Teachers in border wall Halloween costumes put on paid leave
Source: AP News
MIDDLETON, Idaho (AP) Fourteen staff members at an Idaho school district who donned caricatured outfits depicting Mexican people and a border wall emblazoned with Make America Great Again have been placed on paid administrative leave.
Middleton School District superintendent Josh Middleton announced the decision Saturday at a special school board meeting.
After the announcement, the board went into executive session, which is not open to the public.
Board Chairman Tim Winkle says the costumes were part of a team building activity after school hours.
Read more: https://apnews.com/c0fee28b1e0c461c8964432ea388d11e?utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter&utm_campaign=SocialFlow
irisblue
(32,969 posts)uppityperson
(115,677 posts)Cracklin Charlie
(12,904 posts)They always gotta step over that line.
ToxMarz
(2,166 posts)DRoseDARs
(6,810 posts)...a Ku Klux Klan rally.
"team-building" exercise. Motherfucker, please.
angrychair
(8,698 posts)What makes women, people of color or LGBTQ or teachers support someone like trump and republicans? It defies logic and seems to denote a very deep hatred of ones self.
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,339 posts)I hope there were no teachers among this crowd.
Snellius
(6,881 posts)Can't get much further from the southern border than Idaho. Or from ever knowing any one other than white.
jmowreader
(50,557 posts)That's the ag belt, Snellus. There are a lot of farms and ranches, and all of them employ Hispanics.
LuckyLib
(6,819 posts)What a horrific message those deplorables are sending to innocent children.
🤬
hostalover
(447 posts)Good for the board and superintendent!
d_r
(6,907 posts)the worse fucking thing I've seen in a while, how could they be such racist dumbasses. PAID administrative leave.
BigmanPigman
(51,590 posts)d_r
(6,907 posts)ha ha charade you are
BigmanPigman
(51,590 posts)So many on DU assume I am a guy due to the Pink Floyd song title I chose for DU. It is really about the Big Pig in the W House.
d_r
(6,907 posts)but I knew which big pig you were alluding to
riversedge
(70,204 posts)steventh
(2,143 posts)And they're grinning like the fools that they are.
In case you want to see it with minimal effort, here's the Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.martinez.3958/posts/1850362375016777
BigmanPigman
(51,590 posts)from this DU post.
https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=11357125
sakabatou
(42,152 posts)BigmanPigman
(51,590 posts)As a teacher who lives at the border I am glad they were put on leave. This is really fucked up! What are they teaching when a camera isn't around?
garybeck
(9,942 posts)can i have some paid leave please?
YOHABLO
(7,358 posts)cstanleytech
(26,290 posts)as well as his stupid idea for a useless border wall or were they poking fun at the people trying to come to the US?
Harker
(14,015 posts)How deplorable.
Izzy Blue
(282 posts)Of course it was malicious,who the hell does the superintendent think he's fooling?
Every one of those 12 people has to be a Trump supporter who supports his anti-immigration policies and border wall otherwise they would not have been part of this.
How old were these children that were made to take part in the wall project?
I don't go for this sensitivity training bullshit as a punishment for teachers after they have been caught showing their true colors..all should be fired.
"Superintendent Josh Middleton posted a video on the districts Facebook page on Friday morning denouncing the costumes, which were worn by staff at Middleton Heights Elementary School. He said he offers his sincerest and deepest apologies to the families and patrons of the district.
In a statement provided to the Statesman, Middleton said he was contacted Thursday evening by a parent who was concerned about the photos.
We are better than this, he said in the Facebook Live video. We embrace all students. We have a responsibility to teach and reach all students period.
In its six hours online, the superintendents video has nearly 18,000 views and about 1,700 comments. The comments overwhelmingly denounce the districts post and the photos, and many people commenting are calling for the staff in the photos to be fired or to be punished for wearing the costumes.
The photos were posted from the Middleton School Districts Facebook page with a caption that said, in part, It was a great day to be a Heights Hawk! We celebrated our RESPECT character winners, single and double marathon runners.
The photos are now circulating across Facebook and Twitter across the U.S. Idaho DACA Students Facebook page also posted the photos, noting that the costumes are disheartening, heartbreaking and not funny.
middleton 2.JPG
One of the photos that circulated on social media Friday morning.
Screenshot via Facebook
Twelve Idaho-based advocacy groups and nonprofits, including the ACLU of Idaho, the Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence, Immigrant Justice Idaho and PODER of Idaho, sent a letter to the districts superintendent Friday afternoon stating they were deeply concerned about the costumes.
The intent or misjudgments of the individuals involved does not undo the trauma experienced by students, families and communities, the letter states. The impact on these students does not stay only with them but has lasting effects beyond the school or classroom. We believe the school and classrooms have now become hostile environments that are not conducive to the education of the students.
The letter urged the district to review the State Board of Educations policies and civil and human rights laws on discrimination and harassment.
Do I think there was a malicious intent with this decision? No, I dont, the superintendent said in the video. Was there a poor judgment involved? Absolutely. And we now have to own those decisions.
District administrators are actively investigating the incident, he said.
I was shown those photos and was deeply troubled by our staff members (who chose to) wear those costumes that were clearly insensitive and inappropriate, Superintendent Middleton said. ... Our time right now is going to be devoted to investigating those events and those poor decisions that were made.
In a Facebook post, the Middleton Police Department said it was stepping up patrols and presence near the school on Friday.
snip
"Twelve Idaho-based advocacy groups and nonprofits, including the ACLU of Idaho, the Idaho Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence, Immigrant Justice Idaho and PODER of Idaho, sent a letter to the districts superintendent Friday afternoon stating they were deeply concerned about the costumes"
more
https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/education/article221015995.html
KY_EnviroGuy
(14,490 posts)From my perspective, this activity was not only racist, it was also highly political in nature and may have been against school district rules regarding political activities by school employees, particularly with regard to activities on school property.
It seem quite obvious these people were "team building" as a group of Team Trump cult members, not as non-partisan employees and most likely represents a very prevalent attitude among many that work there.
In order for this many people to participate in the execution of this project (13 by my count), that whole damn bunch had to be members of America's right-wing Republican brainwashed cult. Otherwise, all it would have taken was a single person expressing a strong objection early in the project to point out probable breaking of employment rules to bring it to an end.
This school board has a lot of corrective work to do.......