Haines His Way

DR Jose - I did give it up, when I found the receipt for the Starbucks gingerbread latte that I had at the airport on our way home, but not the MetroCard.  Why did I save that receipt?  And, I thought we did buy 7-day cards, but Richard's says clearly on the back that it doesn't expire until November 30, 2006, and can have value added to it  

DR Ginny,  the soprano Joyce Guyer on the Sitzprobe site usewd to be my first floor neighbor.  She's a beautiful soprano.  She's on the Met roster.

So the info on the site was accurate?  That's important to we reference librarians, you know!

...according to Army records, the average shoe size worn by male recruits has gone up from about a 6 to about a 9.5 since the American Revolution.

SEXTRA CREDIT
School strip searches
mandated by House
With student molestations skyrocketing,
lawmakers demand weapon in drug fight
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Posted: September 23, 2006
9:40 p.m. Eastern
By Joseph Farah
________________________________________
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com
WASHINGTON – Even though student molestations seem to be reaching epidemic proportions in schools across America, the House of Representatives has approved a tough new anti-drug and anti-weapon law that would require local districts to develop search policies – including strip searches – with immunity against prosecution for teachers and staff.

Schools would have to develop policies for searching students, or face the loss of some federal funding, under the bill – HR 5295, approved by a voice vote Tuesday. It moves to the Senate, which does not have similar legislation pending at this time.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the American Federation of Teachers, the Drug Policy Alliance, Students for Sensible Drug Policy, the National Parent Teacher Association, the American Association of School Administrators and the National School Boards Association all opposed the bill saying it could invite unconstitutional searches. The National Education Association supports the legislation, according to the sponsor.
…
 
The "Student Teacher Safety Act of 2006" passed on a voice vote, bypassing the committee process and with no way to hold individual members of the House accountable for their votes.

Particularly controversial is the requirement that each local school district have search policies in place, with the process defined like this:
"A search referred to in subsection (a) is a search by a full-time teacher or school official, acting on any reasonable suspicion based on professional experience and judgment, of any minor student on the grounds of any public school, if the search is conducted to ensure that classrooms, school buildings, school property and students remain free from the threat of all weapons, dangerous materials, or illegal narcotics. The measures used to conduct any search must be reasonably related to the search's objectives, without being excessively intrusive in light of the student's age, sex, and the nature of the offense."

The bill does not address whether body cavity searches are included, whether training will be provided to staffers performing them, whether background checks on staffers would be necessary, whether students who have been sexually abused in the past would be subject or whether parental notification would be required. Without those specifics, the judgment of local school administrators will be the litmus test.