’s “kindergarten” commercial, which features a frazzled teacher surrounded by a classroom of screaming kindergartners throwing balls, banging bats and playing in the classroom fish tank. “There’s nothing more important to me than my vacation,” the teacher says into the camera, seemingly resigned to the student mayhem around her. Alana Milich, a teacher at Palm Beach Central High School in Wellington, caught the online travel website’s commercial at home Tuesday, her second day of spring break. Trying to relax during a week of down time, the veteran teacher became increasingly upset as the commercial played over and over. “I don’t usually get the time to watch television,” she said in an interview, “but it’s vacation. So I’m home, cooking and indulging in HGTV.” What she saw, over and over again, was a portrayal of a teacher as inattentive to the classroom and obsessed with her upcoming vacation. “The commercial came on several times and irritated me more each time,” she said.

“I’m so sick of teacher-bashing.” So Milich did something about it. , a site that allows travelers to book airfares and hotel stays. “After watching your ad several times I am moved to do something I’ve never done before – write a company to complain of the image they are portraying of my profession,” she wrote. “As a 15 year veteran teacher, I can assure you that my stress does NOT come from the students in my classroom.” “If you want to show a teacher needing a vacation, how about showing one burnt out on caring too much?” she added. “Giving of her own time and money to her kids while an uncaring administration makes ridiculous demands on her?” “That would be relatable and not turn off the 3.1 million public school teachers in the US.” Milich later published her email to the company on her personal Facebook page and on an online Facebook forum for the Badass Teachers Association, a national teachers network. Dozens of  fellow teachers lauded her efforts and said they would lodge their own complaints with the company.

, saying that the commercial “was only intended as a light-hearted bit of fun.” ’s public relations team defended the commercial as a lighthearted attempt to underscore the importance of vacations for working professionals. “We highly value and appreciate all professions, including teachers,” said Paul Smailes, the company’s director of U.S. marketing. “Our ad was only intended as a bit of fun about overworked and undervalued professionals and the importance of vacations in a lighthearted and tongue-in-cheek manner.” Milich isn’t the only one who was troubled by the commercial. Peter Greene, author of the popular teacher blog “Curmudgucation” weighed in after reading Milich’s letter online. And others have registered their objections online as well: Here is Milich’s complete email: After watching your ad several times I am moved to do something I’ve never done before- write a company to complain of the image they are portraying of my profession.

As a 15 year veteran teacher, I can assure you that my stress does NOT come from the students in my classroom. fish tank shops in hyderabadMy stress comes from endless meetings forcing me to enact tactics that do not help my students learn and achieve; freshwater aquarium fish for sale canadamy stress comes from not getting a cost of living raise in 10 years; ornamental fish buyers in keralamy stress comes from national figures who know nothing of public education working to destabilize our system in favor of private, religious, and for-profit charter schools that are free to discriminate against differently-abled children with no penalties.the best betta fish tank

Isn’t there enough teacher bashing without you adding to the myth of the inattentive, non-caring, child-hating teacher?fish tank care book If you want to show a teacher needing a vacation, how about showing one burnt out on caring too much? aquarium tank buy ukGiving of her own time and money to her kids while an uncaring administration makes ridiculous demands on her? That would be relatable and not turn off the 3.1 million public school teachers in the US. And here is the company’s complete response to her: We’ll be sure to pass it on to those relevant. we value all professions, including teachers, and this ad was only intended as a light-hearted bit of fun. We are passionate about connecting our customers with great stays, empowering them to experience the world in the easiest, most seamless ways possible, which this advert aimed to convey.

They met in a parking lot like a pair of drug dealers, but the contraband consisted of live piranhas.An undercover wildlife officer bought three red-bellied piranhas in West Palm Beach last week, in an operation aimed at keeping the ferocious fish out of Florida's waterways.Although their reputed ability to reduce a human being to a skeleton in minutes is a myth, experts say the predatory fish could disrupt Florida's freshwater ecosystems if they got loose, using their razor sharp teeth to feed on the state's native fish.Kristina M. Dempsey, of Lake Worth, was charged with three misdemeanors, after the deal was carried out in the parking lot of a Walmart in West Palm Beach, according to a report by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. In an interview, she said she was simply trying to get rid of aquarium fish she no longer wanted in a more responsible manner than dumping them in a lake or canal.The investigation began when an officer saw a notice to sell the piranhas on Craigslist.

State wildlife investigator Jon Garzaniti sent Dempsey a text message, asking whether they could meet to make the deal for a total of $60."As long as you're not a cop," she responded, according to the report.He replied that he was not and inquired why she had asked."Well, considering these fish are illegal and all, and you asked the same thing today that you had asked yesterday, given the same answer, it sounds like someone may be trying to build a report. She continued, "Or maybe I'm being overly paranoid. Either way, can't be too sure now a days. It's not like this is some kind of drug deal."They met Aug. 21 at the Walmart parking lot, with Dempsey bringing the eight-inch fish in a bucket in her van. After briefly discussing their feeding requirements, the officer poured the fish into his own bucket, identified himself and called in two other officers as backup. He issued Dempsey citations for possession and sale of a prohibited non-native fish and sale of freshwater fish without a dealer's license.

In an interview Wednesday, Dempsey expressed astonishment that her attempt to get rid of some aquarium fish she no longer wanted was the target of an undercover operation. She bought the fish from a man in Hollywood, concluded she no longer wanted them because their all-meat diet clouded her fish tank and decided to find another owner to care for them, selling them for much less than the $100 that she paid for the three of them."I'm not irresponsible enough to let them go in fresh water because I have respect for the environment and the ecosystem," she said. "If you do have animals like this, instead of setting you up and treating you like a criminal, they should offer a way you could hand them over and surrender them if you don't want them anymore."The state wildlife commission actually does hold exotic pet amnesty days throughout Florida, where reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish, mammals and invertebrates can be surrendered without penalty. .Piranhas, native to the Amazon River and other South American waterways, have a sinister glamour rooted more in fiction than reality.

In the 1967 James Bond film "You Only Live Twice," the criminal mastermind Ernst Stavro Blofeld pushes a button that dumps an incompetent underling into a piranha tank, where the water churns around her for a minute or two until she's gone.Their reputation originated in part from Theodore Roosevelt's account of a 1914 trip to the Amazon, where the former president saw the fish strip a cow carcass in a matter of minutes. Turns out the piranhas had been penned up and starved to put on a show for their illustrious visitor.Evan D'Alessandro, visiting assistant professor of marine biology and fisheries at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, said the piranha's reputation is more myth than reality.Yes, piranhas have extremely sharp, interlocking teeth that can efficiently remove flesh. But they show little interest in attacking people, cows or other large animals. People routinely swim in water with piranhas, without being in the slightest danger, he said."

They're mostly scavengers, they eat snails, other fish, insects," he said. "They're actually quite timid. People love them because they're very good eating fish. People swim in piranha habitat with no incident."But like Burmese pythons, iguanas, snakeheads and other non-native species, they could easily gain a foothold in South Florida and start wiping out native species, D'Alessandro said."This is a very efficient predatory fish, and it could do harm to our native Florida environment," he said.When red-bellied piranhas turned up in a retention pond in the Palm Beach County town of Palm Springs in 2009, state wildlife officers poisoned the entire pond. They later restocked the pond with bluegills and largemouth bass."It's not because of their danger to humans, it's because of their danger to the environment," D'Alessandro said. "They are apex predators. They're at the top of the food chain. Our network of canals and freshwater retention ponds and the Everglades is very similar to their native habitat, and they could easily get a foothold."