High School Football Coach forced to step down after handing out "Hurt Feelings Report"

The head coach of Buffalo High School's (Wyoming) football team has been forced to step down after handing out a "Hurt Feelings Report" to the team before heading off to their first-round playoff game.

From trib.com:

Pat Lynch, who led Buffalo to two state football championships, has resigned as the team’s head coach after handing out an offensive survey to his players.
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“I would like to apologize for my lapse in judgment and the poor choice that I made from my position as the Head Football Coach for Buffalo High School,” the statement said. “I know that this situation has caused you pain and discomfort, and for that I am truly sorry. As a person and a professional, I believe I will learn and grow from this experience and use it to help others.

We've received a copy of this Hurt Feelings Report, part of which can be seen below:



Now we here at People Liking People are all for treating kids like shit and acting like their feelings don't matter but Pat Lynch seems to be a bit too focused on the sexual orientation of his players. Yeah we get it, you gotta be a tough strong man or else you're a wimpy fag...sure. It's just that the people who have this type of mentality the most are the ones dealing with their own homosexual tendencies. And do you think it's a coincidence that his job for the past 22 years just so happens to involve being in the locker room with a bunch of hot sweaty guys day in and day out? Sure Mr Lynch, the high school guys just wanting to play a game of football are the queer ones, not you.

And how did Pat Lynch react when this came to light and before the school board? He said "Deal with it bitches" right? No, he apologized like a little bitch.

The strange thing about this whole story is that while he was forced to step down as head coach, he is allowed to continue his job as a guidance counselor at the school. Isn't that even worse than having him as a football coach? I mean you kind of expect coaches to be assholes, it sort of goes with the territory. But for a guidance counselor position you're going to want a higher standard of professionalism.

"You want to sign up for orchestra and art class?? What are you some kind of pussy??"

School turns to advertising on report cards for revenue

With the economy being in the state that it's been for the past few years, people and businesses have had to get creative when it comes to making ends meet. Schools have also been experiencing financial setbacks as well, including the Jefferson County school district in Colorado which is currently facing $70 million in budget cuts. But the folks at Jefferson County have come up with a plan to make up for at least some of those cuts: advertisements on report cards.

From denver.cbslocal.com:

Some parents in Jefferson County won’t only see their child’s grades on their report cards. They’ll also see advertising.
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The ad will appear along the bottom of every elementary school report card for the next three years.

Is it wrong to mix capitalism and advertising with our public education system? Some seem to think this is crossing the line. To alleviate concerns, the school district has currently restricted the advertising to a nonprofit organization known as CollegeInvest. But what's to come in the future, will we be seeing Coke and Pepsi ads on report cards further down the line?

One thing that doesn't seem quite right is the discrepancy between the budget cuts the school is facing and the amount of money these ads are going to pull in, which is a puny $30,000 a year. $30,000 a year is less than the average teacher makes, so....great, these ads on the report cards won't even cover 1 teacher's salary and will barely scratch the surface of the $70 million they're facing in budget cuts. Is it really worth all the bitching and moaning? I say if you're going to do this, go all out. Let's get all kinds of advertising up and down the hallways of the school - advertisers can bid on specific spots, some areas going for more due to the amount of foot traffic. And how about those school buses? City buses have long earned revenue by putting ads on the sides and backside, how about schools doing the same?

And it begs an interesting question, are advertisements harmful to kids? Are they really harmful to anyone? We live in a capitalistic society and as much as we look at advertising as something evil, many of the services we take for granted depend on it almost entirely. I say let's give it a shot, just as long as we don't have advertising reps swarming into schools the way we see the pharmaceutical reps in the doctors offices.

New govt report on painkillers: 15,000 deaths in 2008

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta just issued a report on what it calls an "epidemic", the abuse of opiate narcotic pain medications and the overdoses that contributed to 15,000 deaths in 2008.

from nydailynews.com:

Prescription painkillers such as OxyContin, Vicodin and methadone led to the deaths of almost 15,000 people in 2008, including actor Heath Ledger. That's more than three times the 4,000 deaths from narcotics in 1999.

Such painkillers "are meant to help people who have severe pain," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, which issued the report. "They are, however, highly addictive."

Wow, including Heath Ledger? I mean 15,000 deaths that's terrible but when they mention Heath Ledger that really lets you know the gravity of the situation here. But seriously, it seems every couple months or so we're hearing about how terrible these pain meds are and how they need to be more tightly controlled. New reports are coming out all the time about the abuse potential and how terrible they are.

I propose that nothing be done about it at all. There's millions of people who genuinely do need these pain medications to cope with their severe pain. Any further tightening of access to these medications only harm those who need them the most. About those overdoses? Each and every one of those people knew the addictive nature of the drugs and made a decision to take a lot more than necessary. Nobody abuses drugs on accident. How many people do you think overdosed on these meds who were taking it the way it was prescribed? None of them. I don't mean to be harsh but once someone decides to take something in excess to get high to the point where it's a lethal dose, the consequences fall on them, not society. And why treat legitimately suffering patients like criminals? Because that's really what more regulation and tightening will do.

We've always had drug abuse and we've always had drug overdoses. And for comparison sake, the CDC reports that from 2001-2005 there were 79,000 deaths a year due to alcohol abuse. Where's all the talk about the alcohol abuse epidemic like we hear with pain medications? After all, the death toll is over 5 times that of pain meds.

People are going to choose the types of lives they want to live. Some people have a strong desire to succeed, others have given up and want to get high. It's not our role to tell people how to live their lives. At the end of the day we're all going to the same place anyway. I argue that anyone who overdoses and dies from taking too many pain pills was likely bound to kill themselves in one way or another. If it wasn't oxycodone it would have been heroin or alcohol. You're never going to stop drug abuse; any efforts to do so only wastes taxpayer money and inconveniences those who really do need the medication for health reasons.