Randy Cassingham's Blog

Posted by Jay, LA on July 19, 2008:

To Kent in Denmark,

The constitution is not the problem, the idiots who think their job is to "interpret" it are. The constitution is clear as day. These cabbage headed idiots on a power trip are the ones who need an education.

Posted by Phil, New Hampshire on July 19, 2008:

John of Allentown pointed out that they should vote the bums out, but school administrators usually have employment contracts; even when there is egregious behavior, it can still take months to get rid of them. Perhaps the thing to do is get elected to the school board and propose a change to employment contracts that allows for a lowering of salary when an official chooses to act without thinking. If I don't do the job I'm paid to perform, I don't get paid. Why should school officials be any different?

Posted by Jacques - Omaha on July 19, 2008:

The reason that these "administrators" will never be charged with child abuse is simple:

They're all part and parcel of "The System."

And "The System" takes care of and protects their own.

They are all but immune from the misdirected fury of the law - a law which more and more treats average citizens as serfs - without rights, without recourse, and without even the semblance of justice.

It will get much worse before it gets any better. (Hey - why do you think the government is building (through Halliburton) those huge detention camps in the USA for? It sure ain't for - as the officials say - the "event of an emergency influx of immigrants into the United States..."

They're made to house you and me - should we serfs ever get a bellyfull and start demanding change.

It's time to go, while the going is still possible.

Posted by Anna, Connecticut on July 19, 2008:

I'm surprised no one has commented on one other egregious injustice in this case: Why was Savanna fully strip searched, but not the other two students involved? Why was the boy not strip searched AT ALL??? Granted they already KNEW he had ibuprofen on him, but isn't the so-called motive behind these acts that they are fighting a greater war on drugs? Why didn't they search for more?

Seems to me there's also discrimination at hand, along with many, many other things.

Posted by pete maryland on July 20, 2008:

This better never happen to one of mine, or these ego tripping tyrants and their supporters all better go into hiding far far away. This country and its courts is run by and populated with a huge contingent of loony piggy stupid borderline personality disordered scumbags, and when it comes to my kids and grandkids, I'll mete out the justice/education (-as in, see how you like it) timely, to be sure it's done.

Posted by John Cavanagh, Dungloe, Donegal on July 20, 2008:

I live in Ireland and any Americans I have met have seemed reasonable and normal people but I'm beginning to doubt this. If this case had happened in the UK or Ireland I think the outcome would have been different. Not only would the head have been charged in court but so would the two people who carried out his instructions. The plea, "I was only carrying out orders", failed in Nuremberg many years ago. "The wording of the law was too obscure" would not hold water. The rule here is that ignorance of the law is no excuse. Anyone who thinks that stripping a 13 year old girl naked is lawful should not be allowed near a school or any other contact with children.

Why are these people allowed to carry on doing these things. Not to put too fine a point on it, why are Americans so stupid that they allow these things to happen?

I just heard on the radio that Bush thinks waterboarding is not torture. America I despair for you.

---

Most Americans are indeed reasonable and normal. But most don't want to make a fuss, so a minority run roughshod over them. But another minority sees the harm and speaks out. Not just me, but brave people like Savana Redding and her parents. My goal is to get the silent majority riled up enough to actually do something about all of this. I've been fighting it for more than 11 years now, and I still have work to do. -rc

Posted by Rick Concord,CA on July 20, 2008:

The school systems today are bureaucracies. They have to be. They are under State control for funding and following whatever "laws" the State deems to apply. Also Federal control for funding, etc. Added are the local school boards populated by petty politicians working harder to keep their names in the paper than actually trying to make the "system" function. All of these controlling entities are not there for the benefit of the students. Rather, the students are simply cannon fodder to promote political agendas all all the levels mentioned above. As long as the citizens, parents and non-parents alike pay no attention to the egregious actions by the politicians, there will be no change. The unwritten policy will continue to be "ask NOT what I can do for the schools and students, but rather asl what the schools and students can do for ME". Sorry, JFK.

Posted by Sarah, Australia on July 20, 2008:

I'm a teen in high school in Australia, and i think this case (as with most ZT cases) was ridiculous, on many counts.

I get VERY bad menstrual cramps every month, and i have to take pills every 3 hours from the second it starts, or i literally cannot move. I have 2 types of pills (that i can take together to work faster) in my school bag at all times, and another in my handbag. I usually take a couple days off school per month anyway, when i take the pills even an hour too late and the pain starts. If they had this ZT policy in my school, i would be off school for more than a week per month, which is ridiculous. They are PAIN PILLS people! Not even prescription, but over-the-counter pain pills! Of course, strip-search us to make sure we don't get students or ourselves hurt with these pills, oh, i forget, i'll be hurting if i DON'T have them! This policy should be refined allow for common sense, or banned altogether...

May i also say that if any school official tried to make me strip, they would be suffering not-so-polite refusal and may be nursing broken bones if they tried to force me. [They would also probably get arrested, my Dad is a cop :)] People say that kids these days are too lax about authority? I say, go for kids! We should be able to stand up for ourselves, and for our rights. We should KNOW what is wrong for people to do to us, and KNOW that we can refuse, and NOT have to worry about the consequences of denying a strip search!

Lastly, the women involved in the actual searching should be locked up for life (hello, you CAN refuse to do something wrong, even if ordered by a superior, so they are just as wrong) and the principal should be banned from ever working near children, locked up, and maybe be castrated so that he doesn't get the urge to make girls strip again.

Randy, thank you for your efforts in the war on ZT. [By the way, shouldn't pencils be banned? i mean, you can stab people with them. And sharpeners have little blades in them! evil! Oh, and chairs can be thrown at people, so we should just sit on the floor. In fact, lets get rid of classrooms altogether and learn sitting on the football fields. But watch out for kids with BLADES of grass! This is what ZT is getting reduced to: War on EVERYTHING.) Anyway, please keep it up Randy, and hopefully ZT can get banned in America, and hopefully it never comes to Australia! If you ever need help, just ask. :)

Posted by Boris, Phoenix, AZ on July 20, 2008:

If you want to stop ZT (and what "normal" person does not), then just require ALL school personnel to be under the very same ZT policy as the students. No excuses accepted for the violation of ANY rule. That would include the school board and any other elected official who has any authority directly or indirectly over schools.

ZT will be totally dead within a year or less.

---

That's the beauty of the system: they're exempt, and there's no way they'd let that change. Voters need to insist on it. -rc

Posted by Lynne, WI on July 20, 2008:

For those who might want to give the school district an earful about what they've done to Ms. Redding...:

[online and mail addresses deleted]

Also, this case is referenced in Wikipedia! Check under the school district or town name.

---

No: do not write the school! Please think first! It is a waste to abuse the school district in this case. Mad? Good! WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMAN, not the school!

Demand that schools all schools have reasonable rules. Demand that zero tolerance be stopped. Demand common sense. Writing private letters of abuse won't help. Writing to lawmakers will -- but only if enough of us do it. -rc