You've heard about the Gaggle of Gloucester Girls, right? Gloucester, Massachusetts? School nurses notices that many girls were coming in for pregnancy tests. Maybe not a big deal, but many girls were repeat testers. Suggesting, of course, that they knew they were doing the thing which causes a pregnancy, they were doing it repeatedly, and didn't seem to care if they got pregnant...or did they? School nurses in the fishing town known from the book and movie The Perfect Storm, reported that upon learning of a pregnancy, the girls high-fived, celebrated, and revelled like Chad Johnson of the Cincinatti Bengals doing the Go Daddy Dance after making a touchdown.
So the number of girls, triple the norm, who have become pregnant, and their Go Mommy "dances" have some suspecting a pregnancy pact among the girls. I'll admit it sounds like a pact.
The mayor of Gloucester says there's no proof, but they're investigating.
I like how she basically says, "Don't look at me..." calling out the school board and the Federal Government.
Naturally, when something like this, what has been called a "blip", happens, people ask...why? Why did we jump to three times the normal pregnancy rate? Hollywood!
Juno, a movie about a 16-year-old pregnant girl and Jamie Lynn Spears, 17-year-old unmarried sister of Britney Spears, not to mention her own pregnancy, although she was married at the time.
Some scoff at the media influence, and I certainly tend to when it involves people committing violent crimes because of movies and video games, but I can't entirely disregard the possibility here. Why? Society is more accepting of teen pregnancy than murder, and it takes a warped view of life to take it from another person. That's a mental illness. Intentionally getting pregnant is just a misguided call for attention and/or value.
So it's not JUST media, it's society. The Mayor talks about the school policy to teach abstinence and not have contraceptives available. Again, that's a problem. If you know teens, telling them not to do something does not convince them not to do it. And if they made a pact to get pregnant, then the opportunity to grab a condom or sponge or whatever won't make them pick one up on the way. They'll just...not get it.
Maybe it's the school daycare for employees and students. So, you get pregnant, you have a child, you can leave the child in the daycare at the school. If you tolerate it, you teach it. I'm not saying that it has to be a horrible, Scarlet Letter, banishing kind of scandal, but let's allow the pregnancy and new child to be a little more invasive. Not abandoned teenage mothers, but let them know they won't be coddled.
And while we can put some blame on not having enough health teachers and classes, and not teaching about contraceptives and providing them in the schools, what about the parents of the 17 girls? Are they not responsible more so than the government that the girls did not have an adequate sexual education? But again, who says they didn't know about contraceptives, how to use them, and where to get them?
And what about the 17 men not in high school? Apparently all 17 were not in high school. One was, apparently, a 24 year old homeless man. Where are they?
Media, school, family, society, and 17 misguided girls and men...a perfect storm that led to 17 pregnancies. Can it happen again? Sure. Can we prevent it?
I don't know. We'll have to ask ourselves some hard questions, though. Stop the finger pointing and look at how we accept teen pregnancy as just another step in growing up.
Do you suffer from the McBodog Effect? If you do, you probably don't call It that. You either have your own name for It, or you don't call It anything. It just flutters in the back of your mind, peering over your thoughts like Killroy as you approach a situation where It will come into effect. I call It the McBodog Effect.
I call It that because it most often and consistently happens on a visit to McDonald's. This morning, my wife decided to take the family out for breakfast, an event of such rarity that if you could put a value on events, it would be more valuable than the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series. Her destination was a surprise. It was more of a surprise because the McBodog Effect was in rare form today. When we pulled into the parking lot of the Shoney's restaurant...it has been closed. Shut down. So we discussed our options in the area and voted on McDonald's. Maybe not as fancy a breakfast, but sure to make the Fearsome Five happy with a visit to the PlayPlace. Mrs. Asshole was making sure I was ok with it and I told her, "Don't worry about it. Last time we had breakfast at McDonald's, I discovered the joy of their biscuits and gravy AND pancakes, so I'll be happy."
Mrs. Asshole: "You shouldn't have said anything. Now they'll be out of syrup." Mr. Asshole: "No, it'll be, 'Yes, I'd like biscuits and gravy.'...'Sorry, sir. We're out of gravy, but we'll have a new shipment in tomorrow.'...'Ok, well, I would like the pancakes and sausage...'...'I'm sorry, sir, we ran out of pancake batter.'"
My wife maintained that it would be the syrup and I conceded because it occurred to me that syrup is just a breakfast condiment and condiments, while it is rare, are more likely to run out that major food products like pancake batter and gravy.
So I'm sitting outside with 1 year-old Yankee-Boy while Bravo-Boy, Delta-Boy, Zebra-Girl, and Sierra-Girl are having fun in the PlayPlace, and Mrs. Asshole opens the door...without food in hand...with THAT look...the look all men learn really quickly when in a committed relationship. The look of unhappiness.
Mr. Asshole: "You're kidding." Mrs. Asshole: "They're out of gravy." Mr. Asshole: [laughter]"Well, I called it!"
The McBodog effect is the consistent event of not being able to get that for which you are looking to most enjoy. McDonald's is consistent in its inability to have milkshake makers working when I visit. Every so often I'll get by with a milkshake, but it's more of a surprise when I get one than when I don't.
But it's not just McDonald's...The Roadhouse Grill...now the Original Roadhouse Grill, but back when the Assholes frequented it, it was just The Roadhouse. There was a chicken dinner with rice and some sauce. I forget what it was called. It's not on the online menu anymore so I guess they ofter it no longer. Anyway, when we were eating out regularly as dating couples do, it was my choice every time. It's what I do...there's the one thing I want, and I get it every time. But then we got married and we started a family, eating out became less of an extravagance worth the effort. But one night, with baby Delta-Boy in tow, we went back for a visit. There was that one dish I wanted. It was on the menu (I expected it to be gone). It was placed in front of me...changed. Not nearly as good. I won't say it was bad, but it wasn't nearly as "come back for me" as it was in its original form.
Then there's the story of the little restaurant opened and run by my eldest sister's, Hotel-Sis, good friend. Once it opened, we, Papa-Asshole and Sisters Asshole and I, were frequent diners. And there was my dish. I ordered it every time. I was asking for the recipe and was too young to realize that when she said "well, the recipe is for not one serving but a whole evenings worth of possible servings" I couldn't counter with, "well, give it to me anyway, and I'll figure it out from there." Then, Hotel-Sis's friend was tired of running a restaurant, a thriving but small restaurant, and sold it. Family 1.0 returned anyway. Once. My course was still on the menu. I ordered it. It came...it an altered form. Not bad, but not...well, you get the point.
The McBodog Effect shows itself in various ways depending on the nature of the favored item. The Family Man Frozen Dinner ckicken fried beef steaks with corn, mashed potatoes, and 2 beef steaks removed from grocery freezers. Yeah, I can get the Banquet country fried beef steak dinner which is the exact same except with 1 steak, but...who wants one when you could have two. Boston Market had a chicken meal that I loved, and it's now gone. I have coupons for Croissant Hot Pockets, and guess what is nowhere in the grocering area? Croissant Hot Pockets!
Beware the McBodog Effect, or whatever you call yours...if you dare acknowledge it... at all.
Teachers are humans and humans believe things. Teachers teach and what they believe sometimes comes out in how they teach. So when does it turn from teaching to preaching?
Well, John Freshwater, formerly of Mount Vernon Middle School in Columbua, Ohio, has apparently found that differentiation. The Mount Vernon Board of Education has voted unanimously to fire Mr. Freshwater, the 8th grade science teacher at the middle school.
Freshwater's trouble with the Board of Education started, it seems, when they asked him to remove a Bible that he kept on his desk. His argument that he keeps the Bible for his own use and asking him to remove it from his desk violates his First Amendment rights. He also has the Ten Commandments up in his room, which he's been asked to remove. Again, he says a violation of his rights.
Now, the Bible being on the desk shouldn't be a big deal. It shouldn't be a big deal that it's on his desk, but if parents are complaining, it shouldn't be a big deal to just put it in a drawer. The Ten Commandments? It's a science class. How does Freshwater use the Ten Commandments to teach science? Without justification, they should come down...but Freshwater's preaching gets more egregious.
He believes in Intelligent Design. Fair enough. But part of science is evolution and the big bang, which he does not teach. Even if you don't agree with it, if the school district says it needs to be taught, you teach it. I don't agree with all of the changes that have occurred in English expression, and when I get to those bits of altered Grammar, I teach it both ways. I teach that a singular noun that ends in "s" like the last name "Hills"...to make it possessive, you use an apostrophe and an "s"..."That is Dina Hills's bookbag." but that these days it is being accepted to just use an apostrophe..."That is Dina Hills' bookbag." I teach both, tell my preference, and let them decide. Freshwater should do the same. "I believe in Intelligent Design. Others believe in Big Bang. You decide."
But it gets even worse. Apparently he used an electromagnetic device as a part of a unit on electric current. He used the device to...well, descriptions vary...either simply mark students' arms with a red cross, or burn students, brand them, with a cross. He's well liked by many students, but at least one student has come forward saying the brand hurt so bad he was unable to sleep.
Many in the community support Freshwater but whould they if he was Muslim? If it was a Koran on his desk? A star and crescent mark on the arms? The Torah and Star of David?
Freshwater apparently removed his Ten Commandments and religious posters, but stood firm on his personal Bible on his desk. Fair enough. But if he's branding students? If he's not teaching the standards? Unacceptable. Especially the branding of students. Whether they volunteered or not, physically scarring a student is not acceptable.
But it gets even worse. Apparently he used an electromagnetic device as a part of a unit on electric current. He used the device to...well, descriptions vary...either simply mark students' arms with a red cross, or burn students, brand them, with a cross. He's well liked by many students, but at least one student has come forward saying the brand hurt so bad he was unable to sleep.
