Post 3: Foster Care Board Retains Stitt

Post 3: Foster Care Board Retains Stitt

I read an article about Carol Stitt who is the head of the state’s Foster Care Review Board. The board reviewed her position in a two hour closed door discussion because of allegations from a former employee of the state against Stitt. During the closed door session the discussion was focused on the acceptance or refusal of the recommendations from the state ombudsman’s report to improve agency operations. The allegations on Stitt came from an employee who recently resigned; they claim that Stitt ordered an employee to release confidential information about a foster child. These allegations were true, but the information didn’t get released to the public.
It seems as though the board didn’t care about this allegation because the information was never released, but it doesn’t seem like they took much time to explore what would have happened to that child if the information were released. Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers thinks that Stitt should be fired because of her actions and I agree with him. I do however understand that being the head of foster care would be a demanding job and would put you in many tough situations and perhaps if they had presented more information I would feel differently about the situation.
The meeting did accept the recommendations from the state ombudsman’s report and plan on reviewing and organizing the program. They want to have monthly reports, board and staff protocols for complaints, and review operations and communications. I understand that things need to be reviewed and possibly re-vamped but Carol has been in this position for 24 years and they still don’t have company protocol? It seems that a review of the Foster Care Board was in order.

Post 2: National Roller Skating Museum

Post 2: National Museum of Roller Skating

Upon entering the National Museum of Roller Skating I was very unsure of what I was about to encounter. Once I walked in I had to go through a maze of office cubicles until I found the door to the museum. The museum was just a small room, but it was bursting with information. I saw a model of the first roller skate ever invented which was in the 1760’s. It looked more like a roller blade than what we think of as a roller skate, and this particular skate was very unconventional because it wasn’t able to turn. In 1863 the first skate that could turn was invented; it changed from the four wheels in a row to two wheels on each side. There were many roller skates invented before the one that we use today. I saw some roller skates with wheels on the side of your shoe, some that had planks go up the side of your leg, and one that only had one large wheel under your shoe.
The thing that most frequently changed was the wheel. Wheel placement and type were always being experimented with. How many wheels on the bottom, what order they went in were being experimented with for 100 years. There was a wall with all the types of wheels used throughout the years. The wheel types went from metal, to wood, back to metal, and also to the plastic material that we use today.
Roller skating started to take a bigger role in society in the 1950’s and increased with interest until the roller disco movement in the 1970’s. It has since declined in interest but is still known as a fun family activity. I know that personally school skates were still a big deal when I was in elementary school. Many sports have also tried to be played on roller skates. They played soccer with roller skates on and also basketball. In the 1880’s a game of “roller polo,” was played. It is like hockey but on roller skates instead of ice skates. People still play that sport today but it is known as roller hockey. There is also professional roller skating that is much like competitive figure skating. They compete in twosomes and foursomes on the U.S. team. Although roller skating isn’t as popular as it once was it is an important pastime in America’s history.