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Nastiness and Hate in the Wake of a Tragedy
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Post by
ElhonnaDS
http://failbook.failblog.org/2011/10/28/high-school-math-teacher-homophobic-gay-former-student/
So I pulled this off of failbook. The man who made the comments has been named and shamed, but apparently nothing has happened to his job as a result. I understand that there are people who would defend the man's right to be anti-gay from a religious standpoint. And free speech defends his right to make nasty, inflammatory, hateful remarks on a studen't facebook about another student who just killed himself in response to bullying. I just was really disgusted. Many schools will fire teachers if their facebook shows them drinking or partying. But this school lets him say nasty, insensitive things about a child who killed himself, and no one cares.
Post by
Azazel
Disgutsting. Yet, that's all America is about...
Post by
91278
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Patty
His 'statement' is a complete cop out, he seems to be simply implying that he's trolling. Especially the fact that he regrets that they appeared on facebook, not that he wrote them or anything, really grates me. If I was a parent of a child who attended the school he taught at, I would take my complaints beyond the school if they refuse to punish him. Teachers have a certain code of conduct that they need to adhere to - and what if one of his students reads this and happens to be gay?
Post by
gamerunknown
On the one hand, I support freedom of speech in extreme scenarios. On the other, I recognise that the internet can serve to deindividuate people, allowing them to mock others without any fear of retribution.
Hopefully cases like
this
will serve to prevent that.
Post by
pezz
Free speech in the free market is one thing, but he works at a public high school, which makes him a government employee. Fire the son of a #$%^&.
Post by
557473
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
ElhonnaDS
Free speech in the free market is one thing, but he works at a public high school, which makes him a government employee. Fire the son of a #$%^&.
I agree. That's kind of my point. It's your prerogative, in a free country, to be a member of the KKK, to write pornography with violent imagery or to go out and get plastered every night and post pictures of yourself on facebook with a beer bottle in each hand vomiting over the side of a boat. And all of those things would get a teacher fired, in most districts, if they became aware of it.
In this case, even disregarding whether or not the teacher has the right to be anti-gay and say so, the teacher went to the trouble of saying nasty, hurtful things about a CHILD who has just killed himself. He mocked people who were upset about it, and said about a dozen more needed to die before it was even an issue.
What's sad, is that if this had been another issue, the teacher would have gotten canned. If it had been a student bullied about his weight, and a teacher said "Moral of the story- he shouldn't have been fat," no one would have argued that he had the right to believe people should keep in shape- they'd have canned his sorry butt for being such a prick. If the student had been bullied about being a different religion, no one would have said that he had the right to say what he said because his point of view was based in his religion.
Believing something is wrong =/= being a bastard to people whose child, or classmate, or friend has just died.
Post by
138532
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Azazel
Disgutsting. Yet, that's all America is about...
What? That comment is no better than the comment the teacher made.
Well, America really isn't know for it's tolerance, is all I'm trying to say.
Post by
gamerunknown
This, wikileaks and many other cases are examples where free speech crosses the line between acceptable and harmful. There should be a certain way to monitor information, even in cases where it might harm the free speech.
I don't think wikileaks is an instance where free speech should be limited. I think wikileaks is the most important aspect of free speech: giving the public adequate information about their government. For decades the intelligence agencies have collected astounding files on the people and the government has set up entire propaganda departments (for at least a century), influencing the way subjects are framed and which subjects are appropriate to discuss. The government has obviously abused this power in the past, with cases such as Scooter Libby or the defamation of Julian Assange, Bertrand Russell or the guy that was suspected of being a terrorist and shot by the UK police. State crimes or indiscretions are usually only declassified 40 years after they've been committed.
That relationship has been entirely one-sided until very recently. I support the decision to devolve at least a little power into the hands of the people.
I agree that employers can have different standards than what is accepted by the Constitution though. Except in regards to discrimination covered by the law.
Edit: Thanks to the tireless work of organisations like the ACLU, America is one of the freest countries in the world in terms of what people are allowed to say.
Post by
324987
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Patty
I'm amazed at the open readiness of people here to readily limit their free speech. I think that facebook should be treated the same as conversational speech and less harshly than everyone else makes it out to be.
Spoken conversation isn't recorded and logged online. And this is a
teacher
saying this. If I heard a teacher saying this in real life, I'd be just as appalled.
Post by
138532
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Azazel
Disgutsting. Yet, that's all America is about...
What? That comment is no better than the comment the teacher made.
Well, America really isn't know for it's tolerance, is all I'm trying to say.
Are you American? If not then you are just stating what you learn from the media. The media in any country isn't always very reliable. They usually only give one side.
You are giving one side too...
Post by
ElhonnaDS
@ Vikey- I don't think that, legally, they should limit this guy's right to say what he wants. I'm saying that the school district has a responsibility to require a certain decorum from their teachers, so that children don't learn the wrong things. I think gloating over the death of a student is something that would make me not want that person teaching my children.
Post by
557473
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
Post by
Patty
If someone just cannot keep his/her mouth shut, then why someone has to suffer? I can keep my comments to yourself, why he did not? In my opinion, people proved themselves unable not to abuse the free speech, therefore it should be taken away or limited. Only people supporting free speech are those who have something to say themselves.
He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.
Post by
pezz
I'm amazed at the open readiness of people here to readily limit their free speech.
I think that facebook should be treated the same as conversational speech
and less harshly than everyone else makes it out to be.This, wikileaks and many other cases are examples where free speech crosses the line between acceptable and harmful. There should be a certain way to monitor information, even in cases where it might harm the free speech.
Less free speech is better than letting these (insert proper insult here) to speak up in cases like that.
No, no it isn't.
That's fine. If this teacher had said this in casual conversation I'd still think he should be fired.
Post by
588688
This post was from a user who has deleted their account.
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