Teacher Suspended After Screaming at Students for Criticizing Obama
A North Carolina teacher screamed and cursed at students for criticizing President Obama.
When I saw the headline “Teacher suspended after telling students not to criticize the president” on memeorandum this morning, I was a bit taken aback. While students have limited 1st Amendment rights, it’s perfectly reasonable for teachers to encourage a civil tone toward the office. But that’s not at all what happened:
A teacher at a Rowan County school has been suspended after getting national attention for a YouTube video that surfaced last week showing her yelling at her students, saying it’s wrong to criticize the president.
In the YouTube video, North Rowan High School teacher Tonya Dixon-Neely and her students were debating several political issues, including a discussion about President Obama and Republican candidate Mitt Romney.
The video, which was uploaded on May 14, had more than 178,000 views on YouTube as of Monday afternoon. The story has been picked up by national media outlets, including Fox News and the New York Post. Controversial radio host Rush Limbaugh discussed the issue on his radio show on Monday afternoon as well.
The conversation starts as the class discusses recent accusations that Mitt Romney bullied someone as a teenager in the 1960s.
But the conversation quickly turns into an argument between several students and the teacher, with some students questioning Obama and asking if Obama bullied someone in high school as well.
“That’s disrespect. This man (Romney) is a presidential candidate. He’s not the president,” the teacher is heard shouting. “Let me tell you something. You will not disrespect the president of the United States in this classroom.”
“I’ll say what I want,” countered one male student.
“Not about him you won’t,” yelled the teacher.
“I’m going to call my dad real quick. We’ll see,” the student added. “I didn’t disrespect him, I was just asking a question. I have different beliefs.”
The teacher is still employed but has been suspended with pay. An employee at the Rowan-Salisbury School System said they have been flooded with calls from around the country on Monday.
Later in the video the conversation turns foul-mouthed when the discussion changes to President Bush.
“Do you realize that people were arrested for saying things bad about Bush,” the teacher continued. “You are not supposed to slander.
“As a social studies teacher I cannot allow you to slander any president in here, past or present. If that’s the case, somebody could say negative things about the Tea Party.”
Given that the teacher is black and the students are white–and, frankly, the students are more articulate than the teacher–I’d hate to see how Limbaugh treated the story. Certainly, it advances the conservative reverse racism meme I discussed this morning. But this isn’t a race issue, it’s one of teacher demeanor and competence.
First, Dixon-Neely should be fired for her classroom deportment. It’s simply unacceptable to for a teacher to lose their cool and scream at students, let alone when the students are engaged in a calm, thoughtful discussion.
Second, Dixon-Neely is clearly fantastically unqualified to teach social studies. First, we don’t arrest people for “saying bad things” about the president, unless that bad thing is “I’m planning to kill the president.” Second, asking a question about a factual matter is not slander. Third, the rules for defamation of character ratchet way up–not down–when we’re talking about a public figure. There’s virtually nothing that one could say about the president of the United States that would constitute slander. Indeed, there’s virtually nothing defamatory that hasn’t already been said about this particular president. Fourth, it turns out that somebody can say negative things about the Tea Party.
On a side note, the Obama campaign is crafty: They’ve bought up the pre-load ad roll on this video.
I have to admit a huge amount of embarrassment at anyone who act in a way that totally reenforces the worst stereotypes. in this case I’m taking about the stereotype of a liburl, guvmet skool techer. I mean for crying out loud if you don’t get that in today’s hyper-partisan atmosphere of dog whistle politics not everyone is going to reflect your views, you shouldn’t be covering current event’s in the classroom. I mean this woman didn’t even have control over the students let alone have the ability to engage them in a civil discussion.
Fools come in every color.
Oh, we saw this in 2008, when a teacher chastised a younster for supporting John McCain. Upon hearing that the child’s dad was serving in Iraq, she doubled down, saying that the kid’s dad would be in Iraq for “a hundred years”, with McCain’s policies. Worthless junk.
Big credit goes to students who stand their ground.
This.
She should be fired. There’s no question.
I have to say that some of the worst teachers I ever encountered in my public High School were the Social Studies/Government teachers.
@mattb:
There’s a general rule of thumb that whenever someone talks about “Social X”, they’re actually talking about the opposite of X.
@mattb:
On the first day of pretty much every American Government 101 session I taught–and I taught a lot–I initiated the following exchange:
Me: How many of you had a high school government class?
Most of the students raised their hands.
Me. How many of you with your hands up had a teacher whose first name was Coach?
Most of the hands stayed up.
Me: We’ll proceed as if none of you had a high school government class.
Feed her to the lions!!!!
Kids in N.C. have it bad enough without having stupid teachers on top of it.
Woody Allan said, those who can do, do. Those who can’t, teach. Those who can’t teach, teach gym. Those who can’t teach gym, well, they end up at my school.
Seems like this particular teach failed at even Allan’s imaginary school.
@mattb: @James Joyner: Absolutely – the vast majority of head coaches of the major sports in Texas are also social studies “teachers.” My personal trainer at the gym last summer was a dual cert social studies/PE teacher who hadn’t been able to find a job. He said that at his college, they actively advise people going for a PE cert to double certify due to competition, and that most chose social studies because you could get most of the content for the State exam from general education courses (macro / micro econ, intro psych, intro soc, intro US gov’t, intro TX gov’t / history, US history survey, European history survey).
@John Peabody: Big credit goes to students who stand their ground.
Does give you hope for the future, doesn’t it?
Not only had they failed to be assimilate but they also had not given up on open discourse. Even in the face of an idiot with a teaching credential.
One of my best teachers was a social studies teacher who was an army tank commander in WWII. We learned a lot about history. This was in the middle of the cold war. Just about every week there was some major news: usually the Russians were up to something such as invading another country. Another history teacher was a walking book of the Civil War. We learned every battle, every general. History was so fascinating then.
This kind of teaching behavior is not uncommon. What is unusual is that a student would prepare for such an interaction, by having a friend ready to record it when a teacher went off the deep end again.
Apparently, this kind of one-sided diatribe happened all the time. Also, the recording was 10 minutes long! So, this was 10 minutes lost on a one-sided, factually incorrect political rant, rather than applying some kind of relevant lesson plan for the 50 minutes or so these students spent in her classroom.
Why don’t teachers even attempt to cultivate critical thinking in their students, by presenting both sides of the liberal/conservative equation? In this way youth can weigh the evidence and arguments, deciding for themselves which ideology seems better to them.
I’m sure many teachers do attempt that…this idiot shouldn’t be held up as representing all or even most teachers anymore than some random racist dirtbag shouldn’t be held up as representing all or most of the Tea Party crowd…
From another source:
This teacher has a real problem with logic, let alone classroom control.
The question I have is, will the union back their dues-paying member here? If so, then they’ve shown that they stand behind her conduct and beliefs. And then it’s perfectly fair to hang her around their necks — they, after all, will have chosen to embrace her.
Or they might decide that her conduct is too much and abandon her.
Considering the unions’ incredible short-sightedness and selfishness as demonstrated in Wisconsin, I’d be willing to bet on them backing her.
@James Joyner:
Is it me or is the social studies thing primarily an issue at the high school level? I seem to remember having pretty engaging and smart SS/History teachers in Jr High (there English seemed to be the real issue).
@Jenos Idanian:
If she has tenure, then she will be untouched. As it is she is suspended with pay. In a private sector job, though, she would lose her job over such unprofessional conduct.
My PE teachers doubled in Sex Ed and Geometry. They did well in both, actually. It was the PE part I didn’t care for.
I think you mean ‘defamation’, no?
What this didn’t need is for national political loud mouths to get in on it. Though, if I were the teacher, I’d be embarrassed – Still, I shouldn’t be talking about this, nor should Rush or Fox or the Post… The school should be evaluating their teachers a bit better maybe (I don’t really know), but none of us know anything outside of the little snippet we heard, so we really have nothing worthwhile to add.
@James Joyner:
My high school history teacher was “Coach” Johnson. He was the worst. No discussions, no teaching of any kind – just textbook assignments and classroom videos. So I decided not to go very often.
Though I aced all of my quizzes and exams (I’ve been into history since a child), he failed me anyway because I missed too many classes. Apparently, there was a minimum attendance policy.
That’s when I decided to get a GED and go straight on to college. High school was, and still is by all estimations, a joke.
Cheers.
@Jenos Idanian: “The question I have is, will the union back their dues-paying member here? If so, then they’ve shown that they stand behind her conduct and beliefs. And then it’s perfectly fair to hang her around their necks — they, after all, will have chosen to embrace her. Or they might decide that her conduct is too much and abandon her.”
You “have this question” for one simple reason: You are a moron who has no idea what a union is supposed to do.
The teachers union is an organization that exists to support and protect teachers. So of course they are going to stand up for her rights — that’s why they’re there.
It’s not the job of the teachers union to litigate all sides of this and decide whether she should be fired. That’s the job of the principal and the school board. When she has her hearing, her union should — and no doubt will — send someone to represent her and protect her rights, even if little Jenos thinks she should have any. Just as, if the school board decides to fire her, they will send one of their people to make that argument.
And no, this doesn’t mean that teachers unions advocate this kind of behavior, any more than criminal defense attorneys are advocates for rape and murder. It just means that they don’t believe teachers’ employment should be at the will of idiots who watch a clip on the internet and choose to get outraged.
@jan: “If she has tenure, then she will be untouched. As it is she is suspended with pay. In a private sector job, though, she would lose her job over such unprofessional conduct.”
Sure, in the private sector, bad actors are always punished. That’s why Jamie Dimon is only make 25 million dollars this year, and the “traders” who gambled away five billion are only being allowed to walk away with tens of millions in their pockets.
@Racehorse:
You got lucky. Those instructors sound great.
@mattb:
True with me, also. My Jr. High SS teacher was a real interesting guy.
Of course, years later, I saw him at a party passing around one of those funny cigarettes. 🙂
@John Burgess: Er, yes. Don’t know if that was an autocorrect error or a typo.
@mattb: It’s been a looong time since I was in junior high school and I don’t have much to go on. But, yes, I think high school has the problem of having to hire coaches and figure out what to have them teach; that doesn’t exist to the same extent at lower levels.
@WR: Amazing… the idiot actually told the truth. The unions see their job as to defend their members at all cost, regardless of the circumstances.
Which isn’t what the unions say, of course. Their official policy is to defend their members’ rights, including their right to due process. Which means that if the offense is so egregious, then theoretically they will simply make certain the member’s rights are respected — but if the offense is sufficient and the rules are followed, then she can be fired for cause.
That ain’t what actually happens, of course. Your own description is closer to reality.
But the union supporters aren’t supposed to say it publicly… only us anti-union types are supposed to say such things.
@WR: You just live for the “perfect is the enemy of the good” paradigm, ain’t you? If the private sector doesn’t live up perfectly to your standards, then it’s unacceptable.
Go ahead and find a single example of the private sector having anything as egregious as the New York public school system’s “rubber room” system. I got plenty more examples, but that one’s the first that comes to mind when it comes to union abuses.
James, if race isnt an issue, why mention it? I heard this last weekend before any names were released, and race was the farthest thing from my mind. In fact, you subsequently identify most of the reasons why I find this audio objectionable (that some kids cuss in class I find fairly damning of this teacher’s classroom management as well).
The fact that you preface your apt assessment with the gratuitous slam of some form of racism against constructed caricatures on the right soo typical for the dog-whistle motivated left is revelatory. You hurt your own credibility when you are so compelled to add such commentary.
First, we don’t arrest people for “saying bad things” about the president, unless that bad thing is “I’m planning to kill the president.”
@mattb: Unfortunately, incompetency seems to be a requirement for teachers of social studies. In Washington State a while ago, the state found that over 70% of all social studies classes in high schools were taught by teachers with no training in history, geography, political science, or economics (the core competencies in social studies for Washington State).
@PogueMahone: It always depends on what one invests. In your case, the GED served your needs better. Congratulations on making a wise choice. As a teacher, I really wish more students would.
@Jenos Idanian: While I realize that it’s easier to blame unions and work rules than admit what is actually happening, if the clip in question fairly represents a typical day in that class–or even an atypical but common enough day–if the teacher in question is not terminated for cause, it won’t be because of unions or work rules, it will be because the administrator in charge of the school declined to do the work of documenting the problem for the purpose of showing cause.
Any reasonable person can tell you that in industry, failures of employees to execute their jobs well stem from failures of management. The fact that the name of the business is X School District doesn’t change the basic formula no matter how much you would like it to./
@jan: “Why don’t teachers even attempt to cultivate critical thinking in their students, ”
Lots of reasons. One is that open discussion requires a teacher who knows more than what is in the text book on the subject. Another is discussion is easily disrupted by students who don’t wish to participate. Also, it requires across the board support otherwise the students can complain the teacher is being mean to them and not hand feeding them. And the new big one is that the unconnected fact-based testing does not mesh well with discussion teaching, plus the “schedule” doesn’t permit time for thought, just regurgitation. And we shouldn’t forget that research for over the last 120 years has revealed that by about 3rd grade the classroom has educated thinking out of the students and the longer they are in the system, the more “school helplessness” they have.
@Jenos Idanian:” Their official policy is to defend their members’ rights, including their right to due process. Which means that if the offense is so egregious, then theoretically they will simply make certain the member’s rights are respected — but if the offense is sufficient and the rules are followed, then she can be fired for cause.”
This is quite possibly the most incoherent pile of gibberish you’ve ever posted, and God knows that says a lot. Of course it’s the union’s job to defend their members’s rights, including their right to due process. And then there’s a hearing — run, usually, by the school board — and the people running the hearing decide whether or not the teacher — not “she” — shockingly, there are male teachers as well these days — will be fired. And yet, somehow this is an indictment of the evil unions? Because why? Because they don’t just lie down and follow whatever whim is in the pumpkin you use for a head?
The unions exist to protect the rights of teachers. That’s why they exist. But you want to play this idiot game that if they don’t fire teachers you don’t like — based off a youTube clip from a state you’ve probably never been in — they are somehow evil.
And this is the great secret that only anti-union types are supposed to say? How did you manage to keep your shoes on before velcro was invented?
@JKB: To second your comment about “school helplessness,” I offer the following story.
About a decade back, I was teaching at a private school affiliated with a large conservative congregation in the small town I was living in. I had been hired to teach college-bound seniors and we were reading The Iliad. For the final assignment before writing a paper on the nature of heroism to the Greeks and how it might differ from that of 21st Century evangelicals, I asked the students to do a very minor exercise in developing critical thinking skills. I asked the students to select 25 passages from the text cite them according to the method used for that type of text and to opine about what they thought about what the Greeks believed from interpreting the passage. Because this was a critical thinking task, I reminded them that whatever opinion they came to was fine as long as they explained it clearly (and I awarded full points for each entry regardless as my past experience in that town was that most students did about 80% of what was requested). It came to pass that the student who would most have benefitted from what was essentially 100 free points failed to turn in the assignment at all.
In a subsequent conversation with the students father (who was on the board of the school and had hired me because I had promised to build the critical thinking skills of their children) I was criticized for the assignment because “I had failed to tell [his son] exactly which 25 passages I had wanted the students to cite and what conclusions they were to draw about Greek society from those passages.
We want to want better schools, but it’s not quite the same as wanting to have better schools. Additionally. most schools are very good reflections of the community values–the schools are only as good as the community wants them to be.
Until I spoke up, everyone agreed the teacher should be fired.
And now we have our resident idiot savant (we’re still trying to figure out where the “savant” comes into play) now arguing how it’s only right and fair that the union should be expected to do everything and anything to keep said teacher from being fired.
This, apparently, is a good thing.
Sigh…
@bains:
Because it’s a huge elephant in the room. The teacher is obviously black and the student obviously white. And the teacher, unfortunately, conforms to several negative stereotypes about black women. It seems odd to ignore that fact, especially when it’s likely to draw attention away from more important issues in the case.
I have to say that some of the worst teachers I ever encountered in my public High School were the Social Studies/Government teachers.
Bingo. Back in the day, I was a grad student teaching freshman comp at Miss. State. The two absolute worst writers I had, kids who were illiterate for any practical purpose, were social-studies secondary-ed majors. They’d been steered into it because they could take a smattering of survey course without really concentrating in a field (besides “education”). And as it happened, both were black. I recall they dropped my course when it became evident they weren’t going to fare well. Nice kids, I felt sorry for ’em, but they were ill-served by their schools.
@Just ‘nutha ig’rant cracker:
Exactly right.
Way to miss the point.
People aren’t arguing the teacher shouldn’t be fired/punished. You were getting pushback for your odd views about what a union should do. A union exists to benefit its members. This teacher is a member (I assume) and therefore it’s the union’s job to protect the teacher. Much like a lawyer defends his/her client even if it sure looks like they done it. But then people whine about that too…
My high school social studies teacher taught well what he was passionate about, but not so well what he wasn’t. I think government can be less than interesting even to social studies teachers who like other aspects of social studies. History and government while overlapping are different disciplines withing social studies. A good history teacher isn’t necessarily going to be a good government teacher.
That said even a disinterested social studies teacher should have more knowledge than displayed on the recording. Her ignorance is showing and is embarrassing.
Oh-at my kids high school most of the coaches do not work at the school as teachers. All the social studies teachers are more studious, history nerds. The athletic director and the golf and boys basketball coaches are all math teachers (and one of them a very good one) so the coach stereotype doesn’t always play out.
@Jenos Idanian: “Until I spoke up, everyone agreed the teacher should be fired. And now we have our resident idiot savant (we’re still trying to figure out where the “savant” comes into play) now arguing how it’s only right and fair that the union should be expected to do everything and anything to keep said teacher from being fired. This, apparently, is a good thing.”
Poor Jenos. He had an entire lynch mob all worked up to demand the firing of a woman no one here had ever heard of until they saw a youTube video yesterday. And then some damn liberal spoilsport suggests that it’s not wrong for her union to stand up for her rights, and now some weak-kneed members of his mob are considering putting down the rope until actual facts come out. Or possibly letting those people who were actually involved in the incident handle it. And worse, others are suggesting that this might be a good thing.
Poor Jenos. If he can’t whip up a frenzy of hate against some powerless woman he’ll never have to look in the eyes, if he can’t make life substantially worse for a complete stranger who will never know the identity of the anonymous troll who did everything he could to harm her, how can he be expected to get any pleasure out of life?
I’ll say this for Mitt Romney — he may have been a bully, but at least when he picked on the weaker and poorer kids, he did it in person.
Oh, and thanks again on the lecture about courage on that other thread, Jenos. I’ll be sure to treasure your words on that subject forever.
@hoop
If it wasn’t for the so called loud mouths, nothing would have happen to this teacher. The school first try to sweep it under the rug by calling it a teachable moment. Only after the outcry did they investigated it and took action.
@Facebones
I’m sure those protestors were not doing anything but saying bad things about the Republicans right? There weren’t breaking any laws, causing unlawful disruptions or anything like that? Typical liberal that says junk like this “I was busted for peaceful protest. Me overturning a police car or throwing bricks at the police had nothing to do with me being arrested”.
@jan:
I’ve gotta say I’m pretty impressed with these kids, for standing their ground, having the presence of mind to record it, arguing well, and basically refusing to be cowed.
Overall it makes me hopeful. Maybe all the cruddy, ineffective, uneducated, impossible to fire know-nothings in our public schools aren’t actually crippling the next generation – maybe it’s forcing them to learn to think for themselves.
@WR:
All the teacher’s union is doing is making it more expensive to get an incompetent teacher out of the classroom. Thus, everyone principal and school administrator has to weigh is whether it is worth the effort to get rid of bad teachers to just let them stay in a classroom. Of course, that the children of teachers are never assigned to the bad teachers usually makes the decision easier.
Also, progressives always argue that diversity will help do away with racist/bigoted attitudes in the U.S. How do the white kids in a class with such an incompetent black teacher who is obviously a bigot help to reduce racism in the U.S.?