Local autistic student suspended for drawing of a bomb

At left: Rhett Parham, student suspended from Hillcrest Middle School.
















On our radio show today, we interviewed Amy Parham, mother of 13-year-old Rhett Parham, who has been suspended from Hillcrest Middle School in Simpsonville, SC, for drawing a picture of a bomb.

Rhett has autism and greatly enjoys drawing pictures. His picture is based on one of his favorite video games, Bomberman 64, a Nintendo game from the 90s. He watches it on YouTube and likes to draw what he sees. Amy told us, "I am not fully believing that this is actually happening." Certainly, she isn't the only one, and supporters all over upstate South Carolina have come to Rhett's defense. She and Rhett have been interviewed by WSPA, FoxCarolina, and several other radio shows besides ours.

Apparently, Rhett told other students he "had a bomb"--when he was referring to the picture. People with autism are often very "literal-minded" and to Rhett, having the picture and "having a bomb" are synonymous, said his mother.

WSPA reports:

Rhett, who has autism, got suspended from Hillcrest Middle School in Simpsonville on Monday for telling people he had a bomb and showing them a drawing based on the video game.

“I said, 'Are you kidding me?'" said his mother Amy Parham.

Parham said her son poses no threat and is not capable of actually making a bomb.

“I don't really think he understands the brevity of this whole situation because of his disability.”

Greenville County Schools denied 7 On Your Side’s request for an on-camera interview, but sent us a statement that reads in part: “This investigation began when threatening comments were made, resulting in the responsible removal of the student from the school to ensure everyone's safety while the incident and intent were assessed.”

"Principals are in a very difficult spot with this. They have a lot of interests that they're trying to juggle," said Janet Stein, Director of the South Carolina Education Association's member advocacy program.

Stein used to do crisis prevention training for North Carolina schools.

She said Hillcrest Middle's Principal did what he had to do in order to protect the school and its students.

“If he had not done what he did and had decided that student didn't mean it, it doesn't mean anything -- if something had happened, the district would have been accountable for that," said Stein.

Parham said she's looking into whether she should transfer her son to a different school, but Rhett said he wants to stay at Hillcrest Middle.

Tomorrow there will be a "manifestation hearing" to determine if Rhett's behavior was caused by his disability. If the school decides that it was not, Rhett can face disciplinary action and the suspension may be permanent.

And here is the bomb drawing (below), which looks like one of the many bombs thrown by Wile E. Coyote in the cartoons:

If you would like to help out, contact Greenville County Schools superintendent W. Burke Royster and let him know how you feel.
Telephone: 864-355-8860
e-mail: wroyster@greenville.k12.sc.us

Amy Parham is now using the bomb-picture as her Facebook profile picture, as are many of her supporters.

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EDIT AND UPDATE 10/16/2013: Rhett Parham's suspension has been lifted and his absences excused by the county. GREAT NEWS! What I have learned from this: how crucial it is for parents of disabled students to have a support network in place before these types of incidents occur. Amy was able to get the word out quickly to activists like Traci Fant ((waves at Traci!)) who was on our show today.

We are glad we were able to help out, and thanks to everyone else who participated, reblogged, gave us a +1 on Google and all of that stuff. (((hugs)))

It really does take a village.

The Funeral of Pfc. Justin Whitmire

At left: Pfc Justin Whitmire, age 20, upstate soldier killed on December 27th, only 19 days after arriving in Afghanistan.






I had planned on titling this post "Up close and personal with the Westboro Baptist Church"--but instead, I witnessed an amazing sight. I saw about 3000 members and associates of the Patriot Guard Riders stand in loose formation outside the Simpsonville Baptist Church. They stood quietly and respectfully during the funeral of Justin Whitmire. (No smoking or cell phones, conversation kept to whispers.) And then, as the honor guard departed, the bikers lined Main Street (Highway 14) in Simpsonville, holding American flags aloft. The phalanx on both sides of the road was impressive, as the Patriot Guard provided an escort for the funeral procession.

The line of people stretched for miles, all the way to the cemetery. It was astounding.

The infamous Fred Phelps and his equally infamous Westboro Baptist Church was nowhere to be seen, although they had threatened to picket Whitmire's funeral. There were copious rumors they had already arrived in the upstate, including (if you heard my radio show this morning) a local sighting at Walmart. I had heard of the Patriot Guard and knew they were attending, but I had no idea there would be so many of them. The rumble of thousands of Harley-Davidsons in downtown Simpsonville, echoing off the old buildings, sounded like the engines revving at Talladega. (Apparently, this is one way they drown out Westboro's noise, when they confront them.)

It is puzzling to me (to say the least) that WBC continues their evil deeds. Nobody likes them. Nobody agrees with them. Certainly, nobody appreciates their picketing of grieving veteran families. They are mostly a grim and disturbing sideshow, at this point. This morning on my radio show, we discussed at length why they continue these bizarre shenanigans... and it was during this conversation that one of my callers used the word ASSHOLE, the first cuss-word on my show to date (unless you count "dumb-asses"--and I don't). I'm just glad *I* wasn't the one to say it!

(Yes, it took Westboro Baptist Church to finally break the no-cussing rule on The Daisy Deadhead Show.)

Apparently, WBC makes money every time they open their whack-ass mouths. SOMEBODY must be buying what they are selling, since they continue to travel all over the country for these anti-veteran protests. In fact, they are majorly lawyered up, so one of their shakedowns is goading people into hitting or hurting them, and then suing them for damages and denial of their civil rights, etc.

The way the Patriot Guard stood so firmly and with such dignity, was heartening. Many of them were wearing Christian-oriented biker wear, and I realized, they feel responsible for confronting WBC as Christians. They will not let these people do this nasty stuff in the name of Christianity, at least not without their own Christian witness alongside them. I have a great deal of respect for that.

They were beautiful.

I am so happy that Justin's family had such dignified, dedicated escorts for their son. My thoughts and prayers are with them at this difficult time.

Photos below--as always, you can click to enlarge. My dastardly camera-battery ran down before the Highway 14 formation, but at least you get an idea of how many folks turned out.

The radical transformation of a moment of fear and hate, into a display of respect, solidarity and love, is a lesson we all can learn.

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Dead Air Sells Out, BJU robs Greenville County (again), etc

At left: Famous cover of THE WHO SELL OUT, from whom I stole half of today's blog post title.



I have decided to enable Google ads on my blog, at long last, because I have run out of unemployment checks. CLICK THOSE ADS, people.

Seriously, I didn't want to. I initially took them off waaaay back in November 2009, due to all the "Is Barack Obama a Muslim?" and "Is Barack Obama the Antichrist?" ads (probably my own fault for naming a post that), which I found pernicious and possibly racist. Thus, in a purist political huff, I yanked the ads. Now I have put them back, since I promised myself if I got X amount of hits, it would be worth my while to do so. And in fact, I have received far more than X, but did not keep my promise to myself.

Why? Well, I still don't like the ads, that's why.

For example, the first ads that came up were for HRT, since one of my posts this month was about hot flashes. Even though I carefully state in the piece, that Hormone Replacement Therapy causes cancer, the ad-placement appears that I approve of HRT if you don't regularly read my blog and/or just skim. Annoying.

Then again, I look at the some of the atheist blogs, and they don't seem to care if they get the Billy Graham Association or Bible Study Guides on their Google ads. (Some of the ads are humongous, and they still don't care!) If they can bite the bullet, I guess I can too. On some level, they are probably thinking that 1) the juxtaposition of atheist content and Bible ads is amusing, and it is, and 2) their readers should be able to come to their own conclusions. And they should.

Supposedly, one can target ads. However, perusing the Google adsense FAQ (containing copious html code), lots of this stuff appears to be written in high-tech gibberish, inaccessible to mere mortals. (I barely figured out how to install my tag cloud, okay?) And I don't know how well the targeting actually works.

But in any event, you will now see ADS, when before, I could afford to be ideologically pure. Next time someone accuses me of disliking capitalism, I can point to all the ads here on DEAD AIR, and say WHAT ABOUT THOSE? Advertising is the American Way, after all.

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Daisy Deadhead Show update: Today was our BEST SHOW YET! We featured the two run-off candidates for mayor of Simpsonville, Perry Eichor and Tammy Bagwell, as well as other call-ins. Check out the podcast to the right.

As promised, I trashed Bob Jones University, and someone called in to helpfully inform me that the BJU Art Gallery downtown was turned over to the county due to staggering debt, and now WE are supporting it. [Note: There is a "satellite" gallery downtown in the old Coca Cola building, while the main gallery is on the BJU campus.]

Well, that's certainly interesting, isn't it?

Entering the address of the BJU art museum into the tax records for Greenville County, I see that 420 College Street, Greenville, SC is deeded to: GREENVILLE COUNTY MUSEUM COMMISSION. Oh yeah? So, Bob Jones University no longer owns it, and they sold it to the county for (one assumes) a hefty profit. Was this sale voted on? Because you know, I don't remember voting on it. Who approved the sale and for how much?

Obviously, one of those sweet backroom deals that local BJU-Republicans are known for.

Market value of the property is listed as $1,394,060. Is that what the County paid for it? Where did this money come from, exactly? Who decided on the deal in the first place? How does this benefit the county?

Stinks, really stinks.

Further, my caller recently visited the Greenville County Auditor's office (Scott Case, BJU again), where there are two brand new fancy plasma TVs for people to watch while waiting in interminable lines. And can you all guess what channel these TVs are tuned to? No, not the Food Network!

Fox News.

When my intrepid caller asked a county employee WHY Fox News? The employee said that was the decision of SCOTT CASE and all interested parties would have to take it up with him.

So, we have TVs paid for by the county (that is to say, US) presumably intended for the entire county population to watch, but they are permanently set on FOX NEWS. Does the county government endorse Fox News officially? Because I think that amounts to political partisanship in neutral government territory.

But then, neutrality is not something they major in, over at BJU. Using the government to their advantage and getting local government to foot their bills and dig them out of art-gallery debt? They have obviously figured out how to do that, as has Governor Haley. And here's the punch line: all while calling themselves fiscal conservatives. As long as they use the magic talisman of *fiscal conservatism* -- they can pretty much run through as much of our collective money as they can get their greedy little hands on.

No wonder the BJU gang all voted for Haley; they have the same morality, or lack of it.

Music Monday: It's rockabilly time!

YES!--I said it's ROCKABILLY TIME, yall!

From the now-forgotten movie HOT ROD GANG (1958), this is the amazing Gene Vincent, who was simply too fabulous for mere words.

Apparently, "Baby Blue" was co-written by local legend Country Earl, and I never knew until last night! (He still makes a few hundred dollars a year from it, he said.) Country Earl's local restaurant in Simpsonville is colloquially known as Country Earl's Chompin and Stompin (rules: no drinking, no smoking and no cussing).

And if you are lucky enough to listen to Country Earl's classic-country radio show on WOLT-FM every Sunday night, then you already KNOW you are one of the luckiest souls on planet Earth.

~*~

Baby Blue - Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps (1958)



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Race with the Devil - Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps (1956)



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Be-Bop-A-Lula - Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps (1958)