Education Dollars at Work: The DOE’s Private Arsenal

Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

In the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre, there has been considerable talk about how to make our schools safer, including the NRA’s proposal to put armed guards in every school. However, this is not why the U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) Office of Inspector General bought 27 new Remington Model 870 police 12-gauge shotguns in 2010. Nor were these weapons purchased to improve graduation rates or close the achievement gap. Rather, these guns were obtained for the benefit of DOE’s secret identity as an elite education fraud fighting unit.

According to Valerie Strauss, the guns were purchased to replace their old guns, weapons they argue are necessary for their “high-risk” crime fighting duties. Strauss’ piece in the Washington Post quoted a DOE spokesperson who said the Office of Inspector General arrests people with criminal backgrounds, including some with “histories of murder or violence toward law enforcement officers,” and has “full statutory law enforcement authority.”

The one example that Strauss gave of such an investigation was a recent search of a Stockton, California home as part of an investigation of waste and fraud involving federal education funds.

It seems to me that if being robbed and embezzled by highly armed, violent insiders is pervasive enough to warrant having its own heavily armed police force, the DOE has been wasting taxpayers’ money with NCLB, Race to the Top, and all its other expensive “reforms.” Instead, they should be implementing sting operations in every district in the country, creating departments of internal affairs, hiring undercover agents and turning teachers into Serpicos to root out all this corruption and vice, and then using the billions of dollars recovered by these operations to buy schools more books, computers, support staff, librarians, nurses, counselors and decently paid teachers.

Perfect Liberal Storm: Guns, Homophobia, Child Abuse and Juvenile Justice

Three years ago, at the age of 14, Brandon McInerney walked into class and shot a gay classmate, Lawrence King, with a .22-caliber handgun he had in his backpack and then calmly walked out of the room. McInerney is now being tried as an adult and faces 53 years to life, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The prosecution claims that McInerney is a neo-Nazi and is calling the murder a hate crime. However, witnesses testified that McInerney mostly hung out with the black athletes at his school, the San Francisco Chronicle reported, drawing into question the neo-Nazi claims. In fact, a black friend testified at the trial that he was unaware of any Nazi affiliations. Regardless, McInerney’s views on race are irrelevant to the case. However, it is clear that his actions were motivated by homophobia, which would certainly make it a hate crime.

The defense is saying that McInerney was provoked by King’s repeated advances, making the crime manslaughter, not murder. Yet in order to commit the crime he had to smuggle a gun into school, which would make it a preplanned and deliberate crime. Furthermore, being propositioned, even aggressively, is not a provocation that justifies violence, let alone premeditated lethal violence.

The case is being called the highest profile gay bashing since Matthew Shepard was murdered. It clearly highlights how acceptable homophobia still is in our culture and how far we are still are from having schools that are safe for all students. However, the case also brings up numerous other troubling issues, such as when, if ever, should a child be tried as an adult, or how did a 14-year-old have access to a gun in the first place? There is also the question of whether some adults fueled events leading up to the murder or if they could have done a better job in preventing the bullying and murder.

Let’s start with the obvious. Murder is wrong. Bullying is wrong. Homophobia is wrong. A well-adjusted, mature, empathetic and compassionate person, even at the age of 14, does not do such things. So what was wrong with McInerney? According to the Wikipedia account, his mom was a speed freak and his father was violent, shooting her in the arm on one occasion and attempting to strangle her on another. His father ultimately left, but he called child protective services five times out of concern for the safety of his son, accusing the mother of running a drug house.

Considering his home-life, McInerney may very well have lacked maturity, compassion and empathy. Furthermore, he may have been suffering stress, anxiety and even PTSD from the violence, aggression and lack of emotional support at home. This does not justify his crime nor take away his culpability. However, a child growing up under such conditions might very well lack the coping mechanisms necessary to deal with any anxiety producing situation, particularly unwelcome advances by another person. One might reasonably question whether trying him as an adult and imprisoning him for 53 years or longer is fair or just of even in the public interest.

While McInerney’s situation is tragic, his victim’s is even more so. King had been bullied about his sexuality since the third grade. The Wikipedia account said that the bullying intensified in 7^th grade, when he started to wear women’s clothing to school. However, there was something else tragic about King’s life that may have been independent of the bullying. He seemed to have an obsessive and dangerous need for attention. For example, he supposedly taunted other boys, saying “I know you want me,” and a Newsweek expose said that he told others in the locker room while they were dressing that he thought they were “hot.” He also apparently walked into the middle of a basketball game to ask McInerney to be his Valentine in front of his friends, which led McInerney’s friends to tease him and may have been the tipping point for McInerney.

Such provocative behavior by a middle school child of any gender or sexual orientation is often an indication that there are deeper issues. In King’s case, there were. When he was still a baby, his father abandoned him and his mother was addicted to drugs, according to the Newsweek article, leading to his adoption at the age of two. He was later prescribed medicine for ADHD and diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder, a condition in which a child fails to form relationships with caregivers. He was also in trouble numerous times for vandalism and shoplifting and there were reports that his adopted father was beating him.

While it is clear that both King and McInerney had troubled childhoods, one might also wonder about the other children at the school, many of whom knew that something terrible was in the works and did nothing to stop it. For example, McInerney tried to recruit some of his friends to help him assault King. They refused, but they also did not report his threats to the police or school officials. A friend even testified that he said he was going to bring a gun to school a day before the shooting, yet the friend said nothing to the authorities (Sacramento Bee). The Newsweek expose said that McInerney told King’s friends to say goodbye to him because they would never see him again, yet even his own friends did not report the threats.

King’s adopted father and some of the teachers at the school accused former Assistant Principal Joy Epstein, who is openly gay, of pushing her “gay agenda” by encouraging King’s flamboyant behavior. However, this is a frivolous and desperate attempt to oversimplify a tragedy and redirect blame onto an easy target and it is a distraction from the fact that many adults hold some culpability for the affair. For example, how did a 14-year-old boy have unsupervised access to a gun in the first place? According to the Wikipedia account, McInerney had used the murder weapon for target practice in the past. Did he obtain it from his father, who had once shot his mother?

King’s family sued the school, accusing them of contributing to his death by allowing him to wear makeup and girls’ clothing to school. However, the school could not legally stop him from wearing girls’ clothing. Furthermore, dress codes should not be based on other peoples’ bigotry or fears of how bigots might react. Rather, schools and society at large must ensure the safety of everyone, even if they behave in ways that make some people uncomfortable. It is here where the school seems to have failed. Considering the history of bullying and King’s provocative and outrageous behavior, it would seem unlikely that teachers and administrators were unaware of the threats to King or the conflict with McInerney. Indeed, there had been a confrontation between the two the day prior to the shooting and many teachers were aware of it, but apparently they did not see the potential for it to escalate into something much worse.

More Republican Lunacy

The following list is from AlterNet:

Anti-Environmental Craziness

• Bans on energy efficiency light bulbs are being considered by legislatures in Texas, Arizona, Georgia and Minnesota.
• Elimination of federal protection of salmon, polar bears, seals and wolves in favor of “state sovereignty” is being proposed in Alaska.
• GOP Congressional leaders abolished global warming committees and ended recycling programs in the House cafeteria, claiming “green” initiatives were too expensive and compostable utensils melted in hot soup and break in salads.
• They also want to abolish the EPA

Anti-Poor and Anti-Disabled Nuttiness

• A GOP legislator in New Hampshire wants to banish the disabled and homeless to Siberian gulags

Anti-Homeowner Greed

• They want to abolish Fannie Mae because it competes with for-profit banks.

Pro-Gun Insanity

• Doctors in Florida could be fined $5 million for asking patients if they own guns under proposed legislation, while every adult in South Dakota could be required to purchase a gun if the NRA has its way.
• Georgia is about to allow guns in bars, churches and political events
• Arizona already allows anyone to carry a concealed weapon without a permit
• Utah has an official state firearm, soon to be followed by Texas.
• Congressional Republicans forced “gun rights” into the health care bill to prevent the collection of “any information relating to gun ownership.”
• Congress refuses to ban ammunition clips that hold 40 bullets and fire two shots a second

Anti-Immigrant Hysteria

• In Georgia, undocumented immigrants could be charged with robbery for stealing “job opportunities” from citizens, while several states want to bar undocumented immigrants from marrying U.S. citizens.
• Alabama would make it illegal to rent to illegal immigrants.
• One GOP legislator wants to “make South Carolina a very hostile place for those who are in this country illegally.”

Religious and Moral Paranoia

• Mike Huckabee of Arkansas blames the economic downturn, crime and high school drop-out rates on our “morality” and wants America to worship evangelical Christianity.
• Newt Gingrich claims “religious belief is being challenged by a cultural elite” that wants God “driven out of public life.”

Afraid of Everything

• Republican Ron Paul wants to abolish almost all government agencies.

Iowa School Shooting Drill Criticized By Extremists

"Careful, boys. There're Children in There!" (U.S. Navy)

The San Francisco Chronicle reported yesterday that Treynor High School, in Iowa, will be having a “shooter on campus” drill. The Iowa Minutemen, an anti-illegal immigration group, is criticizing the drill because the fake scenario involves a teen who his vents his anger over illegal immigration by using violence. The state director of the Iowa Minutemen, Robert Ussery, said the drill was is in poor taste and had a political agenda. (As if his group isn't/doesnt?)

The best approach to the problem of angry students, regardless of the cause of their anger, is for the adults in the school to recognize when their students are having emotional trouble and to intervene. In the Columbine case (as in most instances of school violence) there were numerous warning signs that were either ignored or not taken seriously the adults in their lives.

School shootings and Columbine-like violence are terrifying, but they are also extremely rare. Many argue that it is better to be prepared, even for an unlikely event. However, it is a much more efficient use of resources and time to engage in general disaster preparedness. Many of the same things are involved in preparing for earthquakes, chemical spills, and meteorological disasters, as for school intruders and violent rampages. Focused drills and preparedness should be limited to only the most likely events, such as earthquakes in California, or tornadoes in the Midwest. 

 

Making School Safer by Arming Students

Modern College Student (Image by Nevada Tumbleweed)

This just in from Change,org: The Texas House has approved a new law allowing college students to carry concealed weapons on campus. While it is understandable that people are nervous in the wake of several recent shootings on college campuses, including one last year at the University of Texas, Austin, it is complete lunacy (and a statistical fallacy) to think that an increase in guns will somehow reduce gun injuries.

The plan is spearheaded by a group called Students for Concealed Carry on Campus. One of its members, Scott Lewis, was quoted by Change.org: "We're basically fish in a barrel. . . This is about changing the odds."

As is often the case, people like Lewis are reacting with emotion, in this case hysterically, in response to a scary, but relatively rare occurrence. Well over 90% of the violence against students happens off campus. The vast majority of violence that does occur on campus is not the result of guns, at least not yet. Once students are allowed to carry concealed weapons, routine arguments and misunderstandings may start to escalate into shootings. There will also be an increased risk of accidents, as happened this year at a Los Angeles high school, when a students’ concealed weapon accidentally discharged.

University of Texas, Austin, grad student Aron Weinberg believes that the law will indeed increase violence and accidents and has started a petition at Change.org against the new law. The chief of campus police, Robert E. Dahlstrom, and the city police have also come out against the concealed carry law.