School Board Considers Firing SC Teacher For Stomping US Flag During Lesson About Symbolism

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

South Carolina high school teacher who talked glowingly about the U.S. and the importance of embracing freedom while stomping on an American flag in his classroom might find out if he loses his job Monday.

Lexington-Richland District 5's school board was expected to consider the superintendent's recommendation to fire Scott Compton for his lesson at Chapin High School. The discussion is expected to happen behind closed doors.

Superintendent Stephen Hefner didn't find a problem with the ninth and 10th grade English teacher's lesson on how ideas should be greater than symbols, but instead was appalled with the bad judgment Compton used in defacing a U.S. flag to make his point, district spokesman Mark Bounds said.

"I was in the military 20 years. I will defend your right to burn an American flag in the public square to my death. But as a teacher, you cannot bring your personal biases into the classroom," Bounds said.

Read more: http://www.newser.com/article/da3q68fo0/school-board-considers-firing-sc-teacher-for-stomping-us-flag-during-lesson-about-symbolism.html

[bluestateguy]

1. Questionable teaching tactic, but far from a fireable offense

Americans need to grow up and stop being so emotional about pieces of cloth.

[Ztolkins]

2. I'm biased-ly firing you for being biased

Right.

[cstanleytech]

3. So, the teacher is being fired for doing the job of teaching.

[yesphan]

4. Should have used

a Confederate flag.

[rexcat]

5. That would have got him shot...

for treason in SC!

[csziggy]

6. Or should have burned a Bible!

[mahannah]

7. Excellent lesson and the perfect symbol. Well done.

[zeemike]

8. If they do he should sue

Under the 1st amendment right to free speech.
If he does not, then school boards all over the country can and probably will use that president to purge the schools of any "liberals" that say things "against America"...you know like saying the Iraq war was a concocted on a lie...and not "supporting the troops"

Oh that would be such right wing fun.

[MissMarple]

9. Way over the top.

Although firing him is not the best answer. Offending peoples' sensibilites is not the best teaching technique, well depending on what you intend to teach.

[jtuck004]

10. Outrage over a flag, while 47 million are on food stamps, 50,000 families

are removed from their homes each month, 26 million people on the last BLS survey said they want or need full-time work, over 10 million families considered working poor...

...we let banks skate with hundreds of billions in bonuses, trillions of dollars in profits from free taxpayer money while paying Wells Fargo and JP Morgan Chase billions of dollars to guarantee their profits every month. We crank students out of schools that are far better at being consumers than producers, and a majority in the classroom are about to spend the rest of their lives paying fees to the children of today's bankers instead of using it for the good of the nation. And we do all thison the bones of perhaps 80 million native people.

Depends on what you want to teach indeed...

[MissMarple]

11. It will be a bit difficult for that message to sink in for the South Carolina school board.

But, I suppose there is always hope for enlightenment after the hundreds of phone calls they get demanding the poor guy get strung up...or shot for treason.

I fully understand what you are meaning. But in the world of school boards it is beside the point. The guy will be lucky if he keeps his job and doesn't come to harm.

[jtuck004]

13. It wasn't that long ago that he would be tied to a tree, beaten with a whip, have hot

tar poured on his wounds, be dusted with feathers and kicked down the road. Or lynched.

I wonder how many of those kids are on free or reduced-price lunch, yet they seem not to be outraged about that.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

12. Where is that pic of Bush standing on a flag. Or signing a flag?

He should show the board those pics.

[Kelvin Mace]

14. When symbols of liberty become more important

than actual liberty, liberty as a right is gone.

[alp227]

15. Wah wah wah! Somebody stepped on a FLAG!

But of he drew a stick figure of muhammad in his lesson and a muslim student complained, the community AND RW media would be celebrating the teacher as a hero who stood up to political correctness. the muslim student would be BULLIED to hell.

I thought right wingers would support this teacher because his point was about FREEDOM.*

*it's not freedom if it defaces a Sacred National Symbol or criticizes a Sacred American like members of military, Jesus, Republicans, or the police.