Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Swampscott sees both sides of Martin controversy
Lynn (MA) Item ^ | 3/29/12 | Cyrus Moulton

Posted on 03/29/2012 11:37:39 AM PDT by raccoonradio

SWAMPSCOTT — The controversy over Trayvon Martin, the unarmed Florida teen who was wearing a hooded sweatshirt when killed by a member of a neighborhood watch who claimed Martin looked “suspicious,” has come to Swampscott High School as students are organizing a “Wear Your Hoodie Day” on Friday.

“They’re asking my child to identify with a man who in a police report is described as banging a person’s head on the sidewalk,” said parent Dr. Judy Bevis, a clinical psychologist. “The message being sent to kids is react, react emotionally, before we have all the information.”

But school officials defended the event as an opportunity for learning and debate.

“We expect a lot of discussion, there already has been,” said teacher Susan Haggerty, whose Race and Membership class is sponsoring the event. “We discussed (whether it was a rush to judgment) and I feel that they are on both sides. I think what resonated the most with them is the death: Is a kid walking in a neighborhood a justification for murder?”

Martin was shot to death on Feb. 26 in a gated section of Sanford, Fla., by George Zimmerman, a captain in the local neighborhood watch, according to the Associated Press. AP reports said Martin was wearing a hoodie and unarmed when Zimmerman began following him, telling police dispatchers that Martin looked suspicious. Neighbors reported a struggle and a gunshot, according to the AP.

Zimmerman said he had been attacked by Martin and claimed self-defense under Florida’s so-called “Stand Your Ground” law, according to reports. Local police did not charge Zimmerman with any crimes. Published reports of an alleged and anonymously leaked police report from the event portray Martin as the aggressor.

Martin’s family, civil rights leaders and many hoodie-wearing protesters have said Martin was a victim of racial profiling and urged an investigation into his death. His family also said three prior school suspensions were “irrelevant” and intended to “demonize” Martin, according to published reports.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation and Justice Department have opened a civil-rights investigation, according to wire reports.

Haggerty said her students have been discussing the case all week. The students decided to organize a Wear Your Hoodie Day, and High School Principal Layne Millington agreed to allow students to wear hooded sweatshirts in classes Friday.

“I am supporting this event because it’s an opportunity for students on both sides of the controversy to engage in deep and thoughtful discussions about a complex and pertinent event currently unfolding in our country,” Millington wrote in an email to the community.

But Bevis responded in a letter to Millington and Superintendent Lynne Celli that wearing hooded sweatshirts shows solidarity with Martin and sometimes signals “gang involvement” or “delinquency and alienation.” She said the situation was a tragedy, but “is being manipulated by various factions for their own political gain” before the facts were known.

“Judgment based on emotion and prejudice should not be condoned,” Bevis wrote. “Your job is to teach my daugther [sic] chemistry, algebra, etc., and not to embroil her in race-baiting and race politics.”

Haggerty disputed that students wearing hoodies unequivocally support Martin’s actions. Rather, she said they have expressed concern that they also could be viewed suspiciously if wearing such clothing.

“No matter what he did, he didn’t deserve to die, the gun was a little too much,” Haggerty said, recalling her students’ reaction. “The violence, that’s what upset them the most — the fatal violence.”

School Committee Members Marianne Hartmann and Laurier Beaupre agreed.

“I don’t think it’s making you identify with one person either way,” Hartmann said. it’s more identifying with the overall social situation … They should be talking about current events — not just talking about the Kardashians or whatever. It’s a significant event and it’s shaking up the country and they should be talking about it.”

Haggerty said she was proud of her students for “seeing something wrong and standing up for it.”

But she said she has prepared students for controversy.

“I told them they are probably going to be challenged on their views and have to stand their ground and defend their choice.”


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: standyourground; swampscott; trayvonmartin

1 posted on 03/29/2012 11:37:46 AM PDT by raccoonradio
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio

An African American son asks his dad, “Dad, what’s democracy?”

“Well, son, that’s when whites work and we get all the benefits from it!”

“But dad, aren’t the white people angry about it?”

“Sure they are, but that’s called ‘racism’”


2 posted on 03/29/2012 11:38:58 AM PDT by Neoliberalnot (Marxism works well only with the uneducated and the unarmed.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SErowaB4nUY


3 posted on 03/29/2012 11:43:12 AM PDT by Albion Wilde ("Real men are not threatened by strong women." -- Sarah Palin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio

Well, you can’t spell Swampscott without ‘Swamp’...


4 posted on 03/29/2012 11:49:07 AM PDT by Fedupwithit ("Live free or Die: Death is not the worst of evils" - Gen. John Stark)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio
Susan Haggerty, whose Race and Membership class is sponsoring the event

'Nuff said.

she said she has prepared students for controversy. “I told them they are probably going to be challenged on their views and have to stand their ground and defend their choice.”

She is promoting racial violence. Will she accept blame when a student gets hurt because they chose to wear or not wear a hoodie and decided to stand their ground using fists or worse?

5 posted on 03/29/2012 11:53:08 AM PDT by bgill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio

Is a kid walking in a neighborhood a justification for murder?”

lol

completely the wrong question.

The question should be. Does someone asking you what your doing justify physically assaulting them?

If I had been Trayvon, I am 100% sure I would be alive today and neither I nor Zimmerman would be hurt. Because when asked what I was doing... I would have simply responded, and told him what I was doing. End of encounter.


6 posted on 03/29/2012 11:55:52 AM PDT by TexasFreeper2009 (Go Newt!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bgill

I wonder what would happen if a group of students were to wear red fleece jackets on hoodie day?


7 posted on 03/29/2012 11:56:30 AM PDT by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio
“No matter what he did, he didn’t deserve to die, the gun was a little too much,” Haggerty said, recalling her students’ reaction. “The violence, that’s what upset them the most — the fatal violence.”

Hey loser, beating someone's skull into the cement can kill them. You're just upset the wrong color person got killed. That's racism.

All I care about is who was the initial agressor? That's ALL that matters!

/to Haggerty, not the Freeper OP

8 posted on 03/29/2012 11:59:15 AM PDT by piytar (The predator-class is furious that their prey are shooting back.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bgill
I'm all for it.

Haggerty can play a bus driver and everybody gets to knock the hell out of her while shouting “WE be Trayvon”.

Simply problem. Simple solution.

9 posted on 03/29/2012 12:00:22 PM PDT by IMR 4350
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio

> But school officials defended the event as an opportunity
> for learning and debate.

“learning and debate”

Leftist euphemisms for “indoctrination and bolshevik theater”.

The “public school” is BY FAR, the largest, most expensive, most subversive, and most destructive entitlement program in the country.

The “public school” is better understood as the “government school collective”.

It is silly to imagine that you can fix the public schools, because the very concept itself is communist.

Any child that comes out of the government school collective with their moral compass and common sense intact does so in spite of the government school indoctrination, not because of it.

If you want to win the culture war, have lots of children (see my tagline) and homeschool them or form your own school cooperative with your church or synagogue and like-minded friends and relatives.

Nobody loves your children more than you do.

Nobody can teach your children like you can.

Your children would love nothing better than to be taught by you, if you start doing so before they are corrupted by the government school collective.

It is hypocritical for you to submit your children to an authority with whom you fundamentally disagree. And your children will know it.

If you have children, make whatever sacrifices you must to get them out of the public schools.

DO NOT FEED THE BEAST!

Especially not with your own children.


10 posted on 03/29/2012 12:05:13 PM PDT by Westbrook (Children do not divide your love, they multiply it.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio
“No matter what he did, he didn’t deserve to die, the gun was a little too much,” Haggerty said, recalling her students’ reaction.

If a thug were to invade her school and start beating on a student, the cops wouldn't be coming in with spitballs.

11 posted on 03/29/2012 12:05:41 PM PDT by dirtboy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: maggief; Cletus.D.Yokel; little jeremiah

FYI


12 posted on 03/29/2012 12:13:17 PM PDT by hoosiermama (Stand with God and Sarah, the Gipper and Newt will be standing next to you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio

Yet another racist witness??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZVMZs4X90Q&feature=player_embedded


13 posted on 03/29/2012 12:19:29 PM PDT by GeronL (The Right to Life came before the Right to Pursue Happiness)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bgill

Stand their ground, hmmmmm...


14 posted on 03/29/2012 12:28:29 PM PDT by chae (I was anti-Obama before it was cool)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio
:: the unarmed Florida teen who was wearing a hooded sweatshirt when killed ::

The disingenuousness of the media is getting ridiculous. This is like Limbaugh's parodies of how SUV animate themselves and cause mayhem. Now, the hoodie is partly to blame


15 posted on 03/29/2012 12:30:13 PM PDT by Cletus.D.Yokel (Catastrophic Anthropogenic Climate Alterations - The acronym explains the science.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bgill

She also said, “We expect a lot of discussion, there already has been,” said teacher Susan Haggerty, whose Race and Membership class is sponsoring the event. “We discussed (whether it was a rush to judgment) and I feel that they are on both sides. I think what resonated the most with them is the death: Is a kid walking in a neighborhood a justification for murder?”

Talk about ‘rushing to judgement!’ They don’t even know WHY the shooting took place. Are they so stupid they would think someone would just blow a child away? Don’t they hear alarm bells ringing, warning that there is much more to the story than what they are hearing? God gave them brains but the Liberals have vacuumed them out of their heads.

Pull your children out of those Hell Holes called schools.


16 posted on 03/29/2012 12:40:03 PM PDT by Tomato lover
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio

When school officials engage in this kind of garbage, it’s useful to refer to them as the collective “faculty lounge” rather than school officials or teachers. Applying Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” to leftist elites really infuriates them.


17 posted on 03/29/2012 12:56:36 PM PDT by sforkjoe57 (How much longer must Americans be slaves to the stupidity of John Maynard Keynes?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: raccoonradio

SURE -

Wear a hoodie with “No_Limit_Nigga” stamped on the front.

See how diversity of opinion and freedom of exression is accepted by the Leftists and race baitors.

This is so sick it is hard to imagine. Maybe they should have a “Don’t rape and murder grandma” day.

There are LOTS - 100s every year - of people murdered by Blacks who are MUCH more innocent than Martin.

WTF is wrong with these people?


18 posted on 03/29/2012 2:07:57 PM PDT by Eldon Tyrell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: hoosiermama

Thanks. There is no controversy. Only because of leftists/racists in the media and gov.

Other than that, no controversy...


19 posted on 03/29/2012 3:23:10 PM PDT by little jeremiah (We will have to go through hell to get out of hell. Signed, a fanatic)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

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.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson