i'm in a shitty mood today for no good reason.

of course there are things that make me angry:

the senate just passed a bill that will withhold federal funding from any public school system that denies the boy scouts of america access to its campus. however, it is constitutionally fine for the boy scouts of america to deny homosexuals the right to be boy scouts. can we say double standard? how does jesse helms sleep at night? more importantly, how does he keep getting himself elected?

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my nephew wasn't allowed to participate in his middle school graduation. why? because he bought a soda. two days before the end of the year, the faculty made the entire 8th grade class walk two miles in 90-degree weather to the high school where graduation would be held. so my nephew stopped at a soda machine on the way, and he got yelled at for buying a soda because it wasn't fair to the rest of the kids who didn't think to stop and get one.

i should give you some background. my nephew tim, who went to phillipsburg middle school, had the worst possible 8th grade year. he had a teacher who routinely swore, kicked garbage cans, and insulted his class. a teacher who informed the entire class that my nephew could drop dead and no one would care. that he was a waste, a loser who wouldn't amount to anything. the kind of teacher who kicks out half the class because he's having a bad day. and gives them detention because they missed the class he kicked them out of. if the kids don't go to these detentions, they get in school suspension; get locked in one room to sit and do nothing.

tim had enough, and refused to go to detention to be insulted further (the administration stated that this teacher had every right to behave as he did, if it was necessary to keep classroom order). in his second day of inschool suspension, the teacher person for that "class" ordered him to wash a desk because he was supposed to have written on it. my nephew refused, and the teacher person grabbed him by the arm and started to force him over to the desk. at some point this guy got my nephew in a headlock, with no one but the janitor watching, and asked the janitor if he should hit him (he was retiring anyway, what the hell right?). so tim told him to get the fuck off him. who got in trouble? my newphew. why? for saying the f-word to a teacher. he got suspended for that one, and his reputation as a troublemaking kid was finalized. call me crazy, but didn't john hughes make a movie about this?

so back to the other day. after he gave up his soda, the insulting teacher followed him, telling him what a screw-up he is and how he's never gonna be anything. if you push anyone long enough, they'll snap. so he told the guy to shut up.

he wasn't allowed to participate in graduation for that. the superintendent of the school upheld the decision. my nephew has a "reputation" at that school. he barely graduated. of course he barely graduated, his teachers were too busy insulting him to bother teaching. and if they had, he'd have been too upset to learn.

you wonder why school violence is rising? ask the kid from phillipsburg high who had to be flown to the hospital by helicopter because he was beaten so badly in the parking lot. ask my nephew, whose teacher told him he might as well be dead. ask me; i didn't talk to anyone for days on end during my senior year of high school. i was sexually harrassed in sixth grade. but if you ask the administration, they'll tell you it's the kids. not the teachers who couldn't care less. it's kids like my nephew who are the problem, kids who are so scared and sad that they don't know which way to turn. what the hell is wrong with these people?

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so what do you think? email me. sign the guestbook. tell me what's wrong with the world, because right now i feel like it's everything.

-beatpoetgrrl

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