Students Disciplined for saying Obama's name

[my2sense]

PEARL, Miss. -- The Pearl Schools superintendent said that a school bus driver and a coach were disciplined for allegedly telling students not to say President-elect Barack Obama’s name.

Reporters with 16 WAPT News received several calls from upset parents that said a school bus driver told the children on a Pearl school bus that if they said Obama’s name, they would be written up and taken to the principal’s office for disciplinary reasons.

Another parent said that a coach at Pearl Junior High School told students that if they speak Obama’s name, they would face expulsion.

Parents said the incident is sad as America begins a new presidency.

"They feel like they are afraid to say our president's name because they will get in trouble," mother Canishia Simpson said. "They shouldn't have to feel that way."

Simpson's son Reginald was one of two students removed from a Pearl school bus Wednesday morning.

Reginald Simpson said kids on the school bus were saying, "Obama is our president." That's when he said the bus driver told the kids not to say the president-elect's name because she didn't want to hear it.

"Somebody said, 'This is history, woman,'" Reginald Simpson said. "She pulled over and kicked me and the kid off the bus."

The two boys were left at Pearl High School. They were later taken to Pearl Junior High School, where they attend school.

"We teach our kids not to be racist, and here it is going on," Canishia Simpson said. "I feel hurt by this."

School officials looked at surveillance video from inside the bus. They told Canishia Simpson that the bus driver overreacted.

In a separate incident, a girl's basketball coach at Pearl Junior High School told students they would be suspended for saying Obama's name.

"I did have two incidents and the principals did review the bus driver tapes. It appears that some persons, out of disappointment and disillusionment with the election, may have been so frustrated that they said something inappropriate to students,” Pearl Schools Superintendent John Ladner said. “We have taken appropriate steps with the bus driver and the coach.”

More here http://www.wapt.com/politics/17925627/detail.html

[Merlot]

1. oh. Mississippi.

[MrCoffee]

2. There should be some fascinating responses in this thread

[azmouse]

3. Obviously stupid knows no limits.

I hope the bus driver and the coach get fired.

[Ozma]

4. Simple answer......FIRE incompetent school employees.

If the school can't do it, President Obama will make sure they are not qualified to be around children with racist hateful attitudes like that. A simple competency test should do it. These folks are not qualified to teach or serve children, their brains are too shriveled with hatred.

[Alter Ego]

5. They should be fucking FIRED.

[monmouth]

6. I'd like to see/hear Trent Lott address this, that is if he's not the

one that initiated the "don't say his name" meme. This is disgraceful. Hope Keith puts it on "Worst"

[Alter Ego]

7. Obama = President Voldemort

[nxylas]

9. Fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself

Kind of hard to avoid mentioning his name when the election is all most people are talking about.

[qanda]

8. The superintendent's response is not at all harsh enough

He should be saying that this type of behavior will NOT BE tolerated in any shape or form. And taking your political beliefs out on children has to be considered one of the highest forms of child abuse.

[yeswecanandwedid]

10. Idiots, it's our friggin President. nt

[demnan]

11. Someone call the Mississippi ACLU

Let's nip this in the bud right now.

[marshall]

12. Are they saying his middle name?

There has been controversy for some time over people using the name Hussein in talking about Obama. This is the first I've heard about a controversy over using his surname.

[CatBO]

13. This is how racism will be destroyed in America...

Now that we will have a black President in the WH, racists are going to learn a very hard lesson: their intolerance will not be acceptable any more. Not even in the south.

The only place a racist will be allowed to show their racist tendencies, without being disciplined or ostracized, will be in their heads, and among very small groups of other racists. But if it leaks out, there will be ugly social and political repurcussions.

And these racists, many of whom were around in the 50's and 60's, will die off in a few decades.

Racism is still alive in America, but it's dying, being kicked and beaten to a slow death by agents of change, by people who will no longer tolerate the hatred. This school bus driver and coach are learning the very hard lesson that their ideas, their hate, is no longer acceptable and they will no longer be able to display it.

[AspenRose]

14. Let's see...who's acting like adults here, and who are acting like children?

:think:

[rcrush]

15. Lawsuit?

IF you want to get that bus driver fired the parents can threaten a lawsuit to the school. I'm sure they'd rather dump the driver than have to deal with parents. Its usually how schools operate.

[Pirate Smile]

16. Some people are really not used to LOSING.

Deal with it, people.

Geez. How pathetic.

[CitizenPatriot]

17. is anyone else wondering why

these people think it's alright to show such blatant disrespect for our President before he is even in office? I remember the Right's recent outrage that a sewage plant might be named after Disaster *. He earned that derision after 8 years of utter failure.

Where is their patriotism now?

How dare they?

Are they wearing a flag? Do they work for the govt? He is their boss.

HOW DARE THEY.

If a teacher had done that to the chimp on day 3 of his being elected, can you imagine the outrage?

[WeDidIt]

18. Anything short of firing them is not far enough

Zero tolerance on this shit.

[QueenOfCalifornia]

19. Yes kids...

you must now use the GOP code book for president elect Obama.

Let's see... it's right here under "N"

Mississippi is scary. :scared:

[Mad_Dem_X]

20. Fire them. n/t

[MagickMuffin]

21. I wonder what kind of discipline they are receiving

:shrug:

“As adults and professionals we are not going to deprive anyone of their excitement over the current election of President-elect Obama, or any other candidate,” Ladner said. “The whole nation was excited, and in no way and at no time will children be disciplined for saying the name of the president-elect of the United States. Any employee who would attempt to do that would be corrected and disciplined. We expect professional behavior, respect and demeanor of staff and students. It is unfortunate that some employees mishandled this situation but they have been disciplined and I have spent the day clarifying our policies."

Pearl's school superintendent said no child will be punished for saying Obama, Barack Obama or President Obama.
Ladner said this is a part of our history now, and students will learn it.

I would have continued to taunt these idiots just to see what they would have done. Then I would have filed a lawsuit against them.

[budkin]

22. Ugh... these next for years are going to bring out the worst in these people

[torgos_pizza]

23. This is why i'm glad I live in Massachusetts

Most everyone here voted for Obama, gay marriage is on the books, the Republicans have very little power here....The red south would be a living hell for me...I'm just a liberal yankee at heart...

[Kalyke]

28. My husband likes it.

He's from Massachusetts and lives with his Southern Democratic wife (me) in Tennessee.

Tennessee is sucking hard right now, but, honestly, MOST of the people are very nice.

[torgos_pizza]

24. Will these schools ban pictures of President Obama?

The racists are coming out from every hole and from under every rock....
So southern schools are telling students to basically hate the president?

And odds are these are the same people who demanded George Bush be worshiped as some kind of God.....

I wonder if a teacher puts a picture of President obama on their classroom wall, if that will get them fired?

[rateyes]

25. Throw the bus driver under the bus. Toss the coach off the field

and into the unemployment line.

[GoesTo11]

26. Some people still have a way to go

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBiAtwQZnHs

[jacksonian]

27. hey bus driver -

GET OVER IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Warren DeMontague]

29. They have this new thing- it's called "getting fired". nt

[AspenRose]

30. We seriously need to think about a "stupid shit republicans do to cope"

section of DU. Because I have this sneaking suspicion that this kind of crap is going to happen a LOT over the the next few years. And we need to keep it documented.

[kwolf68]

31. Damn Liberal school system

!!!