Update on my daughters wing-nut teacher

[mcctatas]

See the following link for context:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=4007252&mesg_id=4007252

Her principal called me right away this morning, the new principal, an African American woman from Trinidad (I only mention this because she shared her discomfort about broaching the subject with the teacher, in case she tried to spin it into a "you're sticking up for him because your black" argument). She was shocked and appalled, assured me that this teacher was not only wrong, but that kind of proselytizing is against federal statutes. She asked my permission to talk to my daughter about this and said that although she believed my daughter was telling the truth, she fully expected this teacher to deny it.
About an hour later she calls me back and says I spoke with the teacher and not only did she not deny it, she believed she had every right to say it because "It was on the news" (wonder what network she watches :sarcasm: ). The principal quickly disabused her of this notion, gave her a warning that if anything like this ever happened again she would face formal disciplinary action. She also reassured my daughter that she has every every right to have whatever political swag she wants on her person or her backpack as long as it does not otherwise violate the dress code and told her that she was very proud of her for taking an interest in an important issue like politics!

Pretty good outcome IMHO

[MichiganVote]

1. Nice to have a silver lining.

[redwitch]

2. Excellent outcome.

You must feel reassured and your daughter too!

[rufus dog]

3. Very cool!

Can I go beat the teacher up though!?

[mcctatas]

You can't hit a girl silly....

unless you are a girl in which case....;)

[nradisic]

4. Stand up for your rights!

from Bob Marley....Well done.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. I'm so glad it turned out this way

Hope your daughter has a good year in school now.

[liberalmuse]

6. Yay! It sounds like you handled the situation correctly.

And so did the principal. Thanks for the update! And, your daughter got to see the 1st Amendment in action. Hopefully the teacher learns from this. It's not comforting to know that some teachers out there are so closed minded and repressive.

[JerseygirlCT]

7. Yay! Perfect outcome

Good for you, your daughter and the principal!

[Tangerine LaBamba]

8. That is a GREAT principal!

We should all have had such a great woman backing us up!

Terrific outcome, I'd say. Could not have been better.

Time to get your girl a really cool Obama/Biden t-shirt, eh?

[MrModerate]

9. What subject does the teacher "teach?"

Not American government, I hope . . .

[NightWatcher]

10. woohoo, glad to hear that. You should give your daughter tons of O pins to distribute to her class

go hear and get a few dozen

http://www.democraticstuff.com/

I just got my big shipment of hillarious pins

[firedupdem]

11. Very Good! Glad you took care of that! n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

12. Good news! And who says our schools are in trouble? n/t

[madeline_con]

13. Same thing only different happened to me.

spell edit

We were watching the news while we waited for computer access to the multi million $ reading program the county bought.

Anyway, Pukey Palin came on, and I was telling the kids about her support ofarial wolf hunting. they were grossed out. I was warned to stop telling them that. (It's a FACT, what can I say)

Then she said, "I said thanks but no thanks..." and I immediately said, "See right there, she's lying. she actually wanted the money..." Again, the teacher cut me off and said "You can't DO that!"

What ever. :eyes:

[yellerpup]

14. Thanks for keeping us updated on this situation.

Sounds like everyone involved except the teacher who listens to "all propaganda all the time" behaved exceptionally. Good on all of you! :kick:

[baby_mouse]

15. Perfect Score! There ARE some good guys left! NT

[eowyn_of_rohan]

16. "Show the teacher this video of Obama LEADING the Pledge in the Senate "

Did you see this post on your original thread? It was from "Naturyl" Tue Sep-16-08 02:30 PM

Here is the link she gave
http://my.barackobama.com/page/invite/patriot

[AwakeAtLast]

17. Can that person be the principal in my building?

Can we all have one just like her? Please?

Glad to hear it was resolved!

:hi:

[gblady]

18. Thanks for getting back on this...

looks like a great outcome...
taught your daughter a great life lesson.

[donco6]

19. Great response by the principal

You don't always hear stories like that.

[Laelth]

20. Good principal, and I am sure you are rightly proud of your daughter.

n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[DemoRabbit]

21. Congrats! It's good to hear of a principle doing the right thing!

[cherokeeprogressive]

22. Now get your daughter an Obama ring tone for her cell phone and call her in class once a day. n/t

[Dorian Gray]

23. That's a great outcome

The principal sounds like a great woman. I'm glad you dealt with someone so reasonable.

[cling2reality]

24. how stupid can people be???

I am really sick of this ridiculous unpatriotic bullshit that the repubs put out.
Incidents like this remind me that it is not just the mouth breathing hairy neandrathals that believe this shit but even supposedly educated individuals.
People this stupid drive cars, that scares me.

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[mcctatas]

26. yeah...

the poor oppressed, powerless white men! Give me a fucking break! Go back under your bridge!

[XOKCowboy]

29. Wow I finally got to see a real troll in action...

His 3rd post here and he's bemoaning the plight of the beleaguered white christian male.

I usually only get to see the tombstone which I'm sure will be coming soon.

[hootinholler]

46. Alas, it's enjoying its pizza.

Only 3 posts, so sad.

-Hoot

[asdjrocky]

27. Wow, well hey there how ya doin'?

Welcome to DU. And you should always watch the spelling and grammar, that's a dead give-away around here. Remember, we're the people who actually read books, we're not the ones that burn books.

Have a nice stay.

[nadinbrzezinski]

30. WOW, what part of you cannot do this in school regardless of

political views are you missing?

And you only discuss this in CIVICS or POLI SCI class

By the way... thanks for your service

[AllieB]

34. Thank you for your service.

However, you need to really educate yourself and read some history,

[Richard Steele]

35. Congratulations- that was almost a sentence.

[rockymountaindem]

37. lol n/t

[LeftyMom]

39. Just so you know, sitting around in your underpants playing Medal of Honor

doesn't actually count as "defending this country."

[Occulus]

55. I thought jockstraps didn't count as underwear.

:yoiks:

[cabbage08]

43. Go away

[asdjrocky]

28. Thanks for the update.

I was wondering about this today. Good job on being pro-active and doing something about this, and hats off to the principal as well.

Sounds like you have a good and thoughtful kid there.

[curious one]

31. Congratulating the principal for not being intimidated and doing the right thing.

[SeattleGirl]

32. Hooray for the Princlpal!

Way to stand up!

[timtom]

33. Great outcome!

And, shame on that teacher for being so stupid.

But the principal, being from Trinidad, isn't "African American". For one thing, she didn't share the same history and culture of African Americans.

Not to put too fine a point on it, that is....

[mcctatas]

36. Yeah...

I kinda thought of that after I posted it. I probably could have phrased that better :dunce:

[timtom]

41. I only spotted it because I'd been up against that same

quandary before.

I really haven't resolved it yet.

[Starry Messenger]

38. Good news.

Thanks for updating. "It was on the news" indeed. :( What a great principal.

MPK

[vanderBeth]

40. Looks like it turned out pretty well. Congrats

Your principle sounded very nice and supportive (I wish my old one was like that. She definatly would've have sided with the teacher).

Let's hope that teacher doesn't start this again. If not, there are plenty of people to "educate" her. ;-)

[WritersBlock]

42. This is very good to hear! Kudos to the principal, and to you & your daughter! n/t

[cabbage08]

44. kick n/t

[DeeDeeNY]

45. That teacher should be "educated"

She should be given factual information to read about Obama that debunks the pledge of allegiance rumor she evidently thinks is true. This would be scary for any adult to be so uninformed, but it's extra scary that a teacher has such poor critical thinking skills as to believe everything she sees on Fox News.

[LWolf]

47. That's the best possible outcome.

I'm glad for you and your daughter, although I'm not surprised. The only surprise is that the teacher didn't know better. Or, knew better but figured those laws were kind of like speed limits: they only count if you get caught. :eyes:

Meanwhile, can I share something with you?

There is an assumption, somehow, that Democrats, and the Democratic Party, are somehow friendlier to teachers than republicans. They certainly benefit from big teacher's association endorsements, and, in my 25 years of public education, the vast majority of teachers I've met have been Democrats, or at least vote for Democrats.

Just a personal note. I noted that your original thread, which I responded to, had 164 responses. This one, so far, has a bunch, too. I didn't count.

That is typical of any thread on DU that goes after a teacher. Any thread title that attacks a teacher brings out the sharks.

As a teacher, it's disheartening. Not that this teacher doesn't deserve disciplinary action. Most teachers WANT colleagues who violate professional standards or laws to be disciplined, because that small fraction is what the rest of the nation uses to judge the rest of us, and condemn the entire profession.

Still, here at DU, threads going after teachers enjoy vigorous participation. Threads supporting teachers sink. For example, this thread, which got one whole response, while cross-posted in two different forums. One response from, you guessed it, a fellow teacher:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x185758

While I'm glad that your situation is resolved positively, I wish that the support that educators give Democrats, and the Democratic Party, would be reciprocated, in the real world and here at DU.

[Downtown Hound]

48. How does somebody that stupid get to be a teacher?

Scary.

[knitter4democracy]

49. Christian colleges or evangelicals that slipped through the cracks.

I went to one, and ours had a very good education program. Our secondary ed prof actually went over just what we could say and what we couldn't and why and made us learn all of the legal decisions about politics, faith, dress code, everything in our curriculum class. I don't think the elementary ed teachers got as much as we did, though. I've run into teachers from public college programs that didn't know what the boundaries were, though.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

50. Now tell your daughter to be disruptive in class.

Just to fuck with him.

[rvablue]

51. An excellent Civics lesson 101 for your daughter.

Proud of what you did and you have set an example for your daughter as she matures and becomes part of the RESPONSIBLE electorate.

BRAVO!

[dhpgetsit]

52. Ba-ROCK ON!!!!

:headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang: :headbang:

I still want a debate between the teacher and uh.. let's say Rachel Maddow in front of the class.

[librarycard]

53. It's also legal not to say the pledge

as long as you are respectful of others who do wish to say it. The same goes for teachers.

Plenty of other countries don't even have a pledge, Germany being one of them, after WWII.

[specimenfred1984]

54. I'd have fired the wingnut

Had her removed my security.

[Morrisons Ghost]

58. You can't fire

Someone for holding a differing political view than yours even if they insist on sharing it with you...Especially a public school teacher...the pricipal has no power to fire a teacher btw!

[Hekate]

56. Thanks for the update. Sounds like there was a respectful outcome all around. nt

[Lithos]

57. Cool

Sounds like you have a good principal!

L-