Saturday, April 08, 2006

Not Sure Which was Worse

Steve White is an eigth grade science teacher in Athens, Alabama. It seems Mr. White thought it would be cute to show show a Bush-bashing video to his students. Okay, aside from the appropriateness of showing a political video in a science class there is also this little wrinkle. Mr. Davis is running for congress.
Much is being made of the fact that the video was laced with obscenities (you can find a link on Michelle Malkin). To me this misses the point. If Mr. Davis cannot distinguish between a political rally and a group of kids too young to vote I have to question how fit he is to serve. It displays bad judgement at best. Does he really think actions like those in the story is going to gain votes for him? Sure, there will be the kook who will view him as a "free-speech martyr" and vote for him on that basis. The fact remains this man was using his class to advance his political views. Never mind that his politics are totally irrelevent to the subject he was hired to teach. The man obviously does not understand the concept of ethics let alone the ones related to his profession. He should be fired immediately and hopefully the people of the 4th District won't let him get past the primaries.
Now, before people start hollaring, "What about free speech?", this is about a politician using his "day job" to make political speeches to a captive audience. If the students were free to walk out of class without dear of reprisal gradewise I would not have as much a problem with White's antics, but that is not what appears to be happening.

No comments: