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Re: Some People Just Don't Think

Posted by **Winston OBoogie** on May 1, 2013 at 5:22:40 PM:
In Reply to: Re: Some People Just Don't Think posted by **No Flies On Frank** on May 1, 2013 at 3:19:38 PM:

***I can understand the reason for the rule - however - some dunderhead actually forbid this?
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***http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/bb49c476800c8b0e300f6a7067002896.jpg">Kansas) school apologizes to Airman in prom dispute
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***WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas high school principal who barred a member of the Air Force from escorting his sister to prom has apologized to him in an attempt to quell a firestorm that's been fueled by a YouTube video of the debacle and the girl's heartfelt letter to the newspaper.
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***A policy change allowing exceptions to the age limitation will be presented at Monday's upcoming school board meeting, Deputy Superintendent Paul Larkin said Tuesday. Current policy in the district located in the southwest Kansas community of Liberal prohibits anyone 21 years old or older from participating in prom activities.
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***The video that went viral showed Liberal High School junior Courtney Widener arriving at the April 20 prom with her 22-year-old brother, Senior Airman Casey Widener. He stopped and stood at attention at the foot of the red carpet while Courtney and another girl continued unescorted across the promenade. As she went inside, Casey crisply saluted her before turning and leaving amid applause from onlookers.
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***"There were hurt feelings on both sides, you know," Larkin said in a phone interview. "I think the best thing is when we came together. I don't think this family had any intention of shedding any negative light on the district whatsoever and by all means we had no intention of dishonoring their son."
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***At Courtney's request, school officials met with her and her family Monday afternoon during a meeting in which High School Principal Keith Adams apologized to her brother, The High Plains Daily Leader and Southwest Daily Times reported.
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***"I am sorry that Casey Widener was offended or dishonored in any way," Adams said. "That was not our intent."
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***Larkin acknowledged that the national attention the prom incident received as the YouTube video was picked up by news and social media outlets was "a contributing factor" in the school district's decision to speed up the timeline for changing its policy: "It made us a little more anxious to get some resolution to this issue," he said.
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***The proposed policy change would prohibit anyone 21 or older from participating in the dance itself, but provide for exemptions so that older family members or others with prior permission could escort students across the red carpet.
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***Courtney told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday that it was important to her to have her brother escort her at the prom because she had only seen him once since he arrived back from his deployment in Afghanistan last September. She said that even though her brother was unable to do so, what he did on the red carpet that night honored her. She said she still had a great night at her prom, and was touched when she saw the video of him saluting her.
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***Even though school officials rejected Courtney's request to have her brother escort her, the siblings figured they were following the rules since he took her only to the foot of the carpet before stopping.
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***"I feel proud of what I did, and I feel proud for standing up for myself and for what I thought was right," Courney said.
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***She said she got an overwhelming amount of support from many people, but everyone was surprised at the national attention the incident brought to the small 20,861-resident Kansas community located about 200 miles southwest of Wichita.
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***"Both the district and my family were amazed at how crazy it got," she said. "We never expected it to blow up like this. We definitely did not want that. We wanted a change, but we didn't want it to come about like this."
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**Apologetic only AFTER they got their asses hand to them for their decision in the first place...
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**There are always special circumstances that can justify waiving the rules or bending the rules. But the Principal and the board decided to play asshole.
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**My hat's off to Airman Widener and his little sister Courtney for bringing the Principal and the school board down a notch or two...they deserved it.
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*The rules still apply to the military just like everyone else.
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*They recognized that at least.
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*I think the school made reasonable accommodations for the future.
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*I don't think there is a reason to get too indignant about this. There is a reason for the rule and if school makes an exception and it backfires then there is trouble too.
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*What if some body wanted to bring their mid-twenties brother to the prom now and he started acting like a jerk and hitting on a bunch of 16 year olds? It could happen even if the guy was in the military. It's not as easy as one thinks to supervise kids. If you start letting adults go to the prom too now you get into liability issues and a whole host of decisions about who to let in or not. While this time might have been an acceptable exception, who's to say next time won't be?
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*I don't see why the military people are entitled to exceptions from the rules. America has never been about letting the military run things and getting special privileges. Do we let people who were in the armed forces, violate traffic rules with impunity too? Just because you have a veteran plate, do you get to drive 20 miles over the speed limit without fear of getting pulled over. 50 miles per hour over the speed limit? Where do we draw the line?
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*One should serve in the military to defend the rights of all people. Not to make a big show about why you deserve special treatment. I'm all for willingly honoring the military. But to upstage the school and make a big issue about why you should be exempt from the rule which applies to everyone just seems and use the symbol of the uniform to do this is unseemly.
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*I feel pretty strongly about this.



***I don't see why the military people are entitled to exceptions from the rules. America has never been about letting the military run things and getting special privileges. Do we let people who were in the armed forces, violate traffic rules with impunity too? Just because you have a veteran plate, do you get to drive 20 miles over the speed limit without fear of getting pulled over. 50 miles per hour over the speed limit? Where do we draw the line?

You're going a bit overboard here. I'm just saying that they should've at least considered the idea that she wanted her military brother to escort her down the carpet, and they should have thought about the public's reaction to it before they made the decision to deny it. Someone with a little more foresight would've seen it would've been a win win situation for the both sides if they had. American people for the most part are a very patriotic people and they stand behind the military people and I'm not saying military (past or present) should be afforded all kinds of special privileges up and beyond what everyone else gets, but at least be acknowledged once in awhile (even in a small way or situation like this) for what they do for this country. Their next school board meeting they will now no doubt make some changes to that rule. They learn too from their mistakes.









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