Around the State!

TV Washington is missing the boat by not putting the Seattle School Board meetings live on air. There's more drama there than there is on Lost.

Sidebar: Why can't TVW get on DirecTV and Dish? If they can give us our local channels, shouldn't they be able to give us TVW?

And now, in tribute to Eduwonk, a parade of potential Teacher Darwin Awards:

• First up we have the English teacher who told his kids he wanted to take them out, line them up, and shoot them all. Oddly enough, he's retiring.
  
• Then there's the kindergarten teacher accused of picking up a kid by the neck to get him away from a computer. Take a look at the comments section; there's probably more to the story here than meets the eye.
  
• The "Go to Hell, Go Straight to Hell" Award to Scott Riley, arrested for molesting an 11-year old student. At a previous job he became intimate with a 17 year old, then married her. They hauled him out of the school in handcuffs.
  
• Finally, we have Matthew Wakabayashi, a Spokane high school teacher, who used his school computer to order hardcore porn and used panty hose. I didn't even know there was a market!

I think the story of the Vader School closing is fascinating; if I was a journalist, it'd definitely be book material. The Cowlitz Tribe offered to play Dr. Frankenstein and breathe life back into the district, if only for a year, but (wisely, I think) they turned it down.

SVC Alumnus has a long post about HB2079, the WEA-sponsored bill relating to how union dues can or can't be used for political means. See also Sound Politics.