S.F. school bears brunt of 'merry Christmas' Atheist suspension hoax

[Jesus Malverde]

Did you know a San Francisco elementary school suspended a student for wishing an atheist teacher a merry Christmas?

No?

That's because it didn't happen.

But an Internet hoax had people across the country believing it did, resulting in e-mail tirades and more than 75 phone complaints and veiled threats of violence against the fictitious teacher or the actual principal. And taxpayers picked up the tab for beefed-up security and staff time to deal with the phony story.

Because of the threats, Argonne elementary school administrators called an emergency teacher meeting to review security procedures and district officials assigned an extra security officer to the campus. In addition, police have increased patrols around the school this week, said district Assistant Superintendent Leticia Salinas.

The rumor originated about six days ago on what appears to be a satirical website called the National Report, which features content designed to look like real news stories.

A story on the site said a fourth-grader at "Argon Elementary" in San Francisco was given a weeklong suspension for saying "merry Christmas" to his homeroom teacher, an atheist. The site later changed the school name to "Anon."

Neither "Argon" nor "Anon" is a real school in the city.

The story also named the boy, the boy's mother and the teacher - none of whom exist.

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/S-F-school-bears-brunt-of-merry-Christmas-hoax-5073194.php

The nasty calls and e-mails started to hit the real Argonne elementary on Thursday and have continued this week, district officials said.

[idwiyo]

1. Proof positive those morons can barely read, write, or spell but they can use a phone & e-mail.

[Cali_Democrat]

2. Right wingers gone wild

Probably the phony story was flogged by an outlet like drudge and his racist, bigoted minions took to the skies like witches in the night.

[weissmam]

3. This is something about right wing nut and dumb

[painesghost]

4. This would be like acting on a story from The Onion.

Of course Right-wing news outlets aren't known for their fact checking abilities. I've actually heard Right-wingers comment on similar incidents when they are exposed, "Well it could be true," or "it probably is somewhere," or "it will be when [insert name of Democratic candidate] gets elected."

[SomethingFishy]

6. Happens all the time on Fox News... The last one was Obama is financing a Muslim Museum

It was a satire piece on the internet that Fox News broadcast as a fact to it's viewers. Their retraction was a one line tweet on the anchors twitter feed. So millions of Fox viewers still believe that Obama is privately funding a Muslim Museum. They purposefully breed hate, because they get rich off of it.

[painesghost]

7. Wow that's pretty bad.

Living in the South I know quite a few Republicans. I won't say most, but about a third realize its Fox propaganda and unreliable.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. It has to be said, it looks more like a low-quality RW site than a spoof

http://nationalreport.net/9-year-old-suspended-saying-merry-christmas-teacher/

A generic 'news' site name; pictures of Cruz and Palin at the top, with "National Report America's #1 Independent News Team" ; a genuine Newsmax headline feed on the right; a slightly strange notice at the bottom:
"*DISCLAIMER: The National Report is an online portal for "citizen journalists". The views expressed by writers on this site are theirs alone and are not reflective of the fine journalistic and editorial integrity of National Report. Advice given is NOT to be construed as professional. If you are in need of professional help, please consult a professional. National Report is not intended for children under the age of 18."
which, if you get that far, might make you wonder. But this is one time I'm not surprised many people were taken in.

[SomethingFishy]

12. That may be true however a "journalist" would not take a story from

and obscure website and report it as fact without verifying the story. Fox does this all the time then they retract on some twitter feed and their audience has no idea they were full of it..

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. Yeah, Fox is bad when they fall for things that they want to be true

to give them a juicy story. But in this case the nearest to a 'journalist' falling for it seems to be 'Rev. Craig Donofrio of the "Messenger of Good News" radio, KFUO.org', who was told it was false before he actually broadcast.

[MisterP]

14. they *did* act like this on an Onion story

http://www.theonion.com/articles/harry-potter-books-spark-rise-in-satanism-among-ch,2413/

[painesghost]

15. Haha

Remember when the protested the Chronicles of Narnia. I was like do these people ever bother to read up on what they are going to protest before they act. Obviously not.

[Jesus Malverde]

5. Bump..nt

[Tommy_Carcetti]

8. Coming Soon to your RW Facebook Friend's page.

Along with more fake quotes from Bill Cosby and other easily Snopesable factoids.

[Blue_Tires]

10. It's sad to see RW chain e-mails still get traction

I thought those died with AOL...

[Aerows]

11. War on Christmas

Everyone knows Santa was white.