South Carolina. White teacher assaults black student. Two fucking years before any sort of accountability. If it were a white student and a black teacher, that teacher would have been in jail the same day. How much of this settlement is coming out of the pockets of the assaulter and her enabler? My guess is zero. It's the taxpayers on the hook.
And then there is the jingoism she was subject to. It seems to me that Ms Barnwell does indeed love her country. Refusing to say the pledge because we are nowhere near the ideal of liberty and justice for all shows me that this young woman loves her country far more than the jingoistic fools that demanded she recite a meaningless loyalty oath.
Corporal punishment is still legal in 19 states for use by public school personnel to use on students. Most of these states are in the bible belt. What better way to show God's love and mercy than to beat school children with a paddle. For shame.
If you repeat anything enough times it becomes meaningless, and the Pledge of Allegiance is no exception. They aren't trying to instill patriotism in kids so much as impose rote conformity. They claim to be honoring America, while violating the very principles this country is supposed to stand for. I say supposed, because the only thing this country actually believes in is corporate profit.
IIRC, we were told about the meaning behind this useless reciting by rote in first grade.
FIRST GRADE! Think first graders have the experience and knowledge to appreciate it?
Nawp. We just mindlessly repeated what we were told to chant before class. And inevitably, by 3rd grade, we were making up our own words to recite, because it amused us and the Pledge is boring AF. Blaw, blaw, blaw. Like a roomful of friggin' parakeets!
We didn't need a daily reminder that we were Americans, followed by a patriotic song (which we also made up our own words to!) and parroting the Preamble to the Constitution. Did that make us "better Americans?"
Yeah, no. Expecially after the warning horns went off and we had to dive under our desks to uselessly avoid a nuclear attack. Or, as one of the popular teachers put it, a '7 year locust attack.'
Looking at Livingston, she's doing a pretty good impression of a bible thumping Trumptard. People craft their outward appearance to reflect their inner self. Care to guess who this "special ed teacher" voted for? I know, I'm making a couple of huge assumptions here, but in my experience the book often matches the cover.
"...dive under our desks to uselessly avoid a nuclear attack". You must be as old as I am. We used to call it kiss your ass goodbye. "Duck... and cover"
If the pledge is so sacred and important, why was this teacher not standing at attention and saying it or taking the moment of silence, as opposed to harassing and beating up a student during the pledge? I'm confused...
With authoritarians it's always do as I say not as I do.
In fact, that's part of most enforcements, to teach two lessons. One is I get to enforce the rules on you, the second is don't think for even a moment that they apply to me.
Bloody hell. Black student, white teacher. WHY did I know that before I even looked?
It's bad enough that Marissa had to go through this, but add the racial element to the mix and we're into a whole new territory. No great surprise, either, that this is South Carolina and not someplace like Massachusetts. Worse, there has apparently been no action taken against Ms. Livingston (at least not yet), but there damned well should be.
And of course, crap like this is liable to become more common under Trump. I just hope that Marissa and her family can get some freaking JUSTICE.
Good that they settled. Good that the teacher no longer works there, though she should have her teaching license revoked, physically assaulting students should never be excused (using physical force to defend yourself is different from assault, this was assault). But there needs to be some real accountability for the school, and some investigation over the racism aspect.
I doubt anything will change, unless it is to get worse, for some time. The fascism at the top of our government will bolster the fascists down here at the bottom. I think if they waited much longer to settle, things would have turned out quite different. Still, the fight was necessary and bravely fought. Good luck to you Marissa.
I watched the whole MASH series again not too long ago, and some of the things Margaret said about her parents really explains so much about who she was as a character. I think there was something about her father presenting a pistol for a wedding present to her mother, for instance? Yikes.
This article says something is seriously wrong in the US of A; that those in authority are apparently allowed to physically bully the most vulnerable members of our society without consequence. Sure, the school is out the money, which would be a consequence for the school, but I don't see where this instructor has even been scolded for allowing her temper to get the better of her. If anything, Livingston has proven Miss Barnwell's point regarding liberty and justice in this country.
Instructors should not be physically pushing students around, particularly in cases where such physical intervention is completely unwarranted. Arrests should be made when instructors assault students in hallways; certainly some disciplinary action should be forthcoming, even if for whatever reason no legal case is made. No distinction should be made for things like race or religion in these instances. It is the job of the adult in the room to control themselves and it's high time they were taken to task for it when they fail to do so. Teaching is a tough profession that isn't for everyone, but that's no excuse for just allowing schoolrooms to become mini kingdoms for tyrants.
But schools have always been that way. You should have heard the stories my mother told about a 5th(?) grade teacher at her school in the 60s. IIRC she was murdered thirty years later.
It used to be much worse. Not only was corporal punishment expected, but the student was always in the wrong. In general, it wasn't even questioned that the student's version of events was a lie. A teacher had as much trust as a priest.
My high school abandoned corporal punishment when they found that one particular guy was doing 90% of it. A jock of course. In both senses of the word. You have to have a witness Before you caned someone, there was at least one guy that I just refused to witness for because he enjoyed it too much. In my naïveté I told the administration who said they would "take care of it". Yeah right.
“my country, right or wrong! But my country!” this seems to be the position of the school administration.
Originally Stephen Decatur, in an after-dinner toast of 1816–1820:
“Our Country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but right or wrong, our country!”
Often attributed to Carl Schurz, who in a speech in 1872[1] amended it as
“My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”
What we have here is a case of the school administration trying to force speech, something the far right decries as long as they can decry it in the direction of people they don’t like. But this young lady’s refusal to say the pledge of allegiance is also speech.
As I have said many times before, I will not say the Pledge of Allegiance myself. But I will stand out of courtesy to the people around me who want to say it.
At least for me as a gay man, this country has rarely fulfilled its promise to me as a citizen, a taxpayer, and as a law abiding, productive and contributing member of the community. It has not fulfilled its promise to all citizens as a bastion of liberty, especially religious freedom. Criticizing your country when it is wrong means that you want it to be right again.
This stupidity seems rampant in the south. I love my country but there are areas where I have no plans to ever go. The entire Bible Belt for example. Too many jingoistic stupid people.
I live in the Bible Belt. I would rather live someplace else, but people here are not nearly as ignorant as you imagine.
I have lived in five Northern states as well as California. There are intelligent people and dummies everywhere. My babies live here, so I am staying, but it is decent place, with friendly people.
Sorry to single you out with this non-sequitor, but I am so tired of being stereotyped because I am one millions of people who live in shit hole states. It is getting to sound so fucking elitest.
I live in Texas. The folks may be friendly to your face, but they still have their Trump signs on the fence. My experience is people here are strangely blind to certain things. About half of public TVs are set to the news and at least 80, if not 90% of those are set to Fox "News".
I am getting out of here. I just need to find another job (which I need to do anyway before this one drives me over the edge).
The lawyers worked things out. Typically in federal courts the judge does not participate in settlement negotiations. Here, the court approved the settlement. The political leanings of that judge are irrelevant.
South Carolina. White teacher assaults black student. Two fucking years before any sort of accountability. If it were a white student and a black teacher, that teacher would have been in jail the same day. How much of this settlement is coming out of the pockets of the assaulter and her enabler? My guess is zero. It's the taxpayers on the hook.
And then there is the jingoism she was subject to. It seems to me that Ms Barnwell does indeed love her country. Refusing to say the pledge because we are nowhere near the ideal of liberty and justice for all shows me that this young woman loves her country far more than the jingoistic fools that demanded she recite a meaningless loyalty oath.
We are daily seeing that in fact we are a 'nation' with distinct levels of citizenship.
You there! You do not appear sufficiently deferential to my ideas about patriotism! HOW DARE YOU.
Next step for Marissa, becoming a voice for equality.
"Nicole Livingston, a special education teacher"
And she wasn't disciplined for her behavior ? She is in no way fit to watch over students who may be disabled.
She should have been arrested.
Not in a state where it is still legal for teachers to physically assault their students.
South Carolina has not yet abolished the law that permits corporal punishments in schools.
If it had been a white student and a black teacher, the arrest would have been made before the end of the school day.
Or the black teacher would be shot dead for “resisting” arrest.
I'm not sure that qualifies as corporal punishment. CP is punishment for breaking the rules, not for hurting a teachers fee fees.
Isn't hurting a teacher's fee fee against the rules?
It’s a Republican state. Teachers and education don’t matter there.
Judge smack her feet fee.
Corporal punishment is still legal in 19 states for use by public school personnel to use on students. Most of these states are in the bible belt. What better way to show God's love and mercy than to beat school children with a paddle. For shame.
If you repeat anything enough times it becomes meaningless, and the Pledge of Allegiance is no exception. They aren't trying to instill patriotism in kids so much as impose rote conformity. They claim to be honoring America, while violating the very principles this country is supposed to stand for. I say supposed, because the only thing this country actually believes in is corporate profit.
IIRC, we were told about the meaning behind this useless reciting by rote in first grade.
FIRST GRADE! Think first graders have the experience and knowledge to appreciate it?
Nawp. We just mindlessly repeated what we were told to chant before class. And inevitably, by 3rd grade, we were making up our own words to recite, because it amused us and the Pledge is boring AF. Blaw, blaw, blaw. Like a roomful of friggin' parakeets!
We didn't need a daily reminder that we were Americans, followed by a patriotic song (which we also made up our own words to!) and parroting the Preamble to the Constitution. Did that make us "better Americans?"
Yeah, no. Expecially after the warning horns went off and we had to dive under our desks to uselessly avoid a nuclear attack. Or, as one of the popular teachers put it, a '7 year locust attack.'
Looking at Livingston, she's doing a pretty good impression of a bible thumping Trumptard. People craft their outward appearance to reflect their inner self. Care to guess who this "special ed teacher" voted for? I know, I'm making a couple of huge assumptions here, but in my experience the book often matches the cover.
"...dive under our desks to uselessly avoid a nuclear attack". You must be as old as I am. We used to call it kiss your ass goodbye. "Duck... and cover"
You got it. Septuagenarian plus 5 as of yesterday.
Happy (belated) birthday !
Cx
Why, thankee!
"If you repeat anything enough times it becomes meaningless" I believe in legal parlance they call it "ceremonial deism".
As a retired teacher, all I’ll say about the Pledge is that forced patriotism is fascism. Same feelings about the national anthem…
It's not even patriotism. It's nationalism, plain and simple.
More like jingoism, really.
That defines kkkristers and muzzlims...
Yes, totally agree, never would say either.
If the pledge is so sacred and important, why was this teacher not standing at attention and saying it or taking the moment of silence, as opposed to harassing and beating up a student during the pledge? I'm confused...
With authoritarians it's always do as I say not as I do.
In fact, that's part of most enforcements, to teach two lessons. One is I get to enforce the rules on you, the second is don't think for even a moment that they apply to me.
authoritarians and kkkristrs. I think that is redundant?
Bloody hell. Black student, white teacher. WHY did I know that before I even looked?
It's bad enough that Marissa had to go through this, but add the racial element to the mix and we're into a whole new territory. No great surprise, either, that this is South Carolina and not someplace like Massachusetts. Worse, there has apparently been no action taken against Ms. Livingston (at least not yet), but there damned well should be.
And of course, crap like this is liable to become more common under Trump. I just hope that Marissa and her family can get some freaking JUSTICE.
Good that they settled. Good that the teacher no longer works there, though she should have her teaching license revoked, physically assaulting students should never be excused (using physical force to defend yourself is different from assault, this was assault). But there needs to be some real accountability for the school, and some investigation over the racism aspect.
I doubt anything will change, unless it is to get worse, for some time. The fascism at the top of our government will bolster the fascists down here at the bottom. I think if they waited much longer to settle, things would have turned out quite different. Still, the fight was necessary and bravely fought. Good luck to you Marissa.
It's too bad qualified immunity kept her from being sued directly. And why wasn't she arrested for assault?
I think she still works there.
Why was Livingston assaulting students instead of respecting the pledge?
Someone has to make sure everyone is conforming, obeying orders, and blindly following our leaders. How else can we remain free?
Eat worms. ; )
Didn't know Zizzer was Ol' Ferret Face.
Hot Lips really did have horrible taste in men. She was a bit of a martinet, but she didn't deserve Ferret-Face or Donald.
Look at her relationship with her father "Howitzer Al." Her problems might have had their roots there.
I watched the whole MASH series again not too long ago, and some of the things Margaret said about her parents really explains so much about who she was as a character. I think there was something about her father presenting a pistol for a wedding present to her mother, for instance? Yikes.
In Season Nine, Episode 4 (“Father’s Day”), her father (played by Andrew Duggan) visited the 4077th. Much is revealed about their relationship.
?
NSFW
https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martinet_(instrument)#:~:text=C'est%20un%20instrument%20traditionnel,violences%20%C3%A9ducatives%20ordinaires%20en%202019.
Strict Rule Follower even when the rules don't make sense or are unnecessary.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/martinet
This article says something is seriously wrong in the US of A; that those in authority are apparently allowed to physically bully the most vulnerable members of our society without consequence. Sure, the school is out the money, which would be a consequence for the school, but I don't see where this instructor has even been scolded for allowing her temper to get the better of her. If anything, Livingston has proven Miss Barnwell's point regarding liberty and justice in this country.
Instructors should not be physically pushing students around, particularly in cases where such physical intervention is completely unwarranted. Arrests should be made when instructors assault students in hallways; certainly some disciplinary action should be forthcoming, even if for whatever reason no legal case is made. No distinction should be made for things like race or religion in these instances. It is the job of the adult in the room to control themselves and it's high time they were taken to task for it when they fail to do so. Teaching is a tough profession that isn't for everyone, but that's no excuse for just allowing schoolrooms to become mini kingdoms for tyrants.
But schools have always been that way. You should have heard the stories my mother told about a 5th(?) grade teacher at her school in the 60s. IIRC she was murdered thirty years later.
It used to be much worse. Not only was corporal punishment expected, but the student was always in the wrong. In general, it wasn't even questioned that the student's version of events was a lie. A teacher had as much trust as a priest.
My high school abandoned corporal punishment when they found that one particular guy was doing 90% of it. A jock of course. In both senses of the word. You have to have a witness Before you caned someone, there was at least one guy that I just refused to witness for because he enjoyed it too much. In my naïveté I told the administration who said they would "take care of it". Yeah right.
Glad Barnwell got some measure of justice. And I guess that $47k will pay for a semester or two of college, which is probably a relief.
PROJECT 2029
https://scontent-ord5-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/477087910_1870323527087334_9102578753305483358_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=127cfc&_nc_ohc=KlEjymKrRlwQ7kNvgFwBU51&_nc_oc=AdghTlUfaUc1oL38hHnK6Gz4AA-B_ukOaElVib2_9ny6bhamifOrh9QzUzbq_JwEfEM&_nc_zt=23&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-2.xx&_nc_gid=A6m2FyfMpC_zZ1mcWCtIjEf&oh=00_AYDk-G95sYN9o6eRP6oBqTHYAWUi8ZwnCvLhAaBHrzDT_w&oe=67B1AEB7
You don't need to expand the court, just remove the six DEI appointments.
ALL churches (and synagogues, mosques, Buddhist temples, etc.) should be taxed, not just "mega" ones.
“my country, right or wrong! But my country!” this seems to be the position of the school administration.
Originally Stephen Decatur, in an after-dinner toast of 1816–1820:
“Our Country! In her intercourse with foreign nations may she always be in the right; but right or wrong, our country!”
Often attributed to Carl Schurz, who in a speech in 1872[1] amended it as
“My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right.”
What we have here is a case of the school administration trying to force speech, something the far right decries as long as they can decry it in the direction of people they don’t like. But this young lady’s refusal to say the pledge of allegiance is also speech.
As I have said many times before, I will not say the Pledge of Allegiance myself. But I will stand out of courtesy to the people around me who want to say it.
At least for me as a gay man, this country has rarely fulfilled its promise to me as a citizen, a taxpayer, and as a law abiding, productive and contributing member of the community. It has not fulfilled its promise to all citizens as a bastion of liberty, especially religious freedom. Criticizing your country when it is wrong means that you want it to be right again.
Not far right.
How can she have any 𝚙̶𝚞̶𝚍̶𝚍̶𝚒̶𝚗̶𝚐̶ 𝑭𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒅𝒐𝒎 if she won't 𝚎̶𝚊̶𝚝̶ ̶𝚑̶𝚎̶𝚛̶ ̶𝚖̶𝚎̶𝚊̶𝚝̶ 𝒔𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒍𝒆𝒅𝒈𝒆?
[How can you have any pudding if you don't beat your meat?]
I doubt it's on YouTube (and I'm not looking while at work), but that statement reminds me of a song in "Naked Boys Singing"
Sort of. The song is, but not the scene.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RINolhzD5sM
Sadly, some people really do need education.
This stupidity seems rampant in the south. I love my country but there are areas where I have no plans to ever go. The entire Bible Belt for example. Too many jingoistic stupid people.
I live in the Bible Belt. I would rather live someplace else, but people here are not nearly as ignorant as you imagine.
I have lived in five Northern states as well as California. There are intelligent people and dummies everywhere. My babies live here, so I am staying, but it is decent place, with friendly people.
Sorry to single you out with this non-sequitor, but I am so tired of being stereotyped because I am one millions of people who live in shit hole states. It is getting to sound so fucking elitest.
I live in Texas. The folks may be friendly to your face, but they still have their Trump signs on the fence. My experience is people here are strangely blind to certain things. About half of public TVs are set to the news and at least 80, if not 90% of those are set to Fox "News".
I am getting out of here. I just need to find another job (which I need to do anyway before this one drives me over the edge).
Glad she won against this psycho teacher. How long before Trump replaces all of these kinds of judges so that this kind of justice can't happen again?
Edit - Why has this 'teacher' not been sacked and, struck off?
The lawyers worked things out. Typically in federal courts the judge does not participate in settlement negotiations. Here, the court approved the settlement. The political leanings of that judge are irrelevant.