As far as Obama and the economy… fasten your seatbelts, it is going to be historic!

It’d be like blaming Obama for the state of the economy.

But your are dead wrong about “absurd”. It’s called accountability, as in you are accountable for what happens on your watch when you are in authority. This concept is no longer taught in our public schools but it tends to be true. Unless you are getting a federal bailout in which case anything goes.

Generally, the teachers seem pretty supportive of him — in particular, the veteran department chairs who work with him more directly. The staff politely applauded his speech, with some being particularly enthusiastic and others more simply acting polite. Some respected vets are organizing a show of support for his rehire at the next school board meeting.

People need to remember the scale of this school — 2000 students, 200 employees, thousands of parents. The principal is like the mayor of a small town. To blame or credit him for everything that goes wrong or wrong on campus is a bit absurd, despite the power and importance of the job.

Most important is your comment about a person “testing the system”. I find the stories of life on campus with the principal interesting, maybe less so than the detractors find it. But your apprasial of the credit card thing is right on the money. What children don’t understand and can’t grasp is that fidelity is demonstrated and tested by the “little things”. You either have it or your don’t. And if you don’t, no amount of lipstick on the pig can redress that issue. The minute there is a doubt about the fidelity of an employee they are out the door especially in a depression. You do not retain anyone you have a basic mistrust about on these levels, you are not paying good money to have to wonder what a servant will do when your back is turned.

The issues about how a principal handles an urban high school campus are interesting but when the doors are closed to the personnel hearing the real issue is dismissal is required if there is a doubt about fidelity. Let that be the lesson for the children today.

When teens do things in their personal life such as associate with thieves, drug users and promiscuous people (much less do it themselves) their own fidelity is now in question and they have taken that step to day laborer – being able to only find work in highly supervised, transient employment with no creativity, responsibility or benefits. I am seeing more and more people who not only are hot in CheckSystems and unable to get a bank account, but are also carried on black lists used for employment screening and are barred from whole industries (like retail sales and utility companies). Driver’s Licenses are also being lost long term because of one incident (caught with a can of beer at Taco Bell at age 20) that is in the computer and acts as a block. The principal and his credit card “mixup” is just one example of how an incident can affect employment and employability. Saying it was an accident doesn’t cut it with society. We are not paying that kind of money for accident-prone people.

The usual line of baloney these “victims of circumstances” tell is that they were only “with someone” and “didn’t do anything”. It doesn’t matter.

Life will not be very forgiving in a depression in the computer age.

Brave New World.