SINNERS AND WINNERS

The editors of the New York Times used to produce a weekly internal
newsletter called "Winners and Sinners" commenting on their scoops and
gaffes. It even noted typos, which nowadays are too numerous to list.

There was a misleading headline on a Times story Jan. 7: "Principal Who
Invited Police to School for Drug Raid Quits."

George McCrackin, the high school principal who sicced the dogs of the
Goose Creek, South Carolina, police department on his students did not
"quit" the school system. According to the story by Tamar Lewin, "he will
be reassigned within the district." McCrackin will remain an administrator
and will make the same salary.

The footage of the Goose Creek Robocops, guns drawn and aimed, guiding
their German Shepherds over the kids who lay prone in the school hallway,
exposed the prevailing racism as dramatically as the video of Rodney King
getting beaten and kicked. As in the case of King, the spectre of "drug
use" supposedly rationalized the vile, oppressive behavior by the cops.
Both episodes implicitly raised the question: how many similar violations
of human rights and dignity occur off-camera every day in this great country?

Although the Stratford HS student body is mostly white, two-thirds of the
107 students subjected to the narco-raid were black (their buses having
arrived earliest). McCrackin and the cops had targeted them for this
blatantly unreasonable search and seizure, in which no drugs whatsoever
were found.

Did the Goose Creek teachers disassociate themselves from their chief?
Unfortunately, they did not. "There have been demonstrations in support of
Mr. McCrackin by many faculty members, letters to the editor and banners
and posters hung in the school," Lewin reported.

McCrackin released a smarmy, unapologetic statement: "I realized it is in
the best interest of Stratford High School and of my students for me to
make a change." And Lewin dutifully noted, "Mr. McCrackin said that the
continued pressure and distraction arising from the raid had made it too
difficult to lead the school effectively." As if he ever had, the racist dog!

The AP Wire story about McCrackin, which was picked up by papers throughout
the country, went out Jan. 5 under the headline "Principal Resigns Over
School Drug Raid." It began, "A high school principal announced his
resignation Monday after coming under fire over a November drug sweep in
which police with guns drawn ordered students to the floor..."

Only the Wall St. Journal got it right: "Goose Creek Principal Leaving
Post: Leader Embroiled in Controversial Drug Raid Asks to Be Reassigned."
The WSJ piece by Suzanne Vranica and Brial Steinberg explained that
McCrackin had been moved to a job at school-district headquarters so that
he can help the county prepare to defend itself in the civil suits that
outraged parents will be bringing. (Two have already been filed.)

Why is reporting in the WSJ generally as good as the editorials are bad?
Because America's managers need the facts.

At the last meeting of the Medical Board of California, the head of the
Enforcement Division, Joan Jerzak, denied that the only complaints against
pro-cannabis doctors had come from law enforcement. Jerzak testified that
some complaints had been lodged by "non-law-enforcement source(s). Those
tend to be a school principal, a mother, a spouse, those kind of
sources." None of the doctors on the Board asked Jerzak to be specific or
to provide numbers or documentation, and nobody challenged the illogical
bracketing of school principals and family members.

In reality, alas, school administrators are much more like law enforcers
than loving kin. The Times ran a feature story on this very topic Jan. 4:
"Unruly Students Facing Arrest, Not Detention." The piece by Sara Rimer led
with a bit about a 14-year old girl getting booked on a misdemeanor charge
and placed in a holding cell for violating the dress code of her Toledo,
Ohio, school. An accompanying photo showed a 12-year-old being led into a
cell by a white cop.

"In Toledo and many other places," wrote Rimer, "the juvenile detention
center has become an extension of the principal's office." In 2002 1,727
students were jailed in the Toledo area -up from 314 in 1993. "Arrests in
the past year or so include two middle school boys whose crime was turning
off the lights in the girls' bathroom and an 11-year-old girl who was
arrested for 'hiding out in the school and not going to class,' according
to the police report."

Marsha Levick of the Juvenile Law Center of Philadelphia is quoted:
"Juvenile court is seen as an antidote for all sorts of behavior that in
the past resulted in time out or suspension." The trend accelerated in the
mid-1990s when many school districts enacted "zero tolerance" policies that
equate unruly conduct with violence. "While the juvenile homicide rate has
since fallen," Rimer writes, "and many studies have found that school
violence is rare, the public perception of schools -and students- as
dangerous remains." She's absolutely right -the kids, especially the black
kids, have been demonized by the media.

Once upon a time students who couldn't handle the school environment were
counseled to drop out and find work in the local factories. Now those
factory jobs are gone and the kids have no options. Young people who know
that there isn't going to be any place for them in the economy can hardly
be receptive to education. What's the point when you know that you're going
to be useless and powerless as an adult?

World Coming to an End

A story by James Gorman headed "Scientists Predict Widespread Extinction by
Global Warming" didn't warrant the front-page of the Times on Jan. 8. It
was buried inside under the jump of a piece about the honesty of the
Japanese people (as exemplified by the rate at which they return found
objects to their owners).

Gorman summarized a report published in Nature Jan. 7 in which an
international group of ecologists calculated that by 2050 up to 37% of the
species they studied will be totally gone or unable to reproduce. How can
some people claim to believe in a "Creator" and be so disrespectful, so
unconcerned about the disappearance of His marvelous creatures?

Not just the content and tone of a story, but the play it gets -its length,
the page on which it appears, its position on the page, the size of the
headline-reveals the editor's priorities, which in turn tend to reflect the
publisher's politics. In the mid-1990s, when the dangers of global warming
were first being publicized (and denied by the "experts"), the Chronicle
gave five inches on page four to an AP story headed "Big Ozone Hole Returns
With Arctic Spring." It was dwarfed by an adjoining furniture ad. The piece
implied that the searing of the sky is part of some natural cycle: "The
area of reduced ozone expands at this time of year -spring in the
Antarctic- as sunlight returns to that region."

The disaster movies used to employ a device, a newspaper rolling off a web
press, or spinning to a stop, with a lurid headline such as "GIANT COMET
APPROACHES EARTH" in 200-point type. But in the real world, the ecodisaster
is downplayed -covered superficially, sporadically, confusingly. The effect
is to inoculate us to fear so that we won't act (to identify and remove the
crowd in power). Meanwhile the media trumps up false threats, like Iraq's
weapons of mass destruction (destroyed years ago), super-potent marijuana
(which enables users to smoke less), Y2K, etc. etc. They want us to be
afraid, very afraid, of the wrong things.

Dangerous Drugs

Two fact-filled letters to the editor from East Bay residents ran last week
enumerated some real dangers to which the American people have been exposed.

Direct marketing of ADHD drugs to children and parents is unethical and
should be banned by the FDA. Unfortunately, the FDA helps the
pharmaceutical industry by rapidly approving new drugs at too high initial
dosages and with little or no post-marketing surveillance. Since 1997, 10
medications -- including Rezulin, Lotronex, Propulsid, Redux, Pondimin,
Duract, Seldane, Hismanal, Posicor and Radax -- have been withdrawn from
the market because of serious, often lethal side effects. Public outrage
about the side-effect epidemic is virtually absent and pharmaceutical
companies have rarely been held accountable. -George Z. Banks, Oakland, in
the SF Chronicle

Ephedra opponents have suggested that 155 deaths have been linked to use of
ephedra. If that is the case for the ban, then what is the FDA going to do
about other medications? According to a 1999 Drug Abuse Warning Network
report, 811 people died from Valium, 641 from Benadryl, 427 from Tylenol,
305 from Prozac and 104 from aspirin. Unlike the ephedra statistics, these
are yearly figures. The FDA should base its decisions on science rather
than politics and allow consumers to make their own decisions about
ephedra. -Ellie Long, Alameda, in the Oakland Tribune.

The Situation in Tehama County

Jason Browne contacted the Tehama County health department about SB-420
implementation, which will be delayed in part due to California's budget
crisis. According to Browne, "The Health Department (and others) have met
with the Sheriff behind closed doors and are proposing that the Sheriff's
Department be contracted to produce the ID cards. That sure didn't take
long, did it? This bill reads like either the County Health Departments OR
a health-related agency or organization appointed by the Board of
Supervisors are authorized to make and issue the cards. I guess our local
[officials] think the Health Department can just appoint someone else to do
it. It probably eludes them that the Sheriff's Department is neither
authorized to do this, nor are they a health related agency. How many other
counties will do the same thing, I wonder?

"If we don't get ID cards for a while, does that mean the police all over
California will ignore the rest of the law (like they do with 11362.5), or
insist that all patients possessing more than 6/12 plants or 8 ounces are
to be arrested?

" It seems to me that even patients and their primary caregivers who do not
possess ID cards should still be exempt from arrest, due to the Mower
decision. It's not like SB 420 gives any new authority to arrest.