Teacher Ridicules Student for Romney T-Shirt

[chaos]

Although I do not think highly of Romney, this teacher crosses the line.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/teacher-r ... 05823.html

Teacher Ridicules Student for Romney T-Shirt
By Lee Brodie | CNBC – 7 hours ago
@cnbc on Twitter



Many Republicans can't help but wonder if a student wearing a pro-Obama T-Shirt in a Philadelphia school would have been subject to the kind of humiliation that Samantha Pawlucy was forced to endure.

The 16-year old sophomore, who attends Charles Carroll High School, told CNBC's Larry Kudlow, that she was humiliated by a teacher for wearing a T-shirt in support of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan.

She said the teacher compared her to the worst racists in history -- the Ku Klux Klan.

"It was really embarrassing, and I think she did it because she's against Mitt Romney," Samantha said.
"I was really nervous," she added, "and I was worried that after class, people were going to come up to me and say something."

Events unfolded last Friday. Nothing out of the ordinary happened until the student arrived at her geometry class -- before that time the shirt didn't raise any objections.

However, the offending teacher saw the Romney / Ryan shirt "and told me to get out of the classroom, I said no," Samantha explained on "The Kudlow Report." (Read More Below the Video.)

Samantha Pawlucy, a 16-year-old student in Philadelphia says that a teacher ridiculed her for wearing a Mitt Romney t-shirt in class. CNBC's Larry Kudlow weighs in.

When she stood her ground and refused to change, Samantha said the teacher pulled her into the hall and encouraged others to make fun of her. And according to news reports, the teacher attempted to scribble on the shirt.

Samantha also admitted to Kudlow that she was so embarrassed by what happened she hasn't returned to class. "I don't want to be threatened and I want the teacher to be fired."

Samantha's father Richard Pawlucy is beside himself. He told Larry Kudlow that he wouldn't tolerate his daughter being bullied by anybody let alone a teacher.

Although they've met with school officials about the incident, neither Samantha nor her father are satisfied. "The teacher told us it was a joke. That she jokes around with students. There's nothing funny about what she did."

The school district confirmed to CNBC that an incident occurred and it is conducting an investigation to determine whether disciplinary action is necessary.

[LJF]

The teacher should be fired. If they were wearing an Obama t-shirt and the teacher did this they should be fired.

[Jasper]

On the surface it seems clear that the teacher should be fired, but I'm not entirely sure how this went down. I've heard little from the other side of the story, and nothing from witnesses. The same basic events could happen, but in one instance it could be a joke, and in another instance a vicious attack. The context and spirit of the actions would have a lot to do with how I perceived such an event.

In any case, even if it was done in a lighthearted way, the teacher should probably face some kind of discipline so as to be made aware that a student might be very uncomfortable with such a situation, even if only done in a playful manner.

[Hype]

I have conflicting instincts here. One the one hand, teachers should never try to influence students politically. Teachers could easily (and should) use such cases as this as opportunities to teach. A teacher who disagrees with Romney may say: hey, let's talk about this upcoming election and cover what reasons there could be for endorsing a candidate.

On the other hand, it seems entirely within the realm of possibility that this kid could be turning a harmless offhand comment or unrelated discipline into a vendetta against this teacher for no good reason. It isn't quite the same, but I could imagine a science teacher telling a disruptive student who yells out creationist nonsense in class to get the hell out, and to even disparage the content of the claims, if kept only to the realm of scientific methodology, and I could imagine such a student (or their douchebaggy parents) having done this on purpose to get a rise out of the teacher and create drama where there need not be any.

It'd just depend on the exact details. This teacher clearly didn't handle things in the most ideal way.

[Juana]

School shouldnt let students wear political shirts, doubt if she walked in with a dead baby anti abortion shirt she would have made it thru the day.

[Hype]

School shouldnt let students wear political shirts, doubt if she walked in with a dead baby anti abortion shirt she would have made it thru the day.

Indeed. There's no question the teacher handled the scenario badly though.

I have fond memories, though, of a teacher who was really angry about the current premier of Ontario (Mike Harris), explaining to us why there would probably be a teacher's strike and why his policies were really bad for education. I imagine if a student had worn a pro-Harris shirt to class, she probably could've been driven to react badly to it.

Politics, like religion, has no place in school (except, perhaps, in free time). Political studies and religious studies are completely different (when done properly, they involve no endorsement of any doctrine).

[sinep]

she's cute.

[LJF]

If the story is accurate there is no way the teacher should keep her job. There is nothing that the teacher did that was funny or appropriate. If the school allows students to wear those shirts the teacher has no authority to do what they did.

[SR]

Good for that young lady. I like her style....

Fire the teach, and use her for an excuse for reform.

[Hokahey]

Good for that young lady. I like her style....

Fire the teach, and use her for an excuse for reform.

This. None of us like Romney, but that's not what this is about.

[LJF]

This is a disgrace. As far as I can tell she never even said sorry to the student for her really funny joke. I might be missing something here, but how is what she did even close to being funny and how is that belittling her?

http://news.yahoo.com/teen-returns-scho ... 19966.html

[Essence_Smith]

Calls to mind a situation I had in high school...my global studies teacher asked us to pick someone who in our opinion was an influential AMERICAN musician...I picked Hendrix...she made a huge fuss and vetoed it stating that in her opinion she didn't see his music as having made a big impact and that his documented drug usage, etc wasn't acceptable..she made me do Scott Joplin instead...another student did Billie Holiday at which I kicked a fuss because she was a heroin addict and had been in jail for prostitution...I ended up in the dean's office...didn't get in trouble but it definitely affected my final grade...on topic the situation IS indeed a little funky as we only have one side of the story...