Kansas Lunatics Encourage Hitchhiking

 

How thrilling. We now have a group of brilliant and wonderful individuals in Lawrence, Kansas, who want the city council to legalize hitchhiking within city limits. A non profit group called Lawrence Onboard would like hitchhiking to become an accepted mode of transportation within pre-established parameters, such as background checks and registration of drivers with City Hall, and hitchhikers carrying large signs announcing destinations. The registered driver would stop and pick up the hitchhiker, if possible. Bumper stickers announcing the connection to Lawrence Onboard would also be available. Any bad drivers or bad riders could be reported, and the whole idea could become reality with no problems whatsoever. Where's the eye-rolley when I need it?

 

I don't know what non-profit groups smoke for breakfast in Lawrence, but some of the folks at Lawrence Onboard obviously need to establish a working relationship with Reality. City Hall is actually going to employ a person whose job will be to conduct background checks on would-be ride givers and keep tabs on the state of hitchhiking in Lawrence? Sure, no problems there! Anyone with bad intentions yet no existing criminal record can pass a background check. A driver with a serious drinking problem, but no DWI's or accidents yet, can also pass a background check. There are also criminals who have records, but still pass background checks for reasons ranging from identity theft to incompetence of the person running the background check. And what if the boogieman steals or borrows the car of a legitimate Lawrence Onboard driver? It's not a risk for which I would want responsibility, and it's not a risk I would take.

 

There really is no way of keeping track of hitchhikers via background checks. The number of people who need rides from day to day in any city is always going to fluctuate. A would-be rider can get information from City Hall and carry a sign with a destination written on it, but that does not confer safety in allowing strangers into one's vehicle. This idea may seem innocuous at the surface, but it is really an engraved invitation to criminals. Finding vulnerable victims through a program that sanctions hitchhiking might even be easier than luring victims through networks like Craigslist! There isn't always a way to be sure if a hitchhiker is carrying a weapon or not, and once you accept a ride and get into someone's car, you have no control over where that car travels.

 

Sanctioned hitchhiking a`la Lawrence Onboard is truly one of the worst ideas I've heard lately. It carries a great deal of potential to perpetuate all kinds of crime, from petty theft to murder. Hopefully, the city of Lawrence will simply tell the folks of Lawrence Onboard that carpooling and vanpooling is a much safer, and legal alternative.  

 

 

Third Reason Why Kansas Schools Should Consolidate

To further discuss reasons why Kansas public schools should consolidate, instead of operating in "unified" districts, a misnomer because school districts in Kansas are not unified at all, a third reason is unequal and selective hiring practices and selective application of the law in relation to teachers and other employees of the "unified" school districts. The Renwick school board, near Wichita, has terminated the contract of Troy McChristian, principal of Garden Plain High School, pictured to the left; because he was arrested in the recent past for DWI. Officials cited that McChristian was "not setting a good example" for students, and was not reporting criminal activity, both prosecuted and unprosecuted, to the board in order to ensure proper decision making! Okay; driving while intoxicated does not set a good example....no argument there, but what about Noble Rick Pendland? He taught in a different public school in Southern Kansas, and was a foster parent, to boot, yet it took years to get rid of him, and his school isn't even responsible for the decision: Pendland was arrested and jailed for sex crimes against children, and was not granted work release pending bond or trial so that he could continue to go to work at the school where he met some of his victims. Terminating Pendland's contract was simply necessitated by circumstances, and would not have happened if law enforcement had not removed his presence from his forced audience, the students. This is a glaring example of unequal, and possibly selective, application of Kansas law, used to make or break a school employee's contract with a "unified" school district's school board.

 

If public schools in Kansas were consolidated, it would be much easier to insist that the same laws be followed by all Kansas teachers in public schools. Parents would have a basic notion of what to expect from their childrens' teacher; Rick Pendland and his ilk, favored by conservative Christians, would have to curry favor with a school board governing the public schools in all of Kansas, rather than just brown nosing the republicans on the school board in one locale. There would not be teachers who get away with drunk driving or showing up to teach classes while drunk (yes, Frankfort, you covered for a teacher with addiction problems) in one part of Kansas, while the same is not tolerated in other parts of Kansas. Children would have more stability, as well, through knowing what to expect. As things are run at this point, each unified district is allowed to play picksies/choosies with which laws it will respect and which laws it will ignore, at the ultimate expense of the children.

 

Another problem with laws, and the applications thereof, that could be cleared up with consolidation of public schools in Kansas is not only the favoritism employed by unified school districts, but the favoritism employed by local judicial systems and county prosecutors. When a teacher commits a serious crime, especially a person felony against a student, and a parent steps forward with a complaint, terminating his contract should be the next logical and acceptable step. According to the Kansas Department of Education, prosecution for a crime is not what determines breach of contract. Breach of contract is setting the bad example in the first place. It should not matter if the policeman responding had the teacher for eighth grade social studies, or if the teacher's parents also taught at the same school and donate money to the school, or if the county attorney has personal problems with the child's parents and denies justice out of personal prejudice. Once the state school board hears about a teacher who criminally endangers a child, such as Tom Schroeder, pictured on the right, who abandoned a fourteen year old girl along a highway in Marshall County Kansas, that teacher's walking papers should be forthcoming. There should be no exceptions made because of political or personal favoritism, and if all of the public schools in the state of Kansas answered to one school board, instead of un-unified  unified districts, equality, justice, and common sense would have a stronger chance of prevalence in such decisions.

 

Has anyone noticed a difference in skin complexion between the two teachers cited in this post who did not get sanctioned by their "unified districts", and the teacher who did? In other places, this might be chalked up merely to coincidence; but in Kansas, it deserves consideration.

 

Sheriff Expects Favortism

The sheriff here expected special favor when he was pulled over for DWI, and was shocked when he did not get it. Kudos to the trooper who agrees that we should all be sober when we drive!