Minnesota special education teacher Samantha Ness’s school placed her on leave after her post asking “so whose gonna take one for the team and kill Kavanaugh?” went viral, according to Fox News. The FBI launched an investigation, according to The Epoch Times, but the teacher resigned before the investigation concluded.
Superintendent Mark Zuzek said “The actions of the employee did not occur at school, and there were no school devices, equipment, or other school staff involved in the actions. At no time were students or staff in danger.”
OK, but that’s not really the point now is it, Mark? She wasn’t soliciting Twitter followers to kill her students and, let’s be honest, there’s a good chance that, in her mind, she was just joking around and didn’t actually intend to incite violence against Justice Kavanaugh. But here’s the question we should be asking: at what point do tweets impair someone’s ability to do their job?
Samantha could be a fan of Antifa and believe that violence is a perfectly fine way to express disagreement. Her tweet could mean that she’s teaching this ideology to her special ed class, which she might operate like University of Pennsylvania TA Stephanie McKellop, you know, the one who said “I will always call on my black women students first. Other POC get second tier priority. [White women] come next. And, if I have to, white men,” reported The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Now I’m pretty sure that any sane person would agree that someone practicing that little teaching method should be fired. But the tricky part is determining which educators who are just “joking around,” as I’m sure Samantha would argue she was, should also be terminated. The left has launched entire campaigns and social media lynch mobs devoted to getting people fired for harmless jokes and ones that definitely don’t incite violence. Sometimes I feel like it’s either stoop to their level, or suffer defeat in the culture war. It’s all about Saul Alinsky!
William Latson was principal at Spanish River Community High School in Palm Beach until a little earlier this week. The school reassigned Latson to another job in the district after the revelation of comments he made to a parent in an email exchange last year, reported The Washington Post.
Latson told the parent that he lets info about the Holocaust be presented but that “not everyone believes the Holocaust happened….I have the role to be politically neutral but support all groups in the school….I can’t say the Holocaust is a factual, historical event because I am not in a position to do so as a school district employee.”
He’s not in the position to do so, he says. I’m sorry but is there any position more qualified to comment on a historical event than the leader of an educational institution? Like isn’t it your job to know these things?
The principal said “I regret that the verbiage that I used when responding to an email message from a parent, one year ago, did not accurately reflect my professional and personal commitment to educating all students about the atrocities of the Holocaust.”
But state legislators called for Latson to be terminated and the school subsequently removed the principal from his position and put him elsewhere in the district. It’s a particularly ironic story considering Palm Beach County Schools is one of the only districts in the country to employ a curriculum administrator who addresses only Holocaust education — he apparently also won an award for it.
San Francisco’s board of education decided to paint over this mural showing George Washington, along with a dead Native American and an enslaved African American, reported The Washington Post.
Ironically enough, the school where this artwork is showcased is named George Washington High School. Mark Sanchez, vice president of the board, said “We believe students shouldn’t be exposed to violent imagery — that it’s degrading” and California State American Indian Studies professor Joely Proudfit said “It is time to erase the dominant narrative of the dead and defeated Native American….It is important that our public schools are a place for all students to learn and be educated in a safe environment.”
OK so I guess it’s one thing to object to violent imagery. But it’s quite another to question the factual validity of that imagery. The school’s still going to be a safe environment, Joely — the mural can’t attack people — and you can’t just discount history you don’t like by calling it a “narrative.” That kind of thinking probably underminesyour students’ ability to learn.
And what’s really ironic about this cultural Marxist mindset is that, in this case, it’s targeted at a mural that definitely isn’t pro-Washington and was apparently painted by Victor Arnautoff, a communist party member.
San Francisco — or San Franpsycho — also just might have some LGBT protesters on its hands if it covers up the whole mural. One of the panels apparently features a rainbow. San Francisco State professor Robert Cherny mentioned that the vote happened during Pride Month so if they cover up that picture, too, the real angle on this story is “Homophobic, Anti-Liberal California City Paints Over A Communist’s Portrait AND A Rainbow.” Not so woke now, are we?
A drag queen recently stripped during an event for children at Renton Public Library in Washington state, reported The College Fix.
Now this was apparently at a “Teen Pride” event, but the library listed it as suitable for teens and tweens, which are around age 9 through 12 and one of the moms who attended it undercover to film said that she SAW kids as young as ten.
Now, this undercover operation by the moms didn’t go so well, as event organizers and COPS removed moms who didn’t bring children.
Emerald City Antifa posted to Twitter, saying “today we had two queerphobic adults filming kids going in and out of the bathrooms at Teen Pride event at Renton Public library….We’ll post link in thread, please help us identify these pervs.”
Now, obviously if the moms were actually filming that, in addition to the drag show, that’s pretty sketch. But other users on Twitter began talking about one of the mom’s address and date of birth and posted photos of one of their cars and license plates.
So you know, you’ve got to wonder. You have Antifa and the far left pushing drag queens, but then you also have big corporations advertising with them and, of course, promoting physical violence. If you’re on the side of big corporations, how much of a radical are you really?
