Vegas Sculptor’s Blog

My youngest child graduated high school in May.

This has produced some mixed feelings for me. On the one hand it reminded me of how old I am. On the other hand, I realized I won’t be forced to sell anymore fundraiser candy, magazines, popcorn, etc.

Somehow I was the one who ended up selling for my children. For that reason I suspect the people I work with were happy to see the last of my children graduate. Unfortunately I now will feel obligated to purchase from their children.

One reason the schools sell so much stuff is because most states provide only the basic funding. Everything else like playground equipment, school trips, sometimes even books for the library and art supplies need to be paid for by fund raising.

It used to be that schools were funded by taxes levied on property within the school district or county where the school was located. The result of this was that districts with high property values were well funded while in poorer areas the schools were not funded as well.

Most states that I’m aware of have now adopted some type of funding equalization that attempts to fund schools equally without regard to the relative property values within the districts. A lot of these school funding plans were forced on the school districts as the result of lawsuits filed on behalf of the poorer school districts. The result of this is that if you live in a middle class or upper middle class neighborhood your school receives no more money per student than if you lived in the poorest part of your state.

The solution? Fundraisers! But how far do you go to raise money for your school? If magazines and candy don’t do the job how about booze?

The Daily Camera, a Boulder County, Colorado newspaper reported recently that September High School, a private school, came under fire recently for offering gift certificates to local liquor store Liquor Mart.

“Jack Stoakes, Liquor Mart’s general manager, said his store works with a lot of nonprofit organizations and school groups to help raise money. He wouldn’t give names of the groups or schools because of the backlash it’s brought in the past.”

“‘It’s not like we’re encouraging misuse of the product,’ Stoakes said, adding that the gift certificate program is aimed at adults. ‘I would guess that the majority of the groups that take advantage of it are various school PTAs.’”

“Certificates to Liquor Mart, however, stopped being sold after some parents questioned whether the program supported the ‘sober campus’ message September High wants to send students and the community, school officials said.”

So what would you think if you found out that a local school was selling liquor gift certificates? Would it make a difference if it were a private school? Is this finally a product that you wouldn’t mind purchasing? Is there just something inherently wrong about schools and liquor stores partnering to raise funds?

And how fair is it for public schools to hold fundraisers anyhow? Doesn’t this get back to the unfair advantage of schools with students from more wealthy families or neighborhoods being able to raise more money that schools in poorer areas? Will we see lawsuits that will require money raised this way to be distributed to all schools equally?

I’m sure none of my readers ever got bad grades in high school, but I received a few. Most of the time it was the result of being lazy. I just never got around to studying and the result was a bad grade.

I would guess most bad grades are the result of not studying. I suppose some are the result of not understanding the material. And, admit it, some are the result of being dumb.

I know, I know, it’s not “politically correct” to call anybody dumb. But face it, some people are. Like the two high school seniors from California I read about recently.

These guys apparently had it all. They lived in an affluent area, went to a modern, new high school, one was planning to study law in college, but they managed to make some bad grades. Now that doesn’t make them dumb. Oh no, you have to go above and beyond for me to call you dumb!

On April 20, one of the boys requested a copy of his official transcript. School administrators noticed that his “average” grades had become “excellent” grades. They suspected the grades had been tampered with and notified the sheriff’s department.

On the night of May 19, a school custodian saw two boys running from a darkened classroom. The next day one boy was arrested. The other boy turned himself in later.

The sheriff’s investigation reveled that the two had broken into the school on several occasions, installed spyware on school computers in order to capture passwords, and used the passwords to gain access to the computers and change their `C’, `D’, and `F’ grades to `A’ and “A-` grades. They also have been accused of stealing tests and sending the test answers to dozens of their friends.

According to an article in the New York Times, the charges against the two include identity theft, burglary and computer fraud. If convicted of all charges they face up to 38 years in prison.

One of the boys lawyers compared the crimes committed to those of Ferris Bueller, the character in a 1986 movie who hacks into his school’s attendance records. “Does this young man deserve to have his future ruined over this event? I think absolutely not.”

Changing grades could certainly be considered a prank, but breaking into the school? Installing spyware on the schools computers? Stealing passwords? These are crimes, and serious crimes at that.

Do they deserve 38 years in prison? Probably not, but the crimes can’t just be laughed off either. One freshman at the school “…likened the alleged crime to a `really cool’ James Bond mission. `Maybe they were just doing this to help their friends,’ he said.”

It seems to me that the way kids think these days, these two are probably already some sort of folk hero. If they aren’t punished, it would send a message to other students that, at least some of the time, crime does pay.

What do you think? Should these two be punished the same as someone who breaks into a school to steal something with a monetary value? Should they be punished like someone who hacks into a computer to steal money or government secrets? Should they be punished like someone who steals passwords in order to steal someone’s identity? Or should they be given a good talking to and allowed to continue their schooling with corrected grades?