Brickbats

If you are holding a Talk Like a Pirate Day celebration, you might expect someone to show up dressed as a pirate. But when one employee at North Carolina's Richlands Elementary School saw another worker dressed as a pirate, the first staffer reported a suspicious person. Officials then locked down not just the elementary school but all schools in the area.

Officials in the city of Yakima, Washington, fired Sarah Matheny from her job with the city court. They've also asked the state attorney general to investigate her. They say Matheny, who is running for county clerk, used her job to improperly search government databases for information on her political opponents.

Connecticut officials placed Granby Memorial Middle School Principal Mark Foley on leave after discovering he had a second career making horror movies. Nothing about the pictures is illegal, but Superintendent Alan Addley says the films, which contain blood and nudity, made him question Foley's judgment.

In California, Ventura High School Principal Val Wyatt barred the football booster club from selling meals donated by Chick-fil-A at back-to-school night. Wyatt cited company president Dan Cathy's opposition to gay marriage as the reason for the ban. Superintendent Trudy Tuttle Arriaga agreed, saying, "We value inclusivity and diversity on our campus and all of our events and activities are going to adhere to our mission."

Kyle Bradford saw that a friend didn't care for the cheese sandwich he'd been served in the lunch room at California's Weaverville Elementary School. So Bradford offered him part of his chicken burrito, which also came from the lunch room. School officials caught him and gave Bradford detention. Tom Barnett, superintendent for the Trinity Alps School District, says school policy bans students from sharing food because of hygiene issues, as well as the possibility some students might have food allergies.

Police locked down and searched JFK Middle School in Southington, Connecticut, after someone reported seeing a student wearing a military-style jacket. Police located the student and determined that there was no threat.

The Hall County, Georgia, district attorney's office has dropped a meth possession charge against Ashley Gabrielle Huff. Huff was a passenger in an SUV that got stopped by a Gainesville police officer for a tag light violation. The officer obtained permission to search the vehicle and found a spoon that had some sort of residue on it. A field test indicated it was meth, but the lab results later showed no controlled substances on the spoon. Huff says the residue was from SpaghettiOs.

Community Action of Minneapolis is supposed to provide energy assistance, skills training, and other services for poor people. But a state audit found that it spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars over a two-year period on cruises, trips, spa treatments, a loaner car, and bonuses for staff and board members.

Charles Oliver