Religious conflict leads to teacher's suspension

[ccharles000]

APEX -- A Wake County middle-school teacher may be fired after she and her friends made caustic remarks on a Facebook page about her students, the South and Christianity.

Melissa Hussain, an eighth-grade science teacher at West Lake Middle School in southern Wake County, was suspended with pay Friday while investigators review her case, according to Greg Thomas, a Wake schools spokesman. The suspension came after some of Hussain's students and their parents objected to comments on her Facebook page, many revolving around her interaction with Christian students.

Hussain wrote on the social-networking site that it was a "hate crime" that students anonymously left a Bible on her desk, and she told how she "was able to shame her kids" over the incident. Her Facebook page included comments from friends about "ignorant southern rednecks," and one commenter suggested Hussain retaliate by bringing a Dale Earnhardt Jr. poster to class with a swastika drawn on the NASCAR driver's forehead.

"I don't defend what the kids were doing," said Murray Inman, a parent of one of Hussain's students. "I just couldn't imagine an educator, or a group of educators, engaging in this kind of dialogue about kids."

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/counties/wake_county/story/341361.html?storylink=misearch

[enlightenment]

1. I honestly cannot understand why adults choose to leave their

Facebook pages open so that anyone can read them. A clueless teen, perhaps - but an adult? Five minutes and a few clicks of the mouse will close the book.

Brainless twit.

[conscious evolution]

2. Correct.Atheists should stay in the closet

and never speak of the discrimination and harassment they receive.

[damyank913]

9. She may not be an Atheist-her name sounds middle-eastern.

Which would also carry a huge amount of targeting by the fundies. The only thing worse than a religious fanatic is a teen age religious fanatic.

[crikkett]

11. Teachers should not act so unprofessionally as to speak with derision about their students

and then leave their Facebook pages open to public review. Like, Duh!

There's no need to make this about religion when it's really about bad teaching.

[enlightenment]

12. What?

All I stated was that anyone - ANYONE - should have better sense than to leave their Facebook page open to general reading. If she felt she was being harassed (and I'm a card-carrying member over in A&A, so drop the persecution angle, please) for her non-belief, she had better avenues for arguing against the harassment. If she just wanted to talk to her friends about how she was 'handling' it then she should have had the good sense to have the conversation with her friends, instead of anyone who happened on her page.

I made no comment as to whether she was right, wrong, or sideways on the issue with which she is confronted. Only that she was foolish to leave her FB page open to the public - which is what she did, since the school administrators could see it (unless she 'friended' them, too).

I realize that it's all the rage for some (mostly young) people to let the whole world in on every moment in their lives; to flash their genitals to strangers because they can't be bothered to wear knickers; to broadcast publicly every belch and every fart; to discuss the color of their latest BM over lunch. Whatever. Privacy is soooo old-fashioned.

Those people need to realize that if you live your life completely in the public sphere, there might be repercussions. Had this teacher kept her comments out of the public sphere, she wouldn't be facing the trouble she is facing - and to say that does not mean she had to keep silent. Just circumspect.

Learn the difference.

[RainDog]

3. the parents are behind their children's stupid behavior

this is how evangelical fundies raise their children.. to be obnoxious and disrespectful to others' faith or lack thereof.

it is any wonder that the south is considered the most backassward and embarrassing part of the nation?

[liberal_at_heart]

4. It's really starting to get bad out there

Some Christians are insisting they be the only ones with rights. When they put a bible on a teacher's desk it is their freedom to do so. When someone rights something on a personal Facebook page they are being persecuted. Shaming the kids was probably not the best action to take but I have to wonder if anything would have been done if this teacher had made a proper complaint about the kids putting a bible on her desk.

[Toasterlad]

5. If She's Dumb Enough To Leave Her Facebook Page Accessible To Students, She Shouldn't Be Teaching

I haven't friended a single soul from work, for a very good reason. You don't shit where you eat.

I do, however, applaud her views on religious rednecks.

[depakid]

6. I have news ANYTHING on facebook page is fair game

If you're foolhardy enough to put anything but the most innocuous material up- expect it come back and bite you in the ass someday.

[Toasterlad]

10. There Are Reasonable Precautions, And Then There Is Foolhardiness

I'd agree that it was an extremely poor choice on her part to post anything so inflammatory on Facebook, but something tells me she was friends with a few people she should not have been.

[RZM]

7. Several things going on here

One is the predictable and incredibly lame 'culture of disproportionate outrage' exhibited by parents over anything involving their children. Yes I know that parents can and should take a great interest in the lives of their children, but often it results in tediously scripted overreactions to non-issues. And speaking of disproportionate outrage, if you think having religious literature placed on your desk is a 'hate crime,' you're probably overreacting, though that doesn't excuse proselytizers from the charge of being irritating.

A second (seems to be) the condescension often exhibited toward local populations by transplants who came for jobs/school/etc. As a resident of Appalachia (not a native though) I'm continually surprised by the cultural chauvinism and general disdain (usually on a class basis) exhibited by transplants toward the locals, even among those who consider themselves 'tolerant.'

A third (mentioned by another poster) is the idiotic decision to make negative comments (or allow them to be made) about one's own students available for public view. You can debate how appropriate it is for a middle school teacher to disparage their students outside of the classroom, but to put it on blast? That's just naive.

[upi402]

8. Should not blame the victim. Fundies are relentless and this teacher deserves honor

for standing up to this crap. These kids need to be made aware that it really is shameful to try to shame someone into believing a fantasy religion. And in a damn SCHOOL too!

Yeah I don't blame the victim, the teacher shouldn't lose a job over resisting unwanted proselytizing. I don't facebook or twitter for this reason, be others should be safe to do so and feel unthreatened.