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Satanica

Veteran Member
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http://www.dallasnews.com/news/high...s-highland-park-students-trollinghim-assembly
[....]
Earlier that day, he stopped by Highland Park High School, in one of the wealthiest school districts in the state, where he spoke to an assembly of freshmen and sophomores.

It did not go well.

On his personal website, Ford — who broke onto the literary scene in 2009 with his debut, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet — chronicled how he was mocked by a group of students during his talk, "a thousand students, trolling me," as teachers and a principal looked on.

"After visiting more than 100 schools, from inner-city schools in New York, the kind with clear backpacks and metal detectors, to elite international baccalaureate high schools, including one where the previous year's guest speaker was Justin Bieber — I've finally had a school visit ... go sideways," Ford wrote. "I'm looking at you, Highland Park High School, and I'm confused."

About halfway through the 50-minute talk, when Ford started a Q&A session, students began to interrupt with random cascades of clapping and cheering, so loud he struggled to talk over them.
[....]
"Despite the 1000 to 1 odds, I wasn't about to be run off the stage by a bunch [of] entitled children who had decided I was just another mark to be bullied," he wrote.

At the end of his talk, Ford — who is Chinese-American, and whose great-grandfather emigrated from China and worked in Nevada's borax mines — fielded his final question, about Japanese internment during World War II. Ford's debut novel is set during that time period.

"I managed to end my talk on a bittersweet note about the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans and nationals, about how if we forget that bit of history, we are diminished as a people.

I got my point across and in that brief moment your impoliteness was forgiven and all was well. I thanked you, for not clapping and cheering the Japanese Internment.

"Then you clapped and cheered the Japanese Internment.

"You couldn't resist.
[....]
Ford, via a phone interview from a Minneapolis airport on Saturday, praised the organizers of Highland Park's literary festival and said the teachers and students he talked with were kind and considerate. In fact, he returned to the high school the following day to run fiction-writing workshops for three classes.

He plans to come back to the Dallas area later this year, to promote his third work of historical fiction, which is set to publish in September.

"I'm not going to generalize the state, or generalize the kids at Highland Park, for that matter," he said. "But a mob is a mob; it speaks with its own language."
[....]
 
Sounds like there is only one person entitled here, and it's the author. Even reading his blog made me want to roll my eyes, let alone listen to him toot his own horn for 50 minutes.

"Despite the 1000 to 1 odds, I wasn't about to be run off the stage by a bunch [of] entitled children who had decided I was just another mark to be bullied," he wrote.

Truly, what a brave brave man. He should get a medal.

It's the responsibility of the speaker to make the talk interesting. If I present a shitty lecture, my students start playing with their phones and talking too. Either say something about that, or try to grab their attention. Or try again next time. Don't go to the internet and cry like a little girl.
 
He deserved basic respect as an invited speaker to their school. Maybe his subject was dry and dusty and uninteresting, these are high school students not kindergarteners. They should be able to sit quietly while he spoke and then not buy his books.

There's so many people who think their opinion is the only right opinion and they're gonna make damned sure everybody hears it.
 
I was just another mark to be bullied," he wrote.
I have no doubt the students were rude, noisy and extremely annoying. But when he said "bullied", I lost all sympathy. And he didn't tell them off on the spot, he went home to blog about it. Should have told the students off right then for rudeness and the admins for indifference and their inability to control the crowd.
Bullying is a sustained campaign of abuse against someone who, for some reason, is unable to defend themselves.
Bullying is not an episode of disrespectful brats with no manners.
Maybe part of the problem is that his presentation reeked of political correctness and consequently was boring.
No high school invites a speaker who doesn't spout all the politically correct jargon du jour.
 
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Shocked to read people not siding with th author on this. The dude is invited to speak and ends up speaking about some serious historical stuff like the Japanese American internment camps, and these kids still can't act right. The guy went out of his way to be fair too, even came back the next day to hold some workshops with students who aren't rich scumbag hick trash.

Not surprising at all to hear a story like this coming out of Texas, and certainly not that particular school/area of Texas. There truly is nothing more disgusting then your wealthy white southerner. Fucking filth. Entitled doesn't even begin to describe these scumbags.

I would LOVE to read the parents responses to their precious snowflakes being called out, or the residents in general reacting to the school at large being trashed like this. The amount of butthurt in Dallas right now has GOT to be thru the fucking roof, hilarious. Wonder how many calls/complaints the school has received from angry parents about them never allowing this author to return.

Sounds like there is only one person entitled here, and it's the author. Even reading his blog made me want to roll my eyes, let alone listen to him toot his own horn for 50 minutes.

A highschool student doesn't have the right to sit in an assembly and decide, "i don't like this message or the speaker, so i'm going to act out and be an asshole". Doesn't matter how annoying his blog is or what a doucher he may in fact be to you, or really to anyone else for that matter. And again, this guy went out of his way to accomodate these kids. He sounds like he was quite forgiving during the assembly, and suffered the bullshit in order to reach the students who actually gave a shit.

It's even more grotesque that it sounds teachers largely turned a blind eye. Seems more students shoulda been hauled out of there.

Should have told the students off right then for rudeness and the admins for indifference and their inability to control the crowd.

Cuz that'd go over well. An auditoreum full of laughing, joking, out of control highschoolers being told, "stop bullying me" or "you are out of control and your teachers should be ashamed" is going to cause their behavior to increase 10 fold. You really think telling kids like these in a situation like this that their efforts to disrupt and whatnot are working just as they hoped is a good idea or will help anything?

The guy chose to focus on his message, likely for the benefit of the few there who actually did care to hear it, rather then give up or give in to the negativity. I see no cause to fault him for that.

From his comments, it seems a great deal of the uproar came during his attempt at a Q&A session. So all the bullshit about how, "maybe he bored them, thus these kids should be permitted and forgiven for laughing at the plight of Japanese AMericans and interrupting a speaker to such an extreme degree" holds even less weight(not that it holds a single fucking ounce to begin with). He wasn't even delivering a lecture during some of the worst of it. He had opened things up for the students themselves to ask questions and speak.

Seems ther problem is the teachers/parents at this school have FAILED miserably to raise mature, intelligent,respectful kids. Simple as that. And again, it being Texas, it being Highland, makes that all too easy to believe.

Bullying is a sustained campaign of abuse against someone who, for some reason, is unable to defend themselves.

No, someone can be bullied even if theyre able to defend themselves. I was a kid once, socking some assholes in the mouth doesn't always stop them from making fun of you or coming back harder, self defense does not negate bullying, not always. And a single one off incident can in fact be bullying. Not sure where this ultra specific definition comes from but it sounds pretty absurd. Had no idea there were so many stipulations on "bullying" nowadays.

I think it's good the author used the word. For starters, we don't know exactly what the nature of their cajoling was, perhaps it was extreme enough to be genuinely considered bullying. And more importantly, if this many students have so little respect for an adult speaker, a renown author no less, and will act out in such a manner during a highly public assembly with teachers all around and so forth, that says a LOT about the environment/climate that likely exists inside that school. Who know what's going on behind closed doors in locker rooms or even individual classrooms, or in hallways between classes. Good on him for calling out what is no doubt a wretched, undisciplined school.

Maybe part of the problem is that his presentation reeked of political correctness and consequently was boring

What relevance or pertinence does this have to anything?
 
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For once I agree with Jack, it shouldn't matter how boring the lecture was, he was entitled to be respected enough to let him do what he came there for. It doesn't matter what you personally feel, somebody else may have actually wanted to hear him speak, but couldn't because of the ruckus that the students who didn't care raised in the auditorium.

Again, where has personal responsibility and decorum gone?
 
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Well this article is certainly helpful to me in planning future author visits to my school library.

The students' behavior was inexcusable, as was the lack of intervention by teachers and administrators.

I'm also faulting the administration for some really poor planning. When gathering two entire grades in one auditorium, it's critical to have a sense of one's student body and whether or not their behavior is likely to go sideways when their tiny attention spans crave some kind of scene. Were these students prepped for an author visit? Had everyone read at least a short story by him? (In current educational lingo, that would be an "anchor text" for the larger discussion.) Were they asked to develop questions for the author? This might be an apples to oranges comparison, but when our school had a local politician speak to a packed auditorium of students this past fall, they came ready with questions to ask.

Definitely more containable to shape an author visit in the form of workshops with specific classes, so I'm glad the author returned the next day.
 
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It was extremely disrespectful. He was talking about how his people had been imprisoned for having a certain heritage and they were mocking him. I find it completely disgusting and their parents should be ashamed of themselves to have raised them to think it was OK to do that. These little assholes need to get their ass beat and humbled a little bit.
 
Any invited speaker should be allowed to speak, whether or not a few entitled assholes disagree with said speaker's opinion or not. Teachers and authority figures are just too scared of any public and media backlash to enforce any authority over students these days. The inmates are running the asylum.
 
He deserved basic respect as an invited speaker to their school. Maybe his subject was dry and dusty and uninteresting, these are high school students not kindergarteners. They should be able to sit quietly while he spoke and then not buy his books.

There's so many people who think their opinion is the only right opinion and they're gonna make damned sure everybody hears it.

He deserves nothing. I'm actually disappointed in the students...because they didn't rush the stage and carry this fellow out into the street and toss him into oncoming traffic. I have grown weary of these unwhite persons and their petty, boring grievances. All of these Japanese-Americans should have been repatriated to Japan after the United States destroyed it in World War Two. They could have formed a collaborationist government therein, and we would not have to listen to them whining about their (luxurious in comparison to what was going on in Poland), internment camps. I could also do without that annoying Japanese homosexual who was in Star Wars. Why is that mediocre actor always running his mouth about things? He is a pervert. Why would anyone listen to him?
 
@Pete Bondurant has an important point. The Japanese internment was a bed of roses compared to what the US Government did to the Aleuts.
http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswi...7/the-other-wwii-american-internment-atrocity

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart...ative-alaskans-during-world-war-ii-180962239/
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Any invited speaker should be allowed to speak, whether or not a few entitled assholes disagree with said speaker's opinion or not. Teachers and authority figures are just too scared of any public and media backlash to enforce any authority over students these days. The inmates are running the asylum.
I don't think it was a matter of disagreement, it was plain rudeness by students who wouldn't sit still and teachers who wouldn't enforce manners. (Manners which the parents should have instilled, it's not a teacher's job to teach manners, just enforce what parents are supposed to teach.)
Part of the self discipline and civility necessary to making it through life as an adult is to sit still and listen to a presentation even if you don't like it. Or would wish to like it but the presentation is poorly done.
This also relates to the recent thread about "young adults" pushing 30 :wtf: who need "adulting" classes.
 

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