Dad was right.

I remember fondly many of my father's sayings. They varied in content and form, and he seemed to have dozens at his disposal.
On lazy, couchside afternoons in front of the TV, dad would say: "Couldn't get any work done today anyway - it's too wet to rain and too windy to haul rock."
I don't know either, but he'd laugh like hell every time he said it.
He told me things like "If you get into a fight you know you're going to lose, make sure you throw the first punch because it might be your last."
To him, anything disgusting was "ockey medicine." And if you spilled milk on your chin while taking too big of a gulp from the carton, then you just "slopped your dripper."
But driving down 5th street the other day, I remembered another: "Always stop at a lemonade stand."
I was going back to the Free Press office after lunch. I had just eaten two helpings of leftover beef stew and then washed it down with a glass of ice milk. I was stuffed to my shoulders and enjoying a discussion on public radio about nuclear reactors in Iran when I saw the faint outline of a lemonade stand.
As I neared the stand, I tried to quiet my father's voice inside my head. I just ate, I told myself, and dad would forgive any man for not putting lemonade on top of beef stew.
I tried not to make eye contact with the moppy haired youngster manning the stand as I drove by. But I couldn't help myself. We locked eyes and, seizing his window of opportunity, the 7 or maybe 8-year-old held up his handwritten sign.
It said: Homade Lemenade.
I bought a glass at 50 cents. I only had a $5, and he could only give me back $3, so he said I could keep the plastic cup. It was a fair deal, so we shook on it.
The lemonade was terrible, clearly lacking a mother's steady hand on the sugar, and I dumped it out three blocks away on Mulberry Street.
But it was still worth the stop - if only to get dad's voice out of my head.

More on debt ...

In Wednesday's edition of the newspaper, I reported on the United South Central School District discovering an accounting error that caused the district to fall into statutory operating debt. Now resolved, the district is out of debt and firmly in the black.

But along the way, I came across a surprising trend.

Despite the sluggish economy and a continually declining number of K-12 students statewide, the number of districts in statutory operating debt (also called "SOD") is at its lowest level in more than a decade. From 1999 to 2007, there have been at least 24 districts in SOD, with the peak coming in 2001 with 45 districts.

For all taxpayers hear about stagnant state funding and declining enrollments, this trend seems to highlight that current accountability measures (state-mandated audits, compliance laws, billing procedures, etc.) are working to some degree.

All this, of course, could change next spring when districts balance their 09-10 books with the additional challenge of delayed aid payments (one of Gov. Tim Pawlenty's solutions for balancing the state budget).

For the latest state report on districts in SOD, look here.

Kudos for tough justice

And, this time, the justice came from Edward Bearse, an Anoka County judge who is ruling in this case of teacher-student sex allegations.

The details are still being hashed out, but a veteran Stewartville third-grade teacher is accused of inappropriate sexual touching with several students. One of the allegations is that the teacher, a 63-year-old man, used a small stool to have girls sit in front of him so he could rub himself on their backs. A few of the girls passed him a note asking him to stop the behavior; later, those girls went to the principal.

But the tough justice came during the bail hearing. When the teacher's lawyer asked for leniency on the bail conditions so the teacher could continue to be near his grandchildren, the judge denied the request, citing the seriousness of the allegations.

There is no doubt that teachers have been mistakenly, and even falsely, accused of sexual abuse. And it's possible this teacher is among them. A judge's order to stay away from grandkids would be a devastating blow to an otherwise innocent man.

But what if the teacher is guilty? In that case, this teacher needs to be as far as possible from children - his own and others'.

Within the past year, there have been several teacher-student sex cases in this area that have been brought to trial. I've reported on many of them. I even received a call from one of the victims, and that 15-minute conversation remains among the toughest I've ever had - personally or professionally.

And if I've learned one thing from it all, it's that the victims are real. Students who are sexually abused by teachers and authority figures almost always have many years of emotional and psychological pain in front of them. Later, their wives and husbands will cry with them; their therapists will bill them; and the public, by and large, will forget about them.

But judges and other stewards of justice must always keep the victims in mind. And, sometimes, protecting children must come at the expense of the rights of the accused.

If the Stewartville teacher is found innocent and the charges false, he will be owed an apology. But not from the judge, who deserves kudos for erring on the side of caution and protecting children from his harm - even when his decision may be considered by some to be excessive.

A little provincial pride.

As long as we are celebrating (gloating?) in victories over our neighbors on the eastern border (Brett Favre anyone?), here's the latest list of top average ACT scores by state.

For the fifth consecutive year, Minnesota's students have posted the nation's best average ACT score. Iowa ranked second with Wisconsin, Nebraska and South Dakota rounding out the top five. And while only 27 states have a majority of students taking the college entrance exam (many east- and west-coast states still use the SAT), Minnesota's results do show signs that implementing rigorous academic standards and increasing the availability of post-secondary and college-level courses can produce tangible results.

Parents: Begin panicking now.

Have a seat parents. This could be a bit unsettling.

According to this report from OnlineFamily.Norton - a web-management tool that, among other functions, helps parents block certain web content from their children - kids are not quite as naive as we'd like to believe. In the report issued Friday, OnlineFamily details kids' top 100 search terms collected anonymously through Symantec between February and July 2009.

Some on the list are not surprising in the least, and some are actually encouraging. Michael Jackson (11th), Miley Cyrus (15th), Club Penguin (22nd), Amazon (35th) and weather (44th) all ranked in the top 50.

But other search terms are downright terrifying. "Sex" ranked fourth while "porn" was sixth; "Boobs" ranked 28th and "naked girls" ranked a few spots ahead of "Playboy" at 86th. In between were a handful of non-flattering slang terms for genitalia.

Of course, none of the parents out there have searched any of those terms themselves. But if they had, they would have seen that simply typing "sex" into a search bar can yield a host of explicit images, video and audio - much of it without requiring sign-up or registration.

The web is no different than any other public space where children need to be supervised. But unfortunately, there are no security guards and there is no 911 in cyberspace. Dangers and strangers are allowed to roam the web unchecked - which makes parents the best (and only) police.

Supervise wisely.

From the mailbag ...

I'm not sure if this is a sign of the economic times or of an overworked email server, but lately I'm receiving an increasing number of product emails in my inbox. These emails usually arrive under a heading portending certain disaster if they aren't opened immediately - and they usually are sent straight to my delete folder without second thought. But a few have caught my attention:

- "My Sister, Alicia May:" This particular book is about a young girl growing up with a sister who has Down syndrome. Many contemporary childrens books address issues such as race, ethnicity and sex - but few venture into the territory of special needs. Full disclosure: I have not read this book and cannot vouch for its quality - but it's worth a mention for the simple fact that the book explores a relationship few others have.

- Plastic surgery for kids: Yes, you read that right. And no, the email is totally serious. In fact, this doctor says plastic surgeons can play an "important role" in children's lives. Not for facelifts and liposuction, but for reconstructing and treating large scars, lacerations and broken bones (especially in the face). Must be a tough economy indeed when an Orange County doctor is marketing surgery services to pre-teens.

- Advanced potty tactics: I'm going to quote straight from the release on this one and allow you to make your own humor (although, strangely, I can see how this product might be helpful):
"There's a revolutionary new product that makes potty training a breeze. ... Potty Pony Pals. This innovative training underwear is the only product to have graphics on the inside of the garment. It comes with a DVD that shows toddlers how to watch over their new potty underwear and keep the 'pal' on the inside dry!"
Whatever works, right? Incidentally, the company that markets the underwear also promotes a host of other innovative, but slightly wacky, baby products. Check them out: Bee-Tees (character-building t-shirts), Paci-Plushies (pacifier holders), G-Mom bags (designer diaper bags), Bibs N Burps (bamboo burp clothes and bibs), and Modest Middles (nursing tank-tops).