Crazy Day

When I went jogging yesterday morning I noticed that the moon was full. And after yesterday, I'm starting to believe those stories about people getting "looney" when the moon is full, because yesterday at work was CRAZY! Mostly for three reasons.



Reason #1: A Break-in. Someone broke into Miles Elementary School yesterday. The criminals were caught in the act (though no one's sure whether "the act" was theft or vandalism) by the daytime custodian. Apparently these crooks didn't realize that custodians and kitchen workers begin their days VERY, VERY early. They were wearing masks and they ran away, but they left some forensic evidence behind that might get them in trouble. I can't go into a lot of specifics because a) there's an ongoing investigation and b) I don't know the specifics anyway, but there was enough evidence there that the police didn't want to disturb the crime scene until experts--Gil Grissom I guess--could arrive to collect the evidence. Thus, staff and students were not allowed into the building until some time after school normally starts. That was an interesting way to start the day.



Reason #2: The Swine Flu. People are really starting to get worried about the swine flu. I guess I don't blame them. All of the TV reports talk about how children are the most susceptible to the disease. I can tell anyone reading this, though, that my school district--and I'm sure every other school district across the country--is doing everything we can in regards to the swine flu. In fact, if you REALLY want to know more about what my school district is doing, you can read about it here. Still, I fielded two calls yesterday from people in a panic about how they will know if we close school due to the flu.



Reason #3: The President's Address to the Nation's Children. Far and away, though, the biggest complaint that we're getting is from people calling and complaining about the fact that the President is going to address the nation's children on Tuesday.

I can't imagine what has gotten in to people! Rush Limbaugh or Glenn Beck or someone must be encouraging people to call schools and complain, because I can't believe that people would be acting this way on their own. People yesterday called and complained that they didn't want their child to sit in a classroom and hear this "propaganda from some communist Hitler" (an actual quote from one parent). One person even went so far as to say she'd campaign against EVERY member of the school board if ANY child in the district were allowed to see the President's message.

People in the United States have gone absolutely bonkers in regards to politics. I've been pretty evasive about politics in most of my writing, but I will come out and say this right now: I think history will look back on George W. Bush's Presidency as an absolute failure. I think he is easily the worst President of the last 100 years. Maybe only Woodrow Wilson comes close to screwing up the country as badly as Bush did. All of that said, if President Bush had wanted to give an address to the nation's children, I wouldn't have had a problem with it. There's no way that any politician is going to use an address to children to tackle a really sticky political issue. He'd get butchered in the press and in the court of public opinion for doing so.

But don't tell that to the literally DOZENS of parents who called the school district office yesterday complaining about the speech. In fact, it was such a barrage of calls that it pretty much shut the office down in the afternoon. It was all the secretary and assistant superintendent had time for. And so, this became how tax payer money was being spent yesterday--office employees becoming the toilet that angry conservatives could vomit their vitriol into. I heard from the principals at several of the schools that they were similarly overwhelmed (in no small part due to the fact that that's where we were sending people who complained).

I think everyone is glad that there's a three day weekend now. Maybe some of this will pass over the next three days. I hope everyone calms down a little.