Update with water fountain

I have a few key updates from my previous post in regards to the water fountain located next to the Memorial Auditorium.

There is more than one warning sign:


What I noticed after returning to the fountain was that there are actually two signs in front of the fountain instead of one.  This means that it would be unlikely to miss both of the signs.  Although I may have missed viewing one of those signs, I was still able to come in contact with the other.

Larger image of what the sign says:


One of the things that I had forgotten to place in my previous post about the fountain is an image that is in better quality to read.  This way, instead of having to zoom into the image to view the wording on either sign, I zoomed into the specific area for anyone to read clearly.

Electrical wiring, lights, and Chlorine:


When I went to visit the fountain again the other day, I noticed that it was turned off due to the weather being cool.

Entering in the area, I toke some pictures of the inside and outside of the fountain to show what the sign is trying to explain to people about what kinds of hazards the fountain possesses.

Looking down into the fountain, it looks safe to jump in.  However, there are a few things that is being shown in the image that helps to explain why it isn't safe to be in or on the fountain.

First is these things.  I'm not entirely sure what they are, but it could be related in draining the fountain.  When the fountain is on, the water levels are much higher than what is shown in the overview image.  I don't know if it is manually or automatically able to open or close with either electronics components or by human action.  Either way, it still posses a danger to an individual playing inside the fountain, being either an electrical or a tripping hazard.

Also, the water located in the pool is covered in Chlorine, which is specifically used to purify the water from any contaminants.  It isn't clear how much is put into the system, but if the signs say that the Chlorine that is in the water is part of a hazard for the fountain, it would only mean that there is larger-than-normal doses being put into the water.

This particular thing is located all around the inner ring of the fountain.  This helps provide more water to move into different directions at the same time.  The hazard of this item can be from falling into it while inside the water area.  As for the outer edge nearby, it can be extremely dangerous since the white material surrounding it is slippery and someone could be impaled or have any similar injury as a result of falling.

Speaking of slipping, if a person were to slip from that particular edge, they would either fall forward into the water, or fall backwards in a 2-3 foot drop on the cement or grass.  This can lead into different scenarios of injuries or even death as a result of poor judgement.

This particular thing is display lights.  They are located within the fountain, nearby the main spout of water in the middle of the fountain.  A wire is shown attached to the device.  This shows as proof that there are wires located in the bottom of the fountain.  It isn't clear how secure they are to the fountain, but they are placed there.

Here is another image showing the main spout, as well as the many wires leading to specific ports.  This shows how dangerous the fountain is with all the electric wiring flowing through it.  If someone were to somehow severed any of the wires, it would electrify the hell out of anything that is in or around the water source.

Located just outside the water area are more lights.  They are located within the outer ring of the fountain.  This shows that the entire fountain, both inside and out, contains electrical circuits, plumbing, and wiring necessary to make more of a hazard and less of a public pool.

The idea of playing in or on the fountain is idiotic.  The people who does this kind of thing want to find a way to cool off for the summer, swim at a water park.  If they can't afford to go to such a place, buy a plastic pool and, followed by filling it up using a water hose.

Student(s) writes notes about BHS's faults and places them on car windshields

After reading this article, I was very impressed by how the note was well written and organized enough to have the news publicized  in The Hawk Eye.

http://www.thehawkeye.com/story/BHS-052312

I wasn't surprised though that there would be opposition from Evans and Tom Messinger, as well as the School Board President.  I'm not also surprised that each of these faculty are covering their tracks in order to hide any slip-ups they make.

Ordering school officials to look for students who placed the notes:

First, Evans orders school officials to look through the security tapes to see who had placed the notes on the cars.  Its as though she was looking at these individuals as dangerous criminals.  Newsflash, Ms. Evans.  These are not bomb threats or anything related to that!  Its a freedom of expression given to those to expose the ignorance BHS has been showing for years.  Violating their right of free speech violates their right to the 1st amendment to the constitution.  

If the notes are left on cars as part of a way to show the graduate's feelings about the school, as well as the faculty, then leave them the hell alone.  They have graduated from the school and these students have left their feelings to everyone on how they feel the corrupt school system really is.

Evans needs to move on and let go of the revenge cycle she has out of her.  She terminated one teacher and then attempts to terminate another teacher  She seems to want to terminate these teachers due to 'personal issues' that she doesn't want to talk about.  Even after the recommendation she made of terminating the second teacher was turned down, she still holds a grudge to that teacher.  She still doesn't admit the full reason why she wanted her terminated.  She seems more like a bully than a savior.

http://www.thehawkeye.com/story/Burl-school-meeting-050812

http://www.thehawkeye.com/story/Teacher-051512

http://www.thehawkeye.com/story/Burl-school-pre-052112

"Its unfair to make blanket accusations without giving a specific situation"

This statement was made by Darven Kendell, the School Board President.

There have been plenty of specific situations being given of accusations in the past, like for example the counselor who neglected to take care of the situation Chris Taylor had to deal with in regards of suicide.  That wasn't handled properly and as a result, a suit was filed and won by the father.

I have heard parents and students talk about the nastiest things school counselors at BHS would say to their failing students.  Things like drop out of school, attend Job Core and/or Alternative High School, and statements like "you're not going to get the career you want and you should just give up."  When some of the incidents were confronted, there is only a brief discussion behind close doors, leaving the parents and students out of the direct line of communication.  The cycle continues and creates more problems for both the failing students and parents to have to deal with.  Counselors and teachers don't do enough to help struggling students in achieving their goal to graduation and to have a success outcome in a career that a student likes.

What Kendell probably wants from the students who made the notes is specific pieces of information of incidences that can lead to finding out who was involved with who and why, followed by covering up the specific situation(s).  After all, these "bullying programs" BHS had done, and probably now planning to do again, never really bring up about the string of suicides in 1993 caused by the lack of moderation and responsibility from the faculty to deal with these "specific situation(s)".  

The specific situations that I have brought up many times at BHS were never addressed properly and that these "specific situations" became more frequent over time.  Writing complaint forms, organizing meetings with the principal, etc. have never worked out in dealing with my "specific situations" that was being dealt with by some faculty and students.

Responsible Thinking Classroom:

This sounds very cliche.  While I have never been in such a classroom, the note that was left detailing the problem with the room, followed by the original idea of what the room is suppose to be used for, reminds me of something similar back in Oak Street.

When I did some temporary work at Oak Street as a Teacher Assistant as part of a high school class, I noticed some strange things going on whenever I pass this particular room.  There was a room that was designed for Behavior Disordered or BD students to attend to, followed by a couple of general education classes, like gym, home ect, music, art, computers, etc.  

Before volunteering to work at the school, I knew very little about the system of what punishments are given to students who misbehave in a BD classroom.  What I first noticed when I started working there was how the misbehaved BD students were punished.  The students whom had caught some certain act of trouble would be locked into a room next to the BD room, followed by a teacher aid guarding the outside door.  Screams and yelling could he heard from down the hall.  It wasn't clear how long the misbehaved BD student had to stay in there for, but it sure seemed to be too much for them to handle.  The odd thing about the room is that the only students that I witnessed being put in the room came from the BD room, which the BD room was always occupied by BD students.  

The original room BD room was located where the room where the student was locked up at.  What was more interesting is that there was no Health class during the time that I worked there, which seemed to be unusual.  Normally there was a requirement to have Health class, which would not only help teach students about the basics of health, but also sex education.  

Responsible Thinking Classroom sounds like a toned-down version of the BD room since any student can be put in there.  The question is whether or not the student is locked in there for a period of time.   Not only Oak Street's original BD room was used to lock up misbehaved BD students, North Hill had a similar thing going on as well.  There were a couple articles in the newspaper about children being put into a padded room, but weren't locked up behind a door.  

Pediatric psychologist considers time-outs effective

March 25, 2007

Taking Time

March 25, 2007

"It places a large emphasis on getting student input and what we can do to improve BHS." 

This is a quote from Messinger near the end of the article.  

This was a technique that was suppose to be used during the bullying program in classrooms back in 2005-2006 era, but had eventually quit on it within a few months.  It only occurred once a month, in closed classrooms, during early outs in 4th period.  The idea was to have teachers ask the students about whether or not the school is improving their ways to stop bullying and if there are any improvements needed to increase student potential and safety.  The class I attended during these sessions was a fairly large biology lab.  We don't spend the entire period talking about the subject, but instead spend about 10-15 minutes on it right after we are finished being lectured.  Not much input was put forth from the students, thus failed to try accomplish bullying and student potential troubles.

The idea wasn't really new nor was it successful enough to curve the students bullying and failing grades.  On top of that, the entire school is locked down and students are being watched by whomever keeps an eye on the cameras, which being the faculty and the school's resource officer.  It's more like a prison than it is a school.

Messinger and the other faculty giving opposition in the article can keep talking out of their butts, but its obvious that they're pulling a big stunt in order to prevent anymore students from leaving the district, as well as their precious governmental funding. 

Memorial Auditorium's large white fountain has been occupied by random people for years!

Every summer, I would walk downtown to check out the riverfront view.  Every summer, the fountains nearby the Memorial Auditorium are turned on as part of a display.

And every summer, there have been people playing in and around the entire area.

















The photo above was taken earlier today as it was a common thing that was being done to that fountain.  Children, hell even adults play in it.  Even though there is a clear visible sign with capitalized letters, including using the colors red and black; people still jump in and play around.


What is the fountain's real purpose?


According to a June 1998 Minutes document from the City of Burlington, a fountain was being discussed in being placed somewhere in Burlington.  It would be considered to help promote tourism, but was also considered an attraction.  Council Member Wright considered it more of an addition to the Memorial Auditorium rather than an attraction.

However, according to the Grow Burlington website, the fountains that are located in front of the building is a favorite cooling off spot during the summer.


So the fountain's main purpose is to either draw tourism or be an addition to the auditorium.  The separate fountains located on the ground in front of the building have a general purpose of keeping individuals cooled off during the summer. 


However, even though the smaller ones that are lying flat on the ground and are used more for cooling tourists off during the summer, it doesn't mean that people can jump in or around the large white fountain nearby.


Why do people do this?

Having a few water parks in town, it would be understandable to go to places like Fun City and play in a larger pool full of slides, toys, etc.  However, there is a cost to attending such places and they're usually not cheap.  


Where is a public area full of water that is running every summer and doesn't cost any money to entertain one's self?  The white fountain down by the river is the only place.  Some individuals may be doing this because they want to play in the water where is clean, plentiful, and free.


That doesn't rule out other individuals who do it because it’s really hot outside.  Today was one of those days where the temperature reached near the 90's.  



Is there anyone enforcing the rules that were placed originally by the sign?

The most likely answer to this question is: NO.  If it was enforced by any law enforcement, people who regularly or occasionally jump in and play would never come back.  There wouldn't be anyone in it if it was enforced effectively.  
   
It would probably not be enforced for two reasons:  many officers in this town can't enforce anything effectively due to the cities lack of funding and the poor training the officers receive; and there isn't a barrier preventing people from jumping in it.



What would happen if someone were to get electrocuted or hurt from playing in the fountain?

If someone were to get hurt or killed as a result for playing in the water fountain, it would be easily viewed by anyone who is at the river.  

Law Enforcement would most likely be involved with fixing the issue of the offenders, perhaps even the city.  

If a lawsuit were to open up as a result from playing inside the fountain, the chances of winning the case would be zero to none.  The big reason is the fact that the person(s) involved in swimming, jumping, etc. either ignored or couldn't read the sign that was put into the ground.  Another reason would be that it was originally designed to be an attraction, or by what Council Member Wright considered it an "addition", not some mini play park that is left unsupervised 24/7.

I've seen many children jumping and waving their arms around the edge, even the inner part of the fountain.  Clearly it is a safety hazard for anyone being in the fountain before someone slips and breaks their neck or gets electrocuted.

City of Burlington agreeing to build a worthless 20-mile bike trail

I read some articles about the ribbon cutting and the current progress of the new bike trail that is currently being constructed.

http://www.thehawkeye.com/story/Flint-River-precede-050312
http://www.thehawkeye.com/story/Flint-River-050512
http://www.thehawkeye.com/story/bike-fleche-051312

The Hawk Eye provided an image in the paper for everyone to see.  The problem though is the fact that the resolution of the image is so crappy that its hard to tell where this trail is going to be ending up exactly, except for certain areas like Big Hallow and Starr's Cave Nature Center.

After looking at it, I decided to construct a full resolution of the map to show the details that are being left out. 

There are a few problems that I see that is wrong with having this built.



Building it through private property and out-of-town:

For one, some areas of the track are going to be built on private property, meaning that the city has no authorization to touch such property since the owners bought it long before they decided to purchase pieces of their land to build a ridiculous bike trail.

What I don't understand is that The City of Burlington is building a bike trail that will stretch outside of the town's limits as well.  What will give them the authorization to do that? 


Flooding:

Another problem is the flooding from nearby bodies of water. Its not just the main part of the Mississippi that would flood out some of the trail occasionally, its also comes from the stream of water that intersects with Flint Creek that would also help flood the area out.  That huge amount of area surrounding these bodies of water can and will flood out much of the bike trail.

Here's an image of the impact the 2008 flood had on the town.  The image can be clicked on to see the full detail of the aerial map.

Even though the image doesn't show area's like around Mill Dam Road, the rest of Flint Creek, Starr's Cave Nature Center, those areas were also affected greatly.  When I was around the area of Mill Dam Road, just away from Case Company, there are already some flooding coming from the river stream coming from nearby.  This event happened a few days before the floods reached further to Case.

Years later, I tried researching for recent flood maps in the general area.  All I found was a book that had flood maps of the town......from the 1980s.  There was not a single piece of updated map material that was found in the library.  There was no maps of the 1993 and 2008 floods; not even the smaller floods were reported in between those times, as well as afterwards.


Not too many people would be willing to ride their bike 20 miles back and forth:


This is also another problem that will arise after it is finished being built.  How many athletic individuals in this town would be willing and able to pedal 20 miles onto the trail and 20 miles back?

What the newspaper articles didn't provide is whether the entire trip is going to be flat ground or hilly areas.  Much of the city has plenty of hills and some areas that I looked into, like the beginning of the trail, does have some hills to them.

The big question is how many hills would be found on the bike trail that is being constructed and how steep are they?

Researched information

In one of my previous postings, I used some basic information about finding out one of the suicides that had taken place back in 1993.  Here are some information that can be downloaded for anyone to look through for themselves.

http://www.mediafire.com/myfiles.php#alpb1qhrpfebu

In addition to downloading the articles, I also will place them through the blog for everyone to see and read.  I'm planning to upload the original copies of the articles that were researched from the library and upload them to the blog for everyone to access.


Copy of Bully article from the original Psychology Today magazine.

Database file of the same article from the magazine.

A book written about bullying that references the article from Psychology Today's magazine.

Two of the many Letters to the Editor published in the newspaper.  These particular pieces were written from outside the state.

An article written in Chicago Tribune about Curtis Taylor's death.

Updated research information on the student suicides

After a few hours, I came back with some research material about the student suicides in 1993.

I went through these four rolls of microfilm to look for newspaper articles listed as important dates.  Here is what I discovered.

An article was listed named W.B. teen-ager commits suicide  in The Hawk Eye on March 21, 1993.

The first of the three suicides occurred on March 19, 1993 at 2:30 a.m.  She committed suicide by a gunshot to the head.  Latricia Nacole, 15, of West Burlington, attended West Burlington High School.  She was a cheerleader for the football team.  She originally was a student at the Burlington School District, but was transferred to West Burlington the year before.

The news about the suicide was going around before authorities released any information about Latricia.








An article was listed named W.B. copes with 2nd teen suicide in The Hawk Eye on March 22, 1993.

On March 20, 1993 at 11:30 p.m., a second suicide was reported.  He committed suicide using a 12-gauge shotgun.  Jade Klein, 15, of West Burlington, attended West Burlington High School.  He received the National Merit Science Award, and enjoys the outdoors, fishing, and hunting.

Police and school officials identified five to six other high school students to be potential risks and the parents were asked to keep an eye on their children.  Half dozen students left the high school without alerting school officials.

The newspaper listed an obitchuary, but no photo was published of Jade Klein.


An article was listed named Police probe 3rd suicide in The Hawk Eye on March 23, 1993.

On March 22, 1993 at around 5:30-6:00 p.m., a third suicide was reported.  He committed suicide by shooting himself.  Curtis Taylor, 14, of Burlington, attended Oak Street Middle School.  He was involved in a school play and was featured in the December 1992 newspaper about a book that he wrote in regards of Vietnam as part of a class project.  He researched war at the library, looking for poems and songs during that time period.  A copy of his book was placed in the library at Oak Street school.

In the same article, George Rinker, 19, of Burlington, threatened to commit suicide on March 23rd at 1:20 a.m.  It wasn't clear though on whether or not he was a current or former student at the time.

After the report of Curtis's death, letters were mail out from Oak Street School to acknowledged the students' parents about the death of the recent student.

The letters were written out by Robert Dodder, President of Board of Education.

 Meetings were created for not only the affected schools, but other schools around the general area, such as the Burlington and Mount Pleasant schools.  Counselors were organized to work with students, as well as having support being given by Governor Branstad with bringing in state counselors.  Churches also did their part with setting up meetings in order to help prevent anymore suicides from taking place.  Letters to the Editor were published by students, as well as a couple of other individuals, expressing their emotions on the suicides.

The events unfolded from March 21st through the late end of the month.  It was unclear whether the discussion began on the 20th.  That is due to the lack of the entire March 20th newsprint.

An article was listed named Father sues school over son's suicide in The Hawk Eye on November 11, 1993.

On November 10, 1993, the father of Curtis Taylor files a suit against the Burlington School District.  On the same day of the suicide, Curtis told his school counselor Elwin Kendell that he was thinking about suicide.  Elwin wasn't able to reach Curtis's father at work.  He then sent Curtis home after making a promise to meet with him the next morning.

Curtis had some history of psychological problems and the father believed that he should have done more with his son on the day of the suicide.

He filed a suit because the school district failed to properly supervise and protect Curtis and other students at school.

His son was reported to be harassed and bullied by other students.  The school didn't do enough to stop the problems.

An article was listed named School district reaches settlement in The Hawk Eye on May 1, 1996.

In late April of 1996, the school district paid $160,000 worth of damages to Curtis Taylor's father.  In addition to the damages, a change of policies were made.

The district agreed to implement a plan for identifying students who are at risk for suicide and a list of responses to be considered after identifying such a student.  The new policy must be forwarded to the board for approval within eight months.

I looked into researching the names of the victims shortly after I looked through the microfilm, which lists articles from the newspaper.  None of the victim's names showed up in the special section for deaths, even though their names should have been added years ago for the listings.

Burlington and West Burlington School Districts: How these districts cover up their student suicides

The other day, I was thinking about the article that I read months ago about a memorial of a middle school student whom passed away due to a suicide.

http://www.thehawkeye.com/story/Suicide-032412

What I don't understand is the fact that the Burlington and West Burlington School Districts' kept their mouths shut about the other suicides that happened toward several other victims that happened over the course throughout the years.

I recently came across an article by accident when researching student suicides in the general area. This particular thing I found was both shocking and unreal.  In March 22, 1993, a student by the name of Chris Taylor committed suicide due to the bullying issues he faced.  Here is an exert from the Psychology Today Magazine article:

http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200910/big-bad-bully

On the first day of spring in 1993, honor student Curtis Taylor took his seat in the eighth-grade classroom he had grown to hate in the Oak Street Middle School in Burlington, Iowa. For three years other boys had been tripping him in the hallways, knocking things out of his hands. They'd even taken his head in their hands and banged it into a locker. Things were now intensifying. The name-calling was harsher. Some beloved books were taken. His bicycle was vandalized twice. Kids even kicked the cast that covered his broken ankle. And in front of his classmates, some guys poured chocolate milk down the front of his sweatshirt. Curtis was so upset he went to see a school counselor. He blamed himself for the other kids not liking him.


That night, Curtis went into a family bedroom, took out a gun, and shot himself to death. The community was stunned. The television cameras rolled, at least for a few days. Chicago journalist Bob Greene lingered over the events in his column, and then he printed letters from folks for whom the episode served largely as a reminder of their own childhood humiliations at the hands of bullies.


This not only hit magazines, it also hit into newspapers, like the Chicago Tribune!

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1993-04-28/features/9304280301_1_lunchroom-column-object

Because of the reticulated crap that the district refused to handle, a suit was filed against the district on November of 1993.  In 1996, the victim's family received a settlement of $160,000 from the damages caused by the district.  I'll provide an update to the research once I find the exact article of its entirely.

What was more interesting is the fact that this was the third suicide in a four day period!  Chris Taylor attended at the Burlington Community School District while the other two victims attended the West Burlington School District.  Currently, I'm doing research on the names of the other two victims.

The strange part of about doing some of the research is the fact that I cannot find the brief information about the $160,000 settlement and the beginning of the suit in November of 1993.  Clearly, The Hawk Eye is covering up the story too, not just the school district.

Several months ago, there was a reported listed in the newspaper about a death of a high school student.

http://www.thehawkeye.com/story/obit-Z-Brunken-091311

The night before this article was published, some talk was going around town about a suicide of a BHS student.  I was asked by two students at Notre Dam High School if I knew who it was.  I told them that I didn't have any clue of a suicide going on and that I didn't know who it was.

It is a possibility that Zachery Brunken could have committed suicide, however those details weren't realized to the newspaper due to him being underage.  It would be up to the parent(s) or guardian(s) to release any info to the media about the cause of death of their child.

The school districts and The Hawk Eye are trying to keep the suicides 'under wraps' and only reporting the most recent suicide, even though that particular suicide was almost identical as Chris Taylor's suicide involving the use of weapons, not to mention that Shaw's suicide occurred just three days before the 19th anniversary of Chris Taylor's suicide.  It may even fell on an anniversary on one of the other two students whom committed suicide.  Regardless, I think the reason the cover-up is happening is because it would not only hide their checkered past of handling bullied kids, it would also erase any mentioning about possible lawsuits that can be created to go against the school district for failing to control the problem.

With the thought about Daniel Shaw II, the parents are obligated to sue the school district just as easily as what Chris Taylor's family had done almost two decades ago.  The school district deserves to be punished for not only doing nothing about Daniel's case of suicide, but of the other students whom had taken their lives caused by bullying as well.

In short, here are some copies of articles taken from books, magazines, etc. in regards of Chris Taylor and his suicide.

http://www.mediafire.com/?alpb1qhrpfebu