WIRTW #814 (the 'barricade' edition)
"Campus security came pounding on the doors and told us we needed to evacuate."
That's my daughter, Norah, on the newest episode of The Norah and Dad Show, describing how her class in Aix-en-Provence was evacuated. It wasn't a fire or a threat. French students are in the streets.
For the past three weeks, high school and university students across France have been protesting the state of their public schools. Streets are closed. Blockades are going up. Classes are canceled, and Norah is back on Zoom.
Zoom classes are rough, especially in a second language. But I can't stop admiring what's happening around her.
The demands are reasonable. Shorter school days. Permanent teachers instead of a rotating cast of subs. Buildings that don't turn into ovens in a heat wave. That's not a revolution. That's a punch list.
And this is France. Protest isn't a disruption of the civic order here. It is the civic order. The French have been practicing since 1789, and their government knows what happens when it overreaches. Teachers are standing with their students, not against them. And when a student in Paris reportedly lost teeth to a police projectile, the officer who fired it was reportedly arrested.
Norah, meanwhile, is doing the smart thing. Foreign students who get arrested get sent home, so she's supporting from a distance. In the meantime, she's living through an A+ lesson in French culture.
I asked her whether Americans would ever do something like this. She doubts it. Her theory is that people here have stopped expecting those in power to answer to anyone.
That's the part that bothers me. The First Amendment protects the right to assemble and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. We wrote it down. We just seem to have forgotten what it's for.
Sure, we protest. But it's for a day, maybe two. Then people lose interest, or the authorities crack down so hard that people are afraid to continue.
Yes, I know No Kings marches return across the country Saturday. It's the first nationwide one since March. Yet, as the French have continuously demonstrated, civil disobedience can and does work.
Indeed, we could learn from the French. Dissent isn't disloyalty. A government confident in its decisions can survive people objecting to them in public. And accountability isn't optional. In France, the officer who crosses the line can get arrested. Here, far too often, nothing happens.
You can hear all about it on our podcast — available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, your web browser, and everywhere else you get your podcasts.
UPDATE: Earlier this week I reported on Bloomer v. Adell. In the case, a pastor who hosted a show on the Word Network sued its owner, Adell, for racial harassment, alleging the owner kept sending racially mocking texts after being told in writing to stop. Yesterday, the jury came back with quite the verdict —$62.2 million. WDIV has the details.
Here's what I read this week that you should read, too.
SHRM loses service dog trial, owes former job applicant $400K — HR Dive
Second Circuit Holds Single Harassment Claim Can Keep Employee's Entire Lawsuit Out of Arbitration — Employment Law Letter
Losing your job after age 50 could derail your career — Business Insider
Why Even Your Best Employees Override AI Systems That Work — Harvard Business Review
A Hiring Manager Called a Candidate 'Too Stupid to Work Here.' The Real Failure Wasn't the Candidate — Improve Your HR by Suzanne Lucas, the Evil HR Lady
Ancestry's CEO says a billionaire boss taught him to eat lunch with employees in the break room — Fortune
Suspected FMLA Fraud? The Investigation May Need One More Call. — The Employer Handbook
Companies rushed in on AI. Now some are pulling back — The Guardian
Republicans face midterm backlash from factory workers squeezed out of jobs by Trump's tariffs — Associated Press
Trump Press Secretary Katie Zacharia Speaks For Everyone Who Put 'Attorney' On LinkedIn Before Bar Results — Above the Law
2026 Great American Beer Festival Winners — Great American Beer Festival