Free Republic

The Brooklyn teacher who sent an American soldier demoralizing letters written by sixth-graders apologized yesterday and admitted blame. In a statement issued by the Department of Education, social studies teacher Alex Kunhardt said he regretted offending Pfc. Rob Jacobs. His statement, however, did not address whether he either coached the students or read their missives — which accused soldiers of committing atrocities in Iraq — before mailing them.

February 23, 2005 -- Mayor Mike says one reason many young Americans are deployed in harm's way overseas is to defend the right of junior high school pupils in Brooklyn to act like jerks. But who said otherwise? Nobody ever claimed that Alex Kunhardt's sixth-grade class at JHS 51 in Park Slope didn't have the right to pen politically charged, fundamentally disrespectful letters to an American GI stationed in Korea — or that Kunhardt himself didn't have the right to drop them in the mail (after maybe having coached the authors just a little bit?). The issue is not rights,...