| Topic: |
Sociology > Education |
| User: |
"Way Back Jack" |
| Date: |
17 May 2007 06:08:46 PM |
| Object: |
Tribal Tyranny In The Classroom -- Racial Double Standard |
Here's an item you won't hear from Katie Couric, but imagine if the
races were reversed.
________________
Kathleen Parker: The black and white of the 'Ho' culture
By KATHLEEN PARKER
Wednesday, May. 16, 2007
Kathleen Parker logo
IN A NEW TWIST in American race relations, a federal court has ruled
that a white teacher in a predominantly African-American school was
subjected to a racially hostile workplace.
The case concerned Elizabeth Kandrac, who was routinely verbally
abused by black students at Brentwood Middle School in North
Charleston, S.C.
Their slurs make shock jock Don Imus look like a church deacon.
Nevertheless, despite frequent complaints, school officials did
nothing to intervene on Kandrac's behalf, arguing that the racially
charged profanity was simply part of the students' culture. If Kandrac
couldn't handle cursing, school officials told her, she was in the
wrong school.
Kandrac finally filed a complaint with the Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and subsequently brought a lawsuit
against the Charleston County School District, the school's principal
and an associate superintendent. Last fall, jurors found that the
school was a racially hostile environment to teach in and that the
school district retaliated against Kandrac for complaining about it.
The defendants sought a new trial, but U.S. District Judge David C.
Norton recently affirmed the verdict. However, he did not support the
jury's findings of $307,500 in damages for lost income and emotional
distress.
Although Kandrac clearly suffered -- she was suspended from her job
shortly after a story about her EEOC complaint appeared in the local
newspaper, and her contract was not renewed -- her case didn't meet
evidentiary requirements for damages. The judge said a new trial would
have to determine damages, but the school district and Kandrac settled
for $200,000.
While the dollars-and-cents issue may have been of paramount
importance to school and district officials -- and would have lent
heft to the verdict -- the more compelling issue for students, parents
and society is the idea that a particular group of people can be
allowed to behavein a grossly uncivil and threatening way by virtue of
their racial "culture." The key legal question was whether a school
could be held responsible for students' behavior. In this case, the
black children of Brentwood had been given a pass for their behavior
because vulgar language was considered normal for their culture.
Defense attorney Alice Paylor told jurors that the kids heard this
same language at home and there was "no magic pill" to make them
behave.
Paylor is probably right about that, though a magic paddle might have
worked wonders.
Back in the day, if a student talked the way these did, he or she
would have received a well-deserved thwack, been suspended and sent
home to face the wrath of his or her father. That process likely would
have put a swift end to the tribal tyranny now often tolerated in the
service of self-esteem.
Let's be clear: What these children called this teacher is beyond
reprehensible and could be only be construed as hostile and
threatening.
Here's a sample: white b----, white m----- f-----, white c---, white
a------, white ho.
Other white teachers and students corroborated Kandrac's account,
including a male war veteran who testified he would rather return to
Vietnam than to Brentwood.
Kandrac's attorney, Larry Kobrovsky, argued that the repeated use of
"white" made these slurs racist in nature. But school officials
insisted that because black students were equally abusive to other
blacks, the language wasn't inherently racist.
Here's what we know without question: If majority white students had
used similar language toward black students and teachers, the case
would have been plastered on the front page of The New York Times
until heads rolled.
A black Kandrac would have a million-dollar book deal, a movie
contract and hundreds of interviews to juggle. Her oppressors and
those who passively facilitated her abuse would have been pilloried by
the media -- their faces all over the evening news -- while the
reverends Al and Jesse organized protests.
But a white Kandrac -- who faced a daily barrage of insults, who had
books and desks thrown at her and her bicycle tires punctured -- was
treated like an incompetent wimp. She was just a lousy teacher out for
money, the defense attorney said.
Though Kandrac lost her job, the real losers are the children deprived
of an education by the actions of a tyrannical few. And the worst
racists are those teachers and administrators who denied these
empowered brats the expectation of civilized behavior.
May the rest of America now be emboldened to act decisively in the
interest of students who want to learn.
--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
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| User: "" |
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| Title: Re: Tribal Tyranny In The Classroom -- Racial Double Standard |
17 May 2007 10:51:13 PM |
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Racial terrorism by black students against European-American teachers
at largely-black government schools has been a reality for DECADES.
35 years ago, I saw a black junior-high classmate in the Cleveland
suburb of Shaker Heights threaten the life of a European-American art
teacher in her classroom; the administration of course did nothing
about that incident or many others in a constant lower-level racial
harassment of European-American teachers there. Government school
administrators tolerate it for two reasons - racial peace and (more
importantly) that state and federal funds being dependent on average
daily attendance means they just can't afford to expel all the
students needing to be expelled from mainly-black schools.
No $4 to park! No $6 admission! http://www.INTERNET-GUN-SHOW.com
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| User: "Jacob W. Haller" |
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| Title: Re: Tribal Tyranny In The Classroom -- Racial Double Standard |
18 May 2007 09:17:30 AM |
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Way Back Jack <chillin'@home.net> wrote:
Paylor is probably right about that, though a magic paddle might have
worked wonders.
This is the worst Harry Potter fanfic ever.
-jwgh
--
"Only in America could something like that not happen in America."
-- Matt McIrvin, 29 November 2005
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