Thresholds and Other Ruminations
By Delani Bleu
Part Two: Offline
Saturday, April 19, 2008
11:27 a.m.
I got busted. Big. For what? Believing that the US Constitution’s First Amendment would protect me. Evidently, it doesn’t protect teachers much.
Part One: Online is now officially offline.
Here’s what I wrote to my union-appointed lawyer, with edited names, of course:
Meeting with Head Cheeses
On Wednesday, April 16th, I received a call at 3:20 from Mr. Principal that I was to go to Mr. Head Human Resources Guy’s office at 3:30 p.m.
There, Mr. Head Human Resources Guy presented information about my “facebook” account. I informed him that what he had in front of him was not facebook, but in fact was my blog. He had a copy of the blog that had been highlighted and had many sticky notes attached to it, and looked well worn.
He went through several areas of concern in the blog, including;
· My admission that I had fallen asleep one day in yearbook class.
· The profane language.
· Students were pictured, and therefore, identifiable.
· My classroom was pictured, therefore, identifying Town X.
· Company Y was mentioned, therefore identifying Town X.
· I said XHS, and I live in Small-town USA, which therefore, identifies Town X.
· I had written, “I am on drugs, legal drugs prescribed by a physician….” And I replied that yes, I was on anti-depressants. Mr. Head Human Resources Guy then said he was just reading what legal counsel had pointed out, and I said, “I am sorry, I will shut up now.”
· The Badding Twins were mentioned, and their parents would not be pleased.
· My business venture on Cafepress.com was mentioned, and the phrase was referred to with some adjective similar to crude. Mr. Principal asked if it was just an attempt to make money, and I said yes, which had failed as I had not made any money from it.
I was told that I was being disciplined and was suspended for 3 days with pay. I was to report to the same office at 1:00 on Monday, April 21, 2008. I asked for a piece of paper to write things down, as I was not retaining information. I was told that I was to remove the offending blog from the Internet this evening.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
9:26 a.m.
I also forgot to mention the part where Mr. Head Human Resources Guy asked me if I swore like that in the classroom. I said, “Of course not.”
That part keeps playing over and over in my brain this weekend.
That and the part where select former and present students really miss reading my blog. I told them via gmail that I am not a role model; that I am bad; and that most importantly, don’t ever forget that big brother is watching. I also turned off the forum, which I forgot to let Mr. Union-Appointed Lawyer know.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
10:12 a.m.
Wow. I’ve not had a blog hiatus like this in over a year. I am having writer’s block now that I’m offline and have no immediate audience. This is strange; to investigate the importance of tone, audience and intent in a piece of writing.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
9:08 a.m.
What was my intent? Now that I’ve had my hands slapped by “The Man.”
I have been ruminating over that.
Well, speaking of hand slapping, I better get back to the story at hand; my suspension and subsequent reinstatement.
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