A Neosho 9-and-under traveling baseball team's raffle went viral over the weekend with the Kansas City Star, Associated Press, Huffington Post and Inquisitr, among others, detailing a timely news story about children selling tickets for an AR-15 rifle days after the same type of weapon was used to kill 17 people at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Though the baseball team is not connected with the Neosho R-5 School District, the district has become part
of the story due to the use of its logo by the team and by the coverage noting that South Elementary Principal Lee Woodward (bottom photo) promoted the raffle on her Facebook page, encouraging people to buy tickets.
In an e-mail sent today, the district's public relations director Meagan Spangler (top photo) made it clear that Neosho R-5 had nothing to do with the raffle, had not given permission for use of its logo and blamed the Kansas City Star for not reporting the story the way she wanted it reported when it came to its coverage of Woodward.
Spangler noted that Woodward has a child on the team and supported the raffle on her personal Facebook page, not on any page associated with the district.
"Her original post was made on Monday, but was removed because she received a concerned call from a Neosho resident on Wednesday morning about the use of the Wildcat logo. She removed the post because of the logo affiliation and reposted later that evening with just words."
Spangler accused the Star, without naming the newspaper, of targeting Woodward in an attempt to link the story to the Neosho R-5 School District.
"It seems that they exploited her position to link this story to NSD and left out a very obvious reason for involvement- motherhood. I'm sure there are differing beliefs all over our district concerning guns and everyone is entitled to those beliefs.
"This e-mail isn't sent as a message of support or disapproval concerning the raffle, but as support to one of our own during a nasty time; to be misrepresented publicly is bad enough, but to be misrepresented nationally is especially awful."
Contrary to the impression Spangler's e-mail tried to leave by making it seem that the media was spreading false information about the school district, nothing of that kind happened. In the Star story, and other national coverage, it has been made clear that the school district was not involved the raffle.
The district's public relations director (or anyone above her who ordered the e-mail to be written in that fashion) claims Woodward's position was "exploited" and noted that no other parents were contacted.
Does she not understand that the reason this part of the story is news is because it is an elementary school principal who is encouraging people to buy raffle tickets for an AR-15 at the same time that this weapon is being used in multiple school shootings, including one that had just happened?
Certainly, the information that she has a child on the team would have made a difference, though the wisdom of an elementary principal promoting such an activity is still questionable and would still make it a legitimate news angle.
Indicating that everything is O. K. because it was on Woodward's personal Facebook page and not a school page is also a bit disingenuous. Many school employees have gotten into trouble for things they have put on their personal Facebook pages.
The e-mail seems to indicate a misrepresentation of the media coverage and as every $65,000+ a year public relations director knows "to be misrepresented publicly is bad enough, but to be misrepresented nationally is especially awful."
16 comments:
I for one would like to know if this raffle is legal. Raffles are a form of gambling and regulated in Missouri. Speaking of regulated, it is against Facebook policy to try and sell guns or drugs using the social media site.
WOW!
I just googled this story and it has made all the major news organizations. I can appreciate how all those concerned were just productive community leaders living their normal day to day lives, then, WHAM!!!! National spotlight. Of course the spotlight isn't for all the work, time and energy they give to the youth. Only the negative. Including you Randy.
However, I have to admit, when I first read the story it made me cringe. I've tried to find a way to support the raffle but I just can't. I think if it were a hunting rifle I could. While I understand the decision to go on with the raffle (stubborn as a MO mule) I think it would be in their best interest to change it. The winds of change are coming in America. People are fed up with these mass murders using assault rifles. I don't think those kids in Florida are going to let go until there is change in our gun laws. In fact, I think their influence for change may become as powerful as the NRA.
Personally, I believe if we can't at least have Jesus in schools, then we should at least have guns, consistent with His message. I support you, Neosho district!
9:45 PM
I just lost 14 IQ points reading your post, thanks a lot.
9:45 seems to have it.
Guns don’t kill people; people kill people.
That’s something the Fake News will never Under. They’re too bigoted.
Harvey Hutchinson 303-522-6622 voice&text
It is starting to look like the Neosho School District is ready for a house cleaning.
What message of Jesus supports assault rifles? Certainly not turn the other cheek, or when he admonished Peter for cutting off the soldier's ear and healed it. Give me chapter and verse, please, cowardly anonymous. And any kid or teacher who is a Christian certainly has Jesus in school and everywhere with them. Be not of this world....
What does the salary of the employee have to do with the story?
The national news says Neosho, MO 7-9 year olds are selling chances on an automatic rifle. Sure hope they don't see 9:45's argument about Jesus or guns "consistent with His message" in schools.
To Anonymous 7:43, I would hope the people of the Neosho R-5 School District would like to know how much they are paying for that kind of quality work.
I do that kind of quality work first thing in the morning.
For free!
Then I flush it away.
7:43 - Compare it to a tenured teacher with a master's degree ...
Hahaha true. I have read scripture/the Bible many times and don't remember God telling us to carry assault rifles or weapons to school.
What?
Jesus whooped up on the money changers with a cat-o-nine tail and turned over their tables and ran the dirty dogs out of the temple! Jesus WAS NOT A WIMP! In the Old Testament God, Himself, used all sorts of ways to protect and defend His children. He also HATED WIMPS AND TOLD HIS MEN TO GIRD THEMSELVES AND STAND UP AND ACT LIKE A MAN SHOULD! There are plenty of places in The Holy Bible that teaches you not to back down and to stand up for your GOD GIVEN RIGHTS SUCH AS TO PROTECT WHAT IS YOURS WHETHER THAT BE YOUR FAMILY OR A STRANGER IN NEED OF PROTECTION! Bleeding heart wimpy Christians probably makes God mad, ashamed, and very disappointed! Christians in the USA better make sure we do not give any of our 2nd amendment rights up, because if you give a communist socialistic liberal an inch they will take 100 miles leaving nothing but a devastated wasteland behind! When you so called "Christians" that were too gutless to fight back see what becomes of this great nation as soon as our guns are stripped away from us and there are millions suffering from a tyrannical government you'll wish you would have fought like a TRUE BLOODED AMERICAN SHOULD! Our Founding Fathers knew what they were doing when they gave us the 2nd amendment. They knew the day would come when the over grown big brother "do as I say not as I do" government would try and make us their peasants!
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Why on earth would anyone want to stay here and live in a county where there are more Murder Machines than there are people? That’s absolute lunacy. All of our values are completely opposite to what they should be in a civilized society. We don’t even have socialized healthcare. Our disability system only provides about a third of the minimum amount needed just to get by, our vets can’t even get painkillers for their injuries anymore, and people are too blind to see the whole plan behind that is to make their physical pain so hideous that they’ll commit suicide then that way their disability and healthcare will no longer have to be paid for. What a devious, evil, and sick plan.
And while the Repugnicans are *always* complaining about taxes and calling them “theft”, they’re too obtuse and thick-headed to even realize that they’re getting screwed by the people above them, the 1% and corporations! They’ll irrationally scream about taxes, and then complain about how they have no retirement, can’t afford to replace their twenty year-old car that’s falling apart, and can’t afford to send their kid to college or put their parent in a nursing home because they can’t afford that either – all while being unable to open their eyes wide enough to see how the more socialist countries of Western Europe have all of that covered. Sure they have higher taxes, but they receive WAY more in return as well as higher incomes and guaranteed vacation time to begin with. This misdirection of clueless Republicans is just one of the ways for the 1% to screw the middle class and keep the fear of the dreaded socialism high, all while pulling the wool over their eyes so the middle class doesn’t see what’s actually going on which is that they’re being robbed by the 1% in more ways than they even know, and one of the ways they do this is by misdirecting their attention at the classes below them whom they will then arrogantly accuse of somehow always cheating the system. Fox News is the champion at all this misdirection and keeping people everyone poorer than they deserve to be. And while they’re experts at getting people riled up over the $40 a year they pay for SNAP just so people can simply eat, they apparently have absolutely no problem at all about the $4,000 they’re paying for corporate welfare (these are based on a $50K/yr income). So while they’re being royally screwed themselves, they’ll then turn around and ascribe the very worst of intentions to those on food stamps (SNAP), Section 8, and anything that keeps people from falling into destitution and abject poverty. It’s absolutely disgusting how these hypocritical Repugnicans and kkkonservative act. EVERY SINGLE THING that Rethugnicans do is 180 degrees opposite to what any normal, decent, hardworking, caring, moral, honorable, decent, law-abiding, psychologically balanced, non-angry, normal penis-sized man would do.
And the LIES… Oh the LIES. The constant lies. They are literally non-stop and never-ending from their leader, Der Orangefarbene Fotzegrabber. Trump lies so much that if he says ten things, it’ll be shocking if even one of them is actually true. He lies so much you literally can’t keep up with them. And that goes for all his scandals as well. He’s easily the most crooked and immoral person I’ve ever seen, by far. If he’s trying to win some type of award for being the world’s most disgusting, vile, revolting, hypocritical, white trash scumbag, he surely deserves to win. And Remember how he promised that he’d end the “American carnage” of gun violence? Well, it’s actually UP by 12%:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/wonk/wp/2017/07/27/trump-promised-to-end-the-american-carnage-gun-deaths-are-up-12-percent/
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And when you look at this deranged monster disgracing the White House, or a morally bankrupt turtle like Mitch McConnell, all you see are perfect examples of those who do the worst thing possible every single time. It’s like they are congenitally deficient in being able to know right from wrong. The choices they make and the examples they set are proof of absolute lunacy. Just look at their love of Nazis and Murder Machines: After Charlottesville, the Orange Dickface said Nazis were good people.
Also consider that today is 4-20-18. That's 4-20… as in the 19th year since Columbine, and also Hitler’s birthday. Remember why the Columbine shooters chose April 20? Because it was their idol's birthday; Adolph Hitler. Orange Dickface keeps a copy of Mein Kampf on his nightstand (probably the only book he’s ever read in his life).
Also consider these quotes by Hitler:
1.) “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”
2.) “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.”
3.) “He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.”
1: Sound familiar? Like maybe… “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people”.
2: This would be a perfect slogan for Fox News.
3: I actually like this one. It indicates how the younger generation is sick and tired of all the ammosexuals with their Murder Machines murdering innocent people and children, the NRA buying off corrupt congresspeople to keep Murder Machines legal, and how the tide of ammosexualism is beginning to turn (and how hopefully one day we’ll be rid of that monstrosity known as the Second Amendment), then people will have to turn in their guns to be melted down, and we’ll then be a normal, civilized society just like all the other advanced, developed, first world countries in the world who have outlawed these instruments of death, destruction, and disability.
Just look at countries like Australia, Japan, and Scotland, for example. You can practically count the numbers of deaths by Murder Machine in each of those countries for the entire year on two hands. Mass murders simply don’t happen. Scotland and Australia actually have sensible politicians running their country who actually care about the people they represent and who don’t sell their souls to the Devil and allow themselves to be bought off by the NRA or their equivalents. So after Scotland and Australia had mass shootings there, they did the sensible thing: They simply banned all guns. And guess what happened… Nothing. That’s right… no more shootings. Now people don’t have to be worried about being murdered by some mentally deranged idiot with a Murder Machine.
And that’s what we must do here to wipe this disease of ammosexualism from our country, and then the rest of the civilized world won’t be afraid to visit here, in a country that the gun nuts have ruined, and which the rest of the world is afraid to visit because some lunatic who forgot to take his medication might want to go hunting for humans.
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