Has the world’s weather gone totally doolally or what? After terrible droughts parts of Australia are now flooded causing chaos and millions of dollars worth of damage. Violent storms hit the eastern seaboard of the United States but there maybe nothing new in that. What is news is that there has been torrential rain in southern California. Earthquakes, heatwaves, floods, volcanoes, typhoons, blizzards, landslides and droughts killing a quarter of a million people, that has been 2010. In a tiny little town in France the population from the mayor down are in fear and trembling expecting to be swamped as members of a cult believing the world is about to end and the town is the only safe place to be will descend in droves and the townsfolk have no way of coping with the influx.
Communism might have failed in Russia and the bloc, in North Korea it is evidently a disaster and Cuba ain’t so hot, but China seems to be busting out all over capitalist-wise, offering to come to the rescue to the tune of billions of euro of debt ridden European countries, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Greece. What would China want in return do you suppose? China is evidently already well entrenched in parts of Africa. Mind you that can’t be too much of a bad thing if their presence manages to keep various warlords and warring factions in control.
Living these days in the shadow of Big Brother you really do have to be ultra-cautious in your behaviour, especially where school children are concerned. In my boarding school days we had a housemaster who invariably took his shower with the boys and I doubt anyone thought badly of it, maybe it was just a wee bit eccentric that is all, but fairly recently in Wales a teacher shared the shower with teenage girls before a school musical and has been struck off for four years. She denied inappropriate relationships with girls, aged 13 to 16. The General Teaching Council of Wales said no sexual activity took place but the ban reflected the case's "seriousness." Her union said her actions were unwise but not sordid. Chairman John Collins ruled it was "inappropriate behaviour" for her to have showered, wearing a bikini, with girls before a school show. So there, she wasn’t even naked, she was wearing a bikini but that does make it all rather odd and was it made even odder because it happened before a school show? He said: "Although no sexual activity took place, this was inappropriate involvement with pupils who were using the showers. This is not a teacher seen as being incompetent. She was very enthusiastic and hard-working but her conduct was fundamentally incompatible with continuing to be a registered teacher.” Evidently the normal prohibition period is for two years but it was doubled because "of the seriousness of the case." She has been branded a paedophilic lesbian - the consequences for her and her family have been appalling."
The hearing was told of text messages from the teacher saying: "I love you" and "I love you lots" to the two girls. This together with other messages sealed her fate.
Mrs Lloyd-Jones, who is currently working as a freelance musician, denied behaving unacceptably - but admitted sending two girls messages with "inappropriate content, language or context".
In a published statement on the Oakdale comprehensive school website, the head teacher commented: "I would like to reassure all parents that at no point did the school shy away from its responsibilities to protect and care for its pupils. I assure you that if an issue of this nature ever occurs again, which I am glad to say is very rare, we as a school will not hesitate, as in this case, to take swift action in the interests of our pupils and the whole school community."