's just not worth the risk.

But it's cases like this that make me rethink my career goals. I'm a teacher who thinks outside of the box, and more and more, that kind of thinking just lands you into trouble. So I have to ask myself, is it worth it? Does my passion for teaching outweigh the restrictions placed on public (and some private) school teachers?

I know nothing about this story, or the graphic novel in question, but it made me think of a couple that tried to bully my mother into sending one of her eight year old students to a school for retarded children for saying the word condom in class. (Mum had reacted by telling her that word was unfit for school and the girl didn't say it again. The couple's daughter however kept repeating it despite reprimands.)

it seems like the local media have already made up their mind that the teacher was a predator, and don't seem real interested in digging further.

Please take the time to visit this site - I'm just scratching the surface.
Why are we allowing our teachers to be treated like criminals first and human beings as an afterthought.

We need to get the effin' politicians out of the schools. Schools in America need to be treated like embassies bestowing diplomatic immunity from all the bullies and special interest lunatics who have turned learning into an exercise of walking on eggshells. We need to restore America's schools by allowing teachers to teach with passion and integrity - NEO-CON THEORISTS BE DAMNED.

EightBall #22 - Like Pearls Before Swine

The suggested reading list for Guilford High School is available on the internet here. It is a list of authors that the English Department is expected to have familiarity with. You will notice that, given the number of authors and the number of books written by just these people, every student theoretically could have read a different book from anyone else.

Mr Fisher's assignment of a single book to Suzie Cheesecake was in no way unusual or untoward - she was being treated just like every other student in Guilford. In order to assign a summer reading book she alone missed, she was asked to stay after class and pick a book and she was told that the book, though highly recommended, contained mature content. But it could be quickly read, catching the new girl up to the rest of the class. She could have declined and read something else.

Later her mother claims the girl thought the book was about "shooting pool" presumably pool with mature content.

Mr. Fisher, contrary to Main Stream Media reports violated no rules. The official list of authors was suggested not exclusive. He trusted that the student having been forewarned that mature content would be encountered implicitly was willing to accept the material and process it appropriately.

Had the girl chosen Allan Ginsberg instead, mom might have objected to Ginsberg's enthusiasm for carefree, gay living. Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian would introduce the girl to page after page of one nihilistic depravity after another.

As the Rosanna Rosanna Danna Saturday Night Live character used to say, "If it isn't one thing, it's another." Citizens will note NO OTHER GUILFORD HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT freaked out from their summer reading choice. NONE.

The book, Suzy Cheesecake chose is called Eightball #22 or Ice Haven by Dan Clowes.

Kevin Sampsell's review includes this description of the material:

Clowes has taken on the challenge of detailing the dark underbelly of a small American town named Ice Haven. Although the cover advertises "29 stories in full color," each story actually serves as a succinct chapter in what eventually reveals itself as a graphic masterpiece.

Starting with a walking tour of the town by disgruntled poet Random Wilder, the story scatters into various subplots, each one weighed down by its own malaise. We meet Mrs. Wentz, the mundane grandmother whose poetry appears in the local newspaper; her granddaughter Vida, who becomes obsessed with Wilder; a grade-school kid whose heroes are famous criminals Leopold and Loeb; a little boy in love with his stepsister; and numerous others. Clowes' drawings are crisp and straddle the line between realistic and cartoonish. In the past, many of Clowes' simplest frames were still disturbed by odd touches in the background (a pregnant woman smoking, obscene bathroom graffiti); but now, he seems to have embraced a more stringent brand of minimalism (frames of people silently pondering their fate). In one slight digression, Clowes seems to imitate the style of The Flintstones, while telling the origin of a deep hole in the woods. In the following story/chapter, the crime-infatuated child tells Charles, a quiet kid with a flair for Nietzsche-like spouting, about killing another boy "because he was a fag and a retard." It's sort of an anti-Charles Schulz moment, where the act of pulling a football away from an impending kick is simply the precursor to other tortures.

But it's not just the kids who are cold here. When a married pair of investigators come to town to investigate the boy's disappearance, there is a palpable strain on their marriage, especially when the wife's underwear and barrette show up in other people's homes. Random Wilder's poetry is also a constant source of bitterness, even turning inward when he decides his work is "nothing but shit" and tries flushing his notebooks down the toilet.

Surprisingly, most of this tale ends on a positive note and the issue even wraps up with a sort of epilogue by a helpful comic book critic named Harry Naybors (I like the way that Clowes always manages to have direct, sometimes negative references to the comic world in every Eightball). Clowes' art has always been funny, haunting, and appealing, but his storytelling, although sometimes done obscurely, is the reason he remains in the upper rankings of any visual artist today.

Is this appealing to any salacious cravings? How about Mike Lukich's review in PopMatters;

Collecting Eightball #22 (originally published in 2001) in a lovely little hardcover edition, Ice Haven focuses on the titular town and an ensemble cast of its residents. When a young boy named David disappears mysteriously, the citizens of Ice Haven are galvanized and the relationships between the characters begin to slowly unveil themselves through a series of well-constructed vignettes that are tempered with both anxiety and humor.

The cast is quite rich and diverse, but Clowes focuses more on a select few, including the frustrated and unappreciated middle-aged poet Random Wilder, who acts as the narrator of sorts; the lonely, lovesick Violet; Mr. and Mrs. Ames, a husband and wife detective team, who are called in to investigate David's disappearance but end up investigating nothing more than their own disintegrating marriage; and the philosophical young Charles, who's precocious observations are offset by the secret love he beholds for his teenage stepsister.

There are some parallels that can be drawn to both the television series Twin Peaks and the film Magnolia here. Both feature large casts of quirky characters going through their own private dramas, all of which are connected in some way. The tone here, however, is considerably less dark than either, and much of this is due to the artwork.

Clowes' current method of graphic storytelling employs the use of short one or two page strips, which he compiles and serializes to reveal a much larger narrative. It's an interesting, economic, and almost modular approach, and the use of these abbreviated segments, which could easily stand on their own as individual strips, allows Clowes to sidestep unnecessary segues between scenes. This actually creates the sense that there is more going on than what is shown on the page. His drawing style has also become more refined in recent years. The Charles Shultz-like simplicity in many of the strips creates an air of innocence visually even as the characters are being brutally honest about their bitterness, loneliness, jealousy, and sexual longings. In Clowes' hands, the image of a boy peeping through a hole in the wall to leer at a girl in the shower is turned into something sweet and affecting.

-snip-

Ice Haven is one of Clowes' best and perhaps his most accessible story to date. There is a warmth and sense of optimism present that acts as a nice counterpoint to the harsh although not entirely unsympathetic light that Clowes shines on his characters. He reveals the quiet, complex, beautiful, and downright messy nature of humanity with a keen eye, a sharp pen, and an even sharper wit. The comics medium is privileged to have a storyteller of Clowes' caliber, and we're damn lucky that he loves us so much to keep putting out these wonderful books.

Wow! Pornography doesn't get much edgier than this.

And the book is recommended as challenging reading in this High School English teacher's guide, Making the Journey, Third Edition.

Contrary to popular education myth, school boards do not read every book cover to cover. We don't. Teachers are expected to challenge students to achieve proficiency, maturity, and good taste in culture and art. As a Board member I fully expect and encourage lively, thoughtful educational experiences. And I fully expect someone will get angry about one thing or another. We've hired excellent and professional administrators who -thank god- are graet at maintaining a healthy educational balance.

The books read in high school are largely adult content. That doesn't make them obscene, inappropriate or in any way nefarious. As Gunnard Nelson used to quote, Many are called, few are chosen.

Nathan Fisher's resignation must be rejected and he needs to be reinstated with full back pay due to the temporary insanity of a small town in Connecticut.