HS teacher tells student he'll be arrested...

[druidp]

...for disrespecting the President.
Forgive the site with obvious spin, but there's also a video of the exchange. This teacher is priceless.

www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=51633

High school teacher tells student he can be arrested for disrespecting Obama
Watch your tongues, kids.by John Hayward05/21/2012
29
Comments


Things are a little tense in North Carolina these days. At North Rowan High School last week, classroom conversation turned to the Washington Post’s ridiculous hit piece on Mitt Romney’s alleged “high school bullying.”

See how that works, kids? A major liberal paper cooks up a ridiculously sloppy, overblown story that plugs into an Obama campaign narrative. Within 24 hours, people who dare to question the news value of this story are getting insulted and kicked off the air during television interviews. A few days later, the story is being discussed in classrooms, its themes downloaded directly into young minds. Liberals hate Fox News because they fantasize that it has a fraction of this power.

At any rate, some of the students in that North Carolina classroom proved to be much better informed on this topic than the political officer acting as their teacher, and a lively argument ensued. Fortunately, a student was able to record it, with what appears to be a cell phone lying on a desk, and angry parents uploaded it to YouTube:



The teacher, who sounds about as thoughtful and aware of current events as the average Daily Kos reader, goes absolutely berserk when the students dare to question the official political agenda of the classroom. Shrill screams pierce the air, combined with some incredible bits of pure stupidity. Here’s the political officer / teacher’s dismissal of the comparison between Romney and Obama’s bullying stories: “Stop! Stop! Because there’s no comparison. He’s running for president. Obama is the president… you got to realize, this man is wanting to be what Obama is. There’s no comparison.”

The teacher’s furious devotion to Saint Barack goes completely over the edge when the teacher informs her captive audience that “disrespect” of President Obama will not be tolerated in her classroom, and might just lead to the arrest of dissidents, as related by the Salisbury Post:

The teacher tells the class Obama is “due the respect that every other president is due.”

“Listen, let me tell you something, you will not disrespect the president of the United States in this classroom,” she says.

The student replies that he’ll say what he wants.

“Not about him you won’t,” the teacher says.

Later in the conversation, the teacher tells the class it’s criminal to slander a president.

“Do you realize that people were arrested for saying things bad about Bush?” she says of former President Bush. “Do you realize you are not supposed to slander the president?”

The student responds by saying being arrested for talking badly about the president would violate the right to free speech.

“You would have to say some pretty f’d up crap about him to be arrested,” he says. “They cannot take away your right to have your opinion. ... They can’t take that away unless you threaten the president.”

This caused the teacher’s Bush Derangement Syndrome to flare up, and she offered some rather salty language about Bush, which rather strongly contradicts her point about showing respect for all Presidents. Of course, treating her tirade as a logical argument is the stuff of satire.

A rational education system would post armed guards at every school in the country to keep this lunatic away from other people's children for the rest of her life, but of course that’s not what happened:

Rowan-Salisbury spokeswoman Rita Foil confirmed the teacher is still employed with the district and has not been suspended for disciplinary reasons. Foil emailed this statement to a Post reporter Friday on behalf of the school system:

“The Rowan-Salisbury School System expects all students and employees to be respectful in the school environment and for all teachers to maintain their professionalism in the classroom. This incident should serve as an education for all teachers to stop and reflect on their interaction with students.

“Due to personnel and student confidentiality, we cannot discuss the matter publicly.”

It looks as if the machinery of student political indoctrination will continue humming along smoothly. Thanks to the growing movement of guerilla student filmmakers packing cell phones, digital voice records, and finely tuned B.S. detectors, those who suspect the crusade against “bullying” is really a vehicle for delivery of a partisan political agenda have a new exhibit.

Update: It's very much worth your time to listen to the entire ten-minute video above. The teacher's behavior is the big story here, but the students deserve applause for the tough questions they ask. There is cause here for dismay about the school system... but also for optimism about the students, who have both the reasoning skills and intellectual courage to stand up to ideological bullying.

[pixy0stix]

What was the kid doing with his cell phone out and recording?

[iammalcolmx]

OK I could only listen to about a minute and a half of it. That was the teacher?

[basilosaurus]

I'm sorry, but until i see the video, I find it hard to believe the interpretation of anything as biased as this.

[meshaliuknits]

My HS trig/calc teacher told me I would be arrested by SS for saying that it sucked that Pres. Clinton made us wait in the heat for an extra two hours (he was late) and that he should've apologized. But he and his coffee always smelled of whiskey, so I never really paid any mind to anything he said.

[druidp]

May 21, 2012 11:48:38 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

I'm sorry, but until i see the video, I find it hard to believe the interpretation of anything as biased as this.

Well, the video is basically just the kid's cell phone on his desk, so you don't see anything but you hear the exchanges. The woman speaking is obviously a teacher (as she references speaking to the kid's father about his work), however obviously it's entirely possible the entire thing was staged. But you'd have to listen for yourself to form an opinion.

I did include the disclaimer that the site had obvious bias, but the video/audio is available for anyone to hear and decide.

[druidp]

May 21, 2012 11:46:34 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

What was the kid doing with his cell phone out and recording?

Got me. He doesn't move the phone, so maybe he heard it getting questionable and wanted to document it. The image is stuck on the light above his desk, so it's just the audio.

[basilosaurus]

I'm listening, about 3 minutes in. She doesn't sound very... smart. But I don't think she's yelling or going beserk. She's raising her voice, but I just hear authoritative teacher in there. I don't really feel like listening to more, b/c, so what? Some bad teacher was out of line? Great, let the principal deal with that. It's not that big a deal to me. The actual content I heard wasn't out of line. She said that Obama is the president and deserves respect for the office which is true. Does it get worse?

[pixy0stix]

May 21, 2012 11:51:29 GMT -5 druidp said:

May 21, 2012 11:46:34 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

What was the kid doing with his cell phone out and recording?

Got me. He doesn't move the phone, so maybe he heard it getting questionable and wanted to document it. The image is stuck on the light above his desk, so it's just the audio.

Or the kids were purposefully goading her knowing where her reaction was headed. I can't listen to the video, but I think all parties in this are making a mountain out of a molehill.

It's best to keep all politics out of a classroom because kids are little shits, and teachers aren't supposed to have any opinions at all. /sweeps broad stereotype brush

[EloiseWeenie]

I only listened to the first couple of minutes. I wouldn't be surprised if the students knew this issue would make the teacher go off. It seems like they set her up (why else would a kid have his cell phone out to record a video- I thought cell phones weren't allowed out in class). I did LOL when she was talking about how Obama deserves respect, then a student asked about Bush, and she said something like "No, this is different."

[druidp]

The biggest interaction I noted was when one kid is repeatedly emphasizing that Obama is not a god, he is allowed to say what he likes about him, and insinuating the teacher may be mistaken in alleging that Romney (or anyone) is not on the same level of the president as far as people being able to criticize him. Which I agree with.

It also sounds to me like she doesn't have much control over the class at large anyway, as the kids get away with saying "shit" as they speak to her. But to me it does sound like she has obvious bias for Obama, which at least one kid does not share.

Take what you want from it.

[basilosaurus]

Oh, I can see a bias, and that's inappropriate. I just don't think it's an issue that deserves national attention. I'm sure there were plenty of teachers with a bias for Bush, too.

No, the kid can't say whatever he likes about the president. There actually is a line, although it's about threat, not criticism.

If this were a good teacher, I'd say that the lesson was that you can't say whatever you like b/c disrespect is not allowed in the classroom. Just like my parents wouldn't have let me talk poorly about my nana, even though no one actually liked her. But I'll certainly grant she's not a good teacher, so who knows.

Man, we used to love asking our Spanish teacher about the Bay of Pigs (he fought and was a POW, caught Hep, his urine was red, yes we knew all this), and what he thought of Jane Fonda (traitor) and JFK. It was a great way to kill a class.

[Deleted]

May 21, 2012 12:19:45 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

Oh, I can see a bias, and that's inappropriate. I just don't think it's an issue that deserves national attention. I'm sure there were plenty of teachers with a bias for Bush, too.

No, the kid can't say whatever he likes about the president. There actually is a line, although it's about threat, not criticism.

If this were a good teacher, I'd say that the lesson was that you can't say whatever you like b/c disrespect is not allowed in the classroom. Just like my parents wouldn't have let me talk poorly about my nana, even though no one actually liked her. But I'll certainly grant she's not a good teacher, so who knows.

Its more than a disagreement, though. The issue is that she's saying that the kid can actually be ARRESTED (for exercising his First Anendment rights) which is not quite the same as saying his words are disrespectful, and which is rightfully being interpreted as a threat.

[pedanticwench]

I listened to the whole video and I think the teacher is stupid and completely inept. It's a disgrace that she's a teacher.

[ttt]

May 21, 2012 12:32:44 GMT -5 sunmoonstars said:

May 21, 2012 12:19:45 GMT -5 basilosaurus said:

Oh, I can see a bias, and that's inappropriate. I just don't think it's an issue that deserves national attention. I'm sure there were plenty of teachers with a bias for Bush, too.

No, the kid can't say whatever he likes about the president. There actually is a line, although it's about threat, not criticism.

If this were a good teacher, I'd say that the lesson was that you can't say whatever you like b/c disrespect is not allowed in the classroom. Just like my parents wouldn't have let me talk poorly about my nana, even though no one actually liked her. But I'll certainly grant she's not a good teacher, so who knows.

Its more than a disagreement, though. The issue is that she's saying that the kid can actually be ARRESTED (for exercising his First Anendment rights) which is not quite the same as saying his words are disrespectful, and which is rightfully being interpreted as a threat.

She's wrong. And as she doesn't appear to work for a law enforcement agency, her saying he can be arrested isn't exactly a threat.