One for the “Are you shitting me?” file
From Cassy Fiano, who is quickly becoming my favorite blogger:
Two teachers at Dennis Yarmouth Regional High School have touched off a firestorm after holding up an “End War” sign at a school assembly where six students who’ve enlisted in the military were being honored.
Many in the community say the teachers crossed a line and treated their own students with disrespect.
The students received a standing ovation, but at that point the two teachers sat down refusing to clap.
Teacher Marybeth Verani defends her protest saying, “I’m showing students in a democracy how to exercise dissent.”
This happened in Massachusetts, so one might be tempted to say, yeah, that’s Massachusetts. But I went to public school in Mass, and my Dad was a teacher there, and Asst. Principal. And although my Dad is a flaming lefty, he would have punched a teacher in the stones if they tried to pull this bullshit.
Go read it all over at Cassy’s.
Category: Antiwar crowd
Teachers? Do these scum still have a job?
Forgive me. I’m just “exercising dissent.”
Cav–they’ll probably be promoted soon enough.
[…] This Ain’t Hell One for the “Are you shitting me?” file […]
I was going to send you a link to that. She seems like a real puke.
She falls back on the “just exercising dissent” routine. Okay, okay, I get that. But can a teacher honestly say anything? I’d like to put that hypothesis to the test.
I don’t think I’ve ever had full freedom to say whatever I want to say in any job I’ve ever had. The government can’t throw me in jail, but my employer can tell me shut the hell up or find a new job.
So let’s presuppose for a moment that a homosexual student was getting an award and a teacher decided to use the opportunity to hold up a sign reading “Out with the Gay-Straight Alliance”. Would that teacher have a job the next day?
I guess my question is this–is there any limit at all as to what a teacher may say while on the job? No one really believes that.
There is no argument I will buy in this case. Teachers are supposed to teach, not preach. Like Reporters, there is a certain objectivity that ought to be followed. Now, when one gets to college, I think it changes a bit, and by law school it becomes all Socratic method. I can buy sometimes a teachers playing “Devil’s advocate”. However, in this case we have 6 young men (and women?) joining the military. It was not a pro-war rally, it was not a political show. Even had it been, teachers on both sides should stay clear, and a school administration should simply facilitate. To prosthletize (sp?) on a specific viewpoint to teens does not engender further open dialogue or discussion, it merely makes the kids have to hide whatever they believe if it is different that the teacher.
I think this is absurd. You want to protest, do it somewhere else.
TSO,
Agreed. You hit square in the black.
There is no excuse for such behaviour, and I sincerely hope that these two assckowns lose their jobs over this crapweasely stunt.
I saw this shite on Fox the other day and was blown away. Just another case for Home Schooling and Vouchers. God I wish I could afford to stay home and teach my grandkids. My own kids have learned more from me about American history than any state certified teacher, they ever had. Someone needs to inform Ms Verani we live in a REPUBLIC!
I wonder if Maybeth would like me dissenting by standing next to her with a sign that said
“Marybeth Verani
is a stupid bint!”
Two instances from my days in college:
There was an ROTC department on campus. The cadets had their own area on campus, including an outside training area, and they did their exercise runs on campus. They also wore their uniforms while in class once a week.
1.) A professor demanded that the cadets wear civilian clothes to his class; he would not let them in with uniforms on. They went to their advisor (an Army Colonel, I think) and he used the administrative process to back the professor down. The cadets HAD to go to class in uniform, and were allowed to do so.
2.) When the cadets did their morning runs, it was in formation, and they sang as they ran. These were rather war-like chants about being Airborne and being Rangers…that kind of thing. Some of the professors complained that they were too “violent” and “promoted violence.” The same Colonel mentioned above had to go through the Administrative process to get the runs approved, too.
This was a liberal arts college, and there were many groups that organized events, and had music, dance, speeches, debates, and all other kinds of activities on campus. You didn’t hear about wars in the Administrative office about those!
A perfect example of our education system. These teachers think the US is a Democracy.
Carl scores right off the bat….
American soldiers = nazi’s
I’ve never heard that comparison before…
Carl, I wish your teachers would have taught you history during your time in school.
Since they didn’t, I’ll clue you in. Most of the propaganda came well before WWII started. The SA (brownshirts), SS, Hitler Youth, Aryan projects, etc. all started back in the mid 30’s, before 1939, with the SA starting back in the early 20’s and SS starting in the early 30’s.
“I wish more German teachers had done this during WWII”
Yup, we’re just like Nazi Germany. That’s why these teachers were summarily marched off to be shot. Dumbass.
Old Trooper
Propaganda…..you mean kinda like Iraq Veterans Against the War actually being Iraq veterans???? Or better yet being against the war?
Only Carl could pull off a level of dumbassery like that.
#11 Carl Webb:
German teachers (as well as others) did attempt to stop the Nazi’s rise to power. They ended up having to flee the juggernaut.
The Nazis started as a political party, they did not rise from within the military (this despite the fact that Hitler served in the military in WWI.)
What these teachers did has nothing to do with the very serious responsibility of controlling the use of a country’s military, and making sure that the young people who join the military understand the grave obligations they face when they do so.
What these teachers did was an act of ill-mannered, ill-timed, self-serving attention seeking. That’s all.
Pinto,
You probably lost him afer #11…….
These f*cktards probably don’t have American flags in their classrooms of have the Pledge of Allegiance any more either. If they’re public employees, they can put the flag back up, have the Pledge and shut the f*ck up about their anti-war opinion while our nation’s at war during work hours.
The way you “End War” is to have a military strong enough that others won’t attack.
Someone ought to have the ri-tards read the words of Ronaldus Maximus…”Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.”