Military: Teachers harassing soldiers' kids

WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Thursday, February 27, 2003

[JohnHuang2]

Public-school teachers in Maine – at least 12 of them – have told children of recently called-up National Guard members that any attack on Iraq would be illegal and immoral, thus insinuating that the students' parents are equally immoral, according to reports by local Guard personnel.

WABI-TV in Bangor, Maine, first reported Friday that family members of two National Guard units recently deployed reported to the Guard's Family Assistance Program that teachers were making harassing comments to their children. The assistance program is designed to help families of Guard members who are called to active duty with information about various programs that can help them during deployments.

WABI reporter Alan Grover told WND that reports of the harassment had come in from 12 different schools across the state. Personnel from the Family Assistance Program collected the 12 reports after interviewing 80 Guard families. Since there are 600 such families affected, the number of actual incidents likely is higher.

State Education Commissioner Duke Albanese downplayed the matter, saying there were only "three anecdotal incidents," according to the Bangor Daily News.

Adjutant Gen. Joseph Tinkham of the Guard, however, confirmed that there were specific instances of harassment and that the names of the teachers, locations and dates have been recorded. The Guard has decided not to release those names for fear of repercussions for the students involved and instead will allow individual parents to decide if they want to confront the teachers publicly.

WABI also reported that Albanese has sent a letter to the state's teachers, encouraging them to be mindful of the children of military personnel and to be balanced in discussing various views about a potential war.

According to the TV station, principals and guidance counselors also have made disparaging remarks to students about their parents' participation in war preparations.

In a related matter, WABI reports that the National Guard instructed soldiers to meet with school personnel prior to deploying to inform them of the deployment and let them know that the children of soldiers may have some special emotional issues to deal with as a result. In response, according to the report, school personnel were less than cooperative, telling the soldiers, in effect, "That's your problem."

[JohnHuang2]

Thursday, February 27, 2003

Quote of the Day by biggerten

[An.American.Expatriate]

The State of Maine, and any other state found to be allowing such disgracefull conduct amoung the teachers / counselors etc.. need to have ALL federal monies fronzen immediately (not just for schools - ALL!).

[Vic3O3]

nasty teacher ping...

[ofMagog]

Cut federal funding ASAP to those schools and see how they like it!

[Mackey]

I suggest an after-school counseling session in the parking lot. It worked well in my high school.

[Quilla]

I agree - cut the funding to these anti-Americans. I consider the comments made to these students borders on treason. I'm so thankful my children attend a private Christian school. Just yesterday evening my daughter shared a lesson her history teacher relayed to the class - how the French military's first action in any battle is to raise their hands.

[Feckless]

The wife an I would like to volunteer to travel to wherever this action takes place and provide an "attitude adjustment" to the offending scum sucking liberal union butt-boys (and girls). We better not hear of any of this crap in Texas, we won't wait on an invite!

To America's deployed warriors.... Stay focused on the task at hand.....We got your back!

[Sinner6]

Absolutely, having spent much of my life in north minneapolis I know the benefit a butt-kicking.

[laredo44]

The wife an I would like to volunteer to travel to wherever this action takes place and provide an "attitude adjustment" to the offending scum sucking liberal union butt-boys (and girls). We better not hear of any of this crap in Texas, we won't wait on an invite!

Uh...Mr. Feckless, sir...you forgot the word "pinko" after "liberal" in your first sentence.

Hey, I sure don't want you or the missus on my case. LOVL. Well put!

[kassie]

I second that! This kind of behavior needs to be stopped right now.

[ladylib]

Here's an article from WND:

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31252

[Landru]

Makes me fondly recall the film, "How Green Was My Valley."

I believe Moran was the family name portrayed in the film.
Tough Welsh coal miners.

...they knew how to deal with academic pinheads.

[KC_for_Freedom]

WE have let this happen with years of allowing the teachers union to control who teaches in public schools. The home schooled kids don't have this problem, but they are few in number. It is time to put aside concerns about how vouchers will affect private schools and put reasonable voucher probrams in place where the schools are the most politically left. Without this, parents have an obligation to discuss what teachers say in school and counter it at home. This will lead to divisions between the school kids, but this is better than letting this drivel go on without the other side.

[Argonaut]

"It is the soldier, not the reporter who has given us the freedom of the press. It is the soldier, not the poet, who has given us the freedom of speech. It is the soldier, not the campus organizer, who gives us the freedom to demonstrate. It is the soldier who salutes the flag, who serves beneath the flag, and whose coffin is draped by the flag, who allows the protester to burn the flag." ~Father Dennis Edward O'Brien, Sergeant, USMC

[demosthenes the elder]

all school employees who have made such comments should be immediately suspended without pay pending investigation by a competent independent body. If it is found that they have committed acts in violation of the covenant under which we the People are obliged to surrender our children to the ministrations of strangers for 8 hours of every weekday, 9 months out of the year, they should be summarily fired from their current positions, permanently banned from ever holding another similar or related position in this country, possibly prosecuted civilly/criminally for fraud/violation of contract, child abuse, and -perhaps- treason.
This is INTOLERABLE.
Barf up your toenails PING!

[Nebr FAL owner]

Would that be anything like a good pld fashioned wall to wall counseling session or a one on one union meeting? =8^>

[latrans]

Not in my neighborhood. This makes me LIVID. Yet another example of The Left Wing Pinko Commie dominated teachers union. These teachers should be dealt with harshly, and immediately.

[el_texicano]

Good God!!!! These kids have to deal with the prospect of the loss of their parents in harms way, with emotional stress of separation and then to be even slightly impugned with the charge "insinuating that the students' parents are equally immoral".

ARRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!! D&*#, if I had been one of those kids and heard this, I would have probably been suspended for beating the living crap out of the teacher - education be d$mned. But my guess is, it was stated to grade school or younger kids - so gutless are these scum.

Would to God that they would produce the list of "teachers" names doing this crap!! They would be on their knees begging forgiveness by the time true Americans got through with them. At the very least these so called "teachers" would be banned for life from the teaching profession and have a hard time finding work.

Sorry John...I had to vent that out or I would have had to pull my foot out of my monitor.

[Happy2BMe]

Another good thread on military kids being mistreated by teachers.

[wbill]

The kids - at least the older ones - can likely handle it themselves.

When I was in HS (coincidentally in Maine), we had a real liberal nutcase come in. We're talking a Birkenstock-and-tiedye-wearing, hackysack juggling, pot smoking, protest-against-everything hippie freak. She was so poorly treated and ostracized by the kids , that she was gone by mid-year.

Ironically, what did her in was her insistence on politically correct language in her classroom. Teenagers, in case mo one noticed, don't like to be told what to do.

All that having been said, there's still no excuse for what those teachers did.