One snowflake got butthurt.
Via KTVI:
A long-time substitute teacher is told not to come back to Parkway South High School after he thanked students for standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. That act was considered “bullying” a district spokeswoman said.
Teacher, Jim Furkin, 66, thanked students for standing for the pledge but at least one student who did not stand felt singled out and bullied. It’s a school district where school board members stand and recite the pledge at every meeting and where the Parkway South nickname is, “Patriots.”
“The PA announcer says please rise for the pledge of allegiance,” Furkin told Fox 2. “I say ‘let’s go’. The kids get up, 24 kids in class and 22 got up. I say, ‘thank you very much, all of you that participated. I appreciate that. I’m sure all of those families that lost loved ones so we could have the freedoms we have today would appreciate that, too.’ That’s what I said.”
Furkin was a substitute teacher for the district for about 10 years. He filled in at Parkway South almost daily for the past 5-years. The encouragement for support of the pledge is nothing new, he said.
Still, after this incident district officials told him he could no longer work at Parkway South but could still fill in at other schools. He told the school board this week he was done.
Furkin compared his action to complimenting the hairstyle of one board member but not the others and then being banned from future meetings because he’d bullied the other board members. The flag, he said, was a special case with him.
“I just think that I would try to convey something like that to the kids who just take everything for granted. That flag is not to be taken for granted, in my opinion. It is our symbol of freedom,” Furkin said.