Oregon pro-Trump student voice quashed by SPLC-linked assistant principal
On Monday, Gateway Pundit writer Brock Simmons told of an Oregon high school case involving official stifling of student political speech.
Liberty High School Assistant Principal Amanda Ryan Fear suspended senior Addison Barnes for wearing the shirt shown below (photo from the Gateway Pundit):
The class to which Barnes wore the shirt was to discuss immigration. The teacher had previously mounted a poster advocating open borders; the student wanted to express a contrary perspective.
Initially, Fear gave Barnes the options of covering the message or leaving school for the day. He chose the former, but later decided to assert his speech right and display it openly.
Local KOIN 6 reported that "Fear sent a security officer to the classroom to remove Barnes and take him to her office, where she threatened him with a suspension for 'defiance.'"
Following the school's censoring of his political message, Barnes filed suit in Federal District Court. According to Gateway Pundit, he is represented by Oregon House Minority Leader Mike McLane. Barnes alleges that his First Amendment rights were violated and his speech suppressed.
("Student sues high school after being suspended for wearing pro-Trump shirt."
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/05/student-sues-high-school-after-being-suspended-for-wearing-pro-trump-t-shirt/)
Prior to this, Assistant Principal Fear presented herself as supportive of free student speech. She occasionally blogged for the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance website, where she stressed the importance of untrammeled student expression.
In 6/14/2011 post The Power of Listening, she wrote: "Our kids are crying out to be heard, and unfortunately those cries often result in disciplinary referrals."
Fear related a past experience with a student. Her inclination then, and the one she urged that her readers follow, was to learn the students' background and what in it accounted for his behavior.
(Did she ask student Barnes what opinions of his prompted his shirt message?)
By her Teaching Tolerance account, she had paid attention to the troubled student's words. She'd found in them greater understanding of him and his reasoning.
"But what about all of the other students who show up in my office?" Fear asked. "Will I have the courage and patience to listen to them? Will the other adults in my building?"
(The Power of Listening
https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/the-power-of-listening)
Thoughts For a New Teacher was a 1/10/2012 Teaching Tolerance post by Fear. She listed 10 lessons for beginning educators.
In #2, she wrote: "Understanding different perspectives is where true learning takes place." #4: "Your job is to like your students, not the other way around. Be their most ardent supporter." #8: "Really listen to your students. Their stories will astound you." #9: "Create opportunities for students to have an authentic voice in your class. Support them as they exercise their voice in the school."
(Thoughts For a New Teacher
\https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/thoughts-for-a-new-teacher)
Of course, none of those fine things -- listening to a student, liking and supporting them, divining their backstories, encouraging their individual expression -- were reflected in the assistant principal's suspension of student Addison Barnes for wearing a t-shirt promoting the president of the United States.
The crazy thing is this: Liberty High School Assistant Principal Amanda Ryan Fear may truly believe there is no conflict between her advocating free student speech on the SPLC's Teaching Tolerance website and the very real intolerance she demonstrated by punishing student political expression with which she might disagree.
This all reminds of the 2016 University of Missouri incident in which Assistant Professor Melissa Click sought "some muscle" to block a reporter from observing public-area actions.
But the problem is larger than a Fear or a Click. It is of academics so smugly certain of the superiority of their philosophies, and so convinced that principles like freedom of speech and tolerance are exclusively theirs, that they believe themselves incapable of contravening them.
.
Even when they do.
(Vice-principal Amanda Ryan Fear, Liberty High School staff photo.)
On Monday, Gateway Pundit writer Brock Simmons told of an Oregon high school case involving official stifling of student political speech.
Liberty High School Assistant Principal Amanda Ryan Fear suspended senior Addison Barnes for wearing the shirt shown below (photo from the Gateway Pundit):
Initially, Fear gave Barnes the options of covering the message or leaving school for the day. He chose the former, but later decided to assert his speech right and display it openly.
Local KOIN 6 reported that "Fear sent a security officer to the classroom to remove Barnes and take him to her office, where she threatened him with a suspension for 'defiance.'"
Following the school's censoring of his political message, Barnes filed suit in Federal District Court. According to Gateway Pundit, he is represented by Oregon House Minority Leader Mike McLane. Barnes alleges that his First Amendment rights were violated and his speech suppressed.
("Student sues high school after being suspended for wearing pro-Trump shirt."
http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/05/student-sues-high-school-after-being-suspended-for-wearing-pro-trump-t-shirt/)
Prior to this, Assistant Principal Fear presented herself as supportive of free student speech. She occasionally blogged for the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance website, where she stressed the importance of untrammeled student expression.
In 6/14/2011 post The Power of Listening, she wrote: "Our kids are crying out to be heard, and unfortunately those cries often result in disciplinary referrals."
Fear related a past experience with a student. Her inclination then, and the one she urged that her readers follow, was to learn the students' background and what in it accounted for his behavior.
(Did she ask student Barnes what opinions of his prompted his shirt message?)
By her Teaching Tolerance account, she had paid attention to the troubled student's words. She'd found in them greater understanding of him and his reasoning.
"But what about all of the other students who show up in my office?" Fear asked. "Will I have the courage and patience to listen to them? Will the other adults in my building?"
(The Power of Listening
https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/the-power-of-listening)
Thoughts For a New Teacher was a 1/10/2012 Teaching Tolerance post by Fear. She listed 10 lessons for beginning educators.
In #2, she wrote: "Understanding different perspectives is where true learning takes place." #4: "Your job is to like your students, not the other way around. Be their most ardent supporter." #8: "Really listen to your students. Their stories will astound you." #9: "Create opportunities for students to have an authentic voice in your class. Support them as they exercise their voice in the school."
(Thoughts For a New Teacher
\https://www.tolerance.org/magazine/thoughts-for-a-new-teacher)
Of course, none of those fine things -- listening to a student, liking and supporting them, divining their backstories, encouraging their individual expression -- were reflected in the assistant principal's suspension of student Addison Barnes for wearing a t-shirt promoting the president of the United States.
The crazy thing is this: Liberty High School Assistant Principal Amanda Ryan Fear may truly believe there is no conflict between her advocating free student speech on the SPLC's Teaching Tolerance website and the very real intolerance she demonstrated by punishing student political expression with which she might disagree.
This all reminds of the 2016 University of Missouri incident in which Assistant Professor Melissa Click sought "some muscle" to block a reporter from observing public-area actions.
.
Even when they do.
posted by DC Larson at
May 22, 2018
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