I’m confused, Sarahfeena, what reaction are you looking for, here? It’s pretty clear that we’re not giving it to you the way you want it. Why don’t you just tell us what you want us to say?
This incident reflects a disturbing level of ignorance on the part of a voting bloc that turned out in unprecidented numbers this election to support a candidate who campaigned on inclusiveness and change.
I’m not surprised at all by the teacher’s reaction, though. I’d expect as much from a demographic that typically leans so far left.
If the girl wore the McCain shirt as an “experiment,” how is that not a form of trolling? Seems to me that’s almost the definition of it.
My stepdaughter was picked on at her school this week for brazenly bringing a thermos full of clam chowder for lunch. Obviously this was an offense to the great city of Manhattan, shellfish in general, and Scientologists, right?
It’s also pretty typical of 14-year-olds when they talk politics, but then again, garden variety partisanship is pretty similar to kids picking on each other in the hallway anyhow.
It’s unfortunate that the columnist turned the whole thing into yet another stupid rant about “liberals talk diversity but hate everyone who’s different from them.” The issue here is not liberalism, it’s people. Liberals said and did some dumb things during this election, but they weren’t the only ones. I’m not sure why it’s always seen as ironic when liberals are the idiots, but unsurprising when conservatives do it.
The girl was not “trolling.” She didn’t deliberately provoke anybody and the goal was not to get people to yell at her and call her names. She conducted an experiment because she was curious, and she sounded surprised by what happened. I think that kind of thing is commendable.
I hate to break it to you, but even ACORN couldn’t get middle school students onto the voter rolls.
I think it’s terrible. I also agree with this:
14-year olds?
Mean middle school teachers. Duh!
Hell, I’m positively AMAZED anybody would support McCain, to the extent that the sheer, stunning stupidity of somebody I otherwise respected might momentarily disarm my normally guarded tongue. Did the teacher say anything else? Did she send the kid home? Did she punish her in any way whatsoever? No? Then there’s no story.
And really, if you have to stretch so far to find jerkish behavior out of “liberals” that you have to start citing FUCKING EIGHTH GRADERS!!! don’t you think you should give it up until something REAL comes along?
Yes. Conservatives un-ironically believe that being picked on for being unpopular in middle school == LIBS LIBS LIBS!1
They’re small, you can get more of them in the voting booth.
The article doesn’t say that. It just says she said she was surprised. Being surprised is not the same as being judgemental.
The author of this piece is rather suspect too, by the way. Look at this:
What threat? How was she threatened by the teacher? Is this reporting or editorializing?
As far as I’;m concerned, the whole story is suspect in its details. The author is not trustworthy, and we have no corroboration for the allegations made by the kid.
She probably got told to fuck off a couple of times and is now trying to turn herself into a martyr. Boo hoo. She went trolling and she got what she wanted.
Kids in middle school get harrassed for wearing the wrong football jersey or a t-shirt with the wrong band. Middle school is a snake pit. Politics has nothing to do with it. Most of those kids don’t even care about politics.
What, I’m the boss of the Pit now? I don’t care what you say. If I cared about people agreeing with me, I sure as hell wouldn’t hang around the SDMB.
Sure it’s not. You think this kid is stupid? She doesn’t sound stupid to me.
Look, I’m not violently outraged by this. But this school is located very close to my house, and the treatment of this girl surprises me in no way, based on my own experiences in my neighborhood. I think it’s a shame that our communities have to be so divided by this kind of thing, and I think it IS ironic that liberals consider themselves the tolerant ones, because it ain’t so.
You and she both supported McCain. Makes both of you pretty stupid in my book, but she’s just a kid and has an excuse. Hell, I supported Goldwater when I was in the 5th grade.
Call me stupid if you want, but if you read the article you will find that we don’t know who she supported (she wore an “Obama Girl” shirt the next day to school, and she is not revealing her political stance).
I don’t get what is wrong with what the teacher said and I’d be curious to know what the context of the remark was…was it unprovoked? did the student ask the teacher’s opinion? has the student previously made statements in class that caused the teacher to be surprised by the t-shirt?
First of all, I’m not sure where the meme that liberals are benignly tolerant of all viewpoints came from. Second of all, even if liberals did claim to be the beacons of tolerance, why would that include opposing political views? (Not defending the middle school example, just curious about how intolerance of opposing political viewpoints is equivalent to intolerance, say, of different religions or walks of life.)
Absolutely. We should expect our citizens of all ages to be more responsible at all ages when they exercise their civic duty. Do they not teach “and justice for all” in elementary school any more? I thought we Americans were supposed to be better than this!