More than one outraged parent, when angry with how their community schools are run, has spread rumors designed to cause grief to school officials.

But New York City parent Gary Babad has taken his dissent with Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s oversight of the schools to a more high-tech—and troublesome—level. He writes satirical news reports for a blog aimed at NYC parents, and on more than one occasion, he’s convinced people to complain about issues that don’t actually exist.

These fictional reports—which Mr. Babad told the New York Times was “a kind of therapy and my form of quiet dissent”—has proven a minor headache for school officials.

Last fall, a member of a community education council complained to school officials over news Blackwater Worldwide—the military and security training firm that garnered some controversy for its work in Iraq—would be taking over security for the NYC schools.

Then there was the Columbia University student who called with questions about a military plan to recruit teachers “who had been removed from the classroom and placed in so-called rubber rooms, where they are paid but do not teach until their cases are resolved.”

As the July 30 Times article makes clear, some of Babad’s parodies are pretty obvious. One of his first took aim at a consulting firm that he believed had fouled up school bus routes. He announced the firm would take over reconstruction plans in Iraq, with the logic that “if you can’t beat the insurgents militarily, we’ll cut off their transportation and starve them out.

Kinda funny, really. But I wouldn’t say that aloud around any NYC school officials, one of whom the Times reported “had nothing to add about Mr. Babad’s hobby.”

Nothing to add publicly, you mean.

Still, let’s hope this is a “hobby” that doesn’t gain adherents elsewhere. There’s already plenty of misinformation and rumor mongering online.

By the way, did you hear that the CIA is performing experiments on kindergarten kids in . . . .?

Del Stover, Senior Editor