The Marysville Advocate, the major publication of Marshall County Kansas, the virtual definition of the statement, "nice is different than good", occasionally leaves it's readers in the dark about the more important items that either happen in Marshall County Kansas, or directly affect Marshall County. This week, since most of the public schools in Marshall County started again for the fall so recently, the fact that many Northeast Kansas schools, Marshall County's schools included, started without insurance due to the change in Kansas law in July of this year, allowing teachers to take guns to school, should have been of great interest to parents. If nothing else, a notification, or a complete article about this, should be enough to start a conversation in Marshall County about how to make public schools safer, and insurable! A lot of Marshall County teachers don't even know that their workplaces are not properly insured anymore. It seems that underwriters would prefer prying pencils from warm live hands, rather than guns from cold dead hands! Go figure!
The discussion of the uninsurable state of Kansas public schools, of course, would lead to the mention of alternatives, of which there are quite a few. Private schools and homeschooling are usually among a parent's first choices, but there is also the online option, with better textbooks, lower cost, (almost free) and more updated curriculums. The Marysville Advocate was extremely quiet about that, as well. Many parents in Kansas have opted to enroll their children in virtual schools this year. It makes sense, as it is a lot safer than sending a child to a school where guns are permitted. One Marshall County parent was threatened with arrest for choosing not to enroll her children in public school, but the principal of Frankfort School, who made this threat, was encouraged to sit down, shut up, and leave everyone alone. No arrests have been made as of yet over the choices of different schools!
One more interesting piece of news that suspiciously did not get much attention in the Marysville Advocate is that our very own Laura McNish, the county prosecutor, tried a case before a jury last week, something that rarely happens in Marshall County, and something she rarely does by herself. She usually has to have help from someone with actual trial experience! She lost, and the defendant won, after an entire day of deliberations, posturing, namecalling, (on McNish's part) and powerpoint charts consisting of none other than the same words McNish said verbally! She used a pointer to point to the words as she talked. How this swallowed nine hours of time, for a misdemeanor, is anyone's guess, but the outcome of a jury trial, tried solo by Laura McNish, should interest Marshall County. Her constituents may enjoy knowing more about her abilities and her understanding of the law and of our Constitution. At this point, your writer tries very hard to keep a straight face, nonetheless; it was unusual enough to merit mention in the headlines.
"Nice", innocuous news is nice, but not terribly informative. Why can't the Marysville Advocate take a chance with real news and actual headlines? Advertisers might be pleasantly surprised by the volume of attention this would bring to their advertised products.
The discussion of the uninsurable state of Kansas public schools, of course, would lead to the mention of alternatives, of which there are quite a few. Private schools and homeschooling are usually among a parent's first choices, but there is also the online option, with better textbooks, lower cost, (almost free) and more updated curriculums. The Marysville Advocate was extremely quiet about that, as well. Many parents in Kansas have opted to enroll their children in virtual schools this year. It makes sense, as it is a lot safer than sending a child to a school where guns are permitted. One Marshall County parent was threatened with arrest for choosing not to enroll her children in public school, but the principal of Frankfort School, who made this threat, was encouraged to sit down, shut up, and leave everyone alone. No arrests have been made as of yet over the choices of different schools!
One more interesting piece of news that suspiciously did not get much attention in the Marysville Advocate is that our very own Laura McNish, the county prosecutor, tried a case before a jury last week, something that rarely happens in Marshall County, and something she rarely does by herself. She usually has to have help from someone with actual trial experience! She lost, and the defendant won, after an entire day of deliberations, posturing, namecalling, (on McNish's part) and powerpoint charts consisting of none other than the same words McNish said verbally! She used a pointer to point to the words as she talked. How this swallowed nine hours of time, for a misdemeanor, is anyone's guess, but the outcome of a jury trial, tried solo by Laura McNish, should interest Marshall County. Her constituents may enjoy knowing more about her abilities and her understanding of the law and of our Constitution. At this point, your writer tries very hard to keep a straight face, nonetheless; it was unusual enough to merit mention in the headlines.
"Nice", innocuous news is nice, but not terribly informative. Why can't the Marysville Advocate take a chance with real news and actual headlines? Advertisers might be pleasantly surprised by the volume of attention this would bring to their advertised products.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Critical Thinking. The Final Frontier.