# Idiot Teacher Strikes Again **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 24, 2006, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449 "2006-01-24T21:31:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449/1 "2006-01-24T21:31:33Z")
Once again someone paid to teach our kids has proven themselves of barely having two brain cells to rub together. [Teacher Humiliates Bronco Jersey Wearing Student](http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06024/643226.stm) > [@](#): > > Mr. Kelly had little to say on the subject yesterday. > > “We won the game [Sunday] night, didn’t we?” he said. “That’s all I was worried about.” Nice. I’m sure the parents love your enthusiasm for their child’s well-being. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449/2 "2006-01-24T21:38:19Z")
_Sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![Plynck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Plynck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plynck)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449/3 "2006-01-24T21:38:24Z")
> [@](#): > > Joshua said there were “papers flying everywhere towards me. At one point, a girl refused to do it and he [Mr. Kelly] took the paper off her desk and threw it into the back of my head.” That girl deserves an “A”. However, in the real world she’ll probably be humiliated as well… ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449/4 "2006-01-24T21:39:02Z")
This is so not funny. Except for this part: > [@](#): > > He said he was lying flat on the carpet trying to answer essay questions about the Israeli Six-Day War and the Cold War while his face burned with shame. And here I thought the last of the sob sisters had died years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449/5 "2006-01-24T21:42:17Z")
Just so people know, this was at a school in western Penn, and I’m sure emotions are running high. Not that I agree with… > [@](#): > > He’s made a complaint to the principal against John Kelly, who teaches an honors class on ethnic relations, saying the teacher made him sit on the floor to take his test and instructed other classmates to pelt him with balled up sheets of notebook paper. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449/6 "2006-01-24T21:46:33Z")
What the hell is a “self-described” honor student? This kind of descriptor is usually clear-cut and made by the school. The teacher is still a jerk, though. ---
**Author:** ![Enginerd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bcef8e/32.png) [@Enginerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enginerd)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449/7 "2006-01-24T21:53:01Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > What the hell is a “self-described” honor student? This kind of descriptor is usually clear-cut and made by the school. The teacher is still a jerk, though. More than a jerk - the teacher’s just another schoolyard bully. It’s fucking deplorable. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449/8 "2006-01-24T21:55:52Z")
Teacher’s an idiot, student’s a wuss. It’s win-win! ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449/9 "2006-01-24T21:56:14Z")
I often find it interesting to go to a school’s website. From [Beaver Falls High School:](http://www.tigerweb.k12.pa.us/bfhs/index.htm) > [@](#): > > The vision for Beaver Falls High School is to create a community that prepares each of our students to live a healthy, productive, and fulfilling life in the global and technological world of the twenty-first century. > To that end, we are committed to foster the intellectual, physical and social development of each student. Presumably Mr Kelly has his own ideas about “intellectual, physical and social development”. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449/10 "2006-01-24T21:57:16Z")
I think this teacher should be forced to wear a Cleveland Browns jersey the Friday before Pittsburgh plays that team. Then he can stand in the middle of the gym during an assembly while students take potshots at him. Fucking moron. Robin ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449/11 "2006-01-24T22:04:43Z")
What’s more disgusting is that the school district is circling wagons around this filth. Tell me again why school vouchers, as a means of punishing school districts that can defend this kind of filth, are such a bad idea? ---
**Author:** ![Mbossa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@Mbossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mbossa)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449/12 "2006-01-24T22:09:55Z")
You’re all forgetting the best part of the story! He lives in a place called Big Beaver. _Big Beaver!_ Sounds a bit rude, dunnit? ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449/13 "2006-01-24T22:36:25Z")
> [@Mbossa](#): > > You’re all forgetting the best part of the story! > > He lives in a place called Big Beaver. _Big Beaver!_ > > Sounds a bit rude, dunnit? I’ve got a lot of family in that neck of the woods. ‘Beaver’ shows up in a LOT of place-names. I never really noticed it until a friend driving through said he was nearly crashing into the street signs for Beaver, Big Beaver, Beaver Falls… And by the way, while I don’t have a problem with good-natured ribbing regarding The Big Game, if it happened as reported, this teacher went way, way too far. It sounds like we’re hearing the student’s story, though, and I’ve heard enough of those to want to hear the teacher’s story and that of a few students who were there before I decide. ---
**Author:** ![saoirse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@saoirse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saoirse)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449/14 "2006-01-24T22:44:56Z")
> [@OtakuLoki](#): > > What’s more disgusting is that the school district is circling wagons around this filth. Tell me again why school vouchers, as a means of punishing school districts that can defend this kind of filth, are such a bad idea? Because they want to give that money to the Catholic School System, which invented this crap. Seriously, this was SOP back in the Good Old Days. At least he didn’t hit the kid. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449/15 "2006-01-24T22:48:45Z")
Here’s another [article](http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/cs-0601240087jan24,1,7544628.story?coll=cs-football-print) on what supposedly happened, with more of the teacher’s take on things. He’s quoted as saying… > [@](#): > > “I did the same thing last week with one of my ninth-graders who wore Peyton Manning,” Kelly told the Post. However, did this kid know that? I mean, was this common knowledge about the class in general? And if no one took him seriously, why did all the students participate in the paper wad throwing accept one? Especially if you could tell the boy was visibly shaken. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449/16 "2006-01-24T22:49:46Z")
I found this intriguing, too: > [@](#): > > He said when he went to sit down at his regular desk on Friday, Mr. Kelly ordered him to “take those books off my desk. I own that desk.” He placed his textbooks on the floor and then sat down at the desk. > > Joshua said his teacher told him to “get out of my desk. You’re sitting in my desk.” Perhaps this Kelly person should be required to take a remedial course in the distinction between being a professional employee and legal title to property. In a **midterm exam** setting (did anyone else pick up on that), this was far from a joke. And the school board should review the principal’s professional qualifications as well if he indeed said that. If the teacher intended this as a lesson in mob violence, he succeeded. And he should be rewarded for that. By being permitted to finish out his contract with the school district as a janitor, say, instead of being fired and prosecuted. Which is what I’d recommend otherwise. Humiliation of **any** person by someone in a position of authority over him or her is unconscionable. Period. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449/17 "2006-01-24T22:54:42Z")
> [@faithfool](#): > > Here’s another [article](http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/football/cs-0601240087jan24,1,7544628.story?coll=cs-football-print) on what supposedly happened, with more of the teacher’s take on things. > > He’s quoted as saying… > > However, did this kid know that? I mean, was this common knowledge about the class in general? And if no one took him seriously, why did all the students participate in the paper wad throwing accept one? Especially if you could tell the boy was visibly shaken. Of course, it hardly matters that he used this “teaching” technique before. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449/18 "2006-01-24T22:54:56Z")
A lot of my high school teachers were very conversant with students, and even engaged in banter about various things, be it sports teams or politics. But all of them kept that “separate” from the more important aspects of educating. When they were giving a lecture they weren’t going to allow banter, but during the first few minutes of class as people were filing in and before the day’s class really got started, it wasn’t common for the teacher to discuss events (athletic, news/political etc) with the class. Some good natured ribbing in that context is one thing. To make a kid sit on the floor in the middle of the class, that crosses a line. ---
**Author:** ![Casey1505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dc4da7/32.png) [@Casey1505](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Casey1505)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449/19 "2006-01-24T23:04:22Z")
The humiliation only gets worse when you allow yourself to be photographed pouting like a 5 year old and [the](http://www.post-gazette.com/images3/20060124rrvannoy2_450.jpg) [photographs](http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/football/nfl/01/24/jersey.lesson.ap/index.html?cnn=yes) [run](http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site36/2006/0122/20060122_122656_0122broncjersey.jpg) in the national media. Seems to me that everything is being blown way out of proportion and probably more than a little exaggerated. If this kids skin is this thin, than maybe he should think twice before wearing the other team’s jersey to school the Friday before the Big Game. Somewhere in Seattle, I bet there was a kid who wore his Steve Smith jersey to school last Friday and got ripped to shreds (figuratively) for doing so, but didn’t curl up into the fetal position and begin sucking his thumb over it. Suck it up, Josh, being the self described honor student that you are, surely you know that there’s a time and a place. The jersey is fine and dandy, everyone has their heroes. But to wear it in the middle of Steeler Nation, on the weekend before the game against the Broncos to decide who goes to the Super Bowl? Are you fucking high?? And it’s not like they were throwing dog turds at you, you pussy! It was wadded up paper for crying out loud. ---
**Author:** ![joyfool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/df788c/32.png) [@joyfool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joyfool)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2006, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449/20 "2006-01-24T23:07:44Z")
> [@Gangster Octopus](#): > > Of course, it hardly matters that he used this “teaching” technique before. Sorry, didn’t mean to imply that it did, but rather that would explain the teacher’s lack of remorse, the other students’ participation and the possible blaise of everyone else. If he’d gotten away with it before, in his mind he probably wonders what the big deal is. Although, I think **Poly** ’s solution is perfect. Oh, and overall, do they give Ethics teachers more latitude to plumb the depths of something like this? What may appear over the line to us would be standard operating procedure? I kinda sort of had a professor who once boarder on this, so it makes me curious. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/idiot-teacher-strikes-again/341449.md?page=2)