Posted on 06/17/2010 4:32:26 AM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
Congressional candidate Joe Malone took to the airwaves last night to blast the two Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School teachers who held up an anti-war sign Friday at a school assembly.
Malone, a Republican candidate in the race to succeed U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., appeared on 96.9 FM with host Michele McPhee to discuss the silent protest conducted by D-Y teachers Marybeth Verani and Adeline Koscher.
When the school's police resource officer started talking about the six seniors entering the military, the two teachers stood up, while everyone else sat, and held an "end war" sign. Verani and Koscher remained seated while the rest of those at the assembly gave the students a standing ovation.
"Standing and applauding is a sign of support for the decision these people have made," Verani told the Times earlier this week. "I want them to be home and alive and well and going to college and dating and having kids and coaching Little League."
On the radio last night, Malone said he had breakfast yesterday with Evan Tuohy-Bedford, one of the seniors who has joined the military. Malone said the protest was not appropriate for a student assembly, adding the teachers' actions were based on "a selfish attitude."
"These two people ought to find another job," Malone said.
Verani and Koscher could not be reached for comment last night.
Verani told The Times earlier this week that she and Koscher had been placed on temporary leave and that the protest was to "address the expansion of military recruitment in our schools."
A group of students held an after-school demonstration Monday against the teachers' protest.
Massholes.
Do all students have the right to hold up protest signs in assembly? Can they stand during class and protest with signs? What if the students protest the principal? Those teachers should get their medicine.
The two teachers should be placed in the stockade (medieval) whereby they are humilitated for their stupidity. Plus the teachers need be canned by the district. If a graduating senior desires to serve in the military they should be commended not condemned.
I wonder what these teachers would think if doctors and nurses refused to practice medicine and instead marched with signs that said "end disease"!
Ah, then what has the 'End War' sign have to do with that? And why is the recognition of these students for enlisting the appropriate place and time to express your concern? The students had nothing to do with recruitment policies. Obviously, these two teachers can't think clearly, can't act appropriately in public and ought not be in front of students 'teaching' them.
at least these two birkenstockers provided a teachable moment about “free speech” at the expense of another
or “end abortion”
Freedom isn't free. There are bad people out there and all of the warm fuzzy Kumbayahs and unicorns aren't going to slow them down one bit if they want to do us harm. It takes good men and women like those joining the military so others can live the life she suggested.
I am not understanding peoples enmity towards free speech.
Setting aside that the message is unpopular here, When would have been a better time to speak out? I sense that if the teachers voiced their opinions in the classroom, it would be seen as pushing their agenda on students. It seems to me that they were quite respectful in their display- not even speaking, and staying where they were seated.
If it were a school rally for “peace” and in support of the Gaza flotilla and the teachers silently unfurled a pro-Israel banner, would everyone still be angry that they chose the wrong time/wrong venue/wrong method?
With seven kids in all layers of the school system, from pre-school to college, I understand that the public schools are a pit of socialist vipers. But not only do I support free speech, but would prefer this display to the creeping, sneaky inculcation that is the norm.
I posit that people would be even more angry, as unfurling an Israeli flag would be seen as pro-"them Joooos."
If the teachers wanted to protest, they should have stood out on the sidewalk, not during a top-dead-center moment of the kid's lives. It was tasteless, kind of like protesting marriage at a wedding.
“With seven kids in all layers of the school system, from pre-school to college, I understand that the public schools are a pit of socialist vipers. But not only do I support free speech, but would prefer this display to the creeping, sneaky inculcation that is the norm”
___________________
They used their positions as faculty to gain accesss to this function.
As faculty they represented the school at this function.
Protest on your own time.
What would the actions of the school have been if students had interupted the ceramony in this way ? Dentention ? Suspended ?
These teachers should receive the same; with loss of pay for the time involved.
They could have written a opinion article for the school newspaper. They could have stood on a street corner with the signs one Saturday afternoon. They could have written letters to all the parents of graduating seniors to not let their kids go in the military. They could have paid for a billboard near the school.
Any of these things and hundreds of more. But to do it at a school assembly honoring those kids was NOT Free Speech. That was subjecting kids who were a captive audience. Free Speech rules do not apply there.
Is it Free Speech if your boss at work calls you into the office and tells you that your daughter should have an abortion because there are too many people on Earth already?
Compare and contrast.
I’m not sure it was a closed function from reading the news, but maybe you read something i did not, but I assumed any faculty could get in.
As Faculty they represent the school- The same is true when they give their opinions all day long under the guise of teaching.this was just more obvious. I’m sure most of us have had to go into the schools at various times to address something a teacher has said.That is why education cannot stop after school is out. I think that in general schools suffer from a lack of free speech
I agree that the teachers should be subject to the same discipline in such a circumstance as any student.
But saying that there is a special time, correct time, manner or forum etc for free speech I feel is a mistake. Trying to limit free speech is a specialty of the left, who cannot argue on facts or reason. When others do it it seems that we now all agree to limit expression to what we already agree with, and only disagree about when. I fail to see how that won’t come to haunt us.
I don’t disagree with you - but...
When you’re on the clock, you represent the person or company paying your salary.
Tilt at windmills on your own dime.
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