London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

http://the-libertarian.co.uk/london-student-reported-to-police-enchanted-by-anarchism-and-individualism/

by null_ptr • 13 years ago

251 176 13 years ago

the-libertarian.co.uk

auctiontheory4• 13 years ago

I somehow doubt that sabotaging the kid's education would reduce his anarchism and individualism.

hga6• 13 years ago

But as long as that sabotage severely curtails his future, do they care?

guard-of-terra4• 13 years ago

Would it? 2013 says it's pretty hard to curtail one's future. No single entity controls it, there's no gatekeeper.

They just show their own misery.

thotpoizn• 13 years ago

Well, the anarchy could have been forgiven, but individualism? Put him up against the wall!

I've looked at the blog in question ( http://hampsteadtrash.blogspot.co.uk/ ) - and it's obvious that the real problem was about his being critical of the school administration.

His petty thug of a headteacher seems perfectly deserving of every bit of the attention he is about to receive.

auctiontheory4• 13 years ago

Hey! Teacher! Leave them kids alone.

scarmig• 13 years ago

Is kicking someone out of a building that bears more than a passing resemblance to a prison really sabotaging their education?

sillysaurus25• 13 years ago

... Yes. As a self-taught programmer, I believe university is important. It gives quite a lot of advantages (mostly social ones, which are the most important). And undergrad universities select primarily based on school performance, so kicking him out definitely would've sabotaged his higher education.

To piggyback on this comment in hopes of finding some assistance: I've been trying to figure out some long-term strategy of how to get into a top-tier university. I have the ACT scores for it, but I dropped out of highschool to go work in software. The decade of dev experience is certainly nice, and I've studied core CS theory on my own (xv6 and paxos for example), but I'd really like to attend a top uni in order to do graphics research. I wonder if it's even possible for a 25 year old highschool dropout to achieve this? I was thinking I could do well for a couple years at some local university, then apply to transfer to Penn, Stanford, etc. I've heard transfer students are more likely to be accepted. But I wonder what else I could do to increase my chances.

lolkkk• 13 years ago

Uh, yes?

14113• 13 years ago

Well yes, as it's unlikely that another school would let him in (post 16 education is no longer compulsory), and as he says, if he'd been kicked out a year earlier it would have essentially forced him to forfeit his a-levels and thus either delay, or preclude him going to university.

protomyth2• 13 years ago

Seems like it would just confirm his beliefs.

rhizome• 13 years ago

The headteacher, in addition to reporting Zaloom to the police, phoned Glasgow University, where the student had applied to study, in an attempt to dissuade them from accepting him.

Not the best way to counter charges of endemic corrpution in society, I must say. In the US, this kind of interference would pose a great deal of trouble for the ambitious functionary.

mezmor• 13 years ago

The UK has pretty strict libel laws. I wouldn't be surprised if approaching Glasgow U falls under that category.

switch007• 13 years ago

The costs involved with libel cases are nothing short of eye-watering [1]. Strict libel laws are pointless if you can't afford to bring a case. (Though, there are "no-win, no-fee" agreements available)

[1] http://pcmlp.socleg.ox.ac.uk/research/project/comparative-st...

AimHere2• 13 years ago

Defaming a third party by telephone would more likely be slander than libel, but it's certainly not clear that what went on here would be defamation at all.

A defamatory statement must be a false factual allegation. As long as what the headmaster claimed was true, he should be safe from libel or slander lawsuits - saying "I don't like this guy's politics and you shouldn't take him on as a student." is a fair expression of opinion, however silly that opinion is, and despite the rather insidious attempt to harm someone's career over a personal/political disagreement.

Mind you, I'd guess that in these sorts of circumstances, Glasgow University would likely thank the headmaster for his concern and file the note of this communication in the waste paper basket, where it belongs. Universities are no stranger to having to fend off third parties - parents, police, stalkers and whathaveyou - attempting to meddle in the affairs of their students; if their admin staff are halfways competent, they already have 50 tactful ways of telling outside interferers to fuck off.

rz2k• 13 years ago

Earlier this year [1]:

Then there is Katelyn Campbell, 18, whose objection to a factually dubious sex-education assembly at her high school bubbled over into a confrontation with her principal, which bubbled over onto the Internet.
As a senior at George Washington High School in Charleston, W.Va., Ms. Campbell complained to the American Civil Liberties Union about an April assembly featuring an abstinence advocate, Pam Stenzel.
[...] Irritated by her actions, Ms. Campbell said, her principal threatened to tell Wellesley College, where Ms. Campbell had been accepted, that she was a troublemaker. Ms. Campbell filed an injunction against her principal, seeking to prevent him from “discriminating against me in any way,” and told the news media her story.
[...] Several days later, Wellesley used its Twitter account to make its position known: “Katelyn Campbell, #Wellesley is excited to welcome you this fall.”

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/03/science/young-and-against-...

mathattack• 13 years ago

I don't know what's better, that she used a lawyer to get the principal to back off, or that Wellesley stood up for her. It really bothers me when petty admins abuse their position, because they prey on the weak.

omarrr2• 13 years ago

Doesn't sound like the kind of teacher I'd like in my university

Asked what had first inclined him to contact the police, Mr. Szemalikowski said “the fact that Kinnan has mentioned the ideologies of anarchism and individualism on this blog.” Digging himself even deeper, the headteacher added, “I must do something. In the last year he has become more and more enchanted by antiestablishment ways of thinking and has even said that there is an inherent risk that every government is corrupt.”

gngeal3• 13 years ago

and has even said that there is an inherent risk that every government is corrupt

Well, here's one student that learned the right lesson in his Government class. :)

bolder884• 13 years ago

Read the blog. Doesn't seem like the kind of kid I'd like in my university...

unimpressive2• 13 years ago

Having recently had a "Fuck all of you" reaction to public high school, what I read was a kid ranting about apathetic students and apathetic instructors. He's probably frustrated by the people he sees on a daily basis and it comes out on the blog as him being a jerk.

His writing could use some work too, kind of cheesy.

fnordfnordfnord2• 13 years ago

What's the kind that you would like?

stretchwithme2• 13 years ago

Isn't mentioning that someone mentioned something also mentioning it?

DickingAround• 13 years ago

What did the police say? Did the teacher believe that the UK has thought-crime laws about uncommon political beliefs? Do they?

petercooper2• 13 years ago

Not so much laws but there's certainly a lot more stigma to holding unpopular opinions (or even freely expressing 'distasteful' but popular opinions, cf. responses to many UKIP supporters) in the UK compared to the USA - nowhere on the scale as in Russia or Eastern Europe though.

honzzz• 13 years ago

Eastern Europe? Could you please elaborate or provide some example to illustrate what exactly you mean? I am from Eastern Europe (Czech Rep.) and I used to live in UK. Generally I would say that current Eastern Europe is way more open/tolerant/apathetic to 'unpopular opinions' than UK.

guard-of-terra4• 13 years ago

You can say a lot of things in modern Russia and not get any stigma but support.

Everybody holds on to radical opinions of all sorts, popular ones and unpopular ones alike.

Of course, there does exist the thought-crime статья 282 in the criminal code, but you can't mute popular opinions with it effectively.

harrytuttle6• 13 years ago

The police did absolutely nothing, which is spot on.

protomyth2• 13 years ago

Two things came to mind when I read this:

1) It doesn't often happen, but having the establishment individual confirm the blog's POV through word and deed is refreshing.

2) If you are from the University and read what this fool said to the newspapers / police, then you should be suspect of any individual whom he gave a recommendation.

omarrr2• 13 years ago

This is the kind of behavior current political systems are encouraging to the members of our society. Instead of teachers reaching out to students to create bonds and personal connections, we have a system that promotes unjustified surveillance, profiling and reporting.

motters• 13 years ago

You can't just have individualists roaming freely around doing whatever the heck they like. Where would it end?

solistice2• 13 years ago

Hmmmm...no ruling elites?

calibraxis• 13 years ago

If individualists are incapable of building functioning nonhierarchical organizations, they'll be at the mercy of those good at violence, and ruled.

This is why much of the anarchist tradition is about collective action, to support individual freedoms. They frequently reject the collective vs. individual dichotomy as absurd. (Hopefully this isn't pedantic or nitpicky, just this tends to be a common misconception.)

alextingle• 13 years ago

Prime Minister by 30?

alan_cx2• 13 years ago

In the UK? Yeah, that would be the teacher who reported him then. I'm sure the current Home Sec would very much approve of a student being outed for saying something the establishment disagrees with. If the teach u-turns some how, then yes, PM.

noonespecial• 13 years ago

You almost feel sorry for the teacher in this case. Sure, he's about to get the just desserts of a repugnant action like this, but its kind of like a dog digging up a nest full of yellow jackets. He "deserves" the stings but he's not going to understand why he is suddenly being stung.

It boggles our tech-savvy minds that someone could be this out of touch and still have a position of any authority whatsoever, but there it is.

I also hope the best for the student, but I can't help feeling that this will be nothing but a minor setback for him as much as it seems to potentially suck now.

mindslight• 13 years ago

I think I'm pretty good at seeing others' perspectives, but my empathy for the dog evaporates when he's part of a pack that's been terrorizing me for years. The yellow jackets won't alter the behavior of the pack, but I might as well enjoy what tiny justice I can get.

harrytuttle6• 13 years ago

Being out of touch disqualifies you from any job pretty quickly.

Always be on the ball, not with your head up your arse like this elitist buffoon.

brymaster2• 13 years ago

The Peter Principle and Dunning–Kruger effect would disagree.

Kurtz79• 13 years ago

Check the comments on the article as well, for a few insane ramblings by the templeos maker...

solistice2• 13 years ago

Wait, so it's conspiracy theory/religion applied to x86 assembler?

I'm going to print it out for future reference.

unimpressive2• 13 years ago

Here is the post that seems to have triggered the response:

http://hampsteadtrash.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/sludge-obituary...

vixen99• 13 years ago

Nothing untoward in this apart from the pointless, juvenile and lazy repetition of the fk word.

bolder884• 13 years ago

pretty douchey to list the schools phone number at the bottom, just so idiot internet hate mobs can phone and abuse the school secretary.

rickjames285• 13 years ago

"internet hate mobs" are the people that oppose this pretty douchey teacher?

bolder884• 13 years ago

Did you read the blog in question? Are you in possession of the full facts of the case? Do you know those involved? Or have you formed your opinions based on some gossippy trash reporting.

There is almost always far more to stories like this than the reporting has us to believe. That's because the reporting is pushing an agenda. Which internet hate mobs etc absolutely love.

teawithcarl• 13 years ago

The Hampton Trash (blog) http://hampsteadtrash.blogspot.co.uk/

SiVal• 13 years ago

This sort of thing is alive and well in US schools, too. The official policy of the Seattle Public School system is to stamp out racism in all its forms, and notice how many forms there are. (Note in particular the Cultural Racism section that includes, "emphasizing individualism as opposed to a more collective ideology" as a form of racism that, by official policy, is to be stamped out by the government education system):

http://web.archive.org/web/20060522101405/http://www.seattle...

dmix• 13 years ago

In Canada this week, my girlfriend is required to visit the dean of a [top Canadian law school] for calling a girl a "bitch" on Twitter.

Backstory is interesting, because the girl had bullied her in person at school. GF never identified the girl on Twitter only saying "Some bitch blah blah at school today". But because she mentioned the school name, the dean found out and now wants to talk to her.

There's apparently a policy against certain language at the schools which is enforced by the very highest people.

Fortunately shes defending her right to freedom of expression (as any lawyer-in-training would) and refusing to delete the tweet. But the thought of students having to censor themselves because they are now a member of a school (which they paid $50k+ to join) is scary.

corresation5• 13 years ago

I don't think expecting basic good judgment of those in law school is 'scary'. Further it is worth mentioning that hateful speech is not protected in Canada, and while you could say that it was but a response, such a tweet is almost certainly in violation of several new anti-'cyber' bullying restrictions.

aheilbut• 13 years ago

Just wanting to talk to her does not seem inappropriate.

Lawyers in particular are expected to chose their words carefully and keep decorum. Perhaps it's a teachable moment.

WalterBright• 13 years ago

Old Soviet joke:

"The Soviet Union is just like the United States. In the US, you can criticize the American President. In the USSR, you can also criticize the American President!"

saraid2162• 13 years ago

But the thought of students having to censor themselves because they are now a member of a school (which they paid $50k+ to join) is scary.

Um. This has basically been true throughout the entire history of law schools. The only significant difference is the amount they paid to get in.

codex• 13 years ago

Likely the school has a code of conduct which includes a prohibition on bullying. That's a bit different from censorship.

dogweather• 13 years ago

Where, specifically, is the quoted text?

ddinh• 13 years ago

It's in the section defining cultural racism:

Those aspects of society that overtly and covertly attribute value and normality to white people and Whiteness, and devalue, stereotype, and label people of color as “other”, different, less than, or render them invisible. Examples of these norms include defining white skin tones as nude or flesh colored, having a future time orientation, emphasizing individualism as opposed to a more collective ideology, defining one form of English as standard, and identifying only Whites as great writers or composers.

walshemj4• 13 years ago

I think that Mr. Szemalikowski may be an eu national from countries where social hierarchy is much much stronger.

When I worked for a tiny companay in the UK our two polish developers where absolutely shocked that our MD would take his turn in making the coffee/tea.

kybernetyk• 13 years ago

I think this guy is just a nutjob and you shouldn't project his idiotic overreaction onto other countries.

Nate75Sanders• 13 years ago

You used the present tense, but then linked to a Wayback Machine link.

rickjames285• 13 years ago

The leftist, statist thought police is alive and well in the U.S. educational system.

Students, parents, and others need to stand up and get in the faces of these immoral leftists.

ceol4• 13 years ago

Actually, the point is that lots of cultures are collective-oriented, while we as a culture like to favor individualism (even though we are extremely collective in our own ways.)

This is called "cultural bias"; it means that, should a student from another culture come into our schools, they should not feel wrong for being raised in an environment that doesn't promote individualism. Stuff like, "Don't be a sheep!" and, "You are your own person. Don't let anyone take that away from you!" can make them feel out of place and other'ed. Notice how the part you quoted says "as opposed to a more collective ideology." That means they want to get rid of pinning individualism against collectivism; they don't want to get rid of individualism.

I'm not sure what the rest of your comment means, though. Even if that specific phrase is a problem, the rest of the document is all great stuff.

jotm• 13 years ago

"He's interested in what anarchism is, get him!"

That is very stupid.

Sagat2• 13 years ago

I'm disgusted by the head teacher's nosy behavior. I also think the student is an insufferable person according to his blog posts [1]. He's one of those people who try to use loaded words like "anarchism" and "individualism" to justify annoying or selfish behavior. Kind of like Galt-wannabe libertarians who hide being the word "liberty" to give credence to social darwinism.

[1] http://hampsteadtrash.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/sludge-obituary...

Ensorceled• 13 years ago

Yes, lots of high school students are insufferably pompous and selfish. They are just growing from children into young adults.

A high school head teacher should be able to handle this.

Also, as an adult, you should also be able to handle this without becoming annoyed and judgemental.

alan_cx2• 13 years ago

" lots of high school students are insufferably pompous and selfish"

So are a lot of teachers and heads.

C1D• 13 years ago

I completely agree though I think the head teacher probably saw the attack on his school and used the students use of words like anarchism as a justification for punishing him which I don't think the student deserved.

auctiontheory4• 13 years ago

I also think the student is an insufferable person according to his blog posts [1].

Yes, many teenagers are. And we should be glad - it means they are growing, thinking for themselves, transforming.

jlgreco8• 13 years ago

Who gives a shit, honestly? That is about as valuable to the conversation as your assessment of his sense of dress fashion.

Sagat2• 13 years ago

There are a lot of commenters here who automatically got on the kid's side as soon as they heard the buzzwords "anarchism" and "individualism". It's probable they didn't even read the article or the blog posts before reaching this decision.

All I'm saying as that we should be more careful when taking sides in any situation, and try to avoid being manipulated by words. Sure, I did post a personal opinion about this kid. You are entitled to hate it and post aggressive comments about it. But I think my post still added to the conversation. A few people voted on it so at least one or more people gave a shit.

rickjames285• 13 years ago

This "headteacher" should be arrested and prosecuted.

harrytuttle6• 13 years ago

For what? Libel is pretty much impossible to get heard unless the accuser is elite and has piles of cash.

Yes he's an asshat but he just dug his own grave. The elite education recruitment chaps won't touch him with a 20 foot pole covered in shit now. This is his last job.

u2328• 13 years ago

Kettle, meet pot.

rickjames285• 13 years ago

Wrong. I consider that action by the teacher a direct threat to the student's civil rights at the very least.

muyuu• 13 years ago

Will he be accepted in Glasgow U?

ronaldx• 13 years ago

The offer made by Glasgow to the student is guaranteed, as long as the student meets the conditions of the offer: typically a grade-based offer.

According to the original article, the student didn't meet the conditions of the offer. The university may now award a discretionary place... this decision could have been influenced by the principal, but is moderately unlikely anyway. The article notes that Zaloom will study at Portsmouth U instead. Good luck to him :)

http://www.camdennewjournal.com/news/2013/sep/headteacher-re...

tjaerv• 13 years ago

Is this satire? It reads like satire.

"I must do something. In the last year he has become more and more enchanted by antiestablishment ways of thinking and has even said that there is an inherent risk that every government is corrupt."

btilly2• 13 years ago

It seems sincere to me. And also blithely unaware that the student has a point.

zokier• 13 years ago

I think the story has completely wrong focus. The problem is not the teachers actions (no matter how despicable), but the effects of those actions. I mean if a teacher is able to "ruin" someones life by making couple of phonecalls, then therein lies the problem. In a ideal society the teacher would be free to voice his concerns, and if those concerns were baseless (as seems to be the case here) then the voicing should have no effect on the pupils life.

Of course there wasn't really any concrete effects mentioned in the story that had already happened, so hopefully this was just a sensationalist story and the uni and police will ignore the teacher. In fact the story heavily smells like an attempt to crucify the teacher while no damage/harm was actually done to the pupil.

zimbatm• 13 years ago

Yet another attack on an anti-authoritarian person.

The most compelling example that our society doesn't accept people with this personality treat is the psychiatrists who treat them as if they had a mental disorder.

http://www.honeycolony.com/article/psychiatrys-oppression-of...

btilly2• 13 years ago

Here is the text of an email that I sent the school.

-----

The primary duty that a school has is to turn out informed citizens who will try to maintain democracy. Despite your best efforts, you are apparently on the path to success with Kinnan Zaloom.

Unfortunately your headmaster has failed to learn the critical lesson that any organization populated by people will have failure modes, and a common failure mode is that those in authority will seek to use their authority inappropriately, and will also seek to assert more authority than they should have. This has been known for thousands of years, with famous examples including ancient Athens, the Roman Republic, and a plethora of dictatorships around the world today.

I am being generous in saying that your headmaster has failed to learn this lesson. In fact he seems to have learned it, but sees the path to petty dictatorship as something to emulate, not to fear. However one should never ascribe to malice and all that, so I will make the generous assumption that his actions came through incompetence.

But even making the generous assumption, it is clear that your headmaster is not the kind of person who should be put in a position where he can try to harm the future of children whose only crime is to think more clearly than he does. We need children to learn that authority is a necessary evil in a democratic society. Which lesson can best be learned in an environment where authority is exercised wisely enough that the "necessary" part of it becomes evident.

For the good of the children forced to suffer through your school, I sincerely hope that this fact is taken to heart and appropriate measures are taken to ensure that authority rests in more competent people going forward.

mcantelon6• 13 years ago

Nicely done. The headmaster's mentality is in direct conflict with the Enlightenment principles that the West was built on.

kyllo• 13 years ago

This reads like a parody.

"has even said that there is an inherent risk that every government is corrupt"

Corruption in the government? Gasp! How dare you?!

scotty79• 13 years ago

In the last year he has become more and more enchanted by antiestablishment ways of thinking and has even said that there is an inherent risk that every government is corrupt.

If not for that line I'd say that techer just wanted to say that the student is vocal, selfish jackass and failed to invoke proper euphemisms. But this line shows teachers ignorance. I thought that risk of governemnt being corrupt is something so obvious that it's taught on history lessons in primaryschool. Or maybe I am wrong and it's not established that all government can become corrupt? And if there are some uncorruptible goverment forms, then why we don't use them? Or there is some non-constructive proof known that shows that some goverments are not at all prone to corruption but we have no idea how they look like?

Goverment by definition decides about the stuff it does not own. And if you decide about stuff you don't own you can trade doing some harm to that stuff for improving your own status. And that's coruption.

teddyh• 13 years ago

— (President) Youth, with its enthusiasms, which rebels against any accepted norm because it must, and we sympathize. It may wear flowers in its hair and bells on its toes, but when the common good is threatened, when the functioning of society is endangered, such revolts must cease! They are non-productive, and must be abolished!

[...]

— (President) Guilty! Read the charge!

— (Delegate) The prisoner has been charged with the most serious breach of social etiquette: Cultural defiance of the elementary laws which sustain our community. Questioning the decisions of those we voted to govern us. Unhealthy aspects of speech and dress, not in accordance with general practice. And the refusal to observe, wear, or respond to his number!

(Quotes from “The Prisoner”, Episode 17, “Fall Out”, 1967)

London student reported to police: “Enchanted by anarchism and individualism”

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