Not in my town?

I was a little surprised to see this item in the police blotter on Friday:

Feb. 28, Cambridge Springs Elementary School. Staff member assaulted by a student. In a separate incident, a boy, 12, was charged with harassment after he tried to punch a staff member.


I don't have any further information than that, but I would be really interested to hear the details of this situation. It just doesn't sound like the kind of thing that happens in Cambridge Springs, but, then again, neither did that pipe bomb scare.

I've been converted

I picked up a government-subsidized digital television converter box at Wal-Mart in Meadville today. As was expected, the cashier initially wasn't quite sure what to do with the $40 government-issued card/coupon. A manager-type person came over and cleared things up as to how to handle the card, and the net price after discount was $9.87 plus tax. It's a Magnavox—the only brand that Wal-Mart had.

Setup was simple: coaxial cable to my set of amplified rabbit ears, composite audio/video (red, white and yellow) to the home theater receiver, and power cord to an outlet. A power switch on the side and one on the remote (batteries included) brought the unit to life, and a set-up guide appeared on the screen. After a few questions about audio output and screen format, the unit auto scanned for available channels.

As expected, I was only able to pick up the stations from WSEE (16.1 aka channel 35, and 16.2, WBEP.) That makes sense since WSEE is the only area station broadcasting its digital signal at full power. The good news is that reception is simply fantastic. Once I adjusted the antenna, I ended up with a sharp picture (far better than the analog WSEE signal) without any stuttering or pixels dropping out (which Coaxial Cable's digital cable service suffered from quite a bit in my experience.)

Now these Erie stations just need to get moving on ramping up their digital signals.

Don't bully me

Yesterday marked the start of an anti-bullying program at Cambridge Springs Elementary School. (More information in this article from a few weeks ago in the Neighbors section of the Erie Times-News. By the way, it looks like the Times Publishing Co. won't be mailing the Neighbors sections to non-subscribers after this week. My guess is they won't gain very many subscriptions off of that move, unless they decide to cut off online access to the section as well.)

The article notes that the program works by encouraging "bystanders"—other children who witness the bullying—to confront the bully about their actions and stand up for the victim. It's not mentioned in the article whether these children get to administer an old-fashioned beatdown on the bully (I'm picturing the ancient Israelites gathering to stone a sinner), but I'm guessing that's probably not part of this innovative solution, which has proven effective in Norway.