PA student humiliated over bronco jersey

[niyad]

Mods, if this is a dupe, please delete, or move if necessary)

I don't happen to give a **** about any sort of sports, and I find this absolutely appalling, all the more so as the teacher thought it was a "joke". if anyone is interested, the school admin number is
724.846.8605

Pa. student humiliated over Broncos jersey

BEAVER FALLS, Pa. (AP) - A 17-year-old high school student said he was humiliated when a teacher made him sit on the floor during a midterm exam in his ethnicity class - for wearing a Denver Broncos jersey.

The teacher, John Kelly, forced Joshua Vannoy to sit on the floor and take the test Friday - two days before the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Broncos 34-17 in the AFC championship game. Kelly also made other students throw crumpled up paper at Vannoy, whom he called a "stinking Denver fan," Vannoy told The Associated Press on Monday.

Kelly said Vannoy, a junior at Beaver Area Senior High School, just didn't get the joke.

"If he felt uncomfortable, then that's a lesson; that's what (the class) is designed to do," Kelly told The Denver Post. "It was silly fun. I can't believe he was upset."

. . . . . . . . .

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/5272442

[sproutster]

1. OMFG - The lesson - be a sheep or suffer ridicule

This is INSANE

[MrMonk]

6. "That is what (the class) is designed to do."

The teacher needs to spend some time sitting on the floor just for that remark.

[LittleClarkie]

11. The only twisted logic I can see in the statement

was that the class was in ethnicity, and the teacher was trying to teach something about how it felt to be a minority and have ridicule and trash heaped upon a person.

If that's what he meant by the statement, it sounds like nothing more than a rationale for having his own fun.

Note to people who do things or say things and then say "just kidding" or "It was a joke" or "it was all in fun": if the person youu are playing the joke on isn't laughing, it is NOT "all in fun."

[AnnieBW]

2. On Behalf Of Steeler Nation

I apologize for that teacher's behavior. He had no right to do that. That teacher needs to be disciplined.

[havocmom]

3. Don't mean to be rude, but... link?

Since you provided a phone number for us to call and climb their frames, mind if we check into it first? :shrug:

[niyad]

17. sorry, I thought it was tagged.

[mike_c]

4. it sounds like the point was to make the student understand...

...how it feels to be a member of an arbitrarily persecuted group. This is arguably not a very effective technique-- how much learning really occurs when people are feeling this way?-- but my impression is that it's a fairly common approach in classes designed to explore social issues of ethnicity.

[MrMonk]

7. This occurred during an exam.

and what does it teach the other students about being persecutors? That it's fun.

[mike_c]

13. I said I have doubts about the technique, so you're preaching...

...to the choir. I'm simply responding to the replies that assumed that the kid really was persecuted for being a Denver fan. I've seen this technique used against anyone in the class who can be identified by some superficial characteristic. That's the point.

[LittleClarkie]

15. Or that was the rationale the teacher thought up later

Gee, I was only kidding. Besides, it's what the class was designed to do.

So, he does this sort of thing regularly? If so, then okay. If not, then I call bullshit.

Still and all, kind of hard to know when we weren't there.

[Journeyman]

22. I attended a play once where half were given Stars of David. . .

the other half Swastikas. There was no active persecution of any set, and no overt recognition -- we merely held our respective designations the rest of the evening. In the car on the way home, we discovered that each had felt the attitude peculiar to their set -- my "Jewess" wife had felt uncomfortable and ill at ease, while I had smiled at my secretly virtuous Nazi ID. It was a subtle, yet powerful, lesson in social and political stratification -- somewhat akin to the "blue eye/brown eye" experiments of the '60s.

As you point out, mike, the intent was probably similar in this class, though poorly executed. Rather than lambaste the teacher for insensitivity, as others have on this thread, I'd give him poor marks for execution and advise that he should organize his lesson plan around a more effective model -- perhaps something where more than a single student is signaled out, to permit development of community within the persecuted sect and give each student a base of support, however weak and fragile that base may prove.

[roguevalley]

5. THere was no joke here. I taught for 27 years and this is bullying and

harassment. This teacher has no defense against this antic, the bastard. We were always told by my parents to get up and leave and they would defend us to the wall over this shit. Tell your kids to do that.

[mike_c]

9. it's an ethnicity class-- this is a common pedagogical method...

...and obviously the kid got the point. But as I said previously, I don't think much of this technique because although it makes a valuable point, it ultimately discourages the openness and sense of community that helps foster learning.

[roguevalley]

10. I've seen controlled cases of this kind of thing and this sounds

spontaneous and mean-spirited. He alone was chosen and for his shirt. If there were others
in the targeted group, one thing. Singling out one kid is not.

[mike_c]

14. see # 13-- sheesh....

eom

[mike_c]

20. it sounds like the teacher knows the technique but not how to use it...

...effectively, IMO. That makes him less than competent, but not mean spirited.

[Wilms]

12. Not my read at all. That sounds more like the excuse for the incident.

The teacher's quote...

snip

Kelly said Vannoy, a junior at Beaver Area Senior High School, just didn't get the joke.

snip

If the student didn't get the lesson/technique, that's one thing...but it was all a "joke".

From the info in the OP, the teacher needs a new line of work.

[freeplessinseattle]

19. I'm with you, no joke

if it was a true academic lesson the teacher would have discussed the point of it with the entire class, and explained why their behavior was wrong. sure doesn't sound like that is what happened at all, just mean-spirited juvenile bullying.

[KyuzoGator]

8. All I can say is, go Seahawks.

Cowher choking in the Big One again ought to be satisfying for this kid.

[Orrex]

18. Hey now! Cowher didn't make him sit on the floor. (nt)

[John Q. Citizen]

16. Link, please?

[marylanddem]

21. Hope they sue the shit out of the dumbass teacher. eom

[jseankil]

25. So more money can be taken away from the school system?

If it's public school that is. And sue for what??

[long_green]

23. the Rooney family should step in and treat the young man's

family to a trip to Detroit for the game.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

24. It was a real life fake drama about what it is like to be minority mocked

by the majority no? It seems like the teacher was attempting to be creative in displaying the harm that is caused by that type of behavior. I think it may have gone wrong, but I don't criticize the teacher for 'outside the box' thinking on how to make an impactful point.

This wasn't about a teacher just humiliating someone cause he like a certain team. It was a lesson on prejudice and harrassment.

[sproutster]

26. How well do you think the student did on the exam he took on the floor?

[MadisonProgressive]

27. If I was the principal, he'd no longer work at my HS

[izzybeans]

28. Interesting...

a participant observation on what it's like to be stigmatized. Now figuring out how the rest of the class can feel the dark mark of the outcast will be the next trick.

[awoke_in_2003]

29. As a lifelong Steeler fan

I find this absolutely appalling.