First Day Of School In Frankfort, Kansas

 

It's that time of year again in Frankfort, Kansas, and this story will appear once again on this site, because the school here in Frankfort has not seen fit to come into compliance with safety standards observed by schools in other parts of Kansas, and has not come into compliance with federal law concerning the presence of weapons on school property, bullying, or student safety. The only change made is that credit shall be granted where it is due: the name of the errant and uncorrected guidance counselor who has been granted carte blanche to endanger children is Tom Schroeder.

Anyone who's listening, I will tell you a story. It's a true story, and it happened in October of 2009. Thankfully, it had a happy ending.

My oldest daughter used to be quite the avid cross country buff when she was thirteen years old. She was good at it, too. But one day, while she was at practice, and I was at home, just assuming that all was well, her coach drove past my house, stopping to talk to my eight year old son. Mr. Coach wanted to know if Mr. Eight Year Old had seen his older sister. Mr. Eight Year Old had not. No one had seen my daughter in over two hours. She was lost. Why was she lost? Because her coach had dropped her off by the side of a highway, four miles south of the town we live in, by herself, and just left her. It was part of cross country practice. No supervision. If she had been stung by a bee, had tripped and hurt herself, or had some other medical emergency, no one would have been there to help her. (at this juncture, you should know that I offered to volunteer to help with cross country, but since I do not attend a Christian church, my offer was rejected. The school staff thought it better to take chances with a child's safety in the way I just described) When my daughter realized that she did not know her way back, she started to wander on a side road, hoping it would bring her to a house, or another person. This area has a lot of commercial farms, and there were no houses or places my daughter could go to for help.
Back to my eight year old son.......Twenty minutes went by. While he did not realize the significance of his conversation with Mr. Cross County Coach, (also Mr. Guidance Counselor) he did realize that no one knew where his sister was, and it was getting later and later, and no one was looking for her. So he told me about it. I looked all over town, called all her friends, searched the school (why was the school left unlocked after everyone had gone home?) and finally started home to call the police, when a couple of senior boys drove up with my crying daughter in their car. It was still within a few minutes of when I found out she was missing, but this cross country coach had known all afternoon, and had not called the police, or spoken to me. Why? I guess whatever he cared about, it WASN'T my daughter. Well.........I actually DO care about my daughter. Nowhere else have I met a teacher that did NOT care, at least a little, about the children he teaches, but I think that is what the problem is with Mr. Cross Country Coach/ Guidance Counselor.

Suppose it was not young men from her school who found her, but a dangerous person? I have been told time and time again by the people who live in this small Kansas town that "those things don't happen here", and "there ARE no dangerous people here", but there was a sex offender whose address was within half a mile of where my daughter was abandoned. The police were quick to point that out, but the principal only argued his harmlessness as a sex offender with them and the school board is not worried about the incident.

My children no longer participate in cross country at their school. It isn't safe.

Mocking Christian Values

The notorious lech, Roy Moore, senate candidate of Alabama, has challenged Jimmy Kimmel, comedian most often seen on ABC, to a "duel" to defend Christian values! (you blogger is laughing, really hard, right now) It seems that Kimmel's refusal to embrace, not only teenage girls, but the culture of older men embracing teenage girls, has spiritually offended Roy Moore...in a very, very Christian way!

A heckler from the Jimmy Kimmel show appeared at a Roy Moore rally, and later on, when Moore realized he had been heckled, he issued the challenge to Kimmel. Kimmel has offered visit Alabama and take Moore up on all this. It should be very interesting, but Christians probably will not change their minds about abuse and sexual misconduct. For centuries, Christianity has been the biggest shield for sex offenders and child abusers, offering them everything from amnesty when caught to assistance when blaming the victims. We all know whose side Jesus is on: the abuser's side. Every time.



And in other news, the State of Nebraska actually convicted and sentenced a man for sexually abusing a ten year old girl in an Lincoln, Nebraska church.

Volunteers Of America

So now one of Donald Trump's protege's has been demoted to "coffee boy", or perhaps, "covfefe boy"! Yep; George Popadopoulos, former foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign, has entered a guilty plea to charges in the proceedings stemming from Bob Mueller's investigation of Donald Trump. It seems that Popadopoulos initially made false statements under oath. Imagine that! The nation should also be extremely interested in the indictments of Paul Manafort and Richard Gates.

Back to George Popadopoulos; Trump now claims that his guilty plea means nothing because he was a "volunteer" for the campaign, in fact, a mere "coffee boy"! That's an interesting perspective: testimony and guilt or innocence do not matter unless the defendant or witness was paid while engaged in crime! The fact is, all types of organizations utilize volunteers, and a volunteer who commits a crime while volunteering does not automatically acquire a "get out of jail free" card. No one should be fooled by Donald Trump's lame departures from the truth. As it happens, Popadopoulos wore a wire while having quite a few conversations with folks connected to Trump. That should reassure everyone.

 

First Day Of School In Frankfort, Kansas

It's that time of year again in Frankfort, Kansas, and this story will appear once again on this site, because the school here in Frankfort has not seen fit to come into compliance with safety standards observed by schools in other parts of Kansas, and has not come into compliance with federal law concerning the presence of weapons on school property, bullying, or student safety. The only change made is that credit shall be granted where it is due: the name of the errant and uncorrected guidance counselor who has been granted carte blanche to endanger children is Tom Schroeder.

Anyone who's listening, I will tell you a story. It's a true story, and it happened in October of 2009. Thankfully, it had a happy ending.

My oldest daughter used to be quite the avid cross country buff when she was thirteen years old. She was good at it, too. But one day, while she was at practice, and I was at home, just assuming that all was well, her coach drove past my house, stopping to talk to my eight year old son. Mr. Coach wanted to know if Mr. Eight Year Old had seen his older sister. Mr. Eight Year Old had not. No one had seen my daughter in over two hours. She was lost. Why was she lost? Because her coach had dropped her off by the side of a highway, four miles south of the town we live in, by herself, and just left her. It was part of cross country practice. No supervision. If she had been stung by a bee, had tripped and hurt herself, or had some other medical emergency, no one would have been there to help her. (at this juncture, you should know that I offered to volunteer to help with cross country, but since I do not attend a Christian church, my offer was rejected. The school staff thought it better to take chances with a child's safety in the way I just described) When my daughter realized that she did not know her way back, she started to wander on a side road, hoping it would bring her to a house, or another person. This area has a lot of commercial farms, and there were no houses or places my daughter could go to for help.

Back to my eight year old son.......Twenty minutes went by. While he did not realize the signifigance of his conversation with Mr. Cross County Coach, (also Mr. Guidance Counselor) he did realize that no one knew where his sister was, and it was getting later and later, and no one was looking for her. So he told me about it. I looked all over town, called all her friends, searched the school (why was the school left unlocked after everyone had gone home?) and finally started home to call the police, when a couple of senior boys drove up with my crying daughter in their car. It was still within a few minutes of when I found out she was missing, but this cross country coach had known all afternoon, and had not called the police, or spoken to me. Why? I guess whatever he cared about, it WASN'T my daughter. Well.........I actually DO care about my daughter. Nowhere else have I met a teacher that did NOT care, at least a little, about the children he teaches, but I think that is what the problem is with Mr. Cross Country Coach/ Guidance Counselor.

Suppose it was not young men from her school who found her, but a dangerous person? I have been told time and time again by the people who live in this small Kansas town that "those things don't happen here", and "there ARE no dangerous people here", but there was a sex offender whose address was within half a mile of where my daughter was abandoned. The police were quick to point that out, but the principal only argued his harmlessness as a sex offender with them and the school board is not worried about the incident.

My children no longer participate in cross country at their school. It isn't safe

Private Message To My Latest Known Troll

As anyone who writes and blogs publicly knows, all of us occasionally find ourselves dealing with trolls. Sometimes, these trolls do what they do for entertainment, sometimes they do it because they feel challenged when others fail to agree with their viewpoints. Then, sometimes, they do it to stalk and take revenge for real or imagined slights. At the moment, it appears that your faithful blogger has picked up a troll whose reasons fall into the category of the latter. So please bear with me as I address this person; he/she/them is completely aware of his/her/their identity. This is directed at the troll, not at anyone else. I know that it will be read on this site by the appropriate party.

To my latest troll; I know who you are. I know your name, your location, your employment situation, and your physical address. I am also aware of your criminal history, and that of most of your friends. These are facts I can prove. I made the mistake of trusting you in the past, despite advice to the contrary from quite a few people, many of whom are your own neighbors and workmates. In fact, the relative with whom you share quarters has lost a few friends because of you. Someone who lives near you once asked me to make sure you are never at his home, because of your history. Yes, it preceded you then, and it precedes you now. Back when your problems were mostly petty crimes, I tolerated you; but when I had children, I could no longer afford to do so. Some of your associates are not only shady, but truly disgusting, and any parent who cares for his or her children will shy away from involvement with folks like you, troll. So that is what I did.

Yes, when your friend fled his state of residence because of a warrant for human trafficking and kiddie porn, I turned him in. You've known that for years. But here's the thing: why didn't you turn him in? Wanna know who gave me his location? It was your mother! Why didn't she turn him in? Do you both like that kind of stuff? And after he went to jail, where was your gratitude? Why were you on the wrong side of that issue? That is another reason for any parent to be aware of you.

I really don't care how angry you are with me anymore. I have already accepted you as a complete waste of space, and I do not believe you are ever going to change. I do not have any time for those who support you, or for the defendant described in the paragraph above, either. One thing upon which I will spend time, however, is the good old three for one law. I will also make some of the paperwork that is on file, proving your own history, available for the perusal of those with whom you spend time every day. I will do this every time you contact me, a member of my family, one of my friends or associates, or a member of my community. I promise.

Terri Moulton Horman's Life Of Crime

Here's Terri Moulton Horman, sometime step parent of missing Kyron Horman, who disappeared in 2010 from his school in Portland, Oregon when he was seven. She is pictured with a new mystery man. After refusing to help in the search or investigation of Kyron's missing persons case, Terri allegedly attempted to pay an acquaintance to murder Kyron's father Kaine Horman; triggering a divorce action from Kaine. She then moved to Roseburg, Oregon, and lived with her parents for about five years. After she was finished squatting at her parents' home, she trotted to California, using the address of another relative for identification, an address, and a drivers license. While doing all this, Ms. Moulton Horman also got arrested for stealing a gun, failure to appear in court for the same, and, most recently, for stealing a car.

The Ten Million Dollar School

Perhaps that title should read, "The Ten Million Dollar School District." USD 380, in Northeast Kansas, actually has two so-called "schools", one in Nemaha County, and one in Marshall County, a mind boggling division that is the result of gerrymandering, done in an ongoing effort to resist Brown v. the Baord of Education. The school board (a tiny, unprofessional collection of persons who do not have degrees or experience in education) has issued a request for a construction manager to upgrade their buildings and it also wants ten million dollars. Both of the two buildings babysit less than three hundred children per year; why should taxpayers foot the bill for this project, when consolidation with other schools is the obvious answer?

Since 1980, the population of Frankfort, Kansas has steadily declined, as has the population of Centralia, Kansas. At this writing, Frankfort has a population of about 700, and Centralia's population is about 500. That gives us about about 1,200 people, adding the populations of both towns together. Both of the schools that serve this demographic, Frankfort and Centralia, have less than 500 students, combined, from kindergarten to twelfth grade. Your blogger graduated from a high school that had a bigger student body than both of the entire towns of Frankfort and Centralia, put together; so it seems quite natural to wonder why ten million dollars would be requested for such a small student body.

Instead of new buildings for a declining population, shouldn't USD 380 look at saving money by making sure that there is only one school board and administrative staff for each five hundred high school students? In fact, if Marshall County consolidated its public schools into one high school, one middle school, and three or four elementary schools, that would cover the needs of Marshall County children nicely. Sports would be more competitive, and the dead weight of multiple superintendents and principals could be jettisoned in favor of hiring foreign language and math teachers. If schools were consolidated this way, USD 380 could dissolve and there would be no need to beg for more bucks. Students would be better off, too.

For Want Of A Seed

For want of a seed, there was no plant.                           

For want of a plant, there was no crime.

For want of a crime, there was no warrant.
For want of a warrant, there was no lawful search.
For want of a lawful search, there was no evidence.
For want of evidence, there was no proof.
For want of proof, there was no effective prosecution.
For want of effective prosecution, there was no order.
For want of order, there was no community.
For want of community, there was no harvest.
For want of a harvest, there was no plant.
For want of a plant, there was no seed.

Laura Johnson McNish; you never fail to amaze me with your stupidity. Instead of lying your ass off in court about something that did not happen, why not prosecute the young man who drove through someone's cornfield, for fun, in the summer of 2013? Or prosecute hate crimes? Or maybe domestic violence? Or at least, things that happen and are real........

Someone who has a newspaper open to a story about decriminalization of marijuana in Wichita sitting on his table has not committed a crime, and the story he was reading is not evidence that he has. Neither is any other information he may have on the subject. Because of the United States Constitution, it is lawful for a man to lobby his representatives for change, if he so desires; and it is also lawful to read about those ideas and discuss them. Have you completely lost your mind, McNish?

Disclaimer: Yours truly does not use any recreational drugs. She does, on occasion, read about election issues and results, however; and decriminalization of marijuana has been in the news lately.

Trump Learned Nothing From Watergate

In addition to his lack of empathy toward parents whose son died in 2004, while fighting in Iraq, Donald Trump has gone for the international jugular vein and invited hackers in Russia to commit espionage by hacking email accounts owned by government officials, most notably Hillary Clinton. Standing before a live microphone, he actually asked them to hack and reveal sensitive information. It's almost as if he thought that sort of thing was legal, and without any risks!

Hacking and wiretapping with the intention of influencing an election is hardly original. Trump apparently has forgotten 1972, when Nixon unlawfully recorded conversations of his political opponents. Of course, an obvious difference between Nixon and Trump is that Nixon was intelligent enough to understand that such actions are against the law, and attempted to hide his involvement when the news broke. Trump, it seems, either does not remember Watergate, or failed to learn from it.

While Clinton could have handled her email correspondence more safely while she served as Secretary of State, invoking the criminal element of another country, particularly one that is not one of our allies, is dangerous. It is also something that is no laughing matter, so if Trump is jesting, he should learn self control. Why would a presidential candidate laughingly request that others make a crime victim out of his opponent?

Nuts And Bolton's

Do you remember that female high school student you paid, several years ago, to help you sweep a misdeed under the rug? She clearly saw something that could have cost someone's career, and rightfully so. Well. there's something you overlooked. It is against the law, everywhere in the United States, to "buy" anyone's silence in criminal matters. Not only is that called "witness intimidation" and "obstruction of justice", but it is also known as "bribery".

You bought this person's silence when she was very young, and had no real understanding of her legal rights. You did a rather good job of brainwashing her, and frightening her. But you did not realize that she has a conscience: if any harm comes to someone else, as a result of her refusal to testify, she will never forgive herself. And for that, there is no such thing as enough hush money. By the way, she was also too young to legally be bound to any contract you coerced her to sign. Did you really think that she would never realize that?

About That Phone Call, Kansas School Superintendent

Mischell Miller, what was your phone call really all about? You have never met me, or to my knowledge, any of my children. You are brand new at your post as superintendent at Vermilion Schools, USD 380, and it is quite clear to me that while you have met your employees, you do not know them very well. I spoke out about an incident that took place on March 3 of this year, in which a gun was taken to school by an eighteen year old senior, named Casey Farrant. Young Mr. Farrant was already on probation for a drunk driving incident that seriously injured four people, including himself. He was also out on bond for another crime. Yet he continued to be embraced by the school administration, no matter how much of a danger he posed to the other children, and to the staff. So why, when he took a weapon into the building, was he not expelled, according to the Gun Free School Zones Act?

A newer version of that law, first enacted in 1990, gives a state school board, which we don't really have here in Kansas, (unified school districts make that impossible) the authority to override the severity and not expel a student. But was Casey Farrant the student who would deserve such mercy and favor? Not only was he an adult at the time; he had a criminal record, to boot! Drugs were also found in his car. Was this the time for Principal Dean Dalinghaus to establish that guns are okay in Frankfort High School, and that there are no actual consequences when a student who isn't supposed to possess a gun in the first place decides to bring one to school and make threats? Keep in mind, Dean Dalingahus once tried to expel a disabled student because he was a VICTIM of several Frankfort bullies. Go ahead, Mischell, read it. You can shake it up and sprinkle it out any way you please; your principal will still be wrong. Very wrong. And don't even start with pretending you know how he would react, and that his actions must certainly have been correct, because he is a building administrator: I already spoke with witnesses and with the victim, as did my daughter. We know what happened, and we informed Deanie-Boy of the law. Why did we have to? Why didn't he obey the law in the first place and discipline the students who were actually in the wrong? Only Jesus knows! But feel free to call me. I can give you more information about the incident, and let you know what the victim's healthcare provider and what his ad litem had to say about it. That's the day I truly started to hate Dean Dalinghaus and his trashy little school. No kidding.

I mentioned the practice of speaking with witnesses and victims. Yes, that is helpful, when "conducting an investigation" (did you really do that, about the Casey Farrant thing?) or just finding out what happened in a school where all the employees prevaricate and sweep unlawful behaviors under the rug. You mentioned to me that you "investigated" the problems encountered by Frankfort High School, prior to taking your new position as superintendent. Then you expressed surprise that three students were arrested there during the school year of 2014-2015, not just one. I agree, in a school that only has about one hundred and fifty students from kindergarten to twelfth grade, Deanie-boy really should have been in better control of all of them. But then, the student with the loaded gun was actually in charge, wasn't he? If that isn't disturbing enough, you should be unhappily surprised about not having been told the whole story by those you supervise. I am not surprised at all, but as I stated earlier, you apparently don't know them very well. I do have a question for you at this juncture, though; how does one conduct an "investigation", especially a thorough one, without talking to any of the witnesses? The answer is simple: you don't. You didn't really investigate anything. And that should bother you a lot more than it bothers me. After all, you are the one in daily contact with people who allow guns taken into their places of employment by people who have been convicted of crimes and are out on bond, awaiting trial for even more crime. The fact that the guns are most likely obtained from parents who also do not care about the safety of anyone for whom you are responsible should bother you, too.

My guess, after your call, was that your contact was somehow all about damage control. I do not believe you have any concerns about my preferences, my past experience with life, or my children. I am not altogether sure that you care about federal law, either. I also don't think you have the guts to stand up to the adult bullies in this berg and let them know you make your own decisions about what you do with your time, and with whom you spend it. I do not see that you are individuated that much, as a person. In my experience, those who are usually listen, rather than defend what they do not understand. And you are defending a tragedy waiting to happen. Isn't it ironic that a tragedy involving a shooting happened at a school in Roseburg, Oregon the very day after you called? "Oh....that won't happen here," you might say. Well guess what; Casey Farrant actually did take the gun to school here in Frankfort! Rather than allowing Dean Dalinghaus and Company to put the safety of all of our children and our Second Amendment rights at risk, why not simply insist upon compliance with federal law about all things that go on in both of your schools?

Another Private Message

You know, aside from eating more in one sitting than a rhinoceros, you certainly find ways to partake in stupid actions and stupid ideas more than I ever thought possible. From theft to blackmail to not knowing when to come in out of the rain, followed by blaming others for the same, you certainly don't seem to have access to much IQ power. You can sit there and compare one person to another all you please, but do you know what all of your former friends, acquaintances, family members, and people who will not pick you up when you hitchhike have in common? An educated and experienced opinion of you, that's what! You know exactly who you are, and I know you will see this post, so don't even pretend you don't know why someone would write a thing like this about you.

No one wanted to sit beside you on the train because you smell disgusting. Your odor is enough to ruin, not only a train ride, but an entire vacation. And as I discovered from experience, entire rooms must be fumigated after habitation by you, and it takes months to air them out and eradicate your body odor. You smell filthy.

Money, personal possessions, and food disappear while you are around. And I mean lots of food; enough food to feed an entire family for a week will disappear in less than a day, only for the trend to stop as soon as you disappear. Has your doctor explained the effect of obesity on all cardiac ailments, including the one you claim to have? You might want to look into that, before you demand more from emergency rooms and urgent care centers, And while we are on the topic of expert advice, has your attorney discussed the subject of victimizing children with you? Leave my children alone, and leave everyone's children alone. Don't steal money from their wallets, either. No one will want you around, anymore, after you do things like that.

As for blackmail, you appear, very much, to occupy both ends of that spectrum. We see you manipulating de facto suspects (an Oregon judge's words, not mine) in serious crimes, and we see you accepting bribes from officials in other states for testimony that isn't true in manufactured charges. When will you learn? Word gets around, especially now that the internet exists. Many people know who you are, and will not want to take chances of getting used and abused, stolen from, badmouthed, or even murdered. We all know that our chances of incurring such things increase the minute you get into the car. Timing belts also occasionally need to be replaced after you get in the car, as well. That's how fat you are. Speaking of belts, did you really think it was okay for that teen to destroy a farmer's property in Kansas, and his mother's vehicle? Your lies did that child no favors, and I hope the paltry payment you were given was worth it. Word gets around, and quite a few people know what really happened, including, but not limited to, the person whose property was destroyed.

By the way, when cops ignore you, it is, in your case, a good thing. You should stop complaining about it. You and I both know that there are many reasons why you merit more attention from them than you get, and that attention would make life extremely inconvenient for you. Count your blessings.

Private Message

Remember that night, just over a year ago, when you saw the drunk eighteen year old, driving, but failed to call the cops on him? You thought you were doing him a favor, didn't you? You know who you are, Northeast Kansas female who works at a care home! You thought that, although this young person thumbs his nose at our laws pretty much all the time, he is somehow special, and should not face the same accountability for his guilt that others should face, even others who are not guilty of any crime. So instead of copying his plate number and duly giving it to law enforcement, you followed him, to make sure he got home safely. You didn't give a tinker's damn about anyone else's safety, particularly any victim he might have. You only cared about the one who violates the law.

Later, that same year, he got into an auto wreck. He was drunk; his mother went about several different towns, going out of her way to inform anyone who would listen that her boy was not drunk, only for the next day's newspaper to announce charges for drunk driving in that accident. His victims, as fate would have it, were his close friends. How about that? All of them suffered very serious injuries, and if you had made the call, when you first noticed his drunk ass driving around, it might not have had to happen. You arranged for legal favor for someone just because you felt that favor should be granted to the filth you love, even if such favor is dangerous and undeserved. How do you sleep at night?

I don't care how "close knit" you find your town. Would an untimely funeral have made it more "close knit"? Is perversion of justice worth it?

Kyron Horman, Missing Children, And Harassment

This is Kyron Horman's mom, Desiree Young, talking about the day her son disappeared from Skyline Elementary, in Portland Oregon, when he was in second grade. That was five years ago. During that time, she has worked hard to keep her child's case in the news, and to make everyone aware of child safety issues. Unfortunately, she has hecklers, ill wishers, and internet trolls, who do not appear to share her desire for the world to be a safer place for children. This trend, of heckling the parents of missing or murdered children is disturbing; Desiree is not the only parent to notice such individuals. It seems that any time tragedy strikes a family, and crime is suspected as the cause, the game of trolling the family seems irresistible for some. Why is that?

In Kyron Horman's case, IP numbers have been traced back to friends and relatives of Terri Horman, Kyron's sometime step-mother. In a spirit of defensiveness, they spam and comment-bomb anyone who merely shares Kyron's picture and contact information. There is a seventeen year old boy, named Colton Barrera, who disappeared in Kansas, in 2008. His case has hecklers, as well. Those are mostly the parents of young people rumored to have information about him. In an ongoing effort to silence any attempt to solve Colton's case, the parents of the persons of interest harass anyone who wants to know why Colton is missing. Law enforcement in Kansas is more worried about popularity than solving crimes, so Colton's case has not even been investigated. The forty year old missing persons case of Sheila and Katherine Lyon is another case that has attracted harassment from specific sources, directed at anyone who maintains and entertains a hope that the case will be solved. There is also a court date, on June 29, for the wife of a "person of interest". She took the whole thing a step further and actually lied to the grand jury about evidence in the case.

Even in a Kansas case that ended happily, with the missing child found, there was cover-up, in order to protect the criminality of a Frankfort teacher, and to cover the school's lack of protocol when a child disappears. Frankfort Kansas must really dislike No Child Left Behind, because Tom Schroeder left a child behind one day! The child's parents are still getting nasty emails from teachers at Frankfort High School and Tom Schroeder and his stupid frankfurter friends, defending his actions and lying for him. The only reason anyone would do this is, unfortunately, the same as the reason for harassing someone whose child is still missing or has been murdered: the perpetrator, along with any accomplices or enablers, wants to derail any chance of apprehension.

No, Mr. Schwartz, I Am Not Glad It Happened In The Country

The remains in question here turned out to be a Kansas man who disappeared in July of last year. His name is Jason Southern. We still do not know the circumstances of his death. The reason he wasn't found until March 2015? This location is in the country, that famous location that a Kansas congresswoman Sharon Schwartz's husband gave to a constituent in defense of Frankfort School, in Frankfort, Kansas, for the continued employment of a guidance counselor who dropped a fourteen year old girl off four miles away from the school, despite her parents instructions against managing class this way, and just went home and had dinner when she did not return to school.

The "country" often has no cell phone signal and no surveillance cameras. It is one hundred percent certain that Tom Schroeder, the guidance counselor at Frankfort High School, knew this prior to leaving a female student in the isolated area in the "country". In fact, he probably knows exactly where signals pick up and fade away, and he probably knows exactly where surveillance cameras are, and are not installed.  There is also no doubt that he realized the girl was missing before he went home, as he discussed her situation with a second grader from the school. There is also no doubt that he DID NOT call the police. To lay some misinformation to rest, law enforcement keeps records of that data, and there is no such call to them from Tom Schroeder on that day. Schroeder just didn't care. If Schroeder had any other motive for endangering a child, such as production and promotion of child pornography,  the "country" would be the perfect place to get away with it. The "country" is also the location of choice for the hiding of evidence after a murder. Suppose a child who is allergic to bee stings gets stung after being abandoned alone, "in the country"? What happens if such a child falls, and suffers a broken bone? Then what? No, Mr. Schwartz, I am not glad it happened in the country.

Look Mom! No Background Check!

Surprise, surprise! The state of Kansas does not require background checks for all public school employees. Teachers must be vetted, but bus drivers, secretaries, para-professionals and cafeteria workers are welcome to add a criminal record, complete with a listing in the sex offender registry, to their resumes. Commission of a crime by a teacher while employed by a school is not a problem for many "unified" school districts in Kansas, either. As long as parents can be intimidated by school administration and the local "unified" school board to keep quiet about any criminal activity or behavior by teachers, it can go undetected.

New NCMEC Campaign

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. has a new awareness campaign to prevent children from disappearing and becoming models for milk cartons. It's called Be Here For Kids. This campaign features updated ideas for discussions about safety with children of all ages, and, of course, new discussions about internet safety. National Missing Children's is May 25, and so far, public awareness has been the best tool to prevent the tragedy of missing children.

Have a happy and safe Memorial Day, everyone!

In The Skyway While Black

Here's a video that was taken in St. Paul, Minnesota, in January of 2014. It shows a black man being arrested because he waited in a public place, a skyway, for his children to get out of school. Someone had called the police to complain that there was a black man in the skyway, and the police responded, as if it were an actual emergency. Then, after finding no crime in progress, they took the man to jail, leaving his children with no one to take them home. The person who attempted to record the whole incident was forced to reclaim his cell phone, by the way. It was unlawfully confiscated. Here's the ACLU guide for snapping pictures and video in public places.

To those who really don't understand why there were riots in Ferguson, Missouri because of Michael Brown's death, or why is it important to hold police officers in Baltimore, Maryland accountable for the death of Freddie Gray, just remember that digital photography has become the great equalizer.

Private Message

You know something, Rhino-ass? (you know who you are, too, and I know you will see this) When dozens of emergency vehicles are transiting a small town with virtually no population on the outskirts because a violent, unsolved murder has just taken place, expecting anyone to stop and pick up a stranger is absurd. Especially if the sheriff has asked everyone to avoid doing so, and to avoid driving through the area at all, if possible. Everything from rescue efforts to integrity of the crime scene could be compromised, and the sheriff was probably more concerned about public safety than picking up a whining rhinoceros who eats like a pig. I'd be scared to pick up a stranger, too, if someone had just gotten shot in front of my face. You need to leave everyone alone in circumstances like this.

If you want an easier train trip next time, try buying two tickets instead of just one. That way, both your ass and your face will fit where you sit. Avoid throwing trash everywhere, and leave everyone else's wallet alone.

The hairstyle looks better on this passenger, who also probably smells better than a certain whiney hitchhiker. All in all, a better seat mate, if one is travelling by train. By the way, I am sorry for your loss. 

Colton Ross Barrera Petition

Colton Ross Barrera did not return home on September 26, 2008. Since then, the case has faltered because of uninvestigated leads and uninterviewed witnesses. This petition is to request an update about the case from the Russell County Sheriff's Office in Kansas and from the Kansas Bureau of Investigations. It is also a request to turn the case over to the FBI. Please sign it and share it with everyone.