What do you think?

Last
Monday, a high school student in North Carolina engaged his social
studies teacher in a heated debate about politics and the two leading
presidential candidates. During the exchange, the teacher (an obvious
Obama supporter) got very angry with the student and accused him of
disrespecting the president. She even went so far as to tell the boy
that he could be jailed for speaking ill of Obama.

Sarah Campbell of the Salibury Post first
reported on the story. She claims that the school district is not
releasing the name of the teacher and that she is not responding to
requests for public comment (although the two students identified her to
the newspaper). According to Campbell’s story, the teacher will not be
suspended or even face disciplinary action for what was heard on the
recording. A statement from the school was released at the end of the
week:

“The
Rowan-Salisbury School System expects all students and employees to be
respectful in the school environment and for all teachers to maintain
their professionalism in the classroom. This incident should serve as an
education for all teachers to stop and reflect on their interaction
with students. Due to personnel and student confidentiality, we cannot
discuss the matter publicly.”

So,
how bad was the exchange? It got fairly heated, with the teacher
shouting at times. The kerfuffle�started after one student asked a
question about the teacher’s �“fact of the day” that said Romney was a
bully back in high school. A student asked:“Didn’t Obama bully somebody, though?”

The teacher started to get angry and said:

“Not to my knowledge.”

A
couple of students relayed the story about Obama admitting that he
bullied someone when he was younger. And that seemed to light the fuse
on his teacher’s anger. A couple of the students exchanged words with
the angry teacher.

“Stop! Stop! Because there’s no comparison. He’s running for president. Obama is the president.”

As
one student attempted to argue for a fair, two-sided debate on the
history of the candidates, he was shouted down and talked over by the
teacher. She continued:

“You got to realize, this man is wanting to be what Obama is. There’s no comparison.”

Once again, the students pressed for equal discussion of the histories of both men, with one saying:

“If you’re gonna talk trash about one side, you gotta talk trash about the other.”

The teacher just seemed to dig her heels in deeper and press her defense of Obama telling the defiant teen:

“You will not disrespect the president of the United States in this classroom.”

Again the student persisted and invoked his First Amendment right.

“I’ll say what I want.”

The still unidentified teacher read the student her rules…her Obama rules.

“Not about him, you won’t!”

The
back and forth continued and the most strident of the two students
reminded his teacher that President Bush was constantly treated to
negative statements about him while he was in office:

“Whenever Bush was president, everybody talked sh-t about him.”

To which the teacher responded:

“Because he was sh-tty.”

The
social studies educator went on for a full minute with more ranting,
saying that people were arrested for saying derogatory things about
President Bush. The student correctly reminded the teacher that opinions
are protected, but you cannot be arrested unless you threaten the
president.

Our
research has not turned up a single case of anyone in America being
arrested for speaking ill of former President Bush. The local newspaper
story also mentioned that their discussions about the story with a
political science professor could not recall the arrests that the
teacher was speaking about.