This is just insane.

MESA, Arizona — Officials at an Arizona school suspended a 13-year-old boy for sketching what looked like a gun, saying the action posed a threat to his classmates.

The boy’s parents said the drawing was a harmless doodle and school officials overreacted.

“The school made him feel like he committed a crime. They are doing more damage than good,” said the boy’s mother, Paula Mosteller.

The drawing did not show blood, bullets, injuries or target any human, the parents said. And the East Valley Tribune reported that the boy said he did not intend for the picture to be a threat.

Administrators of Payne Junior High in nearby Chandler suspended the boy on Monday for five days but later reduced it to three days.

The boy’s father, Ben Mosteller, said that when he went to the school to discuss his son’s punishment, school officials mentioned the seriousness of the issue and talked about the 1999 massacre at Colorado’s Columbine High School, where two teenagers shot and killed 12 students, a teacher and themselves. Mosteller said he was offended by the reference.

Chandler district spokesman Terry Locke said the crude sketch was “absolutely considered a threat,” and that threatening words or pictures are punishable.

Comments (2) | Permalink

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

I just got word that I passed both sub-tests of the the California Subject Exam for Teachers in biology.

That’s not a typo – this art teacher is now qualified to teach bio.

I won’t need it any time soon, but I’d love to teach bio some day, maybe if there’s a single-period gap at the high school or something some time.

Woohoo!

Comments (3) | Permalink

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Graphic Design Curriculum for 2007-2008 Academic Year
Grades 9-12

I’m focusing on the hands-on design for the first full quarter. Then a quarter each of Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. For the full list of topics in order, see my graphic design class website.

WEEK No.	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI
1 Aug 13	Syllabus	Student Surveys, Slideshow of book “Picture This: How Pictures Work” by Molly Bang	Slideshow [cont.], Quiz	Assignment #1	[cont.]
2 Aug 20	Assignment #2	[cont.]	[cont.]	Careers in Graphic Design + Quiz	Assignment #3
3 Aug 27	[cont.]	[cont.]	[cont.]	[cont.]	[cont.]

Comments (1) | Permalink

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Web Design Curriculum for 2007-2008 Academic Year
Grades 9-12

I’m focusing on the correct coding of XHTML and CSS as the basis for the rest. Dreamweaver will come later. For the full list of topics in order, see my Web design class website.

WEEK No.	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI
1 Aug 13	Syllabus	Student Surveys, Careers in Web Design and Development	History of the Internet, Quiz	Evaluating Web Sites	More about Usabilility, intro to Assignment #1
2 Aug 20	Assignment #1: Web Site Evaluation	[cont.]	[cont.]	Planning a Web Site	HTML 01
3 Aug 27	HTML 02

Comments (0) | Permalink

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

This past week, I reviewed a brief history of the Internet with my web design students, and then I quizzed them (open notes, easy as pie.)

On the last question, I asked, “Who would you conclude invented the Internet?” I got some great answers like “a combination of a lot of people.” Then I got some perplexing answers.

Many students gave each of the following two answers:

• the Soviet Union
Sure, I mentioned that they were the reason we started the ball rolling, to get an edge on technology over them after Sputnick. But I think I need to clarify for these students what “invent” means.

• Bill Gates
I am at a loss. Bill is not mentioned anywhere in the history. I cannot fathom why the kids think he invented the Internet, except he’s the most famous computer guy they know.

Comments (0) | Permalink

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.