slacker

I'm amazed this didn't get a response from AR considering I'm sure he's put a judge or two to sleep.

Irregular News for 02.27.07 Salt Lake City, UT -- A letter published in this month's edition of the Utah Bar Journal is being characterized as a "wake-up" call to the state's judges and the pun is intended. Sent anonymously, the letter complains about judges dozing on the bench during court hearings. "I've seen the problem in more than one county, but since my practice is pretty geographically limited, I'd rather not be identified," stated the letter. "I would like suggestions on how to wake the snoozing judge. I'd like to think I'm not the only boring attorney in Utah." Utah Court of Appeals Judge Gregory Orme, who sits on the Journal's editorial board, said he doesn't doubt the veracity of the writer's observations. Over his 20 years as an appellate judge, Orme said he's seen plenty of judges doze off at meetings or conferences. Such behavior may be rude, but Orme says sleeping during a court hearing is just plain unethical. "When a judge takes the bench and is doing the public's business, now it becomes very important to stay awake," Orme said. "A judge is just duty-bound to stay awake whatever it takes." Over the past five years, Utah's Judicial Conduct Commission has received just one complaint about a slumbering judge, executive director Colin Winchester said. A commission investigation stalled when neither the attorneys nor the judge's court clerk could confirm the accusation and the complaint was dismissed. In other states, judges have been disciplined or dismissed for sleeping on the job, including an Arizona judge who was removed from office despite claims that he suffered from narcolepsy. Attorneys appearing in court may be hesitant to point out that a judge has drifted off, so the responsibility is on judges to stay alert, Orme said. In his published response to the letter, Orme encourages judges to get enough sleep, drink caffeinated beverages and see a sleep specialist if needed. source

Irregular News for 02.27.07 Romania -- A Romanian woman needed medical help after she swallowed her lover's false teeth during a moment of passion. The 38-year-old woman, from Galati, went to hospital with stomach pains claiming she had swallowed a foreign object but without saying what it was. Doctors were surprised when the x-ray showed false teeth in her stomach. Eventually she admitted she gulped down the denture while experimenting a 'special type of passionate kiss' with her boyfriend. After spending two days in hospital, the foreign object left the woman's body the natural way. source

Irregular News for 02.27.07 San Jose, CA -- Alarmed by indicators of student stress like cheating and substance abuse, a handful of Bay Area schools are reducing an education staple: homework. Oak Knoll Elementary in Menlo Park has mostly banned homework -- except reading, special projects or catch-up work. Palo Alto's Addison Elementary and the Berryessa School District in San Jose are discussing the issue. Critics said homework steals time that increasingly busy children need to play or spend with family. Homework proponents argue that it teaches students to be more responsible and manage their time. Fueled by parent complaints, the too-much-homework issue has taken root primarily in wealthy communities with high-achieving schools. Struggling schools are still trying to involve parents in their children's education. And some schools are trying to find a balance. Ohlone Elementary School in Palo Alto assigns homework to the parents. source

Irregular News for 02.27.07 Georgia -- Officers in Georgia were chasing a speeding Victor Harris in 2001 when a cruiser rammed Harris' Cadillac at roughly 90 miles-per-hour, sending him into an embankment and leaving him paralyzed. Harris sued Deputy Timothy Scott for violating his civil rights by using excessive force. Scott said he was trying to end the chase before anybody got hurt. Two lower courts sided with Harris. This will be the first time in more than 20 years that the high court considers constitutional limits on police use of deadly force to stop fleeing suspects. Harris' lawyer argues something more serious than a traffic violation has to occur before such force is used. Scott's attorney counters he didn't use excessive force, and that Harris was driving recklessly. source

Irregular News for 02.26.07 Virginia Beach, VA -- A Catholic school principal has organized sensitivity training for students who shouted "We love Jesus" during a basketball game against a school with Jewish students. The word "Jew" also was painted on a gym wall behind the seats of Bishop Sullivan Catholic High School students attending the Feb. 2 game at Norfolk Academy, said Dennis W. Price, principal of the Virginia Beach school. Price who also watched the game, said the rivals exchanged chants, "Then, at some point, our students were chanting, 'We love Jesus.'" "It was obviously in reference to the Jewish population of Norfolk Academy; that's the only way you can take that," he added. Price said he sent a letter of apology to Norfolk. Dennis G. Manning, the academy's headmaster, declined to comment. Several Sullivan students met with Norfolk Academy's cultural diversity club Thursday as part of a series of events aimed at promoting tolerance, Price said. He has arranged for the Virginia Conference for Community and Justice and the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater to work with students. A message left for the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater was not immediately returned Saturday. Price also has consulted the Anti-Defamation League, a national group that fights anti-Semitism. "It is important that we work harder at having students leaving here who are tolerant and understand how serious these kinds of things are," said Price, who said diversity training will be incorporated permanently at Sullivan. source

Irregular News for 02.26.07 San Antonio, TX -- While painting the deck of her South Side home one sunny afternoon this month, a woman witnessed something that made her stomach turn. A passing car had struck a small black dog named Chiquita. A neighbor was using a pair of pruning shears and a pocketknife to remove the creature's broken leg, pinning the dog's head to the front stoop with his shoe while performing the impromptu surgery, she said. The man later told police he was trying to treat the dog's injuries. The dog's owner, who is the man's brother-in-law, told police he "was OK with (the man) trying to treat (his) dog," a police report said. Police arrested no one and left without contacting officials with Animal Care Services, who learned about the incident two days later. By then the dog had died, the brother-in-law said. Officials said the owner threw the dog's body in the trash. The episode has spurred a local investigation and captured national attention to what some are calling a particularly heinous instance of animal cruelty. Dale Bartlett, deputy manager for animal cruelty issues with the Humane Society of the United States, wrote District Attorney Susan Reed this week urging her to "aggressively prosecute" the man, who is not being named because he had not been charged. The organization tracks about 2,400 cases of animal cruelty across the country every year but intervenes in only about 300 due to limited resources, Bartlett said in a phone interview. "What we have to do is focus on the ones that are particularly egregious, that are clearly indicative of an act that falls so far outside of the bounds of what's accepted societal behavior," he said. The incident occurred around 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 13. Ronald Rodriguez was tilling the front yard of the woman's house when he saw a car hit the dog and continue driving. The man down the street then picked up the dog and applied the pruning shears, Rodriguez said. "Before this happened, the dog's leg was not bleeding. It was just broken. He stuck his foot on the dog's head, and this dog is just crying like you cannot believe, and he tries to cut (the leg) off with the shears." Rodriguez added, "It took him over 30 minutes, and he still didn't get the leg off. The dog's leg is now just hanging by threads of meat." Both Rodriguez and the woman, who asked to be identified only as Barbara for fear of retaliation, confronted the man and told him to stop. "He said, 'Look, I've done this before. I'm doing the dog a favor,'" Barbara said. "I went inside the house and called 911 because it made me nauseous what he was doing. I was in tears." Informed the police were coming, the blood-soaked man brought the dog into his house, the witnesses recalled. When he emerged he had changed his clothes and washed off the blood, they said.Police officers came and went. Police spokesman Sgt. Gabe Trevino on Friday said he was unaware of the details of the incident and could not comment on the officers' judgment. This week, Jeff Hale, director of Animal Care Services, met with Police Chief William McManus to discuss a lack of coordination between the two departments. Hale said his department wants to provide police officers with information that would clarify conditions of animal cruelty. The case of Chiquita is under investigation as a possible state jail felony offense. The city plans to forward it to the district attorney's office next week, said Kathleen McGowan, assistant director of Animal Care Services. The man accused of hurting the dog could not be reached for comment. His brother-in-law, who didn't witness the incident, said he didn't believe the man used shears to rip off the dog's leg. "He ain't perfect, but he ain't no psychopath," he said. "He was just trying to nurse the dog." Eddie Wright, the city's animal cruelty investigator, said lower income animal owners have options should their pet become injured, such as establishing a credit plan with a veterinarian. Bartlett in his letter to Reed suggested the man receive psychological counseling and said in the interview he believes the man deserves jail time even if he felt he was only helping the animal. source

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Irregular News for 02.23.07 Elkhart, IN -- A 9-year-old boy was in protective custody after his mother slapped him and hit his head against a brick wall in front of a teacher, then dragged him in front of the class and invited his classmates to make fun of him, police said. The incident started Tuesday when the boy's mother was called to Hawthorne Elementary for a disciplinary problem, Elkhart police Cpl. Frank Owens said. The teacher and the boy were outside the classroom waiting for her. The mother told the teacher she beats the boy but it does no good, Owens said. When she asked the teacher if she could go to jail for beating the boy, the teacher answered yes. According to police, the mother replied: "I don't care who sees it." Police say she then slapped the boy and pounded his head repeatedly into a brick wall. The teacher tried to intervene by allowing the boy to return to the classroom, but the mother dragged her son into the room. In front of his classmates, she pulled on his lip and invited the students to make fun of his teeth, police sad. She jerked his arm and tried to embarrass the boy, Owens said. The teacher ordered the woman to leave. When police arrived, the boy's face was bruised and his lip was bleeding and his mother already had left. The boy was placed in a foster home. No charges have been filed, and police are still investigating, Detective Lt. Peggy Snider said Thursday. source

Irregular News for 02.23.07 Philadelphia, PA -- A Philadelphia school lunch-lady was suspended after tossing out hundreds of oranges she believed to be contaminated. While the school believes she was just a frustrated employee, she told CBS station KYW-TV in Philadelphia she was looking out for the best interest of the children. "I felt as though children shouldn't have to eat any oranges that were contaminated as far as mold, brown spots or maybe even a white orange," said Loretta Allen. Allen worked at the Cramp Elementary cafeteria in Kensington for seven years. Last October, she said she was concerned after receiving a shipment of produce. "I threw away some cases of bad oranges that was delivered to my school," said Allen. Officials said Allen threw away four cases totaling approximately 500 oranges. After disposing of the fruit, she said she was shocked by the principal’s actions. "She (the principal) told me that I shouldn't have done it and I showed her…what the oranges looked like. I guess it didn’t matter to her, so she went into the dumpster and took she the oranges out," said Allen. After sorting through the produce and removing the damaged items, the principal served the undamaged oranges to the children. School district officials said did not follow proper protocol in the incident adding if the oranges were bad, the supplier should have replaced them. "We could have gotten credit to have the oranges replaced by the manufacturer, to have fresh fruit brought in and even if they threw the food out, we normally would have held on to the food so you could show the manufacturer that it's bad food," said Felecia Ward of the Philadelphia School District. Allen was suspended for three days, put on probation for a year and transferred to ShallCross, a disciplinary school for troubled students. While Allen argues children were her concern, the school district alleges she just did not want to be at work and if that was the case she should have used one of her 109 sick days. source

Irregular News for 02.22.07 Weatherford, TX -- Perhaps his $24 billion electric bill will teach Richard Redden not to leave the heat running. Thanks to a printing error, Redden and more than 1,300 Weatherford utility customers this week received billion-dollar electric bills marked as late notices. Irving-bases DataProse, which prints customer bills for Weatherford Electric, said the company was embarrassed by the error. "Obviously, this is not something we are pleased about," said Curtis Nelson, DataProse vice president and general manager. Weatherford Electric spokeswoman Pam Pearson said customers can expect their correct bills later this month. She said the company's records were correct and showed the right balances. "I know they raised the rates on kilowatt hours a little bit," Redden said. "I guess we shouldn't have run the heater quite so much this month." source

Irregular News for 02.22.07 New Port Richey, FL -- When Assistant State Attorney Mike Halkitis stands up in a courtroom, it's to prosecute some of Pasco's most notorious crimes. But what brought him to court Tuesday is something he takes as seriously as any homicide: a case of jury duty. David Davidson was summoned Nov. 27 to do his duty. He missed work at All-Pro Printing. He was fired the next day. Was it because he showed up for jury duty? His employer said no. The state said yes. And to prove it, Halkitis prosecuted this minor case of contempt of court himself, on behalf of the citizens of Florida. "Their biggest duty during peacetime is to sit as a juror," he said. * * * Here's the case against All-Pro Printing owner Sean Hylton: Davidson was hired Sept. 6. He passed the probationary period. He qualified for insurance. He never had a bad performance review. He was never counseled for being tardy or missing work, which he did, whenever his 2-year-old daughter got sick. "It's not an issue if your daughter is sick," Davidson said Hylton told him. "Family comes first." Davidson's first jury summons was for Oct. 25, only he showed up in shorts, a violation of the court's dress code. He was told he would be called back soon. Davidson said he told this to his supervisors, and to Hylton. But after his second summons, when Davidson came back to work Nov. 28, Hylton was angry. "I no longer have need for your services," Davidson said the owner told him. "Goodbye." * * * Here's the case for Hylton: Davidson was far from an ideal employee, Hylton's attorney Alan Scott Miller said. He was only on-time for 10 of 48 days at All-Pro, missed four of his last 34 days and was always late. He was going to be evaluated after six months, not before. Hylton testified he didn't know why Davidson missed work Nov. 27 until after he fired him, but that's not why he canned him. "Habitual tardiness and absenteeism" is why, Hylton said. * * * Circuit Judge W. Lowell Bray Jr. decided Davidson wasn't a "perfect employee" but management never warned him. Hylton might not have learned about the jury summons before firing Davidson. But he learned of it minutes later, Bray said, and "took no corrective action." Bray found the owner guilty of contempt of court. The penance: a reduced fine of $500, because Miller said this won't happen again. Halkitis said he has never seen a case like this in his 30 years: "This sends a message about how important jury duty is." Davidson has a new job. But he didn't get seated on a jury Nov. 27. He never got to be a juror. LINK

Irregular News for 02.22.07 Spring Hill, FL -- A reckless driver was pulled over Monday after hitting 19 mailboxes and dragging a few trash cans into the street. Deputies gave the 42-year-old woman a sobriety test, which she passed. But she couldn't stop crying. The reason for the tears and the errant driving? Her cat Monty died that morning. "He was my life," said Tracy Chadwell on Tuesday, standing in front of her house in a teal bathrobe and padded slippers. "He was my baby." The tears were still running down her round cheeks. Her three children and four grandchildren are scattered around the country. Her husband has taken a job in Key West. Her four herniated discs leave her in tremendous pain. Four cats and one dog filled the void. But then Monday morning she found the orange-and-white, long-haired tabby dead in the house. He'd been with her through her move from New Orleans, through her separation from her husband, through their reunification. Monday morning the only thing she could think to do was to get in her red Jeep Wrangler and head to work, hoping that she could somehow take her mind off the loss. It was 8:30 a.m. Deputy P.L. Flinn was the only traffic deputy working at the time the call went out. The dispatcher told him someone was driving into mailboxes and going all over the road on Horizon Drive. Flinn started looking up the addresses to get his bearings, which is when he ran across a familiar one: his own. He drove to the scene along the 9000 block of Horizon Drive and surveyed the damage. No one was hurt, but the path of battered mailboxes stretched along three blocks. "To go six-tenths of a mile hitting mailbox after mailbox and trash can after trash can - this is a problem," Flinn said Tuesday on his front porch, as neighbors came up to ask him what had happened. "If someone would have been out here, someone would have been hurt." When Flinn realized he was one of the victims, he gave the lead in the case over to another deputy. Together, the deputies gave Chadwell a sobriety test, even though she didn't have any alcohol on her breath. It turned out, Flinn said, that she was taking medication for back and leg pain. Chadwell told him she was used to driving under the medication. Then the deputies looked at her license. She gave them a Louisiana license that was suspended and expired. Chadwell says it was suspended for a speeding ticket, which she paid. But she has no record of it because shortly after she paid off the ticket, her New Orleans home was flooded by Hurricane Katrina. That's the same reason, she said, that she couldn't get a new driver's license: all her paperwork had been destroyed. The deputies charged her with reckless driving and with leaving the scene of an accident with damage. Chadwell said she didn't even realize she had taken down all those mailboxes. She thought it was just a garbage can stuck underneath her truck. But once she turned onto Spring Hill Drive, she decided she shouldn't be driving and turned the car around to come home. Deputies soon caught up to her. On Tuesday, most of the mailboxes had been replaced and the neighborhood was abuzz with the tale of their demolition. "This was absurd," Flinn said. "It's just not something you see every day." source

Irregular News for 02.21.07 Baltimore, MD -- A rookie Anne Arundel County police officer has been charged with taking a cell phone picture of himself groping a teenager during a traffic stop, after threatening to jail her for drunken driving if she didn't cooperate. Officer Joseph F. Mosmiller, 22, is accused of telling the 18-year-old and her female passenger to lift their shirts in the parking lot of a Pasadena church just before midnight Jan. 20, according to documents filed Tuesday in District Court. When the friend refused, the documents say, Mosmiller took the photo and then let the women go. He was charged Monday with fourth-degree sex offense, second-degree assault and two other misdemeanors. He was released Tuesday afternoon on his own recognizance by District Judge J. Michael Wachs. Mosmiller, who was hired in May and given a commendation for foiling a robbery in December, can return to work on desk duty, as can three other officers who were implicated in the incident, said Lt. David Waltemeyer, a county police spokesman. He would not say how the three officers, who worked the same midnight shift as Mosmiller at the Eastern District, were involved. "We worry that these types of allegations compromise the trust that the citizens have in us," Waltemeyer said. The allegations against Mosmiller join a string of suspected police misconduct cases in the Baltimore area. Four city officers were charged last year with rape in three separate incidents. Charges against two of those officers, accused of standing by while a third raped a woman at a police station, were dropped last month. The third officer was acquitted of a rape charge in that case last month but will stand trial on another. A fourth officer, who allegedly had sex with a 16-year-old girl at the same station house, is scheduled to go on trial in March. Such cases shake the public's confidence in police, said Michael Lyman, a nationally renowned law enforcement expert and trainer who has testified in more than 300 civil and criminal cases involving police officers. "People just don't feel safe when they hear of that kind of behavior from the officers who are sworn to protect them," said Lyman, who teaches at Columbia College of Missouri. Neither Mosmiller nor the teenager returned phone messages left at their homes; The Sun is not identifying her because of the nature of the incident. The teenager had picked up her friend from a bar late on Jan. 20 when Mosmiller stopped her car on Fort Smallwood Road because he suspected that the driver had been drinking, according to charging documents. After lecturing them about the dangers of drinking and driving, the uniformed officer offered to escort them home. But on the way, Mosmiller turned onto the parking lot of the Community United Methodist Church, near the intersection with Duvall Highway, the charging documents said. The two teens followed. There, he administered several field sobriety tests, then told the driver that she and her passenger would avoid jail if they showed him their breasts, the documents said. The passenger declined, but the driver exposed herself because she feared she "was not free to leave" until she did so, the charging documents said. The officer told her that was not good enough, the documents said. He is accused of then placing his hand on her exposed breast and taking a photograph, using the camera on his cellular telephone. Mosmiller did not file a report of the traffic stop and no drunken-driving charges were brought against the driver, police said. She reported the incident that night, and the department's Criminal Investigation Division began investigating. Mosmiller was placed on administrative duty and was served with a warrant Monday on the sex offense and assault charges, along with charges of false imprisonment and misconduct in office. He turned surrendered that night and was jailed on $250,000 bond. His lawyer, Michael J. Belsky, argued Tuesday at his bail review hearing that Mosmiller deserved leniency because he was engaged to be married, had a 10-month-old daughter at home and had received a commendation for thwarting a Dec. 19 robbery. The charges facing Mosmiller, Belsky told the judge, unfairly besmirch an "exemplary life." Belsky described to the judge his client's life in a hardworking, two-parent home -- his father a landscaper and his mother a nurse. He was described as a high school honor student and former altar boy. "That's the type of man his family and friends know him to be," said Belsky, who also represented one of the two Baltimore officers accused of doing nothing to stop another officer from having sex with a female suspect at a police station. Waltemeyer said the investigation into the Anne Arundel officers will also involve a review of policies and procedures, but he emphasized that Mosmiller is the only officer to face criminal charges, and that the investigation has not suggested that others were involved in "anything similar" to what Mosmiller is accused of. "We don't want to paint all officers or all rookies with a broad brush," Waltemeyer said. "These allegations do not reflect on every officer in the department. Ninety-nine point nine percent of the time, officers make the right decision and provide professional service." source

Irregular News for 02.20.07 Silicon Valley -- In a speech Friday night to the Annual American Association for the Advancement of Science conference, Google co-founder Larry Page let slip with a truth we all suspected. "We have some people at Google [who] are really trying to build artificial intelligence (AI) and to do it on a large scale." It's not as far off as people think. Yep, you read that right, Google is trying to build real AI. The worlds most dominant online company, with the largest conglomeration of computing power the world has ever seen, is trying to build artificial intelligence, and according to Page it isn't that far away either. The term Googlebot is about to take on a whole new meaning, and in the not to distant future as well. But Google is a good company, you may well say, after all Do No Evil is the company mantra. But true artificial intelligence not only has serious ethical and moral implications, self aware intelligence may also not be controllable, after all it thinks for itself and makes decisions based on that reasoning, as we all do. What if Google creates AI with the logical reasoning of Hitler or Stalin? or even George W Bush? source

Irregular News for 02.20.07 Kansas City, MO -- Last Thursday Hallmark launched a new line of cards for more serious topics, such as depression, eating disorders and cancer. The 176 card collection, called Journeys, is now carried in their 3800 Gold Crown stores. Cynthia Musick, the editorial director who oversaw Journeys, said the cards’ writing provides more personal messages of support, encouragement and hope. Nothing says you care like a $3.00 card that took 5 minutes to pick out. “Cancer is a villain who doesn’t play fair … but it can’t dim your spirit, and it can’t silence prayer.” A cheesy cancer rhyme! Ugh… Now, I live in Kansas City, so I have dear friends and family who work at Hallmark, and I like some of the things that company does. Like provide a paycheck to some of my friends and family. I also really like their “Fresh Ink” cards. But this seems like gross profiteering off people’s most troublesome sorrows. I’d also like to add that if I’m ever clinically depressed and someone buys me a greeting card specifically addressing my depression in a rhyming manner, I might just end it all right there in front of them. source

Irregular News for 02.19.07 Idaho Falls, ID -- Officials aren't sure what caused a house fire Wednesday night in Idaho Falls. When fire crews arrived to the blaze, which started at about 9:30 p.m. at 925 Jefferson Ave., they saw homeowner Darrell Moss lighting a fire outside his home, according to a police report. The 57-year-old was naked and had red Magic Marker writing all over his chest and legs, with one drawing depicting a heart with an arrow through it, the report stated. Fire personnel tried to get Moss away from the house because ammunition was going off inside, but he wouldn't cooperate and started fighting with police. Authorities had to restrain Moss by strapping him to an ambulance backboard, the report said. He was later taken to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center - where he was combative with medical staff - and treated for smoke inhalation. He remains hospitalized and listed in fair condition. Police continue to investigate the incident and haven't charged Moss, who according to the report had been in the hospital recently to receive treatment for mental problems. A neighbor reported the fire after seeing smoke coming out of the roof, front and back doors of the house. A report from the Idaho Falls Fire Department said the fire ignited in one of the main bedrooms on the ground floor. Crews contained the fire in that same bedroom, but not before it caused extensive smoke damage to the main floor. The blaze caused an estimated $75,000 worth of damage to the home. source

Irregular News for 02.19.07 Covington, LA -- A man shopping for a cellular phone was taken to the hospital after a van driven by an elderly man crashed into the store and hit him, Slidell Police said Saturday. The incident took place at the Cingular Wireless store on Gause Boulevard, according to police. The elderly man was trying to park his van outside the store when he accidentally the accelerator instead of the brake. The van crashed through one side of the store and hit the customer inside before coming out the other side of the store. The vehicle came to a rest after slamming into a utility pole before rolling onto Gause Blvd. The victim was listed in stable condition. Meanwhile, investigators were attempting to determine whether or not they'll charge the driver. source

Irregular News for 02.19.07 Canada -- After one participant in a special-needs swimming class suffered a bout of diarrhea that required McGill Athletics to drain its pool, Making Waves – a weekly volunteer-run swimming program for kids with disabilities – was told not to return. Later, Athletics decided that the Making Waves program may start again on April 1, after the backlog of 15 intramural water polo games is made up during the program’s timeslot on Sunday mornings. Athletics Assistant Manager Jill Barker explained that, because Making Waves is not a McGill group and does not pay for use of the pool, it has a lower-priority claim to the space. “Our number one priority is to our paying members,” said Barker, pointing out that the McGill pool is private. “Groups [like Making Waves] get the lowest priority. We bump non-paying groups all the time; some groups just have better status.” Pool P But according to parents and instructors of the course, McGill Athletics mishandled the situation and continues to treat the group as a second-rate patron. “It just feeds the stereotypes about disabled people being dirty,” said Nina Padden, a single working mother with an autistic son enrolled in Making Waves. “They looked for the easy way out: ‘some special-needs kid crapped in the pool.’” While fecal mishaps in pools are more common than most people know, they normally require minimum closure of pool space for sanitizing – usually just a few hours. However, this uncommonly messy instance required the pool to be drained and refilled. When the pool heater subsequently broke down, McGill teams and other patrons were displaced for ten days. After the pool reopened, Nicki Fischer, president of Making Waves, received an email from Barker informing her that “the Blind Swim [currently called “Making Waves”] is cancelled.” The abrupt decision shocked Fischer, who did not know that the idea of cancellation was being entertained, and had to call the parents of each participant to inform them that the program was cancelled. Parents were also surprised. “Had they drafted a memo explaining the proposed scheme, I wouldn’t have had the same reaction,” Padden said, adding that she thought it was “tacky” of McGill Athletics to make such a decision without consulting Making Waves. Barker later changed the cancellation to a “postponement,” until the backlog is addressed. But Padden said that the postponement is an unjust punishment. “I have a kid who keeps pointing to his swimming shorts, and I have to try to communicate to him that he can’t use them,” Padden said. “It’s hard to have to deal with a situation like this when you’re trying to bring some regularity into their world.” The program will recommence on April 1, which instructors of Making Waves – many of whom are McGill students – said they found inconvenient, since they would be writing exams at that time. Director of McGill Athletics Derek Drummond said he offered to hire instructors for Making Waves during exam period free of charge. He added that Making Waves had not been asked to pay for pool space that had to be rented to accommodate McGill’s Synchro and Swim teams, both of which had major competitions to prepare for during that week. source

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