Sometimes it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff around here, you know?  Just yesterday afternoon I heard there was an incident on campus (the day before?) where some kids took a bunch (unknown number and types) of pills and crushed them up and put them in a (unknown) staff's soda... and the staff got real sick, throwing up etc, and had to go to the hospital.

Trying to get actual details on this incident last night, though, proved fruitless.  So... did it happen or not?  Is there a cover-up going on?  WHO KNOWS???  And in the end --- does it matter?

People tend to believe what they WANT to believe.  Appearances are oftentimes just as compelling as reality... no matter how much we may say we only want the FACTS.  For my money, I wouldn't be in the least surprised if this incident DID happen, and that a cover-up, or at least a hush-up, has been put in place by the Admin to keep the lid on things.  Past experience has shown they really will do whatever they think they have to in order to make things "look good".  Got a sucking chest wound?  Pass the band-aids.  There!!  Feel better now?

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Moving right along... anyone know what the deal is on that lighted sign they have in the gatehouse, showing there's been 7000+ days on campus without an injury?  AS IF!!  I doubt there's been 7 DAYS without some type of staff injury over the past few years, eh?  It bothers me that no one takes the responsibility to keep that damn thing updated CORRECTLY.  We all know it would be waaaaay discouraging should they do so -- who wants to work at a place where staff are constantly being hurt on the job?  Maybe they'll re-set the stupid thing to read "0000" like it usually is; in this case, the lie is almost better'n the reality of the situation.

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Looks like the Second In Command wasn't on campus for the scheduled meeting she was supposed to be part of this morning... but then, that's no surprise, either.  Probably would have had to sit and listen to the same litany of complaints that no one has done anything about... and may not be likely to any time in the near future.   It's SO much easier to pay lip service to ongoing problems than do the hard work of making necessary changes... sigh.

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And don't forget to take a look at those new Monthly Schedules they've come out with!  Shucks, they're more of a joke than the Sunday funnies!!  What a wasted effort... they may as well cut to the chase and make weekly schedules on plastic protector sheets and write on them with grease pencils, as much as they change from day to day.   Been getting the days off you've requested -- ?  Me either.  Get a couple days off and come back to find that all of a sudden you've been scheduled for an unexpected 12 hour shift AND now have to work a day you THOUGHT and had PLANNED FOR to get off later in the week?  Oh, yeah... been there and done that, too.  WHY do they even TEASE us with the illusion that putting in for days off has any meaning??  Beats me, but as we all know... we just do what we hafta do to get by.  I'm starting to feel sick already!

BTW -- Looks like the Lexington Leader didn't publish the (apparently overly-wordy) letter I wrote them last week regarding the "12:1 ratio" they were told that exists on campus -- so it's time to rachet things up to the next level.  I'm gonna spend a couple days crafting a letter to DEAR ABBY that I think will be a no-brainer for her to have to publish... maybe THAT will get some people interested in making some changes to what's going on around here -- you think?  I'll let her know the kids aren't being served/treated right, the staff is working in an unnecessarily dangerous environment, and that so far NO ONE CARES to listen to what we've been saying.  All I really want is SOMEONE in a position of authority to acknowledge the reality and facts of what a hellhole this place has become -- and be willing and able to insitigate some needed changes before more people get hurt, or worse.