Weekly Daily Brickbats Archive 2009 November 15-31

Paul Clarke thought he was doing the right thing by taking a "shorn-off shotgun" he'd found to the police. He forgot that he lives in England. The police immediately arrested him for possession of a firearm. At trial, prosecutor Brian Stalk explained that possession is a "strict liability" charge, meaning that Clarke's good intentions were irrelevant. The jury found him guilty, and the ex-soldier faces a minimum of five years in prison.

Danvers High School in Massachusetts has banned students from saying the word "meep." Officials say students use the word, which was popularized on The Muppet Show and has no meaning, to disrupt school. Attorney Theodora Michaels says that after reading about the ban, she sent school officials an e-mail reading simply "Meep." She says they responded by reporting her to the police.

In Dorset, England, a car crashed into Bethany Dibbs, 9, as she was riding her scooter, fracturing her skull. The first paramedics on the scene called for backup, but dispatch told them they could not send the nearest crew because they were on a mandated break. They would have to wait 20 minutes. Those paramedics then called their colleagues directly, and they abandoned their break to come help.

Georgia's Chattooga High School got a new principal this year, and when the yearbooks arrived this fall, principal Jimmy Lenderman didn't like what he saw. There were several photos in there of boys playing basketball without any shirts on. So school officials spent two months cutting the pages with those photos out of the yearbooks before handing them to the students who had paid $50 for them. Lenderman has refused to explain why the photos got him all hot and bothered. He merely released a statement saying they didn't "reflect an appropriate image of our school or our community."

Police in Butler County, Pennsylvania, killed a man after standoff in a residential neighborhood. But first, they accidentally fired tear gas into the home across the street. John Spinetti, the owner of the house, said police offered to pay for any damages not covered by his insurance.