Reasons to Weep for the Future

Second Student Sues School District Over Webcam Spying

A webcam scandal at a suburban Philadelphia school district expanded Tuesday to include a second student alleging his school-issued laptop secretly snapped images of him.

The brouhaha commenced in February, when a student of Lower Merion School District was called into an administrator’s office. Sophomore Blake Robbins was shown a picture of himself that officials suggested was him popping pills. The family claimed it was candy.

An invasion-of-privacy lawsuit followed, alleging the district had snapped thousands of pictures of its students using webcams affixed to the 2,300 Apple laptops the district issued. Some of the images included pictures of youths at home, in bed or even “partially dressed,” according to a filing in the case. Students’ online chats were also captured, as well as a record of the websites they visited.

The latest allegations Tuesday, brought by an 18-year-old former student who had just graduated from Lower Merion High, came to light in the discovery phase of Robbins’ suit.

Student Jalil Hasan reported his laptop lost December 18, and it was returned to him three days later, according to the suit.

But the LanRev Theft Track program, which the district activated when the computer was reported missing, was never turned off after the computer was given back to Hasan, according to the lawsuit.

The tracking software on Hasan’s computer wasn’t turned off until February 18, when Robbins filed suit, the suit alleges, claiming that at least 469 photographs and 543 screenshots were taken by Hasan’s computer without his knowledge.

Hasan’s suit said the images “were taken without Jalil’s knowledge, without his authorization and to his utter shock, dismay, panic, embarrassment and disgust.”

A federal judge presiding over the matter, who is weighing whether to allow a class-action lawsuit against the district, has blocked administrators from activating the LanRev program again. The district said the cameras were activated only when a laptop was reported stolen or missing — assertions lawyers suing the district dispute.

Two school district employees who controlled the LanRev activation process have been placed on paid, administrative leave.

The district declined comment. Federal prosecutors have also been given evidence generated from Robbins’ suit.

If you've never heard of the Westboro Baptist Church, you've probably been living under a rock for the past several years. But anyway, a while one of their victims finally decided he wasn't going to take their shit, and sued them. That a judge would eventually find in the WBC's favor is not especially surprising, since technically (as usual) the WBC did nothing illegal. However, said judge went on to demand that the victim pay THEM $16,000 in legal fees.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/201003…

These people are human garbage. In a truly just world, they would be getting locked up for the shit they've pulled over the years. Instead, we get to see them handed their own victim's money. When justice has been turned this far upside-down, you know our country is fucked up... or maybe just fucked.

God damnit, Texas

The nation’s public school curriculum may be in for a Texas-sized overhaul, if the Lone Star state’s influential recommendations for changes to social studies, economics and history textbooks are fully ratified later this spring.

Last Friday, in a 10-to-5 vote split right down party lines, the Texas State Board of Education approved some controversial right-leaning alterations to what most students in the state—and by extension, in much of the rest of the country—will be studying as received historical and social-scientific wisdom.

Some of the ridiculous bullshit they're pushing includes

- A greater emphasis on “the conservative resurgence of the 1980s and 1990s.”

- A reduced scope for Latino history and culture.

- Changes in specific terminology. (capitalism to free market, imperialism to expansionism, etc.)

- A more positive portrayal of Cold War anticommunism.

- Language that qualifies the legacy of 1960s liberalism.

- Thomas Jefferson no longer included among writers influencing the nation’s intellectual origins.

- Excision of recent third-party presidential candidates Ralph Nader (from the left) and Ross Perot (from the centrist Reform Party)

- A recommendation to include country and western music among the nation’s important cultural movements. (The popular black genre of hip-hop is being dropped from the same list.)

Thanks to Texas buying assloads of textbooks, you can be sure this bullshit is going into textbooks everywhere

Another personal account about asshole customs officials, this time in the UK:

http://jillfennec.livejournal.com/…

Full article link

Toddlers who turn their noses up at spicy food from overseas could be branded racists by a Government-sponsored agency.

The National Children's Bureau, which receives £12 million a year, mainly from Government funded organisations, has issued guidance to play leaders and nursery teachers advising them to be alert for racist incidents among youngsters in their care.

This could include a child of as young as three who says "yuk" in response to being served unfamiliar foreign food.

The guidance by the NCB is designed to draw attention to potentially-racist attitudes in youngsters from a young age.

It alerts playgroup leaders that even babies can not be ignored in the drive to root out prejudice as they can "recognise different people in their lives".

The 366-page guide for staff in charge of pre-school children, called Young Children and Racial Justice, warns: "Racist incidents among children in early years settings tend to be around name-calling, casual thoughtless comments and peer group relationships."

It advises nursery teachers to be on the alert for childish abuse such as: "blackie", "Pakis", "those people" or "they smell".

The guide goes on to warn that children might also "react negatively to a culinary tradition other than their own by saying 'yuk'".

Staff are told: "No racist incident should be ignored. When there is a clear racist incident, it is necessary to be specific in condemning the action."

Warning that failing to pick children up on their racist attitudes could instil prejudice, the NCB adds that if children "reveal negative attitudes, the lack of censure may indicate to the child that there is nothing unacceptable about such attitudes".

Nurseries are encouraged to report as many incidents as possible to their local council. The guide added: "Some people think that if a large number of racist incidents are reported, this will reflect badly on the institution. In fact, the opposite is the case."

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Debate & Discussion > Laissez's Fair: What has that wonderful, beautiful warrior goddess got up her sleeve? > I dare you find a more evil company than de beers

This is futureweep.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/s…

http://www.southtownstar.com/news/…

The baseball uniforms for the Tinley Park Bulldogs look a little different this year.

Gone are the names of Major League Baseball teams that accompanied "Bulldogs" on the front of the kids' jerseys.

Major League Baseball has told those who make uniforms for little ballplayers: Drop the big-league names or face a lawsuit.

No White Sox.
No Cubs.
No Phillies, Yankees or Reds.

Why? MLB hurled a fastball at the heads of those who make the uniforms for the little ballplayers: Drop the big-league names or face a lawsuit.

For the Bulldogs, that means no more teams named after any pro franchise.

Because the Bulldogs' uniforms didn't feature official major league team logos, neither the league nor its uniform supplier, SportStation of Tinley Park, had paid a licensing fee for the uniforms.

Late last year, SportStation received a letter from MLB, noting that not only the logos but the team names were trademarked. The letter ordered the company to stop producing the uniforms.

"Does a league have a right to name a local team? Baseball is saying no. That's flying in the face of 100 years of tradition," said SportStation owner Dave Glenn, in business 35 years. "I go out of my way to make sure we use town names, so we make it clear this isn't a major league jersey.

"Now we're told we can't even do that. What it boils down to is the interpretation of the trademark."
Sports are big business, and with billions of dollars at stake, organizations such as MLB go to great lengths to protect their trademarks.

Glenn said he'd never used baseball logos on team jerseys he sold, and ended three months of legal wrangling with MLB by signing an agreement stating he'd continue not to do so. In exchange, MLB promised not to sue over the previous use of franchise names.

At the same time, the many leagues Glenn serves had to adjust. It meant the Bulldogs couldn't use, for instance, the word "Phillies" on a Bulldogs jersey.

If they wanted to do so, they would have to buy jerseys from Majestic Athletic, the exclusive apparel licensee of MLB, which would have been more expensive. Those wouldn't say Bulldogs on them unless even more money was spent to imprint the word or the Bulldogs logo.

"That impacts us," said Steve Bowles, president of the 700-player Bulldogs organization. "We can't have a (Major League) team name or logo on the uniform unless we buy it from Majestic. And when we did a cost comparison of what we had versus that, we can't do it for the same price."

Bowles and his board members huddled, looking for alternatives to present to the parents of the players.
"We were going to look at college names, because the licensing (cost) is different," Bowles said. "We looked at names like the Fighting Irish and the Trojans, etc. About a third of the parents really didn't mind the college names."

Few were absolutely thrilled with the idea, either.

And the concept of new names with no association with baseball or college sports didn't get off the ground.
"It was a level of frustration we didn't need putting a season together," Bowles said.

The youth league president's frustration was shared by many parents.

"I was kind of fired up when I heard about it," said Carl Skanberg, who has a son in the program and coaches a team.

Skanberg, who creates intellectual property in the form of a White Sox parody comic he sells to the SouthtownStar, could understand the position of baseball's licensing arm. But given the relative size of the Bulldogs to big-league baseball, he added, "it's pretty strange that it even came to this."

Some organizations have decided to abandon big-league names. Chicago Ridge's Little League organization went to college names. Bloomingdale went to generic colors.

"They're Bloomingdale Red and Bloomingdale Blue, and that's that," Glenn said. "That was their act of defiance."

Professional and college sports teams and leagues generally protect their trademarks vigorously because they're worth billions of dollars.

While MLB doesn't reveal the extent of its merchandise sales, a sporting goods manufacturers group estimated gross sales of official MLB-branded merchandise at $3.1 billion in 2005, the most recent available estimate. Some of that comes in the form of group sales to youth baseball leagues.

Illegal use of the trademarks has declined in recent years, said Howard Smith, MLB's senior vice president of licensing.

"It's never the youth league, primarily," Smith said. "It's always the retailer. When we find out, we go to him and say, 'You can't do that, and you know that.'

"We're sensitive to this matter. Some parents say, 'Baseball is screwing us,' but we've never, ever sent a cease and desist letter to a youth organization. We want our kids wearing our stuff."

Smith noted that MLB has a royalty-free jersey it sells through Majestic, calling it, "nothing fancy. It says Yankees, but no pinstripes." A Web search found Majestic-made MLB-logoed T-shirts starting at $13.99 at www.hitrunscore.com.

According to Ron Anderson, president of the Worth Athletic Association, it cost his league about $25 to dress a player this year, including buying official logoed hats and T-shirt uniform tops from Majestic through a distributor, before printing a sponsor's name and a number on the back.

"There was a minimal increase this year, but we changed the style of jersey from pinstripe to a solid color, and there was more for printing charges," Anderson said. "I've been involved in Worth for nine years, and we've had Majestic the whole time. I played here as a kid, and we did not have that kind of jersey then."

The Bulldogs board decided to put the names of Major League cities on its uniforms and buy an official cap to match. So a kid on the Royals wears a Kansas City Royals cap and his jersey says "Kansas City" next to "Bulldogs." That seems to have worked.

There was an ancillary benefit. It turned out that buying 700 officially licensed Major League Baseball caps was less expensive than custom-producing a similar number of Bulldogs-logoed caps.

"I think everybody's happy we stuck with the traditional names," Bowles said. "It's always, 'Can Joey be on the Cubs? Or the White Sox?' You want the kids to have fun."

Little Leaguer's Metal Bat Injury Sparks Lawsuit

WAYNE, N.J. (AP) ¯ The family of a boy who suffered brain damage after being struck in the chest by a line drive off a metal bat while playing baseball filed a lawsuit Monday morning against the manufacturer of the bat, the store that sold it, and against Little League Baseball for giving the bat its seal of approval.

The family of Steven Domalewski, who was 12 years old at the time of the June 2006 incident, filed the lawsuit in state Superior Court in Passaic County. It names Hillerich & Bradsby Co., maker of the 31-inch, 19-ounce Louisville Slugger TPX Platinum bat that hit the line drive that crippled Domalewski.

The suit also will name Little League Baseball and the Sports Authority, which sold the bat. It claims the defendants knew, or should have known, that the bat was dangerous for children to use, according to the family's attorney, Ernest Fronzuto.

"People who have children in youth sports are excited about the lawsuit from a public policy standpoint because they hope it can make the sport safer," Fronzuto said after filing the suit Monday morning. "There are also those who are skeptical of the lawsuit and don't see the connection between Steven's injury and the aluminum bat."

Steven was pitching in a Police Athletic League game when he was hit just above the heart by a line drive. His heart stopped beating and his brain was deprived of oxygen for 15 to 20 minutes, according to his doctors.

Although he was not playing in a Little League game, Little League is being sued because they gave their seal of approval to the bat, certifying it as safe for use by children, Fronzuto said.

Little League denies any wrongdoing, as does the bat manufacturer. The Sports Authority has not responded to several telephone messages seeking comment.

I saw this and could not resist posting it

PASCO COUNTY, Fla. -- A Florida substitute teacher says his job disappeared after doing a magic trick in front of his students.

Substitute teacher Jim Piculas made a toothpick disappear, then reappear in front of a classroom at Rushe Middle School in Land O' Lakes, Florida. The Pasco County School District says there were several other performance issues, but none compared to his "wizardry."

"I get a call the middle of the day from head of supervisor of substitute teachers. He says, 'Jim, we have a huge issue. You can't take any more assignments. You need to come in right away.' I said, 'Well, Pat, can you explain this to me?' 'You've been accused of wizardry,'" Piculas explained.

The assistant superintendent with the district said Piculas had other issues, like not following lesson plans and allowing students to play on unapproved computers.

Piculas said he's concerned the incident may prevent him from getting future jobs.

"It should have only taken 10 to 15 minutes to get Michael from the airport to Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women & Children, where he was scheduled to be hospitalized on Friday and examined for a probable heart operation, Fried said.

But immigration officials detained Michael, his mother and Veavea, apparently believing there was "some problem with the visa waiver form for the mother," Fried said. In fact, Fried said, all the travel documents were in order."

(link)

(via odditycollector, who also mentions the lack of coverage the story is getting, naturally)