A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Via The College Fix:
Teachers vent about their jobs all the time, and sometimes they do it on Twitter, Facebook or other social media outlet.
But usually it’s in the vaguest of terms: “Man, what a rough day! Period 5 was off the wall!” … or something similar.
This past Wednesday however, teacher Veronica Welsh took it just … a little bit further.
The world language teacher at Smithtown High School West in the New York town of the same name took to Facebook and said that it was “easy to spot which students are racists by the Trump gear they’re sporting […]”
It was “USA Day” for the school’s spirit week.
As a result, Welsh has been “administratively reassigned” with Superintendent James Grossane offering the following statement:
“Please be advised that we are handling this in a professional manner and all appropriate disciplinary actions are being taken. This is an extremely unfortunate incident and these actions are not promoted by the Smithtown Central School District Administration and Board of Education, nor do they reflect the attitudes of our students and staff.”
It wasn’t the first time Welsh had voiced her views on The Donald, either. Back in May she had written on Facebook “I feel really (expletive) when I see former students posting things on Facebook that are pro-Donald Trump I’m sorry for failing you at Smithtown High School West. I should have done better.”
“Failing you”? You’re a world language teacher, Ms. Welsh. The only course which should be broaching the topic of politics at school is something like history, or government, or civics. And from where would you gather the notion that it is your duty to “educate” students on the “proper” choice of presidential candidate? Was your ed school? Some other class or professor?
Down south in Fayetteville, North Carolina, a history teacher is looking at a 10-day suspension without pay for stomping on the American flag in class — in order to “demonstrate” the First Amendment right (based on the US Supreme Court decision Texas v. Johnson) to do just that.
While I can appreciate what the teacher, Lee Francis, wanted to do, common sense does have to be applied. The school is located in a military community, for goodness sake. Francis’ … “example” certainly could have been executed in a different manner.