Much Ado About Nothing In Hudson, Ohio

Em Carpenter

Em was one of those argumentative children who was sarcastically encouraged to become a lawyer, so she did. She is a proud life-long West Virginian, and, paradoxically, a liberal. In addition to writing about society, politics and culture, she enjoys cooking, podcasts, reading, and pretending to be a runner. She will correct your grammar. You can find her on Twitter.

Related Post Roulette

17 Responses

  1. Damon says:

    Never accept at face value the first report on any subject. It’s likely to be 98% wrong.Report

  2. fillyjonk says:

    Ah, the town where I grew up! This is pretty much just Hudson being Hudson, frankly. The outrage, the half-cocked-ness, the alpha moms….none of whom REALLY check up on what their kids are REALLY doing

    I will also note back in the early 80s, when I was in junior high (I actually was sent to a prep school for high school, and it may have saved my life), I knew PLENTY of kids who had not only “tasted” a beer but consumed multiple beers on weekends. Yes, JUNIOR high so like 13 and 14. I’m sure the sex went on too, but I didn’t hear as much about thatReport

  3. Oscar Gordon says:

    Since when does a mayor have any kind of right to demand anything of a school board?Report

    • As a general rule of thumb, the farther east you go in the US the less autonomy the school boards have. When I worked for the Colorado state legislature, this situation caused problems. Colorado (and other western states) missed out on a bunch of federal money in some program because the conditions attached to the money included the state being able to dictate behavior to local boards.Report

      • Oscar Gordon in reply to Michael Cain says:

        Perhaps we never had such scandals when I was growing up in WI, or perhaps it was because the school districts in rural WI were so large that they encompassed multiple townships* (and thus multiple mayors), so having one mayor play such politics was bound to run into problems.

        *The city the district was based in was about 6 sq mi, and the district was over 200 sq mi.Report

    • Jeff in reply to Oscar Gordon says:

      In Hudson, the mayor is purely a ceremonial position. Not only does he have no say over the school board, he has no say in city government. He’s a political stooge.Report

  4. LeeEsq says:

    It’s not like high school students have been known to drink beer and even write about it. Anybody who read fan fiction knows that high school students write about sex. Usually they write about sex badly.Report

  5. Ed says:

    Great article, it’s well written and makes me want to follow your site and the reporter.
    However, the grey type on a grey background was extremely hard on my 56 year old, massively-corrected eyes. Please consider all of the reasons that contrast is valued in typography.Report

  6. 547. “Write a short essay about your cousin’s friend’s balls.”Report

    • Alyssa in reply to Mike Schilling says:

      Our peaceful crafts were interrupted by a loud hollering: “Girls, outside!” My cousin and I looked at one another woefully and slowly placed our scissors atop the pile of bright papers scattered on the table. After racing down two flights of stairs and through a giant sparkling kitchen, we entered an almost empty garage. We decided to walk down the street in search of something to do. Once we turned the corner, we saw Adelaide was outside practicing basketball. We ran to her driveway to ask if we could join, to which she cheerfully agreed. She led us to the garage and we saw two large containers filled to the brim with assorted balls. Big balls, bouncey balls, bright balls and shiny balls; round ones, flat ones, oblong ones and stitched ones. All sorts of balls… perhaps more than you could imagine! We each grabbed a ball and began to play. It was the best Tuesday ever.Report

    • “Write it in a way you wouldn’t show your mom, and then rewrite in a way you WOULD”Report

  7. Rufus F. says:

    Ackshually!
    Sorry… but actually the dirty-sexy-hubba-hubba passages in Romeo and Juliet used to be editted out for high school editions until at least the early 80s. Which is good because, oftentimes, squeaky teens giving flat line readings of those passages in class would cause orgies to break out.Report

  8. Marcy says:

    This was all strictly political to oust and villify good people. Election is coming up. Many in Hudson are fed up with this nonsense. It’s very embarrassing and sad that this city has been in the news lately and not for anything good.Report

  9. KenB says:

    A couple decades ago I would’ve been appropriately outraged/exasperated by this, but now it just seems quaint. Like, don’t the kids have internet in Hudson, Ohio? I feel like at this point we’re much closer to this comic than we are to the world these folks are still holding on to.Report