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Go back to the f-ing desert if it’s so great there, maggot.

Ok… Let’s get a grip here, people. Two wrongs do not make a right.

First, you should have, by now, figured out that rarely does a newspaper story tell all of the facts. Therefore, as Barrack Obama should be able to tell you, it is best to reserve judgment until you, in deed, do know all of the facts… unless you like having your foot in your mouth and want to be inviting everyone over for a beer… I’ll have a Coors, thanks.

Second, if you read the entire story you will have noticed that the Muslim girl denied not standing for the pledge. Perhaps she wasn’t going to do so until the other girl said something, or maybe, like a lot of teenagers, she resents authority and was showing her “rebelliousness” by getting up in her own time… well after everyone else.

Admittedly, such behavior, if that is what it was, is rude. However, such public rudeness is seldom properly addressed by the additional public rudeness of someone else who may have disagreed with the first display of rudeness. An after-school complaint to a school authority, or, perhaps, a quite, after-the-fact discussion in a private setting with the alleged perpetrator of the first display of rudeness would probably have been far more effective in altering future behavior and likely had no adverse consequences to young lady whom the school officials disciplined.

Based only on the article (which as noted earlier is, very likely, factually incomplete at best, and possibly slanted), it appears the school authorities over reacted in terms of sanctions. The punished girl’s father is probably correct in requesting a reduction. However, school authorities cannot ignore the incident if there is to be a continued expectation of student civility and non-violence with any semblance of a learning atmosphere.

Finally, this country is about individual liberty. That includes the liberty to be non-violently rude and disrespectful as a part of the First and Fourteenth Amendments. (Do not think that I am approving of either behavior alleged to have been displayed.) The first student had the “right” to disrespectfully remain seated during the pledge just as the other student had the right to non-disruptively and rudely express her disapprove in a peaceful manner. The question becomes whether the exercise of either of these individuals’ rights interfered with the creation and maintenance of the proper atmosphere of a public school setting.