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What About this is a Racial Attack?
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From what I can see,
a Como Park High School teacher has been unfairly targeted for speaking the truth. In fact, I don't see anything that singles out any particular racial group in what he said! If you see yourself in the words, what does that tell you? If the truth is upsetting to you, what should you do about it? Should you "kill the messenger?" Should you fix your own issues or blame them on discrimination? This is utterly ridiculous and I have to think if people try to look past their misdirected anger, they will see that students have been allowed to break rules (and sometimes break teachers and staff) and ultimately, that will probably lead to more law breaking and incarceration in the future; will it not? When I worked in the detention room of a south suburban junior high, I had a very large special education student with a very bad attitude who was a regular in the detention room. He threatened to beat me up regularly too. Administration was afraid to deal with him because his mom had a lawyer ready to drop a racial discrimination lawsuit on the school at a moment's notice. Once, while in detention, this young man told me that nobody could tell him what to do. I responded that there are people called police officers and judges and they
can tell him what to do and I saw examples of what happens if you don't follow the rules when I worked for county social services. He immediately responded by asking,
"Are you saying that because I'm black?" I replied,
"No, I'm saying that because it is true." He told his mom and his mom called the school and the Assistant Principal called me in his office and told me I could never say that to a student again. Later, I told the
school police resource officer who was outraged by this. He said,
"That is exactly what that kid needs to hear!" So while
Black Lives Matter protests the teacher who spoke out about an obvious problem (we've all seen the continued news stories about students assaulting teachers—especially in St. Paul Public Schools), the students are not being held accountable and the teacher who points it out is being unfairly targeted to be fired. Maybe we need more teachers like him and not less. There are already too many cowards and not enough people who speak the truth. And by-the-way, are "we" allowed freedom of speech in this country (USA) or not?
—KJC
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