after the break

January 10th, 2006:
Holidays are over - gate is locked....

Again I place a call to Joni, this time getting an entirely different response.

She says that the staff is having trouble with this unlocked-gate concept, because leaving the gate unlocked is causing VANDALISM. This seems to be the schoolyard equivalent of TERRORISM, causing administrators to quake in their respective Wal-Mart style boots. Just as the federal government has used the threat of TERRORISM as a bogeyman to diminish civil liberties, the school is using the fear of VANDALISM to justify keeping this gate locked. Never mind the fact that if I can get over the fence so easily, young-adult-vandals would scarcely find it a daunting task. ("Let's go tear up the school!!!"- "damn! - never mind, the GATE IS LOCKED!" - "Oh well - I guess we'll have to go back to behaving properly and peforming civic duties.."

Joni also informs me that "The District" is working an a plan to permit access to the courts without providing access to the surrounding schoolyard. This sounds intriguing, and incidentally like a total waste of everyone's time. "How long will this take?", I enquire knowingly. "Oh it could be several months.", comes the all too predictable reply.

I think it is time to call "The District" again.......