Posted on 05/20/2004 12:49:27 PM PDT by TaxRelief
MOUNT AIRY, N.C. -- A local high school teacher who watched the beheading of Nicholas Berg in class with some of his students was suspended for two days.
Mack Hodges teaches social studies at Mount Airy High School and also coaches baseball and football. Hodges recently told his class that he could not find the Web site carrying the video of the beheading, a school official said.
In the video, Nicholas Berg is seated on the ground while five armed men disguised by head scarves and masks stand behind him. A man in the middle identified as terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi decapitates Berg. It is unclear when and how Berg, a self-employed telecommunications businessman, was captured. The video has not been shown on U.S. television but has been available on the Internet.
On Tuesday, one of Hodges' students came in before class started, entered search information onto Hodges' computer and brought up the video, Superintendent Bill Church said. Hodges, the student, and five or six other students all viewed the video, Church said.
This video still, obtained from an Islamist website, shows five hooded gunmen standing behind Nicholas Berg.
"The kids who did see it were those who chose to stand there and watch," he said. "It was not a captive audience. Even still, I do not see it as part of our curriculum or responsibility to show that. If parents want to show that, it is different. To discuss it and its implications is a matter of current events, but now to show the gruesome actions."
Hodges was later suspended for two days and was not available for comment late Tuesday.
Teachers in Nebraska, California, Arkansas and Texas all have been suspended or placed on leave in the past couple of weeks for allowing students to view the video in class.
Principal Sandy George will determine what, if any, disciplinary action the student involved will face.
It's a horrible feeling, I agree.
My father, a libertarian, tells me that being able to control that gut reaction to shield our kids, is probably the one thing that separates the good parents from the possessive.
I think it's important to have principles, but in Real Life, I'm inclined to shrug and say, "Oh well ..." about quite a few things. Of course, my kids aren't 16, either; that would make a big difference, if we personally faced a situation like this.
Teenagers who can find a video on the Web, when their teacher can't, have probably seen plenty of things that aren't suitable for middle-aged Southern church ladies!
"Okay, have it your way, 'Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil.'"
I'm actually with you on teens being told all about it. It's History, and they do need to know.
Once they overreact to one loud, demanding and aggressive parent, they set the precident for every self-centered, my-son-can-do-no-wrong parent that wants things run their way.
BTW, Southern Pines is a lovely part of our state.
I have a cousin in Southern Pines. He's dubious about having the whole mob of us visit him, even though he lives alone in a house the size of my subdivision.
Woman! Would you make up your mind? ROFLOL
Yeah, tell me about it. When I stood up for what was right, the control freaks did their damage. If ANYONE says ANYTHING to me now about "firing" a teacher, I react violently unless I know the reasons. And, a good reason had better exist. When you fire someone without good cause and make it where that individual cannot feed his/her family, I believe you ought to just go and shoot the person. Otherwise, don't start an argument you can't finish. Now, I don't stand up for much of anything. No, I didn't show the Berg video. No, I don't intend to in the subject area I teach. And, no, you had better not come into my presence and start talking about firing unless you have a VERY good reason. Not one more time.
You totally miss the point. It isn't history, it is current events. Teens don't need to be told about it, they need to see it. They need to look into the eyes of the beast and have it chill them to the bone. They need to look upon evil and have it twist and tie their stomachs into an unbearable knot. These people intend to eradicate us from the face of the earth. That isn't history. That is the army of destruction standing just beyond the next hill.
Stop, look and listen to the people around you. Do they really fear this evil? Do they show any sign of the real gravity of the situation. NO! They carp about minutia. They allow the media to lead them around by the nose. They talk as if we have a choice whether to fight this war or not.
Take a good look into the eye of the beast and all doubt is removed.
OK. And your "basis in fact" for siding with the education bureaucracy and media establishment for suppressing the Berg story and pushing the Abu Graib story to 24/7/365 is ... what? Panties on the head are the moral equivalent of a dull knife at the throat?
The guy COULDN'T do a Google and find the video, and it was linked in about all the news sites. I doubt he had "secure" access to his machine and the student reportedly did the finding before the start of the class. The teacher probally didn't even realize just how horrific the act shown on the video was.
And some kids have prolly found things that'd make a cursing sailor blush. Some here believe their kids are too innocent to realize murder is gruesome or somehow can't or shouldn't equate death with murder.
I at first thought better of watching this video, changed my mind and watched it....Parents should of course have the final say and youngsters certainly don't need to see this but teenagers facing quick adulthood is a diff. story..I encouraged my 17 yr old son to see it.
I suppose there is an appropriate range of responses. I have a negative reaction because my teenager has nightmares just from hearing about this sort of thing, even without graphic details or pictures.
However, if the students in this situation were traumatized, they certainly could have stopped watching!
I only saw a few of the stills and that was enough to "inform" me - in as much as I can be informed.
What I saw was enough to remind me the fight against extremist islamite barbarians will be to the death of them. Only a well informed society can effectively come to grips with that reality and to teach highschoolers anything else and/or to insulate them from the evil will only be to the young's future peril.
Again my friend ..excellant point
Nope.
But I'm not surprised at leaping and bounding conclusions based on nothing.
BTW, don't ever dare to tell me I side with media again.
I can not believe some of these posts - oh, the poor children! oh, they'll be scarred for life! oh, they'll have nightmares! oh, fire all the teachers! These were high schoolers, not 3rd graders. These "poor little impressionable children" could very well be 17/18/19 year old young ADULTS. You soccer mommies better think again about just who it is fighting in Iraq to protect you and your babies. That pimply faced high school kid who bagged your freshly ground gourmet coffee is the same adult who is signing up after graduation next week.
I cannot believe how much some people read into posts that was not there to be read in the first place.
That's what I can't believe.
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