Pegasus News Schools 2008: Dallas-Fort Worth educational institution weirdnesses

by John P. Meyer

There were several noticeable trends present in the School stories appearing on the site this calendar year (with a week remaining for yet more goofiness to hit the headline fan), including a new cheerleader scandal (though nothing as salacious as the one that broke in 2007) and much ado about banning the use of cell phones in school zones, not to mention in the actual schools themselves.

There was so much going on in the Dallas ISD bailiwick that I've decided to focus attention away from their high-profile and heavily-ballyhooed shenanigans in hopes of striking fool's gold goofiness in less-prospected sectors.

With this in mind, here are our five favorite offbeat North Texas school stories of the year, in order of their chronological posting:

* Case dropped against Lewisville teen who tried to get high / innocently sniffed teacher’s hand sanitizing gel: truly amazing. The parents of a Lewisville seventh grader were forced to hire a criminal defense attorney to exonerate their son who was targeted by Denton County prosecutors for sniffing a hand-cleaning product that was left in plain sight on his teacher's desk. This is, indeed, a reality worthy of escaping from.

* Dallas SWAT delivers birthday surprise to Garland third grader: sounds like a gag story, but it's actually a heartwarmer about a kid with leukemia whose fondest wish was to have the members of the Dallas SWAT team sign a poster for him. Going one step further, they actually "stormed" his Rowlett elementary school. (Out of their jurisdiction, but all for a worthy cause.)

* McKinney High School yearbooks delivered with hundreds of photoshopped pics: Lifetouch, a nationwide leader in yearbook productions, gets their reputational pee-pee whacked by clever hackers with a flair for photographic manipulation. (Staff photo included for illustrative purposes.)

* Plano mega-graffiti artist tops Britain’s Cerne Abbas giant for phallic rudeness: Only from a helicopter or a hung glider - I mean HANG glider! - could anyone have spotted this ambitious work of rooftop art perpetrated by an anonymous supporter (get it?) of the Plano High School Class of 2007. Gotta love it. (I mean, the story.)

* Carrollton-Farmers Branch superintendent stays her own execution / firing: Feats of incredible egocentricity are not confined to the Dallas Independent School District, as Annette T. Griffin proved by leveraging her way into a cushy retirement deal by threatening to appeal her firing. $100,000 in severance money? Go ahead, take my index finger (the left one).

Meanwhile, Lancaster ISD continues to be one of our most in-depth coverage areas thanks to the insightful contributions of citizen journalists such as Jeff Melcher (who - along with Cynthia Corbin - chronicles the takedown of LISD Superintendent Larry Lewis here); Today Newspapers journalist and content partner Bill Conrad (also all over the Lewis story); and Brian Allen, who blogs the news at Best Southwest Citizen (here reporting on the resignation of Lancaster ISD Board of Trustees member Cheryl Wright). Regular contributors like these in other North Texas educational communities could lead to us becoming the hyperlocal Masters of the Webiverse.