Wednesday's Most Active Threads

The most active thread yesterday was titled, "Leaked training shows teachers being directed to allow gender & name changes without parent consent, transitioning?" and posted in the "Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)" forum. Let me be clear and say that this thread was an extremely successful trolling exercise. How schools deal with transgender issues has been a hot topic in most of our schools forums (and even a few non-school forums), but the Fairfax County Public Schools forum has been absolutely obsessed with the topic. Much of that has to do with the school system's refusal to strictly comply with new model policies released by Governor Glenn Youngkin's administration. This thread starts out with the original poster linking to a Fox News report about "leaked" FCPS training documents regarding names that students wish to use at school. One document displayed shows three scenarios in which students might choose to use names other than their legal names. In each of the cases, the document indicates that parental permission is not required in order for teachers to use chosen names instead of legal names. The original poster described these documents as "recently leaked" and complains that they do not adhere to the state guidelines. While nobody seems to have noticed until the 10th page of the thread, the X (formerally tweet) that the original poster embedded is from August 2022, just over a year ago. I have no way of knowing whether the original poster intentionally misrepresented this news or was simply unaware of the date of her own sources. But, either way, the training material preceded the new state guidelines and is certainly not "recent". Regardless of the age of the material, heated debate ensued. Several posters agree with the training document and don't believe parental permission should be required for something as mundane as which name is used in school. Both parents and teachers alike argue that teachers are far too busy and have more important things about which to worry than what name a child wants to be called. Other posters fear that schools' adoption of chosen names of a different gender affirms a student's gender transition which they believe should not be done without parental involvement. I think from now on whenever I have to discuss a thread of this nature I am going to remind readers of the Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board decision. The US Supreme Court let stand a decision that sided with Gavin Grimm, a transgender Virginia high school student, and required that he be allowed to use bathrooms and locker rooms matching his gender. While several posters in this thread criticized FCPS for not adhering to the state model policies, they seem to ignore the fact that Youngkin's guidelines are not consistent with current legal precedence. The only mention of the Grimm case I saw in the thread was a single link that offered no explanation concerning to what it was linking. But, I think this case needs to be part of all of these discussions.

The next most active thread was posted in the "Political Discussion" forum. Titled, "Banning AR-15s", the original poster linked to an opinion article written by former District of Columbia Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone. Fanone is well-known for his defense of the US Capitol Building during the January 6 insurrection attempt. He was dragged from the Capitol steps by the attackers, beaten, tazed, and suffered a heart attack. Fanone lists several reasons why AR-15 semiautomatic rifles don't belong in civilian hands and argues that civilians should be prohibited from owning them. The gun debate is one in which almost everyone has already made up their mind and no DCUM discussion is likely to change opinions. As such, discussions like this are basically a rote exercise in which posters simply go through the motions of repeating the same old arguments. Many posters agree with Fanone's position and offer posts supporting restrictions on AR-15s. Those opposed to a ban argue that the Constitution prohibits such restrictions and contend that the AR-15 is widely used for hunting and no more dangerous than any other gun. One of the pro-gun arguments made in this thread, indeed one that comes up in almost every gun-related thread, is that liberals simply don't know anything about guns and, therefore, are not competent to make gun laws. I am not sure how this point would apply to Fanone who has had extensive firearms training as a police officer and who is a gun owner and avid hunter. I assume to no one's surprise, this thread went down the drain fairly quickly and by the end posters are arguing in favor of a civil war and saying they will purchase additional guns simply to "own" other posters in the thread. One thing this sort of rhetoric has made me consider is at what point liberals, in the face of heavily-armed right-wingers who are constantly talking up civil war, might start arming themselves? I am not sure even the most ardent gun control proponent wants to bring a peace sign to a gun fight.

The third most active thread yesterday was titled, "S/O - Name a beautiful song about something other than love/lust/heartbreak" and posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum. As the title says, this is a spin off from an earlier thread about songs that tell beautiful stories. I summarized that thread sometime back. As I said in my summary of that thread, it is difficult to summarize these threads that are just lists of suggested songs. Moreover, these "suggest a song" type threads have really proliferated. I believe some time ago I poked fun at how specific the parameters have become and this one is getting pretty close to the point of satire. I'm waiting for the someone to request country songs that don't involve dogs, trucks, or ex-wives. At any rate, I have not read any posts in this thread beyond the first one, but I am sure there are lots of good suggestions. I could probably recommend a dozen or more songs without needing to name an artist beyond Steve Earle or the Drive-By Truckers, both of whose catalogs you could simply throw a dart at.

The final thread at which I'll look today was posted in the "College and University Discussion" forum. Titled, "Coming to terms that your child can’t handle college?", the original poster says that if she knew what she knows now, she would have encouraged her son to join the military after high school. She is disappointed that her son, who is now a junior in college, has not been taking his education seriously. He has failed a few classes, is on academic probation, and has started this year poorly by missing a lecture and being late on an assignment. In this and subsequent posts, she describes her son as unmotivated and lazy. One concern that the original poster has is that she (I am assuming the original poster is the student's mom, but I may be wrong) and her husband have been paying for college and they regret what they see as the money being wasted. This year they made him take out loans thinking that might motivate him, but it seems to have had no impact. Posters discuss a number of aspects of this situation. Several posters think the mother is overly involved in her child's life and that she should back off and let him take more responsibility. The original poster's response is that she gave him space for two years with poor results. A number of posters question whether the student has really failed. He has earned credits for two full years of college and is on track to graduate. While his grade point average may be low and he has had some stumbles, overall he is successful. The original poster doesn't consider his accomplishments to have been satisfactory and points out that classes are only going to get harder. Therefore, she sees his chances of future success as low. Other posters wonder whether the student might suffer from depression or ADHD. The original poster brushes off concerns about depression because "Lots of people are depressed" and still manage. She similarly dismisses ADHD concerns because she doesn't think her son would pursue treatment. Posters are divided about the military. Some think that he could still enlist. The original poster doesn't think she has sufficient influence with him at this age to convince him to enlist. Others think the military would be a bad alternative that would remove him from his support network. But, some posters think the structure of the military would be helpful for him. My own evaluation is that the original poster has given up on her son prematurely. I think that she has overreacted to his stumbles and she needs to allow him to make his own mistakes. He should understand the negative impact of his mistakes, but also know that they are far from fatal and that he still has every chance of success. Overcoming hurdles is often more meaningful than easy achievements. If the original poster would lower her expectations, she can find plenty of pride in her son's accomplishments.