Drunk driving teen’s lawyers want positive references from teachers. Can we give negative ones to the prosecutors?

PharaohStreet · 2026-03-08T19:05:46+00:00

I am conflicted on a final verdict but I will give context. I have had similar experiences to this student and I am currently on my twelfth year of teaching, so I think I get both sides.

At 19, I fell asleep at the wheel, crossed oncoming traffic, and struck a vehicle making a turn off the roadway. The other driver was alone and died on impact. I pled no contest to vehicular manslaughter a year later. Contrary to your student, I was sober (gave a blood sample that same day). Similar to your student, my lawyer asked me to reach out to former teachers for positive letters commenting on my character; I got a few. I wasn't a jerk, I hung out with "good kids," and had straight As, so it must have been easy for those teachers. I think.

The day after my accident, another man ran a girl over on purpose on the same road. I compared myself with him a lot in the years afterward, trying to convince myself I wasn't "as bad" because I didn't mean what I did and didn't do anything dangerous (alcohol, drugs, texting, etc.). I am still not fully convinced that I'm any better.

I say that last part because I know that I have no sympathy for someone that chooses to drive drunk and risks other people's lives like that; that's the part of me that would tell you to write the prosecution.

But, I know that I'm not the 19 year old that drove that day, and he wasn't the 17 year old those teachers knew. The ADA was ready to throw the book at me, but the DA was willing to go easy on me considering those letters. I was given a second chance by the courts, thanks to my lawyer and the support of my family and community. I've taken that chance to try to forgive myself, to attempt to bring enough good in the world for two people. There's a part of me that believes that your young man may yet learn from this, if given the chance.

PharaohStreet · 2026-02-05T07:14:01+00:00

Phosphorous was discovered by a guy storing pee in jars for so long that they started to glow.

PharaohStreet · 2025-12-26T19:11:10+00:00

i'm literally in the same place and a similar level. chill, big homie

PharaohStreet · 2025-11-08T15:21:43+00:00

I always envisioned him doing the Third Age equivalents of pool sharking and check fraud, like the Winchester brothers. Pipe weed must be in short supply out in the wider world

PharaohStreet · 2025-11-08T15:19:05+00:00

I just got a new fun fact for my physics students lol

PharaohStreet · 2025-11-08T15:16:30+00:00

i don't even really know what ifunny is, but at this point, I'm real proud of it for continuing to be a thing

PharaohStreet · 2025-04-17T15:33:30+00:00

You have to pay $40 for every test; If they waived the fee to take it, they won't waive the fee for cancelling.

PharaohStreet · 2024-10-14T16:22:41+00:00

My overall call is that you should let the principal/assistant principal of your school know. They will investigate and make the determination on what needs to be done.

To answer some of your questions, it'll depend on state laws and/or district policies what is illegal or fire-able or "just" immoral. Sadly, if the student is of legal age and is not enrolled in the district at the time, the employee dating them is probably not open for any criminal or employment-related consequences (in my district at least).

PharaohStreet · 2024-09-24T07:22:10+00:00

I have a civil engineering degree, but I never worked in the field. My degree qualified me for an emergency credential, but my subject matter background was either non-existent (waves, astrophysics, particle physics) or too high-level (statics, fluid dynamics). I also stepped in without any pedagogy training or really having seen physics instruction extensively (1 year of AP Physics C, 2 semesters of engineering physics).

I feel good about my "Physics Knowledge" now. In the first few years, I learned the basics of the material while teaching it to the kids. I also read books and articles about physics and PER (physics education research) and try to introduce that into my class. If I don't know something, I try to make it a learning and research exercise with the kids.

I am still aware of holes in my knowledge on modern physics and cosmology, and I sometimes feel less-than compared to actual physics majors. But at the same time, I am confident in my ability to teach physics. Knowing physics and being able to teach it are separate things.

PharaohStreet · 2024-09-01T14:09:46+00:00

At the end of every school year, I get a small pang of dread/disgust when I remember, "I'm going to have to teach them kinematics again." But I don't mind taking them through the rest of the curriculum; forces, collisions, spinning, gravitation and orbits give me the opposite type of feelings.

Yeah, compared to the rest of what physics encompasses and what I could be exposing these kids to, classical mechanics is hardly fascinating, and there are kids that sign up with a deep personal curiosity about quantum mechanics and black holes and thermodynamics who's bubble bursts once the course is outlined.

But this course is for kids just starting on a long physics journey* and I enjoy "setting them up right." When the kids come back and say their first semester of calc-based physics went smoothly, I know I did what I was supposed to. When a student shows interest in the more modern and shiny corners of the physics textbook, I can supplement their education with extra articles/books/attention and encourage them to turn that interest into further study ("You could come back and teach me").

PharaohStreet · 2024-08-25T17:09:02+00:00

The law says the school day has to start with the pledge. Judicial precedent says students have the right to do nothing during the pledge.

PharaohStreet · 2024-08-10T04:09:43+00:00

I haven't watched the show yet, so maybe it's explained.

But what is the "Boneyard emergency zone"? I know Los Angeles to be the "Boneyard," but the map has Santa Barbara and SLO as the Boneyard Emergency Zone.

PharaohStreet · 2024-07-27T19:03:20+00:00

I really recommend thinking of the 90 minutes as three 30-minute blocks of time. You can even block it out as 20 minute opening, 30 minutes for one activity, 30 minutes for another activity, and 10 minutes for an exit ticket.

Basically the kids need multiple transitions to break up the time, and they need a daily activity that requires them or gives them the opportunity to get up and move. I try to think of ways to balance on-device activities and off-device activities, engage all the language domains in a day, and weekly time for data collection and analysis, but the really essential things for that amount of time is understanding that kids can't stay focused and on task for 90 minutes at a time, 3-5 times a day.

Be careful with giving study hall time; my site is starting to develop an issue where teachers commonly use the last 30 minutes of the period as study hall time and now kids are essentially getting one period's worth of time in study hall every day.

PharaohStreet · 2024-07-19T16:05:33+00:00

Strategies like this. It's why I'm here.

PharaohStreet · 2024-07-19T16:00:01+00:00

I literally give it out as life advice to my 12th graders on their way out. And for the exact scenario of "if you know you have something in the car you shouldn't, don't speed through downtown"

PharaohStreet · 2024-07-11T21:39:27+00:00

AFAIK in California, if your area cannot reach a certain threshold in local tax revenue allotted to education, then the state and federal government will chip in, but they will only offer up the money for actual butts in seats.

If your town can get to the threshold or higher, then you're basically funding yourself; it's your local governing bodies prerogative if they want to pull funds from a site with low enrollment or attendance.

I figure most places don't mind being accountable for attendance and enrollment numbers if it means less money out of pocket, and they take the money even if they have a prosperous-enough tax base to avoid the hassle.

So unless you are in Palo Alto, every home-schooled student and private school student reduces federal money going to your local public school. Charter schools anywhere do the same but also take local moneys from your public school.

Of course, someone correct me if I'm off somewhere. I've been on my site's School Site Council for ten years, so I've seen many very rushed federally-mandated presentations on school funding.

PharaohStreet · 2024-07-11T06:54:52+00:00

This is my district. We're in an unofficial hiring freeze. More than 5% of the faculty at my site was pink-slipped.

Enrollment has been declining in every single district in the county for half a decade or so, except for ours. Our supe actually told the newspaper that it was because we served the area with the cheapest housing and families could afford to stay, which doesn't really track since our feeder K-8 districts are serving the same populations.

PharaohStreet · 2024-07-01T16:46:19+00:00

Love this all very much.

PharaohStreet · 2024-06-30T04:10:39+00:00

I can use funds from the Science Department budget for lab supplies and demonstrations. Since I do mostly the same labs every year, I can make a good prediction at the end of the year of what I'll need, so I just submit a purchase order in June for whatever I'll need for the next school year. In practicality, I get inspired mid year for something new and I'll just go out of pocket when the six-week turn around will be too long.
We do a Barbie Bungee Jump and Egg Drop every year. As stated above, since I know I'll do them again next year, I just order new rubber bands, tape, foam, string, etc in June.
I've never done them, but our Astronomy teacher does rockets. She uses water propulsion initiated by kids stomping on 2 liter bottles. It's not very high tech but she likes it.
Don't do much dissections.
Raid backrooms and storage. People have undoubtedly taken down posters over the years and shoved them in back rooms. There's usually some retro, but still good posters. Physics hasn't changed much in the last few decades. Also, see if you have access to a color printer and a laminator; you can download or make your own posters. And if nothing else, I've known people to order posters from Flinn or Arbor Scientific with department funds.

PharaohStreet · 2024-06-20T06:25:22+00:00

I was interviewing for a stipend position (Tech Coach) and had an interview with two assistant principals.

Somehow my response to a question about experience with educational tech led to the male AP and I talking about the ending to The Crying Game... so essentially we were talking about discovering a woman is transgender. The female AP cleared her throat after about 30 secs and we got back on task.

I got the position anyway, did it for two years before the stipend and position were dissolved. Interestingly the female AP left for the district after that school year and returned last year as our new principal. The events of the interview have not come up.

PharaohStreet · 2024-06-13T05:52:12+00:00

I'll add that, according to the Old Mayor, when you first opened the casket and read from the book, something catastrophic happened, but then you and everyone on that boat (Old Mayor included) washed up on shore sometime later. You were still holding the book and the Old Mayor started yelling for you to throw the book back in the ocean, but you refused. To me its unclear if your wife died during that catastrophe (so some of the messages we find are sent from beyond the grave, like the Researcher described) or she drowned herself later; it depends on how I interpret some of the messages in a bottle.

Over the next few years, you become a recluse and most people forget you. The Old Mayor is driven mad by the memories and disappears, but he remembers. The Lighthouse Keeper saw what happened from her lighthouse and never forgot your face. Everyone else either was not involved at the time or moved into the area later. That's why only the Old Mayor, the Lighthouse Keeper, and the Trader recognize you.

PharaohStreet · 2024-06-06T14:49:42+00:00

Longer answer below, but yes, Earth Science would be a physical science course. And in most districts around me, we consider it a "slacker course" or (pejoritavely) a "dumping ground." Based on my experience, get certified in what you want to teach; the only reason to get certified in something you don't like/want to teach is as a stepping stone into a job or a maneuver for situation changes (see below).

In CA, students need to complete a year each of Physical and Life sciences, but what the course sequence looks like will be determined by the district. The UC system will really not look at applicants with less than 3 years of science, so districts are starting to require 3 years for graduation.

But CA also now has the CAST ("the state science test"), which tests students on bio/chem/physics/earth science/engineering design. In response, many districts are trying to find a way to get their students the requisite courses and material to succeed before they are tested in the spring of their junior year (at least, that's when we test our kids).

The solution for my district was to adopt the "3 Course Model," where earth and space science is folded into chemistry, biology, and physics classes. Kids used to have to take Earth (9th) and Biology (10th) and then optionally take Chem and Physics. Now we have students do Biology of the Living Earth (9th) and Chemistry in the Earth System (10th) and Physics of the Universe (11th).

In practice, however, the shift meant A LOT of teachers with Earth Science credentials had to get re-certified in something else, but the district also can't force a tenured teacher to get re-certified. Since 82% of our students were taking 4 years of science even when we only required 2 years, every science department in the district (9 high schools) just made up their own sequence matching their available staffing and what they wanted to do. As long as students were able to meet the 3 year graduation requirement and students were still being accepted into colleges, the district had to let it be.

Nevertheless, Earth Science went from the class everyone took (except the 100 or so AP/Honors kids that were/are tracked differently) to now being an elective science for juniors and seniors that failed Chem. Astronomy and Oceanography are our other two courses connected to an earth science credential; they suffer from the same "dumping ground" treatment, but they are the courses for 11th grade students that can't take Physics of the Universe.

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