Weekly Daily Brickbats Archive 2007 April 1-31

Matthew LaClair recorded David Paszkiewicz, his American history teacher at New Jersey's Kearny High School, telling students they belonged in hell if they did not accept Jesus as their savior. LaClair says he did it because he was afraid school officials would otherwise dismiss his complaints about the teacher's conduct. After LaClair went public with his concern, and the recordings were broadcast on TV news, the Kearny School District school officials took swift action. The district president said teachers would receive instruction on the separation of church and state and how that applies to the classroom. And the school board banned students from recording classes without the instructor's permission.

In Saudi Arabia, a judge ordered 20 foreigners to lashings and prison. Their crime? They attended a party where alcohol was served and where men and women danced together.

When London police refused to even send an officer to investigate a burglary at his home, Dr. Otto Chan decided to take matters into his own hands. He put up posters offering a reward for anyone who returned the stolen goods, including family photographs, no questions asked. When police saw the posters, they threatened to arrest Chan for trying to buy stolen goods. Great Britain's 1968 Theft Act makes it illegal to offer no-questions-asked rewards for stolen goods.

With the Florida Gators going for a national basketball championship, you'll probably see a lot of people wearing the school colors, But maybe not in Osceola County's Saint Cloud Middle School. Robert and Sara Crosby say their son was singled out for a search by school officials for wearing a Gators T-shirt, which was called "gang style" clothing. They say their son was also forced to change his shirt. School officials insist they have no dress code, they were just looking for students wearing gang colors that day.

Those large parking places in Bern, Switzerland. The ones under video surveillance. They are supposed to be for women. But parking officials have received complaints that men use them. "Legally, we can't stop men from using women's parking spaces," said Bjorn Rohrbach. Well, what the law won't allow them to do parking officials hope to accomplish with pink paint. They say they will try to deter men from parking in those places by painting them pink and adding flowers.