Another Obermeyer story
Dennis P. Harris
student". Turns out that the potential valedictorian who was a
computer lab techie at East High decided to check out some porn
sites with his buddies and got caught.
The kid's name? Tom Obermeyer, Jr. I can hear Theresa screaming
now about the conspiracy...
http://www.adn.com/stories/T00012139.html
========================================================
Dennis Harris NO_SPAM_T...@alaska.net
Every morning is the dawn of a new error...
amRuada
"Dennis P. Harris" <NO_SPAM_T...@alaska.net> wrote in message
news:gkig8ss5fjjgtf4c5...@4ax.com...
Floyd Davidson
>So can I---and it is Number 1 topic on the news and here we go again.
>"Dennis P. Harris" <NO_SPAM_T...@alaska.net> wrote:
>> Today's Daily Snooze... "Porn web site snares East's No. 1
>> student". Turns out that the potential valedictorian who was a
>> computer lab techie at East High decided to check out some porn
>> sites with his buddies and got caught.
>>
>> The kid's name? Tom Obermeyer, Jr. I can hear Theresa screaming
>> now about the conspiracy...
I'll have to admit, after reading the article I can't quite
bring myself to agree that the three students involved deserve
an F in the class for one small transgression. It is not
totally insignificant, given the position of trust that they
had; but the fact is that they are still kids and need adult
supervision to keep them on a straight line, and it appears that
they may not have been getting enough.
The article in the paper said they accessed two "porn sites",
but did not indicate what they downloaded, if anything. Since
no downloads were mentioned, it is possible that nothing
significant was even downloaded. (I would think the paper would
have gleefully jumped all over whatever it was if there had
been.) On the other hand, since it was more than one site that
they visited, there is little doubt that they did know what they
were going to find and were intentionally looking for it. (I
think that is important, given that it is ever so easy to
accidentally end up looking at all kinds of disgusting material
on the Internet with no intention whatever of seeing it.)
I am reminded that I was once in High School too. I spiked the
punch for a biology class Christmas party when I was a senior.
It wasn't until *two* years after I graduated that a teacher
mentioned to me that the school board had informally discussed
what to do about it. They made what today strikes me as a very
wise decision... they let is slide, and there was never any
other problem. (Of course, two years later what bothered me
the most on hearing that was the realizationn that one course
of action could very well have been to fire the teacher.)
I also know of two students in the Fairbanks area who made
similar breaches of trust in regard to computers. In one case
the young man was altering programs to produce vulgar messages.
He was let off with a warning. (I equate that at just about the
same level as what young Obermeyer has done.) The other stole a
Compuserve account password from a teacher and ran up several
hundred dollars worth of charges. That clearly called for a
more severe reaction.
I feel a bit sorry for both Tom Obermeyer, Sr. and Jr. After
all, how would *you* like to go home and find Teresa Obermeyer
waiting for a kiss???
--
Floyd L. Davidson fl...@barrow.com
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)
amRuada
"Floyd Davidson" <fl...@ptialaska.net> wrote in message
news:87u2k61...@barrow.com...
To your last comment--yuck yuck yuck--I get the creeps when I see her in
Costco. I too think that it was a bit of an overreaction---My comment
only went to the conspiracy theories of our rather well known local nut.
My daughter attended the same school as the younger Obermeyer child--a
girl--and they are the same age so I had fairly regular contact with her
for a while and that was yucky enough.
Kev
would fire you for the exact same thing.
"Joe" <james...@anon.nymserver.com> wrote in message
news:884m9e$7fc$1...@sparky.wolfe.net...
> Obermeyer is running for mayor.
>
Floyd Davidson
>It's too bad they didn't give her son that F. A lot of places
>you work would fire you for the exact same thing.
Yes, and every one of them risks the liability of court action
when they do. If it is a case similar to young Mr. Obermeyer,
who has no record of misconduct and is a *proven* top of his
class student, any employer who summarily fired a similar
employee would lose their ass in court.
The young Obermeyer deserves to be treated according to his own
actions and accomplishments, and should not be penalized
because of his parent(s). He has earned respect, not F's.
>"Joe" <james...@anon.nymserver.com> wrote in message
>news:884m9e$7fc$1...@sparky.wolfe.net...
>> Obermeyer is running for mayor.
Lots of weirdos and various other cranks run for office. Look
at Tom Fink, he even won the elections! Hmmm, maybe there
is need to be concerned after all...
Floyd
Floyd Davidson
>what about th teacher in the class room?
>The spouse of a school board member. what about him?
Well, what about him? What are you asking? And what situation, or
part of the situation previosly discussed, applies to him?
You surely are not expecting that the poor teacher be fired for
lack of ability to supervise the students, are you???
Dennis P. Harris
>It's too bad they didn't give her son that F. A lot of places
>you work would fire you for the exact same thing.
i'm no fan of the kid's dysfunctional family, with a mother
that's obviously a loony and a father that's incompetent to pass
a test that hundreds pass every year, but this kid was NOT being
treated fairly.
a bunch of kids were caught stealing and copying tests during the
same time period, and they were suspended for a few weeks. this
kid made a stupid mistake, but IMHO his "crime" was far less than
the one committed by the test thieves, and his punishment was far
worse, bad enough that his folks went to court to get it revoked,
which is the only reason that his name ended up in the paper.
i feel sorry for the kid having to grow up with his parents. if
he's smart, he'll go outside to school and move somewhere far
away from where his name is known, so he doesn't have to carry
the family baggage. it's too bad that he couldn't do that
already --- if his name wasn't obermeyer, i'll bet that he would
have gotten a week's suspension and that would have been it.
Floyd Davidson
>On 13 Feb 2000 23:04:48 GMT in alt.culture.alaska, Joe
><james...@anon.nymserver.com> wrote:
>
>>Do you personly know the Obermeyers?
>
>nope. after seeing theresa's public behavior on television
>several times, i have no desire to get acquainted.
I doesn't take much exposure, even over TV from a preferably
great distance, to see enough of Theresa Obermeyer.
However, I've been told by people who know him that Tom
Obermeyer is not a bad sort of fellow. I took a look at his web
page once, and after reading what he has posted there it is very
clear why he cannot manage to pass the Bar exam, but poor
writing skills doesn't make him a bad guy. The odd thing about
his multiple failures on the Alaska Bar, is that he was not even
required to take it! He has passed the Bar in a state with
which Alaska has a reciprocal agreement under which he could
have been admitted to the Alaska Bar without another exam.
However, for whatever reason (he probably was not aware of the
reciprocal agreement, which for an attorney is unforgivable), he
took the Alaska exam and failed, which disqualifies him under
the reciprocal agreement.
Floyd Davidson
>On 13-Feb-2000, Floyd Davidson <fl...@ptialaska.net> wrote:
>
>> Well, what about him? What are you asking? And what
>> situation, or part of the situation previosly discussed,
>> applies to him?
>
>classroom where this young man was doing his so-called illegal
>activities was the spouse of a school board member. This
>school board member would like to see this Obermeyer lady
>silenced. Lets not mistaken this is not the superintendent
>trying to silence a critic but the school board that is getting
>tired of answering questions. They are using the super as their
>carrier. It doesn't look so political this way. Stevie Wonder
>can see through this. No the school teacher that was in charge
>of the class room should not be fired, however Stevie could
>also see the setup there also. Remember the school board act
>was taken behind closed doors. Are they afraid of the public
>discussion
You should post that to alt.conspiracy where someone might
buy it without evidence.
Yes a blind person can see that the school board and the
superintendant would love to get rid of Theresa Obermeyer.
And not without some good reasons... just that for even
better reasons there is no good/legal means to do it. But
there was nothing about the incident, at least in the
newspaper articles which I read nor in anything you have
posted, which indicates the teacher was setting up the
young man, and even if he had been given an F and thrown
out of school forever how would that be likely to help the
school board avoid his mother???
Was there some indication that he did _not_ do the things
he was accused of? Not that I think what he did deserved
the punishment they allocated, but I didn't see any report
suggesting he was being framed, just that they were
overreacting.
*Anything* they do to her son will cause her to make even
*more* noise and more trouble for them. The best bet they
would have as far as Tom Junior is concerned is to leave him
alone and work to make sure that he is getting everything he
needs without any "problems". Given his record as a student,
that seems to be what he deserves anyway, no matter who his
parents might be.
(BTW, I find it to be _exceedingly_ questionable if not
downright illegal for the school board to pay legal expenses
for the Superintendant to initiate legal action against
Mrs. Obermeyer on a personal matter.)
eluq
marching on to T-ball field to straighten everyone out and funny story
related to me. Theresa wanted to march in high school (Chugiak)
commencement exercises, likes to march in her PhD gown I guess. Went to
faculty meeting and made speech about wanting to march. Whoever in
charge said I'll let faculty vote on it with write in vote. I said to
the person relating this "they didn't vote for her to march did they?"
She said, "amazingly enough there were only about 8 no's." She let me
go on awhile about how I couldn't believe there were so few no's and how
shocked I was by the support she got and how I couldn't believe everyone
else voted "yes". She then drops the punchline she said, "Oh no - no
one voted yes the rest of the votes were all ""hell no"" or ""fuck
no"".
"Dennis P. Harris" wrote:
>
> On 13 Feb 2000 23:04:48 GMT in alt.culture.alaska, Joe
> <james...@anon.nymserver.com> wrote:
>
> >Do you personly know the Obermeyers?
>
> nope. after seeing theresa's public behavior on television
> several times, i have no desire to get acquainted.
>
> ==============================================================
> Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable
> Dennis P. Harris NO_SPAM_FO...@alaska.net
> Virtual Juneau http://www.alaska.net/~dpharris
> spambots can reply to senator...@stevens.senate.gov
Thomas Quinn
on the list of states with a reciprocity agreement with Alaska at the time
but later, after Tom took and failed the test the first time, the two states
reached such an agreement. Of particular interest to some may be the fact
that WA, which previously had no reciprocity with any jurisdiction, now has
provided for it and AK and WA are now in the process of finalilzing an
agreement in this regard.
Floyd Davidson wrote in message <87900o1...@barrow.com>...
>NO_SPAM_T...@alaska.net (Dennis P. Harris) wrote:
>>On 13 Feb 2000 23:04:48 GMT in alt.culture.alaska, Joe
>><james...@anon.nymserver.com> wrote:
>>
>>>Do you personly know the Obermeyers?
>>
>>nope. after seeing theresa's public behavior on television
>>several times, i have no desire to get acquainted.
>
>I doesn't take much exposure, even over TV from a preferably
>great distance, to see enough of Theresa Obermeyer.
>
>However, I've been told by people who know him that Tom
>Obermeyer is not a bad sort of fellow. I took a look at his web
>page once, and after reading what he has posted there it is very
>clear why he cannot manage to pass the Bar exam, but poor
>writing skills doesn't make him a bad guy. The odd thing about
>his multiple failures on the Alaska Bar, is that he was not even
>required to take it! He has passed the Bar in a state with
>which Alaska has a reciprocal agreement under which he could
>have been admitted to the Alaska Bar without another exam.
>However, for whatever reason (he probably was not aware of the
>reciprocal agreement, which for an attorney is unforgivable), he
>took the Alaska exam and failed, which disqualifies him under
>the reciprocal agreement.
>
Floyd Davidson
>"Floyd Davidson" <fl...@ptialaska.net> wrote in message
>> "Kev" <stal...@removethis.corecom.net> wrote:
>> >It's too bad they didn't give her son that F. A lot of places
>> >you work would fire you for the exact same thing.
>>
>> when they do. If it is a case similar to young Mr. Obermeyer,
>> who has no record of misconduct and is a *proven* top of his
>> class student, any employer who summarily fired a similar
>> employee would lose their ass in court.
>>
>
>just cut and dried. No lawsuits, nothing. The people just gone.
Errant aberations are not an indication that something is right.
>> The young Obermeyer deserves to be treated according to his own
>> actions and accomplishments, and should not be penalized
>> because of his parent(s). He has earned respect, not F's.
>
>It has nothing to do, necessarily , with his mom. It doesn't help, but it
>is more than likely they would go easy on him because of his mom. Remember,
>he wasn't alone, his fellow conspirators also received the same F. It's
>just that the media picked up on the fact that one was an Obermeyer.
>
>And as far as those who got caught coping test, they got off way too easy.
>The school district has a history of being way too easy on offenses.
Which is one reason it is *clear* the the punishment originally
given Obermeyer was just another way to attack his mother. I agree that
his mother is a pest and an obnoxious person, and a few other not so nice
things... but that doesn't mean the government should stoop to the same
disgusting level.
Dennis P. Harris
y...@somehost.somedomain (booth) wrote:
[snip]
>school computers, have it signed by a sponcering teacher, signed by the
^^^^^^^^^^
>1: Loss of computer use for one calindar year.
^^^^^^^^
Well, we can be grateful that some former teachers are no longer
teaching. I can't believe that someone with such poor writing
and spelling skills was allowed to teach high school so long that
he was able to retire!
I certainly hope that the new teacher competency tests will
require that new teachers be able to spell correctly and write
effectively with excellent grammar, but since "educators" are
running the show, I only have faint hopes that eventually
classrooms statewide will have teachers that know their subjects
as well as they did when I was in school.
Floyd Davidson
>On 14-Feb-2000, "Kev" <stal...@removethis.corecom.net> wrote:
>
>> The young Obermeyer deserves to be treated according to his own
>> > actions and accomplishments, and should not be penalized
>> > because of his parent(s). He has earned respect, not F's.
>
Kevin didn't write that, I did.
I know what the newspaper reported. It said that he an other
students accessed a web site that had pornography on it. It did
not say specifically that they downloaded anything, but it can
be assumed that they did to the extent that they viewed
something. Exactly what they viewed was not stated. According
to the reports, other students witnessed this, and claimed to
have told the offending students that they were violating rules.
The other students are supposed to have reported the incident to
the teacher.
That is what I remember of the newspaper article. How much of
it is true I do not know, and if they later printed more or
corrected information I do not know.
The respect that he has earned is due to his previously clean
record an extremely high grade point average (which apparently
is tops in his class).
If accessing pornography one time on the Internet using a school
computer is the worst thing he does as a student, I just cannot
say enough about the high quality of his character.
booth
>
>"Kev" <stal...@removethis.corecom.net> wrote:
>>"Floyd Davidson" <fl...@ptialaska.net> wrote in message
>>news:877lg9t...@barrow.com...
>>> "Kev" <stal...@removethis.corecom.net> wrote:
>>> >It's too bad they didn't give her son that F. A lot of places
>>> >you work would fire you for the exact same thing.
>>>
>>> Yes, and every one of them risks the liability of court action
>>> when they do. If it is a case similar to young Mr. Obermeyer,
>>> who has no record of misconduct and is a *proven* top of his
>>> class student, any employer who summarily fired a similar
>>> employee would lose their ass in court.
>>>
>>
>>I know of several cases that occured in OKC at the FAA Academy that
were
>>just cut and dried. No lawsuits, nothing. The people just gone.
>
>Errant aberations are not an indication that something is right.
>
>>> actions and accomplishments, and should not be penalized
>>> because of his parent(s). He has earned respect, not F's.
>>
but it
>>is more than likely they would go easy on him because of his mom.
Remember,
>>he wasn't alone, his fellow conspirators also received the same F.
It's
>>just that the media picked up on the fact that one was an Obermeyer.
>>
>>And as far as those who got caught coping test, they got off way too
easy.
>>The school district has a history of being way too easy on offenses.
>
>Which is one reason it is *clear* the the punishment originally
>given Obermeyer was just another way to attack his mother. I agree
that
>his mother is a pest and an obnoxious person, and a few other not so
nice
>things... but that doesn't mean the government should stoop to the same
>disgusting level.
>
> Floyd
>
>--
At Palmer High School, A student had to make application to use the
school computers, have it signed by a sponcering teacher, signed by the
parents. The agreement stated that if misuse of the computer (such as in
the Obermeyer case) would lead to:
1: Loss of computer use for one calindar year.
2: Loss of credit "if" done in a computer class (student was removed
from the class).
Anchorage may have a rule something like this and it would have NOTHING
to do with the students name, but rather the infraction of the rule and
what was agreed upon by the students.
JIM
bookburn
> "Christal to foot own bill
> Obermeyer suit to cost $1,500 "......"
> "Whoever pays, $1,500 is a bargain. The suit is being
handled as a favor by
> the district's usual lawyers, Jermain, Dunnagan &
Owens. Brad Owens, one of
> the partners, said the usual cost of a civil lawsuit
is more like $25,000. "
>
> Christal and the Anchorage School Board want Ms.
Obermeyer to be silence.
> They want her to stop making statements about kickback
in the School system.
> Kick backs go both way. This looks like Christal is
getting a very good
> kickback from Jermain, Dunnagan & Owens. Lets see
$25,000-$1,500 = $23,500.
> Does any one know today's math? I'm a little old so
the amount of this
> kickback may not be correct.
I'm not a lawyer, but I wonder if "consideration" is a
term that applies to this situation? It comes up in a
contract where money is only one type of goods,
benefits, or value, and the consideration could be
something like a favor or exchange of good will. An
example might be selling you car for "$1.00 and other
consideration," where consideration includes settling an
old debt you don't want to describe.
On this basis, the minimal legal services delivered to
Christal for $1.500 might be in consideration of
services already paid for by the school district by
contract. I think this is not unusual in cases where a
law firm is contracted to defend a company which may be
involved in liability if an employee is found liable.
If an officer of the law is sued by someone, I think a
common arrangement is for the Department to provide
legal defense services and only charge the cost to the
officer if the case is lost.
In the case of Obermeyer and Christal, it seems obvious
to me that the School
Board is justified in assisting the Superintendent
against harrassment and stalking by a citizen with
malace, similar to the way Sen. Stevens had to take
legal steps against this same person for the same kind
of reason. But, I'm not a lawyer and Christal may be
correct in separating the law suit now as personal
business. Maybe the legal remedy could be something
like a simple cease and desist order by some judge,
costing only hundreds, not thousands of dollars.
bookburn
>
Robert Bolton
bookburn <book...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:saooas...@corp.supernews.com...
>
.....
> In the case of Obermeyer and Christal, it seems
obvious
> to me that the School
> Board is justified in assisting the Superintendent
> against harrassment and stalking by a citizen with
> malace, similar to the way Sen. Stevens had to take
> legal steps against this same person for the same
kind
> of reason. But, I'm not a lawyer and Christal may be
> correct in separating the law suit now as personal
> business. Maybe the legal remedy could be something
> like a simple cease and desist order by some judge,
> costing only hundreds, not thousands of dollars.
>
> bookburn
>
Remember the saying, "Just because I'm paranoid, it
doesn't mean they're not out to get me"? It seems to
apply here. Teresa'a claim about being persecuted has
become a self fullfilled prophesy.
Seems to me that if the school district wants to sue
Teresa, they can. The suit should then be the
Anchorage School District vs Teresa. If Christal wants
to sue Teresa, then he can. The suit should be
Christal versus Teresa. Let each one pay for their own
suit.
Robert