A Jefferson County teacher picked the wrong example when he used assassinating President Barack Obama as a way to teach angles to his geometry students. Someone alerted authorities and the Corner High School math teacher was questioned by the Secret Service, but was not taken into custody or charged with any crime. "We did not find a credible threat," said Roy Sexton, special agent in charge of Birmingham's Secret Service office. "As far as the Secret Service is concerned, we looked into it, we talked to the gentleman and we have closed our investigation." Sexton said he generally doesn't discuss threat cases, but confirmed his office investigated the incident. No federal charges followed the probe.
The teacher was apparently teaching his geometry students about parallel lines and angles, officials said. He used the example of where to stand and aim if shooting Obama. "He was talking about angles and said, 'If you're in this building, you would need to take this angle to shoot the president,' " said Joseph Brown, a senior in the geometry class. Efforts to reach the teacher for comment Monday were unsuccessful. Superintendent Phil Hammonds said the teacher remains at work, and there are no plans for termination.These hateful pricks use the fact that the president they hate so much is not a vindictive, torture-loving individual with a God-complex. If this happened under George W., the teacher making such idiotic remarks would already be on his way to Guantanamo to be torured for years to come.
One of the most frustrating things connected with the story is that the parents of this school's students are willing to defend this so-called teacher:
Caroline Polk, the parent of a ninth-grader at the school, said she doesn't believe the teacher ought to be fired."We all make mistakes, and we should be able to learn from our mistakes," she said. "What he said was just wrong and inappropriate. Everyone's got their own opinions, but we have to be aware of our surroundings. At this point, it just needs to be handled in a way that it won't be repeated."For this crazy lady from Alabama (well, Alabama, what could one expect?), fantasazing about how to assassinate a president is a matter of having an "opinion." I'm sure there are quite a few folks in Alabama (and across the country) who would not mind having classes on how to assassinate a President added to the curriculum. Their hatred for the President is such that they don't even stop to think about the damage this freak of a teacher did to their children. What he was teaching them is that shooting at people is OK if they annoy you enough.
I really disliked former President George W. Bush. I hated his administration, I couldn't wait for his term in office to end. I believe that his policies ruined this country in many significant ways. I have a lot of anger towards him. Still, it would have never occurred to me to fantasize about his assassination, or discuss the possibility of killing him with my students. Disagreeing with a politician is one thing. Wanting to kill a human being is another. I believe that Bush needs to be brought to trial for his crimes against humanity. But I also believe that any one planning his assassination should be incarcerated immediately.
Allowing such a disgusting freak to keep entering the classroom and contaminating students with his hate is really too much. Even for Alabama.
9 comments:
This is disgusting.
I don't remember nearly this much talk of assassination when Bush was in office. Was I just oblivious to the assassination talk then, or is it really just going on more with Obama?
Even so, it's scarier now, because if I were to hear a bleeding heart liberal talking about assassination, I'd be a lot less likely to view it as a real threat than when I hear gun nut Republicans talk about it. (Which is not to say that all Republicans are gun nuts. Some of them aren't. But when those who ARE talk about how Obama should be assassinated, I can't help but take it as a serious threat.)
True! The talk about Obama's assassination began even before he was sworn into office and continues very insistently. It's weird how people who tout themselves as super nationalistic countenance such attitude towards the president of their country.
On September 13, 2001, my physics professor (at a major Southern state university) did a series of problems of an airplane dropping a "package" and a person jumping off of a cliff.
I know I wasn't the only person thinking of terrorist bombs, airplanes, and collapsing buildings, and of people jumping out of 100-story windows. I know this because I was one of a number of students in tears by the end of the lecture.
The professor was forced by the university to apologize later in the semester. He claimed he didn't realize his examples may have been upsetting, and kind of shrugged it off. He emphasized the role of the administration in his apology, and it was completely clear that he thought it was a waste of time.
Insensitivity and idiocy go hand in hand. Teachers who use insensitive or inflammatory "examples" for their classes breed insensitivity in their students, who are impliedly taught that anything becomes appropriate under the guise of "teaching." There should be harsher sanctions for professors and teachers (at every level) that cross those lines.
If a physics lecture about projectiles (am sorry to inform you that footballs, javelins and missiles all obey the same laws of motion) upsets you enough to bring out tears, it is you who is need of a reality check. I use such examples pretty often in my class, and might even make a few sarcastic jokes about bombs, and I am very pacifist and liberal as a person. Please make the necessary distinction between this and the shocking and dumb behavior of this schoolteacher.
Cringe-all -
The lecture was 48 hours after the 9/11 attacks. I grew up in New York. The buildings were still burning, and thousands of missing posters were going up all over the city. I don't think *I* was the one who needed a reality check.
Had the lecture been a week earlier, no problem. But it wasn't. Insensitivity was the issue here.
The Alabama teacher's situation was different, but just as inappropriate. You can teach geometry and physics without using examples of shooting people and dropping bombs.
Neither one was right, and both make me equally angry. Professors and teachers of neutral subjects like math and physics need to BE neutral, but also need to show sensitivity to current events, and the students in their classrooms. If you can't be bothered to do that, you have no business being a teacher.
Erin: that's horrible. I have no idea what the teacher was thinking. For a while after the events of 9/11 I had to organize the classes in a way that would allow the students deal with the trauma and have some kind of a healing experience. You are right when you say that a teacher who doesn't take such things into account has no business teaching in the first place.
Erin : Sorry I didn't pay attention to the date in your earlier comment.
Also it's probably not fair for me to comment without being aware of the exact circumstances of the incident. But then again, it seems to me that "packages" dropped from airplanes could as easily be food or medicine as bombs, and I still don't see the problem if the professor in question wasn't actually insinuating bombs.
"If this happened under George W., the teacher making such idiotic remarks would already be on his way to Guantanamo to be torured for years to come. "
Actually, I doubt it would have gotten as much attention as this did if it happened in the days of the Shrub. Stop exaggerating.
Regardless of political inclination once elected it's OUR President, that's the way I feel about President Obama, and that's the way I felt about President Bush, and all previous Presidents. So making assassination remarks about OUR President is not only irresponsible but last time I checked it's also against the law.
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