Special Note: The author would like to thank Keith Ball, Principal of Woodstock Middle School in Cherokee County, Georgia, for all the extra traffic he has been driving to this site.

If Mr. Ball referred you to this blog, please understand that his actions are the result of his personal vendetta against my fiancee’, Allison Burnes. For the record, Allison Burnes does not write, edit, approve, or support what is published here. I alone am responsible for this content.

Mr. Ball’s problem is with me, but he can’t seem to muster the courage to take me to task directly. Instead, he is referring all of Allison’s prospective employers here, hoping to sabotage her career by blaming my writings on her. It’s wrong, and you deserve to know his motives and the relevant facts. If you would like to read all of the articles related to Mr. Ball as of 2-15-2010, please use this link. The posts are displayed in reverse chronological order, so read from the bottom up. Thank you for visiting.

[This article was updated at 4:30 PM Pacific Time with the AJC story.]

I’m on a business trip in Riverside, California, but news from home and other areas has continued to flow in.  I have decent internet access here, and thanks to Allison and Mike, I have also been reunited with my flaky but serviceable phone.  Incidentally, if you are ever offered a PDA cell phone called the AT&T 8525, just say, “no.”  It is a piece of junk cleverly disguised as a useful appliance.  It makes a dandy battery discharger, so long as you don’t need a phone.

I also had the distinct privilege of experiencing a magnitude 5.4 earthquake on Tuesday.  The epicenter of the quake was just 40 miles away, roughly between downtown L.A. and Riverside.  While the shaking was modest by California standards and little real damage was reported, it was quite a ride for a man who generally expects the ground beneath his feet to remain fairly stationary

Okay, okay.  On to the updates.  First of all, Allison’s attorney let her know yesterday that an open records request placed against Cherokee County had been answered, and that the county had turned over a copy of her personnel file.  The attorney was shocked to find that, as suspected, copies of my blog entries are in that file.  This evidence will be forwarded to the Georgia Professional Standards Commission in support of the complaint I have already filed against principal Keith Ball.

Another item worthy of note appeared in today’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  You’ll recall that Cherokee County School Board members Mike Chapman and Janet Read, who were recently re-elected,  were adamant about the board’s need to remain impartial and refrain from involving itself in personnel issues.

Cobb County seems to have the opposite problem.  Diane R. Stepp writes:

Cobb Superintendent Fred Sanderson apologized Thursday to school board members who didn’t know the principal they named to lead North Cobb High had been investigated on sexual harassment charges.

Some board members said they were not told about a seven-month internal investigation into allegations against Lawrence Bynum, former principal at Floyd Middle School .

“I was not aware that there was an investigation,” said board member John Abraham whose district includes North Cobb High. “It wasn’t brought to our attention.”

Board member Lindsey Tippins also said the board was unaware of the investigation when it approved Bynum’s appointment in June.

Cobb has a School Board that would have wished to know about a personnel problem so that they could have made more appropriate decisions as to that employee’s future with the system.  Cherokee’s School Board, our educational brain trust, would rather not know, thank you.

There was also a tiny article in a tiny Minnesota newspaper this morning bringing news in the case of priest Daniel Walz, who took out a restraining order excluding young Adam Race from attending services at St. Joseph’s church in Bertha, Minnesota.  As you may recall, Mrs. Race had her day in court in June, but a judge who (like most people, unfortunately) was ignorant regarding autism upheld the restraining order.  Carol Race still faced criminal charges for violating that restraining order and bringing Adam to church one morning — until today.  Mr. Walz apparently has tried to make himself and his congregation look less heartless by having the criminal charges dropped.  The restraining order, of course, remains in place.

You will not often catch this author quoting scripture.  However, one particular passage comes to mind.  I will quote it from the version of the Bible with which I am most familiar.

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. [Revelation 22:17, KJV]

I’ve always known that lawyers interpret laws in the way that has the most benefit to their cases.  I wasn’t aware that there were spiritual lawyers, too, but apparently Walz has found a loophole.  The God he serves commands him to throw open the doors to “whosoever” may come.   Apparently, he believes he can exclude autistic people like Master Adam and still be within the letter of The Law, somehow.

The saddest and most telling fact is that one Minnesota newspaper carried this story, and no one not carefully following the case, as I have been, will ever know.  It’s sad because the popular media have forgotten Adam, leaving Walz to practice his exclusionary beliefs far from the public eye.  It’s telling because the media have treated Walz’ decision to drop criminal charges with a level of exposure consistent with its importance.   In other words, no one but Walz and his apologists has any notion that he’s done anything of consequence.

The story mentions that the Races and the church have had one mediation session.  Let’s hope that someone at that church eventually realizes that they’re being idiots and drops this ridiculous restraining order.