News of the Weird
Bizarre but true stories about real people collected by syndicated columnist Chuck Shepherd.
After Emmalee Bauer, 25, was fired by the Sheraton hotel company in late 2006, she sought unemployment compensation from the Iowa agency that offers benefits to employees terminated through no fault of their own. However, the judge noted that Bauer had written a 300-page journal, during office hours, chronicling her efforts to avoid work. Among her entries: “This typing thing seems to be doing the trick. It just looks like I am hard at work on something very important,” and, “Once lunch is over, I will come right back to writing to piddle away the rest of the afternoon,” and, “Accomplishment is overrated, anyway.” (Her claim was denied.)
The school system in Hagerstown, Md., issued a written reprimand to the parents of a 5-year-old kindergarten boy who had pinched a classmate’s buttocks, terming his behavior “sexual” harassment. Said his dad: “He knows nothing about sex. There’s no way to explain (to him) what he’s been written up for.”
The principal of a preschool in Bellmead, Texas, issued an in-school suspension to a 4-year-old boy after he hugged his female teacher’s aide with his face in her chest, which was termed “sexual contact and/or sexual harassment” (though following complaints, the offense was changed to “inappropriate physical behavior”).
(Send your Weird News to Chuck Shepherd, P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679 or [email protected] or go to www.NewsoftheWeird.com.) NEWS OF THE WEIRD