Connect with us

K-12

Teachers In Trouble For Mexican Border Wall Costume

Published

on

The Middleton School District in Idaho found itself at the center of a media firestorm after its Facebook page hosted one photo appearing to show some employees dressed as the Statue of Liberty, an eagle, etc. holding parts of a border wall with President Trump’s slogan and another photo with employees wearing stereotypical Mexican costumes, according to The New York Times.

Josh Middleton, the district superintendent, said that while he doesn’t think the employees wore the costumes out of malice, he thinks that wearing them showed poor judgment. He said that he was “deeply troubled by the decision by our staff members to wear those costumes that are clearly insensitive and inappropriate….We are better than this….We embrace all students. We have a responsibility to teach and reach all students — period.”

The school placed the employees on paid leave but here’s the thing: people don’t actually know the purpose of the costumes. If we’re lazy leftists, we can just point the finger and cry racism. But first of all, stereotypes, where hyperbole meets pattern recognition, aren’t necessarily racist and second of all, what if the employees WERE acting on their responsibility to teach?

Two parents apparently said that the faculty was holding a costume competition in which teachers dressed as countries and, let’s be honest, the border wall is probably one of the first things that come to mind when you think of Mexico, whether it’s in a positive or negative light, SHEERLY by Trump and the media talking about it so much the past few years.

Oh, and, if a petition to reinstate the teachers is to be believed, no students were actually present during the display of the costumes, according to KTVB.com.

K-12

Student Knocks Off MAGA Hat, Rips Away Trump Banner

Published

on

Kenneth Jones, a student at Edmond Sante Fe High School in Oklahoma, flipped a MAGA hat off of another student’s head and ripped away a Trump banner the latter student was holding, according to The College Fix.

 

There’s a municipal court summons out for Kenneth, who’s 18 years old. But since he’s still a student, the local police say that Kenneth and the Trump supporter’s parents will need to reach out to the city attorney, meet up, and try to reach a deal. If that falls through, the city attorney can charge Kenneth with assault.

The school even noted that “Given that hats were allowed at school yesterday as part of the week-long fundraising events, there was no specific dress code violation. The student’s choice to grab a classmate’s property and knock his hat off did, however, violate the school’s discipline policy.”

If the parents of the MAGA hat kid are out there listening, don’t meet with Kenneth. The guy’s 18 — send a message that this behavior is unacceptable and try to get that assault charge.

Continue Reading

Arizona State University

Profs/Teachers Misidentify Covington Kids, Say MAGA Hat’s The Problem

Published

on

We know by now that the kid who made the smirk seen around the world was Nick Sandmann. But not everyone knew that at first. Arizona State University lecturer Lillian “Marie” Wallace said that that student was instead Covington student Michael Hodge, and proceeded to post contact info for the college that Hodge planned to attend in the fall, according to Campus Reform.

Others also misidentified Sandmann as Hodge. Here’s the thing: Hodge wasn’t even in D.C. on the day of the incident. But that didn’t stop the mob from apparently sending harassment and threats to Hodge’s family and trying to get Cincinnati State to rescind his admission.

Wallace apologized after realizing she’d picked the wrong kid — but it seemed like she was only sorry for just that. Picking the wrong kid. Not going after someone underage because of political animus or fake news. And she wasn’t the only one.

Colorado middle school teacher Michelle Grissom was placed on leave after  reportedly misidentifying another Covington student and claiming that the boy was in the Hitler Youth, reported The Daily Caller News Foundation. The dad of the misidentified student who, again, apparently wasn’t even in D.C. that day, asked Michelle multiple times to delete her tweets, but nothing happened until after he contacted the school district.

But why even bother examining the details of the story when you can just smear a whole group on the basis that they support the president? That’s what our old friend University of New Brunswick professor Matthew Sears did in a Washington Post op-ed.

He made a pretty extensive analogy between the Covington incident and the Peloponnesian War before arguing that wearing MAGA hats constitutes “deliberate provocation” and concluding that “it is impossible to separate the MAGA symbol from anti-immigrant and anti-minority views and policies….by proudly displaying their MAGA hats, the boys of Covington Catholic presented themselves as embracing a set of exclusionary ideas.”

This is where we are: excusing the harassment of and threats sent to children, not because of their political ideology, but because of your insane, fictitious painting of their ideology.

Continue Reading

K-12

School Freaks Out Over White Hooded…Monk Robe

Published

on

Lower Merion School District, a school system in a pretty wealthy Pennsylvanian county, sent an email to families of high school students after a photo of a student in a white hooded robe raised some eyebrows, according to The American Conservative. The school district said:

“The robe is part of a monk costume from ‘Romeo and Juliet.’ The monk’s costume — along with many other costumes — were to be used by 9th grade English students to act out the Shakespeare play. The photo appears to have been taken as a student was returning to class for a performance.”

The spokeswoman said “As soon as the teacher saw that particular costume, she realized it could be misinterpreted and that its imagery was disturbing. The costume will not be used in future enactments of “Romeo and Juliet.”

Shouldn’t you be trying to make a white hooded robe represent a monk instead of the KKK? I mean, this is almost like shielding the KKK from cultural appropriation. And regardless of your intention, you realize what this unhinged paranoia does, right? It creates a never-ending cycle of trolls who spread fake news about milk, the OK-hand, and Pepe the frog somehow being neo-Nazi dog whistles, just to see the media outrage.

But this isn’t the first time Lower Merion School District has thrown a bit of a hissy fit. Last month, students at the district’s Harriton High School tried to host an event called Mr. Harriton, an annual competition that raises thousands for charity. But the school told students that they would need to change the name to a gender-neutral “Mx. Harriton.”

A few years before that, the district sent parents a consent form that they could sign to allow students to eat an Oreo. Students were apparently going to use the Oreo for a science lab and the teacher sent home a permission slip reading “the students may eat the Oreo after the investigation if this is okay with you. The students do NOT have to eat the Oreo if they do not wish to do so.”

Just a reminder that the craziness doesn’t always start at college.

Continue Reading

Trending

%d bloggers like this: