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.
Good for her! I hope mine get teachers like her. There should be more current event discussions in class. I'm so happy when students come up years later and ask if I remember discussing some event with them. Kids have much more insight than many parents give them credit.
I don't understand why you make the comment about "easy going schools".
Not one person has said the discussion of what happened, such as took place at your son's school, should not have taken place. In fact, it is obvious that in the case this thread is based on, a very involved and ongoing discussion was in progress. Nobody--parents or school or posters on this thread--has said that was not right or appropriate. They said just the opposite.
Rejoice.
You'll note that in the case the article is written about that discussion of what happened was fine.
This was not, as some here have falsely and hysterically asserted, a case of the subject being off-limits.
We are engaged with an enemy that has such fascination with death, and not just for us, but for themselves.
The video, to my way of thinking, is an ESSENTIAL tool for helping overly comfortable civilians and too-far-removed politicians grasp the mindset of the enemy.
Parents like you are part of the problem, and I submit to you that we can spend all the money we want, but until we address the fact that parents are generally less educated than their kids are these days, we aren't going to be fixing education any time soon.
Placed in the proper context, the video, or even just the audio, will do what Time, Newsweek, the NY Times and the alphabet networks are trying so hard to undo - galvanize the country against an enemy that means to kill us in the most gruesome possible ways on our own soil.
I don't think you'd feel the way you do if you lost your little bundle of joy to a batch of tainted water at school one day, or a dirty bomb, or a VX rocket, or some other such act of Islamic love. I think you'd want everyone to know what we are up against.
You run with dogs, you get fleas.
It is a matter of parental rights, and who makes the decisions for minors. You don't have the right to make the decision about any children but your own.
What are you babbling about?
You have NO IDEA what my thoughts are about Nick Berg.
A reading of my comments tells you that I do not think the way you keep saying I do.
I have said several different ways that you are *reading the wrong thing into what I have said*, yet you persist in misrepresenting my thoughts on the subject.
Stop it.
I have NEVER minimized it. I have NEVER said the prison abuse is as bad or worse. That is absurd. A check of my postings tells a different tale.
Now, get this through your head. You are flat out wrong in saying what or how I think about it. You are missing my point by a thousand miles.
You really shouldn't go out flaming if you're going to be outraged that you provoke a reaction.
Get a grip, for heaven's sake.
My posts did not for one second "indicate" anything that you inferred and then persisted in misrepresenting.
Excellent point.
Most parents spend WAY too much time trying to adapt the world to the kid instead of the other way around.
The result is kids who never grow up and realize that the world can be a scary and unfair place.
"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."
Your mind would also lose in a battle against the enemy. You underestimate and presume too much.
Go lobby some network to bring back the Spectacle.
I think that most people are missing the point on this subject. They suspend the teacher for something like this, but they encourage a complete and utter lack of moral fiber, taking THAT matter out of the parents hands as well? Frankly, I find that THIS type of thing, which is an international subject would be far more acceptable than having teachers AND entire school systems exposing my kids to things like "alternative lifestyles" and "here, have a condom". But I guess THAT is doing a "service" but I don't see there being a BIGGER topic that should be taught by the parents, than sexuality. Consistency is what is missing. Consistency in belief systems. You can't harp about one thing, then allow other things to be treated soooo casually.
Hmmm..."Spectacle." That's an idea. Maybe you folks can build a new Colosseum, pick up a few street people and animals for the events,... That way, our combat soldiers can go to do their jobs without seeing how perverted some of our populace is getting.
"You can't harp about one thing, then allow other things to be treated soooo casually."
I don't. Perversion is perversion. Throw 'em all out.
And turn off television sets until our media and corporates get right with God.
Tell the young folks that a man was tortured to death by the enemy, and that the "Arab Street" is probably watching the film of it with glee and fascination. That's been enough for our combat soldiers throughout history (combat briefings in flight), and that'll be enough for our kids.
That is a good point, though. There is a lot of hypocrisy going on. Issues of sex should be taught by parents, and many schools are doing more harm than good.
The teacher mentioned in the column was only suspended, BTW. Many teachers have been suspended for much less, often by other teachers having schemed with left leaning parents.
I meant to point out that many teachers have been actually fired for much less. A principle is threatening the job of a "male" (as we are all called by feminists) as we write, because he has ridiculed the left in his columns.
Very well said.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.