Apparently It’s Not Safe to Wear a “Romney” T-Shirt to School

October 11, 2012 at 11:18 AM Leave a comment

Educator, Lynette Gaymon

You would think with the number of situations that have evolved directly due to teacher emotional abuse, other teachers throughout America would learn to shut their mouths when it comes to politics. Unfortunately, this seems not to be the case.

Having worked in the public school system for over ten years before moving onto college, I learned that there are too many boorish educators who, while they have enough education to qualify as teachers, they lack the social skills and innate intelligence to act like human beings at times.

Granted, many teachers are absolutely awesome in what they do. They are concerned for their students. They want to ensure that all of their students receive a good education. Unfortunately, there appear to be too many teachers who believe they are a little god in their classroom and nothing they do or say can be construed as wrong.

Believe me, the reality kicks in when you close that door to your classroom and you realize that you are in charge, for better or for worse. Anything can happen and if the teacher does not have enough inner strength and character, an attitude can develop that allows the teacher to think that anything they say or do is fine…as long as they are not caught. I saw this attitude starting to develop in me, which is why I chose to leave to teach college. Too many teachers stay put because of the pay and benefits and become exasperatingly bad educators. They don’t get fired. They get ignored unless they do something terrible. In that case, because of the influence of the teacher’s union, that same teacher often simply gets moved from school to school until retirement. It’s much easier than paying $50,000 on up to get rid of the teacher. It’s not easy to fire a tenured teacher and most school districts balk at it because of legal fees associated with it. It’s easier to slide things under the rug.

An enormously powerful teacher’s union is always on hand to protect the teachers over every perception of wrong. We begin to see why it is difficult at best to fire teachers who really should be fired. The unions are there to protect the teachers, period. Too many teachers really do not care about the education of the students. They are concerned about job security (tenure), what they have to do and what they do not have to do. Believe me when I say that teachers can become walking advocates of union policy, irrespective of whether or not those policies are helpful or harmful to students. As far as the unions are concerned, it’s all about the teachers, not the students. While teachers may say that it’s about the students, too many honestly believe it’s about them.

In one of the more bizarre and recent situations involving sixteen-year-old Samantha Pawlucy, who chose to wear a “Romney/Ryan” T-shirt in support of his presidential aspirations, we see where yet another insipid teacher has overstepped her boundaries. In doing so, she also proved how completely deficient she is because of her comments.

Sixteen-year-old Samantha Pawlucy was berated by teacher Lynette Gaymon for wearing such a T-shirt. [1] She was heckled and the teacher encouraged the students in the class to join in with her as she denigrated the young student. She also attempted to get the student to change her shirt. Apparently, the teacher also went and got other teachers who came to her class to join in the fun. One of the most asinine comments the teacher made was that the school was “democratic” and apparently supported Mr. Obama. Since when does an entire school choose a political candidate?

I’ve read about situations like this occurring in other educational settings and it’s always unnerving because no teacher has the right to tell a student what their political beliefs should be, nor do they have the right to make fun of said student because of his/her political beliefs. It’s compromising. It’s unintelligent. It’s disgraceful. There is no excuse for it.

Had the situation been switched and the student had been wearing a Mr. Obama T-shirt and the teacher opposed that, it would be just as wrong. Of course, no such situation exists of which I am aware. There is no excuse for this type of demagoguery in any situation, much less a school! So, the teacher obviously supports Mr. Obama. That’s fine. However, she has no right to upbraid students who do not agree with her; none whatsoever.

The teacher – Lynette Gaymon – was supposed to apologize directly to the student but failed to show up for work on the appointed day. Wow, really? Gosh, that Instead, a letter of apology she wrote was read by the principal to the class. Ridiculous. Also ridiculous is the idea that we are to believe that the teacher’s comments were supposed to be taken as “light and humorous.” Uh…sure they were.

As if this wasn’t enough, newly appointed Superintendent William Hite Jr. indicated “has called the ordeal a ‘teachable moment’ and said he will work with the mayor and the teachers union to move ‘towards a conversation that brings together diverse beliefs, inspires understanding, and heals’.” [2]

Excuse me while I vomit. That kind of vacuous ooze from a Superintendent says absolutely nothing. It sounds warm and inviting, but says nothing. The teacher should be disciplined, if not fired. The problem is that nothing is happening within the school district. Is Hite protecting the teacher because like him, she is black? Regardless, the “teachable moment” was absolutely offensive and should not have occurred.

This is not a teachable moment unless one considers the fact that the person who needs to be taught is the teacher herself. No educator has the right to belittle or penalize a student for their opinions! This should not even have happened except for the fact that the teacher herself apparently chose to forget this truth. The idea that she now wants us to believe that she wasn’t trying to deliberately insult the student only makes it worse for her, the teacher. She actually believes that people are so stupid as to not know when she is lying. Why on God’s green earth would a teacher kid with a student about the student’s political viewpoint? The way the teacher dragged this thing out proves that she was intending emotional harm, not jocularity.

Oh and by the way, this particular Superintendent (new to Philadelphia) has his own serious set of skeletons from previous positions he held at Prince George’s County Public Schools. Check them out at the link at the end of this article. [3] Talk about “no confidence.”

Of course, there are plenty of people who want something to happen and certainly not in a good way. Reports are that Lynette Gaymon has been receiving racially tainted death threats. Those are also wrong (not to mention illegal) and the people making those threats should be arrested. Hopefully, that will be done to help quell this volatile situation created by the teacher herself. [4] At the same time, the Pawlucy family says they have also received threats. [5] Considering what those on the Left are capable of and have done, this is not difficult to believe, as a recent article here attests.

This tragedy could have been completely avoided had the African-American teacher minded her own business! Instead, she believed she had the authority to dictate to a student what she could and could not wear, even though school authorities publicly have noted that the T-shirt in question did not go against any school dress code policy.

So, here we have another situation created by someone who is supposed to be educated, yet it is clear that her lack of real education and common sense created another situation in which nothing good has come, in spite of what Superintendent Hite Jr believes. This should not have happened. It likely will not be the last of its kind either.

Apparently, many believe that this particular school in question is filled with teachers who bully. You can read the comments on a page for Charles Carrol High School. [6]

This kind of crap should not be happening and something tells me that even after the election, it will continue, especially if Mr. Obama receives his pink slip. Let’s allow people to have their opinions and political viewpoints and leave it at that. Moving on!

[1] http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/10/10/philadelphia-girl-in-political-t-shirt-flap-to-transfer-schools/?test=latestnews

[2] Ibid

[3] http://sasscer.wordpress.com/2011/08/10/vote-of-no-confidence-on-dr-hite/

[4] http://www.businessinsider.com/lynette-gaymon-getting-death-threats-2012-10

[5] http://newsninja2012.com/tag/lynette-gaymon/

[6] http://thenotebook.org/content/charles-carroll-high-school