Wednesday, November 13, 2013



WA: College Students Placed on Probation For Pulling Gun on Six-Time Felon

Gonzaga University seniors Erik Fagan and Daniel McIntosh were placed on probation Sunday for pulling a pistol on a six-time felon who demanded money from them in their university-owned apartment.

School policy prohibits weapons "at any location on campus, or within University residences." The school board found the students guilty of possessing weapons on school property and of putting others in danger, according to the student's attorney Dean Chuang.

Fagan told the Spokesman-Review they intend to appeal the probation:

 “That information is going to be on our educational record, and anytime we go for a job interview and show them our transcripts, that information will be on there. We don’t feel like we should be punished just for defending ourselves."

On the night of Oct. 24, a man, later identified as Jonathan Taylor, pounded on the door of the student’s apartment and asked for cash. Fagan told local ABC News affiliate KHQ he offered him clothes or food instead:

 “It was scary. And that’s when he started saying, ‘You don’t want to do this. I just got out of jail. And he lifts up his pant leg and shows some kind of ankle bracelet.”

Taylor began encroaching on the door jam with his hand at the small of his back, according to Daniel McIntosh. As soon as McIntosh pulled his pistol, the man fled. Police captured Taylor a short-time later and confirmed he was a six-time convicted felon.

Despite the fact that McIntosh owned the gun legally, and has a state-issued concealed handgun permit, the school is charging him for breaking university policies. Fagan was also charged, after campus police found he kept his hunting rifle in his apartment.

Common sense and the Second Amendment make this politically correct Washington school board look absurd. Fagan and McIntosh are the type of responsible and quick-thinking individuals we should be applauded in our society, not punishing.

Gonzaga University President promised students he would consider amending the gun policy in an e-mail sent this weekend:

"President Thayne McCulloh said as a Jesuit institution dedicated to thoughtful evaluation of complex social issues, he believes this is an opportunity to objectively re-examine their firearms policy."

In spite of the commotion and debate, McIntosh told KHQ even an expulsion would not make him regret his choice to defend himself or others:

 "My roommate's life, my life, anybody's life is worth an expulsion in my book."

SOURCE





Principal Bans Vet Parent, Sees Facebook Post of Concealed Weapons Permit

Army veteran Tanya Mount was banned from her daughter’s school after posting a photograph on Facebook of her updated concealed weapons permit. Mount received a criminal trespass warning statement in the mail from the Richmond County Board of Education Police.

 “The principal is scared of you, she doesn’t want you on the grounds,” police told Mount.

Georgia school principal Janina Dallas confirmed the Facebook post was indeed the reason for banning the parent from school grounds.

“It is my duty and responsibility as principal of this school to ensure the safety and security of all of our faculty staff and students,” Dallas told ABC news affiliate WJBF. She pointed to the number of school shootings around the country as being the reason for preventative measures.

Mount feels as though she is being treated like a criminal. The veteran told Fox News:

 "I am a private person, however after serving OUR country, it is my DUTY to make sure that our lives are not infringed upon, however do it all within the confinements of the LAW, I am a law abiding citizen."

Mount transferred her daughter to another school district and has asked for a public apology from principal Dallas.

So, why was the elementary school principal trolling the personal Facebook posts of her students’ parents anyways? Mount's daughter is disabled, and the mother was giving her time to the school as a volunteer. If a school shooting were to occur, the children would be much safer with a former military personnel armed and ready on the scene.

SOURCE




She Lost Her Job Over This Photo; Find out Why



Lorraine Cook found out the hard way that Pocatello High School in Idaho doesn’t understand the difference between staff vacation time and work. Cook posted a harmless photo of her with her boyfriend from their vacation to her personal FaceBook page over summer, only to have it resurface later in the hands of her employer. Cook was up until recently, the girl’s basketball coach at the school; they subsequently fired her over this depiction of two consenting adults on a trip.

Parents at the school rallied in support of Cook to have her job reinstated, but the district hasn’t budged. The kicker? Her boyfriend in the photo is Tom Harrison, head football coach at the same school Cook was fired from. Harrison didn’t lose his job though, he was only reprimanded for the photo.

Pocatello, you’ve got some explaining to do for your blatant double standard here. While Mr. Harrison doesn’t deserve treatment equal to the obvious sham you just pulled on Ms. Cook, Lorraine deserves nothing less than the treatment her boyfriend received.  I’m happy to report that Lorraine has hired an attorney in this matter, it’s too bad that funding that could have went to pay this coach to keep doing her job will now be spent fighting her in court because the district couldn’t mind their own business.

SOURCE






School Voucher Fight Heats Up in Louisiana

The Department of Justice is suing Louisiana. Why? Because they believe the state’s amazingly successful school voucher program “frustrates and impedes the desegregation process,” or something. To borrow a line from perhaps the most loathed Supreme Court Justice on the High Court, history didn’t stop in 1965. That is to say, Jim Crow is as dead today as slavery -- as are all other legal institutions founded on racial inequality. The DOJ is therefore using an old and outdated court order to keep poor kids in failing schools. This logic, incidentally, is quickly exposed as wrong-headed when one realizes roughly 90 percent of Louisiana’s school voucher recipients are -- wait for it -- minority students.

The Goldwater Institute, which is representing four families in this protracted legal battle, released the following press release today after filing a brief in a federal court on Wednesday:

"Desegregation orders were meant as a mechanism to expand educational options for minority children, not as a tool to keep them out, Louisiana families represented by the Goldwater Institute told a federal court in a brief filed yesterday.
The Institute is representing four Louisiana families, as well as the Louisiana Black Alliance for Education Options, a network of thousands of families across the state. The families are asking the court to dismiss recent attempts by the federal government to end a popular school voucher program in the state. The Justice Department contends that the school voucher program, which is overwhelmingly being used by minority families, “impedes desegregation” and must be approved by one or more courts that are supervising desegregation orders.

According to Clint Bolick, lead attorney for the families and noted defender of school choice programs who served in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, the notion that the voucher scholarship program violates desegregation orders is off base.

“The Scholarship Program cannot be shoe-horned into a lawsuit and set of remedies that were triggered by, justified by, and limited to a very different program and set of circumstances,” wrote Bolick in a response filed Thursday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana."

He continued:

 “This program carries forward the spirit and ethos of the civil rights movement,” said Bolick. “Shutting it down would set the clock back by forcing the most disadvantaged children back into failing schools.”

More than 90 percent of the children benefitting from vouchers are minorities. The outcome of this legal battle in Louisiana has implications for school choice programs throughout the country. Standing desegregation orders remain in effect in over 200 school districts nationally, meaning that a DOJ victory in this case could similarly jeopardize school choice programs across the country."

To put it differently, the stakes are high and the outcome will reverberate across many school districts in the United States. This is why Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is on the move, taking on the special interests who are fighting tooth and nail to maintain the status quo on the most tenuous of grounds. Those who truly believe in opportunity for all will recognize this lawsuit for what it really is: a misguided ploy to impede progress and consign a generation of young people to mediocrity. Let us hope that the voices of reason and justice prevail in this case. Anything less would be unfair to Louisiana children and their families.

SOURCE


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