#(teacher hasn't announced our marks)

[fyodorsushankaaa]

ALL OF MY EXAMS ARE FINISHED AND WE HAVE A WHOLE WEEK OFF YEPPIIEW

[foster-the-world]

Dangerous

Baby boy is loving Halloween nowadays. He talks about monsters, ghosts and pumpkins nonstop. I got him a bunch of Halloween kid books from the library. We watched the Berenstein Bears Halloween episode.

He now walks up to every Mom at the Mygym saying "I watch scary movie. It's dangerous." I'm glad its my husband with him. He can explain that the Berenstein Bears is the scary movie. We don't actually let him watch the Blair Witch project :)

At Disneyland after we got off Mr Toad's Wild Ride he said "That's dangerous." Such a funny kid.

We had picked out a great 3K program for him. 12 minute walk - which is long for us but very much doable. Sad to leave daycare but excited to get him in a DOE program - where he can be better evaluated. Then our girls Elementary school announced they are starting a 3K program. It's in theory great news. We love the school. All three kids in the same school is every parents dream. The administrators/teachers know us and we trust them to get him resources if they are needed. It's one minute walk away. The 4K program is especially good. He will def go there when he's 4. But their 3K program is most likely only until 2pm and nothing during the summer. They are still figuring out if they will have after school - which we would have to pay for. After school care is relatively cheap but not free. Daycare would pick him up for after school if we asked.

The other program is free from 8:30am until 5:45pm as long as both parents are working. Plus, runs during the summer. Now we have to decide. Applications due this week. As a "child in the welfare system" (the applications words not ours) he gets first dibs. Although I don't think either program is difficult to get in. We put them both down and will figure it out later. I preferred when the decision was made. Either way he'll stay at daycare this summer. He could move to the program 12 minutes away but we are traveling a lot this summer. I'd rather have him somewhere he knows during that time period.

In good news he hasn't bitten anyone since the original incident. It's been over a month. Fingers crossed it remains a one off thing. Meanwhile, another 2.5 yo scratched his face. The teacher called to tell us about it. I think they were embarrassed there was two incidents in a month. Seems normal to me. 2 year olds are a wild bunch. They said the teacher was sitting right there but the girl did it out of nowhere. The poor Mom was horrified. We obviously didn't care. How could we complain when baby boy left a big bit mark on someone just a few weeks ago.

Baby boy kept talking about it.

Baby boy: "Little girls name scratch me. She hurt me. She is bad."

Me: "She did something bad but she's not bad. Just a mistake. Remember when you bit X."

Baby boy: "OOOOHHHH, yeah. That bad."

The tone of his voice was so funny. And maybe the lesson of not hurting others will sink in a little more.

[poisonouswritings]

Rant below:

(TLDR; One of my classes had a two part final exam, I did both parts and triple-checked they were submitted, I log on yesterday and it says one half wasn't even started and says I'm un-enrolled from the class. Today (20th) is the day the teacher is inputting final grades. I've emailed the teacher and am waiting for a response and am going to throw myself down a set of stairs.)

I am soooo fucking exhausted. I had this class, right? And I joined late. Within the allotted time (three weeks from the start of the semester) but late. And because I joined late, there were three assignments that I had missed. I did them and submitted them within the first week of being in the class. Emailed the teacher and she said she would add them in. Because of the way the categories were weighted, one singular 1.0 point assignment made up 30% of my total grade (because it was the only assignment in that category). And she just never fucking added it in. I emailed her at least five times about it. Nothing. She still hasn't added it in and we're technically done with the class now. That means that even though I was getting ≈90% on every single thing I was submitting, I was barely at a C because of that one category. And then she finally added something else to that category that was worth way more points, and my grade finally went from like a 72% to a 94% and it was like. Okay. Fine. You still didn't add the original three assignments that I repeatedly emailed you about, but fine. Whatever. I'll drop it.

Our final was online. Opened on Wednesday the 14th, closed Monday the 19th at 10PM. There were two parts. I finished them both on Wednesday at around 6 and 7 PM respectively. I triple-checked they were both submitted. I went to the completed assessments tab (this was in a separate site that we used specifically for tests, not the main grade site) and they both showed up but said the grades were unavailable until Monday the 19th after 10PM. Okay. Fine. I checked again on Friday the 16th and Sunday the 18th, thinking that maybe if everyone finished early the grades would release sooner. Didn't happen. Both assignments showed up as completed, but I couldn't see the grades. That's fine.

Yesterday (the 19th), I had a final in the morning/afternoon. My last final, specifically. And then I went to the airport to pick my sister up because she's coming to visit for Christmas. I get home at around 11:30 PM. I decide I'm gonna go check on my final grade because I'm curious as to what I got. I log onto the testing site and it says one half of the test wasn't even started.

Um. What the fuck.

I immediately try to go to the completed assessments tab where it fucking said I had finished them both on Wednesday, and I get a 'You Are No Longer Enrolled In This Course' message (meaning the course has been closed for access).

Um. What the fuck.

I try to go back onto my dashboard to where it says the test wasn't even started. I get the same not-enrolled message.

Um. What the fuck.

So at this point it's 11:49 PM and I'm emailing my teacher and on the verge of a panic attack because I have put soooo much fucking work into this stupid fucking class all semester. I did that fucking exam. But guess what? If this situation doesn't get fixed, and she just marks it as incomplete (just like with the first three fucking assignments), my grade goes from a 96% to a fucking 78% because of the way the columns are weighted.

I'm. Just. So fucking exhausted. I feel painfully burnt out. What's the point of trying if I'm just gonna get dicked over again and again? It's barely 7AM so I obviously haven't received a response yet. She said in an announcement earlier on Monday that she's finalizing grades today (the 20th). And I'm fucking terrified that she's just going to ignore my emails like she did at the beginning of the semester. I'm fully prepared to escalate this to the damn department heads if I have to, but I am just,,,, so. tired.

[college-girl199328]

Federal Justice Minister Arif Virani said Thursday he has reservations about a suite of measures Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is about to introduce to curb access to certain transgender health services for kids and ban gender-diverse people from some sporting events. Speaking to reporters on Parliament Hill, Virani said Smith's promised measures amount to "targeting and demonizing" trans children.

Asked if he plans to pursue a legal challenge, Virani pointed out that the province hasn't enacted the measures yet. Health Minister Mark Holland said he's "deeply disturbed" by the province's plan, which he said will put children at risk.

A spokesperson for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told CBC News the party has no comment on what Smith is doing in Alberta. A majority of Conservative Party delegates at a recent policy convention endorsed adding similar measures to their policy book.

Most of the federal Tories (69 percent) at the Quebec City meeting agreed that young people should be barred from gender-affirming care.

Delegates also supported a policy that calls for single-sex spaces that are open only to women, along with other trans-related initiatives that have been called discriminatory by some.

The Liberals' reaction comes a day after Smith took to social media to announce her plan to "preserve for our children the right to grow and develop into mature adults" and block them from making "permanent and irreversible decisions regarding one's biological sex."

The proposed policies include banning so-called "top" and "bottom" surgeries for minors aged 17 and under and restricting puberty blockers and hormone therapy for children 15 and under. The sorts of surgeries Smith is promising to ban are rarely available to children in Canada.

According to the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH)'s standards of care — which are followed by clinics like Montreal's GrS, where many such surgeries are performed — a person must reach the age of majority (18 in most provinces) before being allowed to undergo gender reassignment surgery. Some exceptions are made for top surgery (mastectomy) for kids 16 and over. Puberty blockers are hormone-suppressing agents that pause the progression of puberty for as long as people are on them. They are sometimes prescribed for younger children after consulting with a doctor. They may be combined with hormone therapies, some of which could have long-term, irreversible effects.

Smith said teachers will need to get third-party instruction material on gender identity, sexual orientation, and human sexuality approved by the province before using them in the classroom, and parents will have to opt students into every classroom discussion of sex education, sexual orientation, or gender identity. Parents are allowed to opt out of such classroom discussions now. Minors aged 15 and under will also need parental consent to change the names and pronouns they use at school.

Kids aged 16 and 17 will need to notify their parents of such a change, but they don't need their consent to use the names or pronouns they choose. The new policy also bans transgender women from competing in women's sports leagues. Smith suggested these trans athletes could instead be accommodated in "coed" or "gender neutral" sports divisions.

While the new policies would restrict what transgender children can do, Smith said she cares "deeply" about gender diversity and supports the right of adults to pursue transgender care.

She also vowed to recruit at least one medical professional who specializes in transgender surgery to practice in Alberta so people don't have to travel to other jurisdictions like Quebec. Holland said Smith's moves are "dangerous" and accused her of "playing politics with children's lives."

Women and Gender Equality Minister Marci Ien called the Alberta measures "reprehensible." She said she was disturbed by Smith's video, in which she featured the premier speaking in soft tones over "spa-like" background music as she announced a plan to restrict rights.

Ien sought to tie the measures to Smith's recent meeting with conservative TV personality Tucker Carlson, who visited Alberta last week and made a homophobic joke about the prime minister.

Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault, a gay man who represents Edmonton in the House of Commons, said he spent the night on the phone consoling trans kids who are worried about what these changes could mean for them. He said there's a pervasive fear among some trans kids that their classmates will "out" them to teachers and parents before they're comfortable with revealing their sexual identity.

Boissonault also raised the possibility of clawing back federal health transfers to Alberta to send a message that the changes won't fly.

While Smith's plan was condemned by Liberals in Ottawa, it earned the praise of the Campaign Life Coalition, a social conservative group that has derided same-sex marriage and has campaigned to limit abortion access.

Egale Canada and the Stepping Stone Foundation, two LGBTQ groups, issued a joint statement vowing legal action if the policies are enacted.

They accused Smith of playing politics with "some of the most vulnerable members of our society: trans and gender diverse youth."

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), which is challenging New Brunswick's trans-related measures in the courts, called the policies "a clear and blatant attack on freedom" and promised to fight them.

[radiorenjun]

I Don't Need It

• Pairing: Na Jaemin x Reader

• Genre: Angst, Comedy, Fluff

• Na Jaemin despised the idea of soulmates, he wanted to fight against fate for choosing his soulmate for him. Even if it means his stubborn childhood best friend wouldn't stop trying to make him accept about the similar tattoos on their wrists.

• Masterlist here!

• Chapters: vi, vii

As Jaemin walked to his car to drive to school, he spotted you walking out of your door with a textbook in hand. He raised his hand, his mouth opening to call out your name when the scene from that night flashed through his mind. He sighed at the thought as he watch you walk to the bus stop without sparing a glance in his direction.

'Is she really that upset? It was just an old music box, after all.' Jaemin thought as he got into his car and turned his keys. 'She's just being petty, I bet if I offer her a ride to school. She's gonna go back to square one. Typical y/n," he smiled to himself, remembering the times where you two had arguments and one of the two of you would apologize when Jaemin offered you a ride.

Jaemin drove to catch up with you before you reach the stop, to his surprise, he saw Huang Renjun walking up to you with a bright smile, slinging an arm over your shoulders. Jaemin's blood ran cold at the sight of you smiling and rolling your eyes at the boy.

Jaemin forgot Renjun lived a few houses away from them, then again, he hasn't talked to Renjun much since Renjun left the team to join the arts club. 'What am I doing?' he thought to himself, running a hand through his hair as he let out a heavy sigh, his eyes never leaving the road as he drove by your laughing figures.

'This is what I wanted right? For once I don't have y/n constantly asking bout me or flirting with me or clinging onto me all the time. I should be happy that she finally got it to her head' he told himself. If that's so, why does he feel so empty? Why does he feel like something's missing deep inside of him.

Once he got to the school, he walked to his lockers only to be greeted by Donghyuck, who ran up and slung an arm around his neck. "If it isn't Mr. Na Jaemin." Donghyuck greeted with a cheeky grin as Jaemin smiled in response. "Good morning to you, too, Hyuck." he chuckled.

"I haven't seen you in a while," Hyuck clicked his tongue nonchalantly as they walked side by side, his arm hanging on one of Jaemin's shoulders. "Well if only your boyfriend didn't graduate early, I wouldn't be spending all my time with Coach." Jaemin laughed.

"As much as I am happy that Mark graduated early, I still can't believe he left me to rot here alone with nobody to talk to." he pouted, scrunching his face dramatically. "You're talking to me, though." Jaemin teased. "Exactly, you're a nobody, Mister Na." he deadpanned in response.

Jaemin playfully shoved the boy away from him, eliciting a laugh from the both of them as they walked to Jaemin's locker, spotting Jeno running through his own. "Good morning, Jeno." Jaemin smiled, unlocking his locker beside him.

"Did you two know we had homework on Biology?" Jeno exclaimed frantically, trying to find his textbook. "The one that's worth 5% of our grade? Yep," Hyuck responded with a bright nod. "Fuck, I'm definitely failing this class." Jeno groaned, running a hair through his black hair before shutting his locker.

Jaemin chuckled at his friend's misfortune, shaking his head with a soft "tsk tsk". "Oh lookie here, your future wife is heading this way, Nana." Hyuck teased, using the nickname you had made for him back when you two were 12 years old. "Get ready to feel single, Jeno." he added.

Jeno pointed an accusatory finger at the younger boy, "Hey! Mark graduated, you're gonna feel lonely with me, this time!" making Hyuck stick out his tongue. They were both too busy quarreling to acknowledge Jaemin's empty expression as she passed by them without your usual friendly 'hey'.

But they were shocked to see you walking side by side with your friends, your hand inside Renjun's. "Uh, Jaemin, y/n's right there." Hyuck nudged the boy beside him with his elbow. Jaemin looks up from his gaze at your hand inside Renjun's as you disappeared in the crowd of students.

"What? So?" Jaemin retorted almost defensively, eyes looking everywhere except for his friend who was staring at him in disbelief. "What do you mean 'so' ?! Your girlfriend just walked by without sparing a glance at us! Plus she was holding hands with Renjun," Hyuck exclaimed in disbelief.

"For the billionth time, Hyuck. She's not my girlfriend!" Jaemin spat, annoyance laced in his tone. Hyuck rolled his eyes, "whatever she is, she's holding hands with another guy, dude!" he shot back. Jeno sighed, putting a hand on Hyuck's shoulder, giving him a look of disappointment.

"They had a little fight the other day," Jeno explained briefly. "And she's being petty by giving me the silent treatment," Jaemin growled, shutting his locker and leaning his back against it with a click of his tongue. "What did you do this time?" Hyuck sighed, his expression lightening at the new information.

"Why do you always assume that I'm the one in the wrong?" Jaemin exclaimed, laying a hand on his chest, offended at the accusation. Jeno raised a brow as if to say 'really?', Hyuck giving him a similar look that mirrors Jeno's. Jaemin looks down in guilt, a frown evident on his face as he bit his lip to explain.

"It's not a big deal really. I just told her to leave me along once and for all," Jaemin shrugged as if it was no big deal, looking back at the crowded hall of students. "Not a big deal, my ass. Bro, you also broke her music box without an apology." Jeno stated with a roll of his eyes.

Hyuck's face contorted into a surprised frown, his mouth gaped. "Dude, that's a little harsh, don't you think? She must be genuinely upset to be giving you the silent treatment." Hyuck remarked, his eyes wide in disbelief. "Well at least Jaemin won't be complaining bout her annoying him all the time now that she's ghosting him, right Jae?" Jeno raised a brow at the younger boy.

Jaemin wasn't listening to anything they were saying as his eyes couldn't tear away from the two figures that were you and Renjun talking side by side as you grabbed your stationary from your locker. He felt his chest tightening, aching with a numb pain. What's going on? Why is he feeling this way?

"Jaemin?" Jeno's voice snapped Jaemin back into reality, his eyes widening slightly at the concerned tone as he diverted his gaze back to his friends. "Huh, what?" Jaemin mumbled, trying to ignore the numbing ache in his chest. "You okay?" he asked.

"I don't know, I kinda don't feel well, right now." Jaemin's brows furrowed as he watch you and Renjun walk to class side by side. at the corner of his eye. "We have a few minutes to class, you should go to the Nurse's office." Hyuck advised as he raised his brow in concern.

"Um, alright then," Jaemin nodded, "see you guys later." he waved to his friends before walking to the nurse's office with confusion. What's up with him? He was fine this morning, what's with the sudden pain in his chest?

Unbeknownst to him, his two friends were watching him walking away with concern looks on their faces. "So, I wasn't the only one who saw how sad he looks when he watched Y/n and Renjun right?" Hyuck muttered to Jeno, who nodded in agreement. "That dumbass is gonna have the tables turned, I just wonder what he's gonna do once he realizes that a human heart can't pratically live without the love of his soulmate." Jeno chuckled.

Jaemin was scrolling through social media when you entered the class, his eyes wandered up for a small moment to give you a short glance, examining your figure standing on the doorway as if you haven't been attending the same class for three years.

His eyes quickly went down to his phone when he saw your head turn to his direction, walking right towards him. 'Of course, she's still gonna sit next to me.' he chuckled internally to himself, 'that's typical of her.' he thought.

He felt your presence close to his when you passed by him to sit at the empty seat at the back of the class. He frowned slightly, quickly masking it with a stoick expression as he hears the not so subtle chatters and whispers of his name and y/n's spilling from his classmates' mouth.

"Wait, y/n's not sitting next to Jaemin?"

"Did they have a fight or something?"

"Come to think of it, she skipped class with Renjun yesterday"

"Did she finally had enough?"

"Probably. Poor girl has been at it for two years!"

"Yikes, that's pretty harsh. No wonder she didn't even spare him a glance"

"Have you seen her left wrist? They say-"

"Good morning, class!" Mrs. Choi announced with a bright voice as she entered the class, silencing the whole students in a second. "Let's start today's lesson shall we? Open your textbooks to page 127," she smiled, raising her own copy of the textbook.

Jaemin turned his head to see you busy with opening your textbook and notes, flipping your pen in between your fingers. He quickly turned his head around as the teacher started explaining, opening his own textbook with a small pout on his face.

'Why didn't you come and sit next to him?' he pondered as he tried to advert his eyes to the whiteboard, watching you from the corner of his eye. A part of him wanted you to at least glance at him, make eye contact, anything.

But you didn't. Not even for a split second, it was as if you couldn't see him. As if you two hadn't known each other your whole lives. As if you were both strangers. Jaemin felt a slight ache in his chest, his hand stretching out to lay right on top of his heart.

He took a deep breath, his heart beat in his ears as Mrs. Choi's voice became muffled. It hurt. He doesn't know why, but his chest was hurting and he wants it to stop. It was similar to the pain when he lost on his first game and had an F on Chemistry on the same day. Yet, it was so different. It felt like his chest was actually being poked with tiny needles.

In a blink of an eye, the sound of the bell dismissing entered his ears, snapping him out of his thoughts as the pain subsided. Jaemin turned to see the students around him packing up and leaving class, causing him to jolt up and shove his textbook in his bag.

He felt y/n squeeze herself behind him, quickly leaving the class. Jaemin didn't know why but his feet quickly moved towards her, slinging his halfly zipped bag over his shoulder. His mouth opened as he reached the entrance, ready to call out your name.

His figure froze when he watched you walk up to none other than Huang Renjun. Jaemin's eyes watched as his arm slung around your shoulders, the sweet smile on your face as Renjun whispered something against your ear, eliciting a small laugh from you as the two of you walked to the exit.

Jaemin stared at the two of you with a blank expression. His pupils shaking upon your figures being pressed up against each other. His hand gripping the saddle of his bag that was slung over his shoulder tightly. He wanted to apologize for his actions and offer you a ride home, but his body wouldn't move when he caught Renjun's arm slung over your shoulder so casually.

So affectionately.

Jaemin broke his glare when he felt a slight burning sensation on his wrist. He jolted and hissed at the sharp pain as he pulled back his left sleeve, tugging down the watch to see his soulmate tattoo glowing a dimly blood red, his chest had an ugly feeling piercing his heart.

Jaemin clicked his tongue before heading to the bathroom. His wrist felt like it was burning, it felt scorching hot. Why was it burning? Jaemin acted on instinct and ran his wrist under the tap of cold running water, ignoring his underclassmen passing by and greeting him as they walked out of the boy's bathroom.

Jaemin rubbed the sore spot, his mind remembering the way Renjun's arm slung over your shoulder, laughing alongside you. And your smile. He doesn't remember the last time you smiled that wide for him, Jaemin hissed at the increasing pain on his wrist.

Jaemin winced and jolted as he felt as if something was stabbing him repeatedly in the chest, he slide down the walls of the now empty bathroom. He took silent deep breaths to try to calm himself, running a hand through his hair in distress.

What's going on?

"Day 3 of Huang Renjun being extra nice to the poor girl who's bout to be single for the rest of her life, what will he do today?" you spoke in a way a news reporter would, holding your fist up to your mouth to act as a microphone as you walked towards Renjun who was waiting for you outside of class.

"Shut up, you're saying that I can't be nice to my dearest best friend?" Renjun teased, slinging an arm around your shoulder as you both walked out of the entrance. "Its definitely abnormal to see you restraining yourself to not flick me on the forehead whenever I do something stupid." you shrugged.

You felt the boy flick your forehead gently, causing you to let out a small yelp. "Happy?" Renjun smiled sweetly, as your hand went up to rub the slightly sore spot on your forehead. "Very," you rolled your eyes at him as he let's out a light chuckle.

At the corner of Renjun's eye, he saw Jaemin not far behind you two. His head was looking down at his wrist, his hand tugging down the sleeves. Renjun assumed he was taking a look at his soulmate mark, a frown evident on the younger boy's face.

Renjun almost felt bad. Jaemin seemed like a lost puppy, standing all by himself as students walked away. But yet again, he felt anger towards the boy to be so immature as to hurt someone he was suppose to cherish with all his life.

"So how was being in class with Mr. Heart breaker?" Renjun spoke after a moment of silence, averting his eyes back to you. You gasped at the nickname, "don't say it like that! You're making it seem as if he was some sort of school fuckboy." you scolded, landing a smack square on his chest.

Renjun laughed before you spoke in a quiet tone, "alot of people were talking bout us when I entered the class without screaming his name and clinging onto him like a koala," you shrugged casually. "He's probably upset even more now that people are talking bout how distant I've been towards him," you added with a heavy sigh.

Renjun patted your head softly, nodding in sympathy. "It'll all blow over soon. After all, you were always dramatic with your actions when it comes to Jaemin." he chuckled as you both entered the ice cream shop, walking up to the counter. "Shut up, Huang." you mumbled with a pout.

"Welcome to Weishen Ice Cream Shop, how may I help you two, today?" the cashier smiled as he came up to the counter, wiping his hand on a wet rag. You recognize him as Qian Kun, he would always give you free ice cream whenever you're down in the dumps.

"Hey Kun," you smiled as Renjun pulled out his wallet behind you. "Y/n, Renjun, pleasure to see you as always." Kun nodded with a charming smile as you started placing your orders, paying for your own ice cream after a brief argument bout who's paying.

"How's Jaemin? I haven't seen him around recently," Kun asked as he scoops up the ice-cream into the neon yellow cup. You tensed at the name, recalling Jaemin's words that night. You muster up a small smile, ignoring Renjun's concerned gaze as you reply.

"He's fine. Haven't seen him in a while either." you shrugged as Kun handed you your ice-cream. "Well, if you see him, tell him to come by. I missed that guy," Kun said with a soft pause in between sentences, sensing the tension in the air once he brought up the teenage boy.

"Shameless self advertising again, old man?" Renjun chuckled as he grabs a spoon off the counter. Kun blinked, pointing the metal ice cream scoop dramatically at Renjun, "Who are you calling old man? I just gave you cheap ice cream and this is how you treat me, Renjun? You should respect your elders, you brat." he jokes.

You giggled as Renjun stuck his tongue out at the older man, you pulled him away before Kun could jump over the counter and start whacking him with the ice cream scoop. "You're so immature sometimes," you laughed as you sat down on one of the booths by the windowsill.

Renjun rolled his eyes with a soft smile, shoving his ice-cream into your mouth to prevent anymore insults from spilling out of your mouth. Unbeknownst to the  two of you, Lee Donghyuck and Lee Jeno were walking side by side to go to an arcade, spotting you and Renjun from across the street through the window.

“Jeno!” Donghyuck halted his movements once his eyes adverted to your laughing figures. “What?” Jeno asked, halting beside the younger boy to turn to see where Donghyuck was pointing at. “Look! Is that who I think it is?” Hyuck exclaimed as Jeno’s eye caught you and Renjun sitting infront of each other in that old ice cream shop, watching as Renjun flicked you on the forehead with a laugh, watching a pout form oon your expression.

“Is that Renjun? And Y/n” Jeno asked, squinting his eyes to make sure he wasn’t seeing things. “It looks like they’re on some kind of date,” he added as Hyuck clicked his tongue. “I knew they were close but i didn’t think they were this close,” Hyuck gaped, watching as the two of you continued on with your conversation without a bother in the world.

“Do you think they’re-” he asked, only to be cut off. “No, that’s not possible.” Jeno spoke rather abruptly, his mind flashing back to his best friend. “The soulmate system allows you to have romantic feelings only towards the person you’re bonded with.” he added with a serious tone. Hyuck rolled his eyes at his statement.

“Then what do you call that dense best friend of yours?” he asked, raising a brow at him. “For all the years I’ve known him, he doesn’t seem to show the slightest care for the poor girl, she has the right to feel loved too, you know. Even when it’s from someone else,” Hyuck snapped. 

Hyuck cares bout you. He really does. Not because you always lend him homework answers and notes when he asked, not because of the many talks you two had whenever he had some problems with Mark, but because you were like the sister he never had. Seeing the pain in your eyes whenever Jaemin turns you down was a painful sight to see, he wants you to be happy. 

“Hyuck, Jaemin cares bout her deep down. I know he does. He’s just too stubborn to admit it. I’ve known Jaemin longer than you have, he does like her, trust me. He’s just to stupid to realize.” Jeno sighed, shaking his head profusely at the thought of his best friend. Deep down, Jeno wasn’t even sure what he said was true. He’s heard of the controversial rumour surrounding the soulmate system.

That when the system is rigged, people can have feelings for others that they can’t have.Those whose feelings are reciprocated by someone that aren’t their soulmates were just a sign of God attempting to fix the mistake. No one knows what would happen to those whose feelings aren’t reciprocated. Rumors said that there was a possibility that they vanish into thin air out of despair and heartbreak, some say they were doomed to live the rest of their life feeling loveless.

Others say they consult into more...

Terrifying inhumane methods.

Jeno shuddered at the thought, shaking his head to shake away the horrifying thoughts of what would come to Jaemin and Y/N if this keeps happening. He didn’t want to know what was going to happen if this keeps happening.

“I just hope you’re right, Jen.” 

This is NOT proofread hehe.

Tagging: @morks-watermelon @cherrystay @lowkeyviv @candiednickles @btm-taeyong @d-nghyck @gothmingguk @12am-musings @luvlyjaemin @cowward

[96thdayofrage]

The debate pits parents against parents, schools against schools, and communities against communities. School board meetings have turned into raucous events that sometimes descend into boisterous demonstrations. And public officials swipe at each other in social media and opinion columns, accusing one another of having ulterior motives.

"None of this was in the "dad manual" when I started a family," Sanders explains, making quote marks in the air. "I'd much rather go back to being a PTO dad planning the Christmas party rather than going to meetings and shouting my head off to save our school."

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"We love Inglewood Elementary," Sanders says, although he admits, "not all parents agree with me."

Apparently, neither does the state of Tennessee.

We've Made Your School a "Priority"

As state media outlet The Tennessean reported recently, low scores on student standardized tests and other indicators led the state to designate 15 Metro Nashville Public Schools, including Inglewood, as "Priority Schools."

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"Priority Schools are the lowest-performing 5 percent of schools in Tennessee," according to the state's education department, making them "eligible for inclusion in the Achievement School District or in district Innovation Zones. They may also plan and adopt turnaround models for school improvement."

The plain English translation of that benign bureaucratic speak is that Inglewood has been labeled a failure by the state, which gives the state or district power to do something to it. Often, the something that gets done to a Priority School in Tennessee is to fire the school's principal or teachers, hand the school over to a charter school management organization, or a mixture of the above.

One of the potential options the district has chosen for Inglewood is for the school to be taken over by the KIPP nationwide charter school management organization. The outgoing district superintendent, Jesse Register, has already disclosed the district has signed a contract with KIPP, only he won't say which school KIPP is destined to take over.

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Sanders is not the only Nashville parent dreading the fate that could befall a local school.

"Not In Favor Of Chaos"

Across town, Ruth Stewart shares a similar perspective about the fate of a different Nashville elementary school.

Like Inglewood, Kirkpatrick Elementary has also been designated a Priority School and potentially targeted for a charter takeover. Superintendent Register has promised to announce soon which of the two schools – Inglewood or Kirkpatrick – will be turned over first.

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Also like Inglewood, Kirkpatrick serves a disproportionate percentage of children from low-income African-American and Hispanic households. Although Stewart does not have a child attending Kirkpatrick, she speaks admiringly of its teachers, describing how they "take on the duties of social workers – make sure kids get home okay, make sure they have warm coats to wear in the winter."

Stewart, who is white but has an adopted African-American child, says, "Kids at Kirkpatrick don't get the privileges my kids have gotten. So why aren't we divvying up resources equitably to help solve that?"

At a lunch spot in West Nashville known for serving healthful fare, she speaks about her situation in Metro Nashville Public Schools. Between forkfuls of a salad of chicken and mixed greens she describes the "chaotic" situation in Nashville, contrasting it often to what she is familiar with in the practice of medicine. She is a physician.

"Nothing has been transparent about the current agenda. This sows anxiety and division in the community," she says.

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Stewart sees the consequences of new education policies in Tennessee as having a "negative impact on people's feelings that schools are part of the community … I'm not sure what to do, but I'm not in favor of chaos."

Nashville has two middle schools facing a similar fate. The two schools, Neely’s Bend Middle Prep and Madison Middle Prep, have both been placed on the state's Priority list, removed from the oversight of the Nashville district, and grouped with other troubled Tennessee schools in the state's Achievement School District.

The ASD was founded as part of Tennessee's effort to qualify for the Obama administration’s Race to the Top grant.

What state takeover means to the students, parents and teachers of Neely’s Bend and Madison is that one of their schools – again, to be announced at a later date – will be handed over to a charter management operation.

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Because the ASD is a charter authorizer, it can designate any of its schools for charter takeover, and indeed has done so numerous times. In fact, the superintendent of the ASD, Chris Barbic, is the founder and ex-CEO of the Yes Prep chain of charter schools. When the ASD rolled into Memphis, another troubled Tennessee school district, the ASD immediately began targeting the district's schools for takeover by charter operations, as a 2013 report from The Atlanticrecounted.

Enforced charter takeovers like the ones being carried out in Tennessee are happening across the country.

We're All Nashville Now

The debate in Nashville echoes themes the nation has heard from New York City and Los Angeles where students, teachers and parents have engaged in prolonged battles over decisions to co-locate charter schools in public school buildings.

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In Newark, New Jersey, a state-imposed plan enacted this year intends to move charter schools into the district's facilities. In Detroit, the state agency in charge of that city's schools has a new plan to convert over 30 percent of the districts into charter schools. In Wisconsin, a bill has been introduced in the state legislature that would make all public schools deemed to be "failures" become charter schools.

Most recently, the school district of York, Pennsylvania, made national headlines when the state announced the city's schools would be turned into an "all charter" district. As a report at The Daily Caller explained, a legal path has been cleared for a state "recovery officer" to proceed with "a plan to place all of the city’s public schools under the control of Charter Schools USA, a for-profit school management company."

The idea of an "all charter" school district has been tried before, in Muskegon Heights, Michigan. The results were disastrous as the charter operator promptly alienated most of the teachers and then backed out of the deal. But that seems to deter no one directing these efforts.

In every one of these charter takeover cases, there have been large numbers of students, parents and teachers who have spoken out in opposition.

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And although takeovers of "failed" schools are often justified as rational responses to "urban decay" or "underutilization," none of these arguments apply to Nashville. Nashville is a city that is experiencing strong growth in population and employment, and public schools are experiencing problems with overcrowdingbecause of high demand for their services. Nashville is a neither a union bastion nor a hardened, bitter battleground of Big City politics. So it's not hard to imagine that if a fight like this can break out here, it could break out anywhere.

What policy leaders and charter advocates contend, in nearly every one of these takeover cases, is that they are following the reform model from Louisiana's state-operated Recovery School District, which took over most of New Orleans' public schools after Hurricane Katrina.

Thing is, there hasn't been another Katrina. Instead, there's been a manmade disaster.

Due to the influence of federal policies, such as Race to the Top, and relentless marketing by charter school advocates, virtually every state has a methodology for designating "low performing" schools as Priority and targeting them for radical solutions like charter school takeover.

Accountability Gone Awry

Back when these plans for targeting the nation's "low performing" schools were unveiled by the Obama administration, the National Center for Education Policy, an education policy research think tank affiliated with the University of Colorado, Boulder, warned in a brief that the Obama plans's accountability system, "which determines how schools will be evaluated" is not substantiated by any legitimate research, and that the "intervention models for low-scoring schools is not developed, much less supported in the research."

Indeed, the notion that education performance of public schools can be turned around by taking them over and converting them to charter schools or co-locating charters in their buildings is particularly unproven.

Even in New Orleans, mass charter conversion has been "disastrous," writes Kristen Buras for The Progressive. After the charter takeover of NOLA public schools post Katrina, the state began issuing letter grades for all schools in 2011, and 79 percent of charter schools in the New Orleans district received a “D” or “F.” In 2014, RSD-New Orleans schools are still performing below the vast majority of the state’s other districts at the fourth and eighth grades in subjects tested by the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program, including English language arts, math and science.

In Tennessee, state takeovers of public schools have so far yielded mostly disappointing results too, according to math teacher and statistical whiz Gary Rubenstein. "They are still in the bottom 5 percent, dead last with the second to last district not even close to them," he writes.

Despite these troubling results, there are powerful advocates for continuing charter takeovers of public schools. Takeovers and other methods of proliferating charters, such as vouchers, have helped push the number of charter schools in America over the 6,400 mark in 2013-14, with more than 2.5 million students enrolled, according to The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. Charters are now the fastest growing segment of our public education system.

Doing the Math

In Nashville, charter school performance varies widely, with some performing significantly better than the rest of the state and better than Nashville public schools, while others are at the bottom of state rankings.

But academic performance doesn't seem to be the most important factor in selecting which schools are targeted for charter takeover and which are not, at least not in Nashville. As Nashville school board members Amy Frogge and Jill Speering point out in a recent op ed, one of the middle schools targeted for state takeover, Neely's Bend, performs better on state assessments than many other Nashville schools do – and better than schools already taken over by the state.

Also, charter schools may pose a drain on public school finances. According to a recent studyconducted by the Florida-based research firm MGT of America, growth of charters will harm Nashville public schools overall. "The loss of even a single student will reduce the revenue received," the report states, because "the reduction of a single student in a classroom will not alleviate the need to have a teacher in that classroom … In fact, the per-pupil cost for that classroom or school would increase because the fixed expenses would remain, but the revenue to support them would be decreased."

The report estimates that the net negative fiscal impact of charter school growth on the district's public schools would be more than $300 million in direct costs over a five-year period. This figure is likely an under-estimate, the report contends, as there are "other indirect costs" of charter schools related to administration that are "not easily identified." Meanwhile, there are no new revenue sources being considered to offset the additional costs. "There appears to be an assumption," the report notes, "that the central organizations supporting the charter schools can continue to do so within existing resources."

The MGT report is mostly supportive of the idea of charters and recommends ways to ensure their success without harming public schools. Nevertheless, it concludes, "New charter schools will, with nearly 100 percent certainty, have a negative fiscal impact" on the school district." (emphasis added)

When It's Your Kid

The numbers arguments don't even begin to capture what's driving a lot of parent anxiety in Nashville.

"I'm not anti-charter," Jai Sanders declares. "I don't advocate closing any East Nashville charters." But he does have specific reservations about turning Inglewood into a KIPP charter school.

He strongly objects to the heavy handed, top-down way Nashville Metro school leaders have gone about the process of pushing charter governance on neighborhood schools. For instance, he is worried about the principal of his child's school, who he is happy with, being forced out.

Sanders says the district has enough charter schools as it is. "Charter schools should be something on the periphery. They were originally supposed to be incubators of ideas and not the standard for schools in the community."

Sanders also has "philosophical problems" with the way some charter schools "go about their business," specifically how they are governed by boards of directors rather than school boards. "This way of doing education doesn't seem like education to me."

Sanders mentions KIPP charter schools in particular, as a model of education he has "reservations" about. KIPP is known for practicing an approach to schooling loosely labeled as "No Excuse," which relies on strict behavioral controls of students. He describes KIPP's approach as a "military school for civilians, with the extreme tracking of students, requiring SLANT, and no excuses." SLANT is a foundational practice in KIPP schools that dictates students must Sit up, Listen, Ask and answer questions, Nod and Track the teachers' movements. There have been numerous, verified reports of KIPP and other charter schoolspracticing the No Excuse approach, using very harsh disciplinary practices, including high rates of suspensions and expulsions, on students.

Ruth Stewart – who describes herself as "anti-charter" but "willing to work with my pro-charter colleagues to have an outcome we all can live with" – also expresses reservations with the charter school she visited, Liberty Collegiate Academy in the RePublic School charter chain. "Not for my kid," she states. "It was very tightly controlled … eye contact, hand clapping, too controlling."

She contrasts the "controlling" environment of No Excuse charter schools to what she has observed in public schools, where she has experienced "a much more nurturing learning environment."

"I understand some parents would choose KIPP and the No Excuse approach," she says. "But something leaves me very uneasy about that kind of control exerted on children of color. So all white kids get to go to a school with a Montessori approach while children of color get eye control?

"What we all want are children who are autonomous, responsible and intrinsically motivated. But I'm not sure these types of charter schools get us where we want to go."

[Editorial note: A pro-charter Nashville parent contacted for this article declined to be quoted on record.]

Another oft-stated reservation with charter schools is their unquestionable link to increased segregation of students based on race and income.

"Studies in a number of different states and school districts in the U.S. show that charter schools often lead to increased school segregation," writes Iris C. Rotberg, a research professor of education policy at The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Education and Human Development, in Education Week.

"Even schools that employ a seemingly randomized under lottery system for enrolling students," Rotberg explains, "also choose – sometimes explicitly and sometimes indirectly – and increase the probability of segregation. They limit the services they provide, thereby excluding certain students, or offer programs that appeal only to a limited group of families."

Rotberg cites studies showing, "In some communities, charter schools have a higher concentration of minority students than traditional public schools," while "In others, charter schools serve as a vehicle for 'white flight.' … School segregation increases in both cases."

Some Nashville parents also feel charter school proliferation has led to increased racial segregation of students. "A lot of charter school rationale is based on racial diversity, but it seems to me we're getting less diverse due to charters," Stewart states.

Stewart's observations may or not be accurate. That would require statistical analysis. But parent perceptions are often stronger influencers of public opinion than statistics.

Charter school advocates understand that all too well.

Evolution of a Movement that Is "Bad for Kids"

Indeed, the rhetoric driving charter school advocacy has changed dramatically over the years as proponents of charter schools condition public perceptions to accept the expansion of these schools.

That evolution has been documented extensively in the recently published book "A Smarter Charter: Finding What Works for Charter Schools and Public Education," by Richard D. Kahlenberg and Halley Potter.

The original vision of charter schools, the book contends, was to provide "laboratory schools" to "experiment" with different approaches that could eventually be considered for adopting on a much larger scale. Two foundational tenets to these experimental schools, the authors maintain, were for teachers to have a stronger voice in determining the management of the school and for the student body to have higher degrees of economic and racial diversity than traditional public schools.

However, as states began enacting legislation to create and spread charter schools – beginning with Minnesota in 1991, then ramping up significantly under the presidential administration of Bill Clinton – there was a "more conservative vision" repeated again and again that reinforced charter schools as "competitors" to the public school system – even to the extent of replacing public schools, some argued.

"The public policy rhetoric changed from an emphasis on how charters could best serve as laboratory partners to public schools to whether charters as a group are 'better' or 'worse,'" the book argues. And "over time, the market metaphor came to replace the laboratory metaphor."

Desires to break public school teachers' unions crept into arguments for the spread of charters as well, as "conservative charter school advocates argued that having a nonunion environment was a key advantage – perhaps the defining advantage – over regular public schools," and influential voices in public school policy, such as former Assistant Secretary of Education Chester Finn, who had been initially skeptical of charter schools, gradually became strong advocates for creating more of them.

"Rather than emphasizing diversity and the possibility for breaking down segregation," the authors argue, "charter school supporters began advocating for schools to target minority and low-income group members who are demonstrably in need of better schools." The need to target these student populations has been rationalized by rhetoric to "prioritize" these students and spread the notion they need "a different set of pedagogical approaches," such as the No Excuse approach.

The authors cite numerous examples of charter schools – mostly individual charters rather than the charter school chains providing so much growth of the sector – that adhere more so to the original vision of charters. None are in Tennessee.

The authors conclude, "The current thrust of the charter school sector … is bad for kids." They recommend "changes to federal, state, and local policy" and a greater degree of "neighborhood partnerships" among charters, public schools, foundations and universities if these schools are to "be a powerful vision for educational innovation in a new century."

Enter the Koch Brothers

For sure, charter schools have become a darling of conservative politicians, think tanks and advocates.

One of those powerful advocates, nationally and in Tennessee, is the influential Americans for Prosperity, the right-wing issue group started and funded by the billionaire Charles and David Koch brothers.

AFP state chapters have a history of advocating for charter schools, conducting petition campaigns and buying radio ads targeting state lawmakers to enact legislation that would increase the number of charter schools. In an AFP-sponsored policy paper from 2013, "A Nation Still at Risk: The Continuing Crisis of American Education and Its State Solution," author Casey Given states: "The charter school movement has undoubtedly been the most successful education reform since the publication of A Nation at Risk.," the Reagan-era document commonly cited as originating a "reform" argument that has dominated education policy discussion for over 30 years.

The Koch brothers themselves have been especially interested in public policy affairs in Tennessee generally and Nashville in particular. "Tennessee is a political test tube for the Koch brothers, " the editors of The Tennessean news outlet write in a recent editorial. The editors cite as evidence the influence AFP had recently in convincing the Tennessee legislature to block a bus rapid transit system project in Nashville.

In July of last year, the Charles Koch Institute held an event in Nashville, "Education Opportunities: A Path Forward for Students in Tennessee," to provide an "in-depth policy discussion" about public education and other issues.

As The Tennessean reported, the forum was advertised as "a panel talk with representatives of charter schools and conservative think tanks," including outspoken and controversial charter school promoter Dr. Steve Perry.

Although the emphasis apparently was mostly on school vouchers, according to a different report in The Tennessean, the stage was thick with charter school advocates from Indianapolis-based Friedman Foundation for Education Choice, the Arizona-based Goldwater Institute and Nashville's Beacon Center of Tennessee.

The reporter quotes Nashville parent T.C. Weber, "who questioned the 'end game' of diverting funding from public schools" and said, "'Are you looking to destroy the public system that we already have and build a new one based on your ideas?'"

Weber writes about the event on his personal blogsite: "One of the questions asked of the panelists was what do [you] feel is the biggest obstacle … to the accepting of your vision. The reply was, 'educating parents.'”

The presence of influential conservatives from outside the city "educating" Nashville parents about what kind of schools their children need has created resentment and suspicion in many Nashville citizens' minds. Many fear the drive to expand charters is powered more by powerful interests outside the city than by the desires of Nashville parents and citizens.

We've Been 'Hijacked'

One of those suspicious Nashville parents is Will Pinkston. Pinkston, who serves on the Metro Nashville Public School board, tells a compelling narrative about good intentions gone awry and the actors who have rushed into the wreckage to exploit what they could.

Pinkston graduated from Nashville public schools and currently has a daughter attending one of those schools. Between 2003 and 2010, he was a state employee very much connected to the school policies being implemented in Nashville today.

As a staffer in the administration of former Tennessee governor Phil Bredesen, Pinkston was instrumental in devising the state's successful proposal to receive money from the Obama administration's Race to the Top competitive grant program. Tennessee was one of the earliest recipients of the grant money and has long been considered a model for other states to emulate in their reform efforts.

But what Pinkston sees playing out in Nashville is not very much to his liking. "I can say with a great deal of certainty that what has happened is not what was intended when we created Race to the Top."

"We wanted scalable solutions for every school," Pinkston recalls in a phone interview. "But the charter school movement has hijacked education policy."

In hindsight, Pinkston now sees that RTTT and its other reforms spawned a lot of bad thinking about education.

"Now we have an 'irrational exuberance' for reform," Pinkston contends, using the term Alan Greenspan coined for describing the economic speculation in the country that led to the stock market run-up in the 1990s.

According to Pinkston, the reform frenzy brought on in part by RTTT also brought into Tennessee "a lot of radical reformers who believed, 'This is our time.'"

He is particularly critical of the state ASD, which he thinks has strayed from its original purpose. "I believe in the concept of the ASD. It causes districts to reach and stretch," he says. The ASD was a "product of RTTT," according to Pinkston. "I helped coin the name of it," he claims.

However, the initial intention, according to Pinkston, was to target a small number of schools that needed the most attention and to conduct a temporary leadership change in those schools, "not to occupy them in perpetuity."

What changed that, Pinkston contends, was when state superintendent Kevin Huffman and the ASD leader Chris Barbic turned the agency into a charter authorizer. "That's not turning around a school. That's turning your back on it," he states.

Pinkston also points to the Tennessee Charter School Center as among the actors, along with the Nashville mayor, who are working to "charterize the system."

There's little doubt that TCSC has clout. Last year, the group had eight lobbyists working the Tennessee state legislature to pass a new law allowing charter schools denied locally to get approval instead by the Tennessee State Board of Education. The law passed. For this and other reasons, Pinkston has called the charter school group "a threat to public education in Nashville" in a lengthy email to his fellow Metro council members.

Pinkston contends that education policy leaders in Tennessee had originally articulated a set of priorities for charters, a narrative very much similar to what the book "A Smarter Charter" relates at the national scale. The intention was to responsibly manage the growth of these schools, tap any innovative strategies they may have, take advantage of a glut of abandoned commercial property in parts of town that are underserved educationally, and, yes, convert some low performing schools. "In some places where schools have descended into the bottom 5 percent," he explains, "we've lost our moral authority, making it proper to reach out to the expertise charters may have."

Now, what's happening to Inglewood Elementary and other Nashville schools, Pinkston says, charter conversions are being conducted like a "shotgun wedding."

"Our job is not to engineer hostile takeovers … It's immoral to force this kind of change on people who don't want it. It also diminishes the odds of success."