Posted on 10/08/2010 8:00:57 AM PDT by TitansAFC
(Aiken-AP) Oct. 6, 2004 - Republican US Senate candidate Jim DeMint on Wednesday apologized for telling a newspaper on Tuesday unwed pregnant women shouldn't be allowed to teach in public schools.
In a debate Sunday with Democrat Inez Tenenbaum DeMint said openly gay people should not be allowed to teach in the state's public schools.
DeMint defended that remark during an interview with the Aiken Standard on Tuesday and said he would feel the same way about single, pregnant women who lives with a boyfriend teaching a third grade child. He said teachers should be held to a higher moral standard.
In a prepared statement Wednesday afternoon DeMint said he was speaking as a parent who wants the best for children. On Wednesday he released this apology:
Those of us who are parents know that feeling in your gut -- every time you drop your child off at school, it’s an act of faith. You trust a group of people – the principal, the teachers, even the janitors, with the most precious thing in your life – your children. And you just want what’s best for them. So as my wife often reminds me, sometimes my heart disengages from my head and I say something I shouldn’t – and that’s what happened yesterday. I clearly said something as a dad that I just shouldn’t have said. And I apologize. As a Senate candidate, it is my responsibility to present ideas and to answer questions in a way that will let people know what I will do as their U.S. Senator. I did not do that in this instance.
DeMint campaign manager Terry Sullivan says the candidate is a product of a single-mother family and is not opposed to a single mom teaching.
Some educators say a teacher's effectiveness in the classroom is more important than their personal life. Edward Hill, a third-grade teacher in the Richland One School District, says he was upset with DeMint's comments.
Some gay organizations want an apology from DeMint after he said gays and lesbians should not be teaching in the state's public schools. At the debate DeMint said he supports it a state Republican Party platform item that says gays should not teach in public schools. He says government should not endorse particular behaviors. Tenenbaum said that is a really bad thing and just un-American.
DeMint's comment came a week after a DeMint staffer was reprimanded for using a slur about lesbians in an e-mail.
Tenenbaum and DeMint will debate at WIS studios on October 18th. WIS encourages you to submit a question that may be used in the debate. The two are seeking to replace retiring Democrat Ernest "Fritz" Hollings, who has held the seat since 1966.
Why apologize? He should have stuck to his guns.
Yeah, it’s a bitch when you say what you actually believe these days...(Go get em Liberal Media). Yes, you are a wimp for thinking otherwise.
How dare he! Everyone knows we need a bunch of sluts and whores teaching our kids! .. /s
Can you imagine the scene in the health ed screwell class, where the "unwed pregnant women" teaches 30 kids at a time how to use a condom?
I agree. I wouldn't want a queer or a fornicator to be teaching my kids. They are bad role models.
The definition of ‘gaffe’ - inadvertently saying what you really think.
I’M SURE HE HAD MIXED FEELINGS ABOUT WHAT TO DO IN THIS INSTANCE, AND i RESPECT HIS DECISION.
(Sorry about the caps- I shouldnt have done that, and I apologize._
So, an unmarried male teacher who lives with his girlfriend shouldn’t be able to teach as well, right?
LLS
Why is the Senator apologizing?
Not only should DeMint not have apologized, but he should have instead elaborated on why not hiring such people is important. I work as a school psychologist in a medium sized school district in NorCal. Part of my assignment includes the Adolescent Parent Program - yes, teens with babies. Babies having Babies! We should be providing stronger role models for our youth.
Teacher salaries are high enough so three months off should be doable.
The voting public is ready for people who are genuine and speak as they believe, instead of using lies to make people feel good about themselves.
But... he probably should have kept this one to himself, at least for the next election cycle. Perhaps the 2012 election cycle would be more conducive to stating this truth.
I don’t have any problem with that concept. Equality of treatment.
If he gets pregnant... yes... right.
LLS
Not if he's in his third trimester of pregancy (see my last post, about a minute ago)
Yes. She has clearly violated Sharia law...
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