Posted on 01/24/2006 10:34:04 AM PST by grundle
When Joshua Vannoy decided to wear a Denver Broncos jersey Friday, he knew there would be some joking from Steelers fans at Big Beaver Falls Area Senior High School.
But he never expected to feel humiliated by his teacher during an examination and become so shaken up that he could not finish.
"I feel awful, like I was dehumanized," said Joshua, 17, an honor student.
He's made a complaint to the principal against John Kelly, who teaches an honors class on ethnic relations, saying the teacher made him sit on the floor to take his test and instructed other classmates to pelt him with balled up sheets of notebook paper.
Mr. Kelly had little to say on the subject yesterday.
"We won the game [Sunday] night, didn't we?" he said. "That's all I was worried about."
He said when he went to sit down at his regular desk on Friday, Mr. Kelly ordered him to "take those books off my desk. I own that desk." He placed his textbooks on the floor and then sat down at the desk.
Joshua said his teacher told him to "get out of my desk. You're sitting in my desk."
He said Mr. Kelly began sliding the desks into a circle. Then he told Joshua to sit on the floor in the center of the circle.
While Mr. Kelly passed out the tests, he dropped Joshua's test papers, scattering them on the floor so that he had to crawl around and pick them up, Joshua said.
"He went to the cupboard and grabbed a handful of notebook paper and handed it to all the kids and said, 'This is part two of your test. You'll get points for this. Take the paper, ball it up, and throw it at the Denver fan,'" Joshua said.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
A little playful ribbing is o.k., even fun.
But this teacher, it seems went WAaaaaay over the line.
Even Johnny Carson said, no more than three jokes on a subject.
This was bullying.
... an honor student who recognizes a lawsuit when he sees one.
second that vote ....
He's a psycho. This behavior is so far beyond the pale, he should be dismissed.
"...for the kid to NOT GET IT, given the name of the class he was taking, suggests to me the student might not have the aptitude for 'honors' classes."
You've got to be kidding me.
Publicly humiliate an adolescent in the middle of a big exam? What harm could it do??????
"This behavior is so far beyond the pale, he should be dismissed."
Ditto.
Please explain why this was moved to chat. Thank you.
After all, we who homeschool are accused of trying to protect our kids from just this type of behavior. We are told that it's just a part of the normal socialization process, and are questioned about how kids going to get toughened up for "real life" if they can't stand up to this type of behavior.
The additional victims of this episode are the other kids in the class, who were just taught that they should blindly obey authority and demonize a classmate on the basis of that classmate's beliefs. Can anyone say Communism a la Josef Stalin being taught here ? Why was there only one who stood up to the teacher, and why did the rest all just blindly obey ?
Something to think about the next time you send your kids off to school.
I like your idea better than mine.
He should have worn a Detroit Lions jersey. Then he would have gotten a whole bunch of sympathy instead.
Given what the teacher said afterwards, I doubt that your speculation is correct.
Thank you for putting this thread back in news.
I bleed "black and gold" but I'd have to stick up for this kid. Mr Kelly is lucky that I'm not this kids' dad.
O.K. Just send this Teacher of the Year out here. My friends and I can fix up a real nice "teachable moment" for him. Might even be good enough for graduate credits.
The teacher should be forced to wear a Broncos jersey to school for the rest of the year. And no disciplinary actions against students who throw his papers on the floor, and pelt him with wadded up balls of paper.
This is a duplicate post, so I'll post a duplicate of my post that got me flamed.
What kind of feminized little p****es are we raising?
A kid that size "shaking"???
He wore the shirt knowing the conditions. Here in the Burgh, its a tough nut town!
What a wimp, and all you calling for the teacher to be "fired", shame on all you!!
We have touchy-feely little girly men because of you! No HUMOR now, some widdle feewings could get huut. Awwww.
In my time, we would have worn the shirt JUST TO TAKE THE HIT!
And laughed all the way home.
I just don't know what the place is coming to.
There, and I hope you wuzzies don't like it.
he just signed up today..........do you think he could be?????????? naahhhh, not possible...
That's Beaver Falls for you: the center of swirling controversy yet again.
I would (hang him out to dry), if the allegations are true. Even if he had the goal you suppose, the student did not give his permission to be abused as part of a teaching-what-it's-like-to-feel-discrimination exercise.
Some of us "PC wuzzies" don't think a teacher in an academic classroom should be wasting an entire class period (and disrupting a test that the whole class was taking) with this sort of sophomoric cr*p. If the teacher wanted to just have a little fun with the kid, he could have recruited other willing students to pelt the Broncos fan with paper balls as school was letting out for the day. The kid would most likely have been a good sport about that, but even in that scenario, the teacher should have stopped it immediately if it appeared the target wasn't regarding the game as fun.
Then the "target" shouldn't make HIMSELF a TARGET!
Do the stunt, take your lumps.
I saw this kid on TV here in the Burgh.
I got no sympathy.
I feel there has to be more to this story than we are receiving. No teacher in his right mind would ever do what this article is saying, unless there is more to it.
I think the teacher was goofing around with the student. I know when I was teaching Title 1, I was always in other teachers' classrooms. There would be students that would do this to rib the teacher and the teacher would rib back. I am willing to bet the student was laughing when this was happening, which is why the teacher let it go on. It doesn't read very nicely, but I believe it was a joke. I also believe that if the student didn't feel like going along with it, he could have told the teacher he would rather sit in his seat and if the teacher had a problem, send him to the office. It would have stopped right there. Instead, the student probably laughed when going along with it, not letting on that he was bothered, let alone upset and then later ran to the office.
You got it right on the head. This kid smelled a chance for his 15 minutes of fame and took it at the teacher's expense.
There is a lot more here.
Flamed? Your post makes the most sense of any.
The kid knew that he'd be razzed. He was.
The teacher had fun with it. Maybe too much, but not enough to get fired. Maybe he should wear a Bronco shirt the rest of the year.
The kid was 'shaken. You are right. He's a wuss and no 'honor' student.
This is news? On FR? In the MSM? Silly.
This is the stuff that you and lived for in the 'burgh.
Bingo.
It took a while, but some common sense is beginning to show up here.
I certainly fault the teacher for not knowing this would blow up in his face in light of this society's never ending effort to construct a Nerf World for our children to live in.
I think everyone is overreacting a bit. I pity this kid when he gets in the real world. If he can't take a little ribbing like this he's going to get eaten alive.
You people act like they did the unthinkable torture of putting panties on his head. Sheesh!
Try wearing orange socks on your head for day....
Sheez. I was ready to stand with the teacher until I read this. These two weenies deserve each other.
This is not humor. It went way beyond that. This was in the middle of a test which may have meant college choices were limited, depending on what grade he got. It is a case of bullying. Just like the father in Matilda. He said, "I'm big, you are little, I'm right, you are wrong".
Well, if the kid was laughing along with it, as I suspect, the teacher was probably blind-sided by it. Too bad for him.
Off subject, last Friday, a boy at my son's preschool and his mom were having a big talk with the teacher. When I asked my son what he did, he said the boy was bad, and knocked him down on the playground and got yelled at by the teacher and sent inside. I asked my son why the boy knocked him down and he said the boy was trying to hug him. I asked my son what he did when he got knocked down and he said he just got back up. I hope the boy wasn't punished for knocking down my son, but I suspect he was. Boys need to rough house a bit, and getting knocked down is part of it, so is getting back up. Now if he got mad at my son and whacked him with a stick or something that is different. I would expect my son to level him, no matter the punishment from the school... Schools and the liberal ninnies don't allow boys to be boys, and try to remove all of the play at school that help boys to learn important lessons in life. ie- how to stand up for yourself and when pushed, push back.
Oh please, the boy knew the teacher was a diehard fan and still wore it. He knew there would be something said about his jersey by the teacher, he went into the class unprepared with a retort. If the boy would have replied to the teacher "Gee, I don't remember anything in the dress code about Broncos jerseys being banned, so I think I'll sit in my assigned seat. If you don't like it, send me to the office." It all would have ended, and the student would have "won". I am betting the kid was laughing when it happened, no one knew it was bothering him, and when class was let out, he ran to the principal to be a tattletale.
It is not the job of a teacher to decide what team the students have to support. That is like forcing a Bama fan to wear an Auburn shirt. It would not be done in any way shape or fashion. I am not a fan of either but I do know some avid fans of each and you do not mess with them.
The teacher wasn't telling him whom to support, he was ribbing him for picking the Broncos. The student knew that would happen I'm sure when he wore it. As I said earlier, I am willing to bet the kid din't let anyone know by his actions or response that he was bothered or it would have stopped. He also went into a situation, knowing he would get a response, and unprepared to deal with it (there may be a cause and effect lesson in there somewhere.) Instead of handling a joke he didn't like by himself, he did nothing in the class, after class he went running to the principal, then mommy. Mom showed her motives by running to the media.
Looks like a prime target for some Silver & Black spitballs.
I'm wondering what would've happened to the poor student if he had worn a Jake 'the Snake' Plummer jersey. The long knives come out?
Remember that humiliation IS torture in the eyes of the libs. Why, this is worse than Abu Ghraib!
Fortunately, the teacher is probably part of the NEA. Thanks to the union he probably won't even get a slap on the wrist. Don't we all love the state of education in this country?
Harassing one selected student during an examination? The teacher needs to be fired and never permitted to work in a school again.
Well you're wrong. Just because it's a stupid "progressive" course that shouldn't even be in the curriculum, doesn'r mean it can be blown off.
It's an honors course - a full one sixth of the number needed to graduate with honors.
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