Randy Cassingham's Blog

Posted by Vincent, Tokyo on November 19, 2008:

Alternate strategy to hasten the demise of ZT. Stephen Jay Gould once wrote that people were fundamentally nice, and that every day a thousand acts of kindness happen unreported while the relatively rare horrific acts do get reported.

While the ZT stories are entertaining and provoke righteous anger, they also leave me with a sense of "don't make waves, it ain't worth it". Maybe a special issue of events, or non-events, where common sense prevailed over ZT would balance this. Maybe combined with your other newsletter on heroic acts?

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RC replies: "All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing." --Edmund Burke

Posted by John, Louisa, VA on November 19, 2008:

Maurice overlooked one possible reason for the difference in Japan...they still (rightly!) believe in disciplining children who misbehave. They haven't bought into the horse hockey that doing so would damaging the little darlings' self-eszteem.

Posted by Fred, Reidsville GA on November 24, 2008:

I'm surprised this person didn't call the police when all those kids in SCARY MASKS showed up at their doorstep on Halloween. All those potential mass murderers! The horror! They must be detained, taken from their parents and retrained by the State, which knows best and cares for all!

Posted by Neil, UK on November 25, 2008:

Randy, you call ZT enforcers "idiocrats", which set me thinking. I believe that that word combines the Greek for "private" and "ruler", and thus would denote the idea that the people should be left alone by the authorities - exactly the opposite of what they were doing in this case.

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The Latin idiota is from the Greek idites -- yes, a "private person". But it also means "layman, a person lacking skill or expertise" and is the root for "idiot". Thus, "idiot bureaucrat" -- which is exactly what I'm conveying. -rc

Posted by Bill, St. Louis on November 30, 2008:

St. Louis has got a wonderfully ironic case of ZT that just concluded in the courts. A school principal was fired for trying to use his experience and better judgment in case involving sex abuse. The state law has no tolerance for people who don't immediately report any such allegations. And since the principal had unanswered questions about the allegations, he hesitated before making a report. In doing so he became a lawbreaker.

It is a sad, sad story about a system gone haywire. While our schools are frequently the instigator of ZT, the irony of this case is that a school principal tried to use his head and got beat down for it. No wonder our schools are so messed up.

For those who wish more details (and have the stomach for such news), the details of the story can be found in the Post Dispatch story. One of the lines from the story is "Prosecutors say the details of the alleged abuse and whether the computer instructor truly assaulted the student is immaterial". Truth is irrelevant. You must blindly follow the law or you will face punishment.

God help us all.

Posted by Brandon from South Carolina on March 19, 2009:

The elementary school in St. Louis described by Bill, who hails from there, reminds me of my high-school, where there actually is a problem. At least once every year, my old gym teacher is accused of inappropriately touching one of his female students through her clothes. These accusations have been taken to the principal, but the principal's never reported them, even though they've been made repeatedly by multiple people. Oh, and, by the way, everyone at that school is required to take gym as a FRESHMAN. These are 14-15 year old girls. Now, some of the girls who made the accusations were dishonest or mischievous people and MAY have lied about it. But others of them would never have made it up.

I agree with the principal in St. Louis's decision not to report the accusations he received, because it was one girl who had already made a false accusation, and he didn't want to risk a teacher's career over a lying little girl. But the situation at my alma mater is ridiculous. Saying it should be phoned in would be a far cry from ZT...