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look what i found....shocking realy

Two years ago, in a rather ridiculous display of small-minded stupidity, the town of Blue Springs, MO earmarked $273,000 of their education budget to combat Goth culture.

"Goth culture" in Blue Springs, Mo., may be in for some tough times.

Thanks to Rep. Sam Graves, a Republican who represents the Kansas City suburb, $273,000 out of the Department of Education's fiscal 2002 budget will help the Blue Springs Outreach Unit take on a perceived problem for local youths.

"It is my hope that this funding will give the officers in the Youth Outreach Unit the tools they need to identify Goth culture leaders that are preying on our kids," Rep. Graves said in a press release announcing the appropriation last month.

"It was really a community need, and they really weren't able to satisfactorily get money at the local level," Mr. Patek said of the Blue Springs project to combat Goth culture. Some parents and law- enforcement officials are concerned that, beyond the dark fashions and music characteristic of that subculture, some "Goth" teenagers are drawn into potentially dangerous behavior.

The program is meant to help train police officers, and help schools and families with children involved in Goth culture, according to the announcement from Rep. Graves. Drug abuse and self-mutilation are among the troubling behaviors Goth culture fosters, Mr. Patek said.

He stressed that the effort will not be limited to Blue Springs. "I know this was a good project," Mr. Patek said. "And it's a finite amount of resources. ... We're not talking about an ongoing federal commitment."

This was so unnecessary. We must protect our children from those evil people who wear black, and listen to all that wierd music! Ugh.

Thankfully, word comes now that the project essentially went nowhere, and more than half of the money is being returned (and, hopefully, put to better use in the future).

You have to be kidding me......That is just about one of the most dumest thing I have read.

if they only knew what the subculture was/is/was really about, then they would realize that there's nothing wrong with it.

the money should be used on other things like *****, and the like. they're just seriously wasting their time.

i also think that the one baptist lady shirley is behind this. since the reputation of most of us is that we're homosexuals.

i say it's bullshit, really.

WTF???thats stupid.thats is very stupid.as Testement13 said you can't stop an attitude with cash, and how do they expect to get rid of it?they're always going to be goths.

Maybe if they had given goth kids all that money to stop following the culture, it would have worked. It would have worked on me.

The gothic children of Blue Springs, Mo have my sympathy. Parents are one thing, but the government is another!

Goth culture leaders?! *bursts out laughing* Goth is a mindset, not a bunch of people who rally around a certain person as their leader! omfg! *laughs some more*
Ahem, anyways. That's just retarded. And so this is where the tax money goes... to combat a group of teenagers. Wow...