Bad Idea Jeans – Take Three

I am not making this up – and from our state to boot.  The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting:

A Beaver Dam Middle School teacher is on administrative leave after school officials discovered a photo of her with a gun on Facebook.

In the photo, Betsy Ramsdale was training a rifle at the camera.

In an e-mail to WKOW-TV in Madison, Ramsdale said she removed the photo immediately and that she is not “interested in any controversy.”

Schools superintendent Donald Childs says a concerned staff member brought the photo to the district’s attention.

Childs says the use of the photo “appears to be poor judgment” and is unaware of any sinister intent.

So here’s the question to you, my mere blogsters, would  you fire this teacher or give her a second chance?  Is your reason a legal one, policy one, or moral (this story combines two of my great loves – employment law and education law).

Also, just another story about the increasing role Facebook is playing in the lives of people of all ages.

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Steelers Rock (and You Don’t)

So, in the glory of my team winning the Super Bowl, I have been reflecting again on how sports teams operate in the modern era. It really is approved warfare — with war paint, team colors, and adrenaline all included. Sports allow you to be part of a group — and scream loudly about your superiority — in a way that is socially appropriate. And both your own and others’ responses encourage all of this.  First, your own personal reaction. I don’t know about you, but I was completely hoarse on Monday having screamed (pretty incessantly according to my kids) at the television for hours. What is it about sports that permits, encourages, and even demands that we act in relatively nutty ways?

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War Stories

Yesterday, as part of our weekly faculty workshop series, we hosted Professor Julie Oseid of the University of St. Thomas. Her presentation was entitled “Show Me the Way: Mentoring Lawyers Through War Stories.” As the title suggests, her project is to consider, and to some extent justify, the use of war stories in legal education and more generally as a way to integrate new lawyers into the profession. Despite the fact that she was going head-to-head with Bud Selig, roughly twenty of our colleagues showed up to hear Julie’s thought-provoking talk.

For me, the topic ties in with some of the other discussions taking place on this blog, and elsewhere, concerning just how it is that we should go about the business of creating lawyers. I’m with Dean Strang in believing that technical proficiency is a necessary but hardly sufficient condition to being a good lawyer. Reflectiveness, judgment, and (this one is vastly underrated, in my view) creativity all have a role to play, along with some number of less tangible qualities.

Stories can help us pass along some of that information.

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