I live in Osceola county. Chris lives in Volusia, iirc. Zan is in Orange. Storm doesn't actually live in Central Florida; he is actually a 42-year-old woman (he wasn't always, though) living in Nebraska. That's a pretty broad range, geographically. Why?
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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Depending the meandering of Hurricane Jeanne I'll be updating our site from home Saturday and possibly going in Saturday night/Sunday morning to update continually. So probably not.
We can keep trying, though Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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My only real concern is meeting people who are under 18, unless their parents are around. I don't usually articulate this anymore because people get offended, but I am a public school teacher, and if I get together with a minor that I met online, it looks pretty creepy for me. I actually am legally held to a different set of laws than other people, and stuff like that can lose me a job. When I say this to teenagers, they roll their eyes and accuse me of being paranoid. What can I say, it's not their life.
But if you are a college student, you are over 18, right? My only concern then is I wouldn't want to go drinking with you unless you are over 21.
Now whether you would be interested in getting together with a bunch of over-the-hill, married, distinctly un-hip guys, and Storm, might be a different story.
EDIT to add: this is why I might sometimes appear to ignore offers to get together from Hatrackers I don't know well. Not knowing them, I don't know if they are minors or not. I don't intend to be cliquish.
I can't get you a job, but if you really really want, I might could scare up some contacts in Disney restaurants. I don't know if any of them could be really helpful . . . Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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We're closing on the house tomorrow afternoon, so I will be moving all weekend (there is no hurricane coming). We were supposed to close in the am, but the AC doesn't work (there is no hurricance coming). I'm not signing any papers til the AC works (there is no hurricane coming).
BTW, I thought Storm turned 43 last month.
(there is no hurricane coming)
Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
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When one, possibly underage person responded, he replied that he'd appreciate proof-of-age or parental permission because, as a teacher, he cannot be seen meeting up publicly with underage people he met online.
The assumptions implicit in this saddens me beyond belief. It's always a few bad apples that make it unreasonably hard on the rest of us.
FWIW, my brother used to game with a high school teacher of his acquaintance when he went to high school. Maybe I misremember, but I remember doing things with high school teachers at their homes without parental permission when I was in High School.
My brother has gamed with some younger people off and on for a few years now and I don't know if he gets parental permission first. Maybe he should to protect himself from the 1 percent of the population that might make trouble for him, or just assume crap. Sigh.
Hey, I had Catholic priests provide me with beers in their homes when I was a minor, if you want to to compare notes on creepy j/k
Storm, as far as your brother, what can I tell you? You choose what rules to disregard and what risks to take. It is specifically against my contract for me to give a student a ride in my car, unless I am driving a van for a field trip and have collected permission slips. And yet, on one occasion, I gave a student whose father I knew well a ride, at the father's request. I'm also not ever supposed to close my classroom door when I have a single student, especially a female student, in my classroom with me, and I don't. But I do help students a lot after school (I am regularly there an hour after I am off the clock) and I don't have as many witnesses around as would be safe. What can you do? You have to balance living in our modern world with doing the job the way you think it should be done.
A year or two ago, a bunch of us Hatrackers got together and went to Epcot. There was a Hatracker who was under 18 at the time who wanted to join us. Bob and I both communicated to this person our discomfort at getting together with an unchaperoned minor we only knew from online. She was quite offended (and Bob bore the brunt of this). She eventually agreed to bring an over-18 chaperone (though not a parent), but then she came without this person, who conveniently was not able to make it. From my perspective, she was quite clearly blowing us off, and pleased as punch with herself about it too. But this is a typical immature mentality: her pique outweighed our mere livelihoods.
Anyway, on to the point. When she showed up, I thought very seriously about leaving right then. It would certainly have been the responsible thing to do. But I decided that the risk was slight, given that there were many other adults around. (Of course, that was this person's feeling as well, but I still--obviously--resent her taking it upon herself to decide what risks I should take.)
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
I was responding to a post made by Storm in a different thread, because it wasn't really germaine to the topic of that thread (religion), so it seemed more relevant here.
quote: Hey, I had Catholic priests provide me with beers in their homes when I was a minor, if you want to to compare notes on creepy
I wasn't saying that he used to spend time with a teacher in the sense that it was creepy! My goodness, where did you get that? The whole point of my post is that relationships between teachers and students, adults and teens, are (unnecessarilly?) not the way they used to be, and this made me sad. That things have gone to the point that you write about, due to the actions of an extremely small percentage of teachers, saddens me.
I understand the reasons and I've actually talked with him about what he does. Now that I think about it, I think most of the younger people he games with aren't in high school anymore, though I think some of them might be minors.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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quote: I wasn't saying that he used to spend time with a teacher in the sense that it was creepy! My goodness, where did you get that?
Actually, it wasn't creepy when I did it either. I was failing to be funny.
quote: That things have gone to the point that you write about, due to the actions of an extremely small percentage of teachers, saddens me.
Honestly, though, more than being the actions of a small percentage of teachers, it's the actions of a small percentage of]students and parents. I'm not saying that there aren't teachers who have committed crimes, but if you look at all the rules I have described, you will see that they are not in place to protect students. After all, they all involve me policing myself. If I were not to be trusted, I would not be trusted to police myself. Rather than telling me not to have students alone with me, they would have cameras watching me or something. These rules are in place to protect teachers. They amount to never spending time with kids without witnesses around. Just look at your own posts, Storm. You're not concerned that your brother will molest someone, but that he will be wrongfully accused of something. Sexual abuse--and other forms, I suppose--is all too common, but I suspect that we have no idea how common spurious accusations are. (I have overheard students plotting to "get a teacher fired" on more than one occasion, though not specifically with sexual abuse claims. But between the vindictiveness coupled with a sociopathic lack of awareness of the stakes which children are capable of, and the desire to strike it rich that is prevalent throughout our entire culture, people in a position of responsibility needs to cover their posteriors. (When Cor worked in St. Cloud, the prevailing attitude was that teachers were wealthy--and by comparison I suppose they are--and it was not uncommon for parents to sue individual teachers for the most trumped up of charges. I'm not talking about child abuse here, but about why Johnny's FCAT score did not go up this year. There is an attitude throughout America, and not just with regard to education, that if you can find an excuse to sue somebody, it's as good as striking gold.)
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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First, the statement. I completely understand where you're coming from about this. It's one of the huge reasons I decided not to go into teaching, and the reason that when I do private tutoring that I meet the student in the public library and seriously encoruage the parent to attend the sessions. There are just too many people these days who get off on trying to ruin someone's life for little or no reason at all. I've seen it in action, when I worked as a tutor at a community college.
Now, the question. Doesn't it just tick you off that you have to be so careful? That it seems that in today's world an individual always has to suspect people's motives just in order to protect themselves?
I was just wondering.
Posts: 2454 | Registered: Jan 2003
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My family has been on the receiving end of people manipulating the system against them and it really sucks.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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While Ic has to deal with it in a professional capacity, civilians have to watch themselves as well.
I like kids. We get along. And in malls, restaurants, playgrounds, etc, I find myself keeping an eye on all of them, especially if their parents aren't. My wife does the same thing. Can't help it. We never made our kids stay within arm's length in public places (depending on the situation) but we always know where they are, and we both get highly annoyed at parents or guardians who blithely lose track of their kids.
But if a child hurts themselves or just cries, I don't dare do a thing about it, because nothing looks more suspicious than a middle-aged man payng attention to a child. I'll try and get the parents' attention, or I'll call Teres over to intercede (or provide a "chaperone"). That is incredibly depressing to me.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I work in retail, and I love kids. I am also a 34 year old man, so sometimes it may seem a bit surprising to parents when I play peek-a-boo with their 4 year old...but I am harmless.
Hell, I am probably one of the safest people in the world around children.....but the parents don't know me, so they are just being careful of their child.
I will wave, or play peek-a-booo...but unless the kid is really hurt I won't touch them in any way, because they aren't my kids, and I don't want to give the wrong impression.
I was actually told by my boss that if a kid (or anyone, really) got really hurt, I would not be allowed to help them medically even though I was an EMT in the service. You see, the company could be held liable if I try to help but they still die.
I told them they might as well fire me now because I would help anyone, customer or co-worker, who really needed CPR. I also said that if I did help someone and got fired for it, I would make a huge stink over it in the local media, and the negative press would sink them even faster than a lawsuit would.
Somehow I still work there, although I have been "warned"...
posted
I may be mistaken, but isn't there a "Good Samaritan" law or clause or something that basically makes someone attempting to help an injured person, if the injured person accepts the help or is unconscious, not liable should the injured person die?
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Not individually liable, but the company still is.
I have a friend who witnessed the death of a boy from choking on a hot dog. Employees did nothing, aside from calling for medical help, to help him because they had been taught not to. When he got to the scene, he disregarded this instruction, but it was too late. He was pretty f*cked up by this.
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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lma . . . yeah. It seems like we need some kind of reform, but what kind of reform would not be going too far the other way?
Posts: 13680 | Registered: Mar 2002
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