Brickbat: Out in the Open

A Vermont judge has denied an attempt by the Addison Rutland school system to refuse to turn over documents requested by Marcel Cyr under the state's open records law. Cyr, the parent of a student in the system and a frequent critic of the schools, had filed a request for a letter from a mental health professional that the school relied on to issue a "no trespassing" order against him. Cyr says the order was issued because of his criticism, not because he has threatened anyone.

Brickbat Archive

Comments

[Bardas Phocas]

Look, if you oppose the guvimint man, with his guns and his jack boots, you are obviously crazy. The Soviets had a scientific consensus on this and the US is building one. Stop resisting!

[Pound. Head. On. Desk.]

Lysencoism proves we can change!

[Rich]

Lycanthropy proves we can change!

[Cyto]

Couldn't happen here. ... right?

Interestingly, Adrian Schoolcraft's name has the word 'school' right in it. Coincidence? I think not!

[Pound. Head. On. Desk.]

My family and I are more than a little surprised this hasn't happened to me.

[Suthenboy]

Dont you mean "My family and I are more than a little surprised this hasn't happened to me - yet." ?

I narrowly escaped it myself.

[db]

My Mom had a clever way of making sure my school was doing right by me--she became a teacher there. She fought a number of battles behind the scenes to improve our school.

[Almanian.]

This. My wife substitute teaches - has for years. They love having her, and while she was there she ensured our kids were flying straight, and also steered them to the "good" teachers.

The best part has been listening to her bitch about the conversations in the teachers lounge. Straight up Marxist fucking idiots. She finally got to the point that she just literally won't engage them in conversation because it's so infuriating.

[Ted S.]

My mom was a hall monitor when I was in high school. I wouldn't have been able to get away with anything.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Mental health document? HIPAA trumps ones right to face his accuser. HIPAA trumps everything!

[Whiterun Guard]

Another reason to home school. With a focus of studies on self defense.

[Bee Tagger]

"The district sought advice from the attorney general's office as to whether this was a public record that must be produced. The attorney general's office refused to help us," Lynn said. "Then we sought guidance from the court. The court will not provide us with guidance."

Why won't anyone provide them a scapegoat?! That's all they want!

[Ted S.]

had filed a request for a letter from a mental health professional that the school relied on to issue a "no trespassing" order against him.

Once again, the State is the biggest bully of them all.

[Rich]

One relevant record was a document produced by a mental health professional, which warned that Cyr could be dangerous to ARSU employees. The professional requested anonymity for fear of her own safety.

Emphasis added. "I *told* you that fucker's dangerous!"

[Ted S.]

He's so dangerous we can't let him know who's accusing him of being dangerous.

Nice bit of circular logic there.

[Apatheist ?_??]

No surprise that there is some bootlicker defending the school district in the comments.

[The Late P Brooks]

The professional requested anonymity for fear of her own safety.

But can't we all be winners? What about the self-esteem gap?

[0x90]

I once put up a watchdog website, focused on my local school district. I posted there opinion, board minutes, and such. Of course, since I was running my own server, it was hard not to notice all the hits from the school's legal counsel. As such a site tends to see little traffic, those often constituted a majority of all hits.

I recall that they peaked one time, when I had the gall to point out that the editor of the district "newspaper", one of the head directors in the school administration, had developed a habit of quoting himself in the third person, in articles he wrote for the paper. That was his tricky way of using district resources to advocate for the district (e.g. for a referendum), on the taxpayer's dime.

[Auric Demonocles]

Very interesting.... I went to University of Vermont and met a girl there whose last name was Cyr. We had a one night stand last year after we had both moved to Boston. Now, she is from MA, but in my experience pretty much everyone that went to UVM and wasn't a native had a vacation home or relatives in VT that they visited growing up...