Posted on 03/01/2005 8:35:02 PM PST by Former Dodger
By Eyewitness News' Jen Maxfield (Brick Township - WABC, March 1, 2005) A teacher outburst in the classroom - all caught on tape. It all started when a student refused to stand for the national anthem.
Voice of Stuart Mantel, teacher: "I don't wanna hear a sound! Not a sound!"
Students at Brick Township High School secretly recorded a video in their third period electronics class. The teacher, Stuart Mantel, was yelling at the students to stop fooling around during the nation anthem. But Mantel's angry tirade didn't end there. When one student refused to stand up for the national anthem, Mantel yanks the chair out from under him.
Voice of Stuart Mantel, teacher: "I am damn well serious!"
Corey Zappo, seen mugging for the camera, was suspended for 15 days following the taping. It was his camera, hidden in a sweater, that captured the outburst that Corey then posted on his personal website.
Corey Zappo, Student: "We knew he was gunna go crazy. He frequently yelled at us. He used to slam the hammer on the desk when we wouldn't shut up."
Corey's father showed us the letter explaining his son's suspension, in part for skipping class and in part for misbehaving in electronics class. Brick school officials will not reveal whether the teacher faced any sanctions for his behavior.
Peter Zappo, Student's Father: "Maybe they shouldn't have videotaped him but yet the teacher acted inappropriately - they put it on film - and it seems the only ones who suffered the consequences for this was the kids."
Stuart Mantel the electronics teacher had no comment. Brick's Superintendent says the student was well within his first amendment rights to stay seated during the national anthem, but it was the covert videotaping that really bothered him.
Dr. Thomas Seidenberger, Brick Township Superintendent: "You hope that kind of stuff doesn't happen in the classroom. It's certainly something that we don't advocate."
In response to this incident, Brick school officials are reconsidering total ban on cell phones in the school and they plan to restrict the use of all cameras inside as well.
Brick Township police say they are investigating the students for other images caught on videotape. The school would say only that they are cooperating with the investigation and that the release of their video was not the only reason the students were suspended.
Imagine trying to pull nonsense like this when we were in school?
Yet the report seems to lean toward the teacher having somehow been at fault.
Time for the mascot of this type of logic:
How can you get any pudding if you don't eat your meat???!!! |
So, maybe the teacher should tape the kids secretly in class and then show the tapes to the parents. Show them what jerks they raised.
Nothing is wrong on either side, I believe. I'm all for recording everything you feel like - secretly or not - as a record of truth. Behave, don't lie, and there shouldn't be a problem.
Also, the teacher was right to yell, and I'm glad that he did. Who's getting upset?
But never for refusing to recite the Anthem...just for flirting with the french teacher. And to think if I had been successful, we would have made the national papers and she would be headed for prison.
Unfortunately, yours truly was headed for the P's office.
This might be good.
Other Images??
As technology advances, it will become increasingly impossible to prevent secret cameras (owned and operated by many different parties) from recording any and all activities, wherever performed.
He didn't do anything really really bad, though forcing the kid to stand up did violate his rights.
That said, it sounds like he just needs to get some better classroom management training.
If kids tried this crap where I grew up, they would be the outcast loser that gets beaaten up all the time. Lefty parents suck, and they raise pathetic moron kids.
Also, if my son refused to stand for the national anthem I would have kicked his 4$$ and then shoved the camera up it.
Certainly is on record for provoking the teacher.
Heck...my 6th grade teacher took the metal clicky thingy (where the ball bearings hang and you start one clicking the other, then they click by themselves) and threw it from his desk at the front of the classroom to the back wall. He was always throwing something, but usually it was just a stack of papers.
Me thinks that the parents of this kind of punk would not care.
I often wonder how a person could possibly keep their cool when you have such little snots acting up. If we had acted this way in school, our parents would have been contacted and we would have been punished by the them. That was when children were raised to respect their elders and that you went to school to learn not play.
In my High School, my Chemistry/Physics/Biology did that openly. He had twin microphones hanging from the ceiling, and announced that he recorded each and every class he taught. As High School is not legally required, and this was his class; if we didn't like it we were free to leave.
He would state that when parents come in to ask why their kids flunked, and then stated that 'so and so' wasn't mentioned in class; he could just whip out the appropriate tape. He was perhaps the best teacher I ever had. We didn't have a lot of fun in his classes; but we learned the material.
You kicking your son's butt for failing to stand for our national anthem is one thing. Having a public school teacher scream at your son for refusing to do so is another.
If your son wants to be an anti-American freak, he should hear from his parents and his classmates. But I don't like a government employee screaming at a kid for being unpatriotic any more than I like a government school refusing to allow students to pray at lunch or recess on their own volition. I think that both violate the First Amendment.
Watch this video of an Arab student in a classroom in Holland. He yells at the teacher and starts shoving him around. Everybody just watches. The teacher does nothing.
http://stream.2003.02.garnierprojects.com/geenstijl/deschooldag.wmv
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.