153

Pass
Posted on June 13, 2018 by David M Willis

153 thoughts on “Pass”

  1. Ana Chronistic

    oh hey Cholma, temping at Shortpacked didn’t work out for you either?

    1. Doctor_Who

      He looks unhappy. Wonder if he got a bad math grade too.

      1. Cholma

        Never was good at Algebra (or Trigonometry, for that matter). 😀

        1. Marsh Maryrose

          What about history, or biology?

          Science, French, geology?

        2. Cholma

          Did okay in History, Science, & French. Can’t remember geology or biology, except for the frog dissection.

          Of course, that was all loooong ago, so I can easily say ♫ don’t know much about the French I took ♫ 😀

        3. Marsh Maryrose

          So you know what I’m going to ask you next:

          How handy are you with a slide rule?

          (I think I still have my high school slide rule in a storage box somewhere. Probably next to some punch tape rolls and and an 8-inch floppy disk.)

        4. Cholma

          Haven’t touched a slide rule in . . . uh, 25-30 years? I’m guessing I would be hopelessly lost at first attempt to remember how to use it.

        5. Opus the Poet

          I still have y E6B circular slide rule AKA “Flight Computer” from my Private Pilot exams, both the one I passed in the 1970s and the one I passed in the 1990s. And it still works, including the plastic thing on the back used to plot wind correction angles. Actually I haven’t tried to rotate the plastic thing so it might be stuck to the back of the computer.

        6. Jean Cabot

          I’m an Older Student in university and I often have the same expression when surrounded by teens(tm).

        7. Fogel

          What a wonderful world this would be?

        8. Felian

          …hah, just what i thought of when i read the comments above 😀

        9. Fogel

          😀

        10. Deanatay

          Dude, no tag? Cholma got gyped.

        11. Jean Cabot

          Hello, I’m just assuming you didn’t know but ‘gyped’ is a racial slur. I wasn’t sure what to do when I saw it in this thread but I would have felt weird if I didn’t tell you.

        12. Skeptible

          Do racial or cultural slurs ever expire? I don’t mean “go out of use”, just lose their sting. Around here I would guess the answer would be “no”, but I really wonder if the term “Yank” or the expression “Dutch treat”, still have any slander left in them.

        13. Wright

          I would assume they do, though I think it all depends on the word.

          If not, then I get to go full-on word nerd on people and call them out on using phrases like “Long time no see” and “No can do.”

        14. hallucigenia

          Wait, how are those racist? They’re just direct word-for-word calques from Chinese; is it racist that Chinese and English grammar don’t match well? Or is it something about the history of how they’ve been used that I don’t know about?

        15. Wright

          The history. Both phrases originated as ways to mock Native Americans (the former) and Chinese immigrants (the latter) and became part of the common vernacular; so much that modern day people don’t recognize the racist undertone.

          Pretty sure that if you were to use the term ‘gyp’ around someone of Roma heritage it would be at least mildly offensive, so I don’t think that one has (or probably will) fall into inoffense.

        16. RicardtheDragoon

          Wow. That was enlightening. I wasn’t even aware of that before this. Thanks.

        17. Regalli

          Did not know that before. Aaaah, vernacular!

          From what I can tell, Romani actively consider it a slur, particularly if they’re in Europe where prejudice against them is still a very common occurrence – not that it’s not present in the US, but awareness of the Roma people as a currently-existing and real ethnic group in general is less around here.

        18. Lokitsu

          I have an Irish acquaintance who isn’t amused when folks use the phrase “paddy wagon”. Three guesses how I learned this.

        19. SolomonK

          I wish racial and cultural bias would expire, but that takes more thought and societal work and humankindness than it takes to suggest softening or eradicating societal agreements against using biased language.

        20. Ana Chronistic

          “Sue” didn’t get a tag until like the fifth in-comic appearance (including just a speech bubble and one was an elbow?)

    2. Regalli

      Maybe he decided to hop universes when the Soggies came.

      Pretty sure the Soggies universe won out in the end, though, even with Soggies as a metaphor for Entitled Anti-Diversity Nerdbros.

  2. kay

    Sneak sneak

    1. Doctor_Who

      I love how Amber’s actually trying to be stealthy, but Walky just appears to be clomping along behind her like normal.

      I’ve been in adventuring parties like that.

      1. Yumi

        What’s funny to me is that Amber’s “sneaking” would actually be far more suspicious to any passersby.

        1. Marsh Maryrose

          For all her technical skills, I suspect that social engineering is not one of the tools in her kit.

        2. Betty Anne

          This. ^ If Amber’s going to take up “bad guy” tactics, she needs to learn that the first rule of “sneaking” is to act like you belong there and that it’s a completely mundane task ahead of you.

  3. Derek

    I guess Jason emailed his official resignation

    1. thejeff

      Probably just didn’t show up.

      1. Derek

        then how did they get a replacement so quickly?

        1. thejeff

          I think the prof has a couple TAs.

  4. Yumi

    If I…made a Dumbing of Age fanvideo (you know, like an AMV, but with DoA)…would people be interested in watching it?

    (Also, Willis, if you see this, would you be cool with that?)

    1. 4,000 spiders

      oh man i’d definitely watch that!! i’ve thought about doing one but uh i know nothing about video editing

    2. BBCC

      sure!

    3. Sporky

      uh, hell YES?

    4. Mravac Kid

      The real question is, where is it and why haven’t we seen it yet? 🙂

    5. RicardtheDragoon

      If you post the link in a comment on a DoA strip (or Willis officially posts it in a description) once it is viewable, then of course. It sounds like an excellent idea.

  5. Sunny D

    Huh. I half-expected Jason to actually kinda fight for his TA job, honestly

    1. timemonkey

      Why? He’s guilty, he has no reason to think Sal would lie for him, and if there were cameras in the office he’s screwed no matter what.

      1. Yumi

        If there are cameras in the office, you’d think he would have considered that previously.

      2. Dr T

        It’s not like she was innocent either. She initiated the affair and expected him to improve her grades for it. He didn’t turn her down but at least didn’t alter her grades. Both of their ethics are crap.

        1. Larkle

          It was a bad idea on Sal’s part, but Jason is still the authority figure, he’s the one with responsibility and power in this situation. It would be different if Sal had forced him, but he was perfectly willing.

        2. timemonkey

          Which is irrelevant to this situation. Sal can seduce whomever she wants, she’s not the one ina position of authority she’s not supposed to be abusing.

        3. thejeff

          I’d guess you could probably still get in trouble for offering sex to a teacher in exchange for grades. Much like you could for offering them a monetary bribe.

          Not to the same scale as the teacher accepting of course.

        4. John Smith

          That seems like an absolutely bullshit double standard. Besides, he DIDN’T agree to change her grades for sex – she initiated with that expectation, but he didn’t agree to it.

        5. thejeff

          Not really. Or more accurately, it’s a good double standard. People in positions of authority (even as minor a one as TA) get held to higher standard – don’t have sex with the people you supervise.

          If you’re thinking it’s a gendered double standard – Penny got fired for the same thing and there’s even less suggestion of changing grades involved there, though we’re given the impression she was doing it more often.

        6. Inahc

          in other words: with great power comes great responsibility. 😉 (or in this case… with a little power comes slightly more responsibility)

    2. Keulen

      I didn’t, since Jason and Sal weren’t getting along last time we saw them together, and he’d need her help to keep his TA job.

      1. Minim

        Yeah, and he pretty much gave up as soon as he knew he’d have to argue against her: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2018/comic/book-8/03-faz-is-great/tribunal/ .

        1. Opus the Poet

          Pretty sure they have to come up with the affected party, not the accused. Even in civil cases the 5th Amendment still applies/

        2. BBCC

          Sure, but this isn’t a civil case. It’s an employment tribunal.

      2. Sunny D

        I guess I figured that since he was accused by someone who didn’t actually know anything, there’d be no way of them knowing that he actually DID do it. Penny didn’t know about Sal and Jason, therefore she didn’t give a name, and couldn’t give one or any evidence at that any sexytimes actually happened if she was asked to. Her whole claim kinda falls apart then. But I might be wrong in this, I’m going off of memory here.

        1. Dana

          That was my take too, at least so much as I remember what my take was.

        2. Sam

          They have stated he can only appeal at a tribunal if he can produce the affected student AND produce a counterargument as shown by the link in Minim’s comment above.

        3. Sunny D

          Yes but his counterargument could have easily been “Penny cannot even prove there IS an affected student at all, she couldn’t even describe this so-called ‘affected student'” because Penny had no idea about Sal and Jason’s relations

        4. thejeff

          Unless Penny did describe a student …

        5. Sam

          She could have described Sal, she saw her in his office before. Even if she didn’t, could still be a catch-22 of ‘without the affected student present, we will not proceed’ even despite how stupid that logic actually is because some people really are that stupid. The biggest flaw with your described plan is also Jason’s over all honesty: he wouldn’t think to take another student like say Walky and go ‘this is the ‘so-called affected student’ and manipulate his way out of it.

        6. thejeff

          With no description, you can just fall back on: “I’ve got no idea who you might be talking about. Penny just made it up or misinterpreted something so innocent I can’t even think of what it might be.”

        7. King Daniel

          Penny knew Sal had been alone in hers and Jason’s shared office for an off-hours meeting, and she may well have been the “other TA” to whom Jason handed off Sal’s papers for grading.

        8. thejeff

          That’s pretty much the only way I can figure it. Otherwise it makes no sense even by bad HR department standards. Maybe they have a description of Sal from Penny, but not a name.
          Still, just so damn awful I can’t even …
          Not only is it a screwed up Catch-22 that would keep him from defending himself if he was innocent, but if he actually was the real sleazeball type you’d expect to find sleeping with students, telling him to contact the student to defend himself gives him the perfect opportunity to persuade/bribe/threaten her into covering it up.

    3. Sporky

      I mean, I never got the impression he even LIKED his job. In a weird way it was probably kind of a relief to him.

    4. Drake

      Nah, it was clear from moment one that he was not going to contest it. Jason kind of has a sense of honor, if obviously a rather bent one, and part of that is that you don’t try to weasel out of punishments when you are actually guilty. I’m pretty sure it didn’t even occur to him that he could actually contest it and he’s probably be believed over the student.

      1. Sunny D

        That’s a good point, he probably didn’t even consider the fact that the case that Penny had made against him was actually paper-thin

  6. Stephen Bierce

    There’s No Business Like Cho Business…

  7. Darkoneko

    “where’s my boytoy ?”

  8. Kernanator

    Pay no attention to the freshmen in the hallway.

  9. Passchendaele

    *floating bowtie shows up, gives instructions*

    1. Doctor_Who

      Think anyone would notice the difference?

      1. Passchendaele

        if the bowtie could put on a British accent, nope

        1. Minim

          …For some reason, I now think Jason’s bow tie speaks in a Welsh accent. This amuses me.

    2. Ana Chronistic

      o no his bowtie

    3. Deanatay

      “You guys don’t think that’s a little spooky?”
      “I’m sure the bowtie’s qualified! Just look at that bowtie!”

  10. Danni

    cholma?

    1. Cholma

      It’s a me, Mari.. er, Cho! I really don’t want to see my grade in this class. 🙁

  11. BBCC

    Yeah, that’s about as much consideration as I expected her to give. Though I am amused she didn’t notice he wasn’t there until the end when he usually is at the front with the professor.

  12. jeffepp

    I take it she isn’t thrilled by her results. Not hair straightening. but, not great.

    1. BBCC

      I’m pretty sure the ‘ehh’ was in regard to ‘what happened to Jason’. I.e. I don’t really care *shrug*

      1. thejeff

        Maybe. It’s separated by a panel and seems more tied to looking at the paper though.

        1. Fart Captor

          I think that’s just showing how long she wondered about Jason before losing interest. We even have Amber and Walky passing the doorway to show how much time passed (very little)

    2. Coma

      I think they’re now having a test, not receiving one back.
      (Or else it would be pretty shitty, if other people besides the TA and professor were able to get to see your grade that easily.)

      1. Minim

        Joyce has mentioned seeing Walky’s grades: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2016/comic/book-6/02-that-perfect-girl/moral-support/

        1. CoMa

          I COMPLETELY forgot that, thanks for the reminder.
          (I’m still of the opinion: that’s pretty shitty)

      2. timemonkey

        I’m guessing you’ve never had your grades posted ona public sheet before.

        1. Carl-E

          You can’t do that anymore, the Federal Educational Right to Privacy Act (FERPA) doesn’t allow posting of grades in any identifiable manner (including SS# or student ID). Nor anything as low tech as passing papers back that way.

          You can’t even tell parents what their kid’s grades are without the kid’s explicit permission…

          FERPA went into effect in 1974, so you’re (probably) even older than I am… although I remember my grades being posted by student ID in the 80’s by a professor who was probably acting on reflex.

        2. timemonkey

          I’m 31, was born in 86.

        3. CoMa

          Okay, this “not telling parents their kids’ grades” must be US-only, because over here (well, at least in my country) if the student is a minor, teachers have the responsibility to inform parents of the student’s grades, behaviour and learning progress, even subject matters (if parents are interested).
          Only exception is if there is suspicion of abuse of the student by a family member because of bad grades – then the teacher has every right to not discuss grades with the parents (and possibly contact authorities, depending on the situation)

        4. Regalli

          That does still apply here if the student is a minor, though by high school it appears to be phased into a more opt-in situation rather than an expectation.

          However, they’re in college now, and most college students are age of majority so the expectation is that these grades won’t be shared as a matter of course. But the students are used to their parents knowing.

        5. CoMa

          Ah yeah, that makes sense (of course) – my brain just kinda got stuck on students in school, possibly because Carl-E used “kids” and for me, someone in college isn’t a kid anymore.
          And as an adult, I kind of already assumed everything being protected, as publishing grades etc. would definitely be against privacy protection laws.
          Guess my brain also stuck with younger students, because I sometimes get the impression, that people think just because someone is a minor, they don’t have a right for privacy or data protection (besides obvious things like talking about family matters of a student, or their home address).

        6. Portland

          Oh, I know this one! If the student is in college, their grades are automatically protected by FERPA. However, a lot of students sign a release to allow their parents to see their grades- some parents may make that a condition of paying for college. In K-12 schools, assuming the kid is a minor, the information is available to their parents.

          That being said, I definitely did have my tests passed back this way before, mostly in K-12. I actually got in trouble in middle school for asking a teacher not to put my tests in a stack because the other students were making fun of my bad grades.

        7. CoMa

          Thanks for explaining!
          I think I remember something like that in upper secondary, I think when we were sixteen, each of us was asked whether our parents should be continued to be notified about our grades (if they asked).

          That sounds kinda awful – especially this making fun of you for bad grades. I believe one or two teachers did distribute tests through students (like, choosing two students to pass out the tests, so there was a slight breach of privacy with those two), but nobody ever made fun of me because of grades (they did find other stuff to make fun of). Still, I’m happy that this kind of thing stopped (at least, I think a student has legal footing to keep it secret). It’s one thing if students voluntarily offers information, like “Hey guys, I got an F, again! Damn!”, but it’s a whole other scenario if it’s done by the teacher.

        8. CoMa

          I experienced ‘grade-posting’, in lower secondary on a bunch of centralised tests (for European comparison, at least the results were posted/shown in class, or for the year). But as Carl-E mentioned, it’s not consensus anymore to show grades like that for quite some time – which I personally find is a good thing.
          In university something similar-ish happened, a semi-anonymous publishing of grades (part one of a mass exam on Latin – results of hundreds of people were included into an excel chart by student ID number – so unless you knew someone personally and knew their ID number, it was VERY unlikely for anyone to identify your grade).

          But other than that, (though probably also culture dependent, I believe in e.g. Japan this is handled differently) if a teacher wants to discuss a grade in front of the class, or certain mistakes a student made, without making it anonymous (e.g. collecting common mistakes in class on a sheet without mentioning from which test they are), they need permission from the student.

  13. tyranidswarm

    Oh Sal didn’t you hear? Apparently Jason was sleeping with a student if you can believe it.

  14. Purblebirb

    I just did one of those snort laughs reading this

  15. Bagge

    This concludes Sal’s interest in Jason.

    1. BBCC

      I can dream.

      1. Gigafreak

        He got the fuck out of there.
        Specifically, her fuck.
        She fucked him right off. Gone.

  16. Keulen

    *Plays In the Hall of the Mountain King on the hacked muzak*

    1. RicardtheDragoon

      Or this version.

  17. DailyBrad

    Is panel 2 pinkshirt person new?

  18. SailorCakes

    You are what happened to him Sal. YOU!

    1. Yumi

      Well, he kinda happened to himself.

      Also, Penny.

      1. Cholma

        Yep. Penny. Because she lied to the board. Just so happens her lie happened to be true, otherwise the school wouldn’t have known.

      2. Mr D

        Didn’t, y’know, Sal initiate the fuckening?
        http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/01-if-the-shoes-split/whatsallthis/
        I mean, Jason had the moral obligation of stopping that right there, but it wasn’t all on him.

        1. Yumi

          Except he didn’t get fired for Sal offering to fuck him.
          So, that point, while relevant in other discussions about the situation, isn’t really relevant here.

  19. tirachokko

    took my brain some time to catch up but wow, the irony of yesterday’s strip contrasted with today’s…damn you Willis

  20. Cholma

    ♫ Who are the hackers in your neighborhood? In your neighborhood? In your neighborhood? Oh, who are the hackers in your neighborhood? They’re the classmates that you meet each day! ♫

    1. Cholma

      Derp. Just noticed the Alt-text. “Hi, yourself! Thanks for noticing me, Sempai.” 😉

  21. Morbid

    That’s how I handle change too. Ehhh

  22. Irredentist

    AHA! Jason WAS boosting her grades! And that’s why he answered yes when Billie asked. It’s all coming together. Sal will probably feel guilty and want to help Jason. He probably won’t get his job back, but she’ll do something. She’s not the type to leave him out to dry.

    1. Yumi

      I’m…mmmm….not sure how you got there, exactly. Was it the “ehh” in the last panel? Because I’m pretty sure that was a followup to her wondering where Jason was.

      1. CJ

        I rather though her subconscious picked up on Walky sneaking past up to no good.
        To me she has a “someone stepped on my grave” look, not an “oh shit failed it” look.

        1. ischemgeek

          At the uni where I went if there was an accusation of impropriety with a student they’d call up the student too. Maybe a note is there asking her to meet with the prof?

        2. RicardtheDragoon

          This was my take on her shudder as well though you phrased it better than I planning.

    2. nlips

      I thought was a shrug, a “I wonder where he is?” shrug “eh”

      as in, she doesn’t care enough to actually devote thought to wondering where he is.

    3. Minim

      If she’s got a bad grade here (I don’t know how to read Sal in that last panel but it doesn’t look like a bad grade situation – more like “eurgh what was I even *doing* with Bowtie” or just feeling slightly cold all of a sudden) it doesn’t mean Jason was boosting her grades. (Sal was in it for grades the first time so Jason didn’t lie when answering yes, and in their subsequent conversations it’s fairly clear that he wasn’t doing that) It’s even fairly plausible that Jason marked this load of papers given he was sacked only yesterday in-comic time. And Sal has been getting decent tutoring as well. So if it was a bad grade it’s far more likely that she had an off day (like everyone else does once in a while) or something like that.

    4. Sam

      He did say to Billie it was for grades, but Jason never gave her improved grades for it, which Sal got mad at him for. And even if he was NOW, she wouldn’t feel guilty, if anything she would be mad at him for LYING about that fact. Sal is 100% the type to leave him out to dry here because he has done nothing to earn her effort of doing something to help him – he got fired for something he did do and it’s not Sal’s responsibility to fix his problems regardless.

  23. Lingo

    I know she’s shrugging, but my first thought was that she was shivering as a couple of “ghosts” passed behind her.

    1. Lingo

      …And ninja’d by CJ.

    2. BenRG

      I think that Sal has a sixth sense for when Walky is going to do something stupid for a stupid reason.

  24. Ghostforge

    at first I thought the Cameo was Buckets of Blood Guy™…

    1. Cholma

      Ouch!

  25. Archivist

    This strip is framed like Amber and Walky assassinated him.

    1. Yumi

      I know he’s actually alive and all, but I kind of want to adopt this as my new headcanon.

    2. Eldritch Gentleman

      Is he a Templar!?

    3. BenRG

      In a very strange metaphorical way, Walky did kill the old Jason but I think it’s more that Sal has a sixth sense for when Walky is about to do something really dumb.

  26. BenRG

    Just to make things really weird, Sal’s brother-sense is tingling. It never resonated this hard since that time Walky tried to drop a venomous centipede down the back of Billie’s dress when he was four years old!

  27. cbwroses

    Nothing says “I’m sneaky. Don’t pay attention to me. Nothing to see here.” like walking on your tiptoes down a brightly lit hallway.

    1. BenRG

      What they need is for Amber to be humming the appropriate background music from the Metal Gear series!

      1. Ana Chronistic

        Two Intrepid Friends.

        Led by Walky! Their Leader Walky!

        Walky’s Angels Mmm-Mmm-Mmm

        Walky’s Angels Mmm-Mmm-Mmm

        Harnessing the power of the trash

        with the Ancient Amulet they found on the rooftop!

        Mmm-Mmm-Mmm

        The Amulet is crap

        Mmm-Mmm-Mmm

        It’s probably a garbage dump

        Amber: Walky! I will computer hack you in the face!

  28. Jimmy

    If only they had a big cardboard box they could hide in and move ever so slowly. That would be so much more inconspicuous.

    1. Reltzik

      ….. okay. Now I’m imagining a social experiment of doing this with a big sign on the box saying “stealth device: pretend you don’t see me” just to see who plays along.

      1. RicardtheDragoon

        How many will see the person but not the sign?

  29. Jim

    Odd that the new TA wasn’t tagged, especially as she has a speaking role. Is this a one-panel appearance?

  30. Deanatay

    “Hrm. Shoulders twitching. Apathy levels rising. Weird, that usually only happens when mah dork brother is nearby.

    Eh well.”

  31. Ryek Hvek

    Is that Joe Matt sitting in front of Sal? {Joe Math}

  32. C.T Phipps

    I think the punchline is Sal thinks so little of Jason she doesn’t care he’s gone.

  33. hof1991

    Sneaking? Sneaking?
    https://youtu.be/iB5asCOdrms

  34. CoMa

    I have to imagine the sneaking in the background accompanied with Mission Impossible music.

  35. Robert

    You forgot to tag Paley McPaleface over there in the right hand corner of the panel. Holy crap that guy needs a tan.

    1. BenRG

      Speaking for some of us, some people don’t do this ‘tan’ thing – They just go to ‘hideous burn and shedding epidermis’.

      1. Liquid Len

        Been there, burnt that! OUCH!

      2. Daibhid C

        The evil daystar burns and blinds! Luckily, here in Scotland we hardly ever see the dratted thing.

  36. abysswatcher1993

    HEIST!!!!

  37. Arianod

    OK, so Jason did really lose his job.

    1. BBCC

      He still has the tribunal coming up so he might not but he doesn’t plan to contest it and they still have classes until then.

  38. Schol-R-LEA

    You did, Sal. You happened.

    1. Schol-R-LEA

      Well, technically, Penny happened, but it sort of works out the same way.

      1. Bagge

        In for a Penny, in for a pound…

        1. TheKelliestKelly

          Or if your Joe…

          In Penny’s office, in for a pound

        2. TheKelliestKelly

          *you’re

  39. Lone Duck

    Calling it now, Mike is a new TA, or else in the office for other reasons and is waiting for them, to ruin their hacking plan.

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