Observations and inanities by a second-shift assistant supervisor in the Puppy-Grinding division of the Evil Atheist Conspiracy® (our motto: "Sure it's cruel, but think of the jobs!"), your host, Brent Rasmussen.
This has got to be a joke.
So, you're a single parent struggling to raise a severely autistic child. Of all the difficulties you might expect to confront, I bet this one would never cross your mind:
Leduc's weird tale began on May 30, when she dropped young Victoria off for class at Terry Fox Elementary and headed in to work, only to receive a frantic phone call from the school telling her it was urgent she come back right away.
The frightened mother rushed back to the campus and was stunned by what she heard - the principal, vice-principal and her daughter's teacher were all waiting for her in the office, telling her they'd received allegations that Victoria had been the victim of sexual abuse - and that the CAS (Children's Aid Society) had been notified.
How did they come by such startling knowledge? Leduc was incredulous as they poured out their story.
"The teacher looked and me and said: 'We have to tell you something. The educational assistant who works with Victoria went to see a psychic last night, and the psychic asked the educational assistant at that particular time if she works with a little girl by the name of "V." And she said 'yes, I do.' And she said, 'well, you need to know that that child is being sexually abused by a man between the ages of 23 and 26.'"
Yup. Because some charlatan told a teaching assistant a vague and scary story, the school officials decided to call child protective services, thereby starting a cascade of red tape.
Idiots.
I mean, seriously, are these people insane? How the hell did they get into a position of responsibility for the education of children with this sort of poor judgment?
The good news is that the mother has absolute documentation that the alleged abuse did not occur, and so when the child welfare investigator came:
And so a case worker came to the Leduc home to discuss the allegations of sexual misconduct, only to admit there wasn't a shred of evidence that anything had ever happened at all. They labelled Leduc a "diligent" mother doing the best she could for her child under difficult circumstances, closed the file and left, calling the report "ridiculous."
At least someone in the bureaucracy has a clue.
Jim Downey
Via BoingBoing.
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Tallying the responses to this story
Jim, I'm keeping a list of responses to the "psychic claims autistic girl abused story". I've added yours.
Danke.
And I fixed the link.
Jim Downey
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Like Science Fiction? Read *or listen to* my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
I'm pretty sure it's not a joke...
...because it's not very fucking funny.
When I started reading this
I could literally feel my blood pressure rising. I thought I was about to start spewing steam from my ears.
I'm just relieved that there was a competent case worker on hand to deflate the situation. I hope that the case worker made it explicitly clear in the file that the accusations were pure idiotic bullshit, so that the mere existence of a complaint file can't come back and haunt the mother if an accident or anything else ever does happen.
Harmless fun for all ages!
Just another example why psychics are not just "harmless fun".
I have (had?) a group of girlfriends, kind of like a club (for partying!). A few ladies from the group became friends with another lady who considered herself to be psychic. Woo-lovers that they are, they believed her and all the crazy stories she told them about some of the other group members, including accusations of current hard-core meth use and embezzlement. So, we had a bit of a schism, the "psychic" moved out of state, and the believers are now bickering at each other. Screw them. I'm hanging out with the "thieving meth-users".
As Dave Barry would say:
would be a good name for a band.
Jim Downey
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Like Science Fiction? Read *or listen to* my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
better band name
I should have said "thieving meth-heads". That sounds cooler.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, here are the Thieving Meth-Heads! {crowd roars, laser lights decorate the stadium, beachballs and frisbees are thrown about...}
Damn, I wish I had kept up with my music lessons when I was a kid.
Cool band names
There was a band in Bloomington IN in the 80s called "Pit Bulls on Crack." I didn't much like their music (I'm a classical musician and folky at heart) but I thought it was one of the best band names I'd ever seen.
Dumb and dumber
It's a good thing that CAS case worker was a thinker and not a procedural drone. You can tell they were professional because they could spell "ridiculous" properly.
BTW, when reading this post my first two thoughts were "Oh my god!" and "Jeez, what idiots!"
Just goes to show you how religio-culturally polluted I am ;)
You and me both.
You and me both, BA. People who know I am an atheist always give me odd looks when I make such comments. When Mandy and Rick were here the other day I think I out-and-out shocked them with such. What can I say - I'm an old dog...
Jim Downey
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Like Science Fiction? Read *or listen to* my novel, Communion of Dreams, for free.
I do it on purpose
When I'm at clients, especially those I know to be particularly religious, I'll make statements like "Well, that's why God invented light bulbs" or some such that has to do with the technical issue I'm working on for them. Most of my clients know I'm an Atheist, and the best ones will get a laugh out of it.
Rob Miles
--
There are only 10 types of people in the world;
those who understand binary and those who don't.
Culture vs. beliefs
Saying things like "Oh god!" or "Jeez!" etc. isn't because you're religious. It's because you grew up in a culture with lots of things borrowed from Christianity.
It's what culture is, a collective borrowing. :-)
Ciao!
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