You’d think being in a state of panic would improve one’s cognitive facilities (out of a sense of self-preservation, if nothing else) but generally speaking, no.
The trolls had it: We make the worst decisions of our lives when we are mad, or scarred, or stressed.
The fight or flight response is notoriously good at preparing one for a sudden bout of extreme physical exertion, and notoriously bad at preparing one for making a reasoned, logical decision. Too bad the modern world requires us to do the latter far more often in response to stressful events.
Oh. My. Days.
Hobbit just hurled himself out of the frying pan.
I love his reaction in the last panel. And the face of the middle angry PTA member. So angry he spontaneously decided that pirate face was the best expression to use. I’m tired. This probably makes no sense. Apologies if that’s the case.
Random parent. “Hey Todd? You want we should all cover our eyes and ears for half a minute or so while Principal Dirtbag here ‘falls down and hurts himself’?
Todd: “Can I have 45 seconds? I feel like he should his his crotch on the corner of a chair a few times on his way down.”
… Which also means he got shot in the mouth, right? Right??
It’s one thing to genuinely be in over your head; it’s another thing entirely to not only skirt responsibility, but pigeonhole/blame certain kids.
(p.s. I wonder what Todd feels about what Smeagol just said.)
(P.p.s. all votes to change Ashton’s nickname from Hobbit to Smeagol say ‘aye’! As a few other have said… calling him Hobbit is an insult – to Hobbits.)
Please don’t tear me apart for asking this, but what exactly was offensive about what the hobbit said? Selkie ISN’T a normal student. She can get violently sick from eating the wrong food, has a severe reaction to cold weather, and has a completely different biology than what most schools are ready or equipped to deal with. With a condition like that, you should expect one or two hospital visits per year. (A hospital visit isn’t necessarily reserved for life threatening situations, many are just “making sure” that the person in question is all right.)
I still think the principle is a monumental incompetent, but I don’t see how he screwed up this time.
What Dave already said, but consider that even in context the hobbit just gave his opinion of special needs children. Out loud. At a PTA meeting. Surrounded by parents who have just been voicing their grievances over things their (normal!) children have been telling them.
It is Principal Hobbit’s view that Selkie is different and should expect such treatment.
This is prejudice, over and above Selkie’s needs.
Selkie is a special needs kid, and it is the RESPONSIBLITY of Principal Hobbit to make sure that those needs are met. IT’S HIS FUCKING JOB.
In the case of someone like a severely autistic child, or one that endangers others, it is his job to see that the child is placed somewhere appropriate.
He just admitted 1) his insensitivity and 2) his incompetence.
I am the mother of a child who needs a 504 plan, that is, a formal plan her school is legally bound to follow and abide by outlining a set of medical accommodations needed for her to be successful in school. He accommodations are not so intensive that her school cannot reasonably accommodate her, much like Selkie. Selkie needs to be kept warm, given time to flush her gills, and she has strict dietary requirements. None of these things are too restrictive or complicated such that any normal school wouldn’t be capable to fulfill them, even if that means giving Selkie a 1 on 1 aid who is there to supervise and assist Selkie to assure her medical needs are met. This is a fairly common situation and the school/town budgets money for kids like her.
Now, these kids have protected conditions. Disability is not something you can discriminate based on and NO child should have to “expect” to go to the hospital for a manageable condition. Just because she CAN get sick more easily and is more prone to problems doesn’t mean that is expected that she go. Her conditions are highly manageable. My daughter is prone to joint dislocation due to a genetic condition she inherited from me. At her age, I had dozens of full dislocations and countless subluxations because no one knew. She, on the other hand, has not had one, but it would be easy for one to happen and life as altering because she’d never have the joint integrity she has now ever again. Should I “expect” that a dislocation will occur and feel lucky that she’s not going to the hospital every other week for another dislocation? Or should I be able to trust that the school will follow her plan that maximizes her chances to stay healthy? If the school did not follow her plan (picking her up only from her torso and not under the armpits, not pulling on her arms or legs, cueing for proper joint positioning, and holding her hand below he elbow level) and she got seriously hurt as a result, would I not have a legal leg to stand on? If her principal said “your child’s not normal, you’re lucky she hasn’t gotten harmed here more often!” that would be a seriously offensive and disgusting comment to make. Same goes for any serious condition. “This is a school, you should have expected your severely allergic child to get into some peanut butter eventually!” “Your child with autism ran out of the building and got hit by a car, but you know she is prone to bolting so you should have seen this coming.” “Come on, your child is asthmatic! Sometimes they’re just going to stop breathing while the nurse is in lunch break, you can’t hold us reasonable because her inhaler was locked in the nurses office and we had to call in an ambulance!” When you look at “real” examples, it highlights why what they principal said was wrong. He did not do all that was reasonable and in his power to keep Selkie safe (and, apparently, many other children), caused a hostile work environment for the teachers that went as far as to compromise the ethics of the teachers, he did not notify staff of their legal rights, he allowed problems to be swept under the rug, and now he has said all but straight out that a special needs child in his care was abnormal and her father should expect WEEKLY complications (when Tod himself has only recently adopted her and managed to keep her safe on his time) from an easily controlled medical condition that the school and staff have had plenty of experience managing in the past (since she’s been going to school they’re far longer than she’s been Tod’s daughter). That’s insane, offensive, and now he’s sealed his fate. You can’t discriminate against people with disabilities, especially children.
A long time ago, I worked for an organization that, among other things, drove disabled kids to an integrated school (with disabled and “normal” children in class together) and back home. I´ve seen how even kids with fairly severe issues can be integrated into school and have just about as normal and happy a childhood as their condition allows.
Thus, Principal Hobbit´s attitude of “so what, you can´t expect your special needs kid to have her special needs taken into account, much less expect her not to be physically assaulted so badly she´ll be hospitalized afterwards every couple of weeks” just pisses me off so unspeakably much.
If that was me in that PTA meeting, I would now be going outside to get the tar boiling and bring up the bags of feathers.
My little brother was born with hydrocephalus and has had a shunt in his brain since birth, and has lived with epilepsy and cerebral palsy among other neurological issues. The general attitude of Hobbit is similar to one we had to deal with growing up, especially once we entered High School. This was way back, before 504 Plans were implemented. Hobbit’s foot-in-mouth statement is almost word for word what a “principal” in our High School once said to my mother. If only it had been a public statement such as a PTA meeting, but alas it was in a private discussion. Unsurprisingly, my brother was transferred to a private tutor shortly afterward, and I (after a nervous breakdown and on the urging of an independent counselor) took my GED and got the flying frag out of that hellhole.
Unfortunately, I’m given to understand that not much has improved at my former school; they just got better at masking their contempt for special-needs kids. :-/
LLT
This was a really great and in my opinion spot on comment, and since you obviously put a lot of thought and effort into it I thought I needed to respond and say just how much I appreciated reading it.
Best wishes to you and your daughter.
Because the assumption of harm is a *really* shitty thing. Bullying *can* be prevented, scuffles are *not* normal (nor acceptable), and he’s just admitted himself unfit for his position.
I don’t think he’s referring to her food “allergies” and intolerance to cold, sounds to me like he’s saying she’s weird so she should expect (and accept) the bullying.
Partially, wording. He didn’t say lucky not go “go” to the hospital, as in something goes wrong with her gills/food, etc. He says “sent” to the hospital. When you are sent to the hospital, the connotation is that someone PUT you there. As in, you were hurt by someone. Even then, Selkie’s needs are mild compared to some real life students. Even if he says she should expect to “go” to the hospital, he is stating that kids with special needs in his school are not safe, cannot be given the assistance and treatment they need, and too bad for them.
Truck was clearly out of control. Sooner or later he would have done something that would have put a “normal” kid in hospital. If Selkie going to hospital hadn´t put a stop to this, this would eventually have ended with a kid with broken bones or a concussion, or severe whiplash from being shaken like a ragdoll, or a being run over by a car while trying to escape from Truck´s “scuffles”.
True. But the heat pads could have also fallen if she did a cartwheel.
My point is, yes, she was bullied. But that specific incident was not so terrible by itself. Truck did not know about the heat pads. If he DID know and tried to remove them on purpose then yes, he would be much worse. Besides, at that panel, it seemd like Selkie’s screeching made him panic.
The way I see it, apart from the Hobbit’s tendancy to fire people without following the proceedings, leaving school ground unsupervised by teachers is the only other major problem that needs to be fixed.
Not just everyone being unsupervised by the teachers to the degree that a little girl got ganged up on by several larger kids and had to scream to get attention, but specifically Selkie, the special needs kid who had to go to the hospital over bullying, being unsupervised. It was their damn responsibility to watch over her so that wouldn’t happen. They knew she had to be watched in cold weather. This does not mean “not let her out to play snowballs” but “have someone go with her and stay around ready to take her inside as soon as something goes wrong”. Which is basic standard for even non-special-needs child supervision, frankly.
I love how he makes a good point in panel five, a point which would be pertinent if the authority in question were not abusive, and then goes and hangs himself in the very next panel.
So it’s not just Trunchbull, I guess this is why he’s not bringing the barbarian down with him, sigh. What Ashton is doing is still pretty messed up though.
It’s not just that he’s pointing out she’s different. It’s not normal for a kid to have to go to the hospital after being bullied and what Ashton said tells parents 2 things-
1: That Ashton considers it to be okay for a child who is different to be bullied. His phrase “She’s lucky not to be there every other week” implies that he thinks Todd should expect harsher treatment of Selkie because she’s not like other kids.
2- Voicing that she’s different in such an open setting shows he’s biased against her for being different. And the expression on his face only adds to that.
And even with his “defense” in panel five. There are a LOT of parents complaining about bullying. One or two scuffles a week could be considered normal. But the dialog shows it’s the same kids frequently with nothing being done. It’s not “kids being kids”. It’s the principal being incompetent with talking to parents of kids who are bullying.
I don’t see a problem his staff couldn’t deal with with minimal competence, frankly. If there was just ONE PERSON supervising children from afar, the situation would have already been prevented: a group of kids pursuing and then surrounding one known as having weak health especially in cold weather is noticable and should have drawn close attention and Selkie shouldn’t have had to scream to get adults to come. They failed standards for even non-special-needs child safety, the principal only blamed it on Selkie’s special needs ’cause he’s a bigot.
I don’t think Todd is being fair here. He should have mentioned that his kid has a special condition, that her heat pads fell out, and THAT’S why she had to go to the hospital. It’s not as if Truck broke her bones or something. There are bullying problems in the school, but they are NOT that horrible.
In strip 558 he mentions she has unique genetic problems. Think of All Star Batman and Dick Grayson Age 12 every other page and you can see the wisdom in not doing it this time.
The thing is, he admits that she is special needs and that she was hospitalized. Being too specific about Selkie’s difficulties would raise too many questions about her physiology. He has to tread a careful line about what is admitted.
Another thing to understand is that the hospitalization is an important point, but not the only point. The main point is giving voice to the problems happening in the school and letting other parents voice their own grievances. This isn’t one child suffering under this incompetence, it’s that many parents have similar gripes, which make the case far more effectively.
Right, because admitting that you have a handicapped kid getting bullied is somehow an acceptable thing…
Handicap/handicapable awareness in schools is a thing, and has been for more than a decade; This *never* would have happened at any school I ever attended (and I graduated ’07).
I’m currently working in an elementary school, and I can see something like this happening, unfortunately (though not to the same extent, and handled way different by the principal).
The other parents have made it very clear that bullying, up to and including kids getting beaten up, is endemic at the school. Do kids have to DIE before it officially becomes “that horrible”?
Er, I think bullying exists in EVERY school, in EVERY society, among kids AND grown-ups. I’ve been bullied myself, my brother has been bullied, I’ve talked with other bullied people, I know the deal.
It’s something that some people expect, some other people hope doesn’t exist, the truth is, it DOES exist and you CAN’T extreminate it any more than you can exterminate lying in a society.
I don’t think bullying is ESPECIALLY bad in this school, it’s just the parents wondering if ALL the bad things that happen to their children are a fault of the school. They are not.
Also, my brother has shaken me like than countelss times in good humor. I didn’t have any life-preserving heat-pads, so I laughed it off.
Selkie has friends who support her in the school and can fight back.
You wonder what a horrible kind of bullying is? One that IN PURPOSE attempts to leave the victim scarred, physicaly or mentally. He didn’t corner her every day. He didn’t slap her. He didn’t punch her. He didn’t do his best to make sure she is friendless and shunned by others. He *shook her* at a moment of his own panic, without knowing anything about heat-pads. The only reason that the event escallated was because Selkie had a special condition he didn’t know anything about.
Amanda has been a much worse bully to Selkie, mentally speaking.
The problem is, kids were playing outside in cold weather ENTIRELY UNSUPERVISED. Despite the teachers knowing Selkie had health problems in cold weather, all they did was tell her to be careful – a little kid! She had to scream to get attention, which delayed her getting help to the point she had to be taken to the hospital. The problem was not with the bullying starting, the problem was with it not being stopped by staff IMMEDIATELY once it got dangerous.
15’s for lynching, 50 is for a truck-dragging-murder… also possibly a D&D reference (and, more over, a standard length for rope coils for mountain climbing).
It seems a bit odd that the Principal would simply blurt that out…
Perhaps Agent Brown has a device that causes one to externalize ones’ internal dialogue?
Doesn’t seem weird to me. It’s what he thought, and while he knew it wasn’t a good thing to say out loud, he had no idea why. The verbal censor malfunctioned. It’s bound to happen now and then.
And in the next panel we’ll see the entire PTA lynching Ashton, and Todd handing out a cigar to Agent Smith. Second panel: Todd grinning, cigar in mouth and quoting “I love it when a plan comes together!”
Actually, Principal Ashton’s true nature is revealed in panel 4. Yes, it _is_ your fault; that’s what being principal means. You accept the title and the job, you take the responsibility.
If Ashton is anywhere close to retirement, maybe he can convince the school district to find some out-of-the way administrative post for him while he serves out his time. If not, then he’d better update his resume.
Not that I agree with Sci or the principal but Selkie is not human and actually is different both biologically and psychologically so racism doesn’t apply here.
I’m being racist because I believe a non-human should be treated differently?
She almost died from being outside for a few minutes without her heating pads.
The school should not be dealing with that.
That isn’t to say she’s not the school district’s responsibility, and should be taken care of accordingly, but not necessarily in a standard elementary school.
Everyone accusing me of being a racist, chill out.
That’s not racism, that’s ableism. Different, you are right. No less wrong.
The school should be dealing with that. The situation could have been prevented with
1) not letting her outside in cold weather;
2) having an adult supervise the children from afar, which they should have been doing regardless of Selkie anyway.
Not racist fuck. Ableist fuck. Still shut your mouth and sit tight.
Why shouldn’t she be in public school? She’s been attending for three years and, aside from teasing and missing recess in cold winter, she’s been doing fine.
You’re saying she shouldn’t be based there on her conditions. Her condition, technically, is that she simply looks different. There are humans who can’t handle temperature changes (it’s why some people go south for winter, they can’t handle the cold; I know it’s usually old people, but that’s besides the point). And there are humans who have eating restrictions. Some chosen.
Not being normal is no reason to not be in a public school. After all, Selkie still has friends, loves learning, and acts like any other kid.
Oh? I’ve worked with students who had peanut allergies so violent touching a desk with peanut residue on it could be life threatening. No where near Selkie’s food allergy. I’ve worked with a Type I diabetic student who had to manage his insulin shots and blood tests daily – more disrupting than gill flushing. I’ve worked with students with asthma who cannot go out to recess in certain conditions. Selkie’s needs are no more and sometimes less complex than a real world student may have.
Not to mention some *public* high schools having a program whereby the quite developmentally disabled could still get a GED, albeit with a modified program/modified teaching methods, but they still learned the same things as us and met the education requirements for an actual GED. My high school had one, and the students in this program had conditions including Down’s Syndrome among others. If people of less mental capability are completing public school educations, and Selkie is certainly mentally intact and only has mild physical needs as others have stated, YES SHE BELONGS THERE.
Or are you implying that because she appears different, she is open to bullying and therefore should be homeschooled for self-protection? That’s still an erroneous suggestion, because she shouldn’t have to do that simply because the other kids can’t respect their fellow (mer)man. That argument amounts to victim-blaming.
It’s like telling a raped woman she shouldn’t have dressed the way she did. “If you look different, don’t be in a school among other kids because you’re inviting them to bully you!” At the end of the day, it’s the bully-kids who do the bullying – no one ever asks to be bullied. Hold those who are *truly* responsible, accountable for their own disrespectful decisions.
I know a woman with Down syndrome who busted her butt and graduated on time, from public high school, with a B average because she had support, including somebody standing by to keep the bullies off (un was technically an aide, but “bully blocker” was also an accurate job description).
I know somebody who graduated from the same high school with behavioral issues, i.e., depression and PTSD, which sidetracked her life into years and thousands of dollars of therapy trying to root out the worse-than-useless reflexes that 12 years of daily bullying and frequent assault had planted deeply in her psyche. She was targeted at first because she was a little shy and hesitant to join in group situations, and because her sick mother didn’t always send her to school neatly dressed and clean. Later she was targeted because she could be relied on to produce entertaining fits of helpless rage when surrounded by a jeering ring of children with objects in their hands. But there was no assigned bully blocker for her, because she was just a normal kid and kids gotta be TOUGH, yeahhh.
Public school is supposed to prepare all students for full participation in the adult world to the limits of their abilities. The school helped one child and failed another. Selkie needs not to be that second child. She needs to be the first one.
Actually nobody needs to be the second child, ever. And that school district’s failure to address the culture that blames the victim of bullying and fails to protect children is a major reason why I homeschool now.
Sorry for the novel; this storyline is stirring up a lot of old mud.
It’s not her medical needs that the school failed. It’s basic child supervision. Todd just shook out her heat pads; he could as well have broken her arm or neck, there were still no adults around to stop him. If anything, Selkie’s condition helped her: her loud shriek was distinctive enough for teachers to understand it’s her and rush to her aid.
As many others have said before: her physical needs are far lesser than ones that public schools can, and have, attended to before. If a public school *can’t* handle her, then that is a failure of the school to meet standards.
You’re a troll because you either “have an opinion” that is absolutely disgusting or, more likely, you’re feigning an opinion that is absolutely disgusting in order to sow discord.
How exactly is my opinion that Selkie, being of a different species and physiological makeup from her peers, should be in a special school “disgusting?”
I don’t think you’re a troll. I can kind of see your point.
But she and the school are guinea pigs. This is an exercise to see if society can balance itself out and accept the mer people. If they can assimilate and have a normalish life on the surface. Which a public school is perfect to use as a litmus test.
Changing Selkie’s school to one that can handle her health needs easier would invalidate the test. They would need to be made aware of all the details of her, including her biological need for meat. Not a food allergy, but her being a carnivore. And that would lead to them finding out about her people’s background and make the whole thing pointless.
Selkie’s “condition” isn’t all that far off from real issues real people have.
My great-great-grandmother’s sister had what’s now called severe cold urticaria her entire life. It’s essentially an allergic reaction to cold that meant she would get welts from something as minor as rinsing her hands in cold water. She also had some food allergies. She went to public school as a child, lived a normal life, and was active in her community until her death in her eighties.
Not to mention she lived on the American frontier. Even way back then she was able to attend normal school with very minor accommodations. She kept hot bricks in her clothes in cold weather and someone would carry her to school. She heated the bricks by the fire during class and replaced them for the trip home. Like everyone else of the time, she packed a lunch. Unlike Selkie, she was very conventionally normal looking, save for being rather pretty.
If people on the very edge of civilization and starvation could keep someone like her safely integrated into the community and in public school, I see no reason why a modern school with far more resources and funding can’t handle someone like Selkie.
…wow. Just… wow. Principal Ashton just very vocally plummeted past the moral event horizon, right in front of a group of concerned parents… and Agent Brown, to boot.
The man’s career is over.
(PS: Yeah, I know the man actually passed the moral event horizon when he used Chris Thompson’s sacking as a threat to make the rest of the staff toe the line in the aftermath of Truck attacking Selkie- but, that wasn’t in front of a large number of witnesses. This is.)
This school has obviously had a bullying culture from the get go. Not just Truck. The principal bullies the staff. The orphans vs non orphans. The bullying w/in the peer groups. Not that it doesn’t happen, but in this school system it is demonstrated to go unaddressed (except for sickeningly ironic tolerance posters), and often downright encouraged.
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Hmm… comments hitting me as food for thought. Principal Ashton is absolutely due for disciplinary and possibly legal action (sensitivity training, ethical training, and dismissal at a minimum). But stop and re-read this comment list with a mind-set of “people shouldn’t hurt other people”. All the physical things we’re saying should happen to Ashton? They put us squarely alongside him in the “bullying is just part of life” camp. Where do we find the line between “it’s not okay to harm someone” and “it’s okay to enact vigilante justice on someone”? Just food for thought, because the last several months I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how the things we tolerate in “pretense” (words, comics, movies, etc.) affect what we actually tolerate in real life. MOST people can and do say things without real intent to follow through – but it does make it easy to see how others can feel justified in doing what everyone talks about. For my part, I’m reading and agreeing with all the “keelhaul him!” sentiments .. but questioning whether I should be. Maybe I should just be thinking “Fire him!”?
Thanks for the food for thought. I’m sure most of us are joking – I know I am – but it is really good to be frequently reminded to stay above the belt and watch one’s tone.
One thing that you haven’t factored in is that we are genetically programmed to desire retaliation for wrong-doings. That’s one of the reasons that those who have killed others get worse sentences than those who TRIED to kill others. While there is a (hard to define) line between disciplinary punishment and overdoing it, you have to remember that it’s part of our nature to want revenge.
Personally, I think a good rule of thumb for drawing the line is making nem go through what ne put others through (while factoring in intent) but not going any further. Of course, it doesn’t have to be EXACTLY the same ordeal; it can merely be an equivalent (a beating for an eye, as it were).
Ehhh one can be classist and ableist without being racist. Case in point: my own parents, who were totally excited when they though I may date a black man (we’re white) but abhor my relationship with a white woman… who is also physically disabled. (Add ‘homophobic’ to the list!) They also make regular disparaging comments about the poor – and they’re lower middle class themselves.
Shoulder-Devil Todd’s “angry soccer mommies” is coming trueeeee!!! XD
Oh LAWD their faces. (I can’t wait to see Todd’s angry face at Smeagol’s insult of his daughter, but I presume Todd will take into account that all the other parents are already angry on his behalf.)
I find Agent Brown’s reaction (or lack of it) very interesting. He’s definitely observing and evaluating the particulars and overall mood of the meeting.
I think, at least with regard to this particular incident, Brown will report (qualified, provisional) success with Selkie’s integration. With the exception of the principal’s outburst, there’s been no direct mention of her. Granted, she’s still below most of these parents’ radar, but this was an opportunity for xenophobia to make itself known… and so far, that hasn’t happened.
And yes, it still could. Trenchbull could stand up and soapbox (though I think he has more than one reason not to), or the principal could try (unsuccessfully) to divert attention from him onto Selkie. Things could still go south before the meeting ends. But so far… so good.
The Agent’s also probably trained to keep his cool, or at least outward appearance of such, and only intervene when necessary. So far, Smeagol’s already doing an excellent job of taking care of things by himself 😀
No argument there, and I’m sure Brown is well aware of the work still to be done. But Selkie’s adoption is *part* of that work, and it’s his job to see that her integration goes as well as it can.
The whole semi-open-secret of the Sarnathi’s existence is fascinating; it’s a mass conspiracy that actually *works*. Think of how many thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of people who unavoidably know *something* about what is, essentially, an invasion / mass resettlement by a nonhuman race. Yet in this age of mass communication and near-instant social networking, there is barely a *hint* of it.
That in itself is a clever idea. But to approach the revelation of this Big Secret using the relationship of parent and child is wonderful. It gives us a glimpse of our own society at several removes (a child, an *adopted* child, an adopted *nonhuman* child), yet not so far we can’t empathize with Selkie and her human family.
Agreed: at some point there’ll have to be full disclosure. But humans are *sooo* good at rationalizing. ‘Skin condition’, silly as that sounds, is one way of easing towards the truth while getting the Sarnathi accepted as *people*, albeit strange ones.
I had for a time a young step-cousin whose day-to-day coloring was not very far removed from Selkie’s. It was not quite as dramatically periwinkle (allowing for the fact that this is, after all, a comic), but his skin and particularly his lips had a distinct blue tint to them at all times, and sometimes approached purple.
In his case, it was because he had an inoperable heart defect and his time was limited. I believe he was seven or eight when his heart gave out.
It was alarming to see for the first time, but ultimately he really was just a child, albeit a child with serious health issues and almost alien-looking skin coloration. While he wasn’t AS different as Selkie, I can see why people jump to the conclusion of ‘dangerously ill’ rather than ‘alien child’. It’s just not as far a rationalization as people might think.
There wasn’t need for one-on-one, really, simple adult supervision of the whole playground would have been enough to break up the fight as soon as it started and get Selkie inside before she could get seriously cold.
And that’s even in cold weather, which Selkie’s special needs directly concern! That’s a special needs child, hurt in a situation where a “normal” child could have been hurt just as easily if Todd was a little more violent and went beyond just “shaking” (which happens irl all the time so…)
This is not about Selkie being special at all, really. She just happened to be the first one to get hurt AND take action about it. If the meeting manages to go without drawing special attention to her origin – which it seems about to – integration successful.
“Getting sent to to hospital” is very unfortunate way of wording it, as someone already pointed out further up in the comments. It implies that someone did something to you. “Having to go the the hospital” would be a more neutral way of putting it – still, calling her “not normal” is also bad wording, so he’s kind of shooting his foot with two barrels here.
I would have said with her condition, she’s lucky she’s not getting hurt all the time. It’s less victim blamey, makes the same point without making someone look like a bully enabler and is actually quite true.
Two for one bigot bingo!
Selkie did not get hurt because of her condition. Selkie got hurt because children were playing outside in cold weather. The fact that she’s known as a special needs child who needs specific supervision in cold is just a cherry on top of the horrible negligence and incompetence of the school. Putting the blame on her condition is ableist bigotry.
* because children were playing outside in cold weather WITHOUT SUPERVISION.
Apparently I wrote this so many times I managed to just skip the key part in this comment. For shame. Not the kids playing was gross negligence, but lack of supervision.
somehow i don’t think that Todd will have a problem getting his proposal seconded, i dare say that even Trunchbull will be in that vocal majority when Todd gets around to asking for it.
WOW way to sink your own ship there hobbit!
You’d think being in a state of panic would improve one’s cognitive facilities (out of a sense of self-preservation, if nothing else) but generally speaking, no.
The trolls had it: We make the worst decisions of our lives when we are mad, or scarred, or stressed.
The fight or flight response is notoriously good at preparing one for a sudden bout of extreme physical exertion, and notoriously bad at preparing one for making a reasoned, logical decision. Too bad the modern world requires us to do the latter far more often in response to stressful events.
Oh. My. Days.
Hobbit just hurled himself out of the frying pan.
I love his reaction in the last panel. And the face of the middle angry PTA member. So angry he spontaneously decided that pirate face was the best expression to use. I’m tired. This probably makes no sense. Apologies if that’s the case.
Pirate face! I didn’t even notice. Faboo. 🙂
yes you did. Hobbit. Yes you did.
I’m trying to reach through the screen so I can punch the Hobbit in the face.
Why can’t I punch him in the face?! D:
Looks like all the other parents are about to take care of that for us.
Hey, Smeagol? When you’re in a hole, STOP DIGGING. *glares* !!!
Todd? HIT HIM, please.
Random parent. “Hey Todd? You want we should all cover our eyes and ears for half a minute or so while Principal Dirtbag here ‘falls down and hurts himself’?
Todd: “Can I have 45 seconds? I feel like he should his his crotch on the corner of a chair a few times on his way down.”
Ah how sweet is Schadenfreude. Nothing quite like putting your foot in your mouth and Then shooting yourself in the foot!
… Wow. I need to remember that phrase.
… Which also means he got shot in the mouth, right? Right??
It’s one thing to genuinely be in over your head; it’s another thing entirely to not only skirt responsibility, but pigeonhole/blame certain kids.
(p.s. I wonder what Todd feels about what Smeagol just said.)
(P.p.s. all votes to change Ashton’s nickname from Hobbit to Smeagol say ‘aye’! As a few other have said… calling him Hobbit is an insult – to Hobbits.)
Parentses! We hates them!
Blue Coyote: Brilliant and logical combination of two old sayings, which I am promptly stealing.
*Jawdrop!* Holy Samoleans… he DID just say that out loud, didn’t he?
I hope Todd doesn’t hit the guy though, as much as he deserves it. Let there be no controversy later over who is really at fault here.
Please don’t tear me apart for asking this, but what exactly was offensive about what the hobbit said? Selkie ISN’T a normal student. She can get violently sick from eating the wrong food, has a severe reaction to cold weather, and has a completely different biology than what most schools are ready or equipped to deal with. With a condition like that, you should expect one or two hospital visits per year. (A hospital visit isn’t necessarily reserved for life threatening situations, many are just “making sure” that the person in question is all right.)
I still think the principle is a monumental incompetent, but I don’t see how he screwed up this time.
Consider how a comment like that will sound out-of-context, to those who aren’t aware of Selkie’s specifics.
What Dave already said, but consider that even in context the hobbit just gave his opinion of special needs children. Out loud. At a PTA meeting. Surrounded by parents who have just been voicing their grievances over things their (normal!) children have been telling them.
It is Principal Hobbit’s view that Selkie is different and should expect such treatment.
This is prejudice, over and above Selkie’s needs.
Selkie is a special needs kid, and it is the RESPONSIBLITY of Principal Hobbit to make sure that those needs are met. IT’S HIS FUCKING JOB.
In the case of someone like a severely autistic child, or one that endangers others, it is his job to see that the child is placed somewhere appropriate.
He just admitted 1) his insensitivity and 2) his incompetence.
I am the mother of a child who needs a 504 plan, that is, a formal plan her school is legally bound to follow and abide by outlining a set of medical accommodations needed for her to be successful in school. He accommodations are not so intensive that her school cannot reasonably accommodate her, much like Selkie. Selkie needs to be kept warm, given time to flush her gills, and she has strict dietary requirements. None of these things are too restrictive or complicated such that any normal school wouldn’t be capable to fulfill them, even if that means giving Selkie a 1 on 1 aid who is there to supervise and assist Selkie to assure her medical needs are met. This is a fairly common situation and the school/town budgets money for kids like her.
Now, these kids have protected conditions. Disability is not something you can discriminate based on and NO child should have to “expect” to go to the hospital for a manageable condition. Just because she CAN get sick more easily and is more prone to problems doesn’t mean that is expected that she go. Her conditions are highly manageable. My daughter is prone to joint dislocation due to a genetic condition she inherited from me. At her age, I had dozens of full dislocations and countless subluxations because no one knew. She, on the other hand, has not had one, but it would be easy for one to happen and life as altering because she’d never have the joint integrity she has now ever again. Should I “expect” that a dislocation will occur and feel lucky that she’s not going to the hospital every other week for another dislocation? Or should I be able to trust that the school will follow her plan that maximizes her chances to stay healthy? If the school did not follow her plan (picking her up only from her torso and not under the armpits, not pulling on her arms or legs, cueing for proper joint positioning, and holding her hand below he elbow level) and she got seriously hurt as a result, would I not have a legal leg to stand on? If her principal said “your child’s not normal, you’re lucky she hasn’t gotten harmed here more often!” that would be a seriously offensive and disgusting comment to make. Same goes for any serious condition. “This is a school, you should have expected your severely allergic child to get into some peanut butter eventually!” “Your child with autism ran out of the building and got hit by a car, but you know she is prone to bolting so you should have seen this coming.” “Come on, your child is asthmatic! Sometimes they’re just going to stop breathing while the nurse is in lunch break, you can’t hold us reasonable because her inhaler was locked in the nurses office and we had to call in an ambulance!” When you look at “real” examples, it highlights why what they principal said was wrong. He did not do all that was reasonable and in his power to keep Selkie safe (and, apparently, many other children), caused a hostile work environment for the teachers that went as far as to compromise the ethics of the teachers, he did not notify staff of their legal rights, he allowed problems to be swept under the rug, and now he has said all but straight out that a special needs child in his care was abnormal and her father should expect WEEKLY complications (when Tod himself has only recently adopted her and managed to keep her safe on his time) from an easily controlled medical condition that the school and staff have had plenty of experience managing in the past (since she’s been going to school they’re far longer than she’s been Tod’s daughter). That’s insane, offensive, and now he’s sealed his fate. You can’t discriminate against people with disabilities, especially children.
A long time ago, I worked for an organization that, among other things, drove disabled kids to an integrated school (with disabled and “normal” children in class together) and back home. I´ve seen how even kids with fairly severe issues can be integrated into school and have just about as normal and happy a childhood as their condition allows.
Thus, Principal Hobbit´s attitude of “so what, you can´t expect your special needs kid to have her special needs taken into account, much less expect her not to be physically assaulted so badly she´ll be hospitalized afterwards every couple of weeks” just pisses me off so unspeakably much.
If that was me in that PTA meeting, I would now be going outside to get the tar boiling and bring up the bags of feathers.
My little brother was born with hydrocephalus and has had a shunt in his brain since birth, and has lived with epilepsy and cerebral palsy among other neurological issues. The general attitude of Hobbit is similar to one we had to deal with growing up, especially once we entered High School. This was way back, before 504 Plans were implemented. Hobbit’s foot-in-mouth statement is almost word for word what a “principal” in our High School once said to my mother. If only it had been a public statement such as a PTA meeting, but alas it was in a private discussion. Unsurprisingly, my brother was transferred to a private tutor shortly afterward, and I (after a nervous breakdown and on the urging of an independent counselor) took my GED and got the flying frag out of that hellhole.
Unfortunately, I’m given to understand that not much has improved at my former school; they just got better at masking their contempt for special-needs kids. :-/
LLT
This was a really great and in my opinion spot on comment, and since you obviously put a lot of thought and effort into it I thought I needed to respond and say just how much I appreciated reading it.
Best wishes to you and your daughter.
Because the assumption of harm is a *really* shitty thing. Bullying *can* be prevented, scuffles are *not* normal (nor acceptable), and he’s just admitted himself unfit for his position.
I don’t think he’s referring to her food “allergies” and intolerance to cold, sounds to me like he’s saying she’s weird so she should expect (and accept) the bullying.
Partially, wording. He didn’t say lucky not go “go” to the hospital, as in something goes wrong with her gills/food, etc. He says “sent” to the hospital. When you are sent to the hospital, the connotation is that someone PUT you there. As in, you were hurt by someone. Even then, Selkie’s needs are mild compared to some real life students. Even if he says she should expect to “go” to the hospital, he is stating that kids with special needs in his school are not safe, cannot be given the assistance and treatment they need, and too bad for them.
That guy stopped seeing the kids in his charge as people a long damn time ago. He needs a job change for everybody’s sake including his own.
Now that Jessie´s a teaching assistant, I think Wool Mart has an opening for a shoe sales clerk.
I don’t think Principal Sackville-Baggins is qualified for that kind of responsibility.
Well, it’s true she went to a hospital, but any other kid receiving the same kind of bullying wouldn’t have to go. She was a special case.
Truck was clearly out of control. Sooner or later he would have done something that would have put a “normal” kid in hospital. If Selkie going to hospital hadn´t put a stop to this, this would eventually have ended with a kid with broken bones or a concussion, or severe whiplash from being shaken like a ragdoll, or a being run over by a car while trying to escape from Truck´s “scuffles”.
True. But the heat pads could have also fallen if she did a cartwheel.
My point is, yes, she was bullied. But that specific incident was not so terrible by itself. Truck did not know about the heat pads. If he DID know and tried to remove them on purpose then yes, he would be much worse. Besides, at that panel, it seemd like Selkie’s screeching made him panic.
The way I see it, apart from the Hobbit’s tendancy to fire people without following the proceedings, leaving school ground unsupervised by teachers is the only other major problem that needs to be fixed.
Not just everyone being unsupervised by the teachers to the degree that a little girl got ganged up on by several larger kids and had to scream to get attention, but specifically Selkie, the special needs kid who had to go to the hospital over bullying, being unsupervised. It was their damn responsibility to watch over her so that wouldn’t happen. They knew she had to be watched in cold weather. This does not mean “not let her out to play snowballs” but “have someone go with her and stay around ready to take her inside as soon as something goes wrong”. Which is basic standard for even non-special-needs child supervision, frankly.
I love how he makes a good point in panel five, a point which would be pertinent if the authority in question were not abusive, and then goes and hangs himself in the very next panel.
Hoisted by his own pitard!
So it’s not just Trunchbull, I guess this is why he’s not bringing the barbarian down with him, sigh. What Ashton is doing is still pretty messed up though.
It’s not just that he’s pointing out she’s different. It’s not normal for a kid to have to go to the hospital after being bullied and what Ashton said tells parents 2 things-
1: That Ashton considers it to be okay for a child who is different to be bullied. His phrase “She’s lucky not to be there every other week” implies that he thinks Todd should expect harsher treatment of Selkie because she’s not like other kids.
2- Voicing that she’s different in such an open setting shows he’s biased against her for being different. And the expression on his face only adds to that.
And even with his “defense” in panel five. There are a LOT of parents complaining about bullying. One or two scuffles a week could be considered normal. But the dialog shows it’s the same kids frequently with nothing being done. It’s not “kids being kids”. It’s the principal being incompetent with talking to parents of kids who are bullying.
I see absolutely nothing wrong with what the Principal said. He’s absolutely correct. Selkie should not be attending a public school as it is.
Are public schools only for tough children?
I don’t see a problem his staff couldn’t deal with with minimal competence, frankly. If there was just ONE PERSON supervising children from afar, the situation would have already been prevented: a group of kids pursuing and then surrounding one known as having weak health especially in cold weather is noticable and should have drawn close attention and Selkie shouldn’t have had to scream to get adults to come. They failed standards for even non-special-needs child safety, the principal only blamed it on Selkie’s special needs ’cause he’s a bigot.
I don’t think Todd is being fair here. He should have mentioned that his kid has a special condition, that her heat pads fell out, and THAT’S why she had to go to the hospital. It’s not as if Truck broke her bones or something. There are bullying problems in the school, but they are NOT that horrible.
In strip 558 he mentions she has unique genetic problems. Think of All Star Batman and Dick Grayson Age 12 every other page and you can see the wisdom in not doing it this time.
The thing is, he admits that she is special needs and that she was hospitalized. Being too specific about Selkie’s difficulties would raise too many questions about her physiology. He has to tread a careful line about what is admitted.
Another thing to understand is that the hospitalization is an important point, but not the only point. The main point is giving voice to the problems happening in the school and letting other parents voice their own grievances. This isn’t one child suffering under this incompetence, it’s that many parents have similar gripes, which make the case far more effectively.
As Ilia said: you say too much, and the people start asking too many questions… and Agent Brown gets involved 😀
Right, because admitting that you have a handicapped kid getting bullied is somehow an acceptable thing…
Handicap/handicapable awareness in schools is a thing, and has been for more than a decade; This *never* would have happened at any school I ever attended (and I graduated ’07).
I’m currently working in an elementary school, and I can see something like this happening, unfortunately (though not to the same extent, and handled way different by the principal).
“NOT that horrible”?
Hello?
The other parents have made it very clear that bullying, up to and including kids getting beaten up, is endemic at the school. Do kids have to DIE before it officially becomes “that horrible”?
Er, I think bullying exists in EVERY school, in EVERY society, among kids AND grown-ups. I’ve been bullied myself, my brother has been bullied, I’ve talked with other bullied people, I know the deal.
It’s something that some people expect, some other people hope doesn’t exist, the truth is, it DOES exist and you CAN’T extreminate it any more than you can exterminate lying in a society.
I don’t think bullying is ESPECIALLY bad in this school, it’s just the parents wondering if ALL the bad things that happen to their children are a fault of the school. They are not.
Also, my brother has shaken me like than countelss times in good humor. I didn’t have any life-preserving heat-pads, so I laughed it off.
Selkie has friends who support her in the school and can fight back.
You wonder what a horrible kind of bullying is? One that IN PURPOSE attempts to leave the victim scarred, physicaly or mentally. He didn’t corner her every day. He didn’t slap her. He didn’t punch her. He didn’t do his best to make sure she is friendless and shunned by others. He *shook her* at a moment of his own panic, without knowing anything about heat-pads. The only reason that the event escallated was because Selkie had a special condition he didn’t know anything about.
Amanda has been a much worse bully to Selkie, mentally speaking.
The problem is, kids were playing outside in cold weather ENTIRELY UNSUPERVISED. Despite the teachers knowing Selkie had health problems in cold weather, all they did was tell her to be careful – a little kid! She had to scream to get attention, which delayed her getting help to the point she had to be taken to the hospital. The problem was not with the bullying starting, the problem was with it not being stopped by staff IMMEDIATELY once it got dangerous.
And this is the sort of moment where we discover who goes around with 50 feet of rope in easy reach ‘just in case’… : /
Good grief, Zorland! Fifteen feet would be more than enough. Twelve probably in this instance.
15’s for lynching, 50 is for a truck-dragging-murder… also possibly a D&D reference (and, more over, a standard length for rope coils for mountain climbing).
It seems a bit odd that the Principal would simply blurt that out…
Perhaps Agent Brown has a device that causes one to externalize ones’ internal dialogue?
“Out of the overflow of a man’s heart, he speaks.” It’s less well concealed in stressful situations.
Hey, I was gonna say that!
Yep. Also “By their fruits shall ye know them.”
Lots of crying children coming home from that school. Awful, awful lot of ’em.
Ooo! I want one of those!
Doesn’t seem weird to me. It’s what he thought, and while he knew it wasn’t a good thing to say out loud, he had no idea why. The verbal censor malfunctioned. It’s bound to happen now and then.
Damn, son. There’s putting your foot in it, and then there’s sinking thigh-deep into the sucker…
I was about to make the exact same comment.
And this is where the beast reveals its true nature.
Way to go, Todd, for letting him dig his own grave.
I don’t think that even TODD planned for it to go this well. 😀
And in the next panel we’ll see the entire PTA lynching Ashton, and Todd handing out a cigar to Agent Smith. Second panel: Todd grinning, cigar in mouth and quoting “I love it when a plan comes together!”
*reloads gun*
Wanna shoot your other foot before putting it in your mouth?
I think right now he’d prefer to shoot his foot while it is in his mouth!
Actually, Principal Ashton’s true nature is revealed in panel 4. Yes, it _is_ your fault; that’s what being principal means. You accept the title and the job, you take the responsibility.
If Ashton is anywhere close to retirement, maybe he can convince the school district to find some out-of-the way administrative post for him while he serves out his time. If not, then he’d better update his resume.
Pretty much, yeah. It’s not about Selkie being special, she just happened to be the first one to get to the hospital because of his negligence.
Standing my ground and saying I’m firmly on the side of the principal here.
Selkie shouldn’t be in public school, based on her conditions.
Her *function* is to be in public school; to allow both the school and the people to adapt, and to see what challenges will be met with integration.
You’re quite literally being a racist… kinda neat, that one.
Not that I agree with Sci or the principal but Selkie is not human and actually is different both biologically and psychologically so racism doesn’t apply here.
So it´s speciesism instead of racism. Big whuppin´ deal.
He is still saying that he refuses to do his job and that parents shouldn´t expect him to do his job.
I’m being racist because I believe a non-human should be treated differently?
She almost died from being outside for a few minutes without her heating pads.
The school should not be dealing with that.
That isn’t to say she’s not the school district’s responsibility, and should be taken care of accordingly, but not necessarily in a standard elementary school.
Everyone accusing me of being a racist, chill out.
That’s not racism, that’s ableism. Different, you are right. No less wrong.
The school should be dealing with that. The situation could have been prevented with
1) not letting her outside in cold weather;
2) having an adult supervise the children from afar, which they should have been doing regardless of Selkie anyway.
Not racist fuck. Ableist fuck. Still shut your mouth and sit tight.
Very mature.
“I DISAGREE WITH YOU SO STOP TALKING”
Yep that’s how being an ableist fuck works sorry
Why shouldn’t she be in public school? She’s been attending for three years and, aside from teasing and missing recess in cold winter, she’s been doing fine.
You’re saying she shouldn’t be based there on her conditions. Her condition, technically, is that she simply looks different. There are humans who can’t handle temperature changes (it’s why some people go south for winter, they can’t handle the cold; I know it’s usually old people, but that’s besides the point). And there are humans who have eating restrictions. Some chosen.
Not being normal is no reason to not be in a public school. After all, Selkie still has friends, loves learning, and acts like any other kid.
Well said. 🙂
Uh, no, her condition is a lot more than ‘she looks different.’
Oh? I’ve worked with students who had peanut allergies so violent touching a desk with peanut residue on it could be life threatening. No where near Selkie’s food allergy. I’ve worked with a Type I diabetic student who had to manage his insulin shots and blood tests daily – more disrupting than gill flushing. I’ve worked with students with asthma who cannot go out to recess in certain conditions. Selkie’s needs are no more and sometimes less complex than a real world student may have.
Not to mention some *public* high schools having a program whereby the quite developmentally disabled could still get a GED, albeit with a modified program/modified teaching methods, but they still learned the same things as us and met the education requirements for an actual GED. My high school had one, and the students in this program had conditions including Down’s Syndrome among others. If people of less mental capability are completing public school educations, and Selkie is certainly mentally intact and only has mild physical needs as others have stated, YES SHE BELONGS THERE.
Or are you implying that because she appears different, she is open to bullying and therefore should be homeschooled for self-protection? That’s still an erroneous suggestion, because she shouldn’t have to do that simply because the other kids can’t respect their fellow (mer)man. That argument amounts to victim-blaming.
It’s like telling a raped woman she shouldn’t have dressed the way she did. “If you look different, don’t be in a school among other kids because you’re inviting them to bully you!” At the end of the day, it’s the bully-kids who do the bullying – no one ever asks to be bullied. Hold those who are *truly* responsible, accountable for their own disrespectful decisions.
I know a woman with Down syndrome who busted her butt and graduated on time, from public high school, with a B average because she had support, including somebody standing by to keep the bullies off (un was technically an aide, but “bully blocker” was also an accurate job description).
I know somebody who graduated from the same high school with behavioral issues, i.e., depression and PTSD, which sidetracked her life into years and thousands of dollars of therapy trying to root out the worse-than-useless reflexes that 12 years of daily bullying and frequent assault had planted deeply in her psyche. She was targeted at first because she was a little shy and hesitant to join in group situations, and because her sick mother didn’t always send her to school neatly dressed and clean. Later she was targeted because she could be relied on to produce entertaining fits of helpless rage when surrounded by a jeering ring of children with objects in their hands. But there was no assigned bully blocker for her, because she was just a normal kid and kids gotta be TOUGH, yeahhh.
Public school is supposed to prepare all students for full participation in the adult world to the limits of their abilities. The school helped one child and failed another. Selkie needs not to be that second child. She needs to be the first one.
Actually nobody needs to be the second child, ever. And that school district’s failure to address the culture that blames the victim of bullying and fails to protect children is a major reason why I homeschool now.
Sorry for the novel; this storyline is stirring up a lot of old mud.
I’m not saying she shouldn’t be there because she looks different, so stop putting words in my mouth.
I’m saying she has medical needs that the school is unprepared for. Send her to a school that can handle them.
It’s not her medical needs that the school failed. It’s basic child supervision. Todd just shook out her heat pads; he could as well have broken her arm or neck, there were still no adults around to stop him. If anything, Selkie’s condition helped her: her loud shriek was distinctive enough for teachers to understand it’s her and rush to her aid.
As many others have said before: her physical needs are far lesser than ones that public schools can, and have, attended to before. If a public school *can’t* handle her, then that is a failure of the school to meet standards.
Troooooooooll
Carry on.
I’m a troll because I have a different opinion. OK.
You’re a troll because you either “have an opinion” that is absolutely disgusting or, more likely, you’re feigning an opinion that is absolutely disgusting in order to sow discord.
How exactly is my opinion that Selkie, being of a different species and physiological makeup from her peers, should be in a special school “disgusting?”
She’s not even a damn human.
I don’t think you’re a troll. I can kind of see your point.
But she and the school are guinea pigs. This is an exercise to see if society can balance itself out and accept the mer people. If they can assimilate and have a normalish life on the surface. Which a public school is perfect to use as a litmus test.
Changing Selkie’s school to one that can handle her health needs easier would invalidate the test. They would need to be made aware of all the details of her, including her biological need for meat. Not a food allergy, but her being a carnivore. And that would lead to them finding out about her people’s background and make the whole thing pointless.
To quote a line from a favorite movie of mine, “Dead man walking!”
Selkie’s “condition” isn’t all that far off from real issues real people have.
My great-great-grandmother’s sister had what’s now called severe cold urticaria her entire life. It’s essentially an allergic reaction to cold that meant she would get welts from something as minor as rinsing her hands in cold water. She also had some food allergies. She went to public school as a child, lived a normal life, and was active in her community until her death in her eighties.
Not to mention she lived on the American frontier. Even way back then she was able to attend normal school with very minor accommodations. She kept hot bricks in her clothes in cold weather and someone would carry her to school. She heated the bricks by the fire during class and replaced them for the trip home. Like everyone else of the time, she packed a lunch. Unlike Selkie, she was very conventionally normal looking, save for being rather pretty.
If people on the very edge of civilization and starvation could keep someone like her safely integrated into the community and in public school, I see no reason why a modern school with far more resources and funding can’t handle someone like Selkie.
Thanks for sharing. Historical perspectives for the win!!
…wow. Just… wow. Principal Ashton just very vocally plummeted past the moral event horizon, right in front of a group of concerned parents… and Agent Brown, to boot.
The man’s career is over.
(PS: Yeah, I know the man actually passed the moral event horizon when he used Chris Thompson’s sacking as a threat to make the rest of the staff toe the line in the aftermath of Truck attacking Selkie- but, that wasn’t in front of a large number of witnesses. This is.)
This school has obviously had a bullying culture from the get go. Not just Truck. The principal bullies the staff. The orphans vs non orphans. The bullying w/in the peer groups. Not that it doesn’t happen, but in this school system it is demonstrated to go unaddressed (except for sickeningly ironic tolerance posters), and often downright encouraged.
This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Hmm… comments hitting me as food for thought. Principal Ashton is absolutely due for disciplinary and possibly legal action (sensitivity training, ethical training, and dismissal at a minimum). But stop and re-read this comment list with a mind-set of “people shouldn’t hurt other people”. All the physical things we’re saying should happen to Ashton? They put us squarely alongside him in the “bullying is just part of life” camp. Where do we find the line between “it’s not okay to harm someone” and “it’s okay to enact vigilante justice on someone”? Just food for thought, because the last several months I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about how the things we tolerate in “pretense” (words, comics, movies, etc.) affect what we actually tolerate in real life. MOST people can and do say things without real intent to follow through – but it does make it easy to see how others can feel justified in doing what everyone talks about. For my part, I’m reading and agreeing with all the “keelhaul him!” sentiments .. but questioning whether I should be. Maybe I should just be thinking “Fire him!”?
Thanks for the food for thought. I’m sure most of us are joking – I know I am – but it is really good to be frequently reminded to stay above the belt and watch one’s tone.
One thing that you haven’t factored in is that we are genetically programmed to desire retaliation for wrong-doings. That’s one of the reasons that those who have killed others get worse sentences than those who TRIED to kill others. While there is a (hard to define) line between disciplinary punishment and overdoing it, you have to remember that it’s part of our nature to want revenge.
Personally, I think a good rule of thumb for drawing the line is making nem go through what ne put others through (while factoring in intent) but not going any further. Of course, it doesn’t have to be EXACTLY the same ordeal; it can merely be an equivalent (a beating for an eye, as it were).
Yes, I used nem and ne on purpose.
Very useful contribution, Geodeki; thanks.
I’m surprised this ableist piece of trash didn’t get found out sooner. Wouldn’t be surprised if he was racist too.
Ehhh one can be classist and ableist without being racist. Case in point: my own parents, who were totally excited when they though I may date a black man (we’re white) but abhor my relationship with a white woman… who is also physically disabled. (Add ‘homophobic’ to the list!) They also make regular disparaging comments about the poor – and they’re lower middle class themselves.
*thought
Shoulder-Devil Todd’s “angry soccer mommies” is coming trueeeee!!! XD
Oh LAWD their faces. (I can’t wait to see Todd’s angry face at Smeagol’s insult of his daughter, but I presume Todd will take into account that all the other parents are already angry on his behalf.)
I find Agent Brown’s reaction (or lack of it) very interesting. He’s definitely observing and evaluating the particulars and overall mood of the meeting.
I think, at least with regard to this particular incident, Brown will report (qualified, provisional) success with Selkie’s integration. With the exception of the principal’s outburst, there’s been no direct mention of her. Granted, she’s still below most of these parents’ radar, but this was an opportunity for xenophobia to make itself known… and so far, that hasn’t happened.
And yes, it still could. Trenchbull could stand up and soapbox (though I think he has more than one reason not to), or the principal could try (unsuccessfully) to divert attention from him onto Selkie. Things could still go south before the meeting ends. But so far… so good.
The Agent’s also probably trained to keep his cool, or at least outward appearance of such, and only intervene when necessary. So far, Smeagol’s already doing an excellent job of taking care of things by himself 😀
Though you’ve got a good point that there’s still a couple of opportunities for this to go awry.
And right about here, Agent Brown realizes there’s a LOT of work to do for integration to actually happen.
No argument there, and I’m sure Brown is well aware of the work still to be done. But Selkie’s adoption is *part* of that work, and it’s his job to see that her integration goes as well as it can.
The whole semi-open-secret of the Sarnathi’s existence is fascinating; it’s a mass conspiracy that actually *works*. Think of how many thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of people who unavoidably know *something* about what is, essentially, an invasion / mass resettlement by a nonhuman race. Yet in this age of mass communication and near-instant social networking, there is barely a *hint* of it.
That in itself is a clever idea. But to approach the revelation of this Big Secret using the relationship of parent and child is wonderful. It gives us a glimpse of our own society at several removes (a child, an *adopted* child, an adopted *nonhuman* child), yet not so far we can’t empathize with Selkie and her human family.
I think for integration to work they’d need to actually tell people the truth rather than pretend this stuff is a skin condition.
Agreed: at some point there’ll have to be full disclosure. But humans are *sooo* good at rationalizing. ‘Skin condition’, silly as that sounds, is one way of easing towards the truth while getting the Sarnathi accepted as *people*, albeit strange ones.
I had for a time a young step-cousin whose day-to-day coloring was not very far removed from Selkie’s. It was not quite as dramatically periwinkle (allowing for the fact that this is, after all, a comic), but his skin and particularly his lips had a distinct blue tint to them at all times, and sometimes approached purple.
In his case, it was because he had an inoperable heart defect and his time was limited. I believe he was seven or eight when his heart gave out.
It was alarming to see for the first time, but ultimately he really was just a child, albeit a child with serious health issues and almost alien-looking skin coloration. While he wasn’t AS different as Selkie, I can see why people jump to the conclusion of ‘dangerously ill’ rather than ‘alien child’. It’s just not as far a rationalization as people might think.
There are plenty of strategies that could be tried for this though. For example, Selkie getting an one-on-one “bully blocker” aide as mentioned above…
There wasn’t need for one-on-one, really, simple adult supervision of the whole playground would have been enough to break up the fight as soon as it started and get Selkie inside before she could get seriously cold.
And that’s even in cold weather, which Selkie’s special needs directly concern! That’s a special needs child, hurt in a situation where a “normal” child could have been hurt just as easily if Todd was a little more violent and went beyond just “shaking” (which happens irl all the time so…)
This is not about Selkie being special at all, really. She just happened to be the first one to get hurt AND take action about it. If the meeting manages to go without drawing special attention to her origin – which it seems about to – integration successful.
Hmm. Would Ashton be in such trouble if he’d said “Selkie’s *fragile*, she’s lucky she doesn’t get sent to the hospital every other week” ?
“Getting sent to to hospital” is very unfortunate way of wording it, as someone already pointed out further up in the comments. It implies that someone did something to you. “Having to go the the hospital” would be a more neutral way of putting it – still, calling her “not normal” is also bad wording, so he’s kind of shooting his foot with two barrels here.
I would have said with her condition, she’s lucky she’s not getting hurt all the time. It’s less victim blamey, makes the same point without making someone look like a bully enabler and is actually quite true.
Two for one bigot bingo!
Selkie did not get hurt because of her condition. Selkie got hurt because children were playing outside in cold weather. The fact that she’s known as a special needs child who needs specific supervision in cold is just a cherry on top of the horrible negligence and incompetence of the school. Putting the blame on her condition is ableist bigotry.
* because children were playing outside in cold weather WITHOUT SUPERVISION.
Apparently I wrote this so many times I managed to just skip the key part in this comment. For shame. Not the kids playing was gross negligence, but lack of supervision.
Got some condiments to go with that foot there, chef?
Oh Ashton, you did it! And something you were told not even to mention.
Wool Mart is waiting for you.
somehow i don’t think that Todd will have a problem getting his proposal seconded, i dare say that even Trunchbull will be in that vocal majority when Todd gets around to asking for it.
……………………………………..
…………………..
…You’re Fired.
Ya ever played Left 4 Dead? Cuz he just unleashed an army of tanks and witches