FL: middle school teacher uses 'nigger' to describe Barack Obama

OMG

what the???????

you know it is good that this is coming out and NO ONe should be subject to this....Least of all in a school setting.... 10 days suspend pay??? the parents need to get with the program and remove him period!

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by: jacjr56 @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 09:25:29 AM CDT

Absolutely an atrocious story.

I posted a diary about this earlier at the Daily Kos http://www.dailykos.com/story/... and posted a YouTube video at http://www.laconiademocrats.org

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by: Ron Tunning @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 09:30:26 AM CDT

"and removed him from his position at the school. "?

does that mean they fired him or they'll just switch around his teaching assignments to another class or school when he's done his suspension?   This was an unconscionable and overt act of racism/harassment in front of a class (a captive audience).  As such, this one instance should be enough to be considered a fireable offense.

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by: ol cranky @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 09:41:42 AM CDT

What I heard on Keith Olbermann

was that he'd been transferred to teaching adults in the district's adult-ed program.

Because, you know, his bigotry won't fly as well with the adults or something, I guess. (/sarcasm)

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by: Killer of Sacred Cows @ Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 09:17:23 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

I love that they've just transferred him

to another school.  Obviously the board has been learning from the Catholic church.  Make a generic apology, claim the offender has been punished, then hide him somewhere and hope nobody notices.  But, hey, that's life in these United States.

I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.  -Archbishop Desmond Tutu

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by: QScribe @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 09:51:05 AM CDT

and removed him

to adult teaching position yes much like the old transfer the pedophile priest to a new parish....

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by: jacjr56 @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 09:53:53 AM CDT

Unbelievable!

I note in the paper this morning that a Wake County official was suspended for 5 days for suggesting that his employees could stand to lose some weight.  See

http://www.newsobserver.com/ne...

Maybe a little insensitive, but nothing in the same league as this guy in Florida.  The thought of him being back in the classroom in ten days makes me sick to my stomach.

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by: phelps @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 09:55:22 AM CDT

YIKES!!!

suggested they read SKINNY BITCH book from former model about dieting??? I wonder if he read that and got tips from it .. The title of the book is offensive to women but probably sells... in that setting to women who may be heavy OMG...

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by: jacjr56 @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 10:02:43 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Skinny Bitch

Skinny Bitch also promotes disordered eating. I couldn't bear to read more than a few pages of it. Right when I thought I'd made my peace with food, here comes this nutritionist know-it-all who prescribes veganism for all and no chocolate chip cookies ever (fatty!). It took me a few days to calm down and not feel guilty about listening to my body when it tells me what to eat.

(BTW: Veganism itself isn't disordered eating, in my view. There are plenty of healthy approaches to it, including animal welfare and personal wellness. Veganism because "Ew! Cheese has FAT and Calories and if I eat it OMG I'll be FAT and ugly!!one!" is plenty disordered, though. And I've heard tell of some amazing vegan choco chip cookies, which I will get to sample next week.)

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by: DC @ Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 01:12:47 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

on daily KOS

there was a choice on Daily Kos on this item as a poll why do churches not off a racist recovery ministry you know like aa?

they want to recover gays... which is totally illogical.. and not possible??? I wonder why that is not out there?? or could it be that racists are NOT curable?

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by: jacjr56 @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 09:57:41 AM CDT

Totally curable

Read my comment below.

When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will.

- Abraham Lincoln.

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by: Fritz @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 10:07:34 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

My family

I grew up in the 1960s and '70s hearing some of my family members use the n-word.

It was due to progressives like my mother that this racist behavior was put to an end in my family. She argued, fought, and coerced my relatives into changing. It wasn't easy. Racist relatives were banned from our home. A uncle even had a drink thrown in his face.

Today, the use of the n-word at one of my family gatherings would receive gasps of horror.

I have to imagine that people like this 7th grade teacher grow up in families in which progressive views are totally abscent. They have made no strides toward eliminating racism over the last 40 years. They are literally stuck in time.

They will soon be like cavemen, learning to master fire when the rest of us have moved on to invent the wheel.

It is both unsettling and pathetic.

When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will.

- Abraham Lincoln.

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by: Fritz @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 10:06:06 AM CDT

"A uncle even had a drink thrown in his face."

We're learning that members of your family tend to speak their minds at social gatherings, Fritz.  :-)  There's something to be said for not biting your tongue!

"Our Liberties We Prize and Our Rights We Will Maintain" -- Iowa state motto

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by: Sportin' Life @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 10:21:20 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

They didn't pussyfoot around, did they?

They should have fired the SOB outright, not just for the racist rhetoric but the hateful way that this was displayed. Kid's are in school to LEARN (let's see some moron come up with a racist acronym for that) and learn to live in a civilized world where everyone is equal and no one is better than the other.

     [EXTREME EMPHASIS ON WHAT I JUST SAID]

Racism and other ills of society are a learned trait, passed down from one generation to the next. they are taught, not bread into the person although in some parts of this country it is hard to tell the difference.

Slowly but surely they are weeding them out but it seems for every two steps we as a people take forward there is always those who want to make us step three steps back.

Typical Railroader-Tired, Broke, Hungry, Sick, and Mad

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by: labrat78 @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 10:21:52 AM CDT

You're right. There is an undercurrent, but also quite overt

racism.  My sister, who lives in Kentucky, was canvassing for Obama a couple of weeks ago.  She said she went up to the door of one house that had a confederate flag on a pole on the front porch and thought perhaps she'd better ignore the house. But that thought, she said, pissed her off - she wasn't going to let a damned flag or a redneck dissuade her. So she rang the doorbell and almost immediately a big burly guy opened the door and standing behind the screen door asked her what she wanted.

My sister said she told him she was canvassing for Barack Obama and then asked him if he'd decided if he was going to vote, and if so, who he planned on voting for. His response, she said, about knocked her off the porch.

"Well," he said. "I'm gonna have to vote for that nigger 'cause I sure as hell ain't votin' for McCain. That Obama fella knows sumpin' about folks like us. All McCain knows is war and I've had enough of war."

She said he went on to explain that he has a son who's on his third tour in Iraq, which he said "jest ain't right".

"I done my duty in Vietnam and then came home. He's done his duty and they should let him come home. Let some other folks go over there and fight if they think it's that damned important."

I'm not sure what to make of it except that my sister's observation was that whatever gets people to the right place, it's okay with her.  The guy has been in a couple of times since volunteering for Obama.  Go figure.

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by: Ron Tunning @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 11:02:53 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

OMG

When I read this I almost fell out of friggin' seat

Just goes to show you that sometimes them good ol' boys are on the right side

Typical Railroader-Tired, Broke, Hungry, Sick, and Mad

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by: labrat78 @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 15:33:17 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

That undercurrent of racism

I think this may be one of the biggest hidden issues in this election.  There are a lot of people out there that won't vote for Obama simply because he's black, no matter how bad the other choice is.  It's really sad that even in this day and age, that opinion still persists in so many people.

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by: amberb_57 @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 10:24:01 AM CDT

Also a lot of people won't

vote for a woman.  I suspect there is large overlap between
those groups.
Maybe MS Palin will keep a lot of them home.

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by: Charles @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 13:27:17 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Even my own father

which I am ashamed to admit. He is making progress though.
McCain has gotten so bad that he is seriously considering not voting at all. There is hope for these kinds of people.

Fetch my pearls, I need to clutch them!

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by: RainbowPhoenix @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 15:10:14 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

A chance to educate

I would hope that we now have at least one class room of 7th graders who will benefit from the experience. That those kids
don't learn to simply avoid using slurs, but actually learn to understand the basic reasoning of why prejudiced and bigotry is wrong.

Perhaps we now will have a class room of 7th graders inoculated from the disease of all ugly forms of bigotry forever.

We will never be free of prejudice until we all reach that point of education and understanding. Pretty much we have learned to avoid the subject and have tried to put a conscious face on matter, pretty much resulting in prolonging the ignorance or acknowledgment.

Rather than echo our disdain for the situation, should we not take the opportunity to do something to talk about our own experiences and inner dialogs?

 

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by: goddesspdx @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 10:38:39 AM CDT

I actually teach in this town...

...one day a week at the community college.  Driving home yesterday, I passed a truck covered in Confederate stuff.  Not just the usual flag, but things like "Vote Confederate."  This teacher probably thought he could get away with it in Marianna.

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by: quinnelk @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 10:42:59 AM CDT

WOOO!

Be careful quinnelk!   ... but hopefully mentioning you do not condone use of perjoratives would be allowed.

It's the Hammer of JUSTICE,
It's the Bell of FREEDOM,
It's the Song about LOVE between,
my Brothers and my Sisters
...All over this Land.

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by: Orion45 @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 12:12:58 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I advised my students...

that using the n-word wasn't acceptable in class, since apparently they hadn't been taught that in Marianna.

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by: quinnelk @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 18:51:26 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

What this dickwad teacher doesn't know how to tie a noose?

10 day suspension my ass, he should be fired YESTERDAY and never allowed near children again.

What have you done today, to make ya feel PROUD?


~Heather Small

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by: peteyPornpig @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 10:52:52 AM CDT

I read and re-read the post...

...and, with a little clicking of links, discovered that the story was datelined "Marianna."  

MINOR GEOGRAPHY LESSON:  Anything WEST of the Chattahoochee, i.e., the Florida Panhandle/the central time zone, is NOT Florida!!  It is "L.A."... a.k.a. "Lower Alabama."  This includes Pensacola, Panama City and Ft. Walton.  It is the same area (town?) where the female high schooler went to COURT to wear her gay-supportive t-shirt after the principal said she couldn't!  Rednecks abound here and would most likely campaign for the repeal of the 1964 Voting Rights Act... if not Women's Suffrage/The 19th Amendment if they thought they could get away with it!

Straight, White Male = "Joe Six-Pack" ...with special dispensation to Sarah Palincomparison.

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by: GraciesDaddy @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 11:13:19 AM CDT

Thanks for 411 on "L.A."

The t-shirt case involved a student at Ponce de Leon High School in Holmes County, FL.  Your comment puts it, and the current incident, in perspective.

As for this current incident, I think the teacher got off too lightly.  

If you want allies, you have to be an ally.

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by: dale @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 11:41:10 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Joe Six-Pack = Racist Bubba White Male

Let's be fair to the majority of SWMs who are not bigoted pigs like this teacher.  The use of "Joe Six-Pack" imagery by Sarah Palin, Johnny McSame, and their supporters is a hardly subtle appeal to racism, as if to say that discrimination in thought on the basis of race should trump discrimination of the basis of sex, age, and disability.

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by: greatwhitebear @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 14:10:19 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Don't forget these are the same people who claim

  that people from Mecico stole their jobs.  And had nothing to do with Joe-Six-Pack's work ethic.

 Funny part is these Joe-Six-Packs voted for Republicans when they where being told that the Republicans would continue sending jobs overseas.

If I make sense? it was quite by accident.

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by: HappyCat @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 16:41:03 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

No one ever said they were smart.

Or self-preserving.

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by: GraciesDaddy @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 17:14:01 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

West Michigan

 Folks here in West Michigan hate to be compared to the deep south. Its mostly a Repulbian area-Amway county. I've notice increasly they can keep their bigotry hid anymore. As the electon get closer I expect the comments to only increase.  

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by: farfarbetter @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 11:57:22 AM CDT

Grand Haven, Michigan

Was the place I first heard the term "porch monkey."

I know they banned author Chris Crutcher from speaking at the high school there a few years ago.


When you look for the bad in mankind, expecting to find it, you surely will.

- Abraham Lincoln.

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by: Fritz @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 23:17:38 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Dontcha wish

you had been wrong about this happening when you predicted this months ago, Pam?

We all knew it was coming- it's not shocking. But it sure does piss us off, all the same. Dammit to hell, a f*cking TEACHER, though?  

"It goes on one at a time, it starts when you care to act, it starts when you do it again after they said no, it starts when you say We and know who you mean, and each day you mean one more."

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by: Louise @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 12:14:29 PM CDT

don't I wish that I was wrong back then...

As you said, I knew it was coming. And as McCain gets increasingly desperate, I fear that he may unleash some racially-tinged ad (that will have plausible deniability, of course), though it's more likely a 527 will step in with something more overt.

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by: Pam Spaulding @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 18:10:50 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

wow

;ike others, i am not surprised he would think it.. or say it arounds friends... but i am blown away that the environment there is such that he woulld think it was okay to say such a thing in class.  this is a misguided teacher for sure... but there is something bigger wrong down there.

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by: tony2 @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 13:45:25 PM CDT

wow

;ike others, i am not surprised he would think it.. or say it arounds friends... but i am blown away that the environment there is such that he woulld think it was okay to say such a thing in class.  this is a misguided teacher for sure... but there is something bigger wrong down there.

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by: tony2 @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 13:45:44 PM CDT

There will be a cry from the reich-wing.

The fundies will play the "politically correct" card in defense of this discredited teacher, like they did defending George "Macaca" Allen.

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by: Blood From Machines @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 13:56:24 PM CDT

I don't think so

See, there aren't nearly as many people of middle eastern descent, so it was OK...cause you know, they're all terrorists anyway.

They won't take up this one.

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by: bjohnm @ Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 15:48:09 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

10 day paid vacation and a new job for being a racist...

That'll show him!  What the holy hell is this school board thinking -- better yet, what the hell are they smoking?

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by: Storm @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 14:38:53 PM CDT

Fort Worth Star-Telegram 10/04

In the same vein: The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, one of the most homophobic papers in the world, published a letter on Saturday (10/04) which basically said Obama is a mulatto. That's it. The letter has no other point. I don't know which is more amazing: that it was written, or that the S-T published it.

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by: myroro @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 19:55:17 PM CDT

10 day vacation tied to the specific word?

A Florida middle school teacher faced disciplinary action after using the word "nigger"

Thus implies that had he expressed a similar dehumanizing, racist 'definition' but used "Negro", no one would have objected.

Which is just plain crazy.

But then, I'm the fool who keeps expecting to be seated and served dinner in rural TX, LA and the parts of Missabama we don't drive through while the kid is sleeping...and I keep being disappointed in my species.

But wait, there's more!

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by: PhoenixRising @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 20:45:56 PM CDT

M-A-V-E-R-I-C-K

My
Angry
Vile
Erratic
Rhetoric
Is
Country
Killing

Si Hoc Legere Scis Nimium Eruditionis Habes

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by: Kiera_Lynn @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 22:01:17 PM CDT

M-c-C-a-i-n

Mean
charlatan
Condones
advertising
inflated
negativity

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by: peacemonger @ Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 23:14:06 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

This makes me all the more glad that my mother got us out of Florida.

I've got a whole sock full of change for this "teacher."

BPD
Your favourite Power Dyke in Training

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by: Baby Power Dyke @ Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 00:17:49 AM CDT

Here's a link to this story and shows a picture of Greg Howard

   http://www.news-press.com/apps...

"Of the NAACP, he said, "It's always our position to get all the facts from all sides before we do any action."

Moore said the district will send its investigation findings to the Florida Department of Education's Office of Professional Practice Services, which will determine if further reprimands, such as revoking Howard's teacher certification, will be handed down."

What have you done today, to make ya feel PROUD?


~Heather Small

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by: peteyPornpig @ Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 02:37:59 AM CDT

it also mentioned he coached the football team...typical

What have you done today, to make ya feel PROUD?


~Heather Small

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by: peteyPornpig @ Sun Oct 05, 2008 at 02:39:12 AM CDT

[ Parent ]