The Most Active Threads Since Friday

The most active thread over the weekend was the Fairfax murder thread which is contining to see lots of interest including posts from first-hand observers of court proceedings. The most active thread after that one was titled, "EVERY Six Months Jolie reiterates accusations against Pitt" and posted in the "Entertainment and Pop Culture" forum. The original poster appears to be upset that in court documents Angelina Jolie accused Brad Pitt of abusing her and their children. Claiming that Jolie purposely brings up these allegations "every six months" in order to hurt Pitt, the original poster suggests that the effort is failing and wonders when Jolie will realize this. As dumbfounded as I am about the interest in the British Royal Family among DCUM posters, I am even more astonished how obsessed some posters are with actors and actresses. This thread managed to rack up 25 pages since Friday. I don't have time to read the entire thing, but based on what I did read, most poster, like the original poster, see Jolie as the victimizer in this relationship. Posters criticize her from all angles, claiming the abuse allegations were not relevant to the legal case in which they were brought up, saying that she has a bizarre behavior, and in one case calling her a "psychopath". One poster went so far as to develop a lengthy imagined history of Jolie and Pitt's relationship to demonstrate how Jolie is to blame for their problems. Pitt does have his critics as well. One poster described him as a "druggie womanizing adulterous wife and child abuser" and lamented that he is still popular. But, generally posters were either willing to overlook Pitt's faults or blame them on Jolie. What amazes me about threads like this is the amount of detail posters know — or at least claim to know — about the celebrities involved. Those responding seem to have instant recall of minute facts, not only about Jolie and Pitt, but their children as well. The original poster, in a follow-up post, even recounted gossip involving a conversation between Jennifer Aniston and Aniston's decorator. Much of the thread seems to be devoted to the former couple's kids and their relationship with Pitt. Post after post accused Jolie of either turning the kids against Pitt or at least being the type of person who would do that. Most posters didn't seem to be prepared to consider that Jolie's accusations of abuse, not only towards her but the children as well, might be true and the cause of some of the friction between Pitt and the children. Only Jolie was held responsible. The anti-Jolie sentiment was so strong that it provoked a few posters to take a closer look at things themselves and they generally became Jolie-defenders as a result.

The next most active thread was posted in the "Advanced Academic Programs (AAP)" forum and titled, "Are we going to hear this week?". We have been through several rounds of college acceptances, private school results, the DC school lottery, and now we have Fairfax County Public Schools Advanced Academic Program acceptances. Frankly, despite having a forum devoted to the topic, I don't know much about the FCPS AAP program. I know that it has a somewhat confusing vocabulary including terms such as "centers" and "local schools". Don't even get me started on the alphabet soup of tests involved. Nevertheless, this thread was started back on March 18th by a poster asking whether anyone had any inside knowledge about when they would "hear", by which I understand she means hear the results of their applications for AAP. The first pages of the thread were devoted to discussions about when the results would be made known. But the real action started late Friday afternoon when a poster announced that she had received an email saying that her daughter had been accepted. This caused immediate panic among those who had not received an email, but then others assured that everyone would receive an email regardless. But, as minutes went by with no one else reporting that they had received an email, posters started to accuse the earlier poster of being a troll. That inspired a couple of posters to engage in actual trolling for a bit. But, at around 5 pm there were flood of emails and subsequent posts in the thread as posters reported their results. Most were acceptances but there were a few rejections. Many of those posting included their child's test results and, much as in the college threads, there didn't appear to be much logic suggesting why some children were accepted and others were not. One poster who has been through this process before made a perceptive response reminding everyone that there are multiple evaluation panels and that all are comprised of humans who may have different priorities and different ideas about what qualities matter most. As a result, complete consistency should not be expected. That poster and others urged parents of kids whose profile fit the program to appeal because a different set of eyes would likely see the application differently. The thread also degenerated a bit into a debate about test prepping which parents either bragged about not doing or expressed remorse for not realizing its importance, depending on the outcome for their kids.

The next most active thread was the Gaza war thread. The war reached its sixth month yesterday with some dramatic changes on the ground and, as such, the thread continues to be very active. The most active thread after that one was titled, "Why are kids with extreme behavior issues being mainstreamed?" and posted in the "Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS)" forum. The original poster is upset by students with special needs that include tendencies to be violent being placed in mainstream classes. The original poster recounted a number of either violent or threatening incidents at her son's school that involved such students. The original poster believes these students should be placed in self-contained classrooms rather than mainstream classrooms. I have written before about threads on similar topics. As in previous threads, many of the responses discuss how the hands of teachers and administrators are tied by federal law and school district regulations. Other posters blame the parents of these children who, the posters believe, refuse to acknowledge that their children are in inappropriate settings. Parents of kids with special needs argue that they are not to blame, the school system makes it too difficult to get the care their children need. I am going to quote one of these posts in full because I think it does a great job of explaining the hurdles that both parents and school officials face:

I’m a parent of a kid with SN and behavioral issues. Sure there are some parents who decline services, but most of us are fighting for them. MCPS’ shift to home school model for special ed (keeping kids at their home school rather than placing them in separate programs) means many, many kids are in settings that don’t serve them or their peers. The special education programs that do exist within MCPS are few and frequently short staffed. Private placements are hard to get, and even if you get MCPS on board you then have to find a school that actually has a spot available. It’s frustrating all around.

Despite there being thread after thread in which violent incidents involving kids with special needs are described and despite parents, including parents of kids with special needs, as well as teachers and administrators agreeing in such threads that such incidents occur, there are still some posters who claim that these incidents are invented. In this case, at least one poster alleged that the original poster had invented the stories and demanded that the original poster post a screenshot of the principal's message regarding one incident. The original posters response was:

Why does every MCPS thread that's a vent attract the crazies? To the poster who expects me to screenshot, why? I know there are some people with agendas against MCPS on here. So no, I am not going to screenshot anything so the Moco news can have an article on this.

The original poster also soundly rejected suggestions that violent students be reported to the police and arrested. She, like many of the posters including parents of kids with special needs, only wants more appropriate options for these children.

The last thread that I will discuss is appropriate for today. Posted in the "Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)" forum and titled, "Solar Eclipse", the thread is about today's total eclipse of the sun (though the eclipse will not quite be total in the DC area). The original poster says that she had just heard from her Fairfax County Public Schools school that students will not be allowed out to view the eclipse because of liability issues. Teachers and staff will not be able to ensure that all students keep their eclipse glasses on properly. The original poster devoted over half of her post to criticizing posters in an earlier thread on the same topic that I ended up locking due to the constant bickering between posters. The eclipse has been a point of major contention between many parents, especially those of elementary school-aged children. Many parents want their children to view the eclipse while being concerned about children's safety due to the possibility that they might improperly look at the sun and damage their eyes. The original poster says that she will definitely pull her kids out of school so that they can view the eclipse at home while wearing their glasses. Schools in the DC area faced increased difficulty dealing with the eclipse given the timing. It occurs right when many schools are ending their school days. Posters in this thread report that some schools have decided to have early dismissal so that kids can get home in time for the eclipse. However, that might cause other difficulties for parents who are expected to be a work at that time. While this thread started on Friday and the eclipse is today, Monday, many posters advocate parents contacting school officials, including Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid to request that schools implement early dismissal. While other posters argue that those who want their kids home early should just pick them up early, the pro-early dismissal posters are concerned that their will be traffic backups at schools. In the case of early dismissal, they say, school busses would be active and parents wouldn't have to line up at school. However, given the fragile balance of FCPS bus schedules, changing dismissal times on such a short schedule seems daunting and unlikely to occur. On the other hand, many posters aren't all that excited about an eclipse that will only be 85% in this area. They also aren't too concerned about their children damaging their eyes (either because they trust them to wear glasses or are satisfied with the decision to stay indoors). They think the parents who are concerned about this are being overly anxious. The FCPS situation is complicated further by the school system's decision not to provide eclipse glasses. As a result, going outside to view the eclipse is really not an option. Instead. kids getting out of school during the eclipse will simply be told not to look up, which really is a sub-optimal solution.