You have dutifully pressed the "what if panic button" enough today. Give yourself a pat on the back and tell yourself that you can now take the remainder of the day off. Rest assured that someone else will take up the torch of "what if panic" in your absence.

Yeah, that was a raging fire, that was.

Whatever. I'm not the one pushing the "what if," and "Oh noes" button every second of every day. No wonder so many people suck down the Xanax like breath mints. The sky is falling!

OMG, NO! Stop it. You are not some delicate snowflake. I am sure she was not smoking any longer than it took someone to get the attention of the flight attendant. About the same amount of smoke exposure when walking by a passing by smoker. Stop with this, "I'm so precious I am going to melt instantly, INSTANTLY, …

Why is $500 paltry? She didn't kill anyone. And no one was at risk. What is with this knee-jerk desire to throw the book at everyone one for every little thing. God bless MURICA!

I'm convinced that every last one of these anti-abortion people have in fact had an abortion.

You have to sneak something into the literature, the way the women's prison made a cow look like a pig on a decal for police cars up in the North East somewhere. Hilarious.

I have heard teachers complaining about choices.

No respect, but that's some claptrap.

They are smarter than that. And children can take themselves in and out of scenarios. It's called imagination. /wink.

If you want to be technical, I am sure some (or many) literary critics would not call the material horrible. But none of it resonates with me, and I keep that from my daughter because I don't want to prejudice her but she hasn't liked any of them. Like I said in another comment, 1984 gave her nightmares. She has…

By the way, I don't know if the teachers are doing it because it is hipped. For some reason teachers are stuck on those novels.

Actually, since 7th grade she has had to read every book that you have listed. The Giver was first, then the Hunger Games (the first one), Animal Farm, next came Fahrenheit 451, 1984 in 9th grade (which was triggering and too scary), and just now Lord of the Flies. Although I read somewhere that Lord of the Flies…

So it's either or, Romance or Dystopian? The novels are selected by the teacher/school. What the kids like have little to do with it.

Good for you that you can refuse work. I have a friend who teaches who can never get hired for more than a month here or there. Probably because she went into teaching at 50. Apparently, there is nothing is wrong with new older teacher, the other younger candidate was just more wanted (Even though they came out of…

Hooray for her if she is one of those English teachers who doesn't teach dystopian novels. What's up with this trend? Every year my daughter comes home with a list of dystopian novels she has to read. I HATE DYSTOPIAN NOVELS. It's hard for me to help my child when she has to read horrible material.

True North?

It's called shock. Your natural defenses kick in to prevent you from going over the edge. Accept it has to be relieved, and it does so in small doses, such as watching this video. I consider it a healthy way of accepting reality.

Are they saying it was rape because she was not old enough to give consent or did he force her? If he forced her, are they saying if she was older it would be okay to force her? Wouldn't by age alone it would be forcing her? What a horrible ruling.

O-M-G, do you know some twit Variety writer wrote an article about how horrible Peaky Blinders is. I just love the comments. I have email notification for that article and at least once a week someone is calling him a twit. lol.