One heck of a lot, apparently:
A Marianna middle-school teacher has been suspended for 10 days without pay after he wrote a racially charged interpretation of a commonly used phrase in the presidential campaign of Sen. Barack Obama.While some parents and community activists were outraged by the actions of Greg Howard, Jackson County NAACP officials want to gather more facts before the group considers taking action. But some parents feel Howard should be fired.
Larry Moore, deputy superintendent for the Jackson County School District, said school officials determined Howard wrote an acronym with an explanation on a dry-erase board in his class Sept. 26 at Marianna Middle School.
It said, "C.H.A.N.G.E. — Come Help A (N-word) Get Elected."
Howard, who's been teaching in the district for 17 years, wrote the comment during his seventh-grade social-studies class that included 17 white students, six black students and one Asian.
Howard was suspended with pay Monday while the incident was investigated. The reprimand was elevated to a 10-day suspension without pay starting Thursday. Howard also must write a letter of apology to the students. (Link.)
A mere ten day suspension -- for actually writing that on a classroom chalkboard?? Unbelievable. But here's the thing: "Progressives" have been sticking up for lefty moonbats who spew similar garbage (just from the other side) in the classroom for decades. Think these "free speech absolutists" will jump to Howard's defense? Cheeyeah -- and Jason Scott voted for Reagan.
Joanne Jacobs (to whom the h/t goes for this story) read several comments at various sites which covered this story and found that some folks dubbed Howard "brave" to "speak out" about ... what exactly? His hatred for blacks?
Sheesh.
Hooray, Hube, something we can agree on! This is really indefensible. I'm not sure what your examples of lefties like myself defending similar speech on the opposite side are, but I'd like to think you'd be wrong at least in my own case. Having taught high school for a couple years (biology and similar subjects), this kind of thing is just unconscionable. I did my best to keep my political ideology out of the classroom because it was and is completely irrelevant to helping kids learn about science. That is, unless you would consider a blatant refusal to give any credence to "intelligent design" as politically motivated - though I prefer to think of it as scientifically motivated.
Posted by: JohnnyX at October 6, 2008 10:06 PM