Who Should Really Get Blown-up Over an Inflatable Doll?

Personally Published (Opinion) 2011.06.17

Great headline and story:

Tyell Morton, Indiana Teen, Could Face 8 Years Behind Bars For Blow-Up Doll Senior Prank.


Cliff Notes Version: The kid, a senior at Rushville High School, puts an inflatable doll in the girls' bathroom and the school goes ape doo-doo.

The story only listed Rush County Prosecutor Phil Caviness by name as the person who is going after the kid. He claims the prank cost $8,000 to mitigate. I guess if you want to run at tab up that high - you can do that at McDonalds (I'll take 2,000 happy meals to go).

Caviness is up for election in 2014. I hope the graduating class of 2011 will remember the graduating gift Mr. Caviness has bestowed upon the high school. I hope the rest of the voters can see this guy's budgeting techniques.

Tyell has been held in jail for this. I am sure he did not get to graduate with his class on June 5th.
Judge David E. Northam, who is up for election in 2012, has allowed Tyell to go home on a $30,000 bond.

Do you really want people this uptight running anything?

It is really a shame we can't go back and prosecute the prosecutor and judge for they did at age 18. They have forgotten what it is like to be a kid. Too bad the bullying programs schools now have to implement cannot be applied to these guys.

There are some holes in the story from a reporting perspective.

Would it be fair - since Tyell may get racked up for 8 years over this to put the names of the people out there who will be taking the time of his life? After all - they are the ones calling the cops on him.

Here is an excerpt from the Rushville High School Principal Matt Vance' Welcome Letter (Link):

"Our students and staff are some of the best in the state of Indiana and we will strive to continually improve. Our theme is "Excellence is our Expectation", we want to strive for excellence is every way possible."

Now I am not going to rip the students here, they are the vessels the education is poured into. However, let's look at the "Excellence" of a staff and administration that would allow a kids' prank to get this kind of press.

How excellent was it that this wasn't handled behind closed doors?

Let's look at what the qualities of the education this outfit is giving their kids. They are fair game since they gave up one of their students to a media frenzy...

Here is who is running the show at the high school...

From the high school web page: (Link)
Administration
Mr. Matt Vance, Principal
Mr. Jason Bass, Assistant Principal
Mr. Robert Hadley, Assistant Principal
Mr. Dave Green, Athletic Director
Mr. Jerry Craig, Assistant Athletic Director

It is interesting that the Athletic department has 2 people on equal level with assistant principals. No one from the Math, Music, Art, Language or Science Departments is on equal par with these folks. Athletics does get more play on the site than does the academics.

That must mean they are really into sports in Rushville!

Looking at the focus on sports at this place, I imagined a real powerhouse athletic outfit. So I went to Varee.com, a page that shows the results for the school this year. Of the 16 sports this high school participates in only 2 - boys and girls basketball show winning records. I am not knocking the kids here, but for a place that is putting all this emphasis on sports - you have to deliver. If they were in Philly, we'd be rightly calling for the coaches' heads on a platter.

I wonder how the non-jocks fare at this school. I went to the Teacher Pages for the school and neither of the Business Teachers even have a web page up. But I did get to see the "Excellence is our Expectation" tag line all over the site. For all the talk about small business and prepping kids for the real world one would think the business department would be fully ramped up?

According to SchoolDigger.com, Rushville is 180th of 385 public school in Indiana.

Drilling further about this school district on Homefacts.com, they gave this school a cumulative grade of C-.

It makes me wonder if anyone down there knows the meaning of the word Excellence.

If the legal system in Rushville and the school are going to call Tyell's performance into question - then their performance needs to be called into question too.

Do I hope to embarrass these public officials by putting their names out there in the same way an 18 year-old kid's name is out there? Yepper !

Give this kid an apology - then fix your school and judicial systems.