But if they saw what just happened at Porter Ridge High School in Indian Trail, North Carolina, they just might not want to send their kids back.
A teacher, as part of an assignment, asked kids to list what political party they would choose and had them write it down, and explain why. The teacher then publicized to the rest of the class what each student had chosen and what they had written, with conservative students being bullied, according to WCNC.
One mother described how her daughter was bullied for being a Republican. She said that the daughter got threats, “These threats that, ‘we’ll show them!’ Or, ‘I can’t wait until I see her,'” the mother explained.
Students took pictures of the students’ answers with their names next to them and spread them throughout the school so kids from other classes were soon involved in the bullying and threats.
The mother said given the “climate” now, “people are too politically charged up” and she said it’s “just creating a toxic environment.” She blasted the teacher. “That teacher put a target, he outed these children.”
The mother said the teacher apologized. but that she thought he should never have asked the question or put it out there to begin with. “Most of us know that not even adults can get along about this,” she observed. “I don’t know why we would think that teenagers would be more mature about this than we are.” Boy, ain’t that the truth. She said that she hoped in the future that they would include “civility” as part of the lesson, saying they shouldn’t be put in a “hateful and dangerous environment” for thinking differently.
So how does an adult teacher with a brain cell not know that in the present fractured environment that this is a really bad idea? Why would he ask that anyway? It’s not necessary to ask that to discuss politics or political ideas. This is shameful to publicize what the students wrote. Notice also how the attacks and the bullying appear to be coming from students presumably on the left against the conservative students, no stories about the conservative students bullying those on the left in what reportedly is a red county.
So is the school going to stop this from happening again? Well, it’s not clear, it doesn’t sound like it.
The school confirmed the assignment had happened and said they spoke with the students about “respecting each other’s opinions” (oh, that’ll really work), but would not say if any action had been taken against the teacher and they also said they thought that politics was important to keep in the curriculum.
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