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Sunday
March 14, 2010 Since 1922 |
A recipe for anger
By Kari Griffin
Baytown Sun Published September 26, 2008 A love of blogging and Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) has made a Robert E. Lee High School teacher Public Enemy No. 1 — at least in cyberspace.
Jacki Steinhauer has been taking heat publicly and professionally since a local television station brought her blog to folks’ attention.
In what Steinhauer described as a diary, titled “The Secret Life of an Uninteresting Teacher,” she writes about her love of MREs, her habit of hitting up more than one Place Of Distribution (POD) in trips between Baytown and her Deer Park home, and her enjoyment of life post-Hurricane Ike.
“This is great,” Steinhauer said in her blog. “I don’t have school and getting free food. I still will probably get paid at the end of the month also. Life is great after a hurricane when nothing really happened to your house.”
While adding up her free loot, Steinhauer counted five cases of water, two 20-pound bags of ice, four 10 pound bags of ice, four boxes of MREs (two of the “real military ones” and two boxes meant to last one person one day, and a box with a variety of 12 sack lunches of Chef Boyardee microwavable cups, granola bars, fruit cups and almond cookies.)
Steinhauer was unreachable Thursday, but after her blog became famous, the teacher posted an apology on the KHOU website.
In it, Steinhuaer said, “I am sorry for anything that I did to upset anyone. I did not think that the blog that I wrote for myself would ever get out. I didn’t think that it was that interesting.”
Steinhauer said in her post that she wrote the blog because she wanted to record the things she did after the hurricane, and that all of the MREs she collected were not for her alone.
“I got the MREs for my family so that they did not have to stand in line,” Steinhauer said. “I thought that I was doing something nice, but when looking back over what I wrote on my blog, I realize that a lot of things look really bad.”
The teacher said she only ate two MREs and drank one water, and the items were not really for her in the first place. They were for others, she said.
“I know that many people will not accept my apologies or the fact that I will return the items backt to the POD that I got them from, but I do want to say that I am sorry,” Steinhuaer said.
The KHOU website with Steinhauer’s story has received more than 300 comments from angry citizens with harsh words for Steinhauer and demands that she be fired, fined and even arrested.
But it’s not just the public Steinhauer needs forgiveness from.
Allegations that Steinhauer took advantage of the system and received MREs she may not have really needed while other s went without have prompted an investigation by the Goose Creek school district.
“She’s been placed on administrative lead with pay pending an investigation,” spokeswoman Kathy Clausen said.
Clausen couldn’t say if there’s a chance Steinhauer’s actions could cause her to lose her job.
The Goose Creek school district Employee Handbook requires teachers of the district to “affirm and accept the responsibility to practice their profession according to the highest ethical standards toward students, professional colleagues, parents, and community,” as well as to “acknowledge the magnitude of the profession they have chosen and the responsibility of the profession’s code of ethics.”
Many Goose Creek school board members, (still without internet), have not read Steinhauer’s blog and therefore couldn’t officially comment on hearsay alone. But based on what they have heard, some board members felt Steinhauer may have in fact acted unethically, and others think perhaps the public is being a little to harsh about the comments Steinhauer posted without thinking of the ramifications.
Dishonest and unethical they may be, but Steinhauer’s actions do not appear to be criminal.
Those at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and local government employees say that to the best of their knowledge, Steinhauer did not break any laws.
FEMA spokesperson Amanda Jones, from the Houston district, said the groups running the PODs establish the rules and regulation for each site.
“We could not say as to whether that’s a broken law,” Jones said of the teacher going through more than one POD and accepting FEMA items even though she had electricity and a paycheck.
Jones said FEMA’s standpoint is that the agency just wants to get those necessities to those greatly in need.
One of the PODs Steinhauer stopped by was on Baker Road in Baytown and headed up by Kim Yancey, community liaison for Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Sylvia Garcia.
Yancey said it’s nearly impossible to keep track of how many times a car or person comes through the line when your getting ice, food and water to thousands of people a day.
“We just pretty much have to be on the honor system,” Yancey said.
Some PODs check identifications to make sure those in line are from the area, and others have established systems of marking a car after the driver collects items once so they won’t come back by that day.
But at many PODs, such as the one on Baker, returning to the end of the line for a second go at the items was not against the rules, and many of the drivers who chose to wait in line more than once explained they were taking ice, waters and MREs to friends and family members.
The Baker Road POD did run out of MREs most days, but the PODs did not close down because of a lack of FEMA items. The sites began closing as more neighborhoods had power restored, grocery stores reopened, and the need for food, ice and water decreased because they became available to the public again.
Yancey said there is no doubt that Baytown and other areas devastated by Ike needed the items given out at PODS, and, for the most part, people were there because they couldn’t get the food, ice and water at other places.
People of all incomes came through POD lines for themselves or others who needed these necessary items, and though it’s hard to say for certain how many citizens took advantage of FEMA, Yancey said that group is the minority.
For the most part, the items brought in by FEMA and distributed by local volunteers went to those who needed them, she said.
Baytown Sun Published September 26, 2008 A love of blogging and Meals Ready to Eat (MREs) has made a Robert E. Lee High School teacher Public Enemy No. 1 — at least in cyberspace.
Jacki Steinhauer has been taking heat publicly and professionally since a local television station brought her blog to folks’ attention.
In what Steinhauer described as a diary, titled “The Secret Life of an Uninteresting Teacher,” she writes about her love of MREs, her habit of hitting up more than one Place Of Distribution (POD) in trips between Baytown and her Deer Park home, and her enjoyment of life post-Hurricane Ike.
“This is great,” Steinhauer said in her blog. “I don’t have school and getting free food. I still will probably get paid at the end of the month also. Life is great after a hurricane when nothing really happened to your house.”
While adding up her free loot, Steinhauer counted five cases of water, two 20-pound bags of ice, four 10 pound bags of ice, four boxes of MREs (two of the “real military ones” and two boxes meant to last one person one day, and a box with a variety of 12 sack lunches of Chef Boyardee microwavable cups, granola bars, fruit cups and almond cookies.)
Steinhauer was unreachable Thursday, but after her blog became famous, the teacher posted an apology on the KHOU website.
In it, Steinhuaer said, “I am sorry for anything that I did to upset anyone. I did not think that the blog that I wrote for myself would ever get out. I didn’t think that it was that interesting.”
Steinhauer said in her post that she wrote the blog because she wanted to record the things she did after the hurricane, and that all of the MREs she collected were not for her alone.
“I got the MREs for my family so that they did not have to stand in line,” Steinhauer said. “I thought that I was doing something nice, but when looking back over what I wrote on my blog, I realize that a lot of things look really bad.”
The teacher said she only ate two MREs and drank one water, and the items were not really for her in the first place. They were for others, she said.
“I know that many people will not accept my apologies or the fact that I will return the items backt to the POD that I got them from, but I do want to say that I am sorry,” Steinhuaer said.
The KHOU website with Steinhauer’s story has received more than 300 comments from angry citizens with harsh words for Steinhauer and demands that she be fired, fined and even arrested.
But it’s not just the public Steinhauer needs forgiveness from.
Allegations that Steinhauer took advantage of the system and received MREs she may not have really needed while other s went without have prompted an investigation by the Goose Creek school district.
“She’s been placed on administrative lead with pay pending an investigation,” spokeswoman Kathy Clausen said.
Clausen couldn’t say if there’s a chance Steinhauer’s actions could cause her to lose her job.
The Goose Creek school district Employee Handbook requires teachers of the district to “affirm and accept the responsibility to practice their profession according to the highest ethical standards toward students, professional colleagues, parents, and community,” as well as to “acknowledge the magnitude of the profession they have chosen and the responsibility of the profession’s code of ethics.”
Many Goose Creek school board members, (still without internet), have not read Steinhauer’s blog and therefore couldn’t officially comment on hearsay alone. But based on what they have heard, some board members felt Steinhauer may have in fact acted unethically, and others think perhaps the public is being a little to harsh about the comments Steinhauer posted without thinking of the ramifications.
Dishonest and unethical they may be, but Steinhauer’s actions do not appear to be criminal.
Those at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and local government employees say that to the best of their knowledge, Steinhauer did not break any laws.
FEMA spokesperson Amanda Jones, from the Houston district, said the groups running the PODs establish the rules and regulation for each site.
“We could not say as to whether that’s a broken law,” Jones said of the teacher going through more than one POD and accepting FEMA items even though she had electricity and a paycheck.
Jones said FEMA’s standpoint is that the agency just wants to get those necessities to those greatly in need.
One of the PODs Steinhauer stopped by was on Baker Road in Baytown and headed up by Kim Yancey, community liaison for Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Sylvia Garcia.
Yancey said it’s nearly impossible to keep track of how many times a car or person comes through the line when your getting ice, food and water to thousands of people a day.
“We just pretty much have to be on the honor system,” Yancey said.
Some PODs check identifications to make sure those in line are from the area, and others have established systems of marking a car after the driver collects items once so they won’t come back by that day.
But at many PODs, such as the one on Baker, returning to the end of the line for a second go at the items was not against the rules, and many of the drivers who chose to wait in line more than once explained they were taking ice, waters and MREs to friends and family members.
The Baker Road POD did run out of MREs most days, but the PODs did not close down because of a lack of FEMA items. The sites began closing as more neighborhoods had power restored, grocery stores reopened, and the need for food, ice and water decreased because they became available to the public again.
Yancey said there is no doubt that Baytown and other areas devastated by Ike needed the items given out at PODS, and, for the most part, people were there because they couldn’t get the food, ice and water at other places.
People of all incomes came through POD lines for themselves or others who needed these necessary items, and though it’s hard to say for certain how many citizens took advantage of FEMA, Yancey said that group is the minority.
For the most part, the items brought in by FEMA and distributed by local volunteers went to those who needed them, she said.