Dealing with criticism: you’re doing it wrong

How ’bout some local-interest idiocy here?

• Principal clips student from every yearbook (CBC.ca)

A Vancouver Island principal is defending a decision to cut a Grade 10 student out of the high school yearbook because of what he said about her in his write-up.

Staff at Lake Trail Secondary School used scissors to chop Brandon Armstrong’s picture and comments from about 150 copies of the annual, saving only a single intact copy for Brandon himself.

That’s, uh… that’s a lot of effort for what seems like a dismally small effect.  Brandon’s comments must’ve been pretty inflammatory to merit such a strong response.  I’d expect references to midget porn, or at least a decent attempt at slander.  However:

In his entry, Armstrong had criticized principal Lori Carpenter, saying she had spent the school’s money on a fence and not on textbooks.

Welcome to the Streisand Effect, Principal Lori Carpenter of Lake Trail Secondary School on Vancouver Island.  I hope you enjoy the internet!

Carpenter says a fence was built, but the money and the decision came from the school district, not the school budget.

“There was a reason for building the fence,” said Carpenter. “District staff made that decision, and the school funds going to it is 100 per cent false, so it does paint me as the school principal in a bad light.”

So… a comment that maybe fifty people will read paints you in such a bad light that you made a national news story of it?  Oh, my.  You are new to this millenium, aren’t you.

Update: If you’d like to point your opinion at a suitable target, you might suggest to Dr. Margaret MacDiarmid — my local Minister of Education — that Principal Lori Carpenter isn’t someone who ought to be permitted within ten kilometres of children, let alone paid to teach them. Minister MacDiarmid’s contact information is here. She seems to be at least reasonably competent, but if you’d care to let her know how you feel about one of her employees I surely wouldn’t mind.