Idiocracy in report cards

One more step towards the world of Idiocracy… We are so eager to create a world where everyone is ‘equal’ that we just keep lowering the bar. At this rate we might as well grant citizenship to chimps and gorillas, since they are far more intelligent than the kids who are getting H’s on their report card.

Some schools stop giving F’s – UPI.com
Published: Dec. 6, 2008 at 12:54 AM

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6 (UPI) — Some schools in the United States have stopped handing out failing grades, or at least are delaying them while students get a chance to improve.

In Grand Rapids, Mich., work that would justify an "F" will get an "H" for "held," ABC News reported. The school superintendent, Bernard Taylor, said students will have several choices — including retaking a course, doing additional work or agreeing on another plan with teachers — but the grade will become a failing one if nothing is done within 12 weeks.

"I never see anyone doing anything but punishing kids," Taylor said. "If the choice is between letting kids fail and giving them another opportunity to succeed, I'm going to err on the side of opportunity."

Taylor and many other teachers and administrators say they believe many children quickly become discouraged and failing them contributes to the country's high dropout rate. He argues that children need to see a way forward.

Critics say the practice is amounts to coddling children.

"The task is to change the reality, not the labeling of it," said Alan Kazdin, a child psychiatrist at Yale.

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New Zealand looks better every day.

WTF?

Has ‘entrapment’ become too big of a word for the new low-IQ-standard Police Officers they hire these days?

-Chris

The Raw Story | Md. mayor’s dogs killed by SWAT after cops deliver pot
Associated Press
Published: Thursday July 31, 2008

BERWYN HEIGHTS, Md. — A SWAT team raided the home of a Washington, D.C.-area mayor, killing his two black Labrador retrievers and seizing an unopened package of marijuana delivered there.

Prince George's County Police said Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo brought a 32-pound package of marijuana into his home that had been delivered by officers posing as delivery men. The Tuesday evening raid was conducted by county police narcotics officers and a sheriff's office SWAT Team.

The package was addressed to Calvo's wife, Trinity Tomsic. His mother-in-law had asked the supposed delivery men to leave the package outside. Calvo has not been charged, though police said he, his wife and his mother-in-law are "persons of interest" in an ongoing investigation.

"We never opened the box. We have nothing to do with this box," Calvo said.

Sheriff's office spokesman Sgt. Mario Ellis says deputies "apparently felt threatened" when they shot the dogs.

Calvo said officers entered about 7:30 p.m., first shooting 7-year-old Payton. They then pursued 4-year-old Chase, who ran away and was shot by police from behind, he said.

Calvo said he doesn't have any idea how the package ended up at his house. He called the raid "the most traumatic experience" of his life.

Calvo, who called his town "Mayberry inside the Capital Beltway," gets a small stipend as mayor and works at the SEED Foundation, a nonprofit that runs public boarding schools for at-risk students. His wife works as a state finance officer.

"These were two beautiful black Labradors who were well-known in the community. We walked them twice a day; little kids knew their names and would come up to them and pet them," he said.

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Hire stupid people, get stupid results…

This particular case has been bugging me since I first heard about it a few weeks ago. As an intelligent person, I would like to think I could do anything I wanted; but apparently I can’t be a cop:

METRO NEWS BRIEFS: CONNECTICUT; Judge Rules That Police Can Bar High I.Q. Scores – New York Times
Published: September 9, 1999

A Federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a man who was barred from the New London police force because he scored too high on an intelligence test.

In a ruling made public on Tuesday, Judge Peter C. Dorsey of the United States District Court in New Haven agreed that the plaintiff, Robert Jordan, was denied an opportunity to interview for a police job because of his high test scores. But he said that that did not mean Mr. Jordan was a victim of discrimination.

Judge Dorsey ruled that Mr. Jordan was not denied equal protection because the city of New London applied the same standard to everyone: anyone who scored too high was rejected.

Mr. Jordan, 48, who has a bachelor’s degree in literature and is an officer with the State Department of Corrections, said he was considering an appeal. ”I was eliminated on the basis of my intellectual makeup,” he said. ”It’s the same as discrimination on the basis of gender or religion or race.”

So, what happens when a profession who is responsible for maintaining law and order refuses to hire ‘smart people’?

Deputies subdue car crash victim who fought rescuers — South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Staff report – June 14, 2008

Sheriff’s deputies zapped a car accident victim with a stun gun several times Friday morning after he became violent with emergency workers who tried to put a neck brace on him, authorities said.

The crash occurred about 3:30 a.m. when the man, Mark Holder, 30, of Boynton Beach had a seizure in the Cadillac he was driving along Military Trail and Champion Drive, and his passenger, NeNe Piltoff, 47, of Delray Beach, had to take the wheel, sheriff’s spokeswoman Teri Barbera said.

The car jumped the median heading southbound in the northbound lanes of Military Trail before it swerved off the road and smashed into the Addison Court plaza sign.

As fire-rescue workers tried to put a neck brace on Holder, he fought them, Barbera said.

After he was subdued, he was taken to Delray Medical Center with serious injuries, Barbera said. Piltoff suffered a dislocated elbow.

A smart person would realize that a tazer is not a general purpose tranquilizer gun. It is not a star trek phaser set to stun. In the wrong hands, in stupid hands, it is a potentially lethal weapon. Only a complete fucking moron would use a tazer on a person who had a possible spinal injury and who emergency workers are trying to get into a neck brace…

-Chris

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